Mod Feedback [By Request] RotaryCraft Suggestions

[Pyure]

Greetings and salutations folks. I'm revisiting RotaryCraft. Its been a while.

I haven't touched this mod in any kind of way since just before turbines (in ReactorCraft) required lubricant. As a result I'm out of touch and am hoping someone can shed light on various little things I have questions about, and warn me in advance of any "surprises" I might encounter.

• How many power sources can be junctioned? I think I read months ago that a limit was imposed. I've tried 4 (steam engines) and it wasn't an issue. If there is a limit, are there any acceptable/immersive workarounds?
• Blast Furnace will not accept heat from Lava (and other sources? Other than Ambient?) when being heated via friction. Intended for balance purposes? (Also: I'm not implying that this is or isn't a new change; just something I've noticed) {V2: "Friction heater now ignores ambient temperature when active". Easy assumption that this is for balance. }
• I avoid certain engines (DC Electric, Hydrokinetic) for immersion purposes. This wasn't a blocker back in the day. Will I be painting myself into a corner now? Is the Hydro in particular a gating-must?
• Have any major balance issues been added/addressed I should be warned about? (Open-ended question, feel free to amuse yourselves with answers)

@Reika, I noticed my stone gearboxes were overheating when accelerated to high speeds (sensibly). I tried to find information on this in the manual without success. I did eventually find information in a wiki. Just an FYI that the manual may need some cross referencing added. This is as of...the version directly preceding the current one, so my apologies and disregard if its already dealt with. We won't be updating to the latest version for a few more days at least I imagine.

 

[SirDoctorOfTardis]

Greetings and salutations folks. I'm revisiting RotaryCraft. Its been a while.

I haven't touched this mod in any kind of way since just before turbines (in ReactorCraft) required lubricant. As a result I'm out of touch and am hoping someone can shed light on various little things I have questions about, and warn me in advance of any "surprises" I might encounter.

• How many power sources can be junctioned? I think I read months ago that a limit was imposed. I've tried 4 (steam engines) and it wasn't an issue. If there is a limit, are there any acceptable/immersive workarounds?
• Blast Furnace will not accept heat from Lava (and other sources? Other than Ambient?) when being heated via friction. Intended for balance purposes? (Also: I'm not implying that this is or isn't a new change; just something I've noticed) {V2: "Friction heater now ignores ambient temperature when active". Easy assumption that this is for balance. }
• I avoid certain engines (DC Electric, Hydrokinetic) for immersion purposes. This wasn't a blocker back in the day. Will I be painting myself into a corner now? Is the Hydro in particular a gating-must?
• Have any major balance issues been added/addressed I should be warned about? (Open-ended question, feel free to amuse yourselves with answers)

@Reika, I noticed my stone gearboxes were overheating when accelerated to high speeds (sensibly). I tried to find information on this in the manual without success. I did eventually find information in a wiki. Just an FYI that the manual may need some cross referencing added. This is as of...the version directly preceding the current one, so my apologies and disregard if its already dealt with. We won't be updating to the latest version for a few more days at least I imagine.

A limit was imposed, it is 4. You can however, use bedrock to circumnavigate the limit by, right click I believe? Correct me if I'm wrong Reika.

 

[Pyure]

That's interesting that I happened to run right into that limit (Assuming 4 is correct). Its a good choice numerically since 4 frequently represents the tier difference between engines (4 DCs make a Wind, 4 Winds make a Steam, etc)

Speaking of Steam, I actually originally refused to use Steam engines as well (for thermodynamic immersion reasons that nobody cares about) but I find they take up so much room to work with that I at least enjoy the gameplay obstacle.

 

[Pyure]

A limit was imposed, it is 4. You can however, use bedrock to circumnavigate the limit by, right click I believe? Correct me if I'm wrong Reika.

