Macerator or induction furnace - What to start with?

[Cronos988]

Hey everyone,

I have recently started a new world, using the magic world pack with all the "regular" mods, expecially IC2 and GregTech, added back in manually. GregTech is on the expensive recipes, TE is on regular recipes.

I currently have both 3 Diamonds to spare as well as 5 Gold and barely enough iron to create either the induction Furnace OR a Macerator. The former would require me to also create a power grid, while the latter requires me to go to the nether.

Now I do have a lava lake nearby and enough tin cells to make myself a nether portal, so the question comes down to what I should do to start my workshop.

Yes I know it's entirely my choice, but I'd like to hear some opinions. What puts me off the induction furnace is that it requires a constant supply of sand. What also bugs me is that it can apparently accept up to 9MJ/T, which I cannot yet produce. On the other hand the macerator requires 2 steps instead of one and I can also later add a pulverizer to the induction furnace for "bonus" dusts.

 

[Shadowquinn]

Macerator, hands down.

 

[SwarthyBard]

I've been making a pulverizer first, but I haven't loaded IC2 back in so I wasn't giving myself the option of a macerator. Been trying to learn to play without IC2, with TE though it's not so bad.

Reason I make pulverizer first is that it increases my ore output immediately and I can still use the regular furnaces as I build a better BC power system and slowly change out to a redstone power cell and usually magmatic engines. A magma crucible making lava to power them keeps itself running with just netherrack to easily make more lava.

Also if you can be patient the TE machines can be powered with any BC/TE/RC engines, I usually start with steam since water and coal/charcoal/coal coke are pretty easy to make and 2-3 of them power a pulverizer and powered furnace fairly well, also you can automate the steam engines or magmatic ones to not even need you to keep refilling them.

IC2: if you go that way you can run a generator off charcoal which pretty much grows on trees, so fairly cheap source of power there, but then you'll want a batbox before long and a geogen for efficiency and more EU/t.
However with the GT changes, a macerator is now more expensive at the start so maybe machine frames and coils are cheaper for you ATM.

I can't say for sure which route is quickest/easiest for you since you have re-added IC2 and GT, it's kinda down to your play preference, do you want a bunch of IC2 machines to slowly upgrade or a BC power system to rebuild as it gets better parts. Maybe IC2 would be easier because BC engines don't upcraft to better ones, but it's your choice in the end.

 

[Cronos988]

does the Pulverizer also double ores? The Induction furnace says it doubles the output, but I could find nothing in the description of the pulverizer about increasing output.

 

[MrZwij]

does the Pulverizer also double ores? The Induction furnace says it doubles the output, but I could find nothing in the description of the pulverizer about increasing output.

Yes. It's (almost) the very last thing on this page: http://thermalexpansion.wikispaces.com/Pulverizer

 

[Kyre]

The Pulverizer has three distinct advantages over the Macerator:
1. The Macerator is much more expensive to build if you don't disable the gregtech recipes. Additionally if you can't find any rubber then you're out of luck. The only really expensive aspect of the Pulverizer is 2 gold.
2. The Pulverizer doubles your ores AND has a small chance to give you a third ore for some recipes. For example, every copper ore you pulverize has a 5% chance of also generating a pulverized gold along with the pulverized copper.
3. The Pulverizer is a LOT faster than the Macerator without upgrades.

In conclusion, I think everyone should use Pulverizers when starting out instead of Macerators

 

[SwarthyBard]

Yea, so far the only thing I've come across that the Macerator is nice for that Pulverizers don't do is the wool into string; but between spiders, bees and if you play with TF the uncrafting table you should have plenty of ways to obtain it.

 

[1ManleyMiner]

Since lava is plentiful. Iron Furness, then Macerator/Pulverizer then a geothermal generator to power it and a bat box with. By all means go to the nether by way of making diamond pickaxe and portal. Grab easiest glowstone and get the heck out till your geared up.

I love new beginnings because it's fairly limited to be efficient.

 

[arkangyl]

The advantage of the Macerator is that it can be upgraded into a Rotary Macerator once you have the infrastructure to support it, as long as you have Advanced Machines installed as well. The Rotary Macerator is faster than the Pulverizer by far, even when the Pulverizer has a full energy bar. You do need to leave it running all the time to really benefit from its insane speeds, but at a cost of one or two EU/t, that's not at all bad if you have a decent power grid. Certainly worth it to be able to process a stack of ores in seconds, rather than minutes.

 

[Hydra]

Also don't forget that you don't need any redstone engines to get stuff out of a Pulverizer. The only reason I also build a macerator is simply to be able to grind coal into dusts to make diamonds.

