Gregtech Survival Guide

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asb3pe

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BTW: I also thought there was two versions of the pulverizer, for both EV and IV for the HV-tier and above

It could be the modpack I'm playing. BeyondReality only has one "GT Universal Pulverizer", the EV version.

And thanks for the math, learned something new.

And now I'm off to /cofh clearblocks until I find that legendary Tungsten Ore deposit. If nobody hears from me in a few days time, call 911 and have them start searching for me. :D
 

Pyure

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It could be the modpack I'm playing. BeyondReality only has one "GT Universal Pulverizer", the EV version.

And thanks for the math, learned something new.
The problem is the naming. Instead of "Pulverizers" I think we have a Universal Pulverizer and a Blendomatic or some such silliness. Or maybe one's a "Universal Macerator", I forget.

Don't quote me on the math, its a wild guess :)

Edit: Oh, woops, SpwnX confirmed. Cool!
 
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Optibane

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Well, the pulverizer list is shared with the rock crusher and TE pulverizer (or should somewhat).

The energy values shown are for a theorical LV pulverizing, but since there is no LV version, and only HV+, you have to scale them with the tiers.

You're right about the values being ramped repeatedly by 4, for the energy flow (EU/t). The total energy per operation is by 2 and time is by 1/2.

For a HV macerator (pulverizer) you get:
Total: 3200 EU
Usage: 32 EU/t
Amperage: 1
Time: 5 seconds

Edit: The Universal Macerator (HV) works as "pulverizer". The differences about the HV to IV versions are the amount of output slots (thus the amount of byproducts you can obtain/recycle)


Awesome, thanks for the explanation! I kind of like that it works out to twice as much total energy to cut the time in half, four times energy to cut the the time to 1/4, etc.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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asb3pe

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The problem is the naming. Instead of "Pulverizers" I think we have a Universal Pulverizer and a Blendomatic or some such silliness. Or maybe one's a "Universal Macerator", I forget.

Aha! Yes, I also have a "GT Blend-O-Matic" which is a Pulverizer but it is Insane Voltage (8192 EU/t). Thanks for mentioning it, or else I never would have known.

Greg, of all people, really should understand the importance of consistency in naming items. The man never ceases to surprise me, not always in good ways. :)
 

Pyure

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Aha! Yes, I also have a "GT Blend-O-Matic" which is a Pulverizer but it is Insane Voltage (8192 EU/t). Thanks for mentioning it, or else I never would have known.

Greg, of all people, really should understand the importance of consistency in naming items. The man never ceases to surprise me, not always in good ways. :)
The scary thing was this was his preferred route. There's actually a thread inviting people to rename everything, so that instead of an "advanced centrifuge 3" you'd have to take a wild stab at what a "SpinOtron 4000" does. (example invented for the purpose of this post, and, uh, patent pending.)
 
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Someone Else 37

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Yeah, the Blend-O-Matic thing took me a while to figure out as well (longer than the Repurposed Laundry Washer, Blaze Sweatshop, and most of the other IV machines). As Pyure notes, Greg seems to make a point of giving the top-tier machines goofy names, which can certainly be annoying to look up in NEI. I find that it helps to search the second line of tooltip text (such as "schreddering" in the macerator case), which is the same across all the tiers.

Originally, though, I found the Blend-O-Matic by searching for its block ID. When I typed "macerator" into NEI, it returned the Basic, Advanced, and and Universal macerators, whose IDs were something like 352:93, 352:94, and 352:95. I typed 352:96, and it gave me the Universal Pulverizer, which had three slots, unlike the four in the NEI Pulverization recipes, and was EV. Some time later, I tried 352:97, resulting in the IV Blend-O-Matic. Then I came up with the second-line-of-the-tooltip idea, which works better.
 
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asb3pe

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The scary thing was this was his preferred route. There's actually a thread inviting people to rename everything, so that instead of an "advanced centrifuge 3" you'd have to take a wild stab at what a "SpinOtron 4000" does. (example invented for the purpose of this post, and, uh, patent pending.)

