Wait, you can hook up a Provider to a Router to pull from ANY attached inventory? Can you please confirm this, because this suddenly makes LP a LOT less expensive to get going...
Factorization: Sell me
- Thread starter ShneekeyTheLost
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From what I'm reading, he has some barrels with provider pipes on them, and the router has one pipe going to it for distribution. Basically, some of the barrels he only has stuff being inserted, but for those he wants to pull stuff out of regularly he has a pipe coming out of it. Now, if you could do the provider router thing that would be pretty interesting to see.
I too want to see how the provider/router thing works, is the router acting as the pull for the LP system in that instance?
Or does each barrel have a LP pipe hooked to it leading to the router? If the router is acting as the Provider with the LP Pipe hooked to it that would be awesome as the barrels are acting as a expanded inventory in a sense.
Or does each barrel have a LP pipe hooked to it leading to the router? If the router is acting as the Provider with the LP Pipe hooked to it that would be awesome as the barrels are acting as a expanded inventory in a sense.
Exactly, I have a regular Logistics Pipe (which acts as an Item Sink) going into the Router. The Router sorts all the items into the Barrels and then some of the Barrels (Dirt, Cobble, Sand) have a Provider Pipe on the bottom of them so I can Autocraft/Request from them. I strategically placed these barrels on the bottom of my "Barrel stack" so I could pipe out of them.Daemonblue said:
I can't see how a Provider pipe on a extraction router would make sense though. A Router only has a single inventory slot, you can upgrade the Router with an Item Filter so it only pulls out a very specific item but there's no way to change that item filter through a Logistics Pipe system. In essence, you might as well just put the provider pipe on the Barrel itself.
The benefit of a Router that is set to extract mode, at least as far as barrel management goes, is that it can extract from a Barrel without requiring a pipe. This is relatively significant because you can ONLY extract from the bottom side of the barrel and if you want to stack them all tall and fancy that can be limiting. I can't really think of any good reason why you'd want to use them though in this situation.
I think where you are missing the usefulness in factorization is not in it's end-game, it's in the early to mid-game. Few other mods can you setup an ore-increasing systems in the same amount of time. The slag furnace is a very, very under-valued piece of the mod for that reason. It's ~1.3(ish)x output, but you can use it right from the start, as well as leaving behind smooth stone for building. Why it's not the third or fourth block made is always beyond me. For the mid-game process, you don't have to use the crystalizer, it's more of a 'If you really, really want the best output...'. This is typically where I drop my gold, since I don't often need it which gives it time to get the 3x-5x amount. For most other ores, I simply let it finish at the reduced chunks process. A common mistake with the crystalizer, however, is not using all 5 non-sulfur slots. You can fill 5 slots in the outer ring with the same ore and they will all pulse at the same time. It's nice when you turn 5 chunks into 10 gold, that came from 2 gold ore.
Also, one of the other blocks that is very, very unique and useful is the Heating block. You can put multiple next to the same block to make it faster. A 4-heater furnace can give the TE furnace a run for it's money.
Two of the functions of the pocket crafting table are also often overlooked. With a single button, it will try to arrange all the blocks in the grid in a circle. It's nice being able to drop in 8 refined iron, hit a button, and pull out a machine block. Have 64 refined iron but don't feel like doing the split/split/split, or worse, right clicking 8 times each spot? Just drop a single one in each of the needed slot, drop the rest in any of the spaces and hit the balance button. Voila, 8 in each spot. For blocks of metal, I find this method very fast.
As for the barrels, I find them very useful for items that don't really fit in a chest, like putting two barrels with rails and ties next to my rolling machine, or three barrels with tank parts (walls, levers, glass) in the starting area of where I'm building a room. Again, sometimes the usefulness is better early game, as I usually start off with a barrel and drop in stone bricks, starting my actual major building when I finally notice I've got a good amount. However, if you are not a visual person, I can see this being more of a turn-off.
When it comes to the router, I feel like it's like turtles. Yes, you can create an amazingly efficient sorting system, however with the time spent you could have already setup two adequate systems in RP2 or even buildcraft.
