What's the point of RotaryCraft?

[Ieldra]

I haven't played with RotaryCraft yet since the modpack I'm currently playing doesn't have it, but the answer to the question is always the same for any mod:

The point of playing with any mod is the ability to do things in a style you like, and avoid spending time with things you don't like. For some that includes heavy automation and resource effiency to the point of being overpowered, for some it doesn't. For instance, in spite of its effienciency, I would never build a thing like Direwolf20's "UberMiner" since it destroys the landscape. On the other hand, I would highly appreciate a mod that gives me an easier way to get things I could usually only obtain with trading, like Mystcraft pages, since I love Mystcraft but find trading immensely annoying (any hints btw?).

I think that for almost everyone, there is a point where style matters more than power and efficiency, since you'll always end up doing things the same way otherwise. So if I'm going to play with RotaryCraft, or any other mod, will depend less on what it enables me to do - which in most cases other mods do as well - and more on *how* things are done. If things are more complicated for the same benefit as in other mods, that's not bad unless I dislike spending time with those mechanics. Building a fusion reactor and in effect not having to care about energy requirements any more, I don't know if that appeals to me, but other parts of the mod may do. It's all a matter of preference.

So, like for any other mod I haven't played yet, I'll say this: I don't know if I'll enjoy it, but if it's made well, technically, and if it has its own style, then it's good that it exists.

 

[Wagon153]

Let's see, this is RotaryCraft v21b in our custom pack. We also have uh, ReactorCraft v21. I wasn't actually aware of ElectricCraft until a few days ago, and then I started wondering about all this stuff.

The thing is we have our world now fully rendered and everything, so I'm not quite sure what sort of impact adding it (electriccraft) would be. Also, I watched a few of those vids and somewhere you mentioned you tweaked a config somewhere to allow crafting from stuff other than the worktable? Or something like AE crafting. How can I do that for our pack?

Cool videos by the way. The item vacuum looks potentially awesome, and so does setting it up. To me it just comes to a point of how big and how much resource production do I actually need?

I've been so busy with our server that I haven't actually had a lot of time to play for myself. In two full days the most I've done is made a Steel Furnace thing, Worktable, a Dynometer and a DC Engine. I haven't even made anything else from other mods LOL So I flip it on occasionally and listen to it whirr. That's fun, haha.

To allow crafting of rotary craft machines in a regular crafting table/AE MAC, theres an option in the rotary craft config.

 

[Dentvar]

Fair enough, but that parameter is irrelevant. What matters is that Monster is 4 months out of date for RC, missing major improvements from bugfixes to features to performance upgrades, a great number of which were added in v20.

Not to mention all functioning versions of ElectriCraft.

can I just update rotarycraft into monster 1.1.1? or are there any known problems?

 

[Not_Steve]

can I just update rotarycraft into monster 1.1.1? or are there any known problems?

A couple potion I'd conflicts nothing major

 

[null123]

A couple potion ID conflicts, nothing major

FTFY.

 

[Dentvar]

FTFY.

what? not up to date with dat slang... "FTFY= fixed that for you" so you want us to tell that the conflicts are not there anymore or do I get this "FTFY" wrong?

 

[Padfoote]

what? not up to date with dat slang... "FTFY= fixed that for you" so you want us to tell that the conflicts are not there anymore or do I get this "FTFY" wrong?

No, there are conflicts. He was fixing a minor spelling issue.

 

[Dentvar]

oh, now I see it
I will look into how to fix ID´s then since I realy would like to update RC.

 

[Reika]

There will also be some other issues, such as the ReactorCraft Corium block ID error, since the Monster configs were incorrect.

 

[KirinDave]

...Are you saying it is better to be slow and/or inefficient? I do not see how that is in any way appealing.

"Doing it better" is a superior condition IFF the player feels like they've earned it. Usually we call this feeling "fun". Nearly all balance and quality discussions these days w.r.t. mods breakdown along agreeing where people feel like they've "earned it." This is a fine line between "too easy", and "too difficult." Often the novelty of an activity also helps change this, thus you see mods that start out well-received and over time people realize they hate parts of it (a great example of this is Thaumcraft's research mechanics).

