The only time automation reaches a point at which you have gone "too far" is when it starts negatively affecting other players. Until that point Automate your heart out.
How far is to far with automation?
- Thread starter Taiine
- Start date
Except when you automate griefing. For instance, a turtle at max build height places a piece of sand that falls and lands in front of your friend's door every time they enter the area. Make it happen more randomly and they will think its endermen.
Setting up automation is what I like to do in my world. Big Reactors -> Quarry -> Rotarycraft Extractors -> Induction Furnace -> AE storage. Next I went about making the system more efficient and furthering the automation of every thing the quarry brings in. I love the challenge and no matter how I set it up, I always seem to discover some new way to route power or something. It's really all about what people want out of the game. Personally, I like sitting back, watching my reactor level readouts, and hearing my machines hum.
Aye. I may make and automate a smeltery to make a bunch of clear glass or seared stone as that is tedious work to make a bunch of it. On the other hand, any other use of the smeltery normally only needs a bit of work, and I actually see as fun.
So, automate anything that seems tedious to you. If you don't find something tedious, don't automate.
In my 1.5.2 world with GT, by the time I reached a point to where I could build advanced machine casings with ease, I stopped playing. I had built my distillation tower, and had no other ultimate goal in mind. (If it hasn't crashed, the game may still be running on my server. I haven't logged into it since. I think it has been running since october, and has probably filled up my DSUs by now.)
I'm actually not too into automation lately, or tech mods in general. I like building and adventuring. Basically, I'll automate things that I need for building and adventuring, stuff like tree farms, quarries, etc. I never automate building; the closest I've come to that would be making a turtle build me a 9x9 to live in so I don't die; I immediately tore it down and deleted the program. Like I said in the quote, I like to automate mining (though I usually don't automate replacing the quarry or anything like that), sorting systems (I'm honestly fine with manual sorting, I actually do that for most of the game. The thing is, I really like to build gigantic sorting systems. I don't care about the result, I care for the process), automatic mashing/smelting. Back in the 1.2.5 days I automated things like IC2 Alloy Bar things (can't remember the name for the life of me; cba to look on the wiki), and carbon bars from IC2, just because I used them so much.
Lately, my playstyle has taken a pretty awesome (I think) turn. I've been using automation mods, not for the convenience, like most do, but either because I like watching carts move around, or to assist me in other things. For example, take Witchery for example, now, there's no automation in Witchery at all. Though, I use automation-based mods to make me tree farms and such, so that I can focus more on the awesome rituals and curses, while still making me fumes and brews (hint: you can automate Kettles and other Witchery machines with pipes and golems). I've actually been making a pack based around using these awesome tech mods to help you gain resources to be properly outfitted for an adventure.
So I just got an idea for a terribly turtley setup. Thank you.
i remember a certain turtle army that munched the ground from beneath a rival town on a smp server during ultimate. goes right through towny. :3
edit: could have had them in vertical mode, and wipe everything they had built clean, but that would have been mean
edit: could have had them in vertical mode, and wipe everything they had built clean, but that would have been mean
After I get to the point that I have basically limitless mats at my disposal I start building mega builds like 24x32x24 and larger MAC islands around my multiple void bases just for the heck of it. I make a lot of builds that require very tedious crafting like the AE stuff and the TE and industrialcraft stuff where after the 64th furnace you wonder what your doing with your life. So things like the AE auto crafting actually make me want to play the game. It all depends on the mood I'm in and what I'm trying to automate that I choose the mod I want to automate with, I really want to try and make a base that integrates railcraft/and other cart mods in it in random ways I've basically thrown railcraft and stevescarts under the bus in my latest world.
I automate what I can, to be honest. And I don't look at automation as a means to reach a goal (apart from AE Autocrafting, because manually making stuff like Electronic Circuits or Macine Blocks gets really tedious after a while). My entire goal would be creating the automats in the first place. Placing machinery, laying down pipes, producing power to keep the stuff running.
Then, taking a step back and watch the system I've constructed work on its own. Huge solar boiler setups delivering power into Tesseracts. On the receiving end of the Tesseracts, Quarries eating away the land (I hate XYCraft Quartz Crystals with a passion, so every chunk stripped means less of the annoyance in the vincinity of my base). Items flowing from the Quarries, reaching my base and being processed into useful resources, before ending up in my bank of neatly formatted ME Drives.
