Why do people like Thermal Expansion so much?

[Henry Link]

I run a server and I have always loved the way KL and team take the time to make sure their mod doesn't kill the server. Not to mention I love the new RF energy system and have always been a fan of tesseracts. The only feature request I would have would be the ability to have input and output on the same side. That way I can use just an AE interface to automate the machines.

 

[Golrith]

ooo thats a good point... someone should point that out to @King Lemming

Well, I think the steel setting was basically with Railcraft in mind.

 

[Loufmier]

1 glacier precipetator or whatever... ICE! i like ice, i even build huge, like 20 chunks, horse statue just because.
2 itemducts. they are just awesome. and you are a heretic if you have something against them.

 

[Skyqula]

- Runs smooth, no crazy lag devices or FPS drops.
- Just works, no exploding or destruction of things. Just try what you want and optimise where you can.
- Intuitive UI. Easy to understand and looks good. Config tabs are just brilliant.
- Great art design, everything looks good. Wich in turn makes TE feel that much better.
- Makes decoravtive blocks, aswell as making certain blocks (near)renewable.
- Has tons of optimization minigames without forcing them on you. IE slag/richslag/pyrotheum/cinnabar/niter/sulfur (<== I LOVE this)
- Has a nice progression curve, shared with TE config settings across other mods.
- People like it, as a result lots of mods add support for it.

 

[Golrith]

What I like the most about it is that it adds a use to the two vanilla resources that you don't ever need much off, Obsidian and Redstone.

Now, it's hungry for Redstone, it eats it like a starving man. So you have to "grind" in whatever way you want for more, but you feel like you are not grinding to achieve something.

 

[SonOfABirch]

I use Mekanism for my main ore processing, TE machines are for my automated processing (and overflow/on demand) and for speciality items like tess' and the absolutely gorgeous illuminators.

Main thing I use TE for though is power. When it was giving MJ it was the only way to go (for me.. the other options being the memory leaky universal cable or.. well.. nothing. Pipes were terrible, IC2 is.. well IC2)
And now with BC losing the crutch that was TE, I've no more use for MJ again. I will likely use RC boilers when I get to that point in my world, but they'll be used to produce RF not MJ.

 

[zilvarwolf]

I see a lot of posts saying how good TE3 is, and personally it seems no better than any other mod. What's so good about it?)

subjective answer #788875465739093

TE, especially in the current version, provides a very easily approachable starting place for a new world. The machines and pipes require a variety of materials found a multiple different levels of the world, encouraging me to cave a bit, but don't typically require so much of any one material that I'm likely to be stymied or blocked if I can't find it.

The configurable sides for input and output (and always auto-outputting finished products) were, quite frankly, the coolest things EVER when I was first introduced to the mod. I'd been muddling along with wooden pipes and redstone engines and IC2 machines and then ... BAM! No more guesswork about what side to use for this or that. And the default choices were color-friendly enough that I didn't even have to resort to the color blind settings. There's not much in minecraft that being color blind is a problem for (the various mod ores are the biggest problem), but the fact that the team thought out the interface design to that degree was a pleasant thing for me, since that's actually a problem I have.

I've never had a TE machine or power system do something that I didn't expect or couldn't understand. The best case in point (and I apologize in advance if this devolves, but it's the best case in point). In 1.5.2, playing unleashed, I had a lava power system feeding into a redstone energy cell. I was using buildcraft pipes to run to each machine so that I could turn on and off the engines intelligently. I go to bed with a full energy cell and nothing working...I wake up the next morning with an empty cell, Lord only knows how much lava wasted, 5 magmatic engines trying their darnedest to keep up, and still no work being done. The only way to fix the problem was to break every pipe and put them all back down. After the third time, I switched to conduits and structure pipes and never had another problem. To this day I don't know what happened, but SOMETHING (one of 4 TE machines, 5 forestry machines, or a single assembly laser) was drawing power and doing no work at all, and it was drawing an incredible amount of power to do nothing.

Honestly, I seldom used TE for power generation, at least until TE3, and in my private pack I still don't (I prefer hydrogen generators from Mekanism ), but for everything else, the reasons above.

 

[DREVL]

Assembly laser and forestry machine found your power delicous. Your tears the next morning were as delicous. Anything in bc, rc, or forestry will eat power doing nothing. All but bc's pump.

 

[zilvarwolf]

Assembly laser and forestry machine found your power delicous. Your tears the next morning were as delicous. Anything in bc, rc, or forestry will eat power doing nothing. All but bc's pump.

I knew someone was going to say that and I should have edited the post. Under normal operation, a single engine was sufficient to keep up with the idle power draw of those machines while pulsing only a few times a minute. Whatever happened was not the normal idle power slurp. It was something completely different. At the rate that the idle power draw was running, it should have taken a very long time (I want to say I figured almost a day) to fully drain the REC, and it would have refilled in a fraction of the time.

What I saw was very much not normal behavior. All 5 engines running could not catch up to the power draw unless I throttled the cell down below the input level.

 

[ScorpioOld]

I really love TE. This was the second mod I learned after IC2, and I still in love.

