Auto Mining Systems

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HomieTK

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Jul 29, 2019
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I've seen alot of Auto Mining systems and i wonder which one is truly the best auto mining system.
1. Which one is the easiest to build/use? (you can call it a starter mining system)
2. Which one is the absolute best? (speed, power use,resource collection, etc.) It doesn't have to be build out of 1 mod, it can be a combination of mods like direwolf's latest system:

Bonus question: Is there a mining system able to use silk touch/fortune?
 

Guswut

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Jul 29, 2019
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1. Which one is the easiest to build/move?

The easiest to build is likely a mining turtle (computercraft turtle, gem [ruby, etc] pickaxe).

The easiest to move is also likely a mining turtle (a chest to drop stuff off, gets power by eating coal every now and again, if I remember correctly).

2. Which one is the most efficient? (speed, power use, etc.)

The BC quarry is likely the fastest, with a mining turtle running a customized mining script that only digs out every third layer and skips over dirt and stone.

The IC2 miner is likely the most effective in regards to power usage.

3. Which one is the easiest to power/collect items from?

The mining turtle is extremely easy to power (turtles can use pretty much anything that'll burn as fuel) so it wins that.

Collecting items is extremely easy from all mining systems (they almost always just output in a chest).

Is there a mining system able to use silk touch/fortune?

I believe the only one that can do that is the ThaumCraft bore.
 

LightKnight

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Jul 29, 2019
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i think red power quarries/tunnel bores are the fastest , also they are not that expensive but they are big and annoying to build
 

Guswut

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Jul 29, 2019
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i think red power quarries/tunnel bores are the fastest , also they are not that expensive but they are big and annoying to build

Ah, true, they are likely a good deal faster than even a fully powered BC quarry. The main downside of them is that they are at least two magnitude more complicated to set up compared to the BC quarry, and as such I don't think they are really even on the same page (as noted above in my post).
 

HomieTK

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Jul 29, 2019
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The easiest to build is likely a mining turtle (computercraft turtle, gem [ruby, etc] pickaxe).
The BC quarry is likely the fastest, with a mining turtle running a customized mining script that only digs out every third layer and skips over dirt and stone.

The IC2 miner is likely the most effective in regards to power usage.
.
Well i've seen some new ways of mining that are way faster than a quarry.
If you look at Direwolfs latest video about a mining system you see a extremely quick mining system using more than just one mod.
So i was wondering if other people made stuff using multiple mods that are as good or even better than Direwolf's mining system.
 

Guswut

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Jul 29, 2019
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Well i've seen some new ways of mining that are way faster than a quarry.
If you look at Direwolfs latest video about a mining system you see a extremely quick mining system using more than just one mod.
So i was wondering if other people made stuff using multiple mods that are as good or even better than Direwolf's mining system.

If you wanted replies about such a thing, why didn't you mention that in your first post? I suggest editing the original post and adding details, such as "I'm looking for something similar to DireWolf20's latest mining system (<link to video here>)", so you can get posts in the area you want.
 

HomieTK

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Jul 29, 2019
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If you wanted replies about such a thing, why didn't you mention that in your first post? I suggest editing the original post and adding details, such as "I'm looking for something similar to DireWolf20's latest mining system (<link to video here>)", so you can get posts in the area you want.
Well i was asking about mining systems i never said anything about a mining system using a single mod or simplistic stuff like that.
I asked these 3 questions to find out which mining system is the best system.
But ok... ill add that to the first post.
 

Guswut

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Jul 29, 2019
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Well i was asking about mining systems i never said anything about a mining system using a single mod or simplistic stuff like that.
I asked these 3 questions to find out which mining system is the best system.

In almost all cases, you're going to find mining systems that use a single mod for mining stuff, and then another mod (ender chests [ES], item tesseracts [TE], storage carts, etc) to move stuff away from the mining area. This is almost never referenced as a direct part of the mining system though, nor is the processing and storage aspects which are usually another set of mods.

But ok... ill add that to the first post.

