Rubber Trees need some love

1st Official Post

    While doing some IC2 texturing, I noticed just how archaic the rubberwood logs are. They are still of the time before rotatable logs.


    This got me thinking. Why not overhaul the tree itself? Why not make it more realistic and automatable? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_rubber)


    My suggestion is first off to rethink the tree texture. Rubber comes out white like so:


    I made a texture without thinking much about it (this is what sparked my interest, as well as non-rotatable logs):



    This looks sort of like whiteish sap (could be whiter) dripping from the tree- unrealistic- but good for spotting places to tap.


    Here is where my idea comes in (I think another mod does something similar, now that I think about it):
    Have the tree tap be a placeable item, rendered in 3D, on the tree. Over time (a loooonnnnng time) it drips sap out. You must hang a bucket on the tree right below the tap (also rendered in 3D) to collect the sap (also called latex). The bucket can be removed and processed (see the link above for more).


    What you can do late-game, is to automate rubber production, have some type of advanced piping system (maybe plastics?) that can bring rubber straight from the trees.


    The only downside to this, besides time, is the fact that the trees slowly die. The leaves slowly turn brown over time, until they fall off, then the sap stops flowing. This would mean that the player would have to replant the trees every so often and it would be less plug in and play.


    If you wish for me to clarify, as I am doing this on my phone, please ask and when I get to my PC I will edit this post.

    I like the general idea, but I just don't like the fact that the tree dies over time, instead the rubber spots should work with cycles, like the first week (minecraft time), it will give you a lot of rubber, then the second and third one, it will need some time to replenish it's "supplies", the spots would be extracted by your idea. but the treetap will take durabillity or energy if it's electric, or by some kind of MFR like harvester but IC2 style and also with energy.


    Edit : Like on the current IC2, right clicking the 3d treetap will "force the rubber to be extracted" giving you more, but the spot will then disappear.

    • Official Post

    The whole draining rubber from the tree sounds similar to what was added to IHL Machines. Why do you want to rotate rubber tree logs anyway? :Rubber Log: <- How could you not love that?


    Automating rubber trees sounds nice, since without Forestry there's no way to do it, but plastics not so much. Plastics mainly come from oil, and we have much fancier things like carbon plates. Will the leaves dying drop saplings?

    145 Mods isn't too many. 9 types of copper and 8 types of tin aren't too many. 3 types of coffee though?

    I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realise that what you read was not what I meant.


    ---- Minecraft Crash Report ----
    // I just don't know what went wrong :(


    I see this too much.

    I agree with you Chocohead, who need plastic when we have carbon plates :D

    Quote from Mine_Sasha

    I like the general idea, but I just don't like the fact that the tree dies over time, instead the rubber spots should work with cycles, like the first week (minecraft time), it will give you a lot of rubber, then the second and third one, it will need some time to replenish it's "supplies", the spots would be extracted by your idea. but the treetap will take durabillity or energy if it's electric, or by some kind of MFR like harvester but IC2 style and also with energy.


    Edit : Like on the current IC2, right clicking the 3d treetap will "force the rubber to be extracted" giving you more, but the spot will then disappear.


    I very much like your idea that the tree is injured and take weeks to heal.

    Sorry for my English, my native languaje is Spanish. If you don't understand me I can explain my ideas in spanish.

    I also enjoy that idea. Maybe something that you can put on a rubbertree that change it.
    Like in thaumcraft you can charge nodes and have a little constant vis production but they take longer the normal to produce. So higher production in the beginning and it goes down down and more down.
    Until it is so low that it can not be lower^^" (so at 0,1% of the actual production rate or something)

    Are you talking about node tranducers that makes nodes produce vis at a rate of a tenthVis/tick

    A summary of natural rubber production:
    You will notice in the picture that they only cut the bark for 1/2 the circumference of the tree. When they are done with one half (~5 years), they start tapping the other half while the first regrows. The actual tapping is done over something like a meter high section of the tree, always at an incline (it looks like 30 degrees). They send workers to collect the sap every day, and cut a new strip every two days, for the entire lifetime of the tree (apparently like 20 years). Rubber trees live exclusively in the tropics so it is year-round. Also the tapping panel (the missing bark) is always a certain height above ground, a little more than one meter, and the depth of the cut is also constant (if you cut too deep the bark will not regrow). The actual latex is not exactly extracted, but it is pushed out by internal pressure as a liquid which drips down that slant into the collection cup.


    The liquid latex is transported to a nearby processing facility before coagulating, where it is poured into molds and treated with formic acid. The resulting block of solid latex is rolled out into rubber sheets, which are then piled into cubes, boxed, and shipped to whoever wants it.


    A lot of rubber we are familiar with is further processed by vulcanization, which is what Goodyear (as in Goodyear tires) is famous for. It is just charring rubber which is treated with sulfur, resulting in hard rubber such as the rubber on electric plugs or tires.


    Learn more:
    http://ecoport.org/ep?SearchTy…eIndexView&earticleId=644
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_tapping

    +1


    I did a project on this in the third grade actually, and I still have the rubber samples :P

    MFR would be good for this. Make an extractor and a furnace witha good supply of fuel. Make a harvester/planter setup, and tada. You have an infinite source of rubber. ( the rubber logs go in the extractor, not the furnace. (By the way, MFR rubber trees and rubber is 100% compatible with ic2.))

    My idea would work for your rubber needs, but it isn' t exactly what you were asking about. Rubber trees in ic2 are probably not going to change for a while.

    Quote from AlexTheAwesome


    My idea would work for your rubber needs, but it isn' t exactly what you were asking about. Rubber trees in ic2 are probably not going to change for a while.

    and i think thats good.
    Little side node for everyone who does not know it:
    Forestry Farms (manual) can harvest the rubber from the IC2 Rubber trees (without distroying they resinspots) with a Rubberthingy in the Circuit..

    • Official Post

    The smallest size Forestry farm really isn't that small anymore :P

    145 Mods isn't too many. 9 types of copper and 8 types of tin aren't too many. 3 types of coffee though?

    I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realise that what you read was not what I meant.


    ---- Minecraft Crash Report ----
    // I just don't know what went wrong :(


    I see this too much.