Bug RESOLVED - Remote Tree Farms just not possible?

[Benie76]

Pack: Direwolf20 v1.3.1

I wanted to do a Remote Tree Farm to fuel my base with five Steam Dynamos, powered by Tesseracts, Minefactory Reloaded, an Ender Chest, and a Chunk Loader. Using Oak Trees for the Charcoal Fuel.
After many issues with placement, I finally got it working. I'm voiding excess saplings and all Apples, to just get wood and turn it into Charcoal, then send it to my base via an Ender Chest.

Like I said, the setup is working now. However.. I don't think the Chunk Loader is. Either that, or Minecraft physics topple great ideas. Basically, I've been staring at the barrel I specified to hold excess Charcoal in my base, for 5 minutes... and it isn't filling up anymore.

My guess, is either the Planter is having issues planting the Saplings without the player being there, or trees refuse to grow without the player being there.. even with a Chunk Loader.
Please help me make my setup work the way I want it to. Thanks.

I triple checked the Chunk Loader and made sure it was covering all the trees, and everything I setup to do this. There should be no non-vanilla reason why this isn't working.

 

[Celestialphoenix]

What are you using as a chunk loader?- some of them require power/fuel.

If it isn't the loader, then try forcing tree growth with a fertilizing machine.

 

[Benie76]

Using the ChickenChunks one. Doesn't require power or fuel.
And I'll try the MFR Fertilizer.

 

[rhn]

And I'll try the MFR Fertilizer.

Dont overcomplicate it before you have figured out what you are doing wrong with the setup you already have.

Is your problem that it is not running when you are not there or is the problem that it is not making a profit?

Are you sure everything is covered by the chunkloader? You don't have a conduit or something outside the chunk?

You can test if the chunkloader is working by opening chat and typing "/chunkloaders". That will give you a map of chunks that are loaded.

 

[Inaeo]

Make sure you are removing (likely void pipe, due to your description of the setup) sludge from your Harvester, as it will run significantly slower while the internal tank is full. If this is the case, the slower harvesting may not be able to keep up with your dynamos, and thus your excess barrel will never fill.

If that's not helping, try using an Enderchest to move your wood/charcoal. Its easier (in my experience) to diagnose issues if item flow is visible. Having all the output go into the Enderchest and get sorted from there helps to see where any potential bottlenecks lie in that side of things.

And just because, is it plugged in? Have you tried unplugging it, waiting 30 seconds, and plugging it back in? Just screwing with you.

 

[asb3pe]

I will guarantee that it has nothing to do with the chunk loader and it's due to something else. I've had these sorts of incidents many times (I'm sure most of us have), and when you finally figure out what the problem is, you'll just do one of those forehead slaps and utter a "DOH!".

Make sure you are removing (likely void pipe, due to your description of the setup) sludge from your Harvester, as it will run significantly slower while the internal tank is full. If this is the case, the slower harvesting may not be able to keep up with your dynamos, and thus your excess barrel will never fill.

superb guess, you might have nailed it. it's so hard to debug remotely, it literally could be anything under the sun. I've done the missing void pipe thing before and pulled my hair out for a while before realizing my error. LOL

 

[Benie76]

To answer youralls questions, I do have a Void Pipe for the Sludge. And I have quadrouply checked the Chunk Loader. Checked the beams. They are just past the Tree Farm but not any further.

All I know is, I go there, and the setup is working. I go back, I see it working for awhile.. like maybe 5-10 minutes? Then it stops working, as I'm see4ing no more Charcoal going into the barrel. I checked the time of day. It's Day. The sun's out. But no Charcoal is showing up in the barrel back in the base.
The way I have it, Charcoal goes into an Ender Chest, then when it reaches my base with the other one, it gets piped in via my AE2 Network, which sends it to the barrel instead of the network itself. The barrel has a Level 3 upgrade, with four Storage upgrades to get it to store 20,480 Charcoal.

For some reason, it just refuses to produce when I'm not there. Then I go there, and it's producing. Like it just can't do it without the player being there. I literally have to babysit it to make sure it works.

Pictures;
http://puu.sh/ikarQ/a65cbb5228.jpg
The Tree Farm.

http://puu.sh/ikat4/111df043df.jpg
The Tree Farm showing the beams of the Chunk Loader. Notice how they more than cover the farm.

http://puu.sh/ikaC2/ac60eff54f.jpg
The Chunk Loader, the Harvester, and it showing the Void Fluid Pipe. It harvests very fast, as it should.

http://puu.sh/ikaGa/586d0d7197.jpg
Remote Power System and conduits. The Tesseract is correctly configured. Both the Harvester and the Planter have full power. I'm not running out of power, especially with 5 Steam Dynamos hooked in back at my base.

http://puu.sh/ikaO1/26be14af02.jpg
Charcoal Processing. Three Alloy Smelters, each with a Octadic Capacitor. The Trash Can is filtered to put in Apples, plants (any plants that decide to grow in the farm), and excess Saplings. Charcoal goes in the Ender Chest, seen on the right side.

