Which power system has the highest power/lag ratio ?

[MigukNamja]

Which "interesting" RF power system produces the least server and client lag per RF/t ?

It's important to take both into account since hosted servers scale rapidly with CPU+RAM and not everybody has a fast client. So, the ideal power system would have low server lag and high client FPS.

And, by "power system", I mean the entire infrastructure to feed/maintain it, along with the power-producing block or multi-block.[DOUBLEPOST=1405369924][/DOUBLEPOST]Compact Solars, or variants thereof, has got to be ideal. However, solar is rarely..."interesting".

 

[GreenZombie]

Ill jump in with the obvious: big reactors.

No moving parts in the reactor, massive rf. Allthough you do need to count the lag induced by the mining system.

In which true passive solutions like ender ios solar panels score with an effective infinite efficiency as they should introduce close to zero lag over the basic minimum required to partake in an RF network.

 

[MigukNamja]

Ill jump in with the obvious: big reactors.

No moving parts in the reactor, massive rf. Allthough you do need to count the lag induced by the mining system.

I like Big Reactors. It has a tiered progression and the opportunity for tons of tinkering/fiddling. However, sustaining it might not be easy based upon the mod-pack. If available, bees or the MFR laser with yellow focus are decent options for renewability.

In which true passive solutions like ender ios solar panels score with an effective infinite effeciency as they should introduce close to zero lag over the badic minimum required to partake in an RF network.

Oh, low lag indeed, but not much fun, IMHO.

 

[midi_sec]

no moving parts doesn't necessarily mean less server lag. it might be a little nicer to lower end computers as there is less to render, but it's the back end computations that are a killer on servers.

as for what is and isn't nice, I'm not 100% sure. I try to stay away from "always on" things like solars.

 

[Wagon153]

no moving parts doesn't necessarily mean less server lag. it might be a little nicer to lower end computers as there is less to render, but it's the back end computations that are a killer on servers.

as for what is and isn't nice, I'm not 100% sure. I try to stay away from "always on" things like solars.

I can confirm Big Reactors are very server friendly.

 

[rhn]

Unless we are talking about >1000RF or so, I probably wouldn't recommend the EnderIO solar solution. You would need a ton of them which all have to be processed all the time and all their packets of power have to be processed as well. This was the whole reason why Compact Solars was made for the IC2 Solars, as people were wrecking servers with huge solar farms.

 

[immibis]

Creative energy cells.

 

[MigukNamja]

For complexity, I was and still am a big fan of Forestry Ethanol. Depending upon how much time I spend in-game and whether my goal is a modest 1000 RF/t or 10,000 RF/t, breeding the best trees for saplings and fruit may takes weeks. Then, setting up the system of squeezers, 1 or 2 fermenters, and a bank of stills is somewhat fun. From there, one can burn Ethanol in RC boilers for steam or directly in TE3 Combustion Dynamos for direct RF/t. I haven't tried piping the steam from RC boilers to a Big Reactor steam turbine, but that might be a fun way to go. I've just usually gone for TE3 Steam Dynamos or RC ISEs.

However, the system to product Ethanol and then convert it to power may not necessarily be the most server-friendly, even if one tries to use the most server-friendly components. There's a lot of leaves breaking, saplings fallings, farms checking for block updates, items moving around, liquids moving around, and plenty of 'machine' blocks doing their thing.

For a much simpler setup that's still fun to tinker/play with and expand upon, Big Reactors seems like a lot of fun. You can start off with a 3x3x3 with less than a stack of Yellorium Ingots and expand from there to 5x5x3 to 7x7x3 and bigger. I haven't verified myself, but others are claiming a decently efficient passively-cooled (RF directly) reactor with an efficient MFR laser with yellow foci is self-sustaining. It gets even more efficient with a Steam Turbine.

Both of the above-described systems are easily capable of 10,000+ RF/t, but the pure Big Reactors one seems more server and client-friendly.

How about Reactor Craft ? Even a fission reactor can produce a lot of power, and a fusion reactor produces an insane amount of power. Does that require a big RoC setup to get up and running ? I really like RoC, but my client can't handle the fancy rending on more than a modest (small) collection of machines/shafts. Tons of opportunity for learning and tinkering there.

Also, any efficient, non-spammy ExtraUtils generator setups ? Automating Whither Boss spawning and slaying for Nether Stars might be fun. That Netherstar Generator is over 40k RF/t.

 

[YX33A]

@MigukNamja A ReC Fusion Reactor not only requires a big RoC setup to make the fuel for it, but also requires using ReC Fission Reactors to make fuel(until you can run the reactor long enough to produce more fuel with its neutrons).