1. Intuitive. It is very simple and flexible (both hardware wise and interface wise) to start, you build two machines and one dynamo is you have the production line! YES this is the moment your prosperity is about to start! And what you built may serve you from very first day in game till the end of the game if you wish
2. After introduction of lower tier staff in TE3 you can progress fantastically with automation since very very first beginning. All what you need is crafting table and wrench/hummer!
3. You can start from any machine or stop with any machine according to your plane/resources/need
4. You can move machines with a fist, a pickaxe or a wrench nobody punishes you for such impudent intention
5. You can have 500+ entities from TE (240 dynamos and many other machines) and they still consume less CPU resources that one IC2 induction smelter, which is idle
6. You can grab energy with you. You can experiment with power system, the worst what can happen it does not give you more what you expected.
7. TESSERACT this is such a wonderful device, it is expensive now but it worth effort. What I like that it became more expensive in the same time it offers more!
8. Engines that self adjusted to the current needs
9. It is just real fun to get even more than doubled outcome for your ore.
10. Easy to integrate into AE or any other mods
...
Mod is changing and apparently changes are good ones.

I can continue but probably the fist mod what I want to see in the next mod pack is TE.

Thanks a lot King Lemming!
What I really appreciate that any parts of your mod are not needed to be moved to another unloaded chunk to keep smooth game going.

Some wishes for the future: It would be nice to have speed upgrades for the machines, even very expensive ones or requiring specialty are acceptable.

 

[zilvarwolf]

4. You can move machines with a fist, a pickaxe or a wrench nobody punishes you for such impudent intention

This also. I knew I forgot something.

 

[RedBoss]

-No explosions.
- No more block placement anxiety
-No machine destruction if you use the wrong tool.
-It looks cool. I tried pneumatic tubes because they looked cool. You can overlook aesthetics.
-Amusement. Attract a zombie horde then pour liquid ender on them. It's amusing.

The main thing is that TE gets out of my way. It doesn't take long to setup ore processing, and now basic item logistics. Then I can run about doing other things like building structures, fighting monsters, or abusing villagers. Slap an ender chest input and forget it.

 

[Wekmor]

What I like the most about it is that it adds a use to the two vanilla resources that you don't ever need much off, Obsidian and Redstone.

I can't get enough redstone in vanilla, guess I'm just addicted to crazy redstone stuff tho lol

Now what I like about TE:
Easy recipes, in single-player I use the steel recipes to make it a bit harder tho :b
You can set it up and automate it exactly as much as you want, without any complicated other mods

 

[ScorpioOld]

I can't get enough redstone in vanilla, guess I'm just addicted to crazy redstone stuff tho lol

Let me guess Quarry+ and Rotary Craft extractor will induce such post-traumatic stress and depression for you

 

[AlanEsh]

I started with tekkit, 1.2.5 I think, and used IC, RP and BC heavily. I automated making solars with those mods... and then MFR, TE, and AE showed up. They simply do it better, IMO. They are cleaner in design, less tedious to work with, and feel a ton less kludgy/hacked together. With 1.5 FTB packs I still used BC quite often in conjunction with TE, but slowly watched my need and desire to do any IC crafting diminish.

So to answer the OP more directly -- I guess the simpler beauty of TE, and my growing "not again" feeling when constructing IC/BC machines, caused my migration.

 

[Democretes]

• About as server friendly as it gets.
• Configurable outputs/inputs.
• Tesseracts.
• Not every machine is required to get the next machine. If I want to make a sawmill, I can make one. I don't need 4 other machines to make it. Nor do I need it to make any of the other machines. the only exception to this rule is the induction smelter, which in all honesty makes perfect sense.
• Engines are configurable and don't burn fuel when they're not in use.
• Liquiducts (or whatever they're called now... fluiducts?), itemducts, and conduits. All extremely useful.
• It looks good. Believe it or not that's frickin important.
• Recipes make sense. It doesn't take longer to craft something than it does to gather the materials.
• Florbs are hysterical.

 

[Jadedcat]

• Florbs are hysterical.

I still don't feel a creative test world is complete till I burn it to the ground with a pyrotheum florb ....

 

[TheSirusKing]

omfg te3 is so hax and op guh

But seriously here, I can see why people chose TE, because it is much simpler than IC2, especially with a few cool planned changes to the nuclear system we (I say we, but I am allergic to java code) are planning. Its just a different play style really Besides, Pretty much everything can be replaced by GT, which is better for my personal playstyle.

 

[SlightlyVisible]

Where as BuildCraft better fits in a low tech, steampunky theme (see CovertJaguars "the dark tower"), I've found Thermal expansion better fits a high tech, futuristic theme (see tekkit). I feel as though Ic2 can fit in both depending on mod setup.

TE also provides an easy to use IC2 style power network, with the twist that it actually works.

 

[Morberis]

I'll be honest, I really prefered IC2 with gregtech. Not because of gregtech but because of the multiblock machines. I like TE3 because of it's configurable sides. That's about it.

To me all the tech mods but IC2 have a good theme. Buildcraft is steampunk, TE3 is magitech/high tech, rotarycraft is steampunk. To me IC2 is supposed to be the industrial themed mod but it feels much more generic when I play with it. When I think industrial I think of supply lines, and output, and everything is on an INDUSTRIAL scale. You should have your main resource process path, which can be extended for added results (which it already does) but then you should have path that processes waste for even more results.

Industrialcraft isn't Industrial enough for me, it's like TE3 but more plain. It's also much more punishment with no carrot.