How can I figure out what is sucking the power out of my Redstone Energy Cell?

[zilvarwolf]

Instead of thinking of it as a cost, why not think of it as a reward?
Instead of "A rolling machine takes no power, unless you can't afford an assembly table", why not "A rolling machine takes 0.05 MJ/t, but if you have an assembly table and some time, you can make it take no power"?
It seems like you are counting the cost of the gates as part of the cost of the rolling machine - but you don't have to use gates. Instead, you could use 1/2000th of a boiler and tree farm. Either way, it's not an ongoing cost.

That's still a cost. I mean, no matter how you shake it, it's a cost.

My solution to that cost has always been to destroy the offending machines. I keep a rolling machine and a thermionic fabricator in a chest (if I even make them) and only put them down when I need them, and only for the length of time required. Otherwise I end up wasting my time having to move lava pumps more often, or dig out more coal, or get that biofuel setup running way before I'm really ready for it.

I'm sure everyone has reasons for believing what they do. I sure can't wrap my head around some of them, but that's hardly unusual. I don't like like constant power drain systems for the same reason I don't like nuclear reactors or non-biofuel/biomass engines. I don't enjoy having to babysit my power systems. I don't enjoy having to babysit my systems in general. I make my AE systems overflow proof (as much as I can). I make my quarries throw away the dirt and cobble and gravel. I void pipe my creosote (if I need rails, there are plenty in mineshafts). Once I've completed a machine, I don't want to have to babysit it anymore. It should be done. I shouldn't have to build an infrastructure around it just so that it is non-destructive of my power system...or maybe I just don't want to, because that does not contribute to the fun. For me.

Somehow it does for you. Somehow it does for the buildcraft and railcraft and forestry devs. But I don't understand the mindset that says 'this is fun, this should be fun', in this instance. Based off commentary in this thread, and the couple of mod writers who have decided to stop supporting the buildcraft API, I am not alone. Yay, I feel good to be part of a crowd. That's not an appeal to popularity to ask anyone to change anything, but it is a shout out to anyone who might be listening that these changes are not universally popular. Speaking for myself, actually hearing the reasoning behind it might be enough incentive to at least be willing to accept it...because right now I'm left with assuming the reason is 'because I want it this way, because I think it is fun', and I disagree enough to want to stop using those tools, at least until I have reached a point where power becomes insignificant enough a concern that I can just plug them in and See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil.

 

[zorn]

Well as someone who is looking into Ic2 reactors, I guess im seeing that the overall game has changed. The idea of 'set it and forget it' machines seems to be more popular. I'm curious, what do you guys actually do in the game, if you want everything to be painless and risk free?

I just don't understand why people say they 'want to build complex systems' and then want MFR style machines while Ic2 nuclear reactors are mostly ignored. Everyone wants things handed to them. Just like you said about AE systems... for some they are awesome, and they are... but ive read others say it ruined the game for them. The closer you get to creative mode, the more boring the game gets, and Applied Energistics is about as pain free and easy to set up as you can get. There is zero challenge in setting up an AE system. 'Set it and forget it' is getting us closer to creative mode. Just look at ic2 reactors. They only run for a certain length of time. To get a lot of energy from them, you run them hot and then figure out how to keep them from blowing up.

It's a challenge, and apparently very complicated. How is setting up a MFR harvester for the 50th time a challenge? Seriously, MFR gets cited as an example of a mod that challenges you in ways to set up the machines it offers, but ic2 reactors don't get mentioned? Part of the challenge of running turbines in a boiler is makign sure you fix the turbines and have enough steel production to keep it going. It gives you a reason to keep mining. Personally id like to see IC2 machines need maintenance, where you have to right click them with a machine block or something to fix them every so often. Id like to see durability in quarries too. Maybe not to recraft, but that you had to right click it with 3 diamonds to replace the head every so often.

Everything you do in minecraft survival is tedium. You could just click a button and cheat in a furnace... but you spend hours mining ores to make machines to automate getting ores... to make machines to process those ores... to do what? If you just wanted to make huge statues and crazy structures, why not play creative mode? You can make complex systems and huge builds that way. Obviously there is some appeal to 'having to work for it'.

To me it appears people want to be able to say they worked for it, and brag that they got to a certain end game... but don't make it too hard, or risky with explosions, or complex with ic2 voltages. You want the convenience of creative mode, but want to brag that you did it in survival.

