Custom Orerefining using TE & Modtweaker

[Namorax]

DISCLAIMER: This is not a finished Product. You can't just copy this into your scriptfolder and play. This version is still considered WIP and serves as a way to allow others to review it. Due to the way it is written, there WILL be incompability if you have specific mods installed. If you want to test this, please install only TE and AOBD.
An improved version with more compability may or may not be added later!

Hello everyone, I was playing around with my modded Minecraft and decided to try creating a process to refine ore via Modtweaker, using nothing but AOBD and Thermal Expansion. Because why not?
This post has a lot of explanations and text, and the primary reason I made it was to get opinions on how to improve it, or if there is something I could/should do different. If you have the time, please take a loot at the stats and tell me if you think the process is overpowered or too complicated.


Well then, let us get started: First, the dry stats and a short description of the entire process (Link). The link contains a short overview of the process, the ressources one has to invest and the rough gains of every step. The neccessary edits were done with Modtweaker and the exact code can be found at the end of this post.
Additionally, you can find a few pictures of the entire infrastructure to refine the ores in the spoiler.

Spoiler: Screenshot of my "drawing board" and the required machinery I build for testing purposes

Everything that goes into the machine is in the frames above that machine, and the result is in the frame below.

A condensed factory. I tried to simulate how big the entire refinery would end up, so I wanted to avoid using creative barrely/tanks/whatever as much as possible. Steps 1-3 have increasing "difficulty", but step 4 is just a simple pulveriser. I'll have to try to find a way to make this part "more difficult" so it fits better into the sequence...

You can barely see it, but this is the "support" for the refinery. It produces aerotheum and petrotheum from scratch. The only "input" here are creative barrels to serve as a source of redstone, saltpeter, clay and netherrack.

The Idea:

Using AOBD, it is possible to manually add Oregravel, Crushed Ores and Ore Dusts even if the Mods that originally add them are not installed. I used this feature to check out what was available and then proceeded to pick a selection that looked like they showed the same ore in the process of being broken down.
That was the basic idea for the process: take one oreblock and break it down into smaller and smaller pieces. During this process, there is a small, guaranteed net-gain thanks to the ressources one adds to the refinery, plus a 5-15% chance to get an additional output on top of that.
The entire process ended up being six steps long and I tried my best to keep it balanced, but since I am not very experienced in Minecraft modding, I have no idea if the entire process is overpowered, or not worth one's time and ressources to build.​

The price:

Right now, one basically needs a source of Sand, Aerotheum and Petrotheum.
In order to craft the -theums, the player needs to invest a handful of ressources like Redstone, Clay and Saltpeter. You also need Sand, Water and a source of Lava to create Obsidiandust, but as long as the player has enough RF available, there won't be a need to quarry them somewhere else, since they can be produced out of thin air with more TE-machines.
And of course, something needs to power all these machines in the first place...​

The Ore Multiplication:

Right now, the editing is done and I've made a few test runs with a single stack of Ore (64 items). One series was done without sieves and only used augments that increased speed, while the other gave sieving augments priority to max the potential output.
If you want some more data, click here.
Using vanilla mechanics as a base, one stack of ores can be turned into 64 metalingots or 7 metalblocks.
My process turned the same stack of ore into ~4400 tiny piles of oredust.
Under the assumption that one "tiny pile of oredust" is worth 0,5 nuggets (8mB), I end up with 244 Ingots or 27 Metalblocks. Almost quadruple the vanilla value. Not that bad for arbitarily picking the values for the code... and these are just the stats for a refinery that didn't use any Sieve-Augments! (Using Sieves, I end up with ~5570 tiny piles of oredust.)​

Conclusion:

Every ore-item that is added with this will have a certain "value" in molten metal. Originally, I wanted the tiny piles of oredust to be equivalent to a normal nugget, but in that case the ore gain would've increased eightfold, which gave me the impression of being TOO overpowered... even if I have no idea about ore multiplication, turning one stack of ore into one stack of metalblocks is too much.
Right now, I need to balance the process and wanted to ask the FTB community for their comments.​

My Questions to everyone who wants to answer:

Are the mB values for the individual pieces okay?
Is there an obvious exploit?
Would you bother running your ores through the entire process? If not, why?
Is there anything you would change/add/remove to make it cooler/balanced?​

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TL;DR:
This is a Modtweakerscript I've written to create an ore-refining process that uses TE machinery.
I have no idea if this is over- or underpowered so I would like to ask for input and if there is stuff I should change.