For Wrath technology, it's more useful than you might think. The wrath igniter itself is an extremely efficient tool for it's ability to smelt or destroy. Often overlooked, it's able to disintegrate ice blocks, or turn cobble into smooth stone. Also, it does not stop at one block, it continues until all blocks of the same type you clicked have been touched with wrath-fire (which becomes normal fire). It does more than make dark iron. Couple that with the Ice-rod the mod has, you can very very quickly remove a lake. As for the wrath lamps, no other mod in the pack creates that much light from a single block. A wrath ligher (1 shard) makes about 20 lamps. Really, all the diamond shard recipe does is create nuggets for diamond. Comes out to about .75 diamonds per wrath lamp. With the two diamond shard recipes taking 8 per (2 cutting heads), the left-over 2 can be used to make 10 lamps, more than you'll probably use.
Finally, there are also two pieces of tech that you didn't touch on, the stamper/packager/maker line of blocks and the armor. The packager is a godsend in any sorting system where XyCraft is involved, however it is equally beneficial with mass snowballs or having a carpenter making ties output to it for fast railbeds. The stamper and maker are a little more complex, but the amount of materials you can store is immense with them. it's nice to be able to store stacks of specific items. Being able to store 512 wax capsules in a single inventory spot can be great. Or as many arrows. Also, for incredibly complicated steve's carts builds, you can slowly build the items without keeping a crafting table occupied forever.
Last, but not least, the armor can be incredibly useful with the mods currently available for it.
Well, almost last, but I'm not even going to try and go down the ceramics rabbit hole.
Also, one of the other blocks that is very, very unique and useful is the Heating block. You can put multiple next to the same block to make it faster. A 4-heater furnace can give the TE furnace a run for it's money.
Two of the functions of the pocket crafting table are also often overlooked. With a single button, it will try to arrange all the blocks in the grid in a circle. It's nice being able to drop in 8 refined iron, hit a button, and pull out a machine block. Have 64 refined iron but don't feel like doing the split/split/split, or worse, right clicking 8 times each spot? Just drop a single one in each of the needed slot, drop the rest in any of the spaces and hit the balance button. Voila, 8 in each spot. For blocks of metal, I find this method very fast.
As for the barrels, I find them very useful for items that don't really fit in a chest, like putting two barrels with rails and ties next to my rolling machine, or three barrels with tank parts (walls, levers, glass) in the starting area of where I'm building a room. Again, sometimes the usefulness is better early game, as I usually start off with a barrel and drop in stone bricks, starting my actual major building when I finally notice I've got a good amount. However, if you are not a visual person, I can see this being more of a turn-off.
When it comes to the router, I feel like it's like turtles. Yes, you can create an amazingly efficient sorting system, however with the time spent you could have already setup two adequate systems in RP2 or even buildcraft.
For Wrath technology, it's more useful than you might think. The wrath igniter itself is an extremely efficient tool for it's ability to smelt or destroy. Often overlooked, it's able to disintegrate ice blocks, or turn cobble into smooth stone. Also, it does not stop at one block, it continues until all blocks of the same type you clicked have been touched with wrath-fire (which becomes normal fire). It does more than make dark iron. Couple that with the Ice-rod the mod has, you can very very quickly remove a lake. As for the wrath lamps, no other mod in the pack creates that much light from a single block. A wrath ligher (1 shard) makes about 20 lamps. Really, all the diamond shard recipe does is create nuggets for diamond. Comes out to about .75 diamonds per wrath lamp. With the two diamond shard recipes taking 8 per (2 cutting heads), the left-over 2 can be used to make 10 lamps, more than you'll probably use.
Finally, there are also two pieces of tech that you didn't touch on, the stamper/packager/maker line of blocks and the armor. The packager is a godsend in any sorting system where XyCraft is involved, however it is equally beneficial with mass snowballs or having a carpenter making ties output to it for fast railbeds. The stamper and maker are a little more complex, but the amount of materials you can store is immense with them. it's nice to be able to store stacks of specific items. Being able to store 512 wax capsules in a single inventory spot can be great. Or as many arrows. Also, for incredibly complicated steve's carts builds, you can slowly build the items without keeping a crafting table occupied forever.
Last, but not least, the armor can be incredibly useful with the mods currently available for it.
Well, almost last, but I'm not even going to try and go down the ceramics rabbit hole.
The third or fourth block I make is a Pulverizer followed by a Powered Furnace. Now I've got doubled ore output. No needing to spend five stacks of silver, no needing to go hunt down all that lead, no fuss and no muss.
