ReactorCraft Fission Reactor Designs

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Reika

RotaryCraft Dev
FTB Mod Dev
Sep 3, 2013
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I didn't expect that. I thought it was driven by neutron events.
This distresses me.
Forgive the tone here friends; I'm about as perturbed as I actually ever get.

If I build an IC2 nuclear reactor in one chunk, and its safety depends on infrastructure from another chunk, and I negligently chunkload the reactor but not the safety infrastructure, I deserve what happens.

But if they're both in the same chunk, then whether I chunkload it or not, I'm not going to experience problems.

I have a major, serious gripe with how this is managed with ReC. And its why I cannot recommend enough that players avoid this mod on servers.

If the mechanics do not support chunk unloading (which they should), and the mod does not provide a chunkloader, then the fact that people could theoretically abuse forced-loading is completely, absolutely irrelevant in the face of the game-destroying alternative.

This is...its just not right.

Absolutely no mod for MC should ever...ever...require constant force-loading to prevent catastrophes of this scale. Period. And as much as I like very many aspects of the mod, it stays at the top of my recommend-against list as long as this is an issue for the players.

The TileEntity simulation code always runs, no matter what. I cannot make it selectively called, nor is there a way to know if the machine's chunks are unloaded, because all "does chunk exist" functions are hardcoded to return true.
And I do not appreciate being blamed for being unable to fix behavior in a state I cannot even detect.
 

Demosthenex

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Jul 29, 2019
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The TileEntity simulation code always runs, no matter what. I cannot make it selectively called, nor is there a way to know if the machine's chunks are unloaded, because all "does chunk exist" functions are hardcoded to return true.
And I do not appreciate being blamed for being unable to fix behavior in a state I cannot even detect.

I hadn't assigned blame. I attributed the issues to MCPC + RoC.. MCPC causes all kinds of problems and I know it.

I only asked if there were a way to detect it. You know what the API can do better than I, and if it can't be done that's fine.

@Pyure: Despite the IC2 reactor sharing a technology name, there's nothing in common here. The IC2 one is a magic block with all hardcoded internal processing, where Reika's reactors are based on emergent behavior of many components. That's why they are so fun, you have to design it right. I think the point here is that because its a multiblock emergent behavior, it is more sensitive to world processing and the strange ways modded MC hacks worlds.
 

Kirameki

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Jul 29, 2019
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This is why I refuse to use MCPC any more...I used to back with unleashed and it caused all sorts of strange issues. Now I just chunkload the heck out of everything; my friend found out the hard way when her breeder went kerblooie. Good thing we built it under the surface of the ocean, helped mitigate some of the damage. We then added a chunkloader, no problems since.
The radiation is really dangerous to performance btw...leave a few pieces of waste lying on the ground for 24H and they can spawn a few thousand radiation entities, not good. Is there any way to change this so radiation just makes one entity where the source is and increases its range of effect/damage dealt as long as the source remains? Also interesting that it spreads equally underwater (bottom of the ocean) as out of water.
 

Pyure

Not Totally Useless
Aug 14, 2013
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And I do not appreciate being blamed for being unable to fix behavior in a state I cannot even detect.

I apologize for causing you annoyance, but please understand that while I sympathize that one cannot change the conditions, I must also point out that one does need to function within the parameters of those conditions.

Ultimately, it seems you're unwilling to surrender some parts of the simulation to abstraction. You want an organic, emergent system. But sometimes we need to give it up in the name of stability.

By way of example: a regular turbine creates massive block update spam unless you take special steps to control it. The default should never be "system-breaking unless addressed". In no circumstances should we allow the player to break the game outside the theme of the game (to wit: base-destroying explosions are kosher, but knowingly-allowing massive amounts of lag or block updates is, well, kind of breaking the 4th wall. )

You've already demonstrated that you can create a turbine without this block spam. It is not emergent, but it is extremely player-friendly. I think your moving in this direction was strongly positive for everyone. And I think this way of thinking can be applied to many aspects of RoC/ReC.

