Posts by DrSNAFU

  • Prism Towers :D

    industrium conflict, geh? Then wouldn't this be the perfect time to be offering sugestions regarding such 'conflict' related gizmos? :) And it may be quite possible that this isn't currently in the works, but it doesn't mean I can't offer up the idea.


    Ohhh yeah I missed that part in the tesla description. It seemed like the concept of IC-powered emplacements was lightly explored before being set aside in favor of other things. The force-field bubble for instance. Tesla is really the only thing left over from these ventures and it's the next logical step really. Having all that power at your disposal, why not go full-on mad science with it?


    I'm just throwin science at the wall to see what sticks. :)

  • Prism Towers :D

    Quote from RawCode

    words n' stuff


    Well I have little to no knowledge of scripting, so others would have to figure out how to get it to work but I can tell you that prism towers don’t have AOE or block damage. (if I understand you correctly) Individually, their range would only be slightly further than Tesla.


    If I remember correctly, in the game the maximum power was achieved with a four-tower chain shot. After that, no real benefits would be gained other than widening its influence. Shots per second would never increase unless you had multiple isolated chains. Hrm... maybe color them with paint like wires. And if you mean the damage attained would ruin the game… I believe currently the tesla blocks can kill a player in one shot? So…


    And I can see this not being made a part of IC2 vanilla. Maybe someone would take it up as a sub-mod to spice base defense up a bit. :3 Anyway, it’s an idea.

  • Prism Towers :D

    Tesla coils are already in so...


    Of course C&C wasn't the reason we have Tesla in IC2 but I can't help but imagine. I always thought we need more defensive structures in IC2 and I liked the more strategic usage of Prism towers. And of course it would require a little more thought to impliment.


    What are Prism towers?
    For those who aren't aware, Prism Towers are an interesting form of active defense used in C&C games. Tesla coils are the simpler soviet point defenses wherein anything coming into range of it will be zapped repeatedly with electricity until dead. Prism towers are somewhat weaker than tesla coils on their own, but they have the wonderful ability to 'daisy chain' through each other. So instead of simply being attacked by one tower, the target is simultaneously attacked by several towers instantly, as long as they're within range of each other, multiplying the power of the attack. This gives big bonuses to players who keep all the prism towers defending their base within range of each other.


    How would they be implemented in IC2?
    I'm guessing that scripting them wouldn't be too hard, using euclidean math to determine the distance between them to see whether they would chain. Attacks could be a standard light beam. They'd of course need to be wired for power. Maybe they would be half as powerful as Tesla initially, at 2/3 the power requirements. But that would of course be negated by the ability to chain attacks through multiple towers yielding greater defensive strength of your perimeter. They would have to be scripted to sync up, since a tower that has chained it's attack into another tower in the network can't itself attack again until it recharges. This might require some sort of priority targeting system so the tower with the closest hostile would be the one to get the combined attack from the group, or it would only chain to another tower if it didn't have a hostile within range of itself.


    The biggest problem right now is that Tesla is already extremely powerful, cheap to build and easy to implement. I was always a fan of good planning with higher complexity systems yielding greater results though. :3 Maybe this system could be 'smarter', able to be set to target certain things and exclude the player?


    What do yall think? I love using IC2 for base defenses, and I miss the forcefield immensely. :P Maybe... a suppression field generator to prevent spawning of monsters in an area...

  • Wind mills : what is the optimal height with the new limit?

    It might just be me but I can't shake the feeling that my windgens are producing less. After a short hiatus while our server got their crap together, I built a windgen setup exactly like I used to. A modest tower of 14 windgens following a cable straight down from level 125 (four surrounding the cable each step of the way) really basic stuff, just like before they raised the sky height. As of now, the average power output (tested over several hours) is all of.... 14EU/t. That's 1eu per generator. I've never had power generation that poor from windgens. That's the same as Solars and they used to blow solar out of the water. Have they been nerfed or something?

  • Windmill question

    Has anyone ACTUALLY had it happen to them? I've been using them in tower configurations at top layer and have never seen a windgen break on me. Might want to ask SpwnX about it as he's used piles of them at a time.

  • Overclockers OP

    Yeah I won't argue that isn't as simple as stacking overclockers to win. To use more than half a dozen you'd need to seriously re-wire your setup and possibly get multiple feeders off a huge trunk line to max out the speed. The implementation of it just seems a bit ham-fisted compared to the more elegant systems in IC2.

  • No power from windmills half of the time...

    Do windmills still break? I heard that the iron falls off them and they turn back into generators in excessive wind. I haven't seen it happen myself. Just check the gens to see if they still look like gens, and make sure you still have all your tin wiring. And yeah, there can be some days where the wind just stops.