For me, RotaryCraft is really close to being a totally stunning mod. It's just so full of false paths and deprecated content. My opinion is half your engines are basically useless, and a lot of your material tiers are useless. Tightening this up and making it feel like all parts of the mod are accessible and rewarding will make it hard to resist RC.

I've taken the time to use the mod in a test world with no cheats from 0 to bedrock dust a few months ago. I enjoyed it, but I was grumpy about how many of the engines seemed inferior compared to the recommended engines I saw on Bevo's channel. I also felt like it was the kind of mod that doesn't mix well with others. It can output power in other systems, but the machines don't interact well with the usual ecosystem.

 

[Siigari]

I just want to throw out there, along with KirinDave that "more content" does not always equal "more fun."

Redstone Arsenal is an example of this. It's such a great mod yet it offers so little in terms of content. When I start a game I usually can't wait to get my Redstone tools going, and that feeling of reward I get after I have made at least a wrench is one of the most satisfying feelings.

I am going to continue to dink around with RoC and see what there is to experience. @Reika keep in mind though that I am a bit overwhelmed with the abundance of items and the lack of direction. I think that being able to do many things is awesome (AWESOME!) and I want to experience some new and innovative ideas.

Also on a total sidenote I read through the RoC handbook and a lot of the text seems frivolous and at times some is slightly immersion breaking or unprofessional with a hint of grammatical quandaries. Maybe it's worth a second look? One thing that stood out was one of the items said "blah blah blah and it will explode. Violently." The "Violently" with a period before it adds a bit of dramatic flair but it's out of place, as you should never use an adjective in a sentence alone. The period could be replaced with a comma and it would be correct. There are some other issues I saw but I just wanted to cite one particular example.

 

[McJty]

I personally think the RoC mod has two main parts. One is the power system, the engines that come with this and all the machines needed to get this power system operational (like the jetfuel production, lubricant production and so on). I think this part of RoC is very well thought out and based on real physics. It feels right and you have to do some good thinking and use creativity to achieve what you want to get.

The other part is the machines that use this power. This is essential obviously because power without uses is not worth having. This part of the mod feels more like a collection of things which are all very nice to have. I do like most of them a lot though and I don't really see anything fundamentally wrong with any of them.

 

[Reika]

My opinion is half your engines are basically useless, and a lot of your material tiers are useless.

In my experience this is more a result of using RC with other mods than anything else. The low-tier engines are sufficient to run over 40% of the machines - though not the most popular items - but those machines are somewhat unsurprisingly made redundant by other mods' machines. This is further exacerbated by the fact that low-tier engines put out very little power compared to most mod engines; 80RF/t, for example, is over 450kW. The material tiers are similar; when you only need the high-tier engines, the low-tier shafts never find a use.

Also on a total sidenote I read through the RoC handbook and a lot of the text seems frivolous and at times some is slightly immersion breaking or unprofessional with a hint of grammatical quandaries. Maybe it's worth a second look? One thing that stood out was one of the items said "blah blah blah and it will explode. Violently." The "Violently" with a period before it adds a bit of dramatic flair but it's out of place, as you should never use an adjective in a sentence alone. The period could be replaced with a comma and it would be correct. There are some other issues I saw but I just wanted to cite one particular example.

This is deliberate, partly to keep the handbook from being boring, and partly as it is just my writing style. You will notice similar examples elsewhere, for example the first sentences of the gasoline engine and the Borer.

 

[KirinDave]

In my experience this is more a result of using RC with other mods than anything else. The low-tier engines are sufficient to run over 40% of the machines - though not the most popular items - but those machines are somewhat unsurprisingly made redundant by other mods' machines. This is further exacerbated by the fact that low-tier engines put out very little power compared to most mod engines; 80RF/t, for example, is over 450kW. The material tiers are similar; when you only need the high-tier engines, the low-tier shafts never find a use.

I actually avoided doing the crossmod stuff with that playthrough. I just found gas and water engines to be more than I needed until late game power was required. And they were easiest to do logistics for. And I was able to make steel in reasonable quantity early enough and it was strong enough that I never considered downgrading and only in 2 cases had to upgrade.