Even better, you can actually triple your output with TE now, if you work it right. Rich Slag is the key.
Unfortunately, the amount of infrastructure required to get it up and running means it can't be made early game. And it just can't compete with an Induction Smelter.
And I have a Project Table with pre-defined recipes. Which takes that out behind the woodshed.
I just user a Digger's Backpack...
That's kinda my point of view as well.
The problem is that it does not stop at one block, using it outside of controlled environments can lead to massive fires that devastate the landscape. The wrath lamp is nice, don't get me wrong, but since I have literally no other use for diamond shards, it's effectively costing me a diamond block to gain access to it. Unlike gold nuggets, which have a variety of other uses, and can be turned back into gold with enough of them, once you have made diamond shards, they are shards forever.
The Packager has some limited value with compacting stuff, yes, if you don't just want to use a carpenter for the same purpose. Or an automated crafting table. The stamper and maker are sub-par, the Project Table takes them both out behind the woodshed and gives them a sound thrashing, mostly because it doesn't eat up the items to make the templates. That way, if I need, for example, some wax for waterproofing... it isn't all tied up in my capsules.
To be fair, the stamper and maker are more like setting up a system of auto-crafting tables tied to tubes/pipes and timers. The only thing you "lose" is the paper. The real question is, as an example, is it easier to use the stampers and makers to make something such as a diamond sword that it is for bc/rp tubing and auto-crafting tables to do the same. Also, you can't automate the project table as it refuses pipes and tubes, so that part is really apples and oranges.
First block, crafting table. Second block, furnace. However, at this point building a slag furnace and using said slag furnace to get the materials to make your first TE machine will net you more materials, hence my statement. Slag furnaces can use coal.
I would disagree here, unless you turn off factorization's ore-gen. Then yes, it's not really possible, but neither would TE be if you say turned copper gen to 0, or extremely rare. A single factorization vein is all you need for almost a full setup. Only hard part that early is the nine diamonds, which is easily doable with any intelligent mining pattern.
While I agree, I also disagree. Unless you prefer to make plans for every single one, such as a furnace plan, a normal chest plan, plans for every block; a project table plan would be overkill for those.
The items I mentioned wouldn't go in a diggers pack, and a builders pack requires two to three clicks to remove a single stack of bricks, where a barrel takes one. It's also very nice to have a viewable number without opening a chest, especially when they are connected to an ACT.
Now, if only there were a way to export and import router settings, and share them. That could make the whole system actually user friendly.
It does stop at a single block type. It will not go beyond it's block type used on. So, if I click on 20 cobblestone in the middle of 200 grass, only the 20 cobblestone will be affected.
Odd, a single packager next to two filters removed 8 ACT's from my production line. It also doesn't require that you keep blocks tied up.
As for the packages, my point wasn't the keeping things tied up, it's that if you are going to mass-craft parts or supplies, you could do so and not keep tons of inventory space tied up, as craft-packets of the same type stack. Also, a little bit of ingenuity with either a turtle/computer or a RPcomp/sortron can turn the craft-packet maker/stamper into essentially a provider+crafter pipe from logistic pipes in one.
Hmm, those two posts are much larger than I had expected, I think I'll keep to summaries for the rest of the posts in this thread. Really, it sounds like you don't like the mod at all, and I don't think any amount of 'selling' is going to get you to use it. It's more along the lines of Thaumcraft if anything, it's not really meant to be a techy mod, it's kind of a hybrid tech/magic mod. However, it's tech side is not as fast as most others, and is very involved and can be complicated. The only advice I could give would actually be to not try and make the whole setup. A heater setup takes about 24 clay, 11 iron, two gunpowder, and 60 lead. Very often you end up with 60 lead lying around without even trying, and slag-furnacing silver can quickly get you the lead for this setup. As I said, a full setup is easy to make off a single factorization silver vein, but even doable with that turned off. I can't tell you how cool it is to have a no-fuel furnace that I can just throw random junk in and not waste precious fuel (not actual fuel per say, but starting fuel) on pork chops.
But, again, really the only one that is going to sell you on this mod is you, and it sounds like you prefer the styles of the alternatives. The joy of having so many mods is it's easy to ignore the ones you don't want to use.
