Efficient Power - Early Game

[Teffan]

Ok, I will be brutally honest here! I played a lot of Tekkit Lite which ofc ment I was used to being able to create large amounts of power very quickly with IC2 - I would just get the materials i needed and pump lava through and then just convert it to power, expand when needed and job done until Nuclear. This is all well and good but now this has left me in a predicament I can't seem to get myself out of!

What is the most efficient way to create power in Tekkit? My conclusion so far is a little vague I guess but I will explain what my though process is so far with mods im not all too familiar with.

Redstone Engines:-

I find that I cannot create enough with the 0.05 MJ/t at high heat. This only leave me with 1 conclusion that I would need literally LOADS of them to become even remotely useful, or am I missing the point here?

Sterling Engine:-

With 1 MJ/t they are more efficient but still the tick is really low and I find myself needing more. My answer again with this was to create more of them - it soon became obvious that I would need a shed load of resource to keep filling them up (coal, buckets of lava etc) so I ruled out creating large amounts of power with them due to the resource needed.

Combustion Engine:-

This is where I landed in a world of more efficient power - However when i looked into creating a more automated system to create the water cooling and resource needs, I just became even more confused. This sort of setup I found that the power i was creating was never enough for supply and demand, there was always too much demand to create the supply :S

So as you can see im totally retarded when it comes to this and im looking for a bit of guidance from people to help me create a sustainable power source or some kind of loop that would create constant power that i could then store in Energy Cells etc to then connect my machines too!

Maybe im thinking too larger scale but I can't help thinking that there needs to be a certain scale to it otherwise the MJ/t is so low its pointless?

If anyone could explain a setup that would be good to use/create or even point me in the direction of a guide/pictures that would be awesome, as i can't seem to find anything :/

Cheers!

[Teraku]

You should try Magmatic Engines and Steam Engines. Steam Engines work like Stirling Engines, but they are more efficient and need water. Magmatic Engines only need Lava.

[samuraijack619]

Magma Engine - 4MJ/tick with no explosion or water needed. (lava)

Steam Engine - 2 MJ/tick (solid fuels)

Magma Crucible - Makes lava, redstone energy cells. (uses 4 MJ/t)

Aqueous Accumulator - Makes Water (Free) (submerge next to 2 water squares)

These engines do not explode.

[Teffan]

Ok guys I have managed to figure something out playing in a creative mode on single player!

16 magmatic engines, 3 energy tesseract's to teleport power to 2x pump that were to pump lava and teleport the lava into pipes to supply the magmatic engines. this can charge an energy cell in 8 minutes and completely self sustaining based on the pump being able to supply lava so i guess you could just keep moving them around the nether . This setup could just keep getting bigger and bigger as well i guess as the engines don't explode and worst case scenario would be smack it with an omni wrench ^^

Picture to see how i did it as well!

This is a lot of stuff and not early game but you could make a very small version of this and expand it into an automated system like it is there :p

[ONeill87]

I built it a litte bit on my server (survival) different than your concept... i power my pump (over a very huge lava sea) via four Redstone Engines (so they don't use any my frech and nice produced MJs ) and beam/teleport the lava directly into tanks via a liquid tesseract.

1 pump with 4 redstone engines powers at the moment 4 magmatic engines... and the tanks are a nice buffer in between. Both sides have a dimensinal anchor.

You save one tesseract...

Nether:

Overworld:

[plowmanplow]

Since absolutely nothing currently in Tekkit takes that much power (over 100 MJ/t) you can use a single power plant that pushes in to one or more energy cells.

The output of the cell(s) connect to whatever you need AND an energy tesseract labeled something like "Remote Power".

If using Magmatics, a single energy tesseract in the nether next to a single pump connected to a liquid tesseract to bring the lava back will keep more engines filled in the overworld than you will ever need. Provided you have the power to do so, that single pump will fill 1024 buckets worth of tanks in a minute or two.

Here's an example: http://imgur.com/a/BEZuh

Oneill87: A note: Loops in BC pipes = bad (waterproof cobble near tanks)

[ONeill87]

Oh really? But it works^^

[Lethosos]

Another possibility is a Combustion/Biofuel plant attached to a tree farm.

[plowmanplow]

Oh really? But it works^^

(not a criticism here, just an observation)

Part of the challenge of operating a server is that just because something "functions" in Tekkit(/Lite/Classic/Modded) doesn't necessarily mean that it is either efficient or friendly to server performance. With IC2, one could make a big 8x8x8 cube of cable with power coming in one corner and leaving the opposite corner. It would totally get from point A to point B. However, it is VERY inefficient with server resources and causes unnecessary load. Loops in BC pipes are the same way whether they be energy (very very bad), item (pretty bad), or liquid (bad).

Thankfully the more modern implementations with energy conduits, liquiducts, and Applied Energistics cabling are sophisticated enough to resolve these "loops" so that they are not problematic. Making things that look like loops with conduits and liquiducts is totally fine. (yay progress!)

[samuraijack619]

1 BioReactor + 1 Bio Generator = roughly 160 MJ a Tick. Pain to get that initial blaze rod. But once you get it macerate and minimum stone for infinite blaze rods. I have to find a swamp to get 2 slime balls. 2 machines that will end your power needs. Just use saplings until you get automated.

[Lagnalok]

(not a criticism here, just an observation)

Part of the challenge of operating a server is that just because something "functions" in Tekkit(/Lite/Classic/Modded) doesn't necessarily mean that it is either efficient or friendly to server performance. With IC2, one could make a big 8x8x8 cube of cable with power coming in one corner and leaving the opposite corner. It would totally get from point A to point B. However, it is VERY inefficient with server resources and causes unnecessary load. Loops in BC pipes are the same way whether they be energy (very very bad), item (pretty bad), or liquid (bad).

