Posts by Plystire

Lmfao @ the borg reference. Don't like it? Make your own forge and convince people that choice is good when all you'll be doing is making mods less compatible in the process.

It's a good call IMO. If we have to wait an extended period of time for modders to get their code straight this time around, so that in the future updates can be made quicker, then I'm all for it. Honestly, updates shouldn't be held back on a global scale because one dude/person/group isn't keeping up with the flow.

~Plystire

I think the OP simply made a typo when they mentioned BC2. He clearly knows BC and probably is use to typing up BC2 instead of IC2. Mentioning cells, I don't think he made a mistake and assumed the BC2 pump would consume cells sitting in a chest next to it or whatever.

However, we can't really help unless we know what his setup looks like and can replicate the problem.

As for the oil deposits, I've been fortunate enough to find an ocean geyser that went from water surface to y-coord 98. That oil reserve lasted me the entire time I spent in that world. The bad thing about ocean deposits is you gotta border off the oil area in the water, otherwise it'll refuse to pump anything out. But once that's taken care of, you got an oil deposit that won't soon dry up. It really is a pity that we can use BC2 oil for generating power in IC2. I imagine them to act similar to coal fuelcells. Slap them in the canning machine and get a fuelcan that'll be worth something like 120kEU when you put it in a generator. That sure would be nice.

On top of only need 1 plant clump for a fuelcell, the fuelcan (once filled with cells) now burns twice as long as before. That's effectively 4x the EUs that we were getting before.

@weird:

True about the RE-battery. I never really use batts to charge up anything, so that didn't cross my mind.

Alblaka:

Yes, true, which fits in with my part about if you really WANT to use a buffer, but what's the point of adding a 5 second "charge up" time to the luminator when you can shorten that to a <1 second fix (change -1 to 1) and a 2/20 of a second (effectively 2 ticks) "charge up" time?

Glad you can make the lights change lighting level without replacing the block itself. I'm glad one of my suggested fixes was used.

And while you're in there can you change "tick % 4" to something more along the lines of "tick % 128"? That'd be boss.

Quote from wierd

-snip-

AH, but see, I'm not repeating myself
1eu/4 ticks is this
tick1 - 1eu consumed
tick2 - 0eu consumed
tick3 - 0eu consumed
tick4 - 0eu consumed
tick5 - 1eu consumed
tick6 - 0...
tick7 - 0...
tick8 - 0...
tick9 - 1...

you get the pattern
0.25eu per tick would be different
its all in how its programmed
the luminators are programmed to work at 1eu consumed every fourth tick, not 0.25 eu per tick
and since they use an eu on the tick they turn on, it means the eu that comes in to turn them on gets used up before they get a second eu, so they turn off again.
This apparently happens no matter how many 1eu sized ticks of energy solar panels give it, (i haven't tested using >20 solar panels.)
unless you use a RE-Battery on the light to give it a small boost, it will continue turning on and off every time it gets that first 1eu

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Didn't need the windy explanation. I can see what it's doing. Do you think if I couldn't see what it's that I could have derived 0.25eu/t in the first place? No. The only reason conceivable for doing it the way he's done it is if EU's are coded as integers (thus, no decimals). In the long run, the result is the same. However, in the short term, there appears to be a problem. I have a suspicion that if EUs could handle decimals, and he DID code it as 0.25EU on EVERY tick, then we wouldn't be having this problem. To answer your previous quandry, THIS is how fractional EUs are handled.

I really should crack open the IC2 source. This isn't a hard problem to solve. -_-

On another note, this does explain my setup. I have a single solar panel powering 3 luminators. This functions, but it doesn't last the whole night (1/3 of the night). And that makes perfect sense given 0.25eu/t. A single solar panel will be able to power 2 luminators effectively through the entire night, in perfect harmony (the luminators draining all power just as the sun comes up for the next day)

[EDIT]

Decompiled IC2 and poked around for a minute... found the code. As I thought, the "ticks" that drive the energy consumption of the luminators are locally handled. It would probably be best if this was changed to check (globaltime % 4 == 0). That way, ticks will continue to pass whether the luminator has energy or not, and they will continue to consume energy at the desired rate.

[EDIT2]

Here's the problem:

As alblaka has mentioned before (elsewhere, probably), luminators are made up of two blocks. The blocks that emit light and the blocks that don't. The luminators that emit light are initialized with "ticker = -1". As soon as you put the luminator down, it executes this code:

ticker++; 
if(ticker % 4 == 0)

Thus, ticker moves up to "0" and the check returns true. That means it must consume 1EU, which has already been passed to it from the solar attached to the cable. Once that happens, energy will equal 0, and it must then turn off. Here's the kicker. To turn off, this luminator is REMOVED and replaced with an "off luminator tile". That luminator tile is then given 1EU, which turns it "on", so it needs to be removed again and replaced with a BRAND NEW luminator, starting at "ticker = -1".

Repeat.

