Ask a simple question, get a simple answer

[Neirin]

Technically, redstone engines can explode unless at some point they changed that. It just isn't very likely since even a wooden pipe will be enough for it to output its energy buffer before exploding. When fully warmed up, you'll notice that redstone engines flash yellow/red - that means they're always on the edge of exploding, but when they output their energy they go back to safe levels. It's been a very long time since I actually tested, but it used to be that if you left a redstone engine on with nothing connected to it long enough it would explode.

If your steam engine is seizing up, that means if it had been a stirling engine instead it would have exploded. Better to have the headache of restarting it occasionally than coming back to a crater.

 

[WAFFLE OF WAR]

Technically, redstone engines can explode unless at some point they changed that. It just isn't very likely since even a wooden pipe will be enough for it to output its energy buffer before exploding. When fully warmed up, you'll notice that redstone engines flash yellow/red - that means they're always on the edge of exploding, but when they output their energy they go back to safe levels. It's been a very long time since I actually tested, but it used to be that if you left a redstone engine on with nothing connected to it long enough it would explode.

If your steam engine is seizing up, that means if it had been a stirling engine instead it would have exploded. Better to have the headache of restarting it occasionally than coming back to a crater.

Very true. The redstone engines still blow up if they're not powering anything. If they're powering a wooden pipe by itself, then it won't blow up, just powering something, doesn't even have to be connected.

 

[Omicron]

In all honesty, you could save yourself all of your worries about exploding engines destroying your work if you simply didn't have any engines next to your work that can explode.

That is to say, don't power machines with engines. Power them with redstone energy conduits connected to an off-site power plant. Conduits have no distance-based energy loss, so you never have to worry about being too far away (only when it's so far away that the chunk unloads... and then there's chunkloaders).

You probably think these things are too expensive for a new player, but they really aren't. Pump some lava into an igneous extruder and you don't even have to worry about a diamond pick for mining obsidian. The lead ingots will otherwise just clump up your chests. A stack of redstone liquified gives you half a stack of conduits... only the electrum is a little bit valuable but not hard to come by either. And you'll be making an investment that'll stay with you forever.

 

[WAFFLE OF WAR]

In all honesty, you could save yourself all of your worries about exploding engines destroying your work if you simply didn't have any engines next to your work that can explode.

That is to say, don't power machines with engines. Power them with redstone energy conduits connected to an off-site power plant. Conduits have no distance-based energy loss, so you never have to worry about being too far away (only when it's so far away that the chunk unloads... and then there's chunkloaders).

You probably think these things are too expensive for a new player, but they really aren't. Pump some lava into an igneous extruder and you don't even have to worry about a diamond pick for mining obsidian. The lead ingots will otherwise just clump up your chests. A stack of redstone liquified gives you half a stack of conduits... only the electrum is a little bit valuable but not hard to come by either. And you'll be making an investment that'll stay with you forever.

That's a great idea. I'll look into it, but I've no experience with the object you described.


How do I craft the Wand of Lightning in the infusion alter?

 

[brujon]

You have to research it first, then the recipe will be listed in the thaumonomicon.

 

[Omicron]

Basically, redstone energy conduits are tech 2 conductive pipes. They're from Thermal Expansion, and you need a magma crucible, a liquid transposer, a pulverizer and an induction smelter to create and combine the various ingredients.

Their one big downside is that they can't use Buildcraft's pipe logic gates, but I have a feeling that won't be too relevant for you

Also, whenever they connect to anything, they default to "output". But if you connect them to engines, you'll want to give the conduit end a rightclick with a wrench so that it changes to "input" and allows the engine to transfer power into the conduit.

 

[WAFFLE OF WAR]

Basically, redstone energy conduits are tech 2 conductive pipes. They're from Thermal Expansion, and you need a magma crucible, a liquid transposer, a pulverizer and an induction smelter to create and combine the various ingredients.

Their one big downside is that they can't use Buildcraft's pipe logic gates, but I have a feeling that won't be too relevant for you

Also, whenever they connect to anything, they default to "output". But if you connect them to engines, you'll want to give the conduit end a rightclick with a wrench so that it changes to "input" and allows the engine to transfer power into the conduit.

Cool beans, sounds good.

I just found some random silverfish spawner stone looking blocks and there isn't any visible stronghold... what?

 

[baw179]

I got a forest/common princess and a pure cultivated drone using soul frames. What should I do now to get a pure cultivated princess? I was going to use the soul frames again, but I'm worried that my pure drone will turn into a hybrid? What do you experts recommend please?

 

[Pokefenn]

Well you could try to breed another cultivated queen elsewhere, then combine, or you could just combine the cultivated drone with any princess.
Cultivateds are really easy to get, so its not a massive lost if it loses out.

 

[Skirty_007]

I just found some random silverfish spawner stone looking blocks and there isn't any visible stronghold... what?

They can spawn in Extreme Hills Biome now in random stone blocks.

 

[tehBlobLord]

I have about 4 redstone engines powering at least one machine in that image. I use them because they are cheap and don't explode, 100% of the time no questions asked. So if the stirling engine is cleared for safety... all is good? And another reason, I don't want it the machine to get so much power that my stirling engine blows up. What's a energy conduit and stuff?