 

[AlanEsh]

How about.... IC2 is stale for me and I am playing with other mods. I don't get excited by setting up a power system these days, I'm enjoying other parts of the modpack. Unfortunately my time is limited, and hand mining everything for thaumcraft and TiCo and whatever else is nothing more than irritating. I set up the power infrastructure that I don't have to futz around with constantly so that I can do other things without having to worry about it. Same with storage... I make it as convenient as I can because it's just a necessary evil at this point.

If there were 10 or 20 mods in this pack, sure, I could see your point. But there is too much to explore for me to be concerned with how "legit" you think my power gen is.

/edit: All that said, there are some things even -I- won't stoop to, like force rods, well Dartcraft overall really

 

[zilvarwolf]

Before I get started, I'd like to ask if you realize the that tone of your post was condescending? That's a tremendous barrier to effective communication.

Well as someone who is looking into Ic2 reactors, I guess im seeing that the overall game has changed. The idea of 'set it and forget it' machines seems to be more popular. I'm curious, what do you guys actually do in the game, if you want everything to be painless and risk free?

I build things. Same as you. I don't overbuild tend to overbuild. If I need 32 mj/t, I produce, maybe, 40. If I need to power an AE system early game, I make an energy cell, put a lever on it, toss enough <type> engines on it to refill over time, and turn on the system when I need to access my junk. When I'm done, I turn it off and go do other things.

For this purpose, I like Redstone Energy Cells and lossless energy in general, because it benefits my playstyle to be able to use a machine and let a smaller number of power devices trickle charge it. The systems that control this get automated as time permits.

What I do not want, in any form, is to have to continually revisit a machine that I've already built in order to babysit it. It's a well known truth that TIME is the only currency that is meaningful in minecraft. Everything else is, effectively, limitless, even without mods. My time is limited. It is sufficient to play, but insufficient to find enjoyment in being forced to rebuild a machine because I smashed a machine with a too-good pick due to lag, or having to go farm for another stack of coal, or another source of oil or lava, because that (expletive) machine won't stop wasting my power/resources/TIME.

I just don't understand why people say they 'want to build complex systems' and then want MFR style machines

Dunno why people do anything, really, but I prefer MFR because you get exactly what you pay for. You get machines that are intelligent and do not punish you for oversight. My biofuel generators will not trickle power into the great unknown because I'm not using it....the internal battery won't let them. Nor will they waste fuel if the battery is full or near full. That's intelligent design, and the sort of thing you can find in any number of real-world analogs (such as how an air compressor has an automatic shutoff below the burst point of the air tank).

It's a challenge, and apparently very complicated.

It's no more complicated that figuring out how to use logistics pipes to keep multiple bioreactors stocked, or AE for that matter. I believe that 'complicated' isn't the word you should have been looking for. Nuclear reactors aren't complicated. Steam turbines aren't complicated. Galgadorian tree farms aren't complicated. They're expensive in terms of TIME. Every time I have to go back to it, it's time I'm not spending exploring, or helping someone else on the server, or trying out a new mod offline, or playing a different game. And that is not fun. I believe that the word you should have been looking for is 'tedious', not complicated. The closest thing to complicated I've found in modded minecraft is tree breeding (personally)...that's a lot of variables.

Everything you do in minecraft survival is tedium. You could just click a button and cheat in a furnace... but you spend hours mining ores to make machines to automate getting ores... to make machines to process those ores... to do what? If you just wanted to make huge statues and crazy structures, why not play creative mode? You can make complex systems and huge builds that way. Obviously there is some appeal to 'having to work for it'.

Not really. Creative doesn't offer some undefined something that makes survival, even well-stocked survival, more fun (for me). With creative I don't know where to start. I don't even usually test build things in creative, personally. If I can't get it working in survival I'll shelve it for a while and move on.

There's another aspect to this that is likely more personal preference than anything else. With the current modding scene and the current Mojang release schedule, my worlds don't often last long enough for me to get to the point you describe. If it weren't for a server environment that enforces stability on me, I would be changing, updating, dropping, adding mods and even versions on a daily or weekly basis. But even the server environments aren't forever.[DOUBLEPOST=1380903420][/DOUBLEPOST]

/edit: All that said, there are some things even -I- won't stoop to, like force rods, well Dartcraft overall really

lol. I love what Dartcraft represents (at least to me), and that's an enchanting system that isn't based on random chance or grindy leveling. But yeah, it's a bit much in places.

 

[Runo]

That's intelligent design, and the sort of thing you can find in any number of real-world analogs (such as how an air compressor has an automatic shutoff below the burst point of the air tank).