 

[asb3pe]

i'd be curious about the moment when you've realized the farm has stopped sending charcoal, and you go there. at that moment, what do you see when you arrive? is the farm in full production just like it had been running the entire time? or does it look like it had stopped, and only started up again when you arrived?

it's trial and error, process of elimination when you're trying to solve these things. do some experimenting. don't send charcoal to base, but put a barrel there and let it accumulate. Then go back to base and wait a while. Return to the farm and check the barrel. The charcoal amount in it should give you a clue about what is going on when you're not physically present at the farm. Do these sorts of experiments until you finally narrow it down and figure out exactly where the problem is.

 

[Inaeo]

That sounds suspiciously like a chunk loading issue to me. Double check your configs to make sure the Chickenchunks loader isnt disabled or some such. Try a different chunk loader and see if it produces results.

 

[asb3pe]

That sounds suspiciously like a chunk loading issue to me. Double check your configs to make sure the Chickenchunks loader isnt disabled or some such. Try a different chunk loader and see if it produces results.

Or, again, do a very simple experiment - devise it yourself, but it should be designed so that you are testing whether chunk loaders work or not. My idea? Put 2 chests down, fill 1 with items, connect the chests with a conduit of some sort so the items begin to transfer, and then leave the area. Just chunk load a single chunk. Do the items transfer while you're gone or not?

 

[Benie76]

Hmm. Well, here's when I know there's a problem;

Back at the base, the sun was setting. So I slept. When I left, the farm had finished and there were no trees.

http://puu.sh/ikbiQ/628ed6e445.jpg
Before I slept. Showing no more Charcoal coming in as there's no trees at the Tree Farm. I slept.

http://puu.sh/ikbqU/8b3ce4d233.jpg
Waiting a few minutes for the sun to rise over the Fir trees around my house/base. Remember, I said a few minutes. That should be plenty of time for the Saplings to grow again.

http://puu.sh/ikbrR/4b324f5118.jpg
You may think this is the same picture as the first, but it's not. This is two minutes later. As you can see, no Charcoal going in.

As for your other question, when I get there, sometimes there's a few trees already growing by the time I arrive. But mostly, there's no trees until I arrive, and then they start to turn into trees.
I'll try the "get them into a Barrel instead of the Ender Chest" suggestion. That might work, as I'll be using a BSpace upgrade.

@Inaeo: I, and my friend, have never had an issue with this Chunk Loader. Though he did his tree farm differently than mine... seriously, I can't really blame the loader. I think it's the fact the trees just plainly refuse to grow unless the player is there, even with a Chunk Loader present.
I got an Ender Quarry going in The Deep Dark, and I have no issues with it. It's not the Chunk Loader.

 

[rhn]

@Inaeo: I, and my friend, have never had an issue with this Chunk Loader. Though he did his tree farm differently than mine... seriously, I can't really blame the loader. I think it's the fact the trees just plainly refuse to grow unless the player is there, even with a Chunk Loader present.
I got an Ender Quarry going in The Deep Dark, and I have no issues with it. It's not the Chunk Loader.

Well we can start postulating that your version of minecraft somehow have completely new and unique vanilla mechanics. Or we can ask you question about the things that 90% of the people in this situation have problems with.

Are you on a server? Could the server owner have enforced the Chickenchunks chunkloader limits? It is a config setting that limits the amount of chunks that each player can have loaded total. Did you check the /chunkloaders map like I mentioned earlier?
Did you build the farm in the spawnchunks? If the chunkloader is not working due to the above reasons then you could see some weird semi chunkloading effects if that is the case.

 

[Inaeo]

Ender Quarry acts as its own chunk loader, as far as I know. The reason I say chunk loading is suspect is that 5 minutes is about the threshold for dimensions unloading once a player leaves. I may be barking up the wrong tree (no pun intended), but it seemed logical enough to not overlook. Out of curiosity, is the tree farm in the Overworld, or is it in another dimension? Is this a private server, or something you couldn't gain easy access to the server log? Sometimes nuggets of info can be traced there if you can corelate timing.

