13 replies to this topic

[webkilla]

Just transitioned from Tekkit to FTB a few days after having a look at the latest Tekkit and seeing IC2 gone...

 

but wow... this new Gregtech thing is kicking my ass - and no necesarily in a good way

 

I get the need to up the difficulty a bit to avoid getting to endgame content too quickly in IC2 - but this seems a bit excessive, prohibitively so

 

 

I mean, to make something as simple as a Drill I need Steel Plates - which require a... what? Industrial Blast Furnace? Ok, how to make that... induction furnaces, a steady MV power supply...

 

Right, off to a simple start here I see [/sarcasm]

 

Good grief - that's a bit much isn't it? And to make it a Diamond Drill, damn, titanium plates... at least I don't have to upgrade the blast furnace for that

 

 

And to make a single solar panel I need... silicon what? ok, and I get that from... what. Well I've got the blast furnace, and now this electrolyzer thing? And flint or clay dust, or lots of sand? Just for a bloody solar panel? Are you kidding me?! And don't even get me started on the cost of an 'Advanced Solar Panel" UU-matter and uranium? For what's basically a low-voltage array?

 

The amount of EU needed to create the things for a single 1EU/tick solar array - words fail me, like really.

 - even poking around in the Gregtech config file I can't selectively turn off solar/advanced solar, to keep the expensive basic solar panel, but remove the insane cost of the advanced one (it just doesn't make sense IMO, going from 1EU/tick generation to requiring UU-matter to go up to 8EU/tick) - while going from 8EU/tick to MV or HV generation, then its IMO reasonable to blow UU on that.

 

Am I missing something, or are the basic requires to get a 'steady' and just mildy self-sustaining industrial base in FTB:U just plain ridiculous? I mean, to make something as previously simple as a solar array I need what looks like if not end-game then at least late mid-game machines. This seems crazy

Edited by webkilla, 23 August 2013 - 03:52 PM.

[RZR0]

A lot of this is due to GregTech, you might want to try the newer FTB Unleashed pack. It does not have GregTech, which lowers the difficulty considerably. The FTB Unhinged pack does come with GregTech.

 

EDIT: Keep in mind that the GregTech config allows you to disable a lot of these overrides.

[webkilla]

A lot of this is due to GregTech, you might want to try the newer FTB Unleashed pack. It does not have GregTech, which lowers the difficulty considerably. The FTB Unhinged pack does come with GregTech.

 

EDIT: Keep in mind that the GregTech config allows you to disable a lot of these overrides.

 

I know - I've fiddled around with that - but its not that flexible... its all or nothing

 

The increased cost of basic solar panels... ya ok, I can live with that - but needing UU-matter to upgrade to Advanced solar panels, that's just insane and unreasonable. However, going from those LV panels to MV or HV panels, then I can agree to shill out for some UU matter

 

Its just the cost of upgrades seems far too great compared to the cost of equal non-renewable energy sources, like with the diesel generator giving 12EU/tick on fuel.

 

I just wish I could tweak that - it would make the whole thing a lot easier to work with.

[RZR0]

I know - I've fiddled around with that - but its not that flexible... its all or nothing

 

The increased cost of basic solar panels... ya ok, I can live with that - but needing UU-matter to upgrade to Advanced solar panels, that's just insane and unreasonable. However, going from those LV panels to MV or HV panels, then I can agree to shill out for some UU matter

 

Its just the cost of upgrades seems far too great compared to the cost of equal non-renewable energy sources, like with the diesel generator giving 12EU/tick on fuel.

 

I just wish I could tweak that - it would make the whole thing a lot easier to work with.

I'd suggest starting off without IndustrialCraft until you have sufficient resources. The combination of using MineFactory Reloaded, BuildCraft and Thermal Expansion is a lot less expensive, certainly in Ultimate. Once you've been able to gether some resources with those, it's easier to get into the far more expensive IC2 stuff.

[digitallyApocalyptic]

Protips:

• The Advanced/Hybrid/Ultimate Solar Panels are not controlled by GregTech, they are controlled by a mod named Advanced Solar Panels or ASP for short. You can go to the config for that and set the recipes to easy (there's no way to tweak recipes individually, but this should have the desired effect; will allow for you to go from regular to Advanced without shilling out UUM and then requiring UUM to go further) to get that going.
• You can make Steel with a regular Blast Furnace from Railcraft, which requires Nether access, a decent amount of time, and a fairly steady stream of Charcoal and/or a Coke Oven to turn Coal into Coal Coke with a byproduct of Creosote Oil. You won't be able to make Chrome, Titanium, etc with that though.
• Although over-used, if you're going for the easiest power source here, definitely go with lava. Magmatic Engine --> BC Consumer --> Energy Bridge --> IC2 LV Producer --> BatBox/MFE equals 45k EU per bucket, a 50% efficiency upgrade from even GregTech's Thermal Generator. I'm fairly mid-to-late-game on a hybrid Unleashed/Unhinged server that I play with close friends (IBF at 2500 K capacity, base made of warded stone, running full-size quarries) and I still use lava to power my stuff.
• Until you've got a stable source of power and a Matter Fabricator setup running (my strategy was Lightning Rod with full Iron Fence tower in a Mystcraft age with Eternal Storm, netted me a very, very good amount of UU) don't bother trying to go solar. It's not worth it in FTB, solar's not nearly as widely used as it is in Tekkit. I remember back in the bad old days of Tekkit when I had several stacks of HV solars just lying around, a Condenser tower (powered by the Condensers themselves, no less; oh, EE2 :/) full of RM and a Swiftwolf's in my hand. FTB provides a challenge that Tekkit can't and won't.

