I am new to FTB, and I just started a new world and i'm wondering of a good way to get started with it all. Energy would be a good start. Any help?
Energy System
- Thread starter Akeldama280
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Shouldn't TE be alright for either pack, though? That is why I did not suggest an IC2 start, as MindCrack makes that too difficult for most people.
So for Direwolf20's pack, you have an initial choice:
"Do I want to go straight into IndustrialCraft or do I want to stick with the Mine/MegaJoule family of mods like RailCraft, BuildCraft, Thermal Expansion and friends?" Make no mistake, both are awesome and you will end up building both in DW20. The only question is where you start. The basic tradeoff is this:
IC2: "EU" Power management is pretty easy, power is not too hard to generate, and storage is simple. Transmitting energy is somewhat more complicated. You get early access to renewable tools and late-game access to the second best piece of armor in the game (the 1st is a tie between gravity suit and Modular Powersuit). In DW20, there aren't actually that many machines that use EU, but you'll still find yourself using a lot because later you'll probably start using Electrical Engines to turn EU energy into MJ. The pinnacles of EU production is the Nuclear Power plant, which ranges from a death trap to one of the best and most efficient sources of energy in the game, depending on your skill.
BuildCraft/Thermal Expansion: "MJ" Buildcraft power is a bit harder to start with: It's tougher to generate early on and it has more opportunities to end in an explosion. As you progress it becomes very flexible and can be directly used for many more tasks than EU can. The same ore processing machines all exist, but the Thermal Expansion machines all have slightly easier automation. This technology line has very few handheld tools, but gives access to great automation items like liquiducts and minecarts and storage tanks. MJ cannot easily be converted into EU, but later on the same system that you use to make the most MJ can also make a reasonable amount of EU. The pinnacle of MJ production is the Steam Boiler and attached engines, which can produce huge sums of MJ (or modest sums of EU).
Both are fun. I think right now Thermal Expansion is slightly more popular to start with because it's new.
BuildCraft quarry, IndustrialCraft2 miners, and ComputerCraft turtles are three of the main ways.
Yeah, dig down to 11, find a few diamonds, make a quarry and power with hobbist steam engines.
http://railcraft.wikispaces.com/Engines+(Device)
Above is the Railcraft Wiki entry for engines, which includes the hobbyist engine. It's basically a sterling engine that requires water to run, and generates steam to produce up to 2 MJ/t instead of a sterling's max of 1 MJ/t. At early stages of the game you'll likely be using the internal boiler of the hobbyist engine- max output with the internal boiler is 1.6 MJ/t. You'll have to provide an external source of power to generate the extra 0.4 MJ/t (see Boilers on that same wiki).
Best way to generate water cheaply is with an Aqueous Accumulator from Thermal Expansion (you've already got that wiki link up there). Surround it on at least two sides with water and it will automatically output enough water for a large array of those engines (or anything for that matter).
If you've got an oil well near your base, fuel is a great early-mid game power source for MJ. You just have to make sure you keep their water supply up, or they'll blow.
What trunks said
Before you take your engines to the quarry though, make sure you make a few conduits first.
Before you take your engines to the quarry though, make sure you make a few conduits first.
And for the love of turtles everywhere, make sure that you make enough chests to output into, as, otherwise, you'll end up spilling stuff everywhere. If you can spare two more diamonds, make diamond pipes, and use that to sort cobblestone/dirt/gravel/anything else you don't want into a void pipe.
I second the use of turtles. They make fine miners. Even the pre-loaded excavate program is worth it.
Indeed, and if you get a bit into the LUA, you can easily make a fairly decent program that allows you to mine any level you want, and unloads things into an ender chest as going. And if you get really into it, you can program your turtle to avoid mining ores you want to silk touch.
Turtles are wonderful.
I named my turtle Pippin on my SMP world. I just need to either make a bunch of charcoal for fuel or go mining for coal and make coal coke for fuel. Sorry off topic.
If you don't have the diamonds to spare, preemptively fill a few chests with several separate stacks of 1 of each item you want to keep. That is to say, plop a chest directly adjacent to the quarry and put, say, 16 iron ore, 8 copper, 8 tin, etc. for a total of 32 slots taken in this example. 1 item in each slot. Then you're guaranteed not to spit any desired resources out until AFTER you've gotten 16 stacks of iron, 8 stacks of copper, etc.
This is also a good way to combat the random nature of BC pipes- the quarry will always try to fill in adjacent inventories before it outputs to a pipe. Keep enough of each resource in adjacent inventories and only the cobble, dirt, gravel, etc. will go into the pipe as opposed to having all the resources split in small stacks between each chest along the pipe.
This is also a good way to combat the random nature of BC pipes- the quarry will always try to fill in adjacent inventories before it outputs to a pipe. Keep enough of each resource in adjacent inventories and only the cobble, dirt, gravel, etc. will go into the pipe as opposed to having all the resources split in small stacks between each chest along the pipe.
If you have an EU network set up, you can use batteries (they are not used up) to fuel them. That is what I do with my turtles.
The biggest issue I can see with that is that if you DON'T have the diamonds to spare, then you'll be hoping diamonds fill up some of those empty spots. The same goes for iridium, likely redstone, surely tungsten, and whatnot.
It's a lot more logical to just build a whole bunch of chests to get some diamonds, then
You could always do diamond pipe -> void cobble and stuff -> relay. They don't cost that much, even when you're just starting.
The issue is if you don't have ANY diamonds to spare after you (in MY opinion) waste them on a quarry.
Unless you are entirely ignoring the IC2 system, you should make at least ONE IC2 miner as they work for peanuts, and will get you loads of resources.