Laser Drills: benefits and downfalls?

[Siigari]

Hey all. Just was looking through some stuff and I have a few questions about laser drills. (Actually the MFR Laser Drill.)

Traditionally I have really enjoyed using LDs in my worlds as a way to supplant quarries as the driving force behind my ore needs and micromanagement. I love progressing through, getting my batteries up then starting off with a huge LD array.

Are they required? Many servers ban them. Why do you think they do? I can't see them as massive lag generators considering their work is simple. Quarries provide a similar albeit more random system that drains resources whereas LDs generate new resources.

Just thinking. Thanks for your replies!

 

[Pyure]

Unless the code behind them is horrible, I agree that they can't be very resource-intensive. Its the upshot of "magic box" machines really. I suspect they're banned because of abuse or balance concerns.

I've never used one; but there's a current thread of someone using one to power Big Reactors with ML'd uranium, turning over an energy profit, therefore unlimited mining.

 

[KingTriaxx]

The lag they cause is due to the shotgun mode. It causes a large number of 1x1xX holes, in which only a few mobs can spawn, but that then have to try and path find they're way out. Simple up top, but not at the bottom, where they might have a one block, jump up, or two, where mot mobs can't actually get out of, so they turn and try to path the other way, which is now open. They go one or two blocks, then turn around to the new path. Dozens of them, in tiny, unlit holes you might never notice, but that the computer is trying to path through. Not to mention each shot in that mode causes issues because the computer is rapidly calculating the new lighting for the huge number of holes. Add explosive mode greifing and it's not hard to see the reasoning.

That said, Mining lasers are pretty awesome, even if like me, you only use them as an 'escape route'. IE fire straight up, and you can get out because the laser eliminates most of the down sides to digging straight up. As long as it's less than 64 blocks to the surface anyway.

 

[Pyure]

Wait I assumed he was talking about the resource-creating mining drill block as a replacement for a quarry, talking about arrays and quarries and new resources. Not talking about the mining laser tool.

 

[MigukNamja]

Don't know why servers ban the MFR Laser unless they also ban quarries, bees, Magic Crops, etc.,.

They do, however, require a lot of power, which *usually* requires a server-loading power build.

However, if talking about the IC2 ***Mining Laser***

The lag they cause is due to the shotgun mode. It causes a large number of 1x1xX holes

^^^ This. Shotgun mode in this thing is horrible.

 

[hiroshi42]

I'm with Miguk, The only reason I can see to ban the Laser drill is because it requires massive power which can lead to large builds which can strain servers. Also some people just don't like the idea of resources from nothing no matter how little you get or how much infrastructure is behind it.

You would think that running a couple of quarries/other mining things would be more load since you have to power the mining and load the chunks to be mined and process all the items and now you have a gaping hole in the world to render.

As for disabling the IC2 mining laser, that kinda hamstrings IC2 now, no nuclear or advanced ore processing for you! The thermionic centrifuge requires a mining laser to make last time I checked as does part of the UUM stuff.

 

[MigukNamja]

It would be nice if there was a way of disabling just the horrible shotgun mode.

 

[Pyure]

It would be nice if there was a way of disabling just the horrible shotgun mode.

It would be nicer still if it would mine in a 3x3 or even a 1x2(tall) pattern so it could compete with a TiCo hammer None of which helps lag considerations but it angrifies me that the best mining tools are from the blacksmith and not the tech lab.

 

[Siigari]

Talking about the MFR Laser Drill. (Sorry)

 

[rhn]

It would be nicer still if it would mine in a 3x3 or even a 1x2(tall) pattern so it could compete with a TiCo hammer None of which helps lag considerations but it angrifies me that the best mining tools are from the blacksmith and not the tech lab.

The new mining drills do this now. It should have several modes now that you can switch between to mimic a normal pick, a tico hammer and something else that I forgot

This works perfectly since I always used the mining drill as the backbone(with gravisuite upgrades and enchants it was insanely fast) and mining laser purely for its long range and horizontal mining capabilities.