Again, I know it is slightly rough language but I think RC is very cool. It's by far the most interesting power system.

 

[Bruigaar]

The whole point of any mod is to do something new or to do something in a different way. Simplest answer I can give you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Reika]

I actually avoided doing the crossmod stuff with that playthrough. I just found gas and water engines to be more than I needed until late game power was required. And they were easiest to do logistics for. And I was able to make steel in reasonable quantity early enough and it was strong enough that I never considered downgrading and only in 2 cases had to upgrade.

Water being hydrokinetic or steam? If the former, was this after hydrokinetics got nerfed (started requiring lubricant)? Or, if the latter, how did you run everything off of 16kW engines without simply spamming them?

 

[Axylxys]

I disagree with what was said above, i really like the fact RotaryCraft has a lot of stuff, touching every area of the game. It's so full of little things that even after several weeks i still find some fun stuff to do with it, with some underused items of the mod. It always feels like whatever i want to do, i can find a way to do it in Rotary.

Take the item vacuums, at first glance they're not too great. Items floating means whenever you run around you get your inventory flooded if you're using Coin of Fortune from Xeno's, then the items don't teleport instantly and can't go through blocks so they look really weak compared to Item Collectors or other instant-looting methods. Then some days ago i did some testing, found out about their crazy range and got the idea of an aerial farm with giant fields and an Item Vacuum floating 30+ blocks above, in the air. Inverted rain of loots from all the crops floating up to the vacuums, i have yet to try it but that sounds like a fun way to make some industrial farms, way more interesting than just spamming collectors and ender chests.

Same for all the defense tools, they're totally useless from an efficiency perspective, yet they can make some awesome mob farms when you're just looking for some fun. I'll take 6 railguns blasting a spawner anytime over MFR grinders doing their thing with no entertaining value.

The cosmetic tools are great, i even use the steam machine from RotaryCraft instead of Railcraft boilers when i need that steam, overall RotaryCraft is my favorite mod now. I could never really get into IC2, buildcraft or even thermal, the main energy mods always looked boring and more like a necessity than something i enjoy. RotaryCraft on the other hand brings innovative tools for pretty much everything, some are powerful and better than other mods, some aren't, yet i find that most of the "underpowered" stuff can pull its weight when given a specific setup. And more often than not, it pulls ahead for me as it's way more fun than most other mods. I've never been a fan of single blocks doing a lot of stuff that you can't see then you get your product out of nowhere, such as MFR or even TE, while with Reika's mods i always get the feeling that i can just sit there and watch what's going on. It makes sense, it just reminds me of the Lego Technic or Mecanos from my young years

Only exception to it: the pipes. That's the single thing i truely hate and i keep shouting bad words at them. They're so huge you can't click through, they break at the slightest mistake since even a bare hand will instantly destroy them, their buffer is so huge it's impossible to know what's going on exactly in the system (my fission reactor boilers ran out of water after two weeks of running 24/24 because the pipes had so much water stored i had no clue my water output wasn't enough), they seem to have a mind of their own when it comes to interacting with other mods and machines and they're ugly (ok, that point is my own taste). I could go on for hours about how i hate them, lol. Their only saving grace is their high speed with no server performance hit, unlike Extra Utilities pipes that completely destroy the server TPS once they're stacked for speed.

Anyway i'll probably consider Reika's mod as mandatory for me to play any modpack now, i just can't see myself doing without them, they literally made me play for the past weeks while i already ran out of fun things to do with the Monster Pack. And i have yet to try all the goodies from recent updates or Electricraft

 

[madnewmy]

I disagree with what was said above, i really like the fact RotaryCraft has a lot of stuff, touching every area of the game. It's so full of little things that even after several weeks i still find some fun stuff to do with it, with some underused items of the mod. It always feels like whatever i want to do, i can find a way to do it in Rotary.

