Ask a simple question, get a simple answer

[PhilHibbs]

Something is killing all my cows and pigs. I had them in an enclosure right next to my chickens and my sheep, then suddenly one day, all the cows and pigs were gone. So I put a glass roof over them, and then a few days later, all gone again. Do I need to make the glass roof wider to prevent a lightning strike next to the enclosure from killing them all? What's the kill zone of a lightning strike? My enclosure is roughly 7x12 measuring the wooden fence and glass roof area. Could something else be killing them off?

 

[WAFFLE OF WAR]

Something is killing all my cows and pigs. I had them in an enclosure right next to my chickens and my sheep, then suddenly one day, all the cows and pigs were gone. So I put a glass roof over them, and then a few days later, all gone again. Do I need to make the glass roof wider to prevent a lightning strike next to the enclosure from killing them all? What's the kill zone of a lightning strike? My enclosure is roughly 7x12 measuring the wooden fence and glass roof area. Could something else be killing them off?

I have the same issue with lighting killing my cows. I don't know what causes it because flux is zero in the area. From what I have experienced, the range is about 2-3 blocks. Not very big, as I've had half the cows get blasted and the other half be fine simply because the lighting's range wasn't wide enough. It's a good idea to expand the glass roof a little over the fences on all sides, because even if a strike lands next to the enclosure and doesn't kill your cows, it could destroy a fence block, and there is nothing more boring than going around collecting cows.[DOUBLEPOST=1371045411][/DOUBLEPOST]I'm having this problem with my bees, where they won't work, saying there are no flowers in the area even though there are, and then when I take the queen out, and put it back it, the apiary works fine for a while then just shuts down again. I think every apiary started working after I swapped the queen in and out.

 

[Trunks9809]

[DOUBLEPOST=1371045411][/DOUBLEPOST]I'm having this problem with my bees, where they won't work, saying there are no flowers in the area even though there are, and then when I take the queen out, and put it back it, the apiary works fine for a while then just shuts down again. I think every apiary started working after I swapped the queen in and out.

What species of bee are you using? Have you run it through a beealyzer and checked the 'Flowers' trait? What does it say there?

 

[WAFFLE OF WAR]

What species of bee are you using? Have you run it through a beealyzer and checked the 'Flowers' trait? What does it say there?

Modest queens across the board. It says they need cacti. Which I assume is real cacti, and if they need cacti why do they work for short periods of time with normal flowers near by?

 

[Trunks9809]

Modest queens across the board. It says they need cacti. Which I assume is real cacti, and if they need cacti why do they work for short periods of time with normal flowers near by?

Yeah, they need cacti. All bees generally work for a short time when first placed in an apiary, then stop working when they code kicks in to check the conditions to see if they're able to work.

Also, modest bees by default need hot and dry environments, just incase that becomes an issue after the flowers things.

 

[Neirin]

I have the same issue with lighting killing my cows. I don't know what causes it because flux is zero in the area. From what I have experienced, the range is about 2-3 blocks. Not very big, as I've had half the cows get blasted and the other half be fine simply because the lighting's range wasn't wide enough. It's a good idea to expand the glass roof a little over the fences on all sides, because even if a strike lands next to the enclosure and doesn't kill your cows, it could destroy a fence block, and there is nothing more boring than going around collecting cows.[DOUBLEPOST=1371045411][/DOUBLEPOST]I'm having this problem with my bees, where they won't work, saying there are no flowers in the area even though there are, and then when I take the queen out, and put it back it, the apiary works fine for a while then just shuts down again. I think every apiary started working after I swapped the queen in and out.

Make sure you have the appropriate flower for your bees. The rocky bee's "flower" is a piece of stone for instance rather than a rose/dandelion. Run the bee through your beealyzer just to be sure. While you're at it make sure you're in an appropriate biome.

It may appear to work briefly because the apiary GUI doesn't update to tell you there's a problem until a bee tick has occurred (1 bee tick is 27.5 sec).

EDIT: looks like you've already checked the flower, and yes, you do need cacti.

 

[CovertJaguar]

The latter tend to blow up if you create more power than you use, conduits never do that.

Not any more!
https://github.com/BuildCraft/BuildCraft/commit/8f7292ec066b250b965fed5ce1e5f2b9c883a99b

 

[Omicron]

Not any more!
https://github.com/BuildCraft/BuildCraft/commit/8f7292ec066b250b965fed5ce1e5f2b9c883a99b

...What? Lossless pipes but machines constantly sipping power? Why would you do that, that's terrible! I can accept lossy pipes (in fact, i appreciate the engineering challenge, lossless is too easy!), but the one thing I absolutely can't stand is when I have my power being siphoned off to nirvana by some machine I only use once in a gameplay evening. No offense CJ, but there's a reason I pickaxe the Railcraft rolling machine everytime I am done with it and store it in a chest. Same with the assembly table lasers, I disconnect the power line immeditely when the job's done. And don't get me started on Forestry's thermionic fabricator, urgh.