All I can say is... there's supposedly a very thin line between genius and insanity, and I think Gregorius T like to walk on it like a tightrope artist in a circus. (rolls eyes)

Yeah, the Blend-O-Matic thing took me a while to figure out as well (longer than the Repurposed Laundry Washer, Blaze Sweatshop, and most of the other IV machines). As Pyure notes, Greg seems to make a point of giving the top-tier machines goofy names, which can certainly be annoying to look up in NEI. I find that it helps to search the second line of tooltip text (such as "schreddering" in the macerator case), which is the same across all the tiers.

I've tried the Item ID trick in NEI and it never seems to work for me. My backup plan is to type "GregTech" into NEI, which does indeed work without the "@" symbol, however then I need to page thru 100's of recipe pages and that's where I just give up. The tip for searching using terms like "schredding" is a great idea.

And now I'm gonna go look up the "Blaze Sweatshop". LOL Nope, you weren't fibbing. (rolls eyes again)
 
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asb3pe

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A new Youtube series on GregTech has begun, I don't know this person but I saw their post on Reddit. Only two videos out so far but I like what he did in video#2 to show the ore veins. That's pretty much what I did on a copy of my own single player world to discover the ore veins. I think the time investment in GregTech is far too much for most people, which is why people don't play it. But I love all the machines and stuff, so I had to find a way to play without spending an eternity exploring and searching.

Playlist link:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhJt_LGSGTw9XjiZHkJB1f9A2eCZqpCY9

My own example of "time investment"... I finally achieved the top tier metal (for overworld ores anyways), Tungstensteel and made a Tungstensteel Steam Boiler. This requires approximately 6 stacks of Tungstensteel, which in turn requires 3 stacks of Steel, and 3 stacks of Tungsten.

Well, each ingot of Tungsten takes 500 seconds to smelt up in the Electric Blast Furnace. So three stacks of it takes 3*64*500=96,000 seconds, which equals 26.67 HOURS. And then they each require another 30 seconds or so in a GT Vacuum Freezer which is another hour and a half. And that's just to make the Tungsten Ingots! Then I still have to combine them with Steel Ingots to make Tungstensteel Ingots, another 13 hours. The only way to reasonably make 6 stacks of Tungstensteel Ingots is to have about 10 EBF's going at once and also have a very high voltage power supply. Yikes. I didn't spend that time, I cheated them into my game and deleted three stacks each of Tungsten dust and Steel ingots. I'm not too proud to admit it.

See what I mean about GT being an enormous time investment? Those who play it "by the book" without cheating (such as players on SMP servers without admin rights) have my great respect and admiration.
 
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Pyure

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My own example of "time investment"... I finally achieved the top tier metal (for overworld ores anyways), Tungstensteel and made a Tungstensteel Steam Boiler. This requires approximately 6 stacks of Tungstensteel, which in turn requires 3 stacks of Steel, and 3 stacks of Tungsten.

Well, each ingot of Tungsten takes 500 seconds to smelt up in the Electric Blast Furnace. So three stacks of it takes 3*64*500=96,000 seconds, which equals 26.67 HOURS. And then they each require another 30 seconds or so in a GT Vacuum Freezer which is another hour and a half. And that's just to make the Tungsten Ingots! Then I still have to combine them with Steel Ingots to make Tungstensteel Ingots, another 13 hours. The only way to reasonably make 6 stacks of Tungstensteel Ingots is to have about 10 EBF's going at once and also have a very high voltage power supply. Yikes. I didn't spend that time, I cheated them into my game and deleted three stacks each of Tungsten dust and Steel ingots. I'm not too proud to admit it.