This is incredibly naive. Idle power draw is standard for industrial machines. Transmission losses are standard. You can't argue real world analogs when suggesting we ignore the laws of thermodynamics.

I'd also like to add that its incredibly simple to control power use, its just that you choose not to. Gates with 'has work' flagged sent to a redstone cell or engine array and you never have to touch it again. The mechanics are there and were put in place to reward people who use the mod's logic systems, its just something you don't want to do.

 

[snooder]

Well as someone who is looking into Ic2 reactors, I guess im seeing that the overall game has changed. The idea of 'set it and forget it' machines seems to be more popular. I'm curious, what do you guys actually do in the game, if you want everything to be painless and risk free?

I just don't understand why people say they 'want to build complex systems' and then want MFR style machines while Ic2 nuclear reactors are mostly ignored.

Because we want to build a complex system that we came up with and thought of, not the complex system that a particular mod dev forces us to. Maybe I want to build an automatic noteblock system that plays Carmina Burana whenever someone walks by my base. That's going to be pretty complex. Before I can get to that stage though, I'll need to collect enough resources, build a sufficient power infrastructure and get enough equipment to make the building process go smoothly and keep creepers from blowing everything up once I'm done. And for that part of the game, I don't want to have to spend a month or two dicking around with a tedious system I don't enjoy before I can get to the real meat of building the project I really want to do. And I REALLY don't want to do it for the 9th or 10th time after a new modpack comes out, or I restart my world, or I join a new server.

BTW, the reason people don't use IC2 reactors is not because they are too complex. It's because they simply aren't cost effective. The best 6-chamber MarkI reactors only provide ~400 EU/t. And to make them work long-term, you need either a renewable source of uranium through bees, or a breeder reactor setup. Compare that to just the basic generator running on charcoal. You only need 40 of those to equal that same throughput. The material cost to build 40 generators is NEGLIGIBLE in comparison to the cost to build several reactors and provide them with the appropriate amount of cooling, shielding, etc. That's not good design. It's exacerbated when you have ACTUAL good upgrades like geothermals or advanced solar panels which have a slighter higher cost, but for a greatly increased benefit.

 

[zilvarwolf]

This is incredibly naive. Idle power draw is standard for industrial machines. Transmission losses are standard. You can't argue real world analogs when suggesting we ignore the laws of thermodynamics.

I don't believe it's naive. I can offer a real-world example of an automatic shutoff for a mechanical device as a good design principle all day long. I think it's a good example. Idle power draw on industrial (and consumer) electronics is also a valid comparative point, BUT, there are some differences. One of which is that my currency isn't time (well, maybe it is, but it's subdivided differently). From the equivalent standpoint, I'm already at the point of 'See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil'. If I wasn't, I'd turn off the power strip...the same solution I use in game.

I'd also like to add that its incredibly simple to control power use, its just that you choose not to. Gates with 'has work' flagged sent to a redstone cell or engine array and you never have to touch it again. The mechanics are there and were put in place to reward people who use the mod's logic systems, its just something you don't want to do.

I do not choose not to. As I stated above, "The systems that control this get automated as time permits." Gate manufacture is an expensive process. It takes lots of power (TIME) and some fraction of that power requirement in time, and (at least in unleashed 1.1.3) lasers appear to be one of the biggest hogs of offline energy (perhaps due to a bug, I do not know). I can make gates. I do make gates. I am passing fair at automation with gates. I do not see them as an acceptable answer to the problem of idle power draw, and I feel that anyone suggesting them as an answer to idle power draw already agrees with the problem it represents, they just quietly work around it.

 

[Runo]

I don't believe it's naive. I can offer a real-world example of an automatic shutoff for a mechanical device as a good design principle all day long. I think it's a good example. Idle power draw on industrial (and consumer) electronics is also a valid comparative point, BUT, there are some differences. One of which is that my currency isn't time (well, maybe it is, but it's subdivided differently). From the equivalent standpoint, I'm already at the point of 'See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil'. If I wasn't, I'd turn off the power strip...the same solution I use in game.

I do not choose not to. As I stated above, "The systems that control this get automated as time permits." Gate manufacture is an expensive process. It takes lots of power (TIME) and some fraction of that power requirement in time, and (at least in unleashed 1.1.3) lasers appear to be one of the biggest hogs of offline energy (perhaps due to a bug, I do not know). I can make gates. I do make gates. I am passing fair at automation with gates. I do not see them as an acceptable answer to the problem of idle power draw, and I feel that anyone suggesting them as an answer to idle power draw already agrees with the problem it represents, they just quietly work around it.

