Updating the production lines

As promised, here you have it. a short video about two factory lines: one to produce diamonds and the other to produce lava.

Fully automated Wheat Farm

Here we are again, revising an old concept. We already have an wheat farm with automated harvesting options, but the planting process is a nightmare. Ok, there is this mod called Minefactory Reloaded (llok for it in the sidebar) which gives us a "planter" block; a block that will put a seed or sapling on the prepared dirt block over itself when it receives a redstone pulse.

With this and Buildcraft pipes we can make this:

EDIT: New version of the video, with fixed audio and better quality.

I used the distribution pipes from Additional Pipes mod (previously called Teleport Pipes). As you can see, I added a small part on the end of the video about using Redpower 2 logic blocks to make it fully automated (so we won't need to do anything but receive the stuff). However, I left a mistake on the video and put a comment on the description telling the people to come here and look at the fully functional version. I know, I'm evil... or a little annoyed with the people who don't bother looking the description. So here it is, the solution to the enigma:

As you can see, I added two logic blocks and some cabling between the piston control and the planting control. The toggle latch will allow the timer to start working once the pistons unpower (and release the water), so that timer needs a value equal to the time it takes for the water to take all the wheat and seeds to reach the collecting channel and dissapear (it will be different for each farm, depending on how long they are). That new timer will repower the toggle latch (blocking itself) and start the planting process.

And for my next update, I promise you an infinite source of pneumatic power using combustion engines. Equivalent Exchange and lava are involved, and the release will be first in this blog (with a video, of course), and some time later in my youtube channel.

Have fun!

Edit: Since I had a crash in the game, I can put a full list of my mods, here you have it ^^


modLoader Beta 1.8.1
mod_AdditionalBuildcraftObjects 0.5b (MC 1.8.1, BC 2.2.4)
mod_BuildCraftCore 2.2.5
mod_BuildCraftBuilders 2.2.5
mod_BuildCraftEnergy 2.2.5
mod_BuildCraftFactory 2.2.5
mod_BuildCraftTransport 2.2.5
mod_EE 1.8.1
mod_IC2 v1.23
mod_IC2_AdvMachine v2.1 modded by CPW
mod_MineFactory 1.8.1R1.3.1
mod_MineFactoryCompat_Grass 1.3.0B
mod_MineFactoryReloaded_Compat_IndustrialCraft 1.0.0
mod_mocreatures v2.13 (MC 1.8_1)
mod_PortalGun 1.8.1v1
mod_PowerConverters 1.8.1R1.0.1
mod_RedPowerArray 2.0pr3b
mod_RedPowerCore 2.0pr3b
mod_RedPowerLighting 2.0pr3b
mod_RedPowerLogic 2.0pr3b
mod_RedPowerMachine 2.0pr3b
mod_RedPowerWiring 2.0pr3b
mod_RedPowerWorld 2.0pr3b
mod_HeroesGuild 1.8.1
mod_zAdditionalPipes Rev26
mod_WirelessRemote 0.4
mod_WirelessRedstone 1.4
mod_IDResolver 1.8.1 - Update 0
mod_TooManyItems 1.8.1 2011-09-27
mod_FCBetterThanWolves 2.95
mod_WorldEditCUI v0.9.1 for mc1.8
mod_RecipeBook Beta 1.8

Redpower 2 prerelease 3, Minefactory revisited

Well, Eloraam made it again. I didn't install it yet (I'm currently downloading it), and you can get it at her blog. She also included a compact recipe list in there (or you can go directly to check it here).
I'm mostly interested in the ore dictionary support added to RP2, and how will it affect ore spawning rates (overflowing tin! And copper! Yay! XD). Because, frankly, using Risugami's recipebook was quite a nightmare, considering there are seven possible cuts of any block in the game (cobble, smooth stone, iron blocks, clay, wood...) multiplied for seven or so again (the saw, diamond saw, and the new gem-type saws...). She also added an item detection block, and I suppose I will look into the differences between this and the one in the BetterThanWolves mod (which is more an "entity detector" than an item).

Edit:

Ok, everything went better than expected. No crash, no weird stuff... or at least it looks like it (there was a file I had to put inside minecraft.jar that got me nervous, since I already had another of the same name XD). On the bad news, my recipebook now has 1209 entries (about 800 or so are different applications of saws to blocks...).

