IC2 or IC2experimental?

  • As I was building my latest 1.6.2 private modpack, I've stumbled upon a dilemma.


    Some of the servers I know of are recently switching to experimental branch of industrialcraft in their modpacks. Moreover, latest version of railcraft outright demands installing IC2exp instead of IC2. This makes me wonder which one should I choose, and which one is the "main" version and which one is going to get more attention from mod developers, assuming the regular IC2 is going to be updated in the future at all.


    Adding to my confusion is the fact, that there is virtually no place which contains the knowledge about this experimental version, or at least I couldn't one in my research. No wiki, no forum posts from the devs, no nothing. There are some occasional videos on youtube, but all they do is display personal subjective conclusions of whoever made that video, rather than compilation of facts.


    One reason why I would choose IC2ex is that it apparently adds a lot of content. Why I would NOT choose it is because apparently lots of features are still defunct, and it's buggy. Among other things, cables don't burn, nor they electrocute, and that's one bug which impacts gameplay severely.


    Another thing to mention is that Energy-net remake. From what I've heard, the system doesn't use packets anymore - it only uses one variable, which is EU. In other words, if you supply more than 32 EU to a batbox, it's gonna blow up. Excuse me...? So there is now a LIMIT on how much power you can produce? Now you gotta be careful how many generators you're building, or if you want to make a second nuclear reactor you need to build a second MFSU, because one may not be able to accept that much power? I don't like this.


    What do you think about this? Is there anything that would help me with my choice, or some information base about the experimental branch?

    • Official Post

    Regular IC2 likely won't be updated, so just use the Experimental. There aren't many bugs anyway, and if you find one, report it and player, greg or thunderdark will fix.
    The cable stuff is just bugged and will be redone/fixed in the near future. There is also a EV Transformer for turning 8192eu/t down to 2048eu/t for MFSU's, and stuff, but seriously. Who has a reactor that makes 8192eu/t.
    Also, NEI helps for recipes.

  • That's interesting. I'm curious how are transformers handling the voltage now. In the previous system, the same amount of EU/t was cut up into 4 smaller, equal packets. How is it working now? Since there are no packets anymore, it has to step down the EU/t, but how is it doing it without wasting power?


    Also I'm not too positive about having to manually design a power grid which provides a safe 32 EU/t for the machines from a power source of 2048 EU/t or more. This whole thing just messes things up.


    By the way, is that the same Greg who's responsible for gregtech? ;(

    • Official Post

    That's interesting. I'm curious how are transformers handling the voltage now. In the previous system, the same amount of EU/t was cut up into 4 smaller, equal packets. How is it working now? Since there are no packets anymore, it has to step down the EU/t, but how is it doing it without wasting power?


    Also I'm not too positive about having to manually design a power grid which provides a safe 32 EU/t for the machines from a power source of 2048 EU/t or more. This whole thing just messes things up.


    By the way, is that the same Greg who's responsible for gregtech? ;(

    Now transformers split the higher packet into one of the lower packet, over 4 ticks. [No waste]


    My setup has a 8192 EU/t source and downgrades to 2048, 512 , 128 and 32 EU/t machines, it is a real mess , tons of transformers :D


    Yes it is GregoriusT , creator of GregTech. However he is not "developing" the mod, just helping by bug fixing.

  • To add to that, all the new content and nerfs were done by Thunderdark and Player. If you don't believe, check the changelog.


    4x ore processing? Thunderdark. [Sirus] Not 4x, more like 2.4 times plus some other goodies
    Plates? Thunderdark.
    UUM costs 10x more? Player.


    All of what Greg has been doing is bugfixing, API stuff, and Forge Ore Dictionary stuff.