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WAFFLE OF WAR

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Jul 29, 2019
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If your bees aren't working, the apiary should tell you what the problem is, in the top right corner of the GUI. Note that most bees are happy in a biome with normal temperature and humidity, such as a typical plains or forest, and need basic flowers- vanilla roses or dandelions work fine. For tropical bees, you'll need a warmer biome (such as a jungle) and vines nearby for flowers.

Also note that most bees (save Rocky, and all those derived from Rocky) won't work without direct sunlight on the apiary. There must be nothing above the apiary (save glass, torches, etc.), and it must be daytime and not raining. Rocky bees (and all the bees from ExtraBees that produce metals, gems, and the like) work pretty much anywhere, so long as there's stone nearby.
Does the type of flower or the quantity of matter at all? I understand the type matters depending on the species of bee, but does it matter how many flowers? I placed one yellow one by every apiary and so far nothing has happened.
 

WAFFLE OF WAR

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Jul 29, 2019
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Does the type of flower or the quantity of matter at all? I understand the type matters depending on the species of bee, but does it matter how many flowers? I placed one yellow one by every apiary and so far nothing has happened.


EDIT: Speaking of bees, Is there any way to cover them up, without disabling them? I've placed mine next to an area that is prone to random lighting strikes that are already killing of my third heard of cows. I wanted to place them in a barn kind of thing, but don't know how to do this while still allowing the bees to do their thing.
 

Adonis0

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EDIT: Speaking of bees, Is there any way to cover them up, without disabling them? I've placed mine next to an area that is prone to random lighting strikes that are already killing of my third heard of cows. I wanted to place them in a barn kind of thing, but don't know how to do this while still allowing the bees to do their thing.

That I believe was mentioned in the last post that answered you, glass and any semi-solid blocks like torches can. It would be an interesting experiment to see if the mod glass and covers work too.
 

Someone Else 37

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Feb 10, 2013
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Does the type of flower or the quantity of matter at all? I understand the type matters depending on the species of bee, but does it matter how many flowers? I placed one yellow one by every apiary and so far nothing has happened.
I think that what flowers are around determine only whether or not your bees will work, not how well they will work. So, for bees that accept vanilla flowers, one single rose within range should work nicely. I'm not certain what that range is, though- it might be somewhere around 15-20 meters- but your bees will spawn more flowers within this range as they work.

Is is also possible that you simply haven't given your bees enough time. If you let the apiary sit for a minute or so and it doesn't complain about rain, darkness, climate, flowers, or anything else, just let it run for a while.
 

unspunreality

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Jul 29, 2019
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More questions.

Ive run into the unfortunate problem of not being able to sustain my industrial grinder. And thats just 1 side. I have a lava tank hooked up to 3 thermals hooked up to a mfsu. But after it runs down the mfsu the thermals simply dont generate enough power. What good power resources should I look into? Dont have enough power to resonably cook all my ores and stuff now that I have them in my ME system. Should I look into bio stuffs? I do have some 4k saplings now due to me being a little over eager when I found out MFR stuff works awesomely.
 

Omicron

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It boils down to simple elementary school math, really.

A thermal generator outputs 24 EU/t. You have three: you generate 24 + 24 + 24 = 72 EU/t.

An industrial grinder consumes up to 128 EU/t. You are producing 72, therefore you are up to 128 - 72 = 56 EU/t short. That is provided you don't run your Applied Energistics system off of the same ower source, because depending on the size that could consume anywhere between 4 and 40 additional EU/t. If you divide the energy consumption number the ME Controller shows you by 2, you get how much EU/t it requires.

If you build three more thermal generators, you will be able to drive your industrial grinder just fine, because you will be generating 144 EU/t. Even if the ME network consumes a fair bit, your MFSU should provide enough buffer, since your grinder probably won't be running all the time.
 

Bomb Bloke

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Jul 29, 2019
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Does the type of flower or the quantity of matter at all? I understand the type matters depending on the species of bee, but does it matter how many flowers? I placed one yellow one by every apiary and so far nothing has happened.
Bees set to certain flower types can't pollinate trees. Also, bees set to certain types will generate more "flowers" of those types.

Rock, for example, leads to no tree pollination and no random spread of rocks. Regular flowers, on the other hand, will pollinate trees and spread flowers around. (You want dyes? Flower bees will get you all the dyes you'd ever want.)

But as far as production of combs and other specialties go, the type of flower and the amount present doesn't matter at all, so long as at least one of the correct type is in range of the hive. You can also change the type of flower your bees need without affecting their production speed. I generally inoculate them all to rock, though there's a species that needs no flower at all.
 

Adonis0

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Question: Why would an AE system overcraft items, I.e. I have 34 cupronickel heating coils sitting in my system after crafting one industrial blast furnace with it... This is also happening with a few other items such as pistons.

The recipes as far as I can tell match up with quantities, it says 4 copper and 4 nickel make 3 coils, just as the rolling machine recipe says. So I am uncertain as to why this would be happening
 

gRntaus

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Jul 29, 2019
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Hey guys I'm just wondering what the best machines to start with are? My gf and I play this regularly but I get sort of stuck with upgrades. The macerator seems nice, but you need a compressor, which requires other stuff there always seems to be a never ending list and no real clear place to start. When you guys make a world what sorts of machines do you start with and work up to (in Ultimate that is). I'm thinking of starting with a pump and grabbing a whole bunch of lava so I at least have some fuel to last me a while before moving onto other things. We mine mostly and I want to automate a lot of stuff (I muck around quite a bit in create with redstone / computer craft to do some manual / automated stuff) so it will likely all get used for farms etc.
 

