Laser Drills: benefits and downfalls?

[RealSketch]

Only disadvantage is obsidian mining and how it's a bit hard to control where you mine due the speed of the mining laser.
MODULAR POWER SUIT KINETIC GENERATOR + MINING LASER = UNLIMITED POWER!!!

 

[rhn]

I would suggest this thread be closed and a new opened, and this time the proper names be used. People are debating 2 different things in one big jumbled mess. The title of the thread makes everyone think it is about the IC2 Mining laser, but the author is actually interested in debating the MFR Laser Drill.

Or perhaps @Siigari should atleast change the thread title to indicate that it is not the Mining Laser that is meant, but the Laser Drill.

 

[midi_sec]

the OP says in the first sentence it is talking about the laser drill. don't close the entire thread because people cannot read.

 

[RealSketch]

I would suggest this thread be closed and a new opened, and this time the proper names be used. People are debating 2 different things in one big jumbled mess. The title of the thread makes everyone think it is about the IC2 Mining laser, but the author is actually interested in debating the MFR Laser Drill.

Or perhaps @Siigari should atleast change the thread title to indicate that it is not the Mining Laser that is meant, but the Laser Drill.

To be fair on my part the title did say "mining lasers" not "mining drills".
But I agree with what you're saying, this has kind of gone off in a bad direction and should be renewed for the benefit of everyone.[DOUBLEPOST=1393613929][/DOUBLEPOST]

the OP says in the first sentence it is talking about the laser drill. don't close the entire thread because people cannot read.

But the title says otherwise...

 

[midi_sec]

But the title says otherwise...

do you always reply to a thread based solely on the title?

there would be no confusion if people read the thread. just report the OP, ask for a title change and a cleanup of off topic posts, because who knows when/if the OP will be back.

 

[RealSketch]

do you always reply to a thread based solely on the title?

there would be no confusion if people read the thread. just report the OP, ask for a title change and a cleanup of off topic posts, because who knows when/if the OP will be back.

To answer your question, no, I don't always reply solely on the thread title, but I usually do. For example, forum games, which you most likely will reply with meaning to the title.
And also, don't you think @rhn has a point. This thread has gone a bit too far onto a different topic.

Might want to agree with me...
(hint, hint)
V
V
V

 

[midi_sec]

he does. which is why i said split/delete the offending posts made by people who do not read. don't screw the entire thread, thx.

 

[RealSketch]

he does. which is why i said split/delete the offending posts made by people who do not read. don't screw the entire thread, thx.

I agree with that but it won't make a mod's day that's for sure.
Going through all these pages removing hurtful...no....off topic replies.

 

[rhn]

the OP says in the first sentence it is talking about the laser drill. don't close the entire thread because people cannot read.

Ahh good the OP actually edited the original post, but not the title. Didn't notice before now, since I just read new replies. New posters should be able to see it now at least once they open the thread.

 

[AlanEsh]

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.

Seriously? And they don't ban the Quarry? lol

 

[Wagon153]

The MFR laser drill too cheap to power? The quarry can be powered with a stirling engine....

 

[Golrith]

Yep, people have crazy thinking at times...

 

[hiroshi42]

Like I said i think it is a bias against creating resources from nothing. I mean look at bees, you either get 1/4 an ingot per comb with Extra bees metalic or 1/9 with magic bees metalic lines. They both require a lot of time and effort to actually get even with gendustry which makes breeding very easy. And to get good traits takes a lot more breading of a lot of different bees. Plus to get a decent output you need alvearys with frames which can be automated but again takes time and resources. So to get the 'cheaty' bees you need lots of time, infrastructure, resources, and power. Or you could make a random mystcraft age, grab out a quarry which requires only a handful of diamonds, slap some power onto it and boom, resources. Or frickin turtles.

And the Laser drill produces somewhat random ores and could only recently be set to prefer some (emeralds, uranium, some others) And it now produces seemingly anything classified as ore, so you get a bunch of gems and junk (oooh,sapphires, just what I always wanted).

 

[twisto51]

Laser Drills are kind of boring but hard to beat when you want a self-contained production facility. I don't see any technical downside to them whatsoever. Power cost is usually high but at the point of your world where you start thinking about laser drills power gen shouldn't be an issue, IMHO.

Now that they can produce uranium I expect them to become a bit more popular, at least in packs where uranium is still useful.

 

[Siigari]

I would suggest this thread be closed and a new opened, and this time the proper names be used. People are debating 2 different things in one big jumbled mess. The title of the thread makes everyone think it is about the IC2 Mining laser, but the author is actually interested in debating the MFR Laser Drill.

Or perhaps @Siigari should atleast change the thread title to indicate that it is not the Mining Laser that is meant, but the Laser Drill.