Also, here is the link to the Modtweaker-script I promised in the beginning of the post.
It uses variables to make editing easier. Also, you are free to use the code for your own purposes, but a small line saying "Credits go to Namorax" would be appreciated! xD

 

[joshwoo70]

mB values are okay but typically try not to add them. This usually caouses frustration with some players.

AFAIK no exploits exists.

Yes.. I would probably run through the process (if it is the only one)

 

[Namorax]

Thank you for your feedback. I will probably tweak it again this weekend to switch step one and two: that way people can decide for themselves if they want to use TE's normal pulverizer or produce piles of tiny dust.^^

 

[Fortanono]

How exactly do you do that with AOBD? Checked the config and found everything changed to true, yet when I run the game it only loads the stuff it needs.

 

[Namorax]

I wrote how to do that in the Minetweaker script at the beginning:

//Open the config at:    /.minecraft/config/aobd.cfg
//There is a part called "Custom", you need to change the value of "S:items" to look like this:
//     S:items=dirtyGravel,cleanGravel,reduced,oreCrushed,crushedPurified,dustTiny
//This Modtweaker-Script refers to certain Items, and editing the AOBD.cfg will guarantee their existance.

You need to change the "S:Items"-Entry in the "Custom" section. If you add the correct string there, the items the string refers to will be created as well.
If you add "dustTiny" to "S:Items", but set a random metal to false, AOBD won't create the "TinyDust" for that Ore.

I should probably mention that this script will be incompatible (or cause tons of problems) if you play with TE and whatever mod originally adds "Dirty/Clean Ore Gravel", "Reduced Ore", etc... to the game.
Since I only played with TE and Minefactory, I have no idea which Techmods those ore-types are from...

 

[RealKC]

I believe that the mods that adds those items are IC2 and Factorization
Edit: this may mean that this script cannot be used in FTB Infinity

 

[Fortanono]

I wrote how to do that in the Minetweaker script at the beginning:

//Open the config at:    /.minecraft/config/aobd.cfg
//There is a part called "Custom", you need to change the value of "S:items" to look like this:
//     S:items=dirtyGravel,cleanGravel,reduced,oreCrushed,crushedPurified,dustTiny
//This Modtweaker-Script refers to certain Items, and editing the AOBD.cfg will guarantee their existance.

You need to change the "S:Items"-Entry in the "Custom" section. If you add the correct string there, the items the string refers to will be created as well.
If you add "dustTiny" to "S:Items", but set a random metal to false, AOBD won't create the "TinyDust" for that Ore.

I should probably mention that this script will be incompatible (or cause tons of problems) if you play with TE and whatever mod originally adds "Dirty/Clean Ore Gravel", "Reduced Ore", etc... to the game.
Since I only played with TE and Minefactory, I have no idea which Techmods those ore-types are from...

Where did you get those item names then? Just curious.

 

[Namorax]

@RealKC: Yep. It's basically "TE-only". I've never really used Industrual Craft or Factorisation, so I am not aware of what these mods add. As for the Incompability with FTB Infinity: I posted this more as a means of allowing others to review it and in order to gather some input. It isn't supposed to be "Plug 'n Play"... I would need to change quite a bit of the code for that to happen since the only ore the current version of the script is setting up is the "Metallurgy copper".
I've already planned spending this weekend to change the script, so I will try to set up a version you can simply copy-paste for a quick test... but unless I know which mods you will be using, I can't guarantee it will work in the first place or cover every ore you have. You will need to spend some time to complete the script yourself.

