Posts by Kenken244

    I am pretty sure trade-o-mats don't need power. anyway. I would rather that people make their own stores. just make the recipe a bit cheaper. if people don't want to build shops, we could have a public market where they could put a couple of trade-o-mats up, with larger stores being for people who want to trade a whole lot

    ah, I have updated the OP with new numbers. using coolant is an interesting idea, maybe have to have a second pump to pull out the coolant while the other one is pumping it in? would give a big of upgrade potential, especially if the other pump requires higher tech. having surface features showing a possible location is a cool idea, though it would require more worldgen. I Will add these ideas to the OP.

    since it only modifies the bedrock, I think retro-gen would be fairly easy to do, like how thaumcraft can place nodes in places. anyway, the 60HU/t is about 1.5 RTGs (unless my math is wrong) which is pretty good for a renewable power source. though, the idea of having diminishing returns by having too many in the same area is interesting. I know that in real life, over-harvesting geothermal causes the amount produced to diminish over time. perhaps the output could be increased, but having too many close by would result in the output slowly decreasing somewhat. that way, having a lucky geothermal spot somewhere else is still a good boon, without making volcano biomes overpowered. I will add that to the OP.

    There was some discussion on the kiara server about a possible geothermal generator mod. this is an outline of the ideas to compare them and get feedback.


    The basic concept is that a special block would be placed at bedrock. then, it would be fed mining pipes and energy (and a mining drill?) to increase its "depth". as the depth increases, higher tier mining pipes would be required, made out of more advanced materials. once a redstone signal is applied (or removed?) it will start to generate energy based on its depth. the greater its depth, the more heat is generated. there also may be a modifier based on the biome. the heat will be output the top in either GT or IC2 heat units. this can then be used to make steam, which can be piped to the surface to generate power.


    however, as with most renewable energy sources, some form of limitation must be imposed. there are currently two ideas on how this can be done:


    1. Some bedrock blocks in the world would be replaced with "geothermal tiles" the frequency of this would be based on biome, with volcano biomes having the most, mountains and boreal forests some, and the rest of the world will have nearly none. these would be distinguishable by sight, and the generator must be placed directly on top of this tile.


    the pros of this approach are:
    it is a lot simpler to search for a tile directly underneath rather than having to look at the whole surrounding area.
    it makes these areas "special". while you could find a ton in a volcano biome, you might get lucky and find one somewhere else, which would provide a nice power source, and more variety.
    it is much easier for the player to understand


    The cons of this approach are:
    it requires worldgen.
    it would need flat bedrock to be in effect for it to work optimally


    2. instead of having special blocks, there would be a limit of having only one generator per X tiles. This could be based on biome, alternatively a larger biome based modifier to the heat production could be applied, and have the distance requirement a flat number


    The pros of this approach are:
    It would not require worldgen
    it allows geothermal energy to be used anywhere, though certain biomes would be more effective.


    The cons of this approach are:
    It could be very complicated for a player to get working, since they could cross biome layers, and there is no easy indication of biome borders at bedrock level
    It requires checking the surrounding area every so often, which could cause lag
    it allows it to be spammed indefinitely, though requiring a very large area to do so.
    potentially too similar to bloodasp's proposed oil system


    some ideas for future expansion are:
    a scanner similar to the OV scanner to locate geothermal tiles from the surface
    having disastrous collapses if they are built too close together
    retro-gen to place geothermal tiles after the world is generated
    having the output slowly diminish if too many are in close proximity
    using a second pump to create a coolant circuit
    having surface features such as hot springs to show areas where geothermal spots might be.


    EDIT: some proposed numbers for the first approach:
    a basic mining well generator at its maximum depth will generate 12 HU/t
    invar(or aluminium?): 25
    titanium: 50
    Tungsteel: 100


    a well will take 10-20 pipes to reach the next tier of depth


    the frequency of geothermal spots would be about the following:


    volcanoes: 1 per chunk
    mountains, boreal forest (any others?): 1 per 5 chunks
    everywhere else: 1 per 25 chunks

    I would vote for option 3, though really, I am only interested in a hardmode, tech-only server, and I think splitting the player base may not be a good thing. I would like to keep the current K4 server around as long as possible though. I like my base there and I don't want to have to rebuild it. perhaps we could do a machine-reset, since IC2 machines were enabled accidentally, remove all the machines and compensate people for them. that way nobody has an unfair advantage.

    there was some discussion on the server about adding microblocks and extra utils (if only for the magnum torches, disabling the pipes and such) to kiara 4. I hate that I either have to light up my mountain, which melts the snow and makes it look ugly, or let zombies and spiders ambush me constantly. also, I feel my decorative options are limited without microblocks. I know there are some others on the server who would like this as well. would you consider adding them to the server invultri?