Nuclear vs Solar... dafuq?

[FullMetalFox]

Hi guys,

im just wondering, whats the point of nuclear reactors?

I mean, even with gregtech its quiet easy to get a 512eu/t solar panel, its just 1 block, generates as much as most save nuclear reactors and doesnt need any kind of part replacement or fuel.

And if you get 4 of them, they even produce more power per tick than any kind of nuclear reactor design ive created or came a across, and 2000eu/t+ reactors need a lot of maintanance or a big automatic machinery, and several "cell cooling reactors", while the solar panels need 0 maintanance and only requiere 4 blocks space.

So, what the hell?
Why are these solar panels so overpowered/nuclear reactors underpowered? It doesnt make sense
Could somebody explain to me WHY?

Kind regards, Fox.

 

[ratchet freak]

because solars were only ever meant to generate 1 eu/t for each block

it's the addon mods that upped that restriction which they did to minimize lag from the huge solarflowers

 

[TruculentMC]

even with gregtech its quiet easy to get a 512eu/t solar panel

Did you even look at this recipe, much less make one yourself legitimately?

 

[arkangyl]

Did you even look at this recipe, much less make one yourself legitimately?

This. Top tier solars, whether Advanced Solars or Compact Solars, are insane to build. Compact Solars are not too demanding resourcewise, but they take forever to manually assemble. Nuclear plants are easier and cheaper. And that's not even factoring in GregTech's increased Solar Panel costs.

 

[FullMetalFox]

Did you even look at this recipe, much less make one yourself legitimately?

Yes, got 1 of them. Took me about 4 day each playing around 5 or 6 hours (Mindcrack v6 pack), once ive got all the mats for a matter fabricator it was quiet easy, as getting iridium is the most difficult part in my opinion, once youve got a supply of iridium via uu matter you can craft hybrid solar panels, just out of fun ive combined 8 of them into one ultimate solar panel.

 

[DARKMA773R]

HV solar for a longtrm renewable soloution but reactors for the fun of it

 

[TruculentMC]

Yes, got 1 of them. Took me about 4 day each playing around 5 or 6 hours (Mindcrack v6 pack), once ive got all the mats for a matter fabricator it was quiet easy, as getting iridium is the most difficult part in my opinion, once youve got a supply of iridium via uu matter you can craft hybrid solar panels, just out of fun ive combined 8 of them into one ultimate solar panel.

So lets see, in 25 hours play, you got 16 Iridium plate for the 8 solar panels, which takes 64 Iridium Ore, which takes 448 UUM. Plus the 48 UUM for the Sunnarium brings us up to 496 UUM. Those cost 16.6M EU per UUM, or over 8 Billion EU total, which you made in 4 sessions of 5 or 6 hours... lets say 25 hours playtime. Now we have 20 ticks per second, 3600 seconds per hour, and 25 hours play time means you needed to generate 496*16666666/20/3600/25 = 4592.59 EU/t on average, for the entire time.

Double check the math, but I am curious as to how you generated this level of power so quickly...

 

[GearSB]

I've given considerable thought to this, and I've come to the conclusion that the mod solars are okay cost wise, but their problem is that they're only one block.

So instead of hundreds of lag inducing regular solars needed to match one nuclear reactor, now people build hundreds of HV solars for all of their power needs.

Sure, it takes a while, but after you've got you're first MV solar and a mass fab, it's only a matter of time till the geometric growth makes resources meaningless.

Compact and Advanced Solar mods were made to solve the lag problem from solar flowers, but all they've done is move nuclear power even further down the power producing pole as they build as many HV solars as they need instead.

These modded solars need to be multi-block structures to bring them back to what they were originally intended. That way you get the lag savings of having a single output like the MV and HV solars, but they take lots of room as originally intended.

HV solars are OP in that they are just so dang tiny.

 

[FullMetalFox]

I only counted the playtime were i was actually doing something, crafting and building, i havnt counted the time of minecraft just running in the background so my quarries could run, as i dont know how long that was in total.
Most of my energy came from a quiet large array of nether supplied geos and some advanced solar panels, a small nuclear reactor was added (which was quiet disappointing in output terms, and got me thinking about this) and once a hybrid was done it was also added to the grid.

Anyways, my playtime isnt anything that matters, and i find it quiet funny that you even do the math on some estimated playtime.
What matters is that these solar panels just produce much more energy than anything else except for a fusion reactor, while needing zero maintenance and very little space, and even have a build in mfsu, that just isnt logical in any kind.

These modded solars need to be multi-block structures to bring them back to what they were originally intended. That way you get the lag savings of having a single output like the MV and HV solars, but they take lots of room as originally intended.
HV solars are OP in that they are just so dang tiny.

Making them mutliblock structures, and maybe adding some kind of fuel needed (maybe some kind of gas mixture which just gets used up over time), would be a very nice way to fix this issue, i like that idea

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Honestly, a Thermal Generator battery is going to be a lot easier to set up for the same amount of EU output, and FAR less resource-intensive. And hey, if you do manage to drain the Nether of Lava... well, move to a new area in the Nether , make a new linking book, and set up your new shop.

 

[Zerren]

I'll always have a soft spot for nuclear... If I have fun building and designing my own reactors, labs, breeder batteries, it's worth more to me than a boring old solar panel.

