New player.. where to go next?

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Tyrindor

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Jul 29, 2019
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I'm new and not sure where to go/what to do next. I was going to full solar and installed the easy recipe scripts, but then found out the advanced solar needs UU matter even in the easy recipes now. I don't think i'm close to be able to produce that...

Basically what I have is a Geothermal/5 normal solar arrays/MFE powering my house and all my equipment. Then I have 2 coke ovens, then use that to power my quarry that has 4x Stirling engines.. but that doesn't get it at full speed and it burns a lot of coke coal. There's gotta be a better method.

Basically what I want to know the best steps to:
1) Get 1 quarry running at full speed
2) Produce enough UU matter to make the an advanced solar array or two.
3) Where to go next...

Thanks.
 

Grydian2

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Jul 29, 2019
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If you are using the ultimate pack I would create a 36LP boiler and power it with a steves carts tree farm and a saw mill from thermal expansion. You can use the steam to produce MJs or EU with powerconverts. You need a consumer (steam in this case) and then either a MJ or EU producer. In the middle you need whats called a bridge. One steam boiler produces enough steam for almost 128eu/t so thats enough to get u rolling and produce some UU matter.
 

KirinDave

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Jul 29, 2019
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Do not feel compelled to do any of those things, by the way. I've played all the way to late game in DW20 with hand-mining. Build what interests you and don't feel compelled to copy what other people do.

Biofuel is a good call because of how are packs are set up, but hardly necessary.
 

Summit

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Jul 29, 2019
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It really depends on which pack you are using, and which version of the pack. But definitely quit using those stirling engines. They are horrible for efficiency.
 
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Tyrindor

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Jul 29, 2019
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I'm using ultimate with easy recipe scripts (that still seem overly complex to me at the moment!). As for not copying people, this is my first time playing and with so many mods it is overwhelming. I would prefer to copy a few builds until and I am more comfortable at doing my own things and experimenting.

I will try the setup that Grydian2 mentioned, but it looks very complex and i'm sure there's some stuff I won't understand. Hopefully it is not too complex to setup. Am I suppose to set this up to the Quarry, and then put my mass fabricator next it, so I can run both off the same setup?

My 5x solar panels keep my house plenty fueled, and in the rare case I make a ton of stuff.. I got about 6 stacks of lava cells filled and ready to go. So that department is fine right now.
 

CodaPDX

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Jul 29, 2019
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Solar arrays are horrendously inefficient, and not really worth the effort, even if you're in full on easy mode. They're really only useful as reasonably portable end game free energy generators. Geothermal generators, however, and even moreso their cousins the thermal generator and magmatic engine, give you a large amount of power for a relatively small amount of materials, and lava production is very easy to automate. For someone starting out, I can't recommend lava strongly enough as a midgame power source.

As for your quarry, four stirling engines is not going to cut it. Each Stirling engine produces 1 MJ per tick at full speed, while a Quarry can use up to 48 MJ/t. Furthermore, if you're daisy chaining the engines together, as many new players do, the only engine that's actually providing power to the quarry is the one actually touching it. In order to properly power a quarry, you're going to need at least 10 MJ/t. There are a number of ways to do this, but the first thing you're going to want is better engines. Stirling engines are weak and woefully inefficient, and really only have their extremely low cost going for them. Three magmatic engines should keep the quarry going at a pretty decent clip, at 4 MJ/t apiece. Just make sure to connect them to the quarry via conductive pipes or redstone energy conduits, or their power is just going to be wasted. If you want to use the coal coke you're already generating, I'd recommend making five or six Steam Engines (or eight Hobbyist Steam Engines) instead. Steam engines need a steady source of water, so you'll need to make an infinite water source, put an Aqueous Accumulator in the middle of it, and then pipe the water into your engines.

EDIT: Yeah, if this is your first time playing, you should set your sights a little lower. Instead of shooting for the crazy end game UU matter shenanigans, take your time exploring the mods, and try to get a solid understanding of how the buildcraft and industrialcraft energy systems work. I'd focus on Thermal Expansion first, since it's extremely user friendly and can help you get resources together to start exploring the other mods. Thermal Expansion also gives you great tools for setting up an infrastructure - Aqueous Accumulators, Liquiducts, Redstone Energy Conduits, and Redstone Energy Cells.

As for Grydian's recommendation, boilers are extremely powerful ways to generate lots of energy, but they are not something I would recommend to a newbie by any stretch of the imagination. They require huge amounts of resources to make and fuel, a solid infrastructure to actually use all that power, and extensive automation to keep them running. You might want to explore using them down the road a ways, but for now I'd focus on the essentials.
 

southernfriedbb

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Jul 29, 2019
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I'd focus on Thermal Expansion first, since it's extremely user friendly and can help you get resources together to start exploring the other mods. Thermal Expansion also gives you great tools for setting up an infrastructure - Aqueous Accumulators, Liquiducts, Redstone Energy Conduits, and Redstone Energy Cells.

