If you're running a UU station, the MOX is the right call. Most other things, the Radio Isotope fuel is right. MOX fuel makes reactors very efficient if used correctly.
I don't ever see myself in a situation where I would choose 16 EU/t over 2k EU/t.
It's cheaper once you have the fuel to use that to power your factory and other things as opposed to stepping down your reactor. Replace your old infrastructure.
I think there may be a miscommunication here. What I am talking about is: Once you have your reactor converted to MOX, you are using all the plutonium to re-make more MOX cells. You don't get any more 'extra' plutonium. If you are wanting to run a MOX reactor, AND build up a supply of plutonium for RI Generators, you will need to build
another reactor for the exclusive purpose of generating plutonium.
It's like one or two evenings chunkloaded. Or a week of reasonably dense gameplay if you aren't good at automating. And unlike Thaumcraft's time assassination minigame, you can do other things.
This isn't my experience, but YMMV. Then again, I mostly play SSP rather than on servers, so I don't see as much 'uptime' as a server setting would.
You can parallelize this max load and diffuse it throughout your base. Very few things take 2048eu/t and those things can be near your reactor.
You are right, the only thing that can actually take 2048 EU/t is the UUM machines. Which means everything else has to go through a snaking mess of transformers and cabling and more transformers and more cabling.
For 1 line of 2048 EU/t, you will need a) 1 transformer and 4x gold cables, then b) 4 more LV transformers and 16x copper cables, in order for your machines to not explode. You have, at the end, 16 different cables, all snaking around, and you need to be absolutely certain that none of them cross, which means painting, and hoping you didn't miss a spot...
And explosions to follow when you screw up.
It doesn't matter though. You're really mad about this, but since nothing individually can consume it and it's trivial to parallelize, why does that matter? You're mad a theoretical consumer that doesn't exist can't be fed over a speed limit
The new ic2 meta for nukes is this: if you go over 2048/t you've done it wrong. It goes boom. Design accordingly?
The problems I have are as follows:
* Nuclear reactors now have a hard cap they did not previously have. There was an effective cap on energy generation, but not a hard cap. Now they do.
* If I want to power an entire base, I have to build a decentralized power network rather than a centralized power generation plant with an energy network.
* It is not unreasonable, what with overclockers and such, that an entire base's energy supply will exceed 2048 EU/t. However, I can't provide that much power from a single source, it has to be broken up into multiple parts. I cannot build a power plant which powers my whole base by itself.
* If two wires cross accidentally anywhere, and more than the allotted power accidentally goes through somewhere... BOOM. And the tangle of wires only gets worse, not just on a binary scale but on a Log4 scale. You can't just have one wire in and one wire out anymore. It has to be one wire in and four wires out.
You can't see why I am frustrated. I can't see why you think it's a good thing. I suppose we will have to agree to disagree on this topic.
I can understand a lot of the changes IC2-EX has done. Some of them I'm of two minds about, like the hammers. I don't feel such a steep resource bleed was necessary, although I like the idea of the metal plates and wires. The old refined iron was a matter of necessity to avoid crossing recipes. Back when it was instigated, it was about the only way to do it. Now you have metal plates, which are a more interesting solution. You use cutters on plates to make wires, which also makes sense. What does not make sense is the mayfly lifespan of these tools, but I can at least appreciate the mechanic.
The new machines... eh, if you want more than doubling of your ores, then yea... I can understand the complexity required. And I really liked the elegance of re-purposing the otherwise ignored canning machine.
I absolutely love the new nuclear reactor mechanics. MOX is an excellent example of player skill paying dividends. Reactor design is like a minigame, those who are good at it can reap rewards. RI Generators... eh, I don't see why I would ever build one when I can put that plutonium into a MOX reactor, but for those who aren't familiar with reactor design and don't want to risk a MOX reactor... okay, I can see it. I guess. Get enough Plutonium together, and you've got 16 EU/t out of a single block, so you've finally got a passive energy generation system which can beat out solar, hydro, and wind... at a price.
But the new wiring mechanic is just too... counter-intuitive and harshly limiting. For me, it is a deal-breaker. It caused me to walk away, slowly shaking my head.
