Posts by Omicron

  • [Official] New Reactors design thread.

    Quote from steelstiletto

    The design inside the reactor is here (taken from this thread in fact, I believe. I am shamelessly stealing this design).


    I tried getting it down to a two chamber reactor, but I am having issues cooling it.


    Efficiency and number of chambers (for stackability) are my prime considerations, let me know what you guys think.


    Well, that was a refreshing challenge, thanks :)Here you go! 10% more copper-hungry than the 3-chamber variant, but it should fit your need perfectly.


    Quote from steelstiletto

    I'm using FTB Unhinged, which is MC 1.5.2 and GT 3.11. I want to have a different design for uranium, and reading through the thread, I found this, but it appears to be for an older version, as my results in game on a Gregtech computer are very different. Not unstable, just way less power.


    So, my question is, what's an efficient use for plutonium now? I had planned on squeezing every bit of efficiency out of it as I could, in one or two 6 chamber designs, but everything I design in game has terri-bad output.


    The hybrid reactors like the one you linked posted the numbers they did because of a bug in GregTech in 1.4.7. It was fixed in v2.90+. After trying some alternative scaling systems in the early 3.0x versions, Greg ultimately settled on returning the values to something similar to 1.4.7, just without the hybrid bug and with minimally reduced heat. He said he can't do what he wants with the current ractor system and instead postponed toying with it until a future total revamp (which, incidentally, seems to now be coming in base IC2's experimental branch). You can see the values appropriate for your GregTech version in my spreadsheet.


    There's a few things you can do now - the pride of my work, for example, is an uranium/plutonium hybrid with an insane 720 internal cooling, together with a so-called thorium sink reactor that just tries to burn through the gigantic amounts of thorium that you get on the side as fast as it can. With the plutonium hybrid at +32T/20k and the sink at -36T/25k, the thorium balance isn't perfect - you'll generate sightly more thorium than you can consume. But you could let the plutonium reactor skip a cycle here and there to let the thorium sink catch up. The pair runs at 360 + 204 EU/t when both are active, and if all thorium is consumed it posts an incredible isotope efficiency of 5.831, which is more than a full number above the best of uranium reactors.


    The downside of course being that you now have a pair of six-chamber reactors that really can't be stacked in close quarters. But you could use the same concept to implement a smaller, more modular multi-reactor system, or try to build a singular thorium-neutral thorium/plutonium hybrid of a stackable size. The online reactor planner won't help you much with that, as it reports the wrong EU/t and the wrong heat values for hybrid systems, but it can still be used to design cooling systems with a more comfortable interface than the computercube.


    In general, uranium is slightly more suitable for high EU/t numbers, while plutonium lends itself a little better for high efficiency builds. The plutonium hybrid I have up there is actually on the low end of the efficiency spectrum, with two single-neighbor quad cells... I just wanted to cram as much output as I could into a mere three fuel cell slots, while also making use of that gigantic cooling system ;)

  • IC2 Expermental Feature Discussion

    Quote from autotalon

    EDIT: What's the maximum input voltage of the ore washing plant?


    Medium Voltage (128 EU/t). Almost all machines, including the basic electric furnace/macerator/etc, now accept MV per default. The thermal centrifuge and the four UU-matter related machines are fine on a HV line (512 EU/t). I have yet to find anything aside from a batbox that blows up on a MV line, but maybe things like luminators are LV only.




    In completely unrelated news, I've been playing with the semifluid generator and I'm... honestly torn. On one hand, it's fairly affordable (just upgrade a geothermal generator with effectively 2 iron, 2 tin and 4 glass panes), and running on Buildcraft fuel it's the single most powerful pre-nuclear generator that IC2 experimental offers. And with the significantly increased power consumption in the experimental branch compared to classic IC2, that's a very welcome thing.


    On the other hand, it just feels incredibly wasteful. 16,000 EU for one bucket of oil, where a combustion engine would yield 60,000 MJ; or 128,000 EU for a bucket of fuel, with the combustion engine offering 600,000 MJ. A size 1 Railcraft boiler feeding into a steam turbine will yield over 1.5 million EU for the same fuel bucket, and a size 36 boiler over 2.7 million. My inborn German OCD is screaming out in agony over such inefficiency! :P


    Of course, the boiler/turbine combo is far, far more expensive and involved to set up. As such, I can't really fault the cheap and tiny semifluid generator for not matching them - if it was even half as efficient as a steam turbine's worst-case scenario, it would be overpowered. But I'm not sure either that the values need to be this low. Maybe consider a straight doubling of the runtime per bucket, for 32k/256k EU at identical EU/t?


