Can crops beat out MFR and Forestry tree farms for energy production?

    i think so, but i am not quite sure right now. you get 150 mb/plant at maximum efficiency and apparently one bucket produces 231000something rf in a compression dynamo, don't know if the biogenerator from mfr itself is any more efficient. i doubt you get that much for forestry or ic² biomass.

    Native language german, please point out mistakes to me. forget it, my english is better than that of a good deal of people on the forums anyway.


    IC Related Quotes thread. If you ever need some good puns.

    In an efficiency optimized Compression Dynamo one bucket of biofuel produces 925,000. Depending on what modpack, version a MFR biofuel generator produces from 1,500,000 to 233,000 per bucket.


    And I'm pretty sure that the bioreactor does have redstone control, I'll have to check.


    Maybe if you have a supply of excellent sapplings, fruit, fruit juices the forestry fermenter could outpace an MFR bioreactor, but I don't think you could begin to produce those tree goods at the same volume per acre you can with IC2 crops. Plus the forestry fermenter is only making biomass, you'll need to refine that into ethanol (same as biofuel)


    As far as the IC2 fermenter, it provides 1.6 times the power you put into it, but the problem is one of volume. A fermenter can only be attached to one heat source, and there are few practical powerful sources of heat for it. The solid heat generator is too slow, the semifluid is pretty slow too. The Electrical runs at a loss. Hot coolant is decent, but even then, I would say that IC2 fermenters are a great way to get a lot of power out of a nuclear reactor, I would not say they are a competitive means to get a lot of power out of plants.

    Spawn what about this business of "air quality"? Supposedly crops positioned way up high, and crops with x amount of open air spaces above them have better air quality.
    1.What are the rules on this?
    2.What bonus does it give?
    3.Can low air quality be nullified with enough water and fertilizer in crop-matron, or this is separate?

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    Quote from CraftyFellow

    Spawn what about this business of "air quality"? Supposedly crops positioned way up high, and crops with x amount of open air spaces above them have better air quality.
    1.What are the rules on this?

    Crops air quality is affected by three things.
    + air quality depending on height it is planted. Maximum air quality by height is at Y 128.
    + air quality if the crop can see the sky (must not have opaque blocks above it)
    - air quality depending on the amount of crops and blocks nearby.


    While i'm at it:


    Crops nutrient is affected by two things.
    + nutrient based on the amount of dirt below the farmland (up to three blocks of dirt below the farmland, totalizing 4 dirt blocks)
    + nutrient if the crop is being fed fertilizer


    Crops humidity is affected by three things.
    + humidity if the crop farmland is wet.
    + humidity if the crop is being fed water via cropmatron or hydration cell
    +/- humidity based on the biome the crop is. (best is swamp/jungle, worst is desert/ice , forest is in the mid-term +)

    Quote from CraftyFellow

    2.What bonus does it give?

    The same bonuses nutrients and humidity gives. Crops grow faster.

    Quote from CraftyFellow

    3.Can low air quality be nullified with enough water and fertilizer in crop-matron, or this is separate?

    Crops growth are based on the sum of hydration, nutrients and air quality (combined later with the growth stat).
    Increasing enough hydration/nutrient will "nullify" the problem of low air quality.

    Thanks for such a great answer spawn. Two follow ups.


    1. Pure force of fertilizer can overwhelm insufficient soil blocks and imperfect biome? Or it's something like Biome*Soil*fertilizer = nutrient value and each multiplier has it's own maximum.


    2. Where does the "irrigation" terraformer fit into all of this? It says that it makes crops grow faster, but is that merely a matter of "hydration" that can be satisfied by crop-matrons anyway?

    • Official Post
    Quote from CraftyFellow

    Thanks for such a great answer spawn. Two follow ups.


    1. Pure force of fertilizer can overwhelm insufficient soil blocks and imperfect biome? Or it's something like Biome*Soil*fertilizer = nutrient value and each multiplier has it's own maximum.

    Overwhelm? Not really, each of the + or - contribute to increase or decrease the total amount of nutrients/hydration/air quality, affecting the growth speed individually.
    You could have a fertilized/hydrated farm in an insufficient soil land and imperfect biome, but the crops wouldnt grow as fast as if they had the perfect conditions.


    Quote from CraftyFellow


    2. Where does the "irrigation" terraformer fit into all of this? It says that it makes crops grow faster, but is that merely a matter of "hydration" that can be satisfied by crop-matrons anyway?

    I can't answer about the irrigation terraformer as it is a very old piece of a thing. I don't know how much it affects the crops nowadays, if it even does.

    • Official Post

    If it cant identify the biome it will default to no bonus. IC2 can detect biome types and adjust accordingly (biomes o plenty wasteland is identified as a desert-like biome).


    Probably you won't see any bonuses or penalties by growing crops on space.

    Ok, so as a point of refference, would that put it on par with plains? Are they the starting point? ....Dessert -3 plains 0 swamp +3 jungle +3.....something like that?


    What about the dark glass from extra utilities? does that count as opaque?

    Native language german, please point out mistakes to me. forget it, my english is better than that of a good deal of people on the forums anyway.


    IC Related Quotes thread. If you ever need some good puns.

    Wait, what is best, swamp or jungle ? And does custom biome count ? ( With high humidity ).

    • Official Post

    If I recall correctly swamp and jungle are equally good. Custom biomes are detected by their type internally. (cherry forest is a forest type biome , wasteland is a desert type biome. Some biomes won't be properly detected and will default to no bonus)

    But if I have my own custom biome with same humidity and temperature, will IC2 detect it ?