Does anyone else really miss BuildCraft pipes in Agrarian Skies?

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immibis

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In Agrarian Skies you have the following options to transport items automatically:

  • Vanilla (water streams + hoppers + droppers + redstone)
  • Tinker's Construct channels, which are basically equivalent to vanilla, but a bit tidier
  • Conveyor belts
  • Itemducts
  • Applied Energistics

Vanilla transport, channels and conveyor belts are okay - especially combined with MFR's item routers - but they take up a lot of space, and this is a skyblock map where space is limited (or maybe I just suck at building big enough platforms)

Itemducts are also extremely average. If a medium-sized itemduct network backstuffs anywhere, it causes significant client lag. Many things are expensive, annoying or difficult to do - if you want dirt to fill up 6 barrels, you need to set 6 filters. You can't split a stream of items to go to two different places, since round robin mode never seems to work right.

Semi-related: TE's Cyclic Assembler isn't very useful either. If you want craft something with more than one ingredient, it will always fill up with one type of item unless you can exactly match the production rates of the ingredients. I'm sure you could work around it with an extensive setup of droppers and redstone, but at that point you might as well just use a MFR Liquicrafter, which needs a redstone pulse for each crafting operation.

Of course I don't want to use Applied Energistics for everything, because then it gets boring. I am using it, but mainly for manual requesting, autocrafting, and distribution of raw materials (like metal ingots).
 

YX33A

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I miss it, yes. Due to the lack of BC pipes my apiarist pipes are less useful.
...Also shitty targeting parameters are always holding my railguns back.
 
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twisto51

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I miss it, yes. Due to the lack of BC pipes my apiarist pipes are less useful.
...Also shitty targeting parameters are always holding my railguns back.

Exactly, bee stuff is the only place I still used BC transport pipes on a regular basis.

The transport I miss most in this pack is Factorization routers. So many tasks that are just a matter of parallel processing which routers excel at. I'm running 6+ Centrifuges and it is a mess of piping that could have just been a couple routers with a couple AE buses hidden behind them.
 

YX33A

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Exactly, bee stuff is the only place I still used BC transport pipes on a regular basis.

The transport I miss most in this pack is Factorization routers. So many tasks that are just a matter of parallel processing which routers excel at. I'm running 6+ Centrifuges and it is a mess of piping that could have just been a couple routers with a couple AE buses hidden behind them.
As soon as I know of a way to get dark iron that doesn't involve derping about near/at bedrock, I'll use Factorization again.


...Now that I think about it, even in AgS it'd be possible to find it, but not on the overworld... Maybe not in the Nether either, but other dimensions with overworld ores... Yes, that would be possible, wouldn't it?
 

immibis

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As soon as I know of a way to get dark iron that doesn't involve derping about near/at bedrock, I'll use Factorization again.


...Now that I think about it, even in AgS it'd be possible to find it, but not on the overworld... Maybe not in the Nether either, but other dimensions with overworld ores... Yes, that would be possible, wouldn't it?
If it was added to the park it would probably be added to Ex Nihilo, or as a custom recipe.
 

Jadedcat

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In Agrarian Skies you have the following options to transport items automatically:

  • Vanilla (water streams + hoppers + droppers + redstone)
  • Tinker's Construct channels, which are basically equivalent to vanilla, but a bit tidier
  • Conveyor belts
  • Itemducts
  • Applied Energistics

Vanilla transport, channels and conveyor belts are okay - especially combined with MFR's item routers - but they take up a lot of space, and this is a skyblock map where space is limited (or maybe I just suck at building big enough platforms)

Itemducts are also extremely average. If a medium-sized itemduct network backstuffs anywhere, it causes significant client lag. Many things are expensive, annoying or difficult to do - if you want dirt to fill up 6 barrels, you need to set 6 filters. You can't split a stream of items to go to two different places, since round robin mode never seems to work right.

Semi-related: TE's Cyclic Assembler isn't very useful either. If you want craft something with more than one ingredient, it will always fill up with one type of item unless you can exactly match the production rates of the ingredients. I'm sure you could work around it with an extensive setup of droppers and redstone, but at that point you might as well just use a MFR Liquicrafter, which needs a redstone pulse for each crafting operation.

Of course I don't want to use Applied Energistics for everything, because then it gets boring. I am using it, but mainly for manual requesting, autocrafting, and distribution of raw materials (like metal ingots).

