Hybrid Energetic bees and lightning

[Haruchai]

I know this has been discussed previously, but wanted to put to rest any question of whether or not this variety of bee causes lightning. The answer is a resounding YES. Our resident apiarist bred these bees (and somehow picked up a secondary trait of lightning) and now her place is getting absolutely ripped by lightning. A strike will hit every few seconds, is always hitting in the same small area (around her hives), is active during the day (when the bees are active) and less so at night or during rain (when the bees are dormant). I checked the place for nodes (none) and flux in the area is minimal.

This is both good and bad, of course. We hear thunder constantly and anyone near the place gets struck (more of a nuisance than a real danger). However, if we want to build a lightning rod we could have enough energy to power the entire world (if this type of lightning can be tapped, that is).

All-in-all, I'll say this to the folks who make the bee mod.....WTF!??? This is too over the top. Can someone point me in the direction of their home page so I can go rant?

Thanks.

 

[Freakscar]

No, the pure valiant drones/princesses/queens do never cause lightning. Thats a "special" trait from the energetic branch coming from ExtraBees. The "exited" or "energetic" bees are the ones who (can) have the trait "lightning" with them. So in your case, I suppose you have a Valiant-Exited or a Valiant-Energetic hybrid (or any other possible combination of those three) with an active "lightning effect" trait in one of your apiaries.

Next, the lightning effect caused by Xbees does not activate the lightning rod, that one is working in a)only natural thunderstorms or b) natural thunderstorms and storms caused by high flux through ThaumCraft.

 

[Haruchai]

Yes, I mentioned they had a secondary trait of "lightning (ie, energetic).

Glad to know that the lightning rod would be ineffective. We found and killed the queen with the trait...no more thunder every few seconds.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[Hydra]

I know this has been discussed previously, but wanted to put to rest any question of whether or not this variety of bee causes lightning. The answer is a resounding YES.

No. It's a resounding NO. Valiant bees don't ever cause lighting. Energetic ones do, and you breed those FROM valiant bees. So if you'd use an analyzer you'd see that that valiant bee is actually a valiant-energetic hybrid.

 

[Haruchai]

Yes, we did use the analyzer and we did see that the bee was "Valiant" with a secondary trait of energetic. Did I not state that earlier? Regardless, to me that's a secondary issue. The point I was trying to make was why the mod authors made the lightning effect so over the top. Lightning striking every few seconds (as in several times per minute), coupled with the resulting thunder, for a couple hours straight (until we could determine what was happening as the apiarist was at work) tends to get on one's nerves. Lastly, the hybridization occurred randomly--it was not something she purposefully sought.

 

[Sengir]

All-in-all, I'll say this to the folks who make the bee mod.....WTF!??? This is too over the top. Can someone point me in the direction of their home page so I can go rant?

1) Get a grip.

2) It's an effect of energetic bees, which are part of ExtraBees, not base Forestry.

3) No, valiant bees do not have the lighting effect and no, it can't just spontaneously appear on them. Yes, you can breed it onto them.

4) The lightning effect is fine. Learn to use the species blacklist if you don't want it on your server. No, not everything that is fun needs to be removed just because it can be annoying on a SMP server. That's what the config is for.

 

[Haruchai]

1) Get a grip.

2) It's an effect of energetic bees, which are part of ExtraBees, not base Forestry.

3) No, valiant bees do not have the lighting effect and no, it can't just spontaneously appear on them. Yes, you can breed it onto them.

4) The lightning effect is fine. Learn to use the species blacklist if you don't want it on your server. No, not everything that is fun needs to be removed just because it can be annoying on a SMP server. That's what the config is for.

I had/have no interest in bees. None of us did until a husband/wife team joined our server approximately 48 hours before the lightning came. She has bee experience from another server and wanted to concentrate in that area which is fine by us.

How the trait entered is beside the point. Which mod is responsible is beside the point (yes, I have learned that ExtraBees is the culprit). The issue *is*, evidenced for example, in one of the FRAPS I took. 1:37 of video with over 30 lightning strikes. Multiply that rate by each day cycle in the game x 2+ hours of real time. By then, we were all quite over listening to all the thunder. They (ExtraBees, or whomever) can put whatever effect they want in their mods, but in my opinion, that much lightning and resulting thunder is, as I stated, over the top.