The point about your builder's backpack, I'd like to address. You never need to open it. Ever. You shift + right click it until you get a yellow arrow. Now it will auto-fill the stack in your inventory from the supply in the bag. If you want to dump it, right click it into a chest. The GUI for the backpacks is irrelevant, because you will never actually look at it. THAT is elegant.
My problem is that every aspect of the mod is complicated, convoluted, and requires massive infrastructure to get anything working. Wheras literally every other mod out there you can get going with fairly easily. The stamper and maker blow massive chunks when compared to the project table, which can also mass-produce lots of items very rapidly. You just make sure the project table has the resources (for this, use a Manager or just sort stuff to it), plug in the proper template, and get crafting.
As far as a no-fuel furnace... it's called a Powered Furnace or an Electric Furnace. Both of them are easier to set up and get going than the mirrors and the solar collector and the lead wire and the heater(s). And you've got the Macerator/Pulverizer there as well to provide double ore output without needing three MORE machines.
As far as ore generation goes... talk to the mod pack developers again, because the Direwolf Pack doesn't have the enormous spawns which Factorization uses.
Barrels only have a use if you are storing a pile of a single type of item, otherwise it is more space efficient to store them in chests. If you want the item on the front, use item frames. Routers are only useful with ridiculously over-engineered space-hogging setups which are simply not practical or viable in any realistic setting, or with barrels for an auto-sorting system of sorts. Dark Iron would be more useful if it didn't require you blowing up a diamond block to make the wrath igniter, and since I have no interest in the Grinder with the Macerator and Pulverizer available to me, it's the only thing I care to make that requires diamond shards. I don't even mind the 9:4 ratio, considering that the price of doing business with the mod, it's the fact that I have literally no use whatsoever for the other seventeen diamond shards sitting in my inventory.
The entire mod just seems rather... counter-intuitive. It does have some good ideas, don't get me wrong. But the way it goes about doing it is so bass-ackwards that it's not worth bothering with in most cases. Sure, if I had 65+ stacks of each ore coming in, I'd probably want to set up a barrel system. At that point, it would be worth it for me to go ahead and blow up a diamond, because I'd be saving myself more in the long run in diamond chests I don't need to make. I'd probably make a router to handle it all as well. But I would never, ever set up the absolutely horrid infrastructure necessary to get any of the powered machines running, much less the sub-par machines themselves.
I'm just puzzled as to why this mod got into any of the mod packs in the first place. It doesn't play well with other mods, except maybe RP2. In fact, in many cases, it is mutually exclusive with them. As a stand-alone mod, it would be okay. But it does exceptionally poorly in a mod pack with more viable options.
My problem is that every aspect of the mod is complicated, convoluted, and requires massive infrastructure to get anything working. Wheras literally every other mod out there you can get going with fairly easily. The stamper and maker blow massive chunks when compared to the project table, which can also mass-produce lots of items very rapidly. You just make sure the project table has the resources (for this, use a Manager or just sort stuff to it), plug in the proper template, and get crafting.
As far as a no-fuel furnace... it's called a Powered Furnace or an Electric Furnace. Both of them are easier to set up and get going than the mirrors and the solar collector and the lead wire and the heater(s). And you've got the Macerator/Pulverizer there as well to provide double ore output without needing three MORE machines.
As far as ore generation goes... talk to the mod pack developers again, because the Direwolf Pack doesn't have the enormous spawns which Factorization uses.
Barrels only have a use if you are storing a pile of a single type of item, otherwise it is more space efficient to store them in chests. If you want the item on the front, use item frames. Routers are only useful with ridiculously over-engineered space-hogging setups which are simply not practical or viable in any realistic setting, or with barrels for an auto-sorting system of sorts. Dark Iron would be more useful if it didn't require you blowing up a diamond block to make the wrath igniter, and since I have no interest in the Grinder with the Macerator and Pulverizer available to me, it's the only thing I care to make that requires diamond shards. I don't even mind the 9:4 ratio, considering that the price of doing business with the mod, it's the fact that I have literally no use whatsoever for the other seventeen diamond shards sitting in my inventory.