Still, not exactly a weak setup.
The Nether Star Reactor sounds fun, except the wither death sound is loud and is heard everywhere in the map, on all dimensions, and I don't know of any way to quiet or silence it aside from the Sound Control mod.

 

[Pyure]

How about Reactor Craft ? Even a fission reactor can produce a lot of power, and a fusion reactor produces an insane amount of power. Does that require a big RoC setup to get up and running ? I really like RoC, but my client can't handle the fancy rending on more than a modest (small) collection of machines/shafts. Tons of opportunity for learning and tinkering there.

Amazing power, terrible performance. Particularly if you don't follow all the rules. Don't let steam blocks go loose. Don't output into ElectriCraft if your output is fluctuating (which it is if you're using regular turbines).

BigReactors is a bit less interesting and powerful, but it sure does make for a smoother gaming experience.

 

[MigukNamja]

Still, not exactly a weak setup.
The Nether Star Reactor sounds fun, except the wither death sound is loud and is heard everywhere in the map, on all dimensions, and I don't know of any way to quiet or silence it aside from the Sound Control mod.

Ah, that can get annoying after the 29th Wither Boss death or so.

@MigukNamja A ReC Fusion Reactor not only requires a big RoC setup to make the fuel for it, but also requires using ReC Fission Reactors to make fuel(until you can run the reactor long enough to produce more fuel with its neutrons).

Amazing power, terrible performance. Particularly if you don't follow all the rules. Don't let steam blocks go loose. Don't output into ElectriCraft if your output is fluctuating (which it is if you're using regular turbines).

Thanks for the info. I'll try to upgrade my client before making a serious ReC attempt. @Reika is a certified genius and an industrious (productive) one at that. Some of the most interesting theoretical designs I've ever seen in mMC. Client performance is not always a top concern of this, however. I started to get into RoC, but put it aside when my client FPS slowed to a crawl with just a modest, mid-game setup.

BigReactors is a bit less interesting and powerful, but it sure does make for a smoother gaming experience.

It seems very smooth, yes. Can start with ~1/2 a stack of Yellorium Ingots and a small energy cube, which is 3 mining trips, give or take, and then build from there. No big penalty for taking apart and expanding a reactor to upgrade as one progresses in the world, and the performance hit on clients and servers is minimal.

Agree that it lacks the complexity / novelty of some (many) other large-scale power-gen options.

TO DO:

1. Experiment with ReC
2. Build a Wither Boss spawner/slayer

 

[Reika]

For a direct power-to-lag ratio, I think my Tokamak, whatever the performance overhead (not that bad, actually), kind of wins by default.

 

[Wagon153]

I have found the Resonant Induction Fulmination generator incredibly powerful after testing. 1 gram of antimatter will produce more power then you could use in a month. But, the drawbacks are the production of the antimatter in a highly unstable mod. But other then the crashes, I have not had any performance issues.

 

[MigukNamja]

For a direct power-to-lag ratio, I think my Tokamak, whatever the performance overhead (not that bad, actually), kind of wins by default.

In absolute numbers, no argument there. The numerator is so huge, it doesn't really matter what the denominator is...in theory. I'm probably going to have to upgrade my client, though.

 

[Peppe]

For complexity, I was and still am a big fan of Forestry Ethanol. Depending upon how much time I spend in-game and whether my goal is a modest 1000 RF/t or 10,000 RF/t, breeding the best trees for saplings and fruit may takes weeks. Then, setting up the system of squeezers, 1 or 2 fermenters, and a bank of stills is somewhat fun. From there, one can burn Ethanol in RC boilers for steam or directly in TE3 Combustion Dynamos for direct RF/t. I haven't tried piping the steam from RC boilers to a Big Reactor steam turbine, but that might be a fun way to go. I've just usually gone for TE3 Steam Dynamos or RC ISEs.

However, the system to product Ethanol and then convert it to power may not necessarily be the most server-friendly, even if one tries to use the most server-friendly components. There's a lot of leaves breaking, saplings fallings, farms checking for block updates, items moving around, liquids moving around, and plenty of 'machine' blocks doing their thing.

For a much simpler setup that's still fun to tinker/play with and expand upon, Big Reactors seems like a lot of fun. You can start off with a 3x3x3 with less than a stack of Yellorium Ingots and expand from there to 5x5x3 to 7x7x3 and bigger. I haven't verified myself, but others are claiming a decently efficient passively-cooled (RF directly) reactor with an efficient MFR laser with yellow foci is self-sustaining. It gets even more efficient with a Steam Turbine.

Both of the above-described systems are easily capable of 10,000+ RF/t, but the pure Big Reactors one seems more server and client-friendly.

