Let's talk about IC2

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Celestialphoenix

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Nov 9, 2012
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Tartarus.. I mean at work. Same thing really.
Yes, RoC and ReC are still highly punitive on level with GT and ReC is probably much more so since you can corrupt an entire world with radiation from failed reactors.

The area it irradiates is fairly large- but its no gray goo scenario and won't kill the entire world.

I also like a lot of the new ideas. The new "forms" of power are cool, eg heat units, kinetic energy, etc. But, jesus, the interfaces are absolutely horrifying.
I can't tell you the number of times I've watched an IC2-e walkthrough and people cannot get simple machines to work because they don't realize you need to match certain faces of blocks together. The block GUIs need to be more informative about a) what they're receiving/sending, and b) which sides do what. The blocks themselves need to be more obviously textured so that you know which side is a receiver vs a sender.

And jesus the wrench mechanics are brutally out of date. GT wrench mechanics are absolutely amazing. You can never do the "wrong" thing with a GT wrench. It always does what you'd expect it to do, and you never "accidentally decide to totally unscrew and dismantle a machine" when you really just wanted to turn it around. WTF is that.

IC2 needs to switch to GT wrench mechanics immediately if they ever want to be taken seriously again.

Why aren't you on the IC2 dev team yet?
 
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Azzanine

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Jul 29, 2019
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Why do/did IC2 machines explode if you overcharged them? I mean I understand to add challenge to the set up. Bit why a loud bang?
If it where me designing the mechanic, I'd merely make the machines set on fire and become useless. Blocks that either need to be repaired or recycled for its metal.
Like if you over charged a macerator you'd hear a crackling of elecrical discharge fire and the macerator will turn in to a 'buggered macerator' block which will require you to apply some items that it would be crafted with to fix it. Or it could just be recycled in a furnace to recoup the iron cost or a add a function to the recycler that will randomly return 15-20% of it's components.

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Padfoote

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Why do/did IC2 machines explode if you overcharged them? I mean I understand to add challenge to the set up. Bit why a loud bang?

Wouldn't surprise me if this is based off of how capacitors react when you put too much voltage into them. Those things explode even with small voltages.
 
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Darkone84

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Jul 29, 2019
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The 2 main things I really don’t like with the current IC2 is the new power system is just rubbish either go back to the packets and voltages system which players understood or change to the RF API. I was so happy when I saw DW20 April fools video and IC2 had gone to RF. I thought to myself yay they fixed it, IC2 might get some more love from the Minecraft community now…. sadly no.

The other thing that bugs me to no end is the IC2 wrench. I have broken my machines so many times by forgetting that the basic wrench doesn’t have a 100% chance to recover the machine. Having it change back to a basic machine casing…. It’s not like the IC2 machines are really cheap to build and take no time at all. The salt…

I believe in 1.8 the IC2 wrench is now fixed and will not destroy machines when used.
 

Inaeo

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Jul 29, 2019
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I'm OK with machines being fried or even exploding (so long as the collateral damage isn't excessive) when exposed to overcurrent. The wrench mechanic was enough to turn me off completely. If that's been addressed, maybe I'll give it another shot, but odds are it would need to be a pack based around IC2, which I'll admit doesn't excite me right now.
 

asb3pe

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Jul 29, 2019
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IC2 wrench problems were very easy to solve... don't use the manual wrench. Make the IC2 Electric Wrench ASAP and learn how to put it into "Lossless Mode" (I think crouch and press M key is the default). As it says, "Lossless" mode means you never lose any machines when you wrench them, it's impossible to break the machine in lossless mode.

And to get IC2 rubber (before MFR became the much easier way), you had to make the Electric Treetap, otherwise you would quickly go somewhat insane making a gazillion wooden treetaps. So making the IC2 Electric Tools was always pretty much a no-brainer, and it pretty much took away all the headaches, except for having to charge the tools up frequently.
 

KingTriaxx

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That's why the Gravitool was so awesome. It combined all those tools you used all the time into one, and then gave them a much larger battery.
 

Nedrith

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Jul 29, 2019
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To me IC2 is probably the closest mod to well balanced. You play with the lower machines and there honestly isn't much risk unless you use a medium/high voltage power storage unit as the storage and reinput it to your low voltage machines any design flaws are yours. Once you get to the higher tiers and get nuclear reactors and such a single mistake can be catastrophic but successfully building a nuclear reactor can produce a ton of power. It doesn't have any easy power gen high power gain options. Solar takes a ton of resources and only with an additional mod does it not take up a lot of space.

