Interesting auto-mining solutions

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Cronos988

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Jul 29, 2019
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Hey everyone,

I like automating stuff, and I like to have an automated miner do some work while I am away doing something else. However, in my current world, I am kind of lost as to how to go about it. It seems I can't find an interesting, scaleable solution.

Up until now, I have always used quarries. They aren't too expensive, easy to use and scaleable via the energy requirements. Now, however, I don't have buildcraft in my pack anymore. I am looking for something that is somewhat cheap (I don't mind complex, but it shouldn't need tons of resources) and optimally scaleable that lets me start automining early (with accordingly small results) and is optimally scaleable for the endgame.

The only thing I can think of right now is computercraft turtles, but they seem too powerful. It's probably fun to code them, but I always felt they didn't really fit into minecraft. Any suggestions? The mod doesn't have to be in any pack, I can add it myself.
 
Something equivalent to RedPower's frames.
A tunnel bore/frame quarry was is magnificent machine to behold- especially the ones from the pre tube-frame era
Setting up eats a fair bit of metal, but expanding them is very cheap.
As for automining in general- buildcraft was one of the cheapest and easily accessible, so anything else will be harder to set up in comparison.

Also look at the bores in Steve's Carts, RotaryCraft, Thaumcraft, Railcraft. Engineers toolbox does something with high pressure water I think.

Or automate a passive collecting system in your base- Extra/Magic bees, IC2 UUM, MFR Laser, Gtech manufacturing lines ect
 
Remember the old cliche... "You can have it fast, cheap, and easy. Pick any two." This is kinda in the same area. There are numerous mining options available. CelestialPhoenix just posted a few of them. There is also the ic2 miner. People always forget about that one. It does have to be moved from time to time though. There aren't any cheap solutions I can see that really scale from early to late game.

A few other resource collection systems:

Magical Crops allows you to literally grow your resources. Automate them with some TC4 golems, and you are all set. Since the plants drop 1-2 seeds when harvested, it will take a while to expand your farm from the original 2 starting seeds. If you get the plants and automate them early, you should have a reasonable output by late game.

Oreberry bushes (TiC) can give some metals.

IC2 crops.
 
The Railcraft one is quite a bit of fun. I'm going to try mounting an Arcane Bore on an Archimedes Ship. You can actually move them along the ground if you've got a flat surface to move on, or you can fill the base with balloons and move it that way. Just remember to check the rotation of the output when you stop.

MFR harvesters can pick TiCon Berries.
 
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I haven't used it yet, but people say Mekanism's Digital Miner is absolutely amazing. You can set filters for what it should mine from a pretty huge area or something like that. If you miss RP2 world eaters, there's Redstone in Motion (for frames, not sure how stable it is though) and Calclavia's MFFS (for this neat moving force field system).
There's also MFR's laser drill system, although it's really power hungry.
 
In 1.5.2, I had set up the MFR laser drill being powered by only 100MJ/tick. Since I was on a server, it ran all the time. between that and extra bees, and some TiC oreberry bushes, I had more resources than I could use.
 
Steve's carts are fairly cheap (early on) and can be set up to do some pretty intense branch mining easily, with minimal prep time. You can also scale them easily by either adding more carts or getting better drills. The only things that need supervision is the drill repair and if you this method the initial track placement.
 
Thanks a lot for your replies!
I don't want to use any type of resource generation (oreberries, MFR laser) yet, because I am still somewhat new in that world and I like my mining to actually show what it's doing.
I think I will use tunnel bores, either railcraft or steve's carts. It's something I haven't done before, they look cool and are not horribly expensive.
That video hiroshi posted is really interesting, would not have though of picking the rails back up to change the branch.
 
the industrial coil helps bridging the gap in between. Charge it up with the hydrokinetich engine and you can get a few GJ while you set up other things. Though it needs a lot of torque, rads don't have to be too high for the bore.

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If you're doing Rotary Craft, it's probably better to look into using the Extractor for processing rather than jumping straight into auto mining. The output is insane, but it's a beast to run, so I'd suggest saving up in an Industrial Coil and doing it stage by stage as you'll get a lot more out of your power that way. Once you can produce jet fuel though, a properly converted gas turbine or microturbine will chew through stacks at a time.
 
Btw, can anyone key me in on what block-breakers and pipes to use for a MFFS tunnel bore? I know they exist obviously and can set up the moving platform fine, but I've had bugs with both AE (controller derps out) and TE (crash).
 
MFFS tunnel bore needs AE's transition plane blocks but the idea is interesting if it works with TE's block breakers... I always wondered if you can go big with it and turn your own tunnel bore into an actual base
 
I haven't used it yet, but people say Mekanism's Digital Miner is absolutely amazing. You can set filters for what it should mine from a pretty huge area or something like that. If you miss RP2 world eaters, there's Redstone in Motion (for frames, not sure how stable it is though) and Calclavia's MFFS (for this neat moving force field system).
There's also MFR's laser drill system, although it's really power hungry.
The Digital Miner is indeed Amazing. It will solve your resource and house redecorating needs without killing the landscape.