Can you provide a list of all machines that were changed to have idle draw?

 

[Poppycocks]

...What? Lossless pipes but machines constantly sipping power? Why would you do that, that's terrible! I can accept lossy pipes (in fact, i appreciate the engineering challenge, lossless is too easy!), but the one thing I absolutely can't stand is when I have my power being siphoned off to nirvana by some machine I only use once in a gameplay evening. No offense CJ, but there's a reason I pickaxe the Railcraft rolling machine everytime I am done with it and store it in a chest. Same with the assembly table lasers, I disconnect the power line immeditely when the job's done. And don't get me started on Forestry's thermionic fabricator, urgh.

Can you provide a list of all machines that were changed to have idle draw?

Gates on most machines have a "has work" setting, you can turn all of your machines off automatically.

Either that or do the big leap and start using boilers.

 

[CovertJaguar]

Everything but the pump (didn't want to impact the ability to use RS Engines).

But honestly, the loss in pipes was so absurdly high before (think losing 90% of your power over 10 blocks) that you'll be swimming in power.

 

[Omicron]

My issue is not being unable to produce enough energy, my issue is that I constantly feel pressured into doing something with the machines to prevent them from wasting power. I can't relax while such a machine is sitting on my power grid, taunting me. Call it German OCD if you will, but I'll probably end up going out of my way to find alternatives that don't leak. That's just how I roll.

I really appreciate all your work on Buildcraft, CJ, but I really can't like this change no matter how much I try

 

[Bomb Bloke]

The changes to BC sound like a counter to TE's "no MJ loss so long as you use as much TE stuff as possible" system: Presumably conduits would always feed power to machines that don't really need it, causing constant waste.

The catch is that, even with the use of gates, that means BC pipes will also waste power so long as you have more then one machine on the one grid. Try and power any individual block and all the others will sap the juice away from it.

 

[CovertJaguar]

If you don't have a bank of engines running 24/7 with BC, you're doing it wrong.

 

[WAFFLE OF WAR]

What's it mean when an apiary's queen wont produce because of a "hostile environment"? Almost all of my bees are being useless right now because of this problem. I'm in a red mountain biome.

 

[PhilHibbs]

What's it mean when an apiary's queen wont produce because of a "hostile environment"? Almost all of my bees are being useless right now because of this problem. I'm in a red mountain biome.

Temperature too high or low, humidity too high or too low. Marshy Bees or Jungle Bees might have a hard time in a dry mountainous biome.

 

[Trunks9809]

What's it mean when an apiary's queen wont produce because of a "hostile environment"? Almost all of my bees are being useless right now because of this problem. I'm in a red mountain biome.

It means that either the temperature or humidity of the biome isn't within the tolerance level of the bees you're trying to use. If you open up the apiary and check the tabs on the right, the 2nd bottom one (I think) shows the current biome stats - compare those to what the beealyzer says your bees like.

If you have extra bees installed, you can modify your bees tolerances using the acclimatiser, or inoculater if you have a serum. Note that you're better doing this with the princess and drones as opposed to the queen.

 

[WAFFLE OF WAR]

Temperature too high or low, humidity too high or too low. Marshy Bees or Jungle Bees might have a hard time in a dry mountainous biome.

Is there any way to fix this without moving to another biome? I can only breed modest bees right now. I'm one sorry excuse for an apiarist...

 

[Bomb Bloke]

Click the "hostile environment" icon to see more information about the environment the hive's in. Compare that to the environment favoured by your bees. Wintry bees, for example, need cold climates, fiendish need hot, and most starter bees want regular.

Tolerances can be bred/inoculated into your strains to overcome this problem, and it's also possible to build special alvearies that allow you to ignore climate to an extant. However, for the starting beekeeper, the best option is to simply put bees in a biome that matches the climate they want. Yes, I know you don't want to do this, but it's still the path of least resistance.

Note that watery areas are usually of a "standard" climate. Good for most bees.

 

[PhilHibbs]

A good idea if you're going to get into bee breeding is to build your base close to the border of three different biomes. Or, build an annexe there, and use Portal Gun to travel between your base and your bees.

 

[Ember Quill]

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.

Yeah, you're right that power becomes a major issue if you want speed in IC2.

I actually rarely use IC2 machines any more. Most of the useful ones have equivalent TE or Buildcraft machines. Even the Massfab can be replaced with the MFR Mining Laser now. Chainsaw/Drill/etc. can be replaced by the MPS power tool, which can now be recharged with MJ in an Energetic Infuser if you don't have solar/friction/thermal generation modules added. And so on...

And I never actually realized how many IC2 machines were virtually useless for any purpose other than processing materials that are used to craft or fuel more IC2 machines.