See what I mean about GT being an enormous time investment? Those who play it "by the book" without cheating (such as players on SMP servers without admin rights) have my great respect and admiration.
Yeah this is a good example of where GT completely diverges from other mods, not just in design but approach. The "error" you made, if you want to call it that, was to wait until you had a need for tungstensteel before you started consuming it. I don't have a particular need for it right now, but I suspect I might want to upgrade my titanium boiler at some point, so my EBFs are always cooking stuff which includes tungstensteel. If not tungsten/tungsteensteel, they're cooking aluminium, or silicon, or fluxed electrum, or something else I might find useful one day.

They never sleep, those EBFs :)
 

asb3pe

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Well you know my Tungsten story, Pyure. :) Up until two days ago, I didn't even know where I could find any of it. I've mentioned it in other threads, but I finally figured it out. Despite checking NEI many times over and over again, I somehow completely missed the recipes for turning Tungstate Ore and Scheelite Ore into Tungsten Dusts using an MV Electrolyzer. I spent all day yesterday turning all 1000 ore blocks into Tungsten dust (which gave me a ton of Oxygen gas as well as Manganese Dusts). I don't cheat at everything, but I simply have to cheat with the EBF and Tungstensteel because there is no way I'm gonna put my game "on hold" for the next 40 hours. I can't even go AFK because I have to constantly watch my steam levels (I'm still using a single GT Steel Steam Boiler until I get the Tungstensteel version built).

I certainly understand your point, and agree with it completely. I've actually been following your strategy of "EBF Never Sleeps", but it's been making steel ingots, aluminum ingots and stainless steel ingots the entire time. Like I say, I think the "correct" way to do it is to make many multiple EBF's and have them all working in unison.

GregTech is insane. LOL But since we all seem to love it, I dunno what that says about us. :D
 
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Pyure

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Well you know my Tungsten story, Pyure. :) Up until two days ago, I didn't even know where I could find any of it. I've mentioned it in other threads, but I finally figured it out. Despite checking NEI many times over and over again, I somehow completely missed the recipes for turning Tungstate Ore and Scheelite Ore into Tungsten Dusts using an MV Electrolyzer. I spent all day yesterday turning all 1000 ore blocks into Tungsten dust (which gave me a ton of Oxygen gas as well as Manganese Dusts). I don't cheat at everything, but I simply have to cheat with the EBF and Tungstensteel because there is no way I'm gonna put my game "on hold" for the next 40 hours. I can't even go AFK because I have to constantly watch my steam levels (I'm still using a single GT Steel Steam Boiler until I get the Tungstensteel version built).

I certainly understand your point, and agree with it completely. I've actually been following your strategy of "EBF Never Sleeps", but it's been making steel ingots, aluminum ingots and stainless steel ingots the entire time. Like I say, I think the "correct" way to do it is to make many multiple EBF's and have them all working in unison.

GregTech is insane. LOL But since we all seem to love it, I dunno what that says about us. :D
I'm satisfied that "next time" you won't need to cheat them in because you'll have your strategy in advance! :)
 

asb3pe

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So what Output Hatch should I be using for the Tier 4 Tungstensteel Steam Boiler? Does it matter? Does an Output Hatch constructed using an HV Machine Hull output more steam per tick than, say, an MV or LV Output Hatch? Do the Hatch tiers match up to the Steam Boiler tiers? Should Bronze Boiler use ULV, Steel use LV, Titanium use MV and Tungstensteel use HV? Is there any benefit to using, say, the EV or IV Output Hatch on the Tungstensteel Boiler?

I know I've asked this question about five times already in the thread, but I just can't get a good answer on this aspect of GT. I guess I need to go into creative and do my own testing, get my own answers once and for all.
 

Pyure

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I *think* the output hatch tier only determines the size of the buffer, not its output capability. So, as long as you're able to remove the liquid fast enough, it shouldn't be an issue.

Then again, its possible the tsteel boiler outputs more per tick than the low-tier hatches can even hold, so maybe your testing is a good idea :) Try setting up 3 boilers, each with its own RC tank, give each of them a stack of charcoal, and see what happens! (I'm really curious actually)
 

asb3pe

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I *think* the output hatch tier only determines the size of the buffer, not its output capability. So, as long as you're able to remove the liquid fast enough, it shouldn't be an issue.