I wonder if this is out of date. Reika clarifies that the limit isn't specifically 4, but rather is 4x the average of the inputs.

https://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/rotarycraft-shaft-junction.78569/#post-1100580

 

[Celestialphoenix]

DC, steam and hydro have had a few balance passes since you've last played. A few points in the tech tree might be a little tricky if you avoid them- but as far as I know the mod is playable while avoiding them.

 

[Pyure]

DC, steam and hydro have had a few balance passes since you've last played. A few points in the tech tree might be a little tricky if you avoid them- but as far as I know the mod is playable while avoiding them.

Good feedback, thx.

 

[Plasmasnake]

In my entire time playing with RoC, I've never used a hydro engine. It's too much of a hassle for me: you gotta feed it lube, you gotta build this ugly-as-sin waterfall to get the most power out of it, and it requires diamonds (a material I have the most trouble collecting) and spring steel. I know a lot of people use this engine, but I just can't bring myself to do it.

Thankfully, you are not forced to use it for the progression

 

[Pyure]

In my entire time playing with RoC, I've never used a hydro engine. It's too much of a hassle for me: you gotta feed it lube, you gotta build this ugly-as-sin waterfall to get the most power out of it, and it requires diamonds (a material I have the most trouble collecting) and spring steel. I know a lot of people use this engine, but I just can't bring myself to do it.

Thankfully, you are not forced to use it for the progression

Agreed. My impression is that the balance issues aren't particularly problematic anymore, like you described. I just can't enjoy using one any more than I can enjoy seeing the top-halves of trees floating around near my base.

That said, if I came across a geographically sensible place to use one, like a large, realistically generated waterfall, I'd be happy to use one there.

 

[Celestialphoenix]

If you build a big enough base- having a waterfall drop right through the middle gives a rather eye-catching and dramatic design.

Bit of a spoiler- but a good use for the hydro;

Spoiler

The tunnel bore. If you're near ocean/river, you can drop a waterfall down the mineshaft.

Also worth noting fans can be placed vertically- giving you an interesting way back out ​

 

[Pyure]

If you build a big enough base- having a waterfall drop right through the middle gives a rather eye-catching and dramatic design.

Bit of a spoiler- but a good use for the hydro;

Spoiler

The tunnel bore. If you're near ocean/river, you can drop a waterfall down the mineshaft.

Also worth noting fans can be placed vertically- giving you an interesting way back out ​

lol I didn't know you could use fans as an elevator.

That's funny regarding the hydro-boring machine setup: Its both highly realistic and unrealistic. On the one hand, if I drilled a hole in the bottom of the ocean and let water flow downwards, yeah, it would generate a lot of power. But that water has to go somewhere, and the drilling operation alone would be silly-expensive.

Right now I'm running a terribly-slow boring machine off gasoline engines. I thought I'd get a performance engine last night but I couldn't get my blast furnace past 798C(!) last night with just 4 steam engines. Tonight I'll hook it up to gasoline engines instead.

Notes on that:

• My boring machine does have efficiency IV...i remembered enchants-on-machines at least.
• The performance engine used to be way easier to attain: nobody in their right mind used the gasoline engine and just skipped straight to performance. Good fix there.

 

[Pyure]

Oh, I have another inquiry. I noticed on youtube you could extract liquid ethanol from an engine. Is this just a means of removing ethanol from an engine if you so desire, or is there some usage/benefit of liquid ethanol I should be aware of?

 

[Xavion]

Oh, I have another inquiry. I noticed on youtube you could extract liquid ethanol from an engine. Is this just a means of removing ethanol from an engine if you so desire, or is there some usage/benefit of liquid ethanol I should be aware of?

You can just pump the liquid ethanol into engines just like ethanol crystals, more notably liquid ethanol is the only way of filling jetpacks that require it that I know of.

The rock melter should also be able to melt ethanol into the liquid form.

Note, it's been a while since I touched RoC so that might not be 100% correct, I don't think it's changed though.