That's for the best, as I'd be interested to see anyone that is using some sort of combined system. Thank you.
 

Bibble

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Jul 29, 2019
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As a quick summary of the methods:
1. Computercraft - easy-ish to set up (many scripts require a GPS system, the chunkloaders canbe a pain to make, etc). When it's made, a combination with an enderchest makes it quick and easy to move around, and it doesn't destroy the landscape too much.

2. BC Quarries - There are basically 2 states to this. Before you have a glut of BC power, they are quite expensive, and can be a bit fiddly to run (you can use biomass or fuel, or similar for a decent speed, with the issues associated with those methods). It'll easily dump out into an ender chest/tesseract. After you have a glut of power (boiler+tesseract, for example), these become really powerful. You can sketch the area with landmarks, put down the quarry, put down the energy/item tesseracts and leave it to go. Full speed it goes VERY quickly too.

3. RP2 Quarries/tunnel bores - These are, potentially the quickest auto-miners in the game. The blocks/sec depends almost entirely on how you build it. They are quite resource-intensive to build, but tunnel bores can just be left running without any real issues.

4. SC2 - These are a bit niche, the setups can be finicky (you need to sort the tracks, cargo managing, etc.). I wouldn't put it at early game (like the CC method), but later game, it's simply outclassed.

5. TC3 Bore - Visually stunning, doesn't require any power infrastructure. But, it will decimate the environmental flux, and runs through tools incredibly rapidly. Similarly niche, like the SC2 method.

6. IC2 Miner - If you have a decent power-gen system (geothermals are good for this), these are really powerful early game. Fully upgraded, it'll miner faster and with more precision than the CC alternative, although is a little more difficult to relocate. I've been tempted to try the IC2 miner frame machine at some point.
 

Peppe

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Jul 29, 2019
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As a quick summary of the methods:

6. IC2 Miner - If you have a decent power-gen system (geothermals are good for this), these are really powerful early game. Fully upgraded, it'll miner faster and with more precision than the CC alternative, although is a little more difficult to relocate. I've been tempted to try the IC2 miner frame machine at some point.

Let's just say i am a fan of the IC2 miner, http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/ic2-mining-airship-rp2-frames.12062/page-2#post-182946. I have gone through several permutations on how to move and automate them. AE makes it a lot cleaner, and turtle's can manage the drill. They actually don't use a whole lot of power. 16-40 or so EU/t -- average about 25 per miner. I happen to like nuclear power as well and they mine it faster than they use it (with proper processing).

I don't use this method currently, but you can enchant mining drills with fortune/silk touch and the miner will get that bonus when it mines. I have confirmed with fortune -- i'll try a little longer to get a silk touch enchant book, but even in creative it is a tedious process. To get the enchants on the tool use an anvil and combine with a book.
Edit: Silk touch does not work with miners when on the drill.

Tunnel bore is I believe the only method designed from the start to use tools and their enchants.

So if fortune/silk touch is a requirement one of those two is the choice.

All the mining systems have their own strengths and weakness. None is too costly or obsoleted by the other. I would say none is best and they will all pay for themselves pretty quickly. It comes down to personal preference -- do you want everything from here to bedrock (quarry, turtle, mining well, bore)? do you want to mine only X layers (SC2, bore, turtle)? Do you want to mine only X blocks (IC2 miner, turtle)?

Mining well is not often considered, but i saw this video a while back and recognized it is very fast for what it does.
 

LightKnight

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Jul 29, 2019
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actually about what direwolf did , it is not SO fast you only get 16 holes to bedrock mined per 35 seconds , if you build a fast RP quarry it is even faster .
 

HomieTK

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Jul 29, 2019
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actually about what direwolf did , it is not SO fast you only get 16 holes to bedrock mined per 35 seconds , if you build a fast RP quarry it is even faster .
Yeah but you have no limit in using direwolfs setup.
If you add a chunkloader it will keep going forward and generate new chunks to mine.
Also: the speed of a fast RP quarry is about 15 blocks/second and the speed of direwolfs machine is: (16*65)/40 = 26 blocks/second.
So direwolfs machine is alot better than most types of quarries.
 