Then again, its possible the tsteel boiler outputs more per tick than the low-tier hatches can even hold, so maybe your testing is a good idea :) Try setting up 3 boilers, each with its own RC tank, give each of them a stack of charcoal, and see what happens! (I'm really curious actually)

Well, I dislike testing (hence my constant questions LOL) but since you're curious I'll go ahead and set up that scenario and we'll see how it turns out! You test conditions will be pretty easy to set up and run, and should def provide answers.
 
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asb3pe

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Results are in! All Boilers constructed exactly the same, Maintenance Hatch X'ed out with Duct Tape (so operating at 100% performance), and I used a redstone signal to insert stack of coal into each boiler at exactly the same time. I used Ender IO top-tier "Ender Fluid Conduit" to transfer steam from Boiler to Railcraft Tank.

There is absolutely no difference between Output Hatches. I did four versions of Output Hatches - ULV, LV, MV and HV. All Railcraft Tanks filled at exactly the same rate (from visual inspection) and stopped at the exact same time.

CASE CLOSED, YOUR HONOR!

You point about a bigger "buffer" may hold true, but I didn't try to test for that. Obviously we don't wish to "buffer" the steam inside the boiler, we want to get it out as quickly as possible and into the tank, which is why I use Ender IO conduit. Perhaps if I used GregTech Fluid Pipes the results may be different, but since I have a lot of trouble with GT pipes, I'm not even gonna try to test it.

So from now on, I will use ULV versions of the Muffler and Output Hatch. We've already determined previously that for Input and Output Busses, the ULV provides one slot, the LV provides 4, the MV provides 9, etc. So that can be a personal choice without any real impact on performance. And the Boiler doesn't use water very fast, so the ULV version can also be used for the water Input Hatch.
 
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Pyure

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Results are in! All Boilers constructed exactly the same, Maintenance Hatch X'ed out with Duct Tape (so operating at 100% performance), and I used a redstone signal to insert stack of coal into each boiler at exactly the same time. I used Ender IO top-tier "Ender Fluid Conduit" to transfer steam from Boiler to Railcraft Tank.

There is absolutely no difference between Output Hatches. I did four versions of Output Hatches - ULV, LV, MV and HV. All Railcraft Tanks filled at exactly the same rate (from visual inspection) and stopped at the exact same time.

CASE CLOSED, YOUR HONOR!

You point about a bigger "buffer" may hold true, but I didn't try to test for that. Obviously we don't wish to "buffer" the steam inside the boiler, we want to get it out as quickly as possible and into the tank, which is why I use Ender IO conduit. Perhaps if I used GregTech Fluid Pipes the results may be different, but since I have a lot of trouble with GT pipes, I'm not even gonna try to test it.

So from now on, I will use ULV versions of the Muffler and Output Hatch. We've already determined previously that for Input and Output Busses, the ULV provides one slot, the LV provides 4, the MV provides 9, etc. So that can be a personal choice without any real impact on performance. And the Boiler doesn't use water very fast, so the ULV version can also be used for the water Input Hatch.
Nice job sir, great test. :)

Regarding the water: I still haven't gotten around to redstone controlling my boiler directly, so I do it with the charcoal feed. One condition I use to determine if I should feed charcoal is: only if the internal boiler water hatch is 100% full of water. Why do I point this out? Because my (ULV) input bus may still be holding a full stack of charcoal if I'm at, say, 95% water and dropping. I need that charcoal to finish processing (64 seconds) before I run out of water to prevent explosions. So to be safe, as a result, I prefer to have a larger hatch which presumably (hopefully?) has that larger buffer.

