PSA: Buildcraft version 4.1.0

[Omicron]

This is a public service announcement for anyone who happens to have a 1.6.x world and is running Buildcraft.

CovertJaguar just published 4.1.0 today. Thanks mate! Among other things, it included a much-appreciated tweaking of combustion engine mechanics that returned them to perfect working conditions, after being quite out of shape in 4.0.2.

However... there is something you as a player need to know when you log into your world after updating your mods.

Combustion engine coolant needs have increased! If you have a bank of watercooled engines running to power your workshop, and you don't have a temperature emergency shutoff conditional on a gate, check on them immediately after logging in or you will have a giant crater in under 5 minutes. Better yet, turn them off before you update!

Thank you for taking notice, and may your worlds be safe and sound

 

[Harvest88]

Who's care about combustion then! Boiling is more ecofriendly anyway, a mb of water for 32 mj/t is not much and also they give you a buff on 27+ models. You just need to use all that steam up.

 

[AlanEsh]

Who's care about combustion then! Boiling is more ecofriendly anyway, a mb of water for 32 mj/t is not much and also they give you a buff on 27+ models. You just need to use all that steam up.

That is entirely NOT the point of Omicron's post.

 

[Omicron]

Exactly. Don't you diss combustion engines, they're one of my favorite things.

 

[Harvest88]

only thing I see they are useful for is for passive mj for hours on a single tank's of Fuel. Like keeping a few machines processing but a 18+ sized LP or HP boiler is the way to burn that fuel if you can pump enough in.

 

[Malkara]

only thing I see they are useful for is for passive mj for hours on a single tank's of Fuel. Like keeping a few machines processing but a 18+ sized LP or HP boiler is the way to burn that fuel if you can pump enough in.

Again entirely missing the point of the thread, please try to read before bashing and or replying something completely random o.o.

OT thanks for the timely notice Omicron, you just saved me and probably a lot more with me a lot of cleaning up work

 

[Harvest88]

I'm not being off topic cause I'm just saying my opinion of the nerfed combustion engines and that they now even need more water to not blow up. But boilers were better even before this so this will only make steam houses even a better alternative. (you can only shove so much water per tick via a single pipeline)

 

[Painstouch]

Any more detailed information regarding the engine update? Thanks!

 

[Harvest88]

I don't think so but if your not aware the conductive pipes were changed a lot in a few versions ago. (called kinetic pipes now) Also there a flood gate and a filter buffer thingy ijn those update with the pipes but not sure much on this changed but the engines.

 

[Yusunoha]

Any more detailed information regarding the engine update? Thanks!

#4.1.0
- New: Added Iron Kinesis Pipe. (CovertJaguar)
- New: Added Non-Round Robin mode to Emerald Item Pipe. (Flow86)
- New: Pipes have tool tips now. (CovertJaguar)
- New: Added config option for update check (Prototik)
- New: Added config option for Oil Well proclivity. (sadris)
- New: Added config options for various Quarry/Mining Well tweaks/nerfs. (CovertJaguar)
- New: Added config option for Colorblind mode. (Krapht)
- Change: Reworked Combustion Engine heat mechanics. (CovertJaguar)
- Fix: Fixed Quarries in the Nether (cpw)
- Fix: Autarchic Gate single pulses are now more reliable. (cpw)
- Fix: Laser’s hadWork trigger should work correctly now. (CovertJaguar)
- Fix: Refineries no longer forget their filters. (CovertJaguar)
- Fix: Pumps can now pump Oil out of Oceans again. (CovertJaguar)
- And: Various other small fixes/tweaks.

that's what's written in the changelog for 4.1.0
if you'd like to know more information about the change you might need to contact CJ about this.
as for people saying combustion engines are not worth it, they are. they give people another option for creating MJ, and if you'd use Buildcraft as a stand-alone mod, the combustion engines would be your best engine to use.

 

[Omicron]

Any more detailed information regarding the engine update? Thanks!

Buildcraft inherited Railcraft's engine behavior in version 4. Previously they were changing stroke speeds abruptly at defined points (the color changes of the engine) and the stroke speed always matched the engine animation. Now, the engine animation has absolutely nothing to do with stroke speed anymore, and the engine color is just an indicator of internal energy storage (or temperature, in the special case of the combustion engine). Actual stroke speed is on a smooth curve from very slow to very fast, scaling with the same metric that engine color depends on.

The issue combustion engines had in 4.0.2 was that in classic Buildcraft, they always had a relatively brisk stroke speed, even in blue color. But on the dynamic speed curve, they started out very very slowly, and the internal temperature rose very slowly as well. Which meant that if running on refined fuel, it maxed out its internal energy buffer after barely making it half the way to nominal operating temperature already, and even at that nominal temperature, the stroke speed wasn't fast enough to output the full 6 MJ/t. You ended up with an engine that reacted super slowly to changing energy demands, featured the fuel wasting heatup behavior of a steam boiler, and was unable to even achieve its rated output unless you stopped watercooling it (not the best idea with an engine boasting the explosion power of half a dozen creepers combined).

With the update, the engine has a higher burst transfer value (more energy transferred per stroke) and generates heat twice as fast. As a result, stroke speed increases faster, much less energy accumulates at low speeds, and the engine can bring its full rated output to bear upon reaching 50% nominal temperature already. (And in fact, it will output more than 6 MJ/t for a short while, as it gets rid of accumulated internal energy in addition to its regular output). However, "generates heat twice as fast" also means that at nominal temperature, it will consume water twice as fast to keep itself from overheating.

 

[Harvest88]

Alright so water line of a gold line will only keep 3 fuel engines from exploding and a pair of lava engines on the side. Ice will make it easier to about 7x the concentration so those will keep 21 engines rolling on that same pipeline. The only advantage to these that A they are passive power generation so your only using a bucket o fuel every 100k ticks and B no heat up cost. But once the power demands dictates an array's of engines why not fire a 18 sized LP boiler to get the best of both worlds? No worries of explosion (a boiler that big only need a tab bit more than 1mb/t of flowing water), heat up won't take too much fuel to starter up, and fuel will lasts for about 20 minutes a bucket. Also that boiler of the size will get you a tab bit more mj from each bucket of fuel (I think it's about 8K mj per bucket). So boilers are great if your know what's your doing and use them properly.That's why combustion engines are great for those time to time passive power demands (say powering a few machines every now and then).

 

[RedBoss]

Not everyone builds for efficiency.

Also, Omicron was just being helpful, especially to those who use combustion engines.

You're definitely entitled to your opinion, but you kinda came out of left field with the boiler thing. It seriously was irrelevant. But enjoy posting and stuff!

 

[Harvest88]

Yea your right (after all it's a video game) but just saying if you wanted to.

 

[CovertJaguar]

 

[Harvest88]

Never knew you can melt snow and ice in engines.. Now I bet doing a snow/ice machine and piping that can be much easier and more reliable than water lines. Have the engines in the coldest biome and your good to go for mass cooling without insufficient water lines.

 

[Omicron]

Nice, I didn't even notice the biome dependency. Guess my plains biome must be hotter than I thought, 'cause I can't get more than two engines on a single golden fluid pipe

Though together with the pump rework, you can now produce an immense amount of water in super tight quarters without having to worry about randomly losing your source blocks, so there shouldn't be an issue. Plus, combustion engines directly on a pump works great. I've come up with a neat power module for my ocean quarries - three combustion engines, one pump, one lever, one quartz kinesis pipe and three wooden kinesis pipes. Fits in a 3x2x2 space, plus the lever on the back of the pump.