Finite Water?

[Golrith]

They produce a surprisingly large amount of water. Although the trickle is fairly low, it is an enormous quantity over time, especially if chunkloaded. The same principle applies to solar panels. Only one or two Railcraft tanks in a forest-type biome can handle most water needs for the early-middlish of the game, then you just add more as needed. I would not consider it balanced if you are trying to make water a resource; I've found it easily doable to run TE, IC and Mekanism setups with Railcraft tanks.

However, without Railcraft tanks, it is still very easy if you drain a large lake or ocean. As I said before, there is a deceptively massive amount of water in the world. To put it in perspective, if you take a 100x100x25 slice of an ocean, it would yield 250,000 buckets of water. IIRC it takes 1 bucket of water per operation in the IC2 ore washer. So, you could process 250,000 ore with this amount of water. If you drain large lakes or oceans, it will be similar to pumping the Nether; essentially infinite except you have to move the pump every so often. To actually have a challenge you should only use small bodies of water, such as ponds and small rivers, and try to use the water intelligently. Think of it like those little pools of Buildcraft oil.

Part of that is the ongoing "balance" difference between single player and server play. Something that would be impossible to "fix". Chunkloaded server is 12-24 times easier compared to someone playing single player 1-2 hours a day.

I'd like oceans to be sea water, which cannot be directly used in machines. Rivers and lakes would be your source of freshwater. Sea Water could be processed in a desalination plant for high power usage.

 

[ProfessorMudkip]

Part of that is the ongoing "balance" difference between single player and server play. Something that would be impossible to "fix". Chunkloaded server is 12-24 times easier compared to someone playing single player 1-2 hours a day.

That is true, but it was easily doable to support those systems in singleplayer. The water is only consumed if I'm using it to process materials. Thus, when I'm off mining or building the 400 bucket internal tanks fill up. So, even if I don't use external storage, I have over 800 buckets of water waiting to be used. This amount will not be used in one ore processing cycle and it will refill when I mine or build next, repeating the cycle.

I'd like oceans to be sea water, which cannot be directly used in machines. Rivers and lakes would be your source of freshwater. Sea Water could be processed in a desalination plant for high power usage.

This is an interesting concept. I would like to see it developed further. However, the main problem is that mods are built around the concept that water is an arbitrary infinite input rather than an actual resource. Though, with the default settings of most mods, nothing is really a precious resource.

 

[Golrith]

That is true, but it was easily doable to support those systems in singleplayer. The water is only consumed if I'm using it to process materials. Thus, when I'm off mining or building the 400 bucket internal tanks fill up. So, even if I don't use external storage, I have over 800 buckets of water waiting to be used. This amount will not be used in one ore processing cycle and it will refill when I mine or build next, repeating the cycle.

It's the same with power generation, I've never had a need for uber fast power gen since machines are not running all the time, so as long as you can store it, you'll get what you need.

This is an interesting concept. I would like to see it developed further. However, the main problem is that mods are built around the concept that water is an arbitrary infinite input rather than an actual resource. Though, with the default settings of most mods, nothing is really a precious resource.

Water, and Power, are more of a resource cost to get the plumbing and storage in place, rather than the usage.
I'm sure it'll be quite easy to register a new liquid type and get ocean biomes to use this liquid instead. Things will just get a bit funky where the two different liquids meet.

 

[ProfessorMudkip]

It's the same with power generation, I've never had a need for uber fast power gen since machines are not running all the time, so as long as you can store it, you'll get what you need.
Water, and Power, are more of a resource cost to get the plumbing and storage in place, rather than the usage.
I'm sure it'll be quite easy to register a new liquid type and get ocean biomes to use this liquid instead. Things will just get a bit funky where the two different liquids meet.

That is what I dislike. I would prefer that water, power and ore be meaningful. Setting up tesseracts and a pump or a few solar panels is dull. Although there are mods that add complex systems — such as max tier Mekanism — they don't address the underlying issues. For example, they utilize the meaningless infinite water mechanic and have ridiculously high ore yields in relation to the investment. I'd like complexity with meaningful decisions rather than quasi-creative.

And yes, it would be easy to get the sea water to generate in the world, but implementing and balancing the infrastructure wouldn't.

 

[Demosthenex]

That is what I dislike. I would prefer that water, power and ore be meaningful. Setting up tesseracts and a pump or a few solar panels is dull. Although there are mods that add complex systems — such as max tier Mekanism — they don't address the underlying issues. For example, they utilize the meaningless infinite water mechanic and have ridiculously high ore yields in relation to the investment. I'd like complexity with meaningful decisions rather than quasi-creative.

And yes, it would be easy to get the sea water to generate in the world, but implementing and balancing the infrastructure wouldn't.

Spend some time with RotaryCraft. ;]

That said, all of the RoC engines which require water use it in absurd quantities. The crop growth enhancers do too. For instance, I setup a 64 bucket reservoir and fed two sprinklers... for thirty seconds. An eight mirror solar tower ate 64 buckets in 10 seconds to produce little power. Steam engines use it slowest at about 15 or 20 mB per second.

 

[Turbotowns]

THANK YOU! That bit in the CodeChickenCore... code. I didn't know about, just the buildcraft pumps using up source blocks. This should help LOTS with what I'm trying to do, and also thanks for mentioning the pump's range, That'll be good to know.

 

[Inaeo]

THANK YOU! That bit in the CodeChickenCore... code. I didn't know about, just the buildcraft pumps using up source blocks. This should help LOTS with what I'm trying to do, and also thanks for mentioning the pump's range, That'll be good to know.

Note that this thread is several years old, so many things (including mods available) may have changed.

 

[KingTriaxx]

Of course, somethings end up undocumented just because 'everyone knows' and the only way to find them out is often old topics. Which is why I prefer it when forums lock old topics, instead of deleting them.

 

[Inaeo]

Of course, somethings end up undocumented just because 'everyone knows' and the only way to find them out is often old topics. Which is why I prefer it when forums lock old topics, instead of deleting them.

Indeed, this has proved to be an interesting read. It's a concept I've toyed with a few times, but not seriously enough to build a pack around. It makes me curious as to the state of finite water options in today's modded environment, but I'm not sure if continuing an ancient thread is the best way to discuss it, or if a new thread is in order. Either way, it would be more theorycraft for me than actual planning (unless the discussion sparked my interest sufficiently).

 

[KingTriaxx]

Definitely new thread. Though I've always thought small pockets of infinite water would work out, ala TFC's hotsprings. Can't move them, but can take all you want.

I've always wanted a pack based around Railcraft, and I can see combining it with this. No flight, no teleportation, the only water sources around are railcraft water sidings that can't be moved. And all power requires water to function. So you can get a certain amount from the first water source you find, but you're always out exploring for more, and then running rails to them to get it home.

 

[Nuclear_Creeper0]

Dat necro.