Best MJ generation method?

[DoctorOr]

Actually, I've never used Greg's GeoGens, but I like his Diesels. Not sure why, but... they seem good.

They're crap when you start looking at relative output.

One of the reasons everybody uses lava is the a geothermal produces 24EU/t while a diesel produces 12. One uses a fuel that is widely available and usable as soon as it's pumped up. The other has irregular, limited, spawnings and must be processed (...and both can be made from bees, but lava made easier)[DOUBLEPOST=1368827316][/DOUBLEPOST]

as i said previously, multi block structures should be the way to go with solar power, to strike the balance with server load and space required

There's also relative use to other generation. Solar should be the worst generator in both resource cost as well as space allocated.

Start with advanced solar, turn the curent IC2 solar into a dead box, used only in construction of the second tier. The second tier is ALSO a dead box, only used to create the third. The third level generates 1EU/t. Eliminate the fourth tier altogether.

Now, solar is relatively balanced.

 

[Hoff]

What is pretty, build, engineered, or coded about adv solars?

Having a field of them could look quite appealing especially if done well. But for the build aspect it could be more that they have an infinite reliable source of energy so they could focus more on building something pretty rather than bother with the technical aspect.

I have never seen a great builder use solars. That's the funny thing. I suspect this is because they look boring.

I've seen a several rather impressive bases in the base thread that employ solars. Regardless as you said before all you can do is accept that people wish to play different ways. Trying to force people to change that is a rather sad and pathetic move for whoever would do that(Not saying you do).

 

[Dreossk]

Some people like to build
Some people like to prettify
Some people like to engineer
Some people like to code

What is pretty, build, engineered, or coded about adv solars?

I think you got it backward. The solar is not an end, it's a mean. Some people don't like to over complicate things and don't want to have one of these awful ugly room from the "show your power room" thread where some huge ass machines are plugged to pipes of water and tubes and wires and traintracks with automatic farms that needs even more machines, all that just to have power. It looks like a cancer on life support. The funny thing is that many people complain about solar panels saying it's too easy then they put an automatic mining industry in a flat Mystcraft age full of resources and they have many rooms with enemy spawners with automatic killing machines to farm mats while flying around in their armor of invincibility +3 that shoots thunderbolts.

 

[TangentialThreat]

Cancer on life support is beautiful.

 

[kilteroff]

I think you got it backward. The solar is not an end, it's a mean. Some people don't like to over complicate things and don't want to have one of these awful ugly room from the "show your power room" thread where some huge ass machines are plugged to pipes of water and tubes and wires and traintracks with automatic farms that needs even more machines, all that just to have power. It looks like a cancer on life support. The funny thing is that many people complain about solar panels saying it's too easy then they put an automatic mining industry in a flat Mystcraft age full of resources and they have many rooms with enemy spawners with automatic killing machines to farm mats while flying around in their armor of invincibility +3 that shoots thunderbolts.

I knew it was pointless to try explaining that but figured I'd give it a shot. There are just a lot of judgemental assholes on this board who get off on nerdfytes (These are usually the people who are just SUCH nice guys irl but for SOME reason just don't get along with other humans(surely everyone elses fault)).


This entire thread has become "I'm on a diet, so YOU can't have donuts cause it pisses me off"

Different strokes for different folks is just incomprehensible to otherwise intelligent people, clearly.

 

[YX33A]

Honestly, I like solars for the fact that they produce small amounts of power consistently. I don't use Advanced Solars, I use Compact Solars, because it seems fairer. Yeah, I play SSP, but solars are good for people who don't use lots of EU normally. Sure, once I get a Matter Fabricator built I'll need a LOT more power, and even to build it I'll need more advanced machines which use EU constantly, but honestly? Solars are low EU producers for their cost... but they don't require a massive setup to automate. And I'm not that good at automating stuff. I prefer manual setups. And that's easier to manage for me. If I use Thermal Engines, I'll use lava cells. Or maybe Make a RC Tank and pump lava into it first via whatever system I use to store the lava, likely gathered by hand with cells.