In this case, what's the solution? I have no idea. If it helps I'll go through the code and provide ideas. It may mean surrendering large emergent behaviors of the reactor. It should probably mean force-loading the reactors similar to BC, possibilities of abuse notwithstanding. (Abuse-by-choice vs system-breaking is a no-brainer)

I just can't approve of a mod saying "we don't support lack of chunkloading or provide chunkloading."

@Pyure: Despite the IC2 reactor sharing a technology name, there's nothing in common here. The IC2 one is a magic block with all hardcoded internal processing, where Reika's reactors are based on emergent behavior of many components. That's why they are so fun, you have to design it right. I think the point here is that because its a multiblock emergent behavior, it is more sensitive to world processing and the strange ways modded MC hacks worlds.
You already know that I'm aware of all of this :) And from a game design perspective, I agree with you, and I give all of my support to Reika: its excellent, all around fun.
 

Reika

RotaryCraft Dev
FTB Mod Dev
Sep 3, 2013
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I hadn't assigned blame. I attributed the issues to MCPC + RoC.. MCPC causes all kinds of problems and I know it.
That was aimed at @Pyure's rant about how ReC suffers from a severe design problem and how he "cannot recommend enough people avoid that mod on servers".
This is particularly irritating to me because it is the exact same phrase used by people who recommend against RC because "it's laggy"/"it's OP"/"it's too hard"/"it's noisy". That mentality is why it took almost a year after RC's initial publicization that anyone installed it on their server, because everyone was telling everyone else to avoid it, all based on what they heard from someone else.
Or ReactorCraft in Horizons, which for the first few months was almost universally removed because "what's this mod adding ores that I've never heard of".


This is why I refuse to use MCPC any more...I used to back with unleashed and it caused all sorts of strange issues. Now I just chunkload the heck out of everything; my friend found out the hard way when her breeder went kerblooie. Good thing we built it under the surface of the ocean, helped mitigate some of the damage. We then added a chunkloader, no problems since.
The radiation is really dangerous to performance btw...leave a few pieces of waste lying on the ground for 24H and they can spawn a few thousand radiation entities, not good. Is there any way to change this so radiation just makes one entity where the source is and increases its range of effect/damage dealt as long as the source remains? Also interesting that it spreads equally underwater (bottom of the ocean) as out of water.
I may be able to look into this.



EDIT:


It may mean surrendering large emergent behaviors of the reactor.
Absolutely unacceptable.
 

Demosthenex

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Jul 29, 2019
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This is why I refuse to use MCPC any more...I used to back with unleashed and it caused all sorts of strange issues. Now I just chunkload the heck out of everything; my friend found out the hard way when her breeder went kerblooie. Good thing we built it under the surface of the ocean, helped mitigate some of the damage. We then added a chunkloader, no problems since.

I have little choice. It's an active enough server and we are dependent on a number of Bukkit plugins as well. It' s not just about MCPC's aggressive and sometimes game breaking optimizations, though we require that too. The rule with other mods is if they don't like MCPC, then don't use that mod. I just really like the reactors.

I'm composing the next server now, and intend to test the newest last 1.6.x Cauldron code with the latest Reika mods (v25? I hope!). With a separate test server if I break something it's no big deal. I'm hoping I can find a happy medium.
 

Pyure

Not Totally Useless
Aug 14, 2013
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That was aimed at @Pyure's rant about how ReC suffers from a severe design problem and how he "cannot recommend enough people avoid that mod on servers".
This is particularly irritating to me because it is the exact same phrase used by people who recommend against RC because "it's laggy"/"it's OP"/"it's too hard"/"it's noisy". That mentality is why it took almost a year after RC's initial publicization that anyone installed it on their server, because everyone was telling everyone else to avoid it, all based on what they heard from someone else.
Or ReactorCraft in Horizons, which for the first few months was almost universally removed because "what's this mod adding ores that I've never heard of".
I understand that any criticism, earned or otherwise, directed at your mod, will to some degree be regarded as personal. But if you can refrain from referring to said criticism as Pyure's "rant", or lumping me with completely other detractors in an illogical and unethical straw man argument, we can likewise avoid things such as this:

Absolutely unacceptable.
Logically: Totally acceptable. Functionally: totally acceptable. Ethically: totally acceptable.

