Extra Large Multifarm--Best Use?

[KirinDave]

I am still sort of skeptical of these farms compared to MFR farms. They seem very expensive for what they do compared to even what a turtle can do, and they harvest very slowly compared to both a turtle or MFR (both of which can clear the leaves quickly. I tried using the smallest size to run a LP solid fuel boiler in a single player world and, well, color me unimpressed. The wood output was pretty low, and the sapling sprout rate seemed actually slower than vanilla trees waiting for a steve's cart to cut them down!

Given how crazy expensive they are and how cheap alternatives are, I really do not get what metagame Forestry is playing at this point. Especially given how awkward that sourcing fertilizer, dirt and saplings to the farm can be.

 

[slay_mithos]

Well, the best use for them I can find is with the fruit collection, rather than actual farming, but knowing that I would need to keep mining to keep them running is definitely a downside, when they also consume power.

Personally, I wouldn't even bother with them, but if someone comes up with a design that is worth the cost (both building and running costs), compared to the alternatives, I might give it a shot.

 

[gusmahler]

I am still sort of skeptical of these farms compared to MFR farms. They seem very expensive for what they do compared to even what a turtle can do, and they harvest very slowly compared to both a turtle or MFR (both of which can clear the leaves quickly. I tried using the smallest size to run a LP solid fuel boiler in a single player world and, well, color me unimpressed. The wood output was pretty low, and the sapling sprout rate seemed actually slower than vanilla trees waiting for a steve's cart to cut them down!

Given how crazy expensive they are and how cheap alternatives are, I really do not get what metagame Forestry is playing at this point. Especially given how awkward that sourcing fertilizer, dirt and saplings to the farm can be.

It really isn't that expensive. It only needs copper and tin, which aren't exactly rare. And, as I said, I am currently running 2 full-size HP boilers off of a single 5x5 multifarm. And could probably run two more (I can definitely run one more full-sized liquid boiler, as I'm getting 50+ buckets per hour more than I need to run a boiler and a boiler only needs 36 buckets an hour to run. But I'm not quite sure if I can run another full-sized solid boiler).

I do understand where you're coming from, though. I found two veins of apatite and got 46 stacks of it. I thought I'd be set for quite a while. I'm down to 29 stacks. Not a huge deal, because that means I can last at least another 2 weeks. But the worrisome part is that I've been running a bunch of quarries in many different biomes. And none of them have found any apatite. I'm wondering how rare it is. And it runs through dirt like crazy. But I've stored a bunch of energy (16 redstone energy cells and 11 MFSU's so far), so even if I'm forced to turn it off, I'm set for quite a while.

I've never attempted a Steve's Carts farm, so I have no basis for comparison, though.

 

[KirinDave]

It really isn't that expensive. It only needs copper and tin, which aren't exactly rare. And, as I said, I am currently running 2 full-size HP boilers off of a single 5x5 multifarm. And could probably run two more (I can definitely run one more full-sized liquid boiler, as I'm getting 50+ buckets per hour more than I need to run a boiler and a boiler only needs 36 buckets an hour to run. But I'm not quite sure if I can run another full-sized solid boiler).

I do understand where you're coming from, though. I found two veins of apatite and got 46 stacks of it. I thought I'd be set for quite a while. I'm down to 29 stacks. Not a huge deal, because that means I can last at least another 2 weeks. But the worrisome part is that I've been running a bunch of quarries in many different biomes. And none of them have found any apatite. I'm wondering how rare it is. And it runs through dirt like crazy. But I've stored a bunch of energy (16 redstone energy cells and 11 MFSU's so far), so even if I'm forced to turn it off, I'm set for quite a while.

I've never attempted a Steve's Carts farm, so I have no basis for comparison, though.

A single 1-chunk steve's carts farm will easily outproduce that with 0 inputs and run forever if you set it up right and build it with the right engines. It also costs less. The most awkward part is waiting for the cart assembler and making sure you can produce rails. Of course, most people don't realize that railcraft gates rail production a bit, but then increases the iron-to-rail yield outrageously.

 

[Ripley]

SC is probably better if you want to fuel a boiler as it will basically run forever but let's not forget multifarms have plenty other uses than harvesting wood, amonst other things harvesting fruits and rubber .
Also I'm unsure if SC can harvest giant jungle trees while I know forestry multifarms can.

