Why do people like Thermal Expansion so much?

[immibis]

In response to your contradictions part, With Thermal expansion, it's the higher tier machines/items that require the 'machines to make machines' type crafting, but for all the earlier game parts of it, they do not.

Okay.

That's what is different about TE vs IC2 machines to make machines, the early game machines require other machines or pay a resource cost penalty in IC2. whilst in TE it's used as a balance point for high end items only, and not too much either, it utilises machines you would already have (provided you started with TE) and adds one or two machines.

I think you might be confusing IC2 and GregTech... In IC2, there's only one machine that can help you make early game machines, and that's the Metal Former. It saves 7% of the cost of iron plates.
If I spend 100 iron on something when using hammers, I could save 7 iron by using a metal former instead... This is in no way something you have to do. You could easily build everything in IC2 without using one.

 

[Shirkit]

So here we have a recipe for a good mod!

 

[Hoff]

TE has a better taste to it for me.

 

[Jadedcat]

I've never had a problem with IC2 or BC causing lag. Yes, an IC2 macerator might take 50 times as much CPU as a TE3 pulverizer, but it's still not a problem until I have 10000 macerators (or 500000 pulverizers).

Um you've never seen one of my bases..., I think 1k of every machine in a massive factory that span 800 chunks is the best thing ever. I frequently run power setups of over 3k engines/dynamos and/or generators. I like to make factory towns that auto create every item in the game. 1k non-overclocked macerators with power gen vs 1k pulverizers and power gen (not including overclocked cause thats a whole different thing) and IC2 has a huge difference in impact on a server/computer. My standard for BC is 20 quarries running at max speed non stop.

Plus as a mod pack dev I have to think about our packs. It is not unusual at all for our larger packs to be on servers with 400+ unique active players. If each of them builds 10 IC2 macerators or 10 rockcrushers or 10 pulverizers and the power gen for those you are already at 4k of those machines + power gen machines on a server. Why do players build multiple machines? IDK. I do it because I like to have a pulverizer/macerator/rockcrusher for each ore in the game plus extras for things like sugar, bonemeal and blaze rods.

As to my statement about machines making machines, as I said in a different thread, for me its the part where with IC2 I have to make all the fiddly crafting stuff to get machines I have to have just for basic processing. With TE3 I have to do a few extra steps to increase efficiency and output. Or if I am happy with my machines taking their time and only doubling ore and cooking it I can ignore the other crafting steps. For my style fiddly crafting steps should be for upgrades and higher efficiency or a large reward like bees. And even for the top tier stuff TE3 does not have anywhere near the intricate crafting chain of IC2. That doesn't make IC2 a bad mod, just not to my personal taste. You asked why we love TE3. We told you why.

And yes I have played IC2. Both with and without GregTech. Thats kinda my job with FTB. Play mods, test mods and profile mods.

 

[DREVL]

All I know is that someone is wrong on the internet.

 

[WTFFFS]

Heh Jaded's "supercomputer required" bases are fairly well known

There is another reason why some people might like TE, the Mod author well the known member of the team, is active and approachable on various forums and via various forms of electronic communication and is very timely in letting people know about issues\responding to issues\responding to requests. That added to the other positives for some people makes TE a standout mod.

 

[MoosyDoosy]

I love TE3 because I could have lost my hand. Also because the Tesseract allows me to easily transport things around, aka things from quarry to my sorting system. Also because my sorting system is really simple but manages to keep up with a full speed quarry, merely ten of pulverizer and ten redstone furnace for a very basic set up you'll hardly get any build-up and you can always keep a diamond chest as a buffer just in case things get overloaded as well as other buffer placers. Also because itemducts and fluiducts are just so awesome. Also because I can actually use that redstone just lying around building up. Also because of Igneous Extruders so that I can always have emergency building material of sand, glass, cobble, stone, stone bricks, obsidian, etc. And the configurable sides.
I am a convert from IC2 to TE3 having been introduced to mods around the beginning of 1.5 and Thermal Expansion not being available. As a result, I used IC2 for just about everything. But after I started using TE3 this time around, I just can't get enough of the stuff. ALSO because King Lemming is an amazing person. And...

 

[Loufmier]

...metal former instead... This is in no way something you have to do. You could easily build everything in IC2 without using one.

even stuff that requires empty cells, like people`s favorite geothermal generator?