I'm currently working on a setup involving cells and Bauxite electrolyzing, with automated emptying of Compressed Air Cells and piping Hydrogen Cells into Gas Turbines which help power the setup. Currently, I don't have enough power to run the Electrolyzers continuously, so I have to come up with a more reliable way to supply power. Maybe making an automated Biofuel farm? I'll have fun overcoming the challenges, setting up systems to power systems required to prevent clogging in yet more systems. That is FTB playing for me. With the entire loaded area around my base soon stripped down to Bedrock, I won't have to waste time keeping those pesky mobs away from my lawn either. Between projects I expand or re-shape my base, so it looks nice in addition to performing well.
Then, taking a step back and watch the system I've constructed work on its own. Huge solar boiler setups delivering power into Tesseracts. On the receiving end of the Tesseracts, Quarries eating away the land (I hate XYCraft Quartz Crystals with a passion, so every chunk stripped means less of the annoyance in the vincinity of my base). Items flowing from the Quarries, reaching my base and being processed into useful resources, before ending up in my bank of neatly formatted ME Drives.
I'm currently working on a setup involving cells and Bauxite electrolyzing, with automated emptying of Compressed Air Cells and piping Hydrogen Cells into Gas Turbines which help power the setup. Currently, I don't have enough power to run the Electrolyzers continuously, so I have to come up with a more reliable way to supply power. Maybe making an automated Biofuel farm? I'll have fun overcoming the challenges, setting up systems to power systems required to prevent clogging in yet more systems. That is FTB playing for me. With the entire loaded area around my base soon stripped down to Bedrock, I won't have to waste time keeping those pesky mobs away from my lawn either. Between projects I expand or re-shape my base, so it looks nice in addition to performing well.
How far is "too far" is highly dependent upon the individual and their playstyle at that time.
For me and my *current* playstyle, I'm trying to automate as little as possible, but will automate things once they become tedious. In my current world, I am about to consign golems to a life of tedious drudgery, harvesting or gathering crops to ultimately feed into a EU Culinary Generator for the benefit of their greedy and selfish master.
Automatic for their master.
For me and my *current* playstyle, I'm trying to automate as little as possible, but will automate things once they become tedious. In my current world, I am about to consign golems to a life of tedious drudgery, harvesting or gathering crops to ultimately feed into a EU Culinary Generator for the benefit of their greedy and selfish master.
Automatic for their master.
Too much automation is when you destroy servers with lag. For me, I try and automate and then make everything as efficient as possible. Rather than having pulverizers into redstone furnaces for ore automation, I would try pulverizers into induction smelters, and set up an automatic sand production. I also try and use the least lag inducing machines, which can be a challenge as some of the best machines are super laggy.
Until there is a Steve Golem, you can't automate enough...
Sounds like your average real life job, but instead you get to be the boss. Who said minecraft isn't realistic?
I like automation, but I can't really automate everything because my PC is really crappy. 
Forced virtual manual labor.
Forced virtual manual labor.
This is hilariousI like automation, but I can't really automate everything because my PC is really crappy.
Edit fastest like ever
Celestialphoenix
Too Much Free Time
The fun is in the chase... its building and design challenge of automatic machines.
Mechanical contraptions are really fun -Like using deployers and pistons to farm peat, or a tree farm with buildcraft and redpower frames.
The only time automation goes too far is in those magic/super blocks. Their good for lag reduction, but pretty damn boring to play with.
I've found that there's always something left to automate, and I find most manual things to be boring and repetitive. I don't want to constantly be running between apiaries or chopping down trees. Once I have a lot of things automated, I ask myself how I could do it more effectively, more efficiently, and more quickly. Why stop at a quarry when I can build a crazy mining contraption that eats four chunks in four minutes? If I have one way of automating a certain resources, are there more ways of automating that resource so that I can make it more quickly? This usually keeps me pretty busy so I'm never sitting around just watching pipes. And if there is downtime, I just build something.
To me, automation is a goal all of its own. The only reason I ever bred bees was to build the automation that runs them and processes their output. I could just as well have voided the end products.
I once automated a couple of Plants vs Zombies levels. My friends were baffled. "You went to all that effort to avoid playing the game? Why don't you just, you know, not play it?" They will never understand.
I once automated a couple of Plants vs Zombies levels. My friends were baffled. "You went to all that effort to avoid playing the game? Why don't you just, you know, not play it?" They will never understand.
Last edited: