Hello, I'd like to share with you all how storing energy in BuildCraft works.

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PierceSG

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Jul 29, 2019
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No, not at all, you're welcomed to air your opinion and suggestion. And I do agree, if BC wants to stay semi-realistic, your idea for energy storage might be sound for BC if the modders for BC is willing to implement such a thing.

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lazaruz76

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Jul 29, 2019
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It was just something I would personally like to see. If they do it, GREAT. If they don't then that is their choice. I'm on a low end machine so for me a storage method would be welcome so I don't need to run engines all the time. I actually installed BC into FTBLight2 so I could have access to the Quarry and Filler both. Yes I use TE3 for power gen, but that is more to do with not wanting to fry my system (very low end).
 
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Yosomith

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Jul 29, 2019
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Wow, people are really stuck on this huh? OP wants to argue reasons why BC doesn't have MJ storage while others argue how that's a silly notion. All the "Y u no hav MJ storage" comments aside, since 1.4.7 people have turned to other mods for storage options so why should it be different now? As far as I understand BC was never meant to have storage.

Now all this talk about realistic this and semi-realistic that just makes me shake my head in amazement. Minecraft is very, and I mean very, loosely based on what you would expect in some aspects, however, at the end of the day it's a fantasy game where the unreal happens all the time. Trying to seek some realism in this both amuses and astounds me. What happened to the time when games were just meant to be fun and realism didn't matter?
 

lazaruz76

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Jul 29, 2019
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yes indeed MJ is pneumatic power hence the "pumps"/engines but if you think of the large scale pneumatic pumps where in you have air tanks I think think BC's principles rely on something similar to LEGO's pneumatic system where you really dont have an air tank to store or am I mistaken I have also long since been outdated with Lego's elements :< they are just a bit too high on my budget

Legos do indeed have air tanks now.
 

Algester

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Jul 29, 2019
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Wow, people are really stuck on this huh? OP wants to argue reasons why BC doesn't have MJ storage while others argue how that's a silly notion. All the "Y u no hav MJ storage" comments aside, since 1.4.7 people have turned to other mods for storage options so why should it be different now? As far as I understand BC was never meant to have storage.

Now all this talk about realistic this and semi-realistic that just makes me shake my head in amazement. Minecraft is very, and I mean very, loosely based on what you would expect in some aspects, however, at the end of the day it's a fantasy game where the unreal happens all the time. Trying to seek some realism in this both amuses and astounds me. What happened to the time when games were just meant to be fun and realism didn't matter?
there's a reason why I stated that as a game it can deviate the common laws of science... I MEAN come on FLOATING DIRT?!... but if the principles of what I think (LEGO pneumatics) holds true then MJ should not have a true way to store MJ since the "pumps"/engines themselves already "store" them plus were not talking about hydraulics where we can have a compressed air tank as a storage device

OK I rest my case Legos do have an air tank element right now... but not back then.... 1994-ish when I last held a lego pneumatic vehicle kit
 

Sidorion

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Jul 29, 2019
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The one and only true MJ storing device is the kinesis pipe.
This is a natural result from the way, MJ works. The machine requests a package of energy from its adjacent pipe. If the pipe has enough energy, it gives it to the machine and requests this amount from the next segment until there is a wooden pipe sucking this energy from its engines. Its much like a snail "walks".
To achieve this, each section of pipe has an internal buffer storing as much MJ as its potential troughput (e.g. cobble stores 4MJ, quarz 64) (CJ states this in his video for the iron kinesis pipe).
So since pipes no longer explode on overload, you can just form a loop of diamond kinesis pipes and there you have your storage (1024 MJ per segment).
Its a very impressive look having the whole loop full of the glowing blue kinesis energy turning red now and then :D
 

SlightlyVisible

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Jul 29, 2019
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@SlightlyVisible I appreciate the effort. I've previously tried to use exactly the same reasoning, but Thermal Expansion has warped most players expectations of MJ power to such a degree that it's a lost cause. Just let it rest.

BuildCraft might actually get its own way of storing a limited amount of energy. At a minimum some sort of buffer that can smooth out spikes in power usage or production. There are currently no exact plans to add this, but it has been discussed. cpw apparently had a good idea he wanted to implement, but time has not allowed him to work on it.

I really don't want to give up hope. I feel like there's a possibility that many of the users here are just so young that they don't understand that energy =/= electricity. Granted, some just may be fanboy's, however, I'm hoping that atleast some will become more accepting of Kinetic Energy.
 
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SlightlyVisible

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Jul 29, 2019
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Hey kids! This is Minecraft's wooden chest filled with coal. Coal can be used in various generators to produce energy. This means Minecraft provide us with energy storage! Despite the fact that Minecraft provide no energy generation and doesn't even have it's own type of energy... Well yeah...

Hey kids! This is Steve. Steve can wind up Clockwork Engine. This makes Steve infinite energy storage for kinetic energy! Well, good luck punching Steve to make him wind up that engine for you...

joke aside, people just want to store MJs, in form of MJs. Not in form of fuel, coal, lava, biomass or any other liquidy-gooey form.

Then those people can go play with a mod whose power network does just that, and stop complaining about Buildcraft. One wouldn't whine to Azanor that they wanted Thaumcrafts magic to operate like Mithion's Ars Magica.
 