LightKnight

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Jul 29, 2019
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Yeah but you have no limit in using direwolfs setup.
If you add a chunkloader it will keep going forward and generate new chunks to mine.
Also: the speed of a fast RP quarry is about 15 blocks/second and the speed of direwolfs machine is: (16*65)/40 = 26 blocks/second.
So direwolfs machine is alot better than most types of quarries.

16 blocks per second is a 4x4 quarry , you can make 50x50 quarry and you can make 50 miners , really depends
also you could make for example 9x9 quarry that direwolf made which is 81 blocks per second . or if you go even slower 40 per second , still alot faster
it depends , also chunk loader can be places on any quarry machine
 

Peppe

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Jul 29, 2019
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You can chunk load any automated mining system and automate moving -- maybe not SC2, but all the rest can run on frames and be chunk loaded.

You can automate the breaking of BC quarries -- move and place them back and they will happily rebuild their default frame and mine away.

Maintaining a high blocks per second will go to RP2. You can make a bore from bedrock to sea level with probably 400 or so block breakers. It does not move any slower than a smaller frame ship. That should easily be 200 blocks a second -- including time to move. All other systems will have move and setup time longer than a block breaker.

Those 400 block breakers should be about 7-8 wide from bedrock to sea level. And if that is not enough you can make a second one and third... etc. Or make different shaped ones to only target the layers with the ores you want. The 1000 block limit on frames means you just make more independent ships...

If you are looking for a system that scales, then RP2 will probably always win because block breakers are powered by redstone and block breakers are super cheap (basically 4 iron 2 redstone?). It costs the same bluetricity to move a small frame ship as a large one, so a small amount of generation can keep the bore running forever.
 

extrem09

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Jul 29, 2019
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Hey if you are playing ultimate, you could use the tubestuff block breaker. I beleive, that you can attach them to a frame machine and then let them go. The only problem is that you do need to keep a supply of picks, because it does use up the tool, but it will take into effect whatever enchantments are n that tool. :D
 

Slidingmike

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Jul 29, 2019
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16 blocks per second is a 4x4 quarry , you can make 50x50 quarry and you can make 50 miners , really depends
also you could make for example 9x9 quarry that direwolf made which is 81 blocks per second . or if you go even slower 40 per second , still alot faster
it depends , also chunk loader can be places on any quarry machine
Hopefully I'm not confused by you post, but why would you need 50 miners? Miners can easily be upgraded to do 5x5 or 9x9. So 6 miners or ten miners upgraded are much cheaper than 50.
 

LightKnight

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Jul 29, 2019
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Hopefully I'm not confused by you post, but why would you need 50 miners? Miners can easily be upgraded to do 5x5 or 9x9. So 6 miners or ten miners upgraded are much cheaper than 50.

what i tried to say that frame machines are pretty much extendable with no limit so it is not right to compare them , so basically frame machines are the fastest
 

thegrimreader

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Jul 29, 2019
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The easiest to build is likely a mining turtle (computercraft turtle, gem [ruby, etc] pickaxe).

The easiest to move is also likely a mining turtle (a chest to drop stuff off, gets power by eating coal every now and again, if I remember correctly).



The BC quarry is likely the fastest, with a mining turtle running a customized mining script that only digs out every third layer and skips over dirt and stone.

The IC2 miner is likely the most effective in regards to power usage.



The mining turtle is extremely easy to power (turtles can use pretty much anything that'll burn as fuel) so it wins that.

Collecting items is extremely easy from all mining systems (they almost always just output in a chest).



I believe the only one that can do that is the ThaumCraft bore.

If you use the mining well plus you can enchant them with fortune, silk touch and efficiency but they take an age to make since you will want at least 20 on your mining machine for any real efficency. These are worth it though as in my opinion this is the most efficent setup as each mining well can mine to bedrock in around 3 seconds from layer 64.