Ender IO Farming Station vs MFR Planter/Harvester Combo , Efficiency

[Jeff Fisher]

I'm trying to run a massive steam turbine from Bigreactors off of Railcraft Boilers. Atm I only have one 36hp boiler which is not providing the steam requirements of my turbine. ( I know I can use Big reactors reactor to output steam)

Sooo I need to create more boilers. But I need fuel for those extra boilers.

Atm I am using an Ender IO Farming station with an Octadic capacitor installed. Sending that wood to Redstone Furnaces and then the resulting charcoal into the boiler.

I've also read that using a sawmill is more efficient than charcoal?

BUT the main thing I am wondering is what is more efficient and yields the most resources an Ender IO Farming station or an MFR Planter/Havester combo with max upgrades taken into account.

It seems the MFR combo has a larger area to plant and harvest from and doesn't seem to require power while idling where the Ender IO Farming station requires constant power and has a smaller area ( and also needs to have an axe auto crafted and inserted full time)

(I have also been thinking about using liquid fueled fireboxes instead of solid then I guess the MFR combo would be better? but Im not sure how I want to do with yet.)


Thanks.

 

[midgetassin]

ok the way you said it its hands down mfr but want a chalenge wich with what your doing you obvivously do go with the ender io

 

[namiasdf]

If you are using fertilizer, ender IO might be comparable, if it is true that they drain continuously and not per action.

The way you've described it, there is no disadvantage to using MFR over ender IO, where as vice versa there is the energy efficiency problem.

 

[Vaeliorin]

Ender IO Farming Station with spruce trees. I had a completely unupgraded one, was using a charcoal every 5 seconds, and still managed to end up with a barrel full of charcoal and a barrel full of wood in about an hour. No growth acceleration at all, but the spruce trees grow in giant 2x2's really quickly. Add some sort of growth accelerator (like agricarnations if you've got Botania) and you'll be drowning in wood and charcoal.

 

[Jeff Fisher]

I have the Ender IO one set up atm but was wondering if I should keep investing in it or switch to MFR. Maybe someone has done some testing of them both? Thanks

 

[PierceSG]

MFR hands down.
Cheap, easy to expand and easy to setup.
Downside: Frame rate killer, the harvester is known to cause problems.
Sometimes causes residue saplings lying around which over time will cause issue to the server/computer.

I would have recommended the farming station if it didn't need tools replacement.
It isn't the cost but rather, the hassle that put me off using the farming station.

 

[Yusunoha]

MFR hands down.
Cheap, easy to expand and easy to setup.
Downside: Frame rate killer, the harvester is known to cause problems.
Sometimes causes residue saplings lying around which over time will cause issue to the server/computer.

I would have recommended the farming station if it didn't need tools replacement.
It isn't the cost but rather, the hassle that put me off using the farming station.

another bonus with MFR is sludge, which you can pump into a sludge boiler for some extra resource income.

 

[PhoenixSmith]

If Dartcraft would only update.... You would be able to use either with TTs.

 

[mcalpha]

As for the "larger area": it's true that with upgrades you can expand the MFR area beyond the 17x17 provided by EIO with max. capacitor, but the machine speed doesn't upgrade as well, so each square is visited less and less often. At some point your trees will grow faster than the harvester and planter can visit them and won't keep up.

Axe crafting: meh, AE.

 

[Vaeliorin]

Even without AE it's no hassle. Three cyclic assemblers (or Ender IO crafters) will make you wooden axes, or throw in some way to get cobble and get stone ones (I find stone ones break in the middle of trees less often, and I use less wood, which is why I built the tree farm in the first place.) Cheap, easy and portable.

Honestly, I'd use the Ender IO Farming Station just to get rid of the issues MFR causes with tree harvesting, even if it is somewhat more expensive. The only thing I miss at all from sludge is mycelium (since the Clayconia fulfills all my clay needs), which I pretty much never use anyway.

All that said, I prefer MFR for non-tree farms.
,

 

[b0bst3r]

What I do with the EnderIO farming station is hook it up to a timer and state cell and turn it off for 5 mins then on for 40 seconds then back off again. Set the farming station to turn on with redstone signal, then you have power saving features for farming station as it burns power like no tomorrow.

You can adjust the times to whatever you like but especially if you're using it to harvest ender lily seeds which take an age to grow it's very advisable to do the above.

 

[purplefantum]

Bees, refined bees, fully upgraded to fastest speed in industrial hives with upgrades. 5 bees can run 4 max sized high pressure boilers with left over fuel.

 

[twisto51]

Downside: Frame rate killer, the harvester is known to cause problems.

Turning off harvesting sounds in config on client and server has cured every frame rate "problem" I've ever had with the MFR harvester.

 

[ljfa]

Turning off harvesting sounds in config on client and server has cured every frame rate "problem" I've ever had with the MFR harvester.

It definitely helps but the problem with the harvester is that it destroys the blocks one by one. Each time it destroys a block the containing chunk has to be re-rendered, and even worse if the block happens to sit at a chunk boundary: Then the neighboring chunk also has to be re-rendered.
Solution: Place the farm right in the middle of one chunk.

 

[namiasdf]

It definitely helps but the problem with the harvester is that it destroys the blocks one by one. Each time it destroys a block the containing chunk has to be re-rendered, and even worse if the block happens to sit at a chunk boundary: Then the neighboring chunk also has to be re-rendered.
Solution: Place the farm right in the middle of one chunk.

Or just chunkload them all.

 

[namiasdf]

Turning off harvesting sounds in config on client and server has cured every frame rate "problem" I've ever had with the MFR harvester.

Where is the config for harvester sound? I only found the recipe override and energy cost options in the common config. The client config has less than a page of configs.

 

[ljfa]

Where is the config for harvester sound? I only found the recipe override and energy cost options in the common config. The client config has less than a page of configs.

# Set to false to disable the harvester's sound when a block is harvested.
  B:PlaySounds=false

 

[namiasdf]

general {
# Set to false to disable various sounds and particle effects, such as when a block is harvested.
B: PlaySounds=true

Ah, that's the one. PlaySounds was the keyword. Tried sounds, noises, etc.

 

[ljfa]

Ah, that's the one. PlaySounds was the keyword. Tried sounds, noises, etc.

Ctrl+F for the win

 

[mcalpha]

Or just chunkload them all.

What is that supposed to achieve?