 

[TheSirusKing]

Greg added some speed code in the last version, so it should be much faster

 

[Zenthon_127]

even stuff that requires empty cells, like people`s favorite geothermal generator?

Good Thing About TE #173: All machines used in crafting are also very useful outside of crafting.

 

[zilvarwolf]

I can get the macerator and furnace and have my ore doubling done. Add a few hoppers or wooden pipes and I am set. I won't have the resource output of a thermal centrifuge but it'll do the job at the beginning level. If I want more output I can use the ore washer and thermal centrifuge.

Will hoppers work to extract from IC2 machines? They can only go on the bottom, after all, and most outputs appear to the on the right. If it has to be a wooden pipe, then you've got to include the space requirements for some kind of power, unless that's changed in recent versions of BC. Frankly, I haven't used a BC item pipe in a while, so I wouldn't know. Again, with TE it just works. I put a hopper on one side if I want to throw in multiple things to process, and a chest on the other, and Good Stuff happens.

I like that flavor of game. A lot.

 

[Loufmier]

So awesome to see a mod dev asking why a certain mod is good, yet so sad that he ignores nearly all the reason why said mod is so good and instead focusses only on a few comments to shoot the mod down...

immibis being a mod dev has nothing to do with flow of this thread. he is just another Joe with a weird tag to his name. nothing to be concerned with

 

[Giddimani]

I think people like it because the machines are so easy to use and cheap, for my taste a little too much all-in-one wonderblocks/ducts and I really hate teleporting things, but people just prefer the easy way instead of transporting things with pipes/rails like it's more realistic (the way I prefer it).

The more cheap/overpowered/usable-for-even-the-dumbest your mod is, the more people will use it, easy concept.

 

[PsionicArchon]

Strangely enough, one of the newer features of Thermal Expansion I'd originally felt might irritate me has become one of its most appreciated additions.

Players not running a server seldom encounter the kind of tick rate destroying lag several large power networks can wreak so this may not pertain to them. I've yet to encounter any major cpu utilization from tossing down long runs of conduits and, at the moment, that single feature is irreplaceable, at least for me.

I love IC2. I love IC2's consistent update cycle. I don't enjoy the current state of its power network. Hell, I've even taken preventative measures in powering its machines by swapping out all of my IC2 wiring for conduits with Universal Cables at every junction point since a conduit can be connected directly to a UE cable. This will ensure that when the IC2 developers decide to re-implement machine explosions my entire factory doesn't go up in one massive detonation.

Has anyone ever tried wiring up a base on several thousand blocks worth of cable? Have you ever been the victim of a fifteen gigabyte log file chock full of e-net spam? Even the Universal Cable's I love so dearly will seriously drop a server's tick-rate when not carefully used. How can I not love TE when it provides a power network that suffers from not a single noticeable pitfall?

 

[King Lemming]

The more cheap/overpowered/usable-for-even-the-dumbest your mod is, the more people will use it, easy concept.

Swing and a miss! If this held up, Dirt-To-Diamonds would be the most popular mod far and away.

Also, if something is hard to use, that's a failure on the part of the developer, and is conflated with difficulty far too often.

 

[KingTriaxx]

How does making a metal former and spending a bunch of extra metal equate to a metal savings? I'm not asking sarcastically either, I'm very curious on the math.

 

[RedBoss]

How does making a metal former and spending a bunch of extra metal equate to a metal savings? I'm not asking sarcastically either, I'm very curious on the math.

It may benefit you over the long run from having to constantly craft hammers and wire cutters which are used to make plates and wires. It's a solution to a problem that was created by the devs in the first place.

 

[fleutius]

Well aint this thread getting derailed if any

A question was raised about why people liked it. There is no reason to go into arguments (heated or not) about if or why its better than any else.
I like all the things! But TE and especially TE3 has a special place in my heart, due to the way progress/lag/design is handled.

I cannot see why theres a need to "dislike" any mod for that matter. It is easy to not use or even deactivate a mod in FTB, thats the beauty of it.

I really enjoy what King Lemming has done with TE, and props to him for it.

 

[Golrith]

TBH getting confused between the love TE and dislike IC2 threads, the content is overlapping.

 

[KingTriaxx]

Agreed, he listens to all the comments about the mod, and even if he might not implement them, you know he's actually paid attention to them. Speaking of which, a direct recipe for Hardened Energy Conduits wouldn't go amiss.