(Starter) ore processing efficiency(ftb monster) + energy eff.

[albatrosv13]

Hello!(first post here)
So, i have been playing ftb for some time and my playstyle is trying to be efficient in ore processing and energy usage. Nr 1 priority is ore processing, of course(i don't want to leave ravaged landscape everywhere i go). So i ask a somewhat simple question, what is the most(ish) efficient way to go from the start in ore processing technology? And what is the easiest way to get energy without using the fossil fuels.
Let me explain my playstyle - The first thing i do is search for quartz ore, without using ANY metals, and make a grind stone from applied energistics. Then i make a pulverizer(from thermal expansion) and only then start using metals for some other stuff. Pulverizer gives about 10% bonus compared to grind stone. In the meanwhile, i construct the coke oven, from railcraft, to make charcoal(+some creosote oil(it's only usable for torches for me). I never, ever use any mined coal for fuel, cause i learned that i can't use charcoal to create diamonds + can't use charcoal to get nano armor + can't create solar panels with the charcoal, again. So coal goes only into those 3 things.
So, next thing is industrialcraft macerator + ore washing plant, which gives 10%(a little bit more than that, actually) more than pulverizer. Thermal centrifuge wants too much power and i would waste too many ores just to get so many solar panels up and running + it gives only 10% more.
Next thing would be factorization setup, which would give about 3x ores from the start(compared to IC2 setup of 2.44x). It does need good amount of ores to get the things running.
But here lies the dilemma. Should i skip IC2 setups altogether and go straight for factorization setup?(it needs some diamonds, though). Plus, i read that rotarycraft setup of approximately 5x ore multiplying process is even greater, but i see that it needs a lot of ores to use to set things up(or am i mistaken?).
Or, maybe, there is somewhat better setup, which doesn't need so many ores to set up and still gives a good multiplier?
From the start of the mod 'era', i have been using IC2 heavily, but seeing so many mods replacing the functionalities of IC2, it really buggers me - have i been using IC2 blindly because ''that's what i have been doing for most of the time''?

Or maybe just create a lot of mystcraft worlds and mine the hell out of them with miners(ic2, again)?
Edit: Oh and about power source, i only use charcoal(and later solar panels from ic2 and then factorization solar mirrors) - Is there any other renewable power source, but better?
Edit of the edit: Oh and sideway question - Was anyone successful with magical crops ore 'growing' process? It seems just so slow or massive.

 

[rhn]

I would personally under any circumstance recommend creating a Mystcraft mining world for Quarries, turtles and other automated mining methods. Overworld is endless yeah, but it bothers me to no end to have open scars on it, just in case I wanted to build some there later. And you can customize your Mystcraft age to make quarrying etc. much much more user/server/PC friendly.

As for the oreprocessing, I am personally just fine with the 2x return. You really don't need bigger bonuses with the oregens in packs like Monster. But I have personally chosen/will choose to go with some of the other more highpowered choices due to their complexity. Take the IC2E macerator->Orewashing->Thermal centrifuge->Furnace process. It have lots of steps to automate(each step and all the tiny piles etc.) and drains tons of power when adequately overclocked, giving me even more reason to find challenges in setting up power supply and management(as long as you don't just jump down the Compact solar/windmill boredom trap, go for Nuclear reactors and such instead for lots of fun!).

 

[malicious_bloke]

The grinder from rotarycraft is quite easy to get and power early on, that's 3x ore processing right off the bat.

It's quite slow until you get better engines and infrastructure later on though.

Later on still, you can get 5x processing from the extractor. It takes a lot of power to run it properly (as in, quickly) though.

If you want a nice smooth progression of ore processing, you can add Mekanism to the pack quite easily. Mek's machines can all be run from whatever power you care to throw at them and there's a nice growth curve to the mod.

IE:

Ore -> Enrichment chamber -> Smelter. 2x ore processing
Ore -> Purification chamber (plus a supply of flint or oxygen) -> Enrichment chamber -> Smelter. 3x ore processing
Ore -> Chemical infuser (plus a supply of hydrogen chloride) -> Purification chamber (plus flint or oxygen) -> Enrichment chamber -> Smelter. 4x ore processing
Ore -> lots of stuff I haven't bothered with yet -> Purification chamber (plus flint or oxygen) -> Enrichment chamber -> Smelter. 5x processing.

Each stage adds to the last and needs more infrastructure. It's pretty sweet, but not as fast as a fully powered Rotarycraft extractor.

As for renewable power, Monster has magical crops which basically makes most things you can burn in an engine renewable. Coal, and uranium plants for stuff you may have used before, redstone and glowstone can both be used in various different dynamos or generators.

You can even use magical crops essence with coal to make infused coal, which is sexy awesome.

For everything you can't grow with magical crops, there's bees. Demonic bees make phosphor which you can use to make lava, oily and refined bees basically produce combustible fuel.

Or you can farm pigs, pink dye trees or basically anything pink and generate power in a pink generator.

 

[Kirameki]

I personally don't do IC2 at all anymore, in Monster I went AE grinder>Pulverizer>RoC extractor. FYI, if you fill the RoC blast furnace with iron in all 9 slots there's a chance at bonus steel being generated each pass, so that should greatly help your desire for efficiency.

MagiCrops ore growing works just fine, our setup uses Lamps of Growth as well as lilypads of fertility and MFR planter/harvesters, bees are also a great source of free metals. I ended up being able to build my entire fusion reactor plant out of steel+cobalt blocks, so yeah. (Oddly enough cobalt has a MUCH higher blast resistance than RoC concrete.)

 

[zemerick]

RoC Grinder and Extractor can both be run off of AC Engines, meaning they use no fuel whatsoever.

A simple 2 AC engines should max out a Grinder. That's 0.05 seconds per item, or about 3.2 seconds for an entire stack as long as you can keep the output clear.

It would take 128 AC Engines, but you could do the same with an Extractor ( with a CVT switching between 2 speeds. )

A more practical but fuel-less way to power the Extractor is either 2 Tier 4 or 1 Tier 5 Magnetostatic engine, using RF converted from EU. You will need 2982 RF/t, which is slightly less than 1.5 HV Solar Arrays. 3 would produce a nice power surplus to store in an Energy Cell for night/storms. ( I recommend placing the solars in a desert though, chunk load it and use a tesseract to bring the power back. )

That above could easily replace everything after the initial AE Grindstone. It is very easy to get up to the AC Engine, and again: It uses no fuel at all. Boom, ore tripling for free.

 

[dothrom]

You should mention that to make those T4 and T5 magnetostatic engines, you need to progress up the whole tech tree.
Ethanol>Magnetizing unit>Jet fuel>Bedrock

As for the AC engine, I wouldn't call it 100% free, as the shaft core has to be charged/recharged. While completely renewable, it takes more infrastructure.

 

[zemerick]

You should mention that to make those T4 and T5 magnetostatic engines, you need to progress up the whole tech tree.
Ethanol>Magnetizing unit>Jet fuel>Bedrock

As for the AC engine, I wouldn't call it 100% free, as the shaft core has to be charged/recharged. While completely renewable, it takes more infrastructure.

Yes, the magnetostatics are for later on, but still only have a 1 time cost to build, not to run. ( At least in the above case for the power generation. HV Solars are the real concern though, as they are quite expensive. )

The AC Engine is absolutely fuel free. Those shaft cores last for ages, and you can charge a stack at a time ( I think 16. ) The magnetizing unit can be powered by other AC Engines. After the first few times swapping out the shaft cores, you pretty much won't need to again. ( First time will be a few hours later, second time a few days, third time will probably be in the months. I never did find out what the shaft cores cap out at. )