Thaumcraft Troubles

[Edrosty]

I used an Arcane bore with:
Wand of Excavation- Potency 3, Frugal 3, Charging, Treasure 2
Diamond Pickaxe- Efficiency 5, Unbreaking 3, Fortune 3

So far, I've been happier with a Quarry than the bore. Is there something I did wrong? The bore didn't get NEARLY as much width as my Quarry gets, didn't even make a nice box, the walls were uneven as hell, and it only got me ONE crystal chest full of stuff, as opposed to my Quarry getting me 10-16. What makes it that much better? The Bore as well generates a metric f**kton of Flux as well, which then bites me later on with a crapton of lightning strikes, some while I'm AFK that end up burning down my house. Seriously, any advice? I've kept my game on literally for over 24 hours now, in a nice safe spot in my basement (EXTREMELY LIT UP) so I can chill there while AFK and generate UU matter and have my quarry going nearby as well. That being said, the flux is STILL at High, and JUST went down from Dangerous.

 

[Neirin]

Arcane Bore is better for a lot of the same reasons frame machines are better: you can pick what level it mines at. 1 crystal chest from y=10 is pretty darn good imo, particularly since you don't have to fill up 10 chests with junk trying to get to that level.

The walls being "uneven" is because the bore cuts in a circle instead of a boring old square. If that's not your cup of tea, that's up to you. I love it, but I also build lots of cylinders and domes and occasionally spheres. I can't tell if I like curves or if I'm just masochistic for trying to make them in a game made out of cubes.

If you're just afking while your auto-mining is running, you're missing out on one of the big things that separates the bore from everything else: it's totally awesome to watch run.

Dealing with flux is the tradeoff you get for not requiring power to run the arcane bore. You'll need to either get a system for dealing with flux (i.e. an automated way to kill wisps) or a way to deal with the consequences of high flux (i.e. not making your house out of flammable material). I mostly build out of various types of brick away from any forests, so lightning fires aren't really a problem for me. I actually kinda wish I had worked on Thaumcraft earlier as I suspect I could have handled the flux in much less time than it took to set up my current massive power system.

 

[Edrosty]

I loved watching the Bore work. That one time I used it, it was awesome to look at. That's just not my cup of tea. What I like is to have the resources I need, and a lot of them, and be able to get to work making high end things. I just wish Thaumcraft was more interactive with the world instead of just being able to have a Thaum station and being set. I'd love if the old Monoliths to get into secret dungeons and whatnot was re-implemented for example. More world events instead of simple wisp spawning and weather would be awesome. I'd love to see ancient thaum temples to explore, maybe even 1.5-2x the size of a Stronghold, with a LOT more custom mobs to make it haaaard as hell, even with a full quantum suit. Currently, I'm done with Thaumcraft and it's a little sad to have everything researched.

 

[Neirin]

Sounds like you want Better Dungeons and/or Mo' Creatures. They're in sorta a different category than Thaumcraft. Even the old TC2 obelisks weren't really a challenge, just something to find and loot. If you want mobs to be harder while you have a full Q-suit you can turn off the chest piece's invincibility function in the GregTech config. Minecraft combat is still pretty easy, but at least then it'd be possible to die.

For what it's worth, if all you want is the resources and you're afking while your auto-mining collects them anyways, why not just spawn in a few stacks of ore. It's effectively the same thing, you just don't spend several hours frustrated with your lack of resources. You could still run the ore you spawn in through your processing system and build your next project from scratch. It just seems like you're annoyed with resource gathering and not enjoying it. This is a game, so do what you have fun doing and screw anyone who thinks you're "doing it wrong."

 

[Edrosty]

I'm actually quite happy with my resources at the moment I have over 450 Iridium from 2 Mass Fabricators enhanced on Diamond Dust from a Diamond Tendrils world, powered by 3 ultimate solar panels each. As far as resources go, I'm set. I have over 1000 cobble, a tree farm with stacks on stacks of logs, etc. I just dun see the point of the bore when the quarry CAN be a lot more efficient than a bore. Maybe not as fast, but you'll get more resources for sure, even if part of those resources end up being cobble.

ANYWAY, on topic, the problem is fixed. Thankfully, due to around 200 wisps or so spawning, the Flux has gone down significantly, and I no longer have to worry about lightning striking me while I AFK in my house. Thanks for your guys' helping me to realize that the problem was that I needed more space around the node for them to spawn.

 

[KirinDave]

I used an Arcane bore with:
Wand of Excavation- Potency 3, Frugal 3, Charging, Treasure 2
Diamond Pickaxe- Efficiency 5, Unbreaking 3, Fortune 3

The bore didn't get NEARLY as much width as my Quarry gets, didn't even make a nice box, the walls were uneven as hell, and it only got me ONE crystal chest full of stuff, as opposed to my Quarry getting me 10-16. What makes it that much better? The Bore as well generates a metric f**kton of Flux as well, which then bites me later on with a crapton of lightning strikes, some while I'm AFK that end up burning down my house. Seriously, any advice?

Damn. Nice objects. Let's address your stuff in order:

• "... the walls were uneven as hell, and it only got me ONE crystal chest full of stuff, as opposed to my Quarry getting me 10-16." Correct. Ore density at lower levels is much higher than at upper levels. The quarry slices in exactly the wrong direction, maximizing how much detritus it will get. The Arcane Bore (and tunnel bores and steve's carts) can maximize the "good" output by slicing in the direction of maximum density and ignoring other layers. The quarry CAN cover a larger area, but at terrible cost.
• "The Bore as well generates a metric f**kton of Flux as well, which then bites me later on with a crapton of lightning strikes..." My advice here is to use either crystal clusters or crystal capacitors. Most of the flux generated by the bore in newer versions of thaumcraft is due to the extreme vis usage, which causes flux as enter the local node as nearby nodes send vis in. My understanding of the aura mechanics is that crystal capacitors alleviate this by injecting the vis into the environment safely, thus minimixing flux.

By the way, don't feel obligated to use an ender chest with this device. There are multiple ways to handle bore output from a variety of mods. One of the nicest aspects is that it plays well with magic mirrors, which give you the power to send things over to a (hidden, not visible, for the sake of client rendering lag) dump room. Intelligent Wood Golems are very cheap and can easily act as an input sorting system with a mighty buffer. Superior golems can do even more interesting things.
Also, consider working on a nice elemental pickaxe with repair and fortune. Thaumcraft gives slightly above 220% yields on native clusters placed into an infernal furnace, and let you keep the smelting experience. The Bore using an elemental pickaxe with good fortune and repair can output a lot of material this way, so long as you keep a well-managed (3 bellows) infernal furnace off to the side.

 

[Edrosty]

Oh, I have a very nice Pickaxe of the Core. I spent ALL of my extra levels doing nothing but book enchanting, and at the moment I have a double chest nearly full with high end enchants. I decided to put: Efficiency 5, Unbreaking 3, Fortune 3, Repair 2 on my Pickaxe of the Core. I just didn't want to use it in the Bore in fear of it breaking. If I do use it in the Bore though, I know now that the Bore stops working when the pick is low, so the pick doesn't actually break. I love mining up the native clusters because it's like you just mined 3 ores instead of 1. It really has the ultimate fortune, because the Fortune 3 still works on stuff like Lapis, Diamond, etc. It's not JUST for the Native Cluster chance.