How to autoharvest crops?

SgtChuckle · Feb 1st 2012

I have a challenge for you. I want to find some way, using most likely Redpower but maybe Buildcraft to make an auto farm that plants, harvests, and mixes crops when needed. It should be able to plant new crops, deweed crops, and harvest crops only when they are completely grown. I have some slight inklings as to how to do it, but I'm going to need help. My end goal is to be able to have a machine that will be able to start with only vanilla MC farmable-items in its chest and end with at least one seed packet of every type new crop, up to Aurelia with minimal midpoint human interference. Scale doesn't matter, so whether it consists of fields stretching to the horizon full of things making the resources needed or if it can fit in a chunk doesn't matter.
A few ideas I thought of that could help:

Deployers. USE THEM. OFTEN. They are mankind's greatest hope for automation.
Filters could be used to detect once a plant harvests something, what it is and then direct it to an area to be planted or stored.
Cropnalyzers aren't actually needed if you already know what combos make what. This is good because this machine will not be able to work them.
Sometimes, you might need to use a piston/block breaker to get rid of the crop, and sometimes, you will need to just harvest them with a deployer.

Good luck. This is gonna be a big ol' machine we're building.

raGan · Feb 1st 2012

I think it's impossible to deweed crops. Also

Quote

Cropnalyzers aren't actually needed if you already know what combos make what. This is good because this machine will not be able to work them.

Not that easy.

harvesting crops only when fully grow is easy, since rightclick only works on fully grown crops. Using timer does the job well i think.

Bluehorazon · Feb 1st 2012

Actually automated breeding isn't possible. But automated farming is quite easy using RP.

Although everything gets a lot more difficult if plants are involved that need fertilizers and hydration.

Alblaka · Feb 1st 2012

Quote from Bluehorazon

fertilizers and hydration.

Will be automatized with a machine of core IC². Just didn't find time to code it yet.

As well, Crops REALLY aren't meant to be fully automated. They're meant to be a fun timespender :O
If anyone at some point complains about automatized crop-farms breaking server balance, i'll add a hook to prevent them to be harvested without an actual player being present.

FenixR · Feb 1st 2012

Quote from Alblaka

Will be automatized with a machine of core IC². Just didn't find time to code it yet.

As well, Crops REALLY aren't meant to be fully automated. They're meant to be a fun timespender :O
If anyone at some point complains about automatized crop-farms breaking server balance, i'll add a hook to prevent them to be harvested without an actual player being present.

I can hear the silenced crys of a thousand players in the future about this...

Anyway that would be indeed useful, since people creativity will reach to players making iron dust/gold nuggets farms completely automated... As long as planting the seeds, placing the cropsticks and right clicking a crop to be a player only interaction, balance can be properly maintained.

mazZza · Feb 4th 2012

Alblaka, you know Zensursula? You kinda remind me of her, in some ways

The_Scary_One · Feb 5th 2012

So i tried with the deployers, and they can't harvest my stickreed or flowers, so i donøt think it is posible

Rick · Apr 4th 2012

Quote from Alblaka

Will be automatized with a machine of core IC². Just didn't find time to code it yet.

As well, Crops REALLY aren't meant to be fully automated. They're meant to be a fun timespender :O
If anyone at some point complains about automatized crop-farms breaking server balance, i'll add a hook to prevent them to be harvested without an actual player being present.

And ad a config for ppl who want their farms to be automated

FenixR · Apr 5th 2012

Having playing thaumcraft 2, i can say that automated farms can become a problem, mostly because you dont have to replant it, you just need to keep harvesting and harvesting and harvesting and... Ad infinitum.

And no i was talking about harvesting seals only, its clearly that the fertilization seals are quite broken.

If any kind of automated farming had to be enabled, i say Left Click behavior only (So you force the player to replant their crops). Deweeding cropstick its something that hardly happens and should remain as a player interaction only.

Just my 2 cents on this.

Rick · Apr 11th 2012

As long as its a config option iam happy not everyone uses thaumcraft to get limitless stuff.

Xizzzy · Apr 11th 2012

Quote from FenixR

If any kind of automated farming had to be enabled, i say Left Click behavior only (So you force the player to replant their crops). Deweeding cropstick its something that hardly happens and should remain as a player interaction only.

Weeding cropsticks becomes a major problem beyond growth level 24 I can very easily burn a stack of cropsticks in this way. You literally can't walk away from the crops at that point and growing them with any dirt around them at all produces tall grass which then (I think) ruins air quality around the plants. I'm looking forward to being able to use the new machine that deals with this very much as a result.

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