Just because some people like to have massive automation systems for everything they can do, doesn't mean that's the only valid way to play FTB or even Minecraft itself! I don't build awesome homes. I tend to build a hole in the wall of a mountain. It's just my style. The hole gets bigger and bigger as I build more rooms for things, and I find plenty of things once I breach into a cave system(happens once in a while, usually when I'm setting up a actual mineshaft).

But I don't find "Cancer On Life Support" "Sexy", or "Good Looking", or even "Half Decent". I personally think that tons of exposed cables looks shoddy. I wouldn't rent a apartment if I could see electric cables inside a broken wall while looking at the place.

 

[simon48xbox]

I wouldn't rent a apartment if I could see electric cables inside a broken wall while looking at the place.

But you said you live in a cave... Soooo...

 

[YX33A]

But you said you live in a cave... Soooo...

It's a matter of principle! Plus, I wire it up with the wires in the walls. That's my point, hide yo' wires, fo'!

 

[abculatter_2]

No idea if it's been suggested before, but http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/large-scale-eu-to-mj-with-hydrogen.12971/

 

[simon48xbox]

It's a matter of principle! Plus, I wire it up with the wires in the walls. That's my point, hide yo' wires, fo'!

Thick walls are handy.

 

[YX33A]

Thick walls are handy.

So are Facades and Panels(and CF walls, but lets not speak about those... THINGS).
Immibis's Microblocks are a quick favorite of mine for the ease of hiding ugly ass cable systems. Even with blocks that don't take up the full 1x1x1 meter it's easy because they don't block connections, so one can make a nice fake floor under something I need to connect to.

 

[Harvest88]

As much as I hate to suggest it, jump on the Boiler Bandwagon. A 36 HP Boiler or two, constantly fueled, can produce enough steam to fuel, what was it, 16 industrial steam engines per 36 HP boiler at fuel heat? That's a lot of MJ.
It's not cheap to set up, but it's profitable to have running. Kind of like many things in GT, really. Except Digital Chests, IMO. They cost way more then 8 barrels, so why would people consider using them(unless barrels were banned/didn't exist on a server)?

Hate fueling those things? A single HP boiler max sized boiler will burn though an average oil well in about 24hrs or so. There gotta a better way then pumping oil everyday for just 144MJ/t. You could go bio but.. will take you a while to setup something that'll fire a lot of boilers. Best solution is burning fuel to make fuel. A max sized boiler is 39% more efficient then a traditional Combustion Engine. Oil fabricators anyone? You'll need about 3 fabs for every 2 HP boilers and 3 "fuel producing" boilers at max heat will keep another same pressure boiler going and then a little fuel left over. So right now I got 2 boilers heating up for 78% fuel production and the fuel is going to be housed in a holding tank at 16k buckets sized. So that'll be the only tank I'll need until I can get Quantum tanks. By then I'll be able to have a lot of boilers producing me "free" fuel without all the mess.

 

[netmc]

Getting back to the original post -- The *best* MJ generation method. It really depends on how you define best. Most efficient, highest power output, simple processing chain, complex processing chain that gives you lots of resources along the way... Once you define best, then we can give good, solid ideals. Until then, everyone will use their own definition causing no end to the opinions and plans.

All MJ is ultimately produced by engines of some sort. (I'm not including any power converter mods in my discussion.)

The highest output of any engine is an upgraded forestry electrical engine - 14MJ/tick. Nothing else comes close. Next in line is the RP blulectric engine at 9MJ, followed by the industrial steam engine at 8MJ. All the other engines follow. All of these engines require different fuel sources to run--EU, steam, fuel, lava, burnable materials, etc.

I define the best as the best based on the most efficient based on the materials I can produce to fuel the engine. In some worlds, that has been magmatic engines, in others, it has been a 36 block HP boiler fed by a peat farm feeding industrial steam engines. There really is no best method. It all really depends on your circumstances, the resources available to you and your existing infrastructure.

