Dartcraft is well Dartcraft
Uhm, what? the force engine is well in line with buildcraft progression. Its more expensive and works similar to the combustion engine. The thing your probably have a problem with is that Buildcrafts progression is flatter then vanilla tools. Wich is completly fine.
its a trope at this point but the Biofuel generator takes time to setup where as the Thermal Expansion Dynamos are easy to get, setup and forget;
This is overselling TE dynamo's. Biofuel is just as easy to get going. That village you found early on? With those wheat/potato/carrot farms? some extra saplings from chopping down trees? Its easy to sustain. Maybe you are confused with forestry?
where all the others weren't as well as the tier progression in Buildcraft was taken into account where in Thermal Expansion there is no progression only multiple Dynamos all in the same Tier (High Tier I might add) with different ways of fueling them.
You realise that BC engines are cobblestone + a piston, right? TE dynamo's arent cheap in comparison. And instead of making you spam 4 engines just to get 1(!) machine going, it saves on lag and makes you build a single much more expensive engine. Soooo broken right? Or wait, it makes complete sense gameplay wise. Who would have thought that a mod that started as an addon to BC actually expands on its tier system?
TL;DR read what original poster and other people are saying after the initial post then comment.
I have and I dont agree. Lava power is not a problem at all. Its a valid option, but its far from broken with just TE itself. Even adding a pump doesnt make it broken, you also need a chunkloader(arguably the strongest "device" one can have). And then you also need to eventually move it. You want to use a mystcraft age? Well GG, that mod is so far from balanced is not even funny (yes, I consider Dartcraft balanced, so in your eyes that should say something). Wich brings me to my original point: "The entire problem is cross mod interaction here, nothing else."
Besides, even playing something like TPPI, lava power is a decent mid game power source, but its a complete dead end. Its not the way to go for powering laser drills, thats why I mentioned: "Big Reactors + MFR laser drill wins. No lag, selfsustaining, doesnt destroy the world, doesnt need alternative dimensions to be loaded or even created." And even all that considered, I would skip the magma step entirely and go with: "I consider the steam dynamo to be the strongest. Why? Because thats the one that can be powered with charcoal/planks". Tree farms are easy to setup, require only a freaction of the fuel they supply and can be expanded in multiple ways: Bigger, different trees(more wood per tree, more saplings for biofuel diversity), dynamo upgrades or boilers(if you plan to use steam for other power sources), fertilizer, lamp of growth and TiC lumber axes with fortune + autosmelting in autonomous activators/dynamism tablets (hello double fuel output). They are cheap to start with, can be upgraded with just about every path you choose and can reach that selfsustaining aswell as power production requirement for a laser drill and then some. The problem with tree farms however is lag, they are simply not as TPS friendly as a reactor + turbine(s). Another point in favor of tree farm over lava power, steam dynamo's dont use iron. Where as magmatic dynamo's do, after all to make invar you need iron + ferrous. That iron is better used making steel and getting that big reactor going.
Heck, if annything, lava power could use some new mechanics to spice things up. Though probably not as a power source. As it stands, lava power is just a time and resource wasting detour.