The thing is that the redstone engines are not at all intended to power machines; they were made for pipes and stuff like mining wells/pumps; they create a trivial amount of power due to how BC is coded but nowhere near enough to make a difference, even with four of them.

The redstone energy stuff are mid-game TE items, use NEI to help you find them; the conduits allow you to transfer power with no risk of explosions and little energy loss over distance, whilst the energy cell allows you to store power.

 

[MilConDoin]

I got a forest/common princess and a pure cultivated drone using soul frames. What should I do now to get a pure cultivated princess? I was going to use the soul frames again, but I'm worried that my pure drone will turn into a hybrid? What do you experts recommend please?

Use chocolate frames, so you won't have raised chances for breeding another type of bee. The chocolate frames will greatly speed up the decay of the queen, so that you can faster rebreed. I hope you have enough honey in your beealyzer?
As a general tip for the future: Try to breed in max fertility (4 drones) very early and keep it in, so that you will have your wanted bees faster because of a bigger pool to choose from.

 

[Moezso]

But you (the palayer) would also have to spent the time to research all that stuff that leads up to the golems, right?

Yes, but it's worth the time I think, even if golems were all you got out of it. (There's much more you'll discover while researching golems.) Golems are my preferred method of item conveyance. They're smarter than most pipe/tube systems, will never spit items out on the ground to despawn when you're not paying attention, and have MUCH more personality. They need no fuel, no wiring, are capable of running huge farms with little set-up, and can even be made into an AFK XP farm. Lightning wand is the AR-15 of minecraft. There's blocks only you can break to protect your valuables. World-eating death rays. Legions of armor-plated iron golem soldiers! Giant angry zombies!!

TLDR-IMO, golems are superior to pipes/tubes, and the time/resources put into the research is justified by not only the golems, but all the other neat Thaumcraft stuff.

 

[Someone Else 37]

Is there a better way than this:

To use ME to automate making diamonds for me.... specifically to use any and all coal in the network to turn into diamonds? Even more specifically to pull out of that bloody ME interface? And no I dont have the lasergatemakerthingymewasit just yet so I am using a redstone engine....

Basically, is there a way for me to say any coal gets turned into diamonds... if I can get rid of that middle ME interface and just build it in, that would fit my OCD.

If I understand your problem correctly, ME Export Busses will solve it.
Slap one on top of the compressor that you're throwing coal chunks in, and configure it to send coal chunks. If you're using the other compressor and the macerator to make coal dust and compressed coal balls, and you used the ME patterns in the left and right ME Interfaces where appropriate, and you have an ME Molecular Assembler Chamber off to the side somewhere to make coal balls and coal chunks, the export bus should request coal chunks from the network, and automatically dump them in the compressor.

In other words, a single export bus should behave the same way as your middle interface, the wooden pipe, and the redstone engine. And never drop items in the off chance that your middle compressor fills up. I think.

 

[WAFFLE OF WAR]

Yes, but it's worth the time I think, even if golems were all you got out of it. (There's much more you'll discover while researching golems.) Golems are my preferred method of item conveyance. They're smarter than most pipe/tube systems, will never spit items out on the ground to despawn when you're not paying attention, and have MUCH more personality. They need no fuel, no wiring, are capable of running huge farms with little set-up, and can even be made into an AFK XP farm. Lightning wand is the AR-15 of minecraft. There's blocks only you can break to protect your valuables. World-eating death rays. Legions of armor-plated iron golem soldiers! Giant angry zombies!!

TLDR-IMO, golems are superior to pipes/tubes, and the time/resources put into the research is justified by not only the golems, but all the other neat Thaumcraft stuff.

Next thing I make will have golems in mind. A creeper just blew up 4 full iron chests so I'ma go deal with that. ;( I hate storage.

 

[dejester]

Do not do this if you don't want to waste the materials you used to craft it. Instead here's a useful solution.

Shift+Mousewheel rotates through power tool modes. If you only have one mode on your tool, you are stuck on that mode.

The Multimeter extension doubles as a nice safety mode, which might explain its icon.

what if u dont have a mousewheel, cant find a way to rebind this and i use a trackman mouse

 

[Moezso]

Next thing I make will have golems in mind. A creeper just blew up 4 full iron chests so I'ma go deal with that. ;( I hate storage.

Iron golems deal with creepers quite nicely. They will hit it and run just like a player would.

 

[WAFFLE OF WAR]

Iron golems deal with creepers quite nicely. They will hit it and run just like a player would.

Iron golems you say... until my base is established, I do need someone(thing) to protect it. I'll look into it, thanks!

 

[Velotican]

what if u dont have a mousewheel, cant find a way to rebind this and i use a trackman mouse

I agree that this appears to be an oversight on the part of the mod dev. At least in the version FTB currently uses there isn't a solution to this problem but it may have been changed in a later version.

 

[baw179]

Use chocolate frames, so you won't have raised chances for breeding another type of bee. The chocolate frames will greatly speed up the decay of the queen, so that you can faster rebreed. I hope you have enough honey in your beealyzer?
As a general tip for the future: Try to breed in max fertility (4 drones) very early and keep it in, so that you will have your wanted bees faster because of a bigger pool to choose from.

Thanks. I have plenty of honey as I've got about 300 rockies from all the quarrying. How does one "breed in max fertility"? Is there something specific I need to do?