How about Reactor Craft ? Even a fission reactor can produce a lot of power, and a fusion reactor produces an insane amount of power. Does that require a big RoC setup to get up and running ? I really like RoC, but my client can't handle the fancy rending on more than a modest (small) collection of machines/shafts. Tons of opportunity for learning and tinkering there.

Also, any efficient, non-spammy ExtraUtils generator setups ? Automating Whither Boss spawning and slaying for Nether Stars might be fun. That Netherstar Generator is over 40k RF/t.

Love big reactors and they are self sufficient with laser drills. I never tested if it needed a focus or not, but made a bunch of yellow foci my first run through. Cyan focus supposedly gives even more yellorite, but i have not tested it in my latest world.

Yellow focus is set by MFR, but Big Reactors itself adds Yellowrite to Cyan. The weight in Cyan is low, but there are much fewer things in the Cyan focus pool, which I guess result in more yellorite overall.

Turbines are basically 6-8 times more efficient than passive reactor, so you can do whatever you want with them.

Big Reactor + Laser Drill probably have the best bang for your buck in terms of infinite/renewable Power vs Performance.

 

[madnewmy]

a small htgr reactor (Reactorcraft) with a single turbine needs only a grinder to get it going (to make the fuel for it) and needs a small amount of power sent back to it for a production of 900-950 Mw or about 170k rf/t. It takes quite a while to get there, but it's quite fun. A part of this power needs to be dedicated to mining netting you maybe 150k-160k rf/t. Also, easly expandable once you have it going.

 

[Mevansuto]

I have found the Resonant Induction Fulmination generator incredibly powerful after testing. 1 gram of antimatter will produce more power then you could use in a month. But, the drawbacks are the production of the antimatter in a highly unstable mod. But other then the crashes, I have not had any performance issues.

I found the last update for 1.6.4 was pretty stable. I haven't got a crash caused by RI other than ID conflicts in several weeks of testing.

 

[Wagon153]

I found the last update for 1.6.4 was pretty stable. I haven't got a crash caused by RI other than ID conflicts in several weeks of testing.

I was getting tons of concurrent modification exceptions earlier when using the particle accelerator. They seem to have dissapeared. now, but still.

 

[Reika]

I was getting tons of concurrent modification exceptions

Someone is failing at threading.

 

[MigukNamja]

Love big reactors and they are self sufficient with laser drills. I never tested if it needed a focus or not, but made a bunch of yellow foci my first run through. Cyan focus supposedly gives even more yellorite, but i have not tested it in my latest world.

Yellow focus is set by MFR, but Big Reactors itself adds Yellowrite to Cyan. The weight in Cyan is low, but there are much fewer things in the Cyan focus pool, which I guess result in more yellorite overall.

Turbines are basically 6-8 times more efficient than passive reactor, so you can do whatever you want with them.

Big Reactor + Laser Drill probably have the best bang for your buck in terms of infinite/renewable Power vs Performance.

Yeah, it's pretty easy to get it self-sustaining. I setup my Laser Drill last night with full yellow foci and let it run overnight. It netted about 4x more Yellorium than consumed, not to mention all the other ores the laser pulled up. I'll have to try a night with Cyan and then another night without any foci. My reactor is fairly efficient. It's 7x7x3 external with 5 cores in an 'X' pattern, cooled with gelid cryotheum. Once I get enough yellorite ingots, I'll upgrade it to a higher-power and even more efficient design with the goal of making 2000mB/t of steam from the reactor configuration, though it will initially be passively cooled to make RF directly.

Gelid cryotheum is pretty cheap. The only external resource TE3 cannot make itself to make cryotheum is redstone, and redstone becomes cheap mid-game for most modpacks.

• snowballs - glacial precipitator
• niter - sandstone in pulverizer
• sandstone - 4 sand
• sand - cobblestone in pulverizer
• cobblestone - igneous extruder

BR seems *very* server and client friendly and has decently interesting mechanics. Should make for good replayability. Am very glad ErogenousBeef brought this mod to us. A good contribution to the community and one I can see many modpacks and server admins using, though I expect the configs, minetweaker, and worldgen settings will vary from pack to pack.

a small htgr reactor (Reactorcraft) with a single turbine needs only a grinder to get it going (to make the fuel for it) and needs a small amount of power sent back to it for a production of 900-950 Mw or about 170k rf/t. It takes quite a while to get there, but it's quite fun. A part of this power needs to be dedicated to mining netting you maybe 150k-160k rf/t. Also, easly expandable once you have it going.

150k RF/t net is nothing to sneeze at ! Does it need a "world extraction" kind of miner to sustain it, or can a "conjure up from nothing" MFR Laser or bees sustain it ?

Will be giving RoC and ReC a serious attempt my next world !