 

[KingTriaxx]

Windmills work best high in the air, watermills work best with water falling from high up. I used the same tower the windmills are on, to setup the water for the water mills. Looked really nice and then the world exploded. Had a BC Floodgate with a water pipe running up to it, though they weren't connected, and the water at the bottom ran into a pool with a pump in it. So it looked like I was transporting the water back up to the top to fall again. Looked really cool at least, even if it was all a fake.

 

[mathwiz617]

I have found DC Engines, while useful, are totally skippable with some forethought. For example, a single steam engine can power a pump, getting enough water to fill that and at least seven other steam engines. You just have to put a single bucket of water in the first engine before lighting the fire.

Fermenters are best run at a certain y-level, based on the biome, so you could use steam engines plus stone shafts to power them, but DC engines are much more convenient.

 

[Braidedheadman]

Hydros are always a feature in my bases. They are a really convenient source of RF power (after conversion) for mods that utilize it, particularly my AE network. People who don't like to use them because they require lube won't be getting very far without it in the first place and, secondly, implementing an automated on/off switch to recharge depleted RF storage cells of whatever flavor suits you is fairly trivial work.

I get around the "ugly" waterfall by building an aqueduct to conduct water from a suitably high mountain water source (it helps to base up near said mountains) to my power plant. The server I had last built one on went tits up, but I think I've still got a screenshot or two kicking around, somewhere. It was a really grand sight to behold though, albeit a shit-ton of work to complete. Not a job I would want to attend to without a builder's wand, certainly, but well worth it from an aesthetics point of view.

Regarding your friction heater temperatures, if you're not already doing so, ensure that you're tuning your power source(s) to deliver their power to the heater with the torque and speed set to as close to a 1:1 ratio as you can manage. Your steam engines won't be enough to smelt more advanced materials mind you, but iirc you should be able to get them to produce temperatures just below the next tier's gating limit at least (just under 1000C, I think, I forget exactly what it worked out to... then again it's been quite a while and I might have a few wires crossed).

 

[RavynousHunter]

Aye, 4 steam engines doesn't get near any gating content, that I'm aware of, but it still provides a decent smelting speed for what is a rather low investment. Oh, and if memory serves, two steam engines can run a fermenter at one-tick speeds, when properly geared. They're very versatile little things.

 

[Plasmasnake]

I haven't tested this out yet, but this line in the changelogs has gotten me curious:

"ChromatiCraft: Fixed Heat Lamps on RC engines"

If this means that heat lamps provide heat to engines (and not something like fixing a bug so that now heat lamps cannot be used), it has some interesting applications. Particularly for the Steam Engine.

 

[RavynousHunter]

Can confirm, heat lamps work with steam engines: put them on the bottom, set the temp to ~110C to account for nighttime cooling (don't set it to just 100 or 101, the cooling at night will be enough to interrupt your power supply), and you're golden. They also work with blast furnaces, but only get you to just being able to make HSLA steel, nothing above it.

 

[Pyure]

Can confirm, heat lamps work with steam engines: put them on the bottom, set the temp to ~110C to account for nighttime cooling (don't set it to just 100 or 101, the cooling at night will be enough to interrupt your power supply), and you're golden. They also work with blast furnaces, but only get you to just being able to make HSLA steel, nothing above it.

Can you combine friction heater + heat lamps on the blast furnace?
Blast furnaces being heated by a friction heater are immune to "ambient" temperatures I believe, but I'm not sure if that means its exclusive to friction heating.

 

[Pyure]

Aye, 4 steam engines doesn't get near any gating content, that I'm aware of, but it still provides a decent smelting speed for what is a rather low investment. Oh, and if memory serves, two steam engines can run a fermenter at one-tick speeds, when properly geared. They're very versatile little things.

I think ...something...required 700C, which I was able to do with 4 steam engines. Don't quote me on this, my memory is hazy.

And yeah, even a single steam engine on a fermenter, geared properly, can execute processes faster than you'll really need.

Off-topic, I'm curious, has anyone ever found a valid use-case for a worm-gear (early game or otherwise?)