BC pipe question

[Lambert2191]

Ok, to summarize:
-Redpower tubes have the functionality that you're after
-Redpower is a beautiful, decidedly UNTRASHY mod
-You need to show more respect

editing my previous posts to avoid banhamma

 

[tyler f]

Haters gonna hate. I call it like I see it and trashpower is trash. See Greenwolf's post for even more reasons.

 

[Guswut]

Is there a way to make it so if something won't fit into where it's going it sends it back where it came from with no kind of loop formation? I think the loops are ugly.

Loops are the only simple way to do this with buildcraft pipes. You can try and set up a complicated return-item line which is then sorted into the correct inventories via emerald pipes, or you can use turtles and item sorters, or any number of other systems to try and do this sans loops which will be a whole lot harder to properly set up. A loop, though, is the correct way to do it.

 

[Lambert2191]

There is no mod called trashpower. Learn to show some respect, it may help you in later life.

 

[Guswut]

There is no mod called trashpower. Learn to show some respect, it may help you in later life.

Respect should be earnt, not given freely. Obviously, RedPower2 has not earnt tyler f's respect. That is a personal/subjective matter between tyler f and RedPower2, and really should not involve you.

If he does not want to use a system that is much better for what he wants to do, then that is his will. He'll suffer with BuildCraft pipe loops that he finds to be ugly, or the complications of another type of network.

So it goes, and so it shall be.

 

[Velotican]

GregT commonly refers to BuildCraft as "Buildcrash". GregTech doesn't directly interface with BuildCraft at all, so what he thinks of the mod is pretty obvious.

I thought that was relevant considering the context of the thread.

Anyway, BuildCraft pipes are inherently designed to be leaky, lag-prone nightmares and the only workaround for that is making them loop which as you have mentioned is ugly as sin and only works as long as the source inventory doesn't back up with items. As a rule I would recommend RedPower for superior transportation throughput but you've dismissed that option.

So in short then? Nope. You could try hiding the loop pipes behind facades if you haven't tried that already.

 

[tyler f]

Respect should be earnt, not given freely. Obviously, RedPower2 has not earnt tyler f's respect. That is a personal/subjective matter between tyler f and RedPower2, and really should not involve you.

If he does not want to use a system that is much better for what he wants to do, then that is his will. He'll suffer with BuildCraft pipe loops that he finds to be ugly, or the complications of another type of network.

So it goes, and so it shall be.

I found actually that an iron pipe at the exit point of the pipe will send an item in reverse if it can't go in, which is exactly what I wanted. I have no idea why the mechanic works like this, though.

 

[Lawbroken]

Keep opinions on what mod is better then others and explain how the OP can do what he is looking at doing.

Opinions will cause debate and we all know where that goes.

 

[Guswut]

I found actually that an iron pipe at the exit point of the pipe will send an item in reverse if it can't go in, which is exactly what I wanted. I have no idea why the mechanic works like this, though.

Does it always send it in reverse? If so, that's pretty sweet. It still is a loop at that point, but it is a bit more compact although, in my opinion, not as logically laid out. But if it works, excellent!

 

[Velotican]

If you use iron pipes like that you'll probably end up blocking your main transport route. If you manage to get it working though, I'd appreciate screenshots.

 

[Peppe]

Ok, to summarize:
-Redpower tubes have the functionality that you're after
-Redpower is a beautiful, decidedly UNTRASHY mod
-You need to show more respect

editing my previous posts to avoid banhamma

I don't think redpower does this exactly as needed. The tubes network is smarter and won't send an item out that doesn't have a valid destination, but it does not count items in the tubes, so can and will send too much.

When the extra hits the destination it does not bounce back to the source. It goes into a hidden overflow buffer that can also be filled and i believe handles just one item type. When the overflow buffer is full it will bounce items already in transit to it back into the tube network. The bounced items will seek a valid destination, but if they lack one they ignore all rules and just dump into the nearest overflow inventory.

To avoid overflow/backstuff issues you then need a wild card destination for items that might overflow and loop them back into the system or a trash chute.

 

[Guswut]

To avoid overflow/backstuff issues you then need a wild card destination for items that might overflow and loop them back into the system or a trash chute.

An inline filter back near the starting inventory can be used, with a restriction pipe, to provide an overflow buffer that can accept the output. Assuming iron pipes work as suggested, it'd be pretty much identical in design.

 

[Zjarek_S]

Well, BC and RP2 systems aren't exclusive, there is no reason to restrict yourself to only using one. Overflow in both systems can be bad, Buildcraft is IMO better in this case because you can easily see where your system is broken, entities on the ground aren't big problem now, because they stack and you can reduce lifespan of items dropped by BC pipes. RP2 won't usually cause overflow, but when you manage to make infinite pipe storage, things can go really bad trying to fix it.

Here is a couple of overflow prevention systems that I use in my bee room:

It is catching additional drones going from my bee system to feed them to genepool (6 stacks of analyzed drones produces quite a good amount of BNA), if they won't fit in "any bee" part of pipe, they will go to "any", e.g. void pipe.

Another simple solution, use more machines. Random distribution of items in BC pipes is your friend here, items will overflow only if machines are almost full.