So what it boils down to is you don't have the time to be bothered with the details, but insist that those of us who enjoy the details and are rewarded by the developers for our attention to detail shouldn't get a bonus. Sounds a lot like 'I want what he has but without the effort' to me. I enjoy racking my brain over complex problems in games, you remove those problems and it becomes a lump of coal to me. Power loss and idle draw isn't a problem, its a metagame that expands enjoyment for those who wish to partake.

You can believe what you want, but as someone who works for a heavy industry company, I'm not going to sit here and argue what you 'believe' about heavy machinery and what I've seen and know firsthand. We spent 50 million last year on M&R alone, real life is not a justification for any in game simplification of the machinery the game intends to emulate.

 

[zilvarwolf]

So what it boils down to is you don't have the time to be bothered with the details, but insist that those of us who enjoy the details and are rewarded by the developers for our attention to detail shouldn't get a bonus. Sounds a lot like 'I want what he has but without the effort' to me. I enjoy racking my brain over complex problems in games, you remove those problems and it becomes a lump of coal to me. Power loss and idle draw isn't a problem, its a metagame that expands enjoyment for those who wish to partake.

I don't even think I can call that an uncharitable summation of my position. I'm not sure what I did or said to offend you, but I'm willing to discuss it offline if you really have a problem with me or what I've said.

In fact, no. I am bothered with the details quite frequently. I do make systems of various sizes. I experiment with various combinations of the (what, 112?) mods in the pack I'm playing with. I think I've stated my position pretty clearly, so your attempt to boil it down to a derogatory and inflammatory statement really isn't appreciated. I don't feel that it's a good design decision, but I'd sure like to know the rationale behind it. What I do not want, in any form, is to have to continually revisit a machine that I've already built in order to babysit it. I have to babysit enough large systems during the day. To me, minecraft is a game, not a job. When I find I need to reference a checklist (mental or physical) when I login:

Do I have enough fuel?
Do I have enough oil?
Should I go check on oil well and see if it's time to move it?
Do I have enough lava?
Did anything explode?
Do I still have XX stacks of YY, ZZ, AA, BB, CC, ... YYYY in order to keep those automatic proceses running?

I'm rapidly approaching 'job' status. I work for a living, as, I'm sure, most of us do. I don't need, or want, an additional job. I prefer systems that do not attempt to force micromanagement onto my game experience in order to (insert reason here). Especially when that isn't necessary and doesn't appear to be a good game design decision.

You can believe what you want, but as someone who works for a heavy industry company, I'm not going to sit here and argue what you 'believe' about heavy machinery and what I've seen and know firsthand. We spent 50 million last year on M&R alone, real life is not a justification for any in game simplification of the machinery the game intends to emulate.

Let's see if I can approach this differently. .. The best in-game analog that I can consider for idle power draw in real world machinery vs minecraft machinery would be the induction furnace (well, all of the advanced machines but I can't remember the names of the others). In these, the trickle power draw is used to keep the system at a high-readiness state so that it can operate at full efficiency on demand, and the cost for not keeping those machines idle-powered is a lower level of efficiency. That's not a direct analog to most industrial machines, because there are additional costs involved, and taking down all or part of a system will typically incur additional costs beyond the lost productivity while the machine is off.

But the induction furnace is an example of a machine with a valid cost-reward cycle. You (probably) don't mind paying that cost, because there is a reward for doing it (better, faster processing). That cost/reward cycle doesn't exist in any buildcraft machine. You just get the cost, and apparently just because. That's what I mean by it not appearing to be a good game design decision. Micromanagement should be rewarded by more than just 'I have to move my pump a little less often'. IMO.

 

[Enigmius1]

The original thing you said was:

Let's just nip this whole soon-to-be-convoluted mess in the bud. The initial point I made was that there are certain central, key points to game design that spell the difference between successful games (mods) that are widely enjoyed and niche games (mods) that are enjoyed by only a sliver of the eligible population.

And what you're doing right now is demonstrating how mod devs defend their choices to employ crappy mechanics. It's one giant strawman. The bottom line and the only supporting argument I need to support my original assertion is that given the option (TE), most people avoid BC energy mechanics like the plague. Out of all the "new" mods released in the last year and included in FTB packs, TE is the only one that largely escapes criticism. (Xycraft would be another contender were it not for the quartz lag machine.)

