SteveChem alpha (very unfinished)

  • The FTB Forum is now read-only, and is here as an archive. To participate in our community discussions, please join our Discord! https://ftb.team/discord

immibis

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
884
0
0
Download - requires Immibis Core 59.1.3 or later, and a fluid piping mod. Buildcraft floodgates are also recommended.

Who here likes SpaceChem? Well, SteveChem is SpaceChem in Minecraft. This is still very unfinished. Currently you can use it to multiply coal ore, iron ore and gold ore, and convert between charcoal and coal.

This mod is all about manipulating chemicals. To get started, you'll need to make a reactor.

Moustachium is an ingredient in reactors, made from an alloy of gold+iron or gold+copper:
m13H7.png

with which you'll need to make some Moustachium Stone:
m13In.png

and then some Molecule Pipes:
m13J6.png

and finally the Molecular Reactor itself:
m13G4.png


This reactor is a 3x3 multiblock-in-a-box - make sure there's an empty block on every horizontal side (including corners) when you place it, or it won't fit. Breaking any part of the multiblock will drop the reactor again.

Reactor GUI

Open it up, and you'll get this GUI (you may need to resize your Minecraft window!):
m13QK.png


Here you can drag-and-drop instructions onto the grid. For more information on reactor mechanics, refer to SpaceChem. Note that you need exactly one start symbol of each colour - if you don't have one it will be automatically created when you start the reactor, and if you have more than one the extra ones will be deleted.

On the bottom-right, the four modes are "stopped" (in which you can edit the reactor program), "paused" (in which nothing will happen, but it won't be in edit mode either), "slow" and "fast". In fast mode the reactor will automatically restart if it encounters an error, allowing for unattended use. In slow mode, an error will cause the reactor to revert to the "paused" state, from which it must be manually reset (by stopping and restarting it).

Toxic sludge

That bar on the right is the reactor's toxic sludge tank. Yes, toxic sludge tank. Destroying molecules - either by stopping the reactor while it contains molecules, or by crashing molecules into each other - generates toxic sludge, which is hard to get rid of (unless you cheat by using a void pipe or a nullifier). If the toxic sludge tank is full, the reactor will refuse to do anything. Toxic sludge must be extracted from the bottom centre of the reactor. The intended ways to dispose of toxic sludge are to store it in a large multiblock tank, or dump it into a ravine or quarry pit (using a Buildcraft flood gate). I'm sure there are countless ways to destroy toxic sludge (like blowing up tanks of it with TNT) but they're all considered cheating.

Input and output

So how do you get molecules into the reactor? Simple - craft a Molecular Reactor Input, stick it on top of one of the corner blocks (with the blue squares) and pipe molecules into it using Molecule Pipes.

m149v.png


Ditto for output - put a Molecular Reactor Output on top of one of the blue squares, and it will allow molecules to be output into

At the moment, although you can put either an input or an output on any square, the available instructions only allow you to input through α and β, and output through Ψ and ω, like in SpaceChem.

Conversion

How do you get molecules in the first place, and what do you do with them?

Well, you get molecules by breaking down Minecraft items, and you reassemble them into other Minecraft items.

The Molecular Disassembler is crafted like so:
m14gr.png

Just put items in, and they'll be converted to molecules, which will be ejected from the bottom (which you should connect a pipe to). One item can generate many molecules (identical or different).

The Molecular Reassembler is crafted like so:
m14ij.png

Put one piece of the item you want to create in the target slot, then pipe molecules into any side, and extract finished items out the bottom (or take them from the GUI). Any molecules that do not match the target item will be converted into toxic sludge, which must be pumped out.

One item might require many (identical) molecules.

Currently, molecules must exactly match what the reassembler expects, including their placement on the pad, or they'll be rejected. (In SpaceChem, you can have individual atoms in different places as long as the overall structure is the same - the same atoms with the same bonds between them)

Here's what the reassembler expects: (since it isn't shown anywhere else)
Coal:
m14FW.png

Charcoal:
m14Ff.png

Iron ingot:
m14H7.png

Gold ingot: (note the different bond structure from iron!)
m14HX.png

Gold nugget:
m14Jy.png



Recycling
You can craft a Recycler:
m14Lu.png


This is a 3x3x3 multiblock-in-a-box.