For efficiency, it's definitely solar panels unfortunately. Free running, mindless, boring solar panels.

 

[Tauro]

I don't even bother with solars, in my mind they're too OP no matter the cost. It's the same thing as EE2 where it took forever to get the good stuff but once you do it's too OP. I'm going nuclear all the way to get my UUM, made myself protected nuclear chamber which took some serious thaumcraft research (made it out of warded stone) and enough room for 3 reactors for now. Then made each one output 260 eu/t and we're in business, did it take a long time? hell yeah...used all my copper mined from 4 max sized quarries....but no longer OP

 

[kev12east]

If you make a reactor corractly, some designs give you 820,000,000 Eu total and are safe
reactor all the way!
*warning this message may be radioactive due to repeated exposure, by the writer, to radioactie material*

read at your own risk!​

 

[Hydra]

I've given considerable thought to this, and I've come to the conclusion that the mod solars are okay cost wise, but their problem is that they're only one block.

Exactly. IC2 balanced 'free' energy with that it's only available through the day and that it also uses 'space' as a resource. Especially the compact solars mod is 'bad' because it just begs you to set up a fully automated production facility (which is easy to do with autocrafters). The advances one uses expensive stuff but that is easily defeated by just building a lot of quarries that do the mining for you and powering the mass fab with geothermal power in the mean time.

It's really obvious that on most servers most players go for the 'easiest' setup and that's either solars or nether lava.

 

[Lambert2191]

Without gregtech, playing on a server with heavy restrictions, I managed to legitly make over 10 HV solars over a 200 hour period (and that's in addition to doing everything else)

 

[jnads]

Making them mutliblock structures, and maybe adding some kind of fuel needed (maybe some kind of gas mixture which just gets used up over time), would be a very nice way to fix this issue, i like that idea

Fuel on solars doesn't make sense.

However, it would make sense to have the electronics "break". Say, when the block is placed a random timer generates that dictates when the solar "breaks" and no longer produces power.

Then you need to wrench it and re-place it to make it work again.

Random interval between 1-2 Minecraft weeks would be a good time for the breaking mechanism.

 

[MagusUnion]

Honestly, a Thermal Generator battery is going to be a lot easier to set up for the same amount of EU output, and FAR less resource-intensive. And hey, if you do manage to drain the Nether of Lava... well, move to a new area in the Nether , make a new linking book, and set up your new shop.

This indeed. And with Thermal Expansion, you can convert Netherrack into lava with incredible ease. Turing that hell-biome into an energy/rare resource bank probably makes the Nether one of the most mod-useful biome in all of Minecraft. Which is actually pretty ironic because (outside for a few items), the Nether is the least useful place for vanilla Minecraft...

 

[FullMetalFox]

Yeah, only thing your need for geo power is setting up a big grid (5x10 geos) for example and enough pump stations in the nether to supply them, and bam 1000eu/t for a long time, but at least you have to build some systems.

Lava = early game, low maintanance, low output per block space
Nuclear = middle/later game, low up to insane maintanance, low output per block space (im counting cooling kit reactors and such for power beasts too)
Solar = early to later game, no maintanance at all, low up to insane output per block space

No idea about Windmills, Watermills and Fusion Reactors as i havnt played around with them.

Man, i realy wish it would pay to build huge reactor systems (stuff like multiple 2000eu/t Powerbeast, Cooling Kits, Breeders and all that automated) except for the fun planing and building it

Fuel on solars doesn't make sense.
However, it would make sense to have the electronics "break".

By "Fuel" i meant some item which has to be resupplied, that could be for example used up electronics, or some kind of gas needed to use such a high % of sunpower, focusing crystals, whatever, just something.

 

[Zerren]

To FullMetalFox, if you've got a fusion reactor, solars are smalltime (they output 32k+ eu/t). Now, ACQUIRING said reactor is a whole different beast...

Solars aren't inherently broken (well, their output could do well to be at least halved), Advanced/Compact solars are. The downside of solars is space required. Take that out, and there are virtually zero cons.

They're not so much as overpowered if you happen to be using Gregtech since the recipe is boosted, you can't Massfab your way to quick extra solars, and you NEED copious amounts of EU, but in default IC2 there isn't even a question at how broken compact/advanced solars are.

The entire problems lies within the Mass Fabricator if you're using just Ic2, and how small compact solars are.

 

[Randomsteve]

I've said this in several different threads of this kind, but I'll say it again.

Modded Minecraft, its a game for many different types of people.

Its a game for the people who like to have things complicated, over engineered and high maintenance. These are the High risk high reward type people.
Its a game for the people who just want to be able to set and forget. These are the people who use solars as a means to get to an end (could be building, could be other contraptions)
It's a game for people who like to do whatever the heck they want. This build they may just want some quick no maintenance power, the next build they want to use Nukes, lava, steam, everything. These are the Direwolf20 people.
It's a game for people who like to self regulate themselves, setting there rules as they go.

Frankly minecraft is a game for many different people with many different ideas, to call something such as the solar panel (Compact, advanced or otherwise) OP is just a statement of ones opinion. And if your not the one making the mod, well then you really don't carry a lot of weight. What? You don't like solar panels? Ok, thats cool don't use them. What? You don't like Nuclear reactors? Thats fine, dont use them. But don't take it away from everyone else.