The entire mod just seems rather... counter-intuitive. It does have some good ideas, don't get me wrong. But the way it goes about doing it is so bass-ackwards that it's not worth bothering with in most cases. Sure, if I had 65+ stacks of each ore coming in, I'd probably want to set up a barrel system. At that point, it would be worth it for me to go ahead and blow up a diamond, because I'd be saving myself more in the long run in diamond chests I don't need to make. I'd probably make a router to handle it all as well. But I would never, ever set up the absolutely horrid infrastructure necessary to get any of the powered machines running, much less the sub-par machines themselves.
I'm just puzzled as to why this mod got into any of the mod packs in the first place. It doesn't play well with other mods, except maybe RP2. In fact, in many cases, it is mutually exclusive with them. As a stand-alone mod, it would be okay. But it does exceptionally poorly in a mod pack with more viable options.
Not true. I can set up with 6 routers something that would take tons of piping via buildcraft and even more managers via RP2. It all depends on what you're setting up. For moisteners, for example, you can't just use redpower tubes because they will insert items into the wrong slots no matter the side you put the items in from. With Buildcraft pipes you can overfill the moisteners thus making them get jammed. Now, you CAN use rp2 to fill moisteners, however it takes multiple machines attached to each moistener in the setup so something doesn't go into the wrong hole. With routers, it doesn't matter if it's 1 or 1000 moisteners, it will only take 6 routers and the piping required to feed them water, and you can set it up so none of the moisteners will ever get jammed. I don't know about you, but for me that makes them seem pretty damn useful and more compact than the other options.
Why would you want moisteners in the first place? You can make mossy cobble with water, thanks to RP2, and the mulch is just an inefficient way of making a compost-substitute for Humus.
Ah, the heart of the issue. You see, an actual IC2 setup takes longer and more resources to setup, and TE can get 'close' to requiring the same amount when you include engines and pipe. As to the DW20 pack, well, I got my factorization area setup first actually, because lead and silver are quite easy to find, the large veins would have been overkill. I have my factorization doubling system moving as fast as my TE would be moving at this current point in time. The extra clay is a bonus.
The mod doesn't really have a wiki, so the only way to learn what it does and how to use it is trial and error, or a lot of forum searching. I see you keep mentioning 'stacks of ore'. Well, I've actually never done that, my sorted ore goes to a chest, not a barrel. All my cobble, dirt, and gravel though, to barrels. Why on earth would I waste two diamonds, gold, or iron on something that is just holding cobble? That seems to be an all or nothing approach, barrels have their place, but they can be used with chests in many situations. As to forestry bags not working with them, that sounds like it should be raised as a bug either with forestry or factorization.
As to 'horrid infrastructure', there actually isn't a single mirror in view distance of my main area. Battery blocks can be treated like lava buckets of sorts and moved with block breakers, deployers, and whatnot. As for speed, well, my factorization process keeps up just fine with a full quarry.
Oh, and one final thing to remember. It's only been in existence since July. It's functional, but I'd venture a guess it has a lot to still add. All that said, though, again it just sounds either outside your comfort zone, or just outside what you prefer, I don't think anyone here will sell you on it. The nice part about a toolbox of tools, you don't need to use them all for every job.
You can also use it in place of compost for fermenters. Do remember, compost requires dirt while mulch can be made with just wheat and water - the mossy cobble can also be scrapped. Another thing, mulch can be used to make bog earth in a carpenter and the resulting peat can be used in place of coal in some places where you might need it and can also be used to fuel a solid boiler. Also, the other methods of making bog earth either consume the can or, in the case of the bucket, produce less bog earth.
Or you get a couple of bees going and make wax capsules for the bog earth...it doesn't take a lot of wax to make capsules, just use some untreated frames until you have the infrastructure to make impregnated frames. Or set up an emerald generation system and find a beekeper NPC who is willing to sell you Proven frames. Either way, it doesn't take much to get going, no breeding necessary.
Compost is much better for producing biogas and humus with. You can use the ash, which is the byproduct of the peat engines you are using, to make it.
The ash thing is only if you're using peat engines though, and later on why bother with those when you can use boilers, since engines can also be a bit difficult to automate properly as they have the same issues as moisteners. Also manure (as compost is still called on the wiki for some reason) is exactly the same as mulch for biogas generation. Even if it wasn't it wouldn't matter as long as you can produce a massive amount of it since the bonus modifiers for biomass comes from the liquids being used to make it, not the solids.