    I did not test biomass or ethanol performance, as I haven't gone into Forestry yet in my 1.6.2 world. Ethanol tends to be around 1/3rd as good as refined fuel in most cases, though: 32k HU vs. 96k HU in Railcraft, or 240k MJ vs 600k MJ in Buildcraft. This results in another good reason to raise the total energy output of the semifluid generator: Forestry's own bio generator already offers 128k EU per bucket of ethanol, which is identical to the current semifluid generator's performance with refined fuel. That in return means that 1.) the performance of the semifluid generator with ethanol likely is significantly less than what Forestry offers natively; and 2.) IC2 currently undervalues oil and fuel compared to other mods that use it.

  • IC2 Expermental Feature Discussion

    You're right, the redstone engines don't buffer power (anymore). They used to in order to heat themselves up, but in Buildcraft 4 the mechanics changed to make the engine output at it's fully heated up rate right from the start (1 MJ/s, 0.05 MJ/t). And, even back when it was buffering energy to heat itself up, that energy served no other purpose and was never accessible or possible to output.


    However, wooden pipes do buffer energy. Item pipes don't really need to - they simply pull the next item. Fluid pipes can't immediately pull the next bucket, they need to wait for the current one to flow through first, so they buffer a very small amount. Kinesis pipes (formerly conductive ones) buffer major amounts, up to 1500 MJ per wooden pipe, in order to smooth out the bursty behavior of Buildcraft engines and transmit power through narrow pipes over multiple ticks.


    But well, at least we know now that the mass fab works like a perfectly normal fluid inventory that Buildcraft can interact with using the standard methods.

  • IC2 Expermental Feature Discussion

    That is quite odd. If it output by itself, it should output into all kinds of fluid pipes (like the pump does, or steam boilers), not only wooden ones.


    Does the auto-output into the wooden pipe work only on the top side of the mass fab, or on all sides?

  • Experimental Changes to Nuclear Engineering

    Okay, so.



    ----------
    Old System
    ----------


    16 uranium ore --> 16 fuel ingots --> 16 uranium cells


    Reactor running --> average 4 depleted cells --> breeding --> 4 uranium cells


    Reactor running --> average 1 depleted cell --> breeding --> 1 uranium cell



    Total: 21 normal uranium cells with 2 refresh cycles.




    ----------
    New System
    ----------


    16 uranium ore --> 32 crushed uranium ore --> 160 U-238 and 64 U-235 --> 21 uranium fuel rods + 34 U-238 + 1 U-235


    Reactor running --> 21 depleted fuel rods + 34 U-238 + 1 U-235


    Centrifuging --> 21 small plutonium + 118 U-238 + 1 U-235 --> 2 MOX fuel rods + 3 small plutonium + 106 U-238 + 1 U-235



    Total: 21 normal uranium fuel rods + 2 MOX fuel rods + assorted leftovers, with 1 refresh cycle.





    Even with MOX fuel (and the potential recycling of its depleted variant) being an unknown factor so far, there's no nerf there, even with the WiP numbers. Unless you count the old IC2's 1 uranium --> 8 depleted cells recipe, which was honestly crazy. Not sad to see it go.

  • IC2 Expermental Feature Discussion

    Quote from jasonsaffle13

    placed a buildcraft pump on top of mass fab (same type i was using on ore washer made from mining well) powered it with a redstone engine and ran the pipe to the top of the replicator no go.


    I do have the replicator working by using universal cells to drain the mass fab and then I carry it over to the replicator dump it in, pain in the ass but it's working for me till i figure out how to pump the uu matter over!!


    Have you tried the normal liquid transfer method? i.e. wooden fluid pipe with redstone engine on the mass fab?


    The pump is made to suck up liquids from the world. In order to transfer liquid between inventories, you don't need a pump, just a wooden fluid pipe. Buildcraft has worked this way since ancient times... ;)

  • IC2 Expermental Feature Discussion

    Quote from Scorch238

    Version 193 (from today) appears to have added this. Your comments matter!


    Awesome. Time to CF ALL THE THINGS! :D



    As for the new semifluid generator, has anyone tried it out yet? What's the output rate and how much EU does a bucket of <insert fuel type here> make? Won't be able to test it myself until late tomorrow, probably...