This pack is about being creative and making infrastructure. Not about doing things the same way every youtuber has done it for 2 years. I manage to do all the things you have mentioned just fine without AE. You just have to learn the mods and think outside the "BC/IC2/Logipipes" block. This is not a pack for people who want access to every mod or even every item in the mods that are in the pack. Its not for people who have learned BC and want to stick with "traditional" mods. Play Monster or DW20. BC, IC2 , Logipipes etc will not be added to this map. If you want them play a different pack.
 

pderuiter

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I can imagine you could use several canals filled with water to transport items. It would go slow, but you could make something aesthetically pleasing. Or just make a sub level for your ducts :)
And the TiCo channels have a romanesque feel.
 

YX33A

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This pack is about being creative and making infrastructure. Not about doing things the same way every youtuber has done it for 2 years. I manage to do all the things you have mentioned just fine without AE. You just have to learn the mods and think outside the "BC/IC2/Logipipes" block. This is not a pack for people who want access to every mod or even every item in the mods that are in the pack. Its not for people who have learned BC and want to stick with "traditional" mods. Play Monster or DW20. BC, IC2 , Logipipes etc will not be added to this map. If you want them play a different pack.
The only issue, as far as I care, with not having BC, is that BC Transport is all but needed for my Apiarist Endeavors. Nothing else will quite cut it for me.
I'm fine with the lack of many mods I "normally use" being absent. But you know I don't normally use? ComputerCraft. Know what else? Most, if not all, of BC or RC. I haven't touched Factorization since it's release either. I'm not your typical FTBer in that sense, I guess.

It's a good pack, tons of fun, but somehow it's not the same for me. We have TE3(duh), but I dislike using it's itemducts, plus they apparently are laggy as all hell. Sorting things thus either takes XU (and I welcome that idea) or MFR (and this could be fun as well, never touched MFR sorting)... But we also have AE. I mean, really? Why bother using any other sorting system, then?
And power generation. I get pretty much everyone uses RF now. But you know what's missing that would sell this pack for me? Emasher's Mods. Support would have to be added somehow, somewhere, to get some of his resources that you'd need, but other then that, it'd really sell this pack to me. I mean, I already do my own version of this sort of thing, actually. I go out to sea, make a platform, and live off of the sea like that, using skyblock mods to make do.
 

Iskandar

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Feb 17, 2013
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This pack is about being creative and making infrastructure. Not about doing things the same way every youtuber has done it for 2 years. I manage to do all the things you have mentioned just fine without AE. You just have to learn the mods and think outside the "BC/IC2/Logipipes" block. This is not a pack for people who want access to every mod or even every item in the mods that are in the pack. Its not for people who have learned BC and want to stick with "traditional" mods. Play Monster or DW20. BC, IC2 , Logipipes etc will not be added to this map. If you want them play a different pack.

Speaking of doing things different, any plans to add Steve's Factory Manager to AgS? more people need to be exposed to that mod, IMHO.
 

Jadedcat

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But you know what's missing that would sell this pack for me? Emasher's Mods. Support would have to be added somehow, somewhere, to get some of his resources that you'd need, but other then that, it'd really sell this pack to me. I mean, I already do my own version of this sort of thing, actually. I go out to sea, make a platform, and live off of the sea like that, using skyblock mods to make do.

Ah but I am not trying to sell the pack to anyone. I build MF2 and Ag Skies for me and friends. If other people enjoy it, great. But they are first and foremost about how I want to play. Ag Skies in particular was made because Skyboy wanted a skyblock map loosely based on MF2 so he could play too because his computer can't handle massive world gen. I wanted quests because I always get bored in skyblocks since there is no exploring. I do bees... I do bees a lot. And I do bees with item ducts. I don't get to AE till very later in the game. I use item ducts and fluiducts for everything and no they are not laggy. Most of the people who say differently have a vested interest in players wanting to use a specific mod(s).They can have issue with very specific mods... but those mods aren't in either of my packs. I do not make my personal packs to "sell them" to other players. I make them to make something new and different. To create a new style of gameplay. To take minecraft and create a game within a game. 90% of the "suggestions" I get are based on the idea that I should add mods just because people feel they can't do something in the game without that mod. I can do everything in Ag Skies that I can do in Monster or DW20 I just can't do it the same way. I like thinking up new ways to do things. And I like putting out packs that are different. Every suggestion made so far ammounts to "I love how this map/pack are different but I really wish it had the same things as this other one". Thats silly. It defeats the point of being different. Once the quest mod stabilizes and a few other features are in I will be making more mappacks with different mods. But I will not be adding mods to Ag Skies unless it does something the other mods don't do, and I feel thats something the pack needs.[DOUBLEPOST=1397822138][/DOUBLEPOST]
Speaking of doing things different, any plans to add Steve's Factory Manager to AgS? more people need to be exposed to that mod, IMHO.