And I don't know what you meant by multifarms harvesting slowly, they harvest very fast here if you supply enough power.

 

[gusmahler]

Given how crazy expensive they are and how cheap alternatives are, I really do not get what metagame Forestry is playing at this point. Especially given how awkward that sourcing fertilizer, dirt and saplings to the farm can be.

But the reasoning behind Forestry is pretty obvious--they don't want to make the game too easy. Just like some people think that nether lava is basically a cheat, a farm that produced enough to power 4 boilers without giving it any attention at all is probably too overpowered. So they make you do something in return . . . get dirt and apatite. You may not agree with this decision, but it's almost certainly why they did it.

Not to say I'm wedded to the idea of a multifarm--especially since I'm not finding apatite anywhere.

 

[Whovian]

The Forestry mod used to have the arboretum and logger for tree farms and the farm and combine for wheat farms.

With version 2.0, they have made those obsolete and added a new farm--the multifarm.

I apologize, but my post was intended to be a joke.

Rule #1. Whovian lies.

 

[Ripley]

But the reasoning behind Forestry is pretty obvious--they don't want to make the game too easy. Just like some people think that nether lava is basically a cheat, a farm that produced enough to power 4 boilers without giving it any attention at all is probably too overpowered. So they make you do something in return . . . get dirt and apatite. You may not agree with this decision, but it's almost certainly why they did it.

Not to say I'm wedded to the idea of a multifarm--especially since I'm not finding apatite anywhere.

Take your jetpack and fly around in a mountainous biome and you'll find some, guaranteed(just look at the rocky sides).
It spawns above level 60 so a good way to get some if you really want automation is to make a flat mystcraft biome and put your quarry there.

 

[gusmahler]

Woah, I was completely wrong about being able to support a solid-fueled boiler with this setup. Using the wood I had stored, I was able to get the boiler to 1000 degrees and charge 15 MFSU's. But after I disconnected the connection from existing wood storage so that the only wood going into the boiler was fresh wood from the farm, it stopped working. About an hour and a half ago, I had checked and everything was running fine. Just checked now. The multifarm itself is running fine--didn't run out of anything. But the solid-fueled boiler isn't getting fed wood fast enough to maintain 1000 degrees. It's down to 784 degrees right now.

There should be enough wood in the chest to last it through the night. It'll be interesting to see what temperature the boiler is at then.

 

[IMarvinTPA]

You can also make fertilizer with saltpeter and you can make saltpeter from ender pearls. I think this is a GregTech only thing though.

IMarv

 

[Zjarek_S]

You can also make fertilizer with saltpeter and you can make saltpeter from ender pearls. I think this is a GregTech only thing though.

You use 4 pearls for 5 saltpeter, so it is not really that useful. IMO it is a lot better to just farm saltpeter on desert (it will regenerate on a place it spawned if there will be 3 layers of sand).

 

[hotblack desiato]

enderpearls to saltpeter is a bad idea, although some highly advanced machines require beryllium, and nitrogen would be a side product. go for soulsand or crackedsand instead. crackedsand to saltpeter is a bit hard to automate, because of that damn fuel can but it turns nearly all crackedsand into saltpeter dust, soulsand gives one oil cell for 16 soulsand too, so it's fairly nice.

for farms, the sludge boiler (mfr) takes sludge from farms, and converts it into sand, dirt, soulsand, crackedsand, etc...

 

[slay_mithos]

Woah, I was completely wrong about being able to support a solid-fueled boiler with this setup. Using the wood I had stored, I was able to get the boiler to 1000 degrees and charge 15 MFSU's. But after I disconnected the connection from existing wood storage so that the only wood going into the boiler was fresh wood from the farm, it stopped working. About an hour and a half ago, I had checked and everything was running fine. Just checked now. The multifarm itself is running fine--didn't run out of anything. But the solid-fueled boiler isn't getting fed wood fast enough to maintain 1000 degrees. It's down to 784 degrees right now.

There should be enough wood in the chest to last it through the night. It'll be interesting to see what temperature the boiler is at then.

You know, instead of putting wood directly, build a sawmill (Thermal Expansion, or greg tech, whatever you prefer), and feed the planks to the boiler.