@Fortanono: I had to open AOBD's jar-file and look for the textures it uses. A complete list of available stuff would be:

chunk,cleanGravel,clump,cluster,crushed,crushedPurifiedcrystal,crystalline,dirtyGravel,dust,dustDirty,dustImpure,dustTiny,ground,nugget,ore,oreBroken,oreCrushed,oreNetherBroken,orePowdered,pebbles,reduced,rubble,sand,shard

There are also block (oreDust,oreGravel,oreNetherGravel,oreSand) but they aren't displayed correctly without Ex Nihilo.

 

[Fortanono]

@RealKC: Yep. It's basically "TE-only". I've never really used Industrual Craft or Factorisation, so I am not aware of what these mods add. As for the Incompability with FTB Infinity: I posted this more as a means of allowing others to review it and in order to gather some input. It isn't supposed to be "Plug 'n Play"... I would need to change quite a bit of the code for that to happen since the only ore the current version of the script is setting up is the "Metallurgy copper".
I've already planned spending this weekend to change the script, so I will try to set up a version you can simply copy-paste for a quick test... but unless I know which mods you will be using, I can't guarantee it will work in the first place or cover every ore you have. You will need to spend some time to complete the script yourself.

@Fortanono: I had to open AOBD's jar-file and look for the textures it uses. A complete list of available stuff would be:

chunk,cleanGravel,clump,cluster,crushed,crushedPurifiedcrystal,crystalline,dirtyGravel,dust,dustDirty,dustImpure,dustTiny,ground,nugget,ore,oreBroken,oreCrushed,oreNetherBroken,orePowdered,pebbles,reduced,rubble,sand,shard

There are also block (oreDust,oreGravel,oreNetherGravel,oreSand) but they aren't displayed correctly without Ex Nihilo.

Well it doesn't appear that some of the stuff is available without its respective mod... Rotarycraft Flakes and FSP Smashed Ores aren't there...

 

[Namorax]

Well, the AOBD thread on Minecraftforum is more or less dead and gany wasn't online there since a week ago. Maybe there are more possibilities, but since I can't read code and Gany/anybody is available for an answer, this is all I got.
*shrugs*.

But if extra flakes for other generate when AOBD is installed, then there should be a keyword you should be able to use.
Did you try "flake(s)" or something like that?

 

[Fortanono]

Did you try "flake(s)" or something like that?

I tried both "flake" and "flakes", didn't work.

 

[Namorax]

Well, I ahev no idea in that case... ^^;
You could try to ask Gany... if you can get a hold of him (I don't have twitter)

 

[Namorax]

Here is a newer version of the script: http://pastebin.com/SxDNTRAd
This time I tried to go for max compability to allow easier testing. The script will allow you to let iron ore go through the process, if you want to add other ores you need to add them yourself.
I also tried to find out which mods the items I 'appropriated' came from: They apparently come from ExNihilo, Factorisation and Mekanism. I am not sure where the "pebbles" are from, but I assume they are either from TerraFirmacraft or from MagnetiCraft. (If you know for sure, please tell me.)
On a sidenote, I didn't know that a lot of my process was similar to the one from Factorisation. I assure you this is a coincidence! (^ ^)'

Compared to the last version, I changed the individual steps a bit to ensure that each phase is a bit more difficult to achieve than the previous one. I also changed the script to let the final steps produce nuggets directly, instead of something else that is turned into nuggets via furnace or something

Spoiler: Requirements for this script

-Modtweaker
-AOBD
-ThermalExpansion
-Add this line to AOBD's config under the section "Custom":

S:items=oreBroken,dirtyGravel,cleanGravel,reduced,pebbles,dustDirty,orePowdered

Spoiler: Screenshots for entire refinery

The carpet shows the individual "steps" of the process. Ignore the Furnace at the end, it's not part of the actual process...

Because of the items used in this script, do not use this script if you have one of the following mods installed: Mekanism, Factorisation, ExNihilo and (tentative) Magneticraft/TerraFirmaCraft.

There is an optional part for Tinkers' Construct at the end, if you want to use that, just remove the # at the beginning. Have fun with this.