Nope. Not to Ag Skies.
 

epidemia78

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I just compile my own modpacks, Im not even an FTB user. Letting someone else make all the choices for me is not my style, they always do it wrong. I tried the universal configs on my first 1.6.4 world but that didnt last long.
 

YX33A

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~snip~Once the quest mod stabilizes and a few other features are in I will be making more mappacks with different mods. But I will not be adding mods to Ag Skies unless it does something the other mods don't do, and I feel thats something the pack needs.
Lovely to hear that you're doing more maps/packs with it.

...That being said, have you even looked at Emashers mods? Ye gods, those sockets are crazy cool. And yes, do plenty of things that other mods don't. Well, okay, maybe not PLENTY, but still, they do a lot of things, and most of which they do in a unique way. Automated mining? Old-hat, throw down some quarries. Me? #Husher_4_Lyfe mate.
Ender pearls without badass looting weapons? Enderman Auschwitz showcase Soon™.(valve time, though)
And there is more. Many more things.
 

Jadedcat

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Lovely to hear that you're doing more maps/packs with it.

...That being said, have you even looked at Emashers mods? Ye gods, those sockets are crazy cool. And yes, do plenty of things that other mods don't. Well, okay, maybe not PLENTY, but still, they do a lot of things, and most of which they do in a unique way. Automated mining? Old-hat, throw down some quarries. Me? #Husher_4_Lyfe mate.
Ender pearls without badass looting weapons? Enderman Auschwitz showcase Soon™.(valve time, though)
And there is more. Many more things.

I play test every mod that shows up on the MCF or CurseForge. And no mod goes in any FTB pack without me having played, tested and profiled it for performance. So yes I have.

Couple things people don't seem to realize about me:

  • I test and play everything. Thats part of how we end up with new mods leaking into FTB packs.
  • I have no vested interest in one mod being preferred over another mod. I make my mod decisions based of performance, stability and unique features.
  • I look at objective facts about mods prior to personal preference.
What this means is , if all the item transport mods were equal performance wise I would use TE in my personal pack because I prefer the feel of TE. However they are not in fact equal. I use jprofiler and OPIS on mods that have similarities. When used correctly without cross mod issues TE3 is the lightest weight processing and transport mod in 1.6.

I do have plans for Emasher, but not till 1.7. I prefer to wait a minecraft version before putting a newish mod in as a major mod. This ensures I can keep the packs going. For instance Magic Farm has gone through 2 MC versions now. Ag Skies and MF will be updated to 1.7 if at all possible. With the Curse partnership I should be able to concentrate more on the unique gamepacks and maps I like making. And I have evil plans.
 
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xbony2

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Do you think that they're OP? I don't really grasp how GT players feel on these things.
OP? Not much, although they are a bit cheap. I like the old mechanic when things weren't planed out and it went wherever it went.
Instead of GT pipes, too?
I haven't touched them yet actually, I just write small bits of the wiki :p
 
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pderuiter

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I play test every mod that shows up on the MCF or CurseForge. And no mod goes in any FTB pack without me having played, tested and profiled it for performance. So yes I have.

Couple things people don't seem to realize about me:

  • I test and play everything. Thats part of how we end up with new mods leaking into FTB packs.
  • I have no vested interest in one mod being preferred over another mod. I make my mod decisions based of performance, stability and unique features.
  • I look at objective facts about mods prior to personal preference.
What this means is , if all the item transport mods were equal performance wise I would use TE in my personal pack because I prefer the feel of TE. However they are not in fact equal. I use jprofiler and OPIS on mods that have similarities. When used correctly without cross mod issues TE3 is the lightest weight processing and transport mod in 1.6.

I do have plans for Emasher, but not till 1.7. I prefer to wait a minecraft version before putting a newish mod in as a major mod. This ensures I can keep the packs going. For instance Magic Farm has gone through 2 MC versions now. Ag Skies and MF will be updated to 1.7 if at all possible. With the Curse partnership I should be able to concentrate more on the unique gamepacks and maps I like making. And I have evil plans.
This. This is why i love AS so much (and jaded too, but shhhh).
 
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