It's simple: if a mod dev wants to motivate player response or ongoing involvement, they can dangle a carrot or swing an axe. Most people will chase a carrot and enjoy it as part of the gaming process. Few people like being chased around with weapons. It's a developer choice and mentality. If the BC/Forestry/Railcraft devs want to motivate people to spend more time hovering around their machines, they could provide that incentive by reward of some sort. Instead, they choose penalties. If they want to motivate people to use other systems within the mod (ie. assembly tables/gates), they could do so by making the systems more attractive instead of making them gigantic power sinks with outrageous material costs for mediocre performance.

It doesn't matter how you twist what I"m saying or how you fumble to produce lame counter-arguments on the spot. Reality is reality and it doesn't change because you don't like it.

 

[Runo]

Its not really you, so sorry about being a little too scathing with my discussion. Its become almost impossible to talk about difficulty on the forums lately without being met by an onslaught of responses criticizing the play style Zorn so eloquently put with his racecar analogy. I came in this thread mainly because I felt he was being assaulted for his competitive play style, which I share, and I've been getting bent out of shape because I feel people with these opinions are getting shouted out of these forums by the loud and the vocal. Instead off offering solutions to complex problems people bring, lately its been about deriding complex problems themselves and suggesting avoidance. I feel that there's less knowledge and help on this forums because of that, and it saddens me.

The KISS principle has its merits and is a good way to design things and games to peak enjoyment, but if a game that lacks a competitive outlet doesn't reward some added tier of difficulty, it becomes insanely boring to a large portion of players who play like I do. My base is entirely self sustaining and I wouldn't have to log in for weeks to check on anything, so it can be done with some effort, and I found it very rewarding to accomplish this, especially while maintaining style points of an attractive house. There's still room for continual improvement and ive got several ideas already involving IC2 and railcraft and MFRs red net and forestry. That's the kind of thing I enjoy doing, relentless optimization. To me, set and forget should be a reward for a lot of effort, hence my thoughts onthis topic.

 

[zilvarwolf]

Its not really you, so sorry about being a little too scathing with my discussion.

Thank you. Good to know I hadn't found a problem with foot-to-mouth disease. At least not entirely.

Its become almost impossible to talk about difficulty on the forums lately without being met by an onslaught of responses criticizing the play style Zorn so eloquently put with his racecar analogy.

The problem I have with this is that you're conflating difficult with micromanagement (or tedium, perhaps). Micromanagement isn't difficult. It's just something you do or automate around.

My position says that if I make a rolling machine and plop it down, I should be done with that machine except to fill it up and pull out the goodies. I can automate that part all day long, should I so choose.

Your position says that I'm not done when I make the rolling machine. I also have to make a gate (or two, if it's my first power hog or I go the intermediate capacitor route), maybe some cobblestone structure pipe. Probably some facades. A half-mile of red pipe wire, and possibly an intermediate device to act as a capacitor (IE: redstone energy cell).

Ok. I can do all that. But I don't think I should have to. If having it hooked up provided a benefit (and no, immibus, getting to use it is not a benefit...I could automate a turtle to pick it up and put it down whenever I wanted, and it will work with exactly the same speed and efficiency as it does if it was left plugged in), then it would be a different story. That 80,000+ MJ I just spent is probably less than the machine will actually waste in it's entire lifespan on an SSP game...at least in one of my worlds.

I came in this thread mainly because I felt he was being assaulted for his competitive play style, which I share, and I've been getting bent out of shape because I feel people with these opinions are getting shouted out of these forums by the loud and the vocal. Instead off offering solutions to complex problems people bring, lately its been about deriding complex problems themselves and suggesting avoidance. I feel that there's less knowledge and help on this forums because of that, and it saddens me.

I came into the thread because I feel that people are missing some of the larger points.

To me, set and forget should be a reward for a lot of effort, hence my thoughts onthis topic.

I understand, I'm just afraid that people are replacing 'effort' with 'tedium'. Being forced to automate or perform the same activity in order to simply maintain the status quo doesn't seem like a very well-considered design choice...which is why I would like to see the actual reasons behind it. If nothing else, I can stop guessing.

 

[Enigmius1]

Its become almost impossible to talk about difficulty on the forums lately without being met by an onslaught of responses criticizing the play style Zorn so eloquently put with his racecar analogy. I came in this thread mainly because I felt he was being assaulted for his competitive play style, which I share, and I've been getting bent out of shape because I feel people with these opinions are getting shouted out of these forums by the loud and the vocal. Instead off offering solutions to complex problems people bring, lately its been about deriding complex problems themselves and suggesting avoidance. I feel that there's less knowledge and help on this forums because of that, and it saddens me.