Another thing to note, you can actually do this with only 4 relays if you used tubes to drop their items off directly into the distributing routers. You would lose the other router as a buffer for wheat, but then in its place you could use another mod's buffering system to deposit items into the router.
Also, something else I found out to see if the routers could eject directly into tubes - they can't - is the filter upgrade. Didn't notice that one before, but that can lower the system down to a mere 3 routers...they're goin away fast, let's see if I can make it 2 routers.
Edit: Nope, sadly the filter only really matters for removing stuff and seems to actually stop the router from working if anything is set to the filter in an insertion router.
Another thing to note, you can actually do this with only 4 relays if you used tubes to drop their items off directly into the distributing routers. You would lose the other router as a buffer for wheat, but then in its place you could use another mod's buffering system to deposit items into the router.
Also, something else I found out to see if the routers could eject directly into tubes - they can't - is the filter upgrade. Didn't notice that one before, but that can lower the system down to a mere 3 routers...they're goin away fast, let's see if I can make it 2 routers.
Edit: Nope, sadly the filter only really matters for removing stuff and seems to actually stop the router from working if anything is set to the filter in an insertion router.
If you change forestry difficulty to harder one, only mulch recipes are self sustaining. Capsule/can recipe provides only 5 bog earth and also you get only one compost from wheat recipe (so mulch is 4 times better per wheat). BTW about bees, did you know that router can put frames automatically. 3 routers, a row of apiaries and some hoppers and you don't need alvearies (however it seams cheaty). I use routers for example to supply row of peat fired engines (it was specially useful when there was a bug with engines accepting peat into ash slot), or to keep fermenters supplied. Overall they are great when you have more than one machine of the same type to manage. Of course they can have many other uses, because they are very powerful, sometimes even OP (bee frames).
About moisteners, they can be automated without any problem using BC, you just need to use gates (fuel < 25 % -> pump wheat).
That's nice, but what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?
You can keep apiaries filled with frames automatically with Managers as well. Just say that it needs three frames, and it will keep them in there. Logistics Pipes Supplier Pipe can do the same thing, making sure it has three frames, and can even auto-craft them, but that is LP.
Yep. Or use RP. Or use LP. Or use... well... there's lots of ways to do it.
I love Routers and everyone seems to use them in storage scenarios but no one ever mentions their problems in said scenarios.
Although the post is 3 months old, there's a huge downside to Routers: Routers get 'jammed' as soon as any Barrel in your wall of Barrels gets full and you try to input more of that item into the Router. (eg: Cobblestone barrel is completely full and then your Router gets some Cobblestone to process.) And what I mean by 'jammed' is that the Cobblestone that came into the Router, and that has no place to go because the Cobblestone Barrel is full, just sits in the Router making it so that no more items can flow into the Router. There's no way to detect this with a Gate and the Router doesn't let you know via a Redstone signal or anything of the sort.
The first common thought is to have an overflow chest (or chests) connected to the Barrels but that just starts to show the next problem: Routers throw stuff everywhere. If you have chests attached to your wall of Barrels, you'll start seeing random items - that you thought should have gone to your Barrels - showing up in the overflow chests. This is because the Router will distribute items amongst all connected inventories. The next common thought is to use the Thoroughness upgrade since its description sounds like what you want but wrong again! (Thoroughness is either broken or the description is incorrect.)
Long story short I have 3 videos on Routers (2 using the Machine Filter upgrade and 1 w/o it (it can be a hard item to craft early on in the game since it requires tons of Factorization infrastructure plus an uncraftable item (Logic Matrix Programmer)) showing how to clear the jam and make your wall of Barrels awesome. And despite the first half of the post being negative, I use Routers and Barrels extensively for storing items but I wouldn't be using them had I not come up with workarounds.
tl;dr In static-sized storage systems, Routers have problems and are terrible unless you have fixes/workarounds for their problems. In applications where you're feeding machines, they're the best thing in the world.
Router videos if interested:
Although the post is 3 months old, there's a huge downside to Routers: Routers get 'jammed' as soon as any Barrel in your wall of Barrels gets full and you try to input more of that item into the Router. (eg: Cobblestone barrel is completely full and then your Router gets some Cobblestone to process.) And what I mean by 'jammed' is that the Cobblestone that came into the Router, and that has no place to go because the Cobblestone Barrel is full, just sits in the Router making it so that no more items can flow into the Router. There's no way to detect this with a Gate and the Router doesn't let you know via a Redstone signal or anything of the sort.