Or I could, you know, redstone control the boiler itself one day.
 

asb3pe

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Nice job sir, great test. :)

Regarding the water: I still haven't gotten around to redstone controlling my boiler directly, so I do it with the charcoal feed. One condition I use to determine if I should feed charcoal is: only if the internal boiler water hatch is 100% full of water. Why do I point this out? Because my (ULV) input bus may still be holding a full stack of charcoal if I'm at, say, 95% water and dropping. I need that charcoal to finish processing (64 seconds) before I run out of water to prevent explosions. So to be safe, as a result, I prefer to have a larger hatch which presumably (hopefully?) has that larger buffer.

Or I could, you know, redstone control the boiler itself one day.

I was just about to ask another question... on that exact subject... and then, I discovered BevoLJ's videos! Haven't watched it yet so dunno if it will help me (us) but if it does I will return and post an update.


Update: Video was entirely on Applied Energistics 2 automation, there was nothing regarding using redstone to automate the GT Steam Boiler. It seems that Bevo used the Railcraft Steam Boilers and may have skipped the GT version altogether.
 
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Dlur100

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Hello. I just started playing an InfiTech2 server, which heavily features GT, last week. I haven't played Minecraft at for about 6 months, and prior to this it was always 100% vanilla. I dove headlong into this SMP server with a few friends from another gaming forum and also my son. I mostly wanted to drop in and say that the GT survival guide is a lifesaver. I would have ragequit playing on the first day without it. This thread also is amazing! Thank you so much all of you contributors.

My son and I are working as a team/coop and we just made it to the LV electrical age 2 days ago and now have a working plate bender, wire mill, and fluid extractor. We're working on our assembly machine now. We're probably doing things half backwards or in the wrong order, but we are learning as we go, and also leaning heavily on one of the other players on our server. All of our steam tools and our LV steam turbine is powered by 6 little GT bronze steam boilers that are pumped into a RC iron tank that holds about 8 million units of steam. We've got a few coke ovens going non stop in addition to our bronze blast furnace which hasn't stopped yet since it was built. We've built up enough creosote in BC tanks that I'm currently clearing out a space in out factory to install a RC boiler and feed that into the RC tank as well. As it stands now we can run our plate bender and wire mill non stop along with intermittent steam tools and barely make a dent in our steam buffer tank.

Is it worth making any of the smaller LV arc furnaces or thermal centrifuge, or do I basically need to plan to make 1 of each LV machine so that I can make a few MV machines (not all) and then head on to HV?
 

Pyure

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Hello. I just started playing an InfiTech2 server, which heavily features GT, last week. I haven't played Minecraft at for about 6 months, and prior to this it was always 100% vanilla. I dove headlong into this SMP server with a few friends from another gaming forum and also my son. I mostly wanted to drop in and say that the GT survival guide is a lifesaver. I would have ragequit playing on the first day without it. This thread also is amazing! Thank you so much all of you contributors.

My son and I are working as a team/coop and we just made it to the LV electrical age 2 days ago and now have a working plate bender, wire mill, and fluid extractor. We're working on our assembly machine now. We're probably doing things half backwards or in the wrong order, but we are learning as we go, and also leaning heavily on one of the other players on our server. All of our steam tools and our LV steam turbine is powered by 6 little GT bronze steam boilers that are pumped into a RC iron tank that holds about 8 million units of steam. We've got a few coke ovens going non stop in addition to our bronze blast furnace which hasn't stopped yet since it was built. We've built up enough creosote in BC tanks that I'm currently clearing out a space in out factory to install a RC boiler and feed that into the RC tank as well. As it stands now we can run our plate bender and wire mill non stop along with intermittent steam tools and barely make a dent in our steam buffer tank.

Is it worth making any of the smaller LV arc furnaces or thermal centrifuge, or do I basically need to plan to make 1 of each LV machine so that I can make a few MV machines (not all) and then head on to HV?
Some machines are definitely critical to progress, but I don't think the arc furnace or thermal centrifuge fall into that category.

That said: both of those machines are voracious energy consumers. If you can afford the time/resources, it would be more energy-efficient for you to run two LV thermal centrifuges than a single MV version.