Its only purpose is to take excess molecules from your reactors, and convert them into toxic sludge. However, it only produces one fifth as much toxic sludge as the reactors do. Molecules can be piped into any side, and sludge can be extracted from any side.



Miscellaneous notes:
* Reactor textures are 32x32; while I'm generally not a huge fan of mods with 32x32 textures, these looked pretty bad in 16x16 (especially the symbols on the corners). Things like the arrows could easily be changed to 16x16 though.
* All ways to destroy toxic sludge are considered cheating. Please report them, even though I probably can't do anything about many of them.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Lyra_Chan

Chocohead

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
233
0
0
Cool mod, but the localisation for the creative tab and the Molecular Reactor's tooltip are broken ;)

And opening the Molecular Disassembler/Re-assembler crashes you:
---- Minecraft Crash Report ----
// Daisy, daisy...

Time: 19/12/15 14:31
Description: Exception in server tick loop

java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: mods.immibis.core.experimental.mgui1.IC_MGUI.openGUI(Lnet/minecraft/entity/player/EntityPlayer;Ljava/lang/String;Ljava/util/Map;Limmibis/mgui/MEventHandler;)Limmibis/mgui/MServerWindow;
at mods.immibis.stevechem.conversion.reassembler.TileReassembler.onBlockActivated(TileReassembler.java:109)
at mods.immibis.core.BlockCombined.func_149727_a(BlockCombined.java:127)
at net.minecraft.server.management.ItemInWorldManager.func_73078_a(ItemInWorldManager.java:376)
at net.minecraft.network.NetHandlerPlayServer.func_147346_a(NetHandlerPlayServer.java:556)
at net.minecraft.network.play.client.C08PacketPlayerBlockPlacement.func_148833_a(SourceFile:60)
at net.minecraft.network.play.client.C08PacketPlayerBlockPlacement.func_148833_a(SourceFile:9)
at net.minecraft.network.NetworkManager.func_74428_b(NetworkManager.java:212)
at net.minecraft.network.NetworkSystem.func_151269_c(NetworkSystem.java:165)
at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.func_71190_q(MinecraftServer.java:659)
at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.func_71217_p(MinecraftServer.java:547)
at net.minecraft.server.integrated.IntegratedServer.func_71217_p(IntegratedServer.java:186)
at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.run(MinecraftServer.java:396)
at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer$2.run(MinecraftServer.java:685)
 
Last edited:

Lyra_Chan

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
376
6
0
I'll need to keep an eye on this ;3 It looks really cool and it'll fit right in to my Super Science-y pack thing that I'm kind of working on in the background
 

Pinkishu

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
143
0
0
Omg this sounds incredible. I wanted something like this for so long, even contemplated making it myself :p But I'd likely not stick to making it and such and have like no experience in MC modding xD
So nice one, looking forward to see it grow.
 

bigyihsuan

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
53
0
0
Will this have at least some support for MineChem? It would be cool to build some of the MineChem molecules in your reactor.
 

immibis

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
884
0
0
Will this have at least some support for MineChem? It would be cool to build some of the MineChem molecules in your reactor.
That's an idea. The reason it's only ore processing right now is that I don't really know what else to add. Some of the MineChem molecules will probably be too complex to make though.
 

bigyihsuan

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
53
0
0
That's an idea. The reason it's only ore processing right now is that I don't really know what else to add. Some of the MineChem molecules will probably be too complex to make though.
Hmm. Maybe use individual MineChem items as a symbol, so complicated molecules could be made using compressed versions of other molecules acting as an individual item.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lethosos

CaptPanda

Well-Known Member
Nov 20, 2012
409
182
68
Britland
there's a fair few mods that use chemicals, there's mekanism, gregtech and techreborn, maybe you could even use this to make the various -otheums from thermal expansion.

what would be really neat is if this mod could have minetweaker compatibility, imagine all the things that could be done! Golem Factory could have an actual chemical plant!

I'm also wondering if for the sake of simplification, each 'particle' could be easier to represent as a mB, as it would work smoothly when working with other fluids. You could even flavour it as manipulating chemicals a few moles at a time.