This. If you are new Thermal Expansion is your friend.
And so is lava Geothermals and Magmatic engines are fairly easy to set up, and can give you a stable source of power while you are working towards a Bio-fuel or steam setup.
 

Tyrindor

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Jul 29, 2019
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Thanks for all the advice guys, it's greatly helpful. I will start messing around with some stuff. I figure if I can get a decent quarry or two running at decent speeds, i'll have plenty of mats to experiment. Think i'll try hooking up a few steam engines (since I have 2x coke ovens) and a aqueous accumulator. My quarry is just a giant hole full of water so shouldn't be hard to get a water source.

By the way, how does one go about automating coke ovens? I have the oil part going into a tank via waterproof pipes, but I can't figure out how to get the coal to load automatically. If I set it up, it sends the coal in there too fast and then starts shooting it on the ground.

Also, how does one hook up more than 4 engines to a quarry? Don't they need to be attached to the quarry itself? 1 side is the output, the other connects to the quarry, that only leaves 4 sides. Thanks again.
 

Silent_007

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Jul 29, 2019
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By the way, how does one go about automating coke ovens? I have the oil part going into a tank via waterproof pipes, but I can't figure out how to get the coal to load automatically. If I set it up, it sends the coal in there too fast and then starts shooting it on the ground.
Well you can put hoppers on top of the ovens and those will keep them stocked with coal. But then of course the hoppers have to remain stocked. Personally I just do this by hand, since the time it takes a coke oven to go through five stacks of coal is massive. But if you want to automate the coal feeding further, it would be helpful to know where you want the coal to be coming from. (From a chest? A barrel? Straight from your quarry?)

Pumping the coal coke back out, if you haven't figured it out yet, is as simple as sticking a wooden pipe anywhere on the side and powering it with a redstone engine or autarchic gate. Then run that pipe to wherever you want.
 

CodaPDX

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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Thanks for all the advice guys, it's greatly helpful. I will start messing around with some stuff. I figure if I can get a decent quarry or two running at decent speeds, i'll have plenty of mats to experiment. Think i'll try hooking up a few steam engines (since I have 2x coke ovens) and a aqueous accumulator. My quarry is just a giant hole full of water so shouldn't be hard to get a water source.

By the way, how does one go about automating coke ovens? I have the oil part going into a tank via waterproof pipes, but I can't figure out how to get the coal to load automatically. If I set it up, it sends the coal in there too fast and then starts shooting it on the ground.

Also, how does one hook up more than 4 engines to a quarry? Don't they need to be attached to the quarry itself? 1 side is the output, the other connects to the quarry, that only leaves 4 sides. Thanks again.

You've been using waterproof pipes - that's good. Look in NEI for conductive pipes. Those move around energy from engines the same way waterproof pipes move liquids. Just make sure to hook your engines up to wooden conductive pipes before connecting those to stone or gold conductive pipes, and then connect those to the quarry. I'd figure out how to make redstone energy conduits as soon as you can, though - they're much more flexible and easier to use than conductive pipes (and never run the risk of blowing up), although they're a little less efficient over short distances.
 

Tyrindor

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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You've been using waterproof pipes - that's good. Look in NEI for conductive pipes. Those move around energy from engines the same way waterproof pipes move liquids. Just make sure to hook your engines up to wooden conductive pipes before connecting those to stone or gold conductive pipes, and then connect those to the quarry. I'd figure out how to make redstone energy conduits as soon as you can, though - they're much more flexible and easier to use than conductive pipes (and never run the risk of blowing up), although they're a little less efficient over short distances.

I've made some redstone energy conduits.. I just have no clue what to do/how to hook them up. lol

Edit: figured it out, had to fill them and then place them.
 

Summit

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Jul 29, 2019
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If you want to move those conduits, or any TE machine for that matter, make sure you crouch+click them with a crescent hammer or omni-wrench. Much better than wailing away on them with a pick. Also note you can click on those conduits to change whether they are set to input, or output. Very important.
 

CodaPDX

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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The Thermal Expansion Wiki has a lot of good information - it's worth checking out. http://thermalexpansion.wikispaces.com/

One thing you have to be mindful of with conduits is that they can be set to either input or output. Right clicking on them with a wrench at the point where they connect to a machine will switch them from one mode to the other. If the arrow is blue and pointing towards the machine, it's in output mode. If the arrow is orange and points away from the engine, it's in input mode. Note that engines will not work properly unless they're outputting into an input mode conduit, and that machines will not receive any power unless the conduit connected to them is in output mode.