I'd definitely agree with RZR0 here; Minefactory Reloaded especially is a great mod with not-too-expensive recipes, lots of compatibility, easy-to-use GUIs and input/output systems, and a machine for a lot of things that other mods don't add (in the newer versions, everything from brewing to anvilling to enchanting to XP farming to mob spawning and a whole lot in between) as well as a bunch of quirky stuff (poop lakes? poop lakes) that's a lot of fun to have in-game.

 

Other things I'd recommend making once you have the resources (overextending is your worst enemy):

• An Industrial Grinder. It'll let you get the most out of the precious Sheldonite, Ferrous Ore and other valuable ores (e.g. Ruby Ore) that give valuable products, ever-so-helpful for a Q-suit and other ambitious items.
• A Nano Suit. Fairly easy to maintain and with great damage reduction for the cost of four diamonds/rubies, a half-stack of Redstone, and a couple stacks of Coal. GregTech doesn't change the recipes for the Nano Suit or the Quantum Suit, although he does change some of the recipes for the stuff you need to craft the Q-suit.
• An Implosion Compressor only if you're ever planning on making a Q-suit; otherwise, ignore it entirely.
• An Assembler. Key to most of the mid-to-late-game GregTech stuff. Fairly low EU costs, and it will come in handy at some point.
• An Applied Energistics system (one ME Controller, one ME Drive, one ME Access Terminal) for storing all of your stuff in one convenient place once you've got stable power.

[webkilla]

Thanks for the advice - both of you

 

I'm slowly chugging along, trying to make the four 'basic' industrial thingies... the blast furnace, electrolyzer, grinder and... sawmill? or something like that

 

digi-apoc - thanks for pointing the thing about the solar panel mod specifics, should be interesting to see what the recipy looks like now: yes - its back to costly but reasonable

 

plus, IMO with the gregtech things requiring an uninterupted powersupply otherwise you lose all progress in whatever you're making there's a great push to have extra non-sustainable power sources beyond a basic solar setup - because if you need a dedicated MFE for each of your industrial machines... well then you'll need a ton of power each time you want to recharge them for another cycle.

 

also I've set myself up in a village - both for company and so I can trade with them... but I've yet to get them to make me any really good offers (like paper for emeralds or anything) - although it has allowed me to make some power armor... should be fun to tinker with that

[digitallyApocalyptic]

Don't bother with an Industrial Sawmill if you are playing on any pack except Unhinged. Make a regular Sawmill from Thermal Expansion; it's cheaper, not a multiblock and requires less power by a factor of several hundred (literally.) The two are equally efficient unless you're playing on Unhinged, which I don't recommend, personally; found it far too difficult for any good use.

 

You don't necessarily need a dedicated MFE for each of the industrial machines, but it helps if you have lots of power to spare, you run a lot of machines at once and you can't get enough power throughput. I'd say that's a later-game setup to have.

 

Also: Industrial Centrifuge. Make one. It's thoroughly useful for separating dusts into other dusts and creating Rubber more efficiently (can also be paired with a Gas Turbine to actually generate power from centrifuging Rubber Wood.) However, the Centrifuge is different from the other "Industrial" machines in that it is an LV machine and it draws 5 EU/t from your power, so you won't need a dedicated MFE or even BatBox for it, most likely.

[webkilla]

thanks

 

I'll put the centrifgue next on my to-make list after the blast furnace (because I need that damned steel)

[webkilla]

Finally got the blast furnace working but... There's something weird going on

 

The wiki says that to make steel it needs 1 Refined Iron, 2 Coal dust and 12.800EU

 

...but when I flip the switch on the splitter cable to my MFE it drains upwards of 70K EU, the progress bar only gets to maybe 30% - then it bombs out

 

and its connected to the MFE with glass fiber cables (and one splitter cable)

 

That can't be right...

[timrem]

If you were the last person to post in a thread, you should edit your last post rather than double-posting.

 

As for the EU usage, you should check the recipe in NEI. It's possible the numbers on the wiki are outdated, updated, or for a different GregTech configuration. Finally, if you're using 20 or more glass fibre cable with that EU-splitter to connect the MFE to the furnace, you're losing some EU/t which would explain why it can't keep up. Personally, when I tried out GregTech in the Mindcrack pack, I put an MFE directly on top of the furnace block so I didn't have to worry about wires, and filled it with just enough power for the operation before beginning, just so that if something went horribly wrong, I've have only that much energy wasted.

[ZL123]

I remember back in the bad old days of Tekkit when I had several stacks of HV solars just lying around, a Condenser tower (powered by the Condensers themselves, no less; oh, EE2 :/) full of RM and a Swiftwolf's in my hand. FTB provides a challenge that Tekkit can't and won't.[/*]

Oh yes... Tekkit. It was basically like Creative Mode by the end. Making Alchemical Chests and Alchemical Chests of Diamonds every minute.

Thanks, EE2!

[Iamtk421]

You can also make battery upgrades and apply them to your blast furnaces etc instead of MFE's.

[webkilla]

You can also make battery upgrades and apply them to your blast furnaces etc instead of MFE's.

I'm working towards this... right now I've managed to get everything made - but I need a powersource

 

So I'm working towards making a few tesseracts for power and liquids, to make some remote oil derricks for a central oil refinery

[Iamtk421]

Using tesseracts you can easily drain an entire oil well in just a matter of minutes...