1 plank has as much heat as 1 log, and you get 6 planks + 1 saw dust per log.
In addition, saw dust can be used to create charcoal (craft it in "chest" pattern, and cook the result).

It's really easy to make an automated setup that only needs wood (and water for the boiler) as running cost, and produce you surplus of planks as well as charcoal.

 

[gusmahler]

Woah, I was completely wrong about being able to support a solid-fueled boiler with this setup. Using the wood I had stored, I was able to get the boiler to 1000 degrees and charge 15 MFSU's. But after I disconnected the connection from existing wood storage so that the only wood going into the boiler was fresh wood from the farm, it stopped working. About an hour and a half ago, I had checked and everything was running fine. Just checked now. The multifarm itself is running fine--didn't run out of anything. But the solid-fueled boiler isn't getting fed wood fast enough to maintain 1000 degrees. It's down to 784 degrees right now.

There should be enough wood in the chest to last it through the night. It'll be interesting to see what temperature the boiler is at then.

As it turns out, there was a misplaced pipe I didn't notice before that was putting half the wood back into a chest (I had thought that wood pipes were one way, I was wrong.) So it is possible that this system will work. More testing today.

BTW, yes, I'm using a sawmill. Two of them actually. Thermal expansion version is so much cheaper than the Gregtech version that it's pretty stupid to even consider the Gregtech version.

 

[Revemohl]

It really isn't that expensive. It only needs copper and tin, which aren't exactly rare.

My main gripe with it is exactly this - you need two copper ingots and 1.25 tin ingots per block. This means that for the smallest farm, you'll need 72 copper and around 45 tin ingots if my calculations aren't wrong; and 200 copper and 125 tin for the biggest farm. I know those two materials aren't exactly rare, but that's still a somewhat absurd cost for, well, anything, especially if you want to do IC2 stuff as well.

Apatite is an irrelevant problem, given how easy it is to find, especially in an Alpine biome (as long as you remember to turn it back on if you're playing Ultimate! It's the best biome by the way). Even if you aren't interested in farming, mining it is a good idea anyway because of how much experience it gives.

 

[Skirty_007]

I made a giant orchard in a plains biome. 2 aqueous accumulators weren't keeping up with the water requirements (I have 2 valve blocks), last night I made some more. I think I have 14 aqueous accumulators now and it's *still* constantly running out of water.

 

[Ripley]

What kind of pipe are you using because that's weird, I remember Direwolf setting his to run on 2 fully grown chestnut tree(I mean with all the chestnusts ready to harvest) and it ran low but still faster than fruits can mature.
I also had a small one with 1 aqueous accumulator but it was only cherry trees , it never ran out of water.
Also are you waiting for all the fruits to mature and then harvest? if yes that's to be expected .

 

[Omicron]

Water usage of farms grows exponentially the longer it doesn't rain in the world.

Luckily Forestry has you covered - build a rainmaker and pop in a iodine capsule. Voila, instant rain! (You can also use this device with a different capsule to turn off rain at will.)

 

[Skirty_007]

What kind of pipe are you using because that's weird, I remember Direwolf setting his to run on 2 fully grown chestnut tree(I mean with all the chestnusts ready to harvest) and it ran low but still faster than fruits can mature.
I also had a small one with 1 aqueous accumulator but it was only cherry trees , it never ran out of water.
Also are you waiting for all the fruits to mature and then harvest? if yes that's to be expected .

It's an orchard, so it's auto harvesting apples. I'm just using the basic apple oak trees. I'm using liquiducts, am pumping all the water into a tank then pumping out of the tank again, and the water level is steady in the tank, so I think I now have the max that 2 liquiducts can carry. Might need to add more valves to the farm and tank so I can add more accumulators.

Eta: I definitely have more than 2 trees per side of the farm.

 

[Skirty_007]

Water usage of farms grows exponentially the longer it doesn't rain in the world.

Luckily Forestry has you covered - build a rainmaker and pop in a iodine capsule. Voila, instant rain! (You can also use this device with a different capsule to turn off rain at will.)

Might have to do that, as it hasn't rained in a while on the server (happens a lot at night and then we often sleep, and then it goes away)