  • Overclockers OP

    I hope I'm not too late to get in on the great debate!


    I have to say the idea of adding dozens of the same item to improve results doesn't seem like the IndustrialCraft way of doing things. What I’ve always enjoyed about IC is that you really have to sit down and consider before you start putting wrench to iron. You have to plan out your wiring, keep track of voltages and draw, be careful about wire lengths. What I’m getting at is it offers creative ways to work around problems and set up your appliances YOUR WAY. Finesse! :D


    On the other hand, there are very few situations where brute force is the only option. The only instance I can really think of where IC uses the ‘more gun’ mentality is the use of generators. All hail the super-flowers and mega-towers! But when it comes to setting up electrical systems, throwing more of one item at a problem until you’re satisfied feels uncreative. Sorry for the bluntness there but I’m used to seeing really inspired systems that make players think before they build. Thinking isn’t really necessary when you’re jamming a few handfuls of the same three items into each appliance.


    Now I don’t criticize without offering input. It may not be the best idea since I don’t understand the math involved but I was thinking an electronics system would go a long way to making the process of upgrading appliances more in-depth. Here goes:


    Give each appliance a small item panel equivalent to the size of a teir1 reactor. Implement a range of electronic components which you can place into that area which combine with each other to create desired effects. (much like a reactor) That way people could create their own circuit layouts much like reactor designs. If it’s possible, make the mainboard a container item, so you can pop the components into it, then pop that into a single slot on the appliance.

  • A question about the generators, EU/packet, and EU/tick

    Quote from immibis

    If the effective height (Y coordinate minus the number of covered blocks in a 9x7x9 area, as explained on the wiki) is no more than 80, then the windmill can never output more than 5 EU/t, and thus can never melt tin cable.


    See now that's something I wish I knew earlier. I was expermenting with my towers to see if I could tweak them to not melt the cable in storms. But if it means hamstringing them that badly, I'd rather just cough up the tin for more cables. Damn.

  • Which green generator do you prefer ?

    Quote from SpwnX

    Edit: 32 wind mills per tower is a good number.


    Ahh, I have 28 in my towers and I was wondering if there was some sort of mathmatics or optimization you use to tell you that 32 is best. :P


    Keep on stackin’ [windgens]!


    I know it's kinda like... brute forcing windgens to offset the loss from collisions with sheer bulk. But 32 gens can fit into a 5 block vertical profile in a tower while the same amount would make an 800 SQUARE BLOCK RAFT in a horizontal setup.


    If anything has given wind power the stigma of being eyesores up in the sky, it’s that kind of setup. On the other hand, wind towers look kinda cool if you ask me.

  • How to set up a wind farm?

    Your setup looks pretty cool. The solars are a nice addition. I do see a couple of things I’d like to comment on.


    That is just an awful lot of gold wiring and copper wiring and transformers and space to devote to one wind-gen taking up a 5x5 square in the sky. I just don’t believe this configuration is more efficient than that tower config your neighbor is using. Not to mention the footprint it’s taking up…


    The solar panels are a great addition, however the wind-gens check empty blocks up to TWO levels below it. So that ring of 4 solars around the gen’s base lower its effective height by four blocks.


    You've got the right idea using transformers, but they're more suited to accomidating multiple gens. And the lengths of gold cable are probably putting the hurtin' on your output. Why not just use copper for the four lengths between each transformer, link them together that way?

  • Current loss?

    I look at it this way. There are two ‘modes’ you can use these cables in. Short-run lossless setups and longer distance transmission.


    In short setups where you want no loss, you never use longer than 4 copper, 2 gold, 1 HV. Tin can go up to 39 lengths without loss but only takes power from wind/water/solar gens since they fizzle if you put more than 5 eu/packet through them. Glass Fiber is the holy grail and can take 512 up to (was it 39 as well? Last time I checked in single player it was). But it’s mad expensive.


    But if you cant do what you need to do within those confines, you’re going to have to use a system with loss. How much loss? It depends on the length and your resources. However, due to my crappy calculations done on a napkin, when comparing all wire/voltage sets, (not including glass fiber) the higher voltage the better.


    Sure, the loss per cable goes up with higher voltage cables. But that loss is PER PULSE. And the higher the voltage, the larger the pulse is. The size of the pulses increase FAR more than the loss per cable length for the higher end cables. So if you’re going to have any real length to your transmission, you’d want to splurge and use an EV setup.


    Glass is the great exception to everything because it combines the loss of tin cables with the packet size of HV. The only down side is that its total throughput is lower than that of EV, so I wouldn’t use it for main trunk-lines in 1k+ power systems.