 

[Brewster1972]

I found it to be much easier to set up an early automated system with TE than with IC2. Being able to configure inputs/outputs and have machines transfer items between themselves (without pipes or engines) really helps with early expansion and resource processing.

 

[b0bst3r]

TE hands down is much easier and more profitable start, eventually you will need a macerator but definitely go TE from the off.

The other saving is coal, once you found a lava supply you can use that to power all the TE machines. Once you have access to the nether go magma crucible and now you have a new power source not related to ore hunting. Much much much easier start!!

 

[King Lemming]

Yeah, on the high end, it's unlikely that TE will ever "compete" with IC2 in terms of one operation per tick. Just isn't my style. The machines will get some upgrades at one point, but they'll be more interesting than just "runs faster."

Though honestly, I have to question the notion of needing stuff processed instantly. MC just doesn't play that way, this is just a basic human concept that faster = better always period, and then the finished product doesn't get used for quite a while, which means all of that speed really meant nothing.

 

[BallisticMunky]

does the Pulverizer also double ores? The Induction furnace says it doubles the output, but I could find nothing in the description of the pulverizer about increasing output.

You may have confused the features of the Induction furnace ... it does not produce any more ore than just using a regular pick ... the "double the output" is referring to being able to smelt 2 items simultaneously, thus in theory doubling the efficiency at which you can smelt ores. As far as comparing macerator vs. pulverizer, the other posts have done well in describing those.

 

[MrZwij]

Yeah, on the high end, it's unlikely that TE will ever "compete" with IC2 in terms of one operation per tick. Just isn't my style. The machines will get some upgrades at one point, but they'll be more interesting than just "runs faster."

Though honestly, I have to question the notion of needing stuff processed instantly. MC just doesn't play that way, this is just a basic human concept that faster = better always period, and then the finished product doesn't get used for quite a while, which means all of that speed really meant nothing.

IMO it's more about later convenience. It's nice to have chests loaded with ingots and semi-finished products so you can cut another step out of your recipes later. Considering most modded-MC players are familiar with Buildcraft pipes to automate their ore production, and pipes tend to back up and overflow if they run faster than the machines they're connected to, it's nice to know you can dump a quarry's worth of ore into a chest and forget it with the fast IC2 machines.

 

[b0bst3r]

Yeah, on the high end, it's unlikely that TE will ever "compete" with IC2 in terms of one operation per tick. Just isn't my style. The machines will get some upgrades at one point, but they'll be more interesting than just "runs faster."

Though honestly, I have to question the notion of needing stuff processed instantly. MC just doesn't play that way, this is just a basic human concept that faster = better always period, and then the finished product doesn't get used for quite a while, which means all of that speed really meant nothing.

I'm waiting for the Quarrilizer which quarry's the ground, processes the ore into ingots and puts all the cobble/dirt into handy carryall's, gonna nickname it the "lazyman's quarry" .

On a more serious note, TE rocks, keep it up.[DOUBLEPOST=1355416549][/DOUBLEPOST]

It's nice to have chests loaded with ingots ...

Yer still using chests?????? Barrels man barrels, lol upgraded they store 1024 STACKS, you don't ever need chests of ore/ingots again.

 

[MrZwij]

LOL, of course you're right. For some reason our storage room is barrels but our crafting room is chests. I don't know why ...

 

[arkangyl]

LOL, of course you're right. For some reason our storage room is barrels but our crafting room is chests. I don't know why ...

Chests are still useful for all of those intermediary components used in crafting. I doubt you need a barrel for Redstone Conduits.

 

[makeshiftwings]

You may have confused the features of the Induction furnace ... it does not produce any more ore than just using a regular pick ... the "double the output" is referring to being able to smelt 2 items simultaneously, thus in theory doubling the efficiency at which you can smelt ores. As far as comparing macerator vs. pulverizer, the other posts have done well in describing those.

Induction furnace does double ores. I just checked to make sure I wasn't crazy. One iron ore + one sand = two iron ingots + one slag.

It doesn't double dusts; so if you put in one iron dust you only get one iron ingot. So if you put the pulverizer first, it will turn one ore into two dusts, and then those two dusts into two ingots and two slag. The only benefit of the pulverizer is that dusts smelt faster and the pulverizer gives you a chance at a bonus third dust.

 

[b0bst3r]

Fixed for you as this has confused me throughout this post and probably others as well.

Induction Smelter does double ores. I just checked to make sure I wasn't crazy. One iron ore + one sand = two iron ingots + one slag.