 

[PonyKuu]

Also.

>Best MJ generation method

 

[Exasperation]

The highest output of any engine is an upgraded forestry electrical engine - 14MJ/tick. Nothing else comes close. Next in line is the RP blulectric engine at 9MJ, followed by the industrial steam engine at 8MJ. All the other engines follow. All of these engines require different fuel sources to run--EU, steam, fuel, lava, burnable materials, etc.

I think you have those out of order; the blulectric has a theoretical maximum of 32 MJ/t (although in my experiments with it there were pretty strong diminishing returns when attempting to power it past 20-25 MJ/t; it's just difficult to scale blulectric power generation/transmission up that high effectively).

Also, IIRC in 1.5 the MFR BioFuel Generator produces MJ from biofuel at 16 MJ/t (albeit less efficiently than a group of combustion engines with equivalent ouput).

 

[KirinDave]

I think you have those out of order; the blulectric has a theoretical maximum of 32 MJ/t (although in my experiments with it there were pretty strong diminishing returns when attempting to power it past 20-25 MJ/t; it's just difficult to scale blulectric power generation/transmission up that high effectively).

Also, IIRC in 1.5 the MFR BioFuel Generator produces MJ from biofuel at 16 MJ/t (albeit less efficiently than a group of combustion engines with equivalent ouput).

By the by, add Dartcraft and get fruit juice as the throttle and you're like at 24mj/t.

 

[power crystals]

I think I'm late to the party about power converters but here are some words anyway.

They are designed to be 100% efficient as shipped because the assumption is you will decide what exchange rate you as a pack maintainer/server admin think is fair, but if you as a player just want a solar powered quarry then that's easy. In 1.5 they even have a throttle config for the steam modules and the option to make the IC2 ones emit multiple pulses per tick if you want.

But as KirinDave said, the issue really is that BC does not really have higher tier power the way IC2 does. In IC2 you progress from generators to solars to.. more solars, to reactors, etc. In BC you build a boiler or a biofuel setup and call it done because that's as far as it goes (excepting some UE mods that have BC output, usually with some oddball ratio). Even if you get 200MJ/t, what do you do with it? Run 50 quarries? That has a whole bunch of other wierd implications.

I am not sure this problem really has a solution, so I decided it was not mine to attempt to solve. Maybe in the future I or someone else will figure out an answer. But for now Power Converters is written around the idea that power is power is power, and you as the player decide what that means. I know not everybody is a fan of that decision (hell, look at this thread) - but I'd rather sell you a 'too good' system that you the weaken then vice-versa.

I hope that explains my thoughts on this issue.

 

[Jess887cp]

But...I think cable systems can be beautiful and atemospheric! Sometimes I build random pipes in places that don't do anything but look good and sciency.

This thread makes me feel like a goldfish.

 

[PonyKuu]

Well the issue is that some people think that power is just power. I don't know, it mostly depends on your goals. I like multi-block structrures and power contraptions, not stupid single blocks that produce tons of power. Look at Way's generation system in his last EEPower. He uses routers and buckets to fuel tons of diesel generators. That requires some creativity to make. That's a build. Crafting overcosted overpowered thing - does not. Look at UE fusion reactor. It IS a build. You have to use different blocks to build it, you can make different designs - that's why I play tech mods. Not because "I'll just sit here and wait while my matterfab producing UUM". And don't say that power rooms are ugly. It's subjective. And they are far more interesting than bunch of ultimate solars. Yes, building ultimate solar is a challenge. I believe FTB Insanity required something like that in one of its challenges. Maybe I'll make one and put it into my chest or attach to a helmet to power other "challenging" item - GraviSuit. But that's not the way I want to generate power.

And it's just stupid to call people "assholes" because they don't like what you like.

 

[wolfsilver00]

Steam boiler, feed it with blaze rods, get blaze rods with a tier 5 spawner and 4 or 5 melee turtles.