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SandGrainOne

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Jul 29, 2019
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Plus the OP's concept of fuel as a way to store MJ... is silly hence this is a silly thread because to convert Oil to fuel isnt energy efficient if you want to say store "store" that means the conversion from kinetic to potential should be smaller but no converting oil to fuel actually takes MORE energy (This is to consider taking out transportation in the equation, where in reality converting raw oil to fuel really does take more energy+transportation but it serves it benefits that oil's byproduct HAS A LOT OF USES and fuel is just one of them) than it produces IF NERFED
Could you please elaborate?
 

SynfulChaot

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Jul 29, 2019
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Then those people can go play with a mod whose power network does just that, and stop complaining about Buildcraft. You wouldn't whine to Azanor that you wanted his Thaumcraft magic to operate like Mithion's Ars Magica.

You're confusing whining and trying to give feedback. Amazingly enough, many are fine that BuildCraft is choosing that direction, but aren't going to use it as it doesn't suit their tastes. I'm one of those people. I'm all fine with BuildCraft being lossy and not-traditionally-storable, but it has no place in my modded Minecraft paradigm for the reasons of both.

And no, tanks don't count as storage for MJ any more than they count as storage for EU, RF, or any other energy. The only true analogue BuildCraft has is energy loops, which I will not even contemplate using until I know their server impact.
 

SlightlyVisible

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Jul 29, 2019
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You're confusing whining and trying to give feedback. Amazingly enough, many are fine that BuildCraft is choosing that direction, but aren't going to use it as it doesn't suit their tastes. I'm one of those people. I'm all fine with BuildCraft being lossy and not-traditionally-storable, but it has no place in my modded Minecraft paradigm for the reasons of both.

And no, tanks don't count as storage for MJ any more than they count as storage for EU, RF, or any other energy. The only true analogue BuildCraft has is energy loops, which I will not even contemplate using until I know their server impact.

But that's just it. I never said tanks were storage for MJ, what I'm saying is that it's how buildcraft's energy is stored.

Do we say that our cars run on fuel or the kinetic energy produced by the pistons. MJs are very significant in Buildcraft but they are merely the second part of buildcrafts energy system.
 
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Loufmier

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Jul 29, 2019
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Then those people can go play with a mod whose power network does just that, and stop complaining about Buildcraft. One wouldn't whine to Azanor that they wanted Thaumcrafts magic to operate like Mithion's Ars Magica.

and they do, believe it or not. and they've been doing it since TE introduced RF flux with native support for BC machinery, but then you come in and start pointing out how silly they are for not misunderstanding fuel storage as energy storage.
 

Yosomith

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Jul 29, 2019
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and they do, believe it or not. and they've been doing it since TE introduced RF flux with native support for BC machinery, but then you come in and start pointing out how silly they are for not misunderstanding fuel storage as energy storage.
The funny thing is that it seems he's complaining about people complaining without even looking into who is actually complaining. The people that are usually complaining are either too stubborn to listen to reason or don't understand enough about english to know what it is your trying to say. Of course there is a third group, people who will complain no matter what you do.

Basically, no point putting up posts here trying to stop people from complaining in IRC about MJ storage as I doubt they come here often or at all.
 

Omegatron

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Mar 29, 2013
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To expand on the pneumatics idea, how about turning wooden kinesis pipes into air compressors. These would then turn the MJ from the engines into compressed air which could be a forge fluid (sent in fluid pipes and stored in tanks).
Then have another device that turns compressed air back into MJ and is placed right next to the device that needs powering (and would probably have no throughput limit or a very high limit because you can't attach more than six of these to something without something like the transvector interface).
 

Maldroth

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Jul 29, 2019
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This original post makes perfect sense to me. If you want to take full advantage and not waste the kinetic energy in Buildcraft you should not leave the engines always running when you aren't using them. Gates can help easily mitigate this. Kinetic energy is not the same as electrical energy and can not be realistically stored like batteries. If you don't understand that concept you might not have taken a Physical Science or Physics class yet in school.

Of all the changes to the Buildcraft system it has made Combustion Engines much better over Liquid fueled Steam Boilers which require to always be on an easily wasting fuel and energy. In theory you could store the Steam but eventually you will run into storage issues as well.
 
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RedBoss

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Jul 29, 2019
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Buildcraft wants you to store fuel if you want to have energy in the future. Other mods let you burn fuel and store the energy from said fuel to use in the future.

I really don't see what the argument is about. Especially since you can use a combination of both, or not use one, any time you want.
 

Dodge34

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Jul 29, 2019
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Somewhere over the rainbow.
Not sure if that was mentioned anywhere in this thread but the main problem with Buildcraft is it lacks a renewable resource to make the engine works, and also, when the engine works, if the machine doesn't need the energy, the energy the engine is creating is lost, it vanish in the MC universe and you loose the precious fuel you created for the engines for absolutely nothing. And the worst part is thoses engines require a preheat to be really effective, so starting and stopping them with gates with conditions can work but you loose a lot of potential power from your engines if they start and stop all the time rather than running at full speed to fill up a buffer and stopping when its full.