  • Are Electrolyzers worth it?

    If you want to start with the add-ons I'm sure you could make one that allows you to power the miners directly from Electrolizers. But throwing add-ons into the discussion sort of invalidates its purpose of balancing stock Electrolizers for stock IC2, doesn’t it?


    You could count EUs, as fun as that sounds, except you’ll never know how much EU each mining job will take. A reading of 100 on an OV sensor could mean a whole ton of tin and copper or a handful of diamonds. Not to mention you’d have to take into account how deep you’re going. And doesn’t micro-managing your mining ops defeat the purpose of a ‘set it and forget it’ miner?

  • Suggestion: Fiberoptics (lighting assist)

    I thought about all the possibilities and came up with some applications, in order of least to most complicated.


    Type 1:
    Behaves like glass pane. Lets light shine through but is otherwise an opaque block. All sides of the block are illuminated at the intensity of light currently occupying the square. Essentially, it’s a window that looks like a light source.


    (optional) Make the global illumination transfer to any connected ‘fiberoptic’ blocks so you could make reasonable facsimiles of light strips that look consistent.
    (optional) Make ‘fiberoptic’ blocks paintable like CF blocks are. It won’t change the color of light passing through but will make the blocks more ‘color coordinatable.


    Type 2:
    Fiberoptic blocks behave like light ‘repeaters’. They determine the light level of the block they currently occupy, illuminate the sides of the block at that intensity AND repeat that level of light as its own light source. Add adjacent blocks and they’ll repeat at the same intensity as the first/brightest. Great for faux florescent lights. Probably add a maximum limit on strings of blocks to prevent it being TOO useful.


    (optional) Again, colorable. But maybe with the ability to tint the light itself. But I hear that’s complicated apparently. :x


    Type 3:
    Combine with the Luminator concept to create wire-powered florescent light strings that draw depending on how many are connected together. Though that might be too much alike the original Luminator concept.


    (optional) Maybe instead of requiring LV power, it’ll require HV power since fluorescent lights require an upshift in voltage or something… Good for lighting long hallways!

  • Are Electrolyzers worth it?

    Quote from Lancezh

    1 MFE...


    Its simple, effective and cheap as shit



    I've considered that but considering that it seems half the time i wrench out a geo-thermal genny it breaks, even with the electric wrench, I can't justify using something that takes 4 diamonds to make in a rig I keep wrenching up and moving around. At level 65, all you need is a stack of lava cells in a geo to power it start to finish, and lava is more than abundant. Half the time you pump up enough lava to power the next op! It'd take 3 electrolizers just to power 1 mining drill since they use about 24eu/t when properly outfitted.


    Then you have the issue of wasted power. I tested it out and don't like using any energy storage devices in my outlying mining rigs. Once the op is finished, your gens will still try to fill up your storage (power you won't get back) and the same goes for electrolizers. They'll try to fill up your storage by at least 1/4 before cutting off. You can't put that power back into the water before you pick up the storage block. At least with geo-gens you only lose the power housed in the gen itself when you move everything. (And if you really want to cry about it, bring along some RE batteries to soak that up before moving on!)

  • Suggestion: Fiberoptics (lighting assist)

    Not sure if this was already suggested, I did my best searching.


    I was trying to light my underground base just now and let me tell ya, I was having a heck of a time dealing with the few options we have. Torches, Lightstones and Luminators which aren't quite feasible yet. I hate looking at sooty torches, and I dispise the stock look of lightstones. Even with texture mods they don't quite fit in. I tinkered with the idea of setting them back begind glass to minimize their appearance, but it's only a half-solution that doesn't look the best. So I said to myself "Myself, there needs to be a better way to do this!" And then it hit me.


    tldr;


    THE IDEA:
    A white block that looks somewhat like a luminator (but is a full cube, like hardened CF) that doesn't block out light. In fact, it glows at the same intensity as the light currently occupying that square. Put a lightstone behind it in a wall, and it'll look like a nice light! Heck, add the Painting functionality and color your 'light'. A more advanced idea would be to actually color the light that passes through, changing the color of the light itself if that's possible. (making my purple and pink love-nest possible!)


    Of course it could be more complicated too. Like if you set another fiberoptic block next to it, it'll glow at the same intensity as the first. Use them to create neon signs! They wouldn't actually radiate light, but simply glow as bright as the brightest one in the length. Or maybe they could? Give them a maximum length to prevent abuse. Heck, how about linking them with the Luminator project to create.... FLORESCENT LIGHTS! :D


    There are so many ways it could work. In any case, that's the idea. How do yall like it?