 

[Sengir]

And I stated my opinion that it is fine as it is and pointed you to the appropriate config option.

 

[egor66]

Sengir while I have the utmost respect for you, I feel your people skills need some work

 

[Sengir]

My people skills are fine, thank you very much. It's not my job to sound like a PR agency.

Now: How is your post related to the topic of this thread?

 

[egor66]

Sengir your sir are correct I made an observation & forgot to reply to the OP but still I hold to the view that it costs noting to polite.

As to the OP yep Binnie is still working on balance on extra bees from what I have noticed in the update some names & recipes changed, minor but some, the lighting is a real pain at times & can make other people angry on a server that may have to endure the storms, yet have noting to do with the cause of said storms, we can hope that the issue gets a re-balancing in next version, atm some bees are more or less useless even as honey producers, there just a step to another bee or branch, if a bee is restricted in config then the entire branch may get locked out.

 

[Jaybob32]

Is the config file able to modify the rate of lightning? Or just remove energetic bees altogether? Not sure if removing them is the way to go as I'm sure later strains would depend on them. Being able to modify the lightning strikes would be nice.
I have not yet actually looked at the file, just wondering.

 

[Sengir]

but still I hold to the view that it costs noting to polite.

*sigh* Dear god... some people are even more huffy than me. Oh well... *leaves in a huff*[DOUBLEPOST=1361906795][/DOUBLEPOST]

Is the config file able to modify the rate of lightning? Or just remove energetic bees altogether? Not sure if removing them is the way to go as I'm sure later strains would depend on them. Being able to modify the lightning strikes would be nice.
I have not yet actually looked at the file, just wondering.

The Forestry config only allows you to block certain bee species from mutation and inheritance. Don't know whether EB has a special config just for that single effect.

 

[Jaybob32]

Extra bees does not appear to have any way to adjust the lightning. Looks like the only option is to either black list them or breed them briefly and don't keep that type in an active hive if not needed.

 

[Exasperation]

Or you could just use the extra bees genetic machines to overwrite the lightning genes before putting those bees back into an apiary.

 

[Velotican]

In my experience if you are breeding legit from a base set of mundane bees, it's actually easier to breed out any special effects entirely than to keep species' effects around.

The point here is that although by default each species has an effect gene, it can be bred out and replaced with another one. This is how the Valiant bees got the Lightning effect; they don't have it by default. This also means you can get the Lightning effect on any species of bee if you so desire.

 

[Haruchai]

@egor66
@Velotican

Thank you both for your observations and input. I will pass your observations to our server and we, plus anyone researching this subject will be better off for it. I like a good mystery and would like to investigate whether or not her piping system may have played a role in this trait being expressed.

Thanks again.

 

[Velotican]

Just to further clarify, when a bee species mutates into another one, if the mutant species has a special effect there's a high chance the mutant bee will carry that effect gene even if it's recessive. Analysing each fresh mutant will help you keep track of this mutation and help you pick out effects you want to keep and use. The only surefire way to keep any genetic trait stable is to have it be the dominant and recessive gene and this also applies to bee breeds which is where it's the most obvious.

 

[Jaybob32]

Or you could just use the extra bees genetic machines to overwrite the lightning genes before putting those bees back into an apiary.

Hmm not familiar with that machine. Sounds interesting. I had a run at bee breeding myself but had to move on to other things for a while before I lost my sanity. Probably just need to watch more breeding videos.

 

[Exasperation]

The process takes several machines working together:

-Genepool to turn unwanted bees into liquid DNA (used in later steps)
-Isolator to make a serum from a bee's genetic trait, picked at random from the traits the bee has (be warned that there is a chance to lose the bee in the most recent versions, so don't use a bee unless you're willing to sacrifice it)
-Synthesizer to fill up the serum (uses liquid DNA, reduces quality)
-Purifier to improve the serum quality (this uses more liquid DNA)
-Inoculator to imprint the gene from the serum onto your target bee (may take multiple charges of the serum, can have side effects if the quality of the serum isn't excellent)

Some of these machines are pretty power-hungry (up to 150 MJ/t, IIRC), and they're pricey to build, but they do give you a lot of control over bees' traits and provide a nice way to create a back-up of your bee species/traits.