I can't change the title of the thread for some reason.

edit: oh

 

[PierceSG]

Probably "balance" or "op" as a reason to ban those.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

 

[Darkone84]

With the MFR Laser Drill the "balance" is the issue. It will give you a random ore for the ore dictionary with is alright but the problem is some of those ores you get are meant to be rare. One example I can give you is the "Railcraft firestone" to fine one you’re meant to go swimming in lava. But with the MFR Laser Drill just leave it run for 24hours and you will have a heap. Also if you have Big Reactors you can get enough uranium to run a Big Reactor which powers you MFR Laser Drill. Once you have it set you just get "Free ores" for now cost. If you’re on a server it's far worse than a Quarry or Mekanism Digital Miner as long as you have power you will have ore coming in. If you’re not playing on the server all the time you will have loads ore. At least with the Quarry or Mekanism Digital Miner once it’s done with that area it will just sit in idle mode. Some servers that let you use the MFR Laser Drill will increase the power cost in the config.

One thing that it needs to be more server friendly is a “off button” or have it after it does a set number of operations it shuts down.

 

[PierceSG]

Firestone isn't that hard to get if you are using BC's pump to drain the lava. Even if you are using the Ender-Thermic pump, you could always use a quarry later on once the area is filled with cobblestone.
Power wise, I always go for those that are easily renewable. And once I have a laser drill up, I'm usually have no power issues.
Regarding mining with machines, most servers I have played on always have a dedicated mining age which is reset weekly and machines that causes big holes or cavernous area are banned in the over world.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

 

[hiroshi42]

With the MFR Laser Drill the "balance" is the issue. It will give you a random ore for the ore dictionary with is alright but the problem is some of those ores you get are meant to be rare. One example I can give you is the "Railcraft firestone" to fine one you’re meant to go swimming in lava. But with the MFR Laser Drill just leave it run for 24hours and you will have a heap. Also if you have Big Reactors you can get enough uranium to run a Big Reactor which powers you MFR Laser Drill. Once you have it set you just get "Free ores" for now cost. If you’re on a server it's far worse than a Quarry or Mekanism Digital Miner as long as you have power you will have ore coming in. If you’re not playing on the server all the time you will have loads ore. At least with the Quarry or Mekanism Digital Miner once it’s done with that area it will just sit in idle mode. Some servers that let you use the MFR Laser Drill will increase the power cost in the config.

One thing that it needs to be more server friendly is a “off button” or have it after it does a set number of operations it shuts down.

I'll grant you the 'rare ores' thing even though we can set up several types of mining in the nether now.
However I don't understand the 'it powers itself' thing. Are you not able to run a quarry off a big reactor powered by what the quarry pulls up? I mean I can kinda see that without something like the big reactor the quarry would be a net power loss although it would be interesting to see with the default ore gen. As for the 'its always on' thing, that's the chunk loader's fault not the drill Last I checked there were settings for some of the loaders that prevented them from being on while the user was offline. Also If you are truly worried about the lazer drill being to cheap on the energy side of things, it is very easy to change although I am not sure if the change can be just made server side of if client side needs to make it as well.

 

[AlanEsh]

With the MFR Laser Drill the "balance" is the issue. It will give you a random ore for the ore dictionary with is alright but the problem is some of those ores you get are meant to be rare. One example I can give you is the "Railcraft firestone" to fine one you’re meant to go swimming in lava. But with the MFR Laser Drill just leave it run for 24hours and you will have a heap. Also if you have Big Reactors you can get enough uranium to run a Big Reactor which powers you MFR Laser Drill. Once you have it set you just get "Free ores" for now cost. If you’re on a server it's far worse than a Quarry or Mekanism Digital Miner as long as you have power you will have ore coming in. If you’re not playing on the server all the time you will have loads ore. At least with the Quarry or Mekanism Digital Miner once it’s done with that area it will just sit in idle mode. Some servers that let you use the MFR Laser Drill will increase the power cost in the config.

One thing that it needs to be more server friendly is a “off button” or have it after it does a set number of operations it shuts down.

I'll agree that the rare ores it pulls up end up being too plentiful with the Laser Drill, but the rest of you post doesn't make sense.
1) self-powering your reactor -- this is 100x easier with a quarry as it pulls up 100x as much yellowrium/uranium in a given amount of time. Sure the quarry will stop after some hours, but it will have dug up enough fuel for a week of reactor operation.
2) I think you're overstating the amount of work this block causes for the server. It takes power in, after x time it randomly (skewed by focus upgrades) picks an ore and stuffs it out the top. The full speed quarry is doing a mega butt-ton of work, so unless the Laser Drill is the most horribly coded block in all of modded minecraft, there is no way it is a significant load on any server.