Pipes and Item Routing Strategies in FTB

[blek]

I've been facing quite a few hurdles when it comes to making compact automated systems in the current release of FTB. Without Logistics Pipes, RedPower or even AdditionalPipes I honestly have no idea how to make simple designs such as an array of Recyclers with the items that are going to be recycled being spread equally among them.

Buildcraft without any addons is quite limited and mods such as Thermal Expansion, even though they have many compact system methods, can't accomplish much out of their own machines. Factorization Router seems quite promising but it's really expensive and confusing at the first glance.

I wanted to know if you guys found out any specific methods that can, at least temporarily, replace the functions I mentioned and also whatever you find to be interesting as far as piping and item routing goes, they would be very helpful for me and many others until these mods come out (or not, I started losing hope after waiting for six months and two major patches).

 

[Zivel]

Diamond pipes are your friend. 4 cobble on the yellow and 1 on the red means yellow gets 4 times as much cobble. Use this strat to feed your Recyclers.

 

[blek]

Oh, that actually should work. Hadn't thought of that, even though I used basically the same in my old Distribution Pipes. Thanks!

 

[Celestialphoenix]

Latest updates to BC pipes allow them to send an item to the next inventory if the current one is full (so only drops stuff if nowhere else to go), so this is perfectly fine for recyclers;

(the hoppers are optional- personally I prefer without, but test worlds are test worlds)

As for splitting resources easily; as long as the number of target machines is a power of 2, then just split it into 2 branches, and 2 again and again.
(each split the items will make a random choice, resulting in equal amounts going down each branch. You can do it with any number of targets, as long at its a multiple of 2,3 or 5)
As for keeping it small, stone and cobblestone pipes wont connect to each other, and golden, obsidian and wooden pipes wont connect to their own type. Diamond pipes will sort items into their corresponding colour channels.

(This is fairly good for quarries and material crunching- when buildcraft first came out its all we had) Things like peat bogs and tree farms are somewhat more painful to do this way without it looking like the flying spaghetti monster...

 

[Pinkishu]

Alternatively you can use turtles ^^

 

[Enigmius1]

TBH, I grew so accustomed to RP tubes with filters/sorters/etc that I've made no plans for any kind of elaborate sorting or automation systems. I am using pipes and such for basic convenience right now but everything is basically on a loop and/or feeds into a chest. The pipes as they are in the game right now are just not really all that well suited to automation beyond moving stuff from point A to somewhere over near point B.

 

[tedyhere]

I am thinking of adding logistics pipes into the pack until the official one is ready

Although Railcarts and item loaders and unloaders can be made to do the same thing

 

[Zivel]

I am not sure why everyone is against diamond pipes. Logisitic pipes are the supreme but a diamond pipe can do everything needed with no problems.... you just need a lot of them.

 

[Golrith]

I am not sure why everyone is against diamond pipes. Logisitic pipes are the supreme but a diamond pipe can do everything needed with no problems.... you just need a lot of them.

Agreed, I prefer them over Sorting Machines, purely due to the way I sort my stuff. I define the ratios (like you indicated) and leave my systems to process what they receive. It's not as accurate as working out exact quantities of items to distribute to each location, but it works.
Was easy enough to use RP Filters if I ended up getting material overload at destination containers.

Many different ways of achieving the same result, I personally love working out how to connect up my maze of BC Piping. It's part of the challenge Although I do use Sorting Machines depending on the situation.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ofsyhnnryqim88m/DhaQz1kT0j - from my Tekkit single player world

 

[Meldiron]

What i've discovered so far:
"normal" pipes have a equal chance to go into each connected direction exept for the direction it came from.
Having diamond pipes filter a wanted item to a special path or have all other paths filter other item will make the wanted item try that path first, but it will go another way if it's unable to (for example with a full inventory)
Iron pipes allow items to bounce back the way they came from if there is no other way to go. (for example if there is a full inventory it will bounce back instead of poping out)