Factorization: Is it really worth it?

[Bellaabzug21]

Factorization. One of the least used mods in FTB. Let's be honest guys, aside from barrels how often do you actually use factorization? That's what I thought. Factorization seems to be the odd man out lately and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. Let's take a look at why.

Factorization is a MAJOR griefing issue. Let's be serious here. Fire that spreads almost infinitely is pretty damn dangerous. While it is true that it only affects the initial block it is still very dangerous. Then there's the half finished features. Exo-armor seems to be a good idea. Unfortunately it hasn't been delved into all that much.

The power system as well seems to be lacking content. What do we have? We have solar generation. Granted there are a few ways of using that solar energy, it still only works when it's day time. That is definitely something to be worried about. At the very least there should be some sort of coal powered generation to keep things going during the night. Unfortunately there is not. There is also a very limited range of things that this power can be used for. Only one thing actually. The ore system.

Which brings us to our next topic. The ore system in factorization is great. Or was great. Now it just doesn't seem to be worth the effort. We have to build massive solar farms just to power the machines and once that's done there's the business of getting the necessary materials in order to use the machines. The machines themselves are cheap enough, but then to power the crystalizer you need a bottle of sulfuric acid for every operation you have to perform with it. While it may not seem bad at first, those do start to drain on your resources pretty quickly. Then if you can keep up with the demands of the machine you have to deal with their unbearable slowness. I know it's trippling the ores, but seriously does one operation HAVE to take twenty minutes to finish? NO! It really shouldn't.

There's also the issue of the autocrafting system. It's actually a semi-good concept. Unfortunately there is no way of automating the creation of craft packets, which makes factories somewhat difficult to make. I'd love to use the system to make solar pannels. I really would. I just can't. It doesn't seem to be possible.

With those things being said, I'd like to say that factorization does have a few redeeming qualities such as the barrels and the portable crafting system. Those are nice. The transportation system looks really cool too. Even a little bit complicated. But those are just a few things. We can get those things from other mods that are already in the pack. Is it really worth keeping the entire mod in the pack?

 

[Ausyarr]

I've found factorization excellent for generating steam from my steam dynamos from thermal expansion. I use a caliometric burner next to my steam boiler for the heat and it works of certain foods.

 

[PierceSG]

Router!

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[noah_wolfe]

I love Factorization. It's quirky and unique and makes for some interesting builds. But it sounds like you haven't tried it in a while - the wrath igniter is being deprecated. Dark Iron is now a worldgen ore.

You can use mirrors to power steam dynamos via the turbine (coal / water free). The caliometric burner is a generator that runs on food. The grinder has been replaced with the lacerator. There's a new item routing system that's largely undocumented. Etc. etc.

TLDR; Hands off FZ, yo.

 

[steve g]

the router is hands down the best thing ever made. there are very few, if any, machines out there (well, turtles and openperipherals too...but that requires programming) that can push into or pull from specific slots from anything like the router does, which makes managing sensitive things like nuke reactors a joy. and when trying to feed/pull from a row of machines with an item, balanced even? yep. router. They should pull that out and give it its own mod because, sadly, that and its upgrades are the only things ive ever used from factorization.

I have used the wrath igniter and the processes to make them, but only for a proof of concept. ive never really tried using this mod seriously.

 

[Yusunoha]

for me Factorization has some useful functions, which makes me want to install it everytime. but I never use the mod completely... I don't really know why though, it just doesn't seem to interest me enough...

 

[Algester]

to think I never used factorization fully... but it does give you a chance on tripling your ore output in a very painfully slow manner

 

[rhn]

Will have to agree to what seem to be the common trend. I do not play factorization, but I do play with its components. Barrels are great, but ok that can be replaced with other mods now. Solar boilers are a nice alternative, but I rarely use them. I might consider them in the future for more futuristic builds since they look kinda cool. Ore processing is alright, but slow and use a unique power system, so barely ever use it. I do however like that I can make slimeballs with the crystallizer when you cant find any, but I guess the hordes of blue slimes from TiCo kinda made that obsolete.

I really don't want to have to do without Routers. They are awesome for so many things. If some other mod gave me the possibility of distributing items evenly over multiple inventories, inserting/extracting from specific inventory slots etc, then I might go along with dumping Factorization.

 

[steve g]

Unfortunately there is no way of automating the creation of craft packets, which makes factories somewhat difficult to make. I'd love to use the system to make solar pannels. I really would. I just can't. It doesn't seem to be possible.

In Unleashed, i had issues with automating craftpackets, but i did come up with a solution with AE and CC to craft igniters on demand. I even have a mining turtle run out, drop a line of iron blocks, ignite them, wait for the flames to go out (this is a MUST, game crashes if the turtle attempts to harvest the dark iron while its still on fire or the wrath flames are still going) and grab the dark iron blocks. its slow but it works. the trick is you have to tell AE which specific craft packet to make, you cant just create one from scratch.

 

[Kocyk]

to think I never used factorization fully... but it does give you a chance on tripling your ore output in a very painfully slow manner

Actually in current versions Factorization give you 3x output before crystallizer, with 3.6x if you use one.

