Wrapping my head around Railcraft steam

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R

Remaker

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Jul 29, 2019
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I'm trying to come to grips with this stuff. As far as I can tell, it is not modeled as a pneumatic fluid, but rather as a consumable fuel. I have many questions!

1) Railcraft steam engines have meters for both MJ and steam. Does it output both? Or is it making MJ which it then converts into steam?

2) (related to 1)) When people talk about efficiency as a function of temperature, are they talking about fuel-to-steam, fuel-to-MJ, or MJ-to-steam?

3) I made a Hobbyist Steam Engine, but both the MJ and steam meters get stuck halfway. What's up with the 'dead' capacity? Is this receiving space for external steam (eg from a boiler)? If so, that still doesn't explain the half-capped MJ meter.
 
Steam Engines (except for the Thermal Expanions one) consume Steam as the fuel to make MJ. The Hobbyist Engines can consume fuel and water to produce their own Steam, but with less efficiency and slower output.

The total of fuel-to-MJ, though fuel-to-steam is a part of that.

If the Hobbyist Steam Engine runs with nowhere to output, its internal energy buffer has a chance to build up, and so does its Steam storage. If it has an output, it puts out the energy and consumes the Steam at a rate that reaches equilibrium at about halfway.
 
1) steam engines accept steam as a fuel source, or create it themselves using fuel, in which case it acts as an internal buffer. they always output MJ, and not steam.
2) fuel to MJ. engine temperature is a means of providing a high up-front cost for powering an engine, but a low cost to keep it going.
3) not being a RC expert, i'd wager that it's probably due to having reached an equilibrium of steam input to output, as hobbyist engines are the lowest production RC has. The meters balance halfway because both steam and MJ are being removed at the same rate they're coming in. Don't quote me on that though.
 
I like how when i posted that, it exactly mirrored the post that appeared above it when the thread refreshed.
Another fun fact about boilers though: if you're playing a version that hasn't had TC's infinite lava loop closed, then you can make a very elegant self-refuelling boiler setup that puts out 72 MJ/t, last i recall.
 
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