What does this mean? It means what I said BEFORE! The reason for the flickering is BECAUSE of the transition between the on and off state, thus a buffer of w/e EU is not going to fix the problem. Just substitute "0EU' with "99EU" and "1EU" with "100EU" above and you're looking at what would happen if a buffer was given.
The only fix is to fix the root problem here, either have luminators run off of a global ticker, offset the current ticker (to start at 0 and thus make its first check on the fourth tick instead of the first tick), or change it so you're not replacing blocks to turn the light on/off. Or if you REALLY want to use a buffer, make it turn on at something more than 1EU from the "off" amount (Example: 100EU = on, 98EU=off)

Though, if you ask me (and you're not, I know), the easiest way to fix the problem is just to change
this:

ticker = -1;

to this:

ticker = 1;

offsetting the ticker, so that the first check will occur on the third tick instead of the first (could make it "2", but figured a bit of room for the solar to pass another EU would be best)

[EDIT 3]

Last edit, I promise!!!

If you guys need a workaround in the meantime, you can overcome the bug by placing a batbox in between the solar and the luminator, allow a bit of time for the luminator to charge... then take the batbox out and hook the luminators straight up to the solar. Works like a champ!

Quote from wierd

It's not using 0.25eu/t its using 1eu/4ticks

That is how you count decimals using only integers, my friend. If you look at what you just said with just a dash of dimensional analysis, you're repeating yourself.

1eu/4ticks . . .
Numbers only: 1/4 = 0.25
Units only: eu/tick = eu/t
1eu/4ticks = 0.25eu/t

Quote from Plystire

After I restore my backup

Who said I didn't back it up before nuking my world?

Quote from Alblaka

Don't try to understand the mechanics based on the 5% i revealed in here.

The issue is, Luminators use 1 EU every "time % 4 == 0" tick. Which implies the actual first one.
If now a solar provides 1 EU, the luminator will switch to on, consume 1 EU and then turn off again, because it's on 0 EU, which will as well reset the timer (and cause it to actually eat 1 EUt).
There are probably better ways to fix this up, but telling it to only turn on after receiving at least will fix this issue without creating new ones.

If the luminator should only be consuming 0.25EU/t then find out why it's keeping up with the solar, and fix that instead. If your code is as you say it is, then this is only working around the issue, not confronting it. Not trying to sound mean/upset/pushy or anything, just sayin', if a pipe sprung a leak don't just duct-tape the thing, replace the pipe to prevent further issues down the line.

Is "time" referencing global time? Or is that a local tick counter?

I thought other recipe for generator was "Battery -> Machine Block -> Furnace"? Soooo.... either way you're going to be making a furnace. Unless you're talking about making the iron furnace out of 8 iron, in which case I have NO IDEA what you're talking about.

Quote

-Not consume more energy, but make energy last longer. The 'but' makes that extremely confusing. You want the energy to last for a longer time, via using less energy, right?

Where did I say "but"? You're the only one that said "but". I think the way I worded my sentence was rather clear.

The jist of my suggestions is: Luminators are a shoddy, high maintenance version of glowstone. They either need perks (other than aesthetics) or they have no good purpose IMO.

I live in a desert... no rain over here, so my solars aren't nerfed in that regard (unless it's a thunderstorm, in which case they are, but that's fairly rare). It makes sense, doesn't it? No sunlight, no solar power, right?

Still... the only reason people are/were yelling "OP! OP! NERF!" is because they either run an SMP server or play on one... just nerf them for SMP by providing config files. In all honesty, if they're worried about lag, I would suggest a config entry for removing solars from the game entirely. There, problem solved.

Hmmm... but if that doesn't fix what's going on here... wouldn't luminators just get stuck at 100EU then? That'd probably discharge pretty fast during the night.

This would make a WONDERFUL replacement for the MFE I'm using for a recharge station. I have to ask... what's the point of storing so much EU if it's only going to be charging your devices? Are you thinking someone's going to be carrying around 10 lappacks or something?

How about... the station has a small internal charge, but can draw High Voltage (512 EU/t) and charge your inventory (batteries, devices, tools, etc) at that speed? The last thing I really want to see is yet another device that you can hook up to 2-3 solars and forget about the cost of energy for it. Talk about OP.

So after using luminators in a few different ways, here's some suggestions I have for them.

Grass blocks are nice to have when you live in a desert base.

Using the iron furnace recipe, you get to use straight iron for the furnace, thus saving the energy to refine those 5 iron. That's still a win in my book, albeit a small one.

Quote from Ranakastrasz

Yea, I love it as well.

As for the actually OP

Did you legit get the dynamite, or did you TMI it?

These were legit. I get everything legit. I don't even have TMI installed (too tempting)

I haven't tried them with the latest update, will have to give it a go... will also give me a good excuse to use all my collected gunpowder

Yup, there's no beating the timing a well-placed pressure plate provides! Ahhh, just don't make 'em like the good ol' days...

I lost my QHelm the other day... crafted before the change in recipe and before the Iridium change... I went into the nether, but as i came out, I was not back at my base... instead, I was deep underground far away from my base... off in the dark distance of the underground ravine taht I found myself in, I spotted a small vein of diamonds! I rushed over to claim the chance prize before any badness showed up. As I tore the last of the precious gems from the earth, I heard the last sound any minecraftian ever wants to hear while coveting 8 newly found diamonds and standing 2 feet from a lava lake.

*thump!*

*sssssssssssss*