Isn't an MFR tree farm really just a solar panel?

[zorn]

It appears many people in the community have a sort of disdain for solar panels. "free energy, no maintenance" are the phrases that usually pop up. Just place the block and get free energy.

Isn't a MFR tree farm really just about the same thing? I'd be curious to see which takes more resources and crafting time to create: an HV solar panel, or an upgraded MFR tree farm and boilers? Or even just IC2 Generators. 1 MFR farm and ~30 Generators would put out as much as an HV solar, but the hv solar requires more to time and resources to make. 1 solar panel is more costly than 1 generator, and it takes 512 solar panels to make 1 hv solar. So a rough guess would be that one hv solar is... 15 times the resources to make?

Actually an MFR farm and 30 generators makes more power than an HV solar... you can use torches to keep trees growing at night, but the hv will not create power at night. It might be closer to 20-25 times the resources to get Compact Solar power up to where an MFR farm and generators can get you.

And yet people kind of 'tsk tsk' an HV solar, but an MFR tree farm is considered a standard power source.

Compare to forestry multifarms, which DO require some interaction with the player to keep going, and take more resources to build than an MFR farm. So why does it seem solar power gets the cold shoulder, but MFR farms do not?

 

[twisto51]

Every energy system that can be fully automated and produces more energy than it consumes is basically just a solar panel. Just instead of solar power they're using the power of bad math/physics/chemistry.

People mistake complexity for gameplay. It might be gameplay figuring out a complex energy system and optimizing it the first time. The fifth time though the fun is gone and I just want the power to use elsewhere. That is why regardless of what power I use early and mid game eventually I end up with something very straightforward that I can mass produce to meet my power requirements. Lately that has been solar of one form or another.

Oh, and most people would place MFR somewhat or entirely in the OP column, I think. Just about everything it does it does cheaper/easier than other mods.

 

[Bibble]

To be honest, I don't really have an issue with Solar panels, they're just another way of generating energy (I know the IC2 fora always had an issue with them, but not really encountered the same sort of thing here).

That being said, there are trade-offs with tree farms, namely the infrastucture and space needed to get them running, and the testing required to set one up so that it is "no hassle". Solar panels are pricey, but that's about it. To be honest, it's all just a case of what's better in your situation.

 

[DREVL]

Ill never make them simply because they are rediculous to craft.

 

[AlanEsh]

I don't think solars are "easy mode" or whatever, they're just BeenThereDoneThat, and just boring. MFR tree farms + coal production + autofeeding boilers is suitably fiddly, intersting to look at, and in the end low-to-no-maintenance. Win win win win.

 

[PierceSG]

I for one don't find solar OP but rather PITA to craft.
Some find them OP but I do believe the same people would find MFR OP as well.

 

[twisto51]

What is so hard about telling AE to make me 64 Ultimate Hybrid Solars?

 

[MigukNamja]

So why does it seem solar power gets the cold shoulder, but MFR farms do not?

That's a bit of black-and-whiting, i.e. oversimplification, Zorn.

Solar power gets picked on because it's boring as heck. It's not even interesting to look it. MFR farms at least have animation, sound, moving parts, and require some modicum of item (wood, sapling, apple) and process (furnace) automation. However, it's not as simple as everyone agreeing Solar is 0% good and MFR tree farms are 100% good. About all you can say is Solar is < 50% good and MFR tree farms are maybe > 50% good.

I personally prefer the following setup for my tree farms:

• TC4 Lumberjack golems
• TC4 Gatherer golems
• TC4 Use golems (to replant the saplings)
• Bred saplings with as many good traits as possible

I then take all the wood, along with Creosote, and convert that into Impregnated Sticks in a Carpenter for my bees. I take all the saplings and make Ethanol out of it.

I like seeing my golems running around and I enjoy seeing something actually chopping the trees down, the pieces getting collected, and the sapling being replanted.

But, to each their own. I enjoy what I enjoy.

 

[PierceSG]

What is so hard about telling AE to make me 64 Ultimate Hybrid Solars?

The part where you need to get AE's MAC up and all the pre-requisite patterns prepared and a whole auto-crafting process all linked up with enough juice to power them all, while you could have gotten couple of MFR farms up and getting loads of power already?
This is just my opinion, by the time I could auto-craft UHSP, I do not need the power anymore.

 

[MigukNamja]

What is so hard about telling AE to make me 64 Ultimate Hybrid Solars?

To refine your point, I agree that solars are resource and craft-intensive and once you have solved those problems, solars aren't a challenge anymore. Just spam and plant. Pretty boring from that point on. Similar to UU-matter, the reward at the end of the journey is anti-climactic. "Oh, great. I did all that work and this boring block/thing/liquid is all that it is ?"

IC2 in general is like that. It's a means to about as boring of an end as you can think of.

Imagine packing up, moving all your belongings across country on a road trip, driving across beautiful landscape, and where you end up moving to is a run-down subdivision in Boringtown, USA. Total let-down. That's the way I feel about solar arrays.

At least with tree farms, you have built something you can look it.

 

[Dmyster]

I tend to see mfr tree farms as my early and end game power sources... I start off with a iron farm with furnaces feeding into 2 hobbyist steam engines... when that becomes too little for my powered furnace and pulverizer setup then I upgrade to Lp boilers and so on... it can be considered OP but then again many things are.

Generally I see them to be similar to a solar panel as long as you have a buffer for surges of wood which are generally the only problem for me.

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Tapatalk

 

[tedyhere]

Engineers Toolbox Hydroelectric Generators *drops mic and walks off*

 

[MigukNamja]

Engineers Toolbox Hydroelectric Generators *drops mic and walks off*

...*booms on the stage and has annoying feedback for a few seconds*

ROTFLMAO

 

[tedyhere]

I knew that would get someones attention

 

[PierceSG]

Don't you need a river biome for those to work?

 

[tedyhere]

Yep sure do, which is fine by me since I always build close to rivers

 

[Dmyster]

I personally believe the generator is op... I mean come on coal is op even mining is op

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[tedyhere]

Well I *could* Power my base off creepers <ponders>

 

[CascadingDragon]

Well I *could* Power my base off creepers <ponders>

With Extra Utils new generators, I'm going to power my base off the color pink... Somehow. It will be glorious.

 

[Necr0maNceR]

I personally believe the generator is op... I mean come on coal is op even mining is op

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Tapatalk

BOOOOOO

*throws tomato*

Responses like these are worse than those where people actually complain about everything being op. Aside from the fact this kind of reply was only funny the first dozen times it was used, it only really belongs in threads where people are actually having a heated debate about things being op. You're just copying something that's been said before and posting it where it doesn't even belong.

Well I *could* Power my base off creepers <ponders>

With Extra Utils new generators, I'm going to power my base off the color pink... Somehow. It will be glorious.

The future of power generation. Stuff like this is more awesome than solar panels and tree farms combined.