Then you have the RF power system. So many mods have made the power gen so easy you might as well not even bother with a power system. Set up a big reactor and a slow quarry and you'll have enough yellorium to power your system as the deafault and normally used settings for big reactors don't really challenge players to get fuel. Even worse there is no risk to using a big reactor or most other RF power generators. Screw up a big reactor and it just doesn't work or doesn't work as efficiently. Dynamos with augments give a decent amount of power and culinary generators are easy to get fuel for and a 64x culinary generator will produce immense power.

IMO however the best has to be RotaryCraft. It has nice simple power generation options that take almost no work and give no gain. It has more dangerous power generation options that require some planning and decent risk and it has a power transfer/usage system that requires more than just plopping down a block and some wires and saying hey I have this super fast furnace. Sadly it's found in so few modpacks and just as worse the power conversion rate from RoC power to RF power is pretty insane, my modified infinity world was running off of the power from a single jet turbine. Though setting up a jet turbine isn't exactly easy, especially if you are playing in a world where you don't want to use quarries.
 
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Azzanine

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Wouldn't surprise me if this is based off of how capacitors react when you put too much voltage into them. Those things explode even with small voltages.
Most just bulge, get hot and rupture though. Also I don't think their explosion has much force.
I mean are there any machines in any field that have capacitors that can potentially decimate the machine they are stored in.

I guess if you assume Steve just builds things hap hazardly its feasible.

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GreenZombie

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Jul 29, 2019
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I do actually enjoy IC2.

I dislike the wrench mechanism to disassemble machines safely as it discourages (re)building. I like to tinker with builds a bit to get the right look and even with the correct tool it can quickly run flat before I have a design I like. Basically, the wrench encourages unimaginitive direwolf20 style 9x9's that look like kitchens with all the devices along the edge.

In packs however it annoys me even more as I believe that the wrench mechanic - if used - needs to be universal.

All things said - it just feels like a very contrived mechanisim to force a tool progression, but it shuts down, rather than opens up, avenues for creativity.

As for the cabling - my only objection to machines blowing up is that (insulated) cables of different power levels should not interconnect. There is never a good reason for them to do so. Again, this is just a transparent and contrived attempt to force players to use the painting tool.

At least with the cables, a bit of pre planning and knowledge makes them safe to work with, and the result is more interesting design constraints to work with.
 
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Azzanine

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Also the fact the regular wrench is often skipped quickly is an indicator of poor conceptualization.
It may as well only function as an ingredient.
Annoying thing is that lossless mode needs to be activated and uses like a third of its power. You either need to charge it constantly or make a bat pack which removes the ability to wear protective armor.

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Nedrith

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Also the fact the regular wrench is often skipped quickly is an indicator of poor conceptualization.
It may as well only function as an ingredient.
Annoying thing is that lossless mode needs to be activated and uses like a third of its power. You either need to charge it constantly or make a bat pack which removes the ability to wear protective armor.

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'

I would say that last point is actually a good thing. The player having to make a choice. Rather than there being one correct choice of I must wear the best armor available I now get the choice of wearing good armor or having a portable battery.
 
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Azzanine

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I would say that last point is actually a good thing. The player having to make a choice. Rather than there being one correct choice of I must wear the best armor available I now get the choice of wearing good armor or having a portable battery.
Or the one correct choice of needing to switch armor to use the electric wrench.
It's not as open of a choice as you think it is. You essentially NEED a batpack to use lossless mode and you NEED to use lossless mode as risking the loss of a machines components is unacceptable.
So all it means is you need to switch out your kit to move IC2 machines.


All that being said though, I now recall being able to charge tools from them portable batteries. So you may not need a bat pack. But IIRC you still need to have the battery on your hot bar and click RMB.

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GreenZombie

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I would say that last point is actually a good thing. The player having to make a choice. Rather than there being one correct choice of I must wear the best armor available I now get the choice of wearing good armor or having a portable battery.

Thats not a choice. Thats just extra work.
 

KingTriaxx

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Jul 27, 2013
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Indeed, if you're using the wrench, you're not out in the world where you're going to come under attack. While I'm busy playing with machines, I don't usually wear my going out armor. I wear gear to more effectively let me cart around the machines and other items I'm using. And when I go out, the electric boogaloo armor stays behind and I wear the stuff that stops me getting mauled/shot/blown up.
 

ChemE

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Jul 29, 2019
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I wish however there were mods to do more smooth armor switching - Just like iron man walk over a spot and your armor switches to a specified gear.

Not quite that easy but Bibliocraft's armor stands do make this task as easy as shift clicking provided you stashed a redstone torch/signal beneath the stand. I always have one near my Thaumcraft area, another by my IC2 nuclear reactor, and several more by my front door/base access.
 

Pyure

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Aug 14, 2013
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I have to agree that the lossless-wrench thing is a bit silly. There's little gain to a playing experience, and that game design mechanic should have been smoothed out long ago. The GT version wins again.