Hydra

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Jul 29, 2019
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For beginners you're better off picking a pack without GregTech. Aside from that; the IC2 machines have more or less been surpassed by Thermal Expansion machines. So your best bet is to build a TE Pulverizer and Powered Furnace. Create a few Steam Engines to power them (just Steam Engines, not Hobbyist, Commercial or Industrial ones, these are for later).

What I tend to do is start with basic ore doubling (pulverizer), smelting (powered furnace). Then I go and make a Steve's Cart treefarm to provide fuel for my systems. After that I tend to go and build a steam boiler to provide ample power. And after that I tend to build an applied energistics system to store all my stuff and provide automation.
 

PhilHibbs

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Jan 15, 2013
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Question: Why would an AE system overcraft items, I.e. I have 34 cupronickel heating coils sitting in my system after crafting one industrial blast furnace with it... This is also happening with a few other items such as pistons.
I have a similar issue with LV Solar Arrays - I always have one extra Solar Panel in my AE system afterwards.
IC2 machines have more or less been surpassed by Thermal Expansion machines.
I don't understand why people say that. The coloured sides, while really useful, are confusing (I've just about got the hang of it, but two friends of mine are still baffled by it), and in speed terms they don't come close to an overclocked IC2 machine. I have 13 overclockers in some of my machines now, but you can see a big difference with just 4 or 5.
 

Ember Quill

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Nov 2, 2012
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I don't understand why people say that. The coloured sides, while really useful, are confusing (I've just about got the hang of it, but two friends of mine are still baffled by it), and in speed terms they don't come close to a 13x-overclocked IC2 machine.
The colored sides really aren't that complicated. Colored slot corresponds with same-colored side. You don't even really have to customize anything if you don't want to. Just put down a pulverizer, powered furnace, and chest all in a line, and you've already got a fully-automated ore processing setup. No pipes/tubes needed.

I think that's one of the main reasons people like TE so much. Nothing extra needed for automation. That and the extra dusts that pulverizers sometimes produce. It's especially helpful earlier in the game when you need every extra ingot you can get.

The only advantage that IC2 machines have is speed, and that's only with some overclockers as I believe TE machines are slightly faster than un-overclocked IC2 machines. TE machines give you extra ores, and there are a lot of other useful TE machines.

As a bonus, they use Buildcraft power, so you'll already have some decent MJ generation once you start dealing with quarries and forestry and such.
 

Bomb Bloke

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Jul 29, 2019
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The only advantage that IC2 machines have is speed, and that's only with some overclockers as I believe TE machines are slightly faster than un-overclocked IC2 machines.
Note that that speed comes at a huge energy cost - really all you're saving is space, as you could build double the amount of IC2 machines and get the same result as using an overclocker but with a lot less power consumption.

You eventually jump from having too little IC2 power (EU) to having more then you need, but there's no real middle ground there, unfortunately. Once you hit that high point though, it's good fun to have machines processing stuff practically as soon as it gets pumped into them.

Anyway, if you want stuff cheap in the short term, go with BuildCraft and TE. There's a bit of an investment to get the machines but they'll pay themselves off in very short order.

IC2 leads to the Mass Fabricator, which allows you to generate most raw materials from scratch. If that sounds a bit of a game-breaker to you, slapping on GregTech will increase the amount of time it takes to gain that capability dramatically. "Drama" is indeed a key word when describing GregTech.

You'll eventually find yourself tapping into both the IC2 and BuildCraft based systems, but whichever one you want the end rewards from most is the best to start with.
 

gRntaus

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Jul 29, 2019
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Hrmm thanks, I might try the Pulverizer + Powered Furnace route simply because they seem a bit cheaper to acquire than the Macerator etc. I'll likely not get these until I have a solid lava source going so I can fuel the stirling engines that need to power them though. Just out of interest do you guys run stirling engines 24/7 or will they blow? My experience has only been with redstone engines which never blow up as long as they are connected to something.
 

Jess887cp

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Jul 29, 2019
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Hrmm thanks, I might try the Pulverizer + Powered Furnace route simply because they seem a bit cheaper to acquire than the Macerator etc. I'll likely not get these until I have a solid lava source going so I can fuel the stirling engines that need to power them though. Just out of interest do you guys run stirling engines 24/7 or will they blow? My experience has only been with redstone engines which never blow up as long as they are connected to something.

You might as well use magmatic engines if you're using lava, they shut off when there is no work. And believe it or not, I've blown up a redstone engine. I think stirlings run at such a slow rate that they never blow.
 

Hydra

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Jul 29, 2019
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You're better off going for Steam Engines at first and Magmatic Engines later on when you want to run on lava. They have the benefit that they slow down if power isn't needed. To be able to do that you will need to use redstone conduits (also from TE) instead of buildcraft conductive pipes. The latter tend to blow up if you create more power than you use, conduits never do that.
 

WAFFLE OF WAR

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Jul 29, 2019
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That I believe was mentioned in the last post that answered you, glass and any semi-solid blocks like torches can. It would be an interesting experiment to see if the mod glass and covers work too.
Very true. Adding on to my previous question; I want to make this barn thing, but I don't want it to just be a flat glass roof. I was thinking like glass stairs or something, but those don't seem to exist, so I was wondering of other alternatives. Maybe the normal wood roof, but the block directly above the apiaries would be glass? Would that work?
 

Trunks9809

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Jul 29, 2019
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Maybe the normal wood roof, but the block directly above the apiaries would be glass? Would that work?


Yup, that'd work fine - its only the block directly above that are checked. Though, if you're getting lightning strikes, maybe something more durable than wood?