 

[MigukNamja]

Talking about the MFR Laser Drill. (Sorry)

Yeah, can't see why that's banned. Power usage aside, MFR Lasers are actually pretty server-friendly.

 

[Pyure]

The new mining drills do this now. It should have several modes now that you can switch between to mimic a normal pick, a tico hammer and something else that I forgot

WHAT. How did I miss this. I now heart you @rhn, thanks.

I believe there were two levels of that drill; the standard and, like, diamond or some such. They both have this capability?[DOUBLEPOST=1393532443][/DOUBLEPOST]Um, also, feel free to ignore my question; I totally hijacked the thread like a bad person.

 

[midi_sec]

it's the old gregtech UU matter power trap.

"i need to make power to run this mining laser, but if i make more power i can run another laser...but if i make more power..." and so on.

shouldn't matter unless the server is high population, hosted in the galapagos, or it's actually hosted on a TI-86.

 

[Pyure]

@Siigari , back to your original question: Are the MFR Drills "necessary"? No, in the sense that I've never used one and gotten by just fine. If your servers ban them for whatever reason, but allow quarries (which is bizarre for server-resource purposes) then you're good to go: quarries are amazing, especially if you process the output automatically (filter out/recycle junk you don't want, sort the rest).

There are a number of alternatives these days, too. I think enderIO has one, RotaryCraft has one, Mekanism (I think) has one. I hear the IC2 version may suck less than it used to?

 

[DriftinFool]

I would be willing to bet that any server that lists Mining Laser under banned mods is not referring to the MFR one. It really is nothing more than a late game power sink. Considering it takes 20k RF/t to run at full power, many people will never even have one. It also doesn't destroy the world, so I can't imagine it is too hard on servers.

 

[rhn]

WHAT. How did I miss this. I now heart you @rhn, thanks.

I believe there were two levels of that drill; the standard and, like, diamond or some such. They both have this capability?[DOUBLEPOST=1393532443][/DOUBLEPOST]Um, also, feel free to ignore my question; I totally hijacked the thread like a bad person.

Bah, I was remembering wrong. It is the Gravisuite upgrade for the Mining drill called Advanced Diamond Drill that has the "TiCo hammer" mode. It also has a low power, fine and normal mode. In addition the IC2e Iridium Drill also has 2 modes: Silk touch or normal.

 

[midi_sec]

I would be willing to bet that any server that lists Mining Laser under banned mods is not referring to the MFR one. It really is nothing more than a late game power sink. Considering it takes 20k RF/t to run at full power, many people will never even have one. It also doesn't destroy the world, so I can't imagine it is too hard on servers.

i have seen groups running 6 gregtech fusion coils stacked on one another to produce power in order to make UU matter...so that they can make items to fill their shop on server for the little iconomy bs. they crafted everything from UU matter. everything. that power trap is real.

i've learned not to underestimate the lengths people will go in order to not go mining.

 

[Norfgarb]

Don't know if this has something to do with it or not but I had a problem a while back when i was running a private unleashed server in that the MFR mining Laser with Tesseracts and chickenchunks chunkloader caused chunk resets and repeated server crashes. not sure if it was the chunkloader or the tesseracts combined with the Laser that cause the problem but it was definitely part of the equation.

 

[Golrith]

I know some people think the Laser Drill is too cheap to power, so ban it for that reason, but then there's a config to adjust it's settings. Never see a need to ban blocks, if they can be configured.

In the end, I see these more advanced mining options as a sign of progression. From Caveman manual mining, to tearing up the landscape, to more "environmentally friendly" (if you ignore the costs/environment "damage" to power the thing) system.
You get to that point where you don't want to worry about resources any more. If you power it with RF, then any server strain will be minimal.

Personally I'm in love with the Mekanism digial miner, it's between the Quarry and Laser drill in technological terms.

 

[lenscas]

Well on a server that is running 24/7 a mining laser is better than a quarry as a mining laser doesn't need replacement it could easely produce while you are not online. For a quarry you atleast need to get online every so often to place it somewhere else.