Take the item vacuums, at first glance they're not too great. Items floating means whenever you run around you get your inventory flooded if you're using Coin of Fortune from Xeno's, then the items don't teleport instantly and can't go through blocks so they look really weak compared to Item Collectors or other instant-looting methods. Then some days ago i did some testing, found out about their crazy range and got the idea of an aerial farm with giant fields and an Item Vacuum floating 30+ blocks above, in the air. Inverted rain of loots from all the crops floating up to the vacuums, i have yet to try it but that sounds like a fun way to make some industrial farms, way more interesting than just spamming collectors and ender chests.

Same for all the defense tools, they're totally useless from an efficiency perspective, yet they can make some awesome mob farms when you're just looking for some fun. I'll take 6 railguns blasting a spawner anytime over MFR grinders doing their thing with no entertaining value.

The cosmetic tools are great, i even use the steam machine from RotaryCraft instead of Railcraft boilers when i need that steam, overall RotaryCraft is my favorite mod now. I could never really get into IC2, buildcraft or even thermal, the main energy mods always looked boring and more like a necessity than something i enjoy. RotaryCraft on the other hand brings innovative tools for pretty much everything, some are powerful and better than other mods, some aren't, yet i find that most of the "underpowered" stuff can pull its weight when given a specific setup. And more often than not, it pulls ahead for me as it's way more fun than most other mods. I've never been a fan of single blocks doing a lot of stuff that you can't see then you get your product out of nowhere, such as MFR or even TE, while with Reika's mods i always get the feeling that i can just sit there and watch what's going on. It makes sense, it just reminds me of the Lego Technic or Mecanos from my young years

Only exception to it: the pipes. That's the single thing i truely hate and i keep shouting bad words at them. They're so huge you can't click through, they break at the slightest mistake since even a bare hand will instantly destroy them, their buffer is so huge it's impossible to know what's going on exactly in the system (my fission reactor boilers ran out of water after two weeks of running 24/24 because the pipes had so much water stored i had no clue my water output wasn't enough), they seem to have a mind of their own when it comes to interacting with other mods and machines and they're ugly (ok, that point is my own taste). I could go on for hours about how i hate them, lol. Their only saving grace is their high speed with no server performance hit, unlike Extra Utilities pipes that completely destroy the server TPS once they're stacked for speed.

Anyway i'll probably consider Reika's mod as mandatory for me to play any modpack now, i just can't see myself doing without them, they literally made me play for the past weeks while i already ran out of fun things to do with the Monster Pack. And i have yet to try all the goodies from recent updates or Electricraft

Might be wrong but i think you can read the content of a pipe with an angular transceder

Overall, i think RoC offers a lot of content, maybe too much. I didn't mess with maybe 1/3 of the mod because either I don't see the use of it or it cost in power is absurd...

The only bad (actually i love it but shhhhh) thing is that you can get up to automated mining with the borer within 5-6 hours of play (did it in 4.5) and it will cost you only around two stack of iron ore, a few pieces of gold and some basic component to make steel and ethanol. The big meh about early game is to get to the grinder, after, you are pretty much set and can get (too?) quickly down the tech tree.

 

[Reika]

Might be wrong but i think you can read the content of a pipe with an angular transceder

Overall, i think RoC offers a lot of content, maybe too much. I didn't mess with maybe 1/3 of the mod because either I don't see the use of it or it cost in power is absurd...

The only bad (actually i love it but shhhhh) thing is that you can get up to automated mining with the borer within 5-6 hours of play (did it in 4.5) and it will cost you only around two stack of iron ore, a few pieces of gold and some basic component to make steel and ethanol. The big meh about early game is to get to the grinder, after, you are pretty much set and can get (too?) quickly down the tech tree.

I actively avoided the need for grinding, as that is neither fun nor satisfying. I never really see what people mean when they say they get a sense of accomplishment from having mined out 500 chunks manually or built a giant box by hand. There is little (or even no) thinking involved, just repetition.

 

[Axylxys]

The angular transducer reads it yeah, but i'd rather have a Railcraft tank with some Nuclear Control sensors showing what's going on in my control room than run around the whole network to spam the transducer and realize my pipes hold so much liquid they're pushing up the production while the machines are already full for a while