 

[casilleroatr]

As far as I am concerned, Factorization is like the model in the L'Oreal advert.

Routers and barrels are really useful (although a few other mods have made better barrel like blocks). It does have a unique power system for its machines to run on, but power generation is pretty well integrated with the rest of the major mods because it uses steam. The water boiler can make steam from a few different sources (and gives you a reason to use all the surplus food you end up making) and you can use that steam to make factorization charge Redstone Flux or MJ. Charge is quite easy to control once you have it too so you don't need a massive obnoxious transmission system just to power a couple of machines.

Exo armour appears to be gone, as does wrath fire and some of the auto-crafting. However, the new servo system looks very promising and I can't wait to get access to them in my single player world.

 

[adriaans]

I do use and often set up the ore tripling factory very early, what else would I use the silver for...

Regarding barrels though, anyone know where extra dimension barrels have gone? I can't see a way to craft it anymore. Was it part of a different mod before or is it no longer an active thing like some of the other items?

 

[Zaik]

I don't think factorization uses wrath fire anymore? Dark iron is an ore now, not from burning iron.

Main reason I don't use it is the power system was extremely expensive to set up for not much actual use, and the crystallizer runs far too slow to be practical. The time I'd spend waiting around on it, I could mine 10 of the ore I was smelting and run them through any other doubling system.

I do use and often set up the ore tripling factory very early, what else would I use the silver for...

Regarding barrels though, anyone know where extra dimension barrels have gone? I can't see a way to craft it anymore. Was it part of a different mod before or is it no longer an active thing like some of the other items?

It was taken out, there are hopper barrels and double barrels now though I think.

 

[Zexks]

The item transport system he's working on looks really promising. Hopefully that will add justification to the power system. The processing system is way to slow to be used for anything but novelty. If sulfuric acid didn't require gun powder it would be a nice opening game mod, but without decent armor and weapons who's out fighting creepers for gunpowder. Routers and barrels are awesome for storage, but with mods like AE it's generally an early game method that gets usurped relatively early in game. I've contemplated taking it out the last couple of releases, but each new update brings new things I want to at least try, so it keeps surviving the cut.

 

[twisto51]

Factorization ore processing was never "worth it" unless you place value on automating the complex. I didn't do it because I needed it, I did it because it was a fun challenge. I could have spent 1/100th of the time just setting up another quarry somewhere.

It is the same reason I'll bang my head against the rotary-craft wall over and over again until I've got it automated from end to end.

 

[Darkone84]

The only reason I want Factorization in a mod pack is for Routers (they are the best)... There is almost no end with what you can do with them. If there was another Mod that added a router or had block that does the same thing I would most likely not use Factorization.

They work so well with AE for example:
If you have a line of machines in the workshop to get the items out of the machines with AE you need to have a AE input bus on each machine. If you have a Factorization Router just set the router to pull the items from all the machines and then you only new one AE input bus on router.

There are so many other examples I could give you. I use them in most of my builds including the following.
Frames for Bees
Power Generators
IC2 Reactor
Coke Oven
Cobble Gen

If you only use Factorization for the barrels try JABBA mod (much better) or the barrels mod.

As for the whole Factorization ore processing it's not worth the effort.... It's so painful to automate the ore processing.

 

[DrowElf]

The biggest problem with Factorization is that it seems to be constantly changing and the documentation isn't up to date. The router is getting replaced by the Servo system which to my knowledge no one uses that much if at all. Barrels have a few different variants, but other than larger and hopper, no one knows about them. What does a silky barrel do?

I like the mod, I just wish Neptunepink had better documentation so that people could utilize it to its full potential rather than mucking around with the basic features.

 

[PierceSG]

You mean, the router is going away? D:

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[Overmorrow]

The only things I've ever used frequently from Factorization is the slag furnace if I don't have enough quartz dust for a grind stone, and the barrels. Unfortunately it's not made the cut for my latest custom packs.

Servos are too complicated for most people to want to start off learning about, and they don't really do anything that other mods (BC/AE/etc.) can't already do or already do better.

The recent barrel nerfs/changes make them less interesting or useful, and there are now other mods out there that do the same thing with more useful features (Barrels Mod/JABBA), routers were the last cool thing to use about them that are a redeeming quality.

The power system is just a pain to use most of the time and you don't get much out of it in the end except the ability to triple your ores which takes FAR too long for anyone in their right mind to use. On the servers I've played on, I've only ever seen people using it for Cobalt/Ardite because that's extremely rare and useful, never for anything else. Honestly it just seems like the only reason you can triple your ores is to try and pull people into Factorization because no other mod does that.

The portable crafting is a nice concept but unfortunately I don't usually have enough space in my inventory when I need to use it, and it's not really that hard to plop a crafting table down and pick it back up again - it takes the same amount of slots up and you don't need 9 clear ones too!

The Exo-Suit was a promising thing but it's simply not worth it compared to some of the other armour out there today, maybe if it had "special" modules to allow flight and other such abilities it may be worth it.

 

[DrowElf]

You mean, the router is going away? D:

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Yep. In what little documentation Neptunepink has, he has stated that it is going away.

The Item Router [small](is going to be replaced by Servos in the near future.)[/small]