So new stuff... The detector block, is like her old redstone pipe for Buildcraft, but only for Redpower2 pipes. New stuff, hidden in the package? Yes, there is. Solar panels, electricity cables (take the red alloy wires, and change the red alloy bars for blue alloy bars), and an electric furnace. Aside from that, three icons I don't have the slightest idea of what are they used for, but by name and position might be related to the red and blue alloy bars in the future (silicon boule, and blue and red silicon wafers).

On a sidenote, my inifinitely supplied BC2 combustion engine seems to be working without any trouble, for more than 90 minutes without any overheating at all.Here you have a video with it:

Now on the Minefactory update... This mod has gone out of hand! No, really! They changed some stuff, and added compatibilities for BC2. And, not happy with that, new machines to convert power between BC2 and IC2!!! It also includes an Oil making machine (it takes 625.000 EU to craft a single bucket, however, so maybe it's better to just convert electricity to pneumatic power...).

Amazingly, however, I regained 3 free item ID's even installing the power converters, the IC2 addon and the mod itself ^^. Now it uses 1 ID per rail and another for the conveyor belt, one for all the basic "machines" and one for the all the power converters, for a total of 8.

Oh, I almost forgot, the IC2 addon allows, among other things, to transform refined iron into steel, which is a little exploit (because 1 steel takes 4 coal and 1 iron bar... it compensates itself, however, with the fact that coal is really needed by IC2 for coal dust, which you use to make the solar panels, artificial diamonds and other stuff).

Work and head-banging

Weeeeell... Here I am, realizing how spoiled I've become when I notice the few mods I cannot use but I'm too used to have...

The good news are that I'm making a nearly 100% automated farm for wheat (and hemp or any single-block based plant, that is, not for pumpkins nor melons... nor, obviously, sugar cane, wood, cactus...), thanks to Minefactory Reloaded, which solved the usual problem we always found: replanting the stuff.

Here, have some screenshots of the prototype (I have a much bigger farm in process):

The upper view does not differ much from the usual wheat farm's design (aside from using three blocks wide plantations, instead of two). One detail that I didn't applied here is that I'm planning to make each "echelon" only 6 blocks in length, so each echelon will need two seeders.

The underpart is also quite "traditional": a chest to gather the wheat, and the diamond pipe will send the seeds to other storage.

And the last one is the good one: the planting blocks (that cover a 3x3 block surface), fed by the pipes. I'm missing bouncing pipes here... and Eloraam's cabling and clock. In fact, my idea includes the sequencer, not the clock, for the full automation of the farm, but until a new and stable version of RP2 is realeased, I'm a little bound here.

As for what goodies does Minecraft Factory reloaded includes, well, it has the old harvester, seeder, fertilizer and the conveyor blocks. But it added four new rail blocks (cargo pickup, cargo dropoff, passengers pickup and passengers dropoff), a fisher (same as harvester, but for fishing!), and a rancher (same as the harvester, but for animals). the only "problem" of the rancher is that at least the sheeps tend to die after producing 5-6 whool blocks, most likely because I suspect the rancher block "hits" them with the same strenght as an unarmed Steve?. I'm using the cargo pickup and dropoff rails to move goods from the different "farms" to the main base.

My plan is to make a map that inlcudes all the farms and some stuff I usually end making in a map, and my plans are to make:

• Mushroom farm
• Wheat farm (in process)
• Sugar cane farm (done)
• Quarry (I already set up three for autonomous work)
• Monster grinder
• Animal farm (mostly finished, I need to eliminate all other blocks with grass from around)
• Fish farm
• Cactus farm (actually, I'll cheat and use a .schematic file I made two weeks ago from the cacti farm in my last video)
• Cobblestone generator
• Wood farm (done)
• Universal Matter farm (meaning a really big solar array too, and connected to the cacti farm)
• Scrap farm (between the cacti farm and the Universal Matter farm)
• A fully electric house (meaning extractors, compressors, electric-dependant furnaces, recyclers, macerators, a magnetizer's supported access, a canning machine and even a teleporter).

Sadly, all the projects will require some sort of support from RedPower 2, so "done" means "waiting for cables" XD. 

If you want some other farm or detail included, please tell me, and I'll try to include it.