Steam Boiler / Steve's Carts issue (SC2 farm stops producing?)

[Naxos]

The setup:

I've got a 36HP boiler setup and I'm feeding with two steve's carts tree farms. I'm using Applied Energistics for item transport. I smelt the logs into charcoal (plan to switch to sawmill). The boiler, ME network, and farms are all within the boundaries of a single chunk (checked using NEI chunk boundary draws). I'm running a server that my friends and I play on.

My issue is this:

When I'm actively playing the game, the charcoal count steadily rises over time. When I leave the game and come back later, it's as if my tree farms stopped harvesting, but the boiler continued to use fuel. For example, this morning I went to work and my charcoal count was at 12,000. When I got home today, my charcoal count is down to 6,000. No one has logged in, so I know that noone has taken the charcoal. I setup the whole system in a single chunk to avoid problems like this. Any ideas why this is happening?

 

[tindin]

does any of the tree farm land on the chunk line? how are you keeping the chunk loaded? how are you making the charcoal?

 

[Naxos]

The logs are fed into an induction furnace that is being powered by steam turbines to create charcoal. Nothing is over the chunk line, though some machine are on the boundary (but within it). Everything is within the boundary.

I'm not keeping the chunk loaded in any way. I made everything inside a single chunk so that I wouldn't have issues where a player is nearby, but only loads half my setup. Since it's in a single chunk, it should either be completely loaded, or not loaded at all. That was the idea anyway...

 

[tindin]

if no one is on /near the chunk then there is nothing loading the chunk

 

[Naxos]

That's what I expect/wanted. The issue is that... charcoal is still being used. If I leave the server at 12,000, and no one logs in, when I come back, the level should still be at 12,000 if the chunk isn't loaded. If the chunk IS loaded for some reason when no one is there (don't know why that would be), then the tree farms should continue producing charcoal and I should have more than 12,000. But somehow charcoal is being used, but the farms aren't producing.

 

[tindin]

check how fast you burn that stuff.. chances are it's the log out time and log in time thats doing it

 

[Naxos]

It's about 10 seconds / charcoal...

But I'm not sure what you mean? When I'm actively playing, the charcoal count rises steadily. If I play for an hour it rises about 1K in storage, which tells me that my farms are out-producing the boilers consumption rate. But when I leave and return, it's as if my farms weren't running at all (and they are vertically stacked in the same chunk as the boilers, turbines, ME network, etc)

 

[tindin]

they wont be running if you don't keep the chunk loaded....some machines and tubes have a delay to being unloaded and others unload right away...

 

[immibis]

Try explicitly loading the chunk by placing a chunk loader.

 

[wow]

bro, you have to use a chunk loader lmao. when you leave the game, everything pauses. machines will only work if there is a player OR a chunk loader in the chunk

 

[Naxos]

bro, you have to use a chunk loader lmao. when you leave the game, everything pauses. machines will only work if there is a player OR a chunk loader in the chunk

But that isn't what's happening. When I leave the game, everything should pause. That's what I want. Instead, charcoal still gets fed into the boiler (somehow?). When I left I had 12K charcoal, when I came back, I had 6K. No other players came, no chunkloader. It's crazy...

 

[namiasdf]

If it's on a MP server you may never know what is keeping chunks loaded. Unless you are completely sure.

If it's single player, maybe there is a ghost that's trolling you,.

 

[Naxos]

If it's on a MP server you may never know what is keeping chunks loaded. Unless you are completely sure.

If it's single player, maybe there is a ghost that's trolling you,.

Yeah it's an SMP DW20 server that I'm running with a few friends. The thing that makes me scratch my head is that the farm and boiler (and all supporting equipment) are in the same chunk! So it makes no sense that one could run and while the other didn't...

 

[Quesenek]

For things like this you want to explicitly turn them off when you log out. The first thing I do when setting up machines on a server is I make a chunk loader to keep everything loaded that may be a problem. In the past I've had pipes and machines explode without the chunk being actively loaded (by a chunk loader/world anchor). I've had redstone engines and gates get "Stuck" on and dump my entire inventory out on the ground while I was logged out.

I have a theory that while it may not keep an entire chunk loaded that some machines while on will keep themselves loaded.

 

[immibis]

Often mods will inadvertently load chunks that aren't supposed to be loaded. These are often called "orphaned chunks".
Tile entities (i.e. machines) in orphaned chunks will run, but random block ticks (i.e. tree growth) will not happen.
That's why I suggested adding an actual chunk loader.

 

[Naxos]

Often mods will inadvertently load chunks that aren't supposed to be loaded. These are often called "orphaned chunks".
Tile entities (i.e. machines) in orphaned chunks will run, but random block ticks (i.e. tree growth) will not happen.
That's why I suggested adding an actual chunk loader.

Ah, that would definitely explain the problem I'm having. Using a chunk loader explicitly seems to be working. Thanks Immibis! It's cool that mod authors come around to help