The first common thought is to have an overflow chest (or chests) connected to the Barrels but that just starts to show the next problem: Routers throw stuff everywhere. If you have chests attached to your wall of Barrels, you'll start seeing random items - that you thought should have gone to your Barrels - showing up in the overflow chests. This is because the Router will distribute items amongst all connected inventories. The next common thought is to use the Thoroughness upgrade since its description sounds like what you want but wrong again! (Thoroughness is either broken or the description is incorrect.)
Long story short I have 3 videos on Routers (2 using the Machine Filter upgrade and 1 w/o it (it can be a hard item to craft early on in the game since it requires tons of Factorization infrastructure plus an uncraftable item (Logic Matrix Programmer)) showing how to clear the jam and make your wall of Barrels awesome. And despite the first half of the post being negative, I use Routers and Barrels extensively for storing items but I wouldn't be using them had I not come up with workarounds.
tl;dr In static-sized storage systems, Routers have problems and are terrible unless you have fixes/workarounds for their problems. In applications where you're feeding machines, they're the best thing in the world.
Router videos if interested:
- Original clearing a jam:
- Updates to Lua code to address a race condition:
- Usage w/o Machine Filter upgrade:
- Examples where they excel:
Wrath Lamps are awesome, as is the Wrath Igniter - make your room out of Cobblestone, strike up the Wrath Igniter and close off the room, go back in when the fires have died down and the room is now lined with Stone instead of Cobblestone. Want to build a window but haven't got any glass or a furnace? Build it with sand, and Wrath Igniter it! I just wish I could ignite a tree and turn it into charcoal.
Things about Factorization that aren't in the OP:
1 - Extradimensional Storage Upgrade. 1 Block = 1024 Stacks of a single item. Only things that can compete are 64k Storage from AE, Quantum Chest and Deep Storage Unit. Relatively cheap, as well.
2 - Furnace Heaters work with the Crystallizer, and can make it run quite a bit faster. You can easily fit 3 around a Crystallizer to get the time it takes to process 5 fine ore sands to about 9 minutes or so, or about 1:30 minutes per ingot. Plop down multiple Crystallizers to process different ores, and you get your solution there. Agreed, it will backlog any system if you use it for all ores, i personally keep them only for the most valuable and rare ones.
3- Routers are awesome. Being able to choose to which side the item gets pumped to is a godsend, especially in barrel sorting systems. And by the time you actually have the need for a barrel sorting system, it means you won't have a problem with blowing a few diamonds into getting the upgrades for the router.
Finally, Factorization is designed as a stand alone mod, and that's the reason why it not only has it's own energy producing, but also ore processing, storage and utility features. It's not a crossover mod like Railcraft, Forestry, or Gregtech. Having a Factorization line of processing dedicated to the most valuable and rarer ores can and will increase your productivity by a lot, and i personally think the line looks really neat.
1 - Extradimensional Storage Upgrade. 1 Block = 1024 Stacks of a single item. Only things that can compete are 64k Storage from AE, Quantum Chest and Deep Storage Unit. Relatively cheap, as well.
2 - Furnace Heaters work with the Crystallizer, and can make it run quite a bit faster. You can easily fit 3 around a Crystallizer to get the time it takes to process 5 fine ore sands to about 9 minutes or so, or about 1:30 minutes per ingot. Plop down multiple Crystallizers to process different ores, and you get your solution there. Agreed, it will backlog any system if you use it for all ores, i personally keep them only for the most valuable and rare ones.
3- Routers are awesome. Being able to choose to which side the item gets pumped to is a godsend, especially in barrel sorting systems. And by the time you actually have the need for a barrel sorting system, it means you won't have a problem with blowing a few diamonds into getting the upgrades for the router.
Finally, Factorization is designed as a stand alone mod, and that's the reason why it not only has it's own energy producing, but also ore processing, storage and utility features. It's not a crossover mod like Railcraft, Forestry, or Gregtech. Having a Factorization line of processing dedicated to the most valuable and rarer ores can and will increase your productivity by a lot, and i personally think the line looks really neat.