Need a Large Scalable Design

[LastElf]

Right, so anyone who has seen my base will know that I'm going end game on my Ulti server. I seem to be at a standstill though. I'm looking to add blast furnaces and coke ovens, thinking around 16 of each connected to routers which handle input/output with my AE network with only one import/export bus for each type. Well, Railcraft multiblocks won't let you build them next to each other, so routers tend to have a whinge with such a setup.

What would be the cleanest way to build them, attach them to the network and have everything working nicely? I would prefer to have walking access to each of them as well, so I can't just checkerboard the two. Machine filters aren't an issue, just not sure what I can put between them to make it tidy.

Also, I don't want to make 64 item tesseracts. While that would work and I'm going for crazy big, I don't want to be ridiculous and it won't scale as I build more furnaces further down the line. This is more of a template that I can show off different concepts for the rest of my server and purposefully doing things differently instead of optimally (I'm not as crazy as Saice running the whole thing on thermopiles though. However I do like his mass design and will be implementing it when I set up my alloy furnaces).

 

[Ako_the_Builder]

I asked the question in neptunepink's forum thread yesterday if he could add some kind of block that "fits" for connecting separate inventories, meanwhile, this setup looks good but isn't exactly what you asked for.

 

[LastElf]

I asked the question in neptunepink's forum thread yesterday if he could add some kind of block that "fits" for connecting separate inventories, meanwhile, this setup looks good but isn't exactly what you asked for.

Wow, I'll admit, that is an epic oven, but not quite what I'm looking for. I'm also going to be hooking up limiters on the export bus, so it's a lot easier if I just router it instead (Don't have 32 limiters to then change the values for). Routers also make it infinitely scalable for as long as I have an inventory connecting it.

Actually, thinking about invisible inventories... Did Secret Rooms add invisible chests? I don't know anything about the mod except that you can make one-way mirrors and stone walls you can walk through. I figure if I can just machine filter them then it will look like nothing's there and the router will just keep going along happily. Or at the very least, put something like a sandy/infernal brick facade on a chest?

Edit: Just realised that you could dark cable the whole thing and have the limiter there... I guess I could do that if it comes to it, but the manual access would still be handy to have. I may not make my builds pretty but I do make them so that you can see how everything works.

 

[Ako_the_Builder]

nice, hidden chest works for alveary, just tested. Looks better than the vanilla furnace I was using.

 

[Ako_the_Builder]

Neptunepink replied to the suggestion for a machine linking block with:

"I have felt the need for it"

 

[paperlord]

If you want a more industrial looking block, the Applied Energistics ME Heat Vent also connects inventories. It's not really an inventory, so if you connect inventories with the heat vents, the router won't put anything into the heat vents. I haven't tested it with the other MAC blocks, maybe they'll work too...

Since you say you're almost at end game, I assume you've got enough quartz to actually build enough heat vents.

As an example, in my current base I built 2 generator towers where I use the heat vents to connect the individual generators. As you can see the router isn't even connected to a generator.

 

[LastElf]

That is an amazing idea. Good find! Any idea if the heat vents allow for mobs to spawn on top of them? If you look at the link in the OP you can see some screenshots of my world and can see that everything is a slab to stop mobs spawning instead of having lights everywhere. I could use the vents as the floor and connect it all that way. Unless I use that as the floor and put inverted white xychoride lights in the intersections between the furnaces (See the alveary area, that's got green ones).

And yes, I have 5000 quartz sitting in the network right now with a mining well quarry a button away if I need more. Working on the beryllium I need for the MPS ion thrusters right now, just cause I got bored of gliding everywhere

 

[paperlord]

I'd put some lights in there, they're supposed to be multiblock parts, so I assume they didn't receive any special features apart from that.