Ultimately there's absolutely no need for bullying here or a lack of civility. By way of analogy: If a reviewer reviews, and points out both flawed and positive traits, you need to take the good with the bad. That includes recommendations. And I always, always, always point out the positives of Reika's mods where they shine.
 
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Pyure

Not Totally Useless
Aug 14, 2013
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Waterloo, Ontario
The fact you are not normally groupable with such people makes it all the more worrying when you start to sound like them.
Thank you, very kind, sort of :\

And since I "call it where I see it", I'll occasionally sound like them. Except with the added spice of some forethought, a touch of experience, and a healthy dollop of positivity.
 
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Marpe

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Jul 29, 2019
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Sorry to interrupt your discussion, but I have a very simple question which I don't know where to ask.. I've gotten to the point where I have to refuel my reactor, and doing it manually is simply horrible. Is there a way to automatically inject the pellets into the fuel core? I have tried ET, EIO and what not.. it simply won't work for me! Is there a special way of doing this?
 

Demosthenex

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Jul 29, 2019
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Sorry to interrupt your discussion, but I have a very simple question which I don't know where to ask.. I've gotten to the point where I have to refuel my reactor, and doing it manually is simply horrible. Is there a way to automatically inject the pellets into the fuel core? I have tried ET, EIO and what not.. it simply won't work for me! Is there a special way of doing this?

I've been using TE itemducts fine. I've also used them to pull waste out.

Reika said older versions may cause issues with unwanted and explosive stacking behavior, but I haven't seen it in v23 and up.
 

Elessar

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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I've been using a combination of Routers, for reactors where the cores are all in one grouping, and EnderIO otherwise. I've tried Itemducts and they work fine for me as well. Make sure you're inputting from the top side, and the conduits are set correctly (set to input mode on the cores, and their source is extracting with always-on/redstone-signal/etc)
 

Marpe

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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I've been using TE itemducts fine. I've also used them to pull waste out.

Reika said older versions may cause issues with unwanted and explosive stacking behavior, but I haven't seen it in v23 and up.
I just tried it quickly in SP.. but the extractor end at a chest with pellets, a servo in it, it ran. The other end into the top of the fuel core, and nothing happened. If I connected it to another chest, it would transfer - but not to the core!
 

Padfoote

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Dec 11, 2013
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I just tried it quickly in SP.. but the extractor end at a chest with pellets, a servo in it, it ran. The other end into the top of the fuel core, and nothing happened. If I connected it to another chest, it would transfer - but not to the core!

What version are you running?
 

Elessar

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
25
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Playing a multiplayer Monster server with a friend - in the "Mods" menu, the only info I can get is this: 2919834E4F328457FF9339B
If you look in your mods folder (<FTB directory>/Monster/minecraft/mods if memory serves), find the Reactorcraft file and it'll have the version number on the end
 

dilznick5

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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For all of those suffering catastrophic reactor events in Monster servers I feel your pain. For the last couple weeks I had a beautiful little 6 core fission reactor running well in my server. I cycled it a bit while I played with the water feed system, trying to get the condenser and pressurizer working. Every once in a while I would mess up the condenser, let steam billow all over the reactor core, which would crash my client. No one else on the server was affected as long as they were out of rendering distance and the reactor didnt seem to mind (I had auxillary water being supplied from an AE extra cells setup).

Then I noticed waste wasnt decaying in my waste pond. Oh silly me, chunkloader radius isnt big enough to cover it, let me just fix that and then Im done for the night. My reactor wasnt even running when I logged off.
When I logged on, first thing I noticed was radiation poisoning. Took me a few minutes to figure out what the hell was going on. One of the containment units in the cooling pond had blown, spilling waste all over the pond, irradiating half of the island that was my base. Point to note, the other container just 4 blocks away was still there, ticking along happily. Anyone know how deep they have to be in order to guarantee sufficient cooling?

Any way, I felt justified in cheating away the radiation. Thanks again to @Demosthenex for describing the method a few posts up (Opis to kill radiation entities). Fingers cross Monster gets updated soon. Playing with Rotarycraft and co. makes me feel like the first time I cracked open a mod, the original industrial craft, many moons ago. So much fun figuring out how it all works.
 
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