 

[Benie76]

Ok.. I think I may know what's going on. I doubt it's the Tree Farm now, because for some odd reason when I'm at the farm, the Harvester loses power. And that's not the only thing. Even my Ender Quarry isn't working when I'm not there.

I think it might be the Tesseracts, or even .. could be the Chunk Loaders again. Doing a complete restart. See if that fixes whatever. Maybe this is just a glitch.
It definitely seems that the Tesseracts are bugged.. somehow.

And sorry if I'm not answering your questions fully. If my tone hasn't been delightful, I do apologize. I'm just very annoyed on why this is happening.
This is Single Player. And where I put the Tree Farm, I never bothered with the chunks. I got an Emerald upgrade on both the Planter and the Harvester. So it's 11x11.
I never touched the config of the Chunk Loader.

Just tried the '/chunkloader map' command, it claims it's unknown.

 

[rhn]

Just tried the '/chunkloader map' command, it claims it's unknown.

Sorry, its "/chunkloaders"
Annoying, I keep forgetting the s all the time when trying to use it too.

 

[Benie76]

Ok, tried the command, and.. I'm not really seeing anything. Tried it again and it claims it's on. Is this a good thing?

Also, I believe I know what the problem is. For some reason, a Tesseract cannot send to more than one channel. I've checked the frequencies and the configurations. At my base, I have my Ender Quarry highlighted on Channel 1. On Channel 2 is my Remote Tree Farm.
The one at my base is set to Send Only, and block everything else. It also requires a High redstone signal (lever) to toggle.

I went to the other ones. My Quarry is working in the Deep Dark. It's set to Receive Only (using Channel 1) with a Redstone Energy Cell as a buffer to control how much power goes into the Ender Quarry. Got them set to 100 RF in and out.
At my Tree Farm, it too is set to Receive Only (using Channel 2). There's no Energy Cell, only conduits to send power to the machines. And now they've ran out of power again, when there's plenty of power back at my base.

My Ender Quarry is still running. So as I said, it seems to only send power on one channel instead of multiple.

 

[rhn]

Ok, tried the command, and.. I'm not really seeing anything. Tried it again and it claims it's on. Is this a good thing?

Also, I believe I know what the problem is. For some reason, a Tesseract cannot send to more than one channel. I've checked the frequencies and the configurations. At my base, I have my Ender Quarry highlighted on Channel 1. On Channel 2 is my Remote Tree Farm.
The one at my base is set to Send Only, and block everything else. It also requires a High redstone signal (lever) to toggle.

I went to the other ones. My Quarry is working in the Deep Dark. It's set to Receive Only with a Redstone Energy Cell as a buffer to control how much power goes into the Ender Quarry. Got them set to 100 RF in and out.
At my Tree Farm, it too is set to Receive Only. There's no Energy Cell, only conduits to send power to the machines. And now they've ran out of power again.

My Ender Quarry is still running. So as I said, it seems to only send power on one channel instead of multiple.

Yeah Tesseracts will not "round robin" the power. They just fill the first consumer to get processed and if there is more power available then it gets directed to the next in line.

But since you are already producing the charcoal at the tree farm(why I dont really understand), why don't you just stick a Dynamo or two there to run the farm and a furnace(do you really need 3?).
I have many times set up tree farms simply by having wood fed into a Redstone Furnace and then into a Dynamo to power the farm and the Furnace. Closed circuit and all the other wood just get send back home for me to do with as I want.

 

[Benie76]

Sorry for confusing you. The Charcoal is basically to power my base. I just wanted the tree farm in a remote location (as where my base is, there's hardly any room as I live on an island). I hope that helps to clarify.
And again, sorry for before.

EDIT: ... That seems to not have been the issue. Once again it's not putting the Charcoal in the barrel. I had made sure the frequency was set correctly. Just went to the farm and checked the conduits. The Tesseract is indeed sending power. But again the Saplings aren't growing unless I go there.

 

[Inaeo]

I've found it much less hassle to transport fuel and generate power where needed than to transport power. I'm a firm believer that a tree farm should be self feeding, with any excess fuel then being exported. If Tesseracts and/or Dimensional Transceivers were to have priority settings (similar to AE drives), it would change my mind.

 

[Benie76]

This Tree Farm was specifically designed to power my base back home. It has the wood. It cooks the wood into Charcoal. Any Saplings go back into the planter to be planted into more trees, or disposed of in the Trash Bin.
It gets rid of the Apples, and as I said the excess Saplings.
Then it sends the Charcoal to an Ender Chest to be sent to my base, and used as fuel for the five Steam Dynamos to power said base.

Is this not the way to do this?