What you may not see is that a lot of us denouncing these kinds of mechanics actually play a very involved style of game as well. I don't go around asking for added tedium in the name of difficulty. I don't need to. I've got over 100 modded MC videos on my channel that show all kinds of projects that most people will never take on because it's real difficulty, not this fake difficulty (aka tedium) that everyone likes to get their chest puffed out over. People proclaiming they want tedium because they're in a racecar...I hate to break it to you, but that's a golf cart with a near dead battery. I'm a big proponent of supporting people in playing the way they want to play, but enough with the "I like it difficult and you just want it easy" bullshit. The vast majority of people who say that don't know the first goddam thing about difficult, and hiding behind tedium isn't going to teach them.

 

[zorn]

What you may not see is that a lot of us denouncing these kinds of mechanics actually play a very involved style of game as well. I don't go around asking for added tedium in the name of difficulty. I don't need to. I've got over 100 modded MC videos on my channel that show all kinds of projects that most people will never take on because it's real difficulty, not this fake difficulty (aka tedium) that everyone likes to get their chest puffed out over. People proclaiming they want tedium because they're in a racecar...I hate to break it to you, but that's a golf cart with a near dead battery. I'm a big proponent of supporting people in playing the way they want to play, but enough with the "I like it difficult and you just want it easy" bullshit. The vast majority of people who say that don't know the first goddam thing about difficult, and hiding behind tedium isn't going to teach them.

Yes yes we get it enigma us you're awesome and we suck.

 

[Zenthon_127]

Yes yes we get it enigma us you're awesome and we suck.

What a GREAT way to represent your side of the argument!

Anyways, tedious and difficult are two very, very different things. If you want large amounts of actual difficulty, you really shouldn't be playing MC period (not counting total conversion mods like BTW and TFC). No, Terraria basically outdoes MC completely in that regard (playing Terraria on Medium/Hardcore is enough to make anything short of DiveneRPG's most absolute BS mobs look pathetic in comparison). No, you don't enjoy difficulty, you enjoy modded minecraft but want it to take additional item and infrastructure. And that's fine, but don't confuse it with difficult.

Because it's not.

 

[immibis]

My position says that if I make a rolling machine and plop it down, I should be done with that machine except to fill it up and pull out the goodies. I can automate that part all day long, should I so choose.

Your position says that I'm not done when I make the rolling machine. I also have to make a gate (or two, if it's my first power hog or I go the intermediate capacitor route), maybe some cobblestone structure pipe. Probably some facades. A half-mile of red pipe wire, and possibly an intermediate device to act as a capacitor (IE: redstone energy cell).

I am not the person you were replying to, but my position is that when you plop down a rolling machine, you're not done.
At the very least, you have to connect it to your power network. Having to build another engine, or some gates, is simply an extension of that. I don't know how facades even come into this.

 

[Mero]

I am not the person you were replying to, but my position is that when you plop down a rolling machine, you're not done.
At the very least, you have to connect it to your power network. Having to build another engine, or some gates, is simply an extension of that. I don't know how facades even come into this.

Ignoring the fact that I don't use rolling machines, placing it down would be the actual process of connecting it to my power network.
I have a long line of conduits ruining along one wall with open spaces for just such an occasion.
Absolutely nothing else has to be done by me once the machine is built and placed.

In my case, on machines that constantly drain power but seldom actually run, I either wrench the connection or remove the machine.

 

[immibis]

Ignoring the fact that I don't use rolling machines, placing it down would be the actual process of connecting it to my power network.
I have a long line of conduits ruining along one wall with open spaces for just such an occasion.
Absolutely nothing else has to be done by me once the machine is built and placed.

In my case, on machines that constantly drain power but seldom actually run, I either wrench the connection or remove the machine.

Then... you also have a bunch of engines with unused power for such an occasion.

 

[Mero]

Then... you also have a bunch of engines with unused power for such an occasion.

Not really. At the end of the line is the forestry tree farm, squeezers and fermenters along with a bank of energy cells being charged before being taken off to remote locations to be drained by things like quarries.



Machines like the roller that almost never get used and drain power constantly just take some of their power temporarily while they are hooked up to the network.

While yes, technically, you can call that extra power, I don't see it as extra, just redirected briefly.

 

[PhilHibbs]

Nuclear reactors aren't complicated.

Really?