  • IC2 Expermental Feature Discussion

    It's called "semifluid" because the fuels in question are viscous and/or not even in the liquid phase in the first place. Ever seen crude oil? Not anywhere near as liquid as water. IRL you can also have things that are technically solids but can be pumped around as if they were liquids, for example because they are a very fine powder, or for reasons even weirder.


    Granted, it doesn't make sense for gasoline (BC fuel) and ethanol, which are not the least bit viscous. But I suppose they wanted to avoid making a block that only burns one single thing (crude oil) that has better uses elsewhere (refining). Game design trumps realism in some cases.

  • IC2 Expermental Feature Discussion

    I'm aware, but with GT becoming more and more a total coversion mod rather than an IC2 addon, it doesn't play nice with all mod selections anymore. Some quality of life improvements would be great to have in base IC2.

  • Experimental Changes to Nuclear Engineering

    You can't calculate it like that, Shneekey. You're overselling the old system (which only gave you a 25% chance to even get a depleted cell) and shortselling the new system (which gives you useful plutonium).


    I'd try to math it out, but I don't remember the centrifuge output of uranium ore off the top of my head. Was it something like 3x U-238 + 2x U-235 per purified crushed ore? Or 2x/1x? Wish I was at home at my computer...


    But yeah, the current state of affairs is probably temporary, if there's a whole rework coming.

  • IC2 Expermental Feature Discussion

    But how do cables figure into that? Tin cables only do 32 EU/t, for example. Wouldn't the cable melt off first before the battery box can blow, if you add a 33rd solar panel?


    Different, related question: Anyone know if there is still loss over distance? If so, then depending on the setup, 33 solars may not blow up or melt anything after all...

  • Experimental Changes to Nuclear Engineering

    Okay, I've only briefly toyed with the experimental builds yet, so forgive me if I'm missing something.


    But:
    - The canning machine is barely even functional yet, as of the writing of this post they're still working on it on a daily basis. It's getting a new GUI and everything, so here's hope for upgrade slots.
    - Breeding as such, does that even still exist? You're supposed to process depleted fuel rods into plutonium. which can then go for another round in the reactor in the form of heat-amplified MOX fuel, or tossed into a radioisotope generator for small but eternal passive energy income.


    I'm not fully sure, but potentially we'll have to go and toss breeder designs out the window altogether, and instead make plutonium reactor designs... which are like regular uranium reactors except that they generate more energy they hotter they run (interesting enough concept if you ask me). Regular uranium seems to still work the same, so existing setups will remain valid.


    As for buff or nerf, it seems you need more ore for one reactor cycle than you did in the past, but due to being able to repurpose the depleted rods for further energy generation that may balance itself out, depending on the potential returns on MOX fuel in a properly hot reactor... and well, radioisotope generators never run out. I'm just curious as to what happens with depleted MOX fuel rods, I haven't gotten there yet and NEI is missing most new recipes so experimentation is the only way.


    I also noticed that dual and quad cells are significantly cheaper now, porting over the GregTech way of using normal plates instead of dense ones. A dual cell costs 1 iron instead of 8 copper, and a quad cell costs 3 iron 2 copper instead of 40 copper. That's a fairly sizable efficiency boost for multicell reactors, which previously had up to a third of their efficiency advantage eaten up by running costs.


    What I did discover with some mixed feelings is the fact that early game nuclear power goes right out the window. You now need the full macerator -> ore washer -> thermal centrifuge production chain to even start processing uranium ore, and I tell you, these centrifuges are *not* cheap. And they consume something to the tune of 64 EU/t before overclocking while running (guesstimate, EU-reader is broken), which must be supplied continuously - you lose all progress should you fail to supply enough power. Granted, it's the only machine that behaves this way, and the huge internal buffer allows for 2-3 processing runs without any power supply at all... but it's still a tall order compared to the sedate 3 EU/t for the classic macerator. A batbox and a geothermal isn't going to cut it, you'll want multiple parallel batboxes or a CESU (which itself requires the ore washer to be up and running to craft) fueled by a bank of generators.


    You have a real progression tree in IC2 now, and nuclear power's sitting on the upper end of it. Better get comfortable with conventional sources on the way there. (As a sidenote, playing IC2 without lava teleportation, without automatic wood farms and without compact solars totally makes you re-appreciate the supposedly underpowered nuclear reactors, I tell you! :p)