E-net... when ?

  • Hey I know we supposed not to ask for release dates, but actually I just want to know, when do you plan to get on the e-net coding ? What stops you to do so ? Do you want to clean up all the less important stuff, straighten up most of the bugs first, or you simply still develop it ? Sorry for asking this, but I am curious what's happening at the "kitchen" :)


  • Hey I know we supposed not to ask for release dates, but actually I just want to know, when do you plan to get on the e-net coding ? What stops you to do so ? Do you want to clean up all the less important stuff, straighten up most of the bugs first, or you simply still develop it ? Sorry for asking this, but I am curious what's happening at the "kitchen"


    I'd say the E-Net is good to go already, especially since the E-net was last touched 35 builds ago (as of time of posting). It seems pretty stable and much more optimized.

    • Official Post


    I'd say the E-Net is good to go already, especially since the E-net was last touched 35 builds ago (as of time of posting). It seems pretty stable and much more optimized.

    Although the way it works is a bit silly at the moment. I still want the new e-net proposed by me (keeping the great performance the current e-net has).


  • I'd say the E-Net is good to go already, especially since the E-net was last touched 35 builds ago (as of time of posting). It seems pretty stable and much more optimized.


    It's not finished, else they would have made cables explode with too much current, and electrocution from the uninsulated cables. Since none of this is true - E net is not finished.
    How do I know that ? I posted a bug on Mantis bug tracker about non-existing electrocution and cables not blowing up - got answer - e-net still work in progress. Current build is #260

  • as the current experimental e-net is, i don't care for it. it isn't the cables, it is the storage blocks. you used to be able to pipe in the eu limit per side. now it is cumulative. IE 32 eu max from any source into a batbox, and so on.
    this becomes difficult with generators that fluctuate the amount of power they output, especially in tandem. i just blew up a cesu because i had one line running 128eu/t to it from a reactor, while a line from my passive generators was supplying 12eu/t.
    this adds a bit too much rigidity to power grids. all my power basically now has to be routed to a single storage block, and has to be less than that block's max intake. i then have to step it through my base, with no auxiliary power feeds in.


    so rather than rant and run, i'm going to make a suggestion: capacitors.
    a capacitor would be a transformer-storage hybrid. it would accept up to 1 tier above it's output(cumulative), and would buffer the excess energy(appropriate for it's tier) when space is available. functionally, it would be no different than putting a batbox directly behind a transformer, with one exception...if it's capacity is exceeded, it will stop working rather than blow up...unless a full 2 tiers of excess power is applied (ie 512+ to a 32 eu capacitor). this block would need to be manually reset by the player in the block's gui(no redstone reset). The capacitor would then start blinking and/or buzzing. a circuit breaker is something i have long wanted to see in IC2. redstone behavior would be emit if storage is empty, breaker is tripped, eu in storage, internal storage full, power is entering and/or leaving, etc. optionally, the capacitor may heat up and trip if the internal storage is full for too long. a display in the gui as to why it was tripped could be useful aswell.

    • Official Post

    as the current experimental e-net is, i don't care for it. it isn't the cables, it is the storage blocks. you used to be able to pipe in the eu limit per side. now it is cumulative. IE 32 eu max from any source into a batbox, and so on.
    this becomes difficult with generators that fluctuate the amount of power they output, especially in tandem. i just blew up a cesu because i had one line running 128eu/t to it from a reactor, while a line from my passive generators was supplying 12eu/t.
    this adds a bit too much rigidity to power grids. all my power basically now has to be routed to a single storage block, and has to be less than that block's max intake. i then have to step it through my base, with no auxiliary power feeds in.


    so rather than rant and run, i'm going to make a suggestion: capacitors.
    a capacitor would be a transformer-storage hybrid. it would accept up to 1 tier above it's output(cumulative), and would buffer the excess energy(appropriate for it's tier) when space is available. functionally, it would be no different than putting a batbox directly behind a transformer, with one exception...if it's capacity is exceeded, it will stop working rather than blow up...unless a full 2 tiers of excess power is applied (ie 512+ to a 32 eu capacitor). this block would need to be manually reset by the player in the block's gui(no redstone reset). The capacitor would then start blinking and/or buzzing. a circuit breaker is something i have long wanted to see in IC2. redstone behavior would be emit if storage is empty, breaker is tripped, eu in storage, internal storage full, power is entering and/or leaving, etc. optionally, the capacitor may heat up and trip if the internal storage is full for too long. a display in the gui as to why it was tripped could be useful aswell.

    To deal with current e-net :
    Have a storage block of high tier, preferrably much more than you can generate, then use tons of transformers to decrease the EU/t as needed (or transformer upgrades).


    For example, you should use a MFE (or even a mfsu) if you have a 128 EU/t power gen line, then making transformers on the way to reduce the EU/t flow to meet a machine requirement, then if you are not careful the wiring will be really messy and it will be very easy to blow something up if you misplace a wire/machine.

  • Biggest problem with current e-net is you can't pull more than one cable out of a transformer block. If I downstepped from 512->128 and tried to feed ind. grinder+blast furnace with cables connected to different transformer outputs both stalled. I needed to have a transformer per machine instead :\

    • Official Post

    Biggest problem with current e-net is you can't pull more than one cable out of a transformer block. If I downstepped from 512->128 and tried to feed ind. grinder+blast furnace with cables connected to different transformer outputs both stalled. I needed to have a transformer per machine instead :\

    Or you could have used a tranformer upgrade on each and use HV, saving space.

  • I actually use 2 transformers - one from the reactor to the MSU, then a MV transformer, then CESU then transformer. That way I can collect a lot of power into my MSU and use CESU as some kind of temp storage (yeah, charging up lower tier eqipement, too). I could also put two transformers one behind another to lower it to the required tear from the MSU, but I prefer to have that temp storage. In fact, I power a few machines with a single LV Transformer in front of them (whatever is coming into the transformer...) at least, 4 of them can work simutaneously... OFC, transformer upgrade is great tool for saving space.


    All this is just a workaround and a temp solution. I don't mind if they left e-net at this current state, but first- it would be a drawback from the original IC, where you had insulated cables, plain cables, one could build a protective corridors with uninsulated hv cables and it seemed more realistic, experience of using e-net would be ripped off and heavily altered (being an electrician myself, that was the first thing that drove me to this mod :) )
    Now all these new cable types, insulation recipes, rubber, EU Reader, etc... became obsolete. They can be used only in recipes, and that is a bit lame excuse to have them occupying a number of precious IDs for other rather useful blocks...


    Anyhow, I am sure that they (devs) have it on their minds, they didn't drop it out, they are working on it, I just wanted to know if someone important from the dev team would like to share something more specific about how and when they plan to... uh... finish...the e-net... (don't ban me please, I wasn't asking for the exact release date :D )