It is slightly more complicated system for squeezing honey. Iron pipe above the hopper has "inventory full" -> redstone signal, which reroutes items back to main line when hopper is full. There is a block behind iron pipe with redstone on top of it, which allows for correct loading of iron pipe redstone state while loading the game.

Here is scented paneling setup. Diamond pipes are routing wax, propolis and jellies to separate parts of the buffer. If any of the parts is full, that item will go further to storage. Planks are fed by autarchic gate next to ACT, which activates on "inventory empty". Emerald pipe only sends items, if carpenter have liquid and don't have work already. After this everything goes to AE bee product storage (I have second one only for serums, to search for them easier).

 

[Lambert2191]

BC is not better at overflow. When BC buggers up in a bad way, it spills stuff onto the ground, tanking your framerate to 0 and making it near impossible to fix.
When RP2 buggers up in a bad way, your machines stop working/your tubes stop sending stuff. Plop a chest (or a filter leading into lava) somewhere in your system and the overflow will make its way there while you unclog some chests.

There is no competition. BC overflow can break your game, RP2 overflow annoys you.

 

[GreenWolf13]

Items on the ground now stack to make a single entity. So instead of 64 cobblestone entities, you have 1 entity for each stack. Also, items on the ground will, by default, despawn after 5 minutes. Buildcraft also offers the option to change the depawn speed of items that spill out of pipes. If you wanted to, you could set it to instantly despawn any items that overflow.

It seems to me that you're just as set in your hatred of Buildcraft as tyler f is in his hatred of Red Power. I suggest you take a look at the newest versions of Buildcraft. While it's true that the old Buildcraft was very prone to lag, the new version is much, much better.

 

[Zjarek_S]

If it is a problem, change item lifespan to for example 5 s, then it won't break your game no matter how much items you will spill on the ground (default is 120 s). If you break RP2 element with infinite buffer storage you will spill enormous amount of items on the ground, rendering your game broken. So clueless person can break a server with RP2 mistake, but with serverside changes in config he can't do it with BC.

 

[Lambert2191]

Items on the ground now stack to make a single entity. So instead of 64 cobblestone entities, you have 1 entity for each stack. Also, items on the ground will, by default, despawn after 5 minutes. Buildcraft also offers the option to change the depawn speed of items that spill out of pipes. If you wanted to, you could set it to instantly despawn any items that overflow.

It seems to me that you're just as set in your hatred of Buildcraft as tyler f is in his hatred of Red Power. I suggest you take a look at the newest versions of Buildcraft. While it's true that the old Buildcraft was very prone to lag, the new version is much, much better.

I don't hate BC, I just recognise that RP tubes are superior. I use BC pipes for bees due to the apiarist pipe, and for other things too. But transporting items en masse certainly isn't one of the things I will ever use it for.

 

[GreenWolf13]

I don't hate BC, I just recognise that RP tubes are superior. I use BC pipes for bees due to the apiarist pipe, and for other things too. But transporting items en masse certainly isn't one of the things I will ever use it for.

Well, that's your opinion. As a modder, I find Buildcraft superior, because it's open source. That means that I can interface with it and change it however I like. I can't do that with Red Power without getting my head bitten off. If I don't like a mechanic in Buildcraft, I can change it or add my own pipe to it.

If I had to choose between Buildcraft and Red Power, I'd choose Buildcraft in a heartbeat, because without it, there wouldn't be any of these cool mods we like today. Thermal Expansion started out as a Buildcraft addon, Forestry started out as a Buildcraft addon, Railcraft started as a Buildcraft addon, heck, even Red Power started out as a Buildcraft addon before moving on to become it's own mod.

 

[Golrith]

The other transport option not mentioned is Golems. They will only transport items if there is room, as well as maintaining levels of items.


While heading home from Work, I had a thought about RedPower lag. It might be due to Barrels. We all abuse Barrels and RedPowers "intelligent" sorting system, which just means our storage areas now have a larger footprint, and a lot more destinations to be constantly checked within a larger tube system which is highlighting the problem that some people get a lot more.
This is not at all what Elo intended with her sorting and tubes. We are supposed to use paint colours and/or filters and I doubt many of us in the pre-barrel days had so many valid destinations compared to barrel days.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on point of view) Mod Makers can't test for everything, as once players get their grubby mits on mods, they will do things that Mod Makers never intend - I've experienced this myself from modding The Elder Scrolls games.

For my next playthrough, I'm going to avoid barrels and see if that makes any difference. Now I've used them, I'm not actually keen on them. Getting items out of them can be a pain at times (especially with items automatically going into backpacks, spending more time sorting out my inventory as a result) and I feel they are just too cheap compared with the Iron Chests mod. This effectively means I won't be using factorization as I don't like the rest of the content, BUT I wouldn't go insulting it and users of the mod....

 

[ThemsAllTook]

Put an iron pipe at the end, and hit it with a wench so that the input end of the iron segment is facing away from the rest of the pipe.

That's the way to go. It may be necessary to put a gold pipe or two prior to the iron pipe, particularly if you're using an autarchic gate to pull items out. I've found that if two items pass the midway point in a pipe and only one can fit, the second will pop out. If the items are traveling fast enough that only one can be past the midway point at a time, the second one will bounce back.