Thankfully the more modern implementations with energy conduits, liquiducts, and Applied Energistics cabling are sophisticated enough to resolve these "loops" so that they are not problematic. Making things that look like loops with conduits and liquiducts is totally fine. (yay progress!)

Oh BC energy piepes normaly do resolve infinity loops on their own, most of the time together with parts of your Base ;-)

[Teffan]

Since absolutely nothing currently in Tekkit takes that much power (over 100 MJ/t) you can use a single power plant that pushes in to one or more energy cells.

Lost count the amount of times I have seen people say this since the new version of Tekkit has come out, and tbh it's just a pointless comment.

The reason it's a pointless comment is because its all relative to what your building and how you build it. As an example: If you have 1 machine that use 5Mj/t connected to it then you are indeed correct that it is beyond pointless producing that much power, where as if you have 30 machines automated that could potentially all be on at the same time then it is not pointless in anyway shape or form because those 30 machines would consume all of the power and more being produced by that power hub/supply. I personally run everything from one power supply to keep things easy and neat. Running 2 quarrys and an automated system out of something restricted to 100 MJ/t and a max capacity of 6,000,000 MJ isn't going to help my little machine friends when the supply going into the Cell can't exceed 100 MJ/t and its draining faster than it can fill it.

Do you see my point? Please correct me if im wrong though!

[plowmanplow]

I was trying to stay in context of the post title of "efficient power early game". Admittedly, I probably could have been more clear on that point.

I was referring to the current power consumption of machines not really needing more than 100 MJ/t even with a quarry at max speed (~50 MJ/t). Sure, if you start making multiple instances of consumers, you'll need an appropriate number of instances of production. This also refers to the tesseracts having a default max of 100 MJ/t conduction so you would obviously need more of them if you need something over that at a single point. This also assumes you reduce the power loss of tesseracts in the config file down to 5% or so. The default of 25% loss is both ludicrous and discourages using them over phased pipes over which they hold a decided SMP performance advantage.

No, we weren't trying to claim that <100 MJ/t would be enough for all time. I fully intend to have multiple 96 MJ/t magmatic stacks running in the not too distant future. I'm sure I'll find a use for it.

[King Lemming]

This also assumes you reduce the power loss of tesseracts in the config file down to 5% or so. The default of 25% loss is both ludicrous and discourages using them over phased pipes over which they hold a decided SMP performance advantage.

No, it discourages using them to move power across a room and obsoleting conduits. It's also far from ludicrous given the amazing amount of convenience it affords you.

[Teffan]

The is no sense of direction for people who have used Tekkit Lite with IC2 though, that's the issue in the comment that means absolutely nothing to them and has no relevance. Even though we don't know the setups its not rocket science to know you need more than 100 MJ/t so I can't for the life of me understand why people tell you that you don't need that much. I personally don't start a game making stuff I wont need in mid to late game as much as I can help it... its inefficient. People need a direction and a goal to work towards with the power systems because otherwise you end up running yourself ragged on things that are just useless.

My whole perspective on how to start off a Tekkit game has changed now I know how to make a sustainable power with magmatic engines and pumps, just because it can go from that very early game low power and still be the same setup but larger scale mid to late game giving me exactly what i need instead of making pointless contraptions to smelt a piece of iron every 10 minutes with 37891372189378921 peices of coal .

[Mr_Pink]

Probably the most annoying problem in the removal of IC2 is the lack in TE of some sort of serious mid-late game energy sources as in tekkit lite are nuclear reactors and solar arrays and mostly the total lack of fully renewable power like windmills , watermills solars or the most used late game power source the HV solar array . Sure you can go on with TE even without these power source but to reach a comparable energy production you will have to build huge power plants that use non renewable resources like lava or oil and that's not good . There are quiet a few ways to produce energy with renewable resources tough but still you have to get loads and loads of these machines to reach a comparable energy uotput . Anyway the new Tekkit is pretty awesome , and the "unified" energy system ( BC's MJs ) simplifies a lot the way Tekkit works and that's a good thing . For some serious late game power source , well , lets hope that the TE developer or some unkown guy who wants to make a addon for BC gives us a mod with a lot of new machines that work on renewable resources .

[Teraku]

MFR allows you to make power plants with renewable resources. And it outputs more than enough energy. Really, are you expecting to power an entire factory with 1 engine or something?

[King Lemming]

MFR allows you to make power plants with renewable resources. And it outputs more than enough energy. Really, are you expecting to power an entire factory with 1 engine or something?

Yes they are. The IC2 nuclear reactor has forever damaged people. Having said that, there is new TE gen on the way.

[Lagnalok]

MFR allows you to make power plants with renewable resources. And it outputs more than enough energy. Really, are you expecting to power an entire factory with 1 engine or something?

Well if we talk about ic2 tekkit lite reactors you can have something similar:

Take a liquid tesseract and after setting a frequence/channel put a magmatic engine on each of its sides (pointing outwards). There you go, looks nice and imposing, has the same size as an IC2 6-chamber reactor and an output of 24 MJ/t, enough to power a factory of at least 6 machines - which is about the same a safe and efficient reactor from tekkit lite.

or make them point inwards towards an energy tesseract (takes even less space due to being able to run all tubes inside the 3x3x3 space):

Heck, you could even place Sludge Boilers below the floor and get a radation like effekt when getting close to it xD

[King Lemming]

a comparable energy production you will have to build huge power plants that use non renewable resources like lava or oil and that's not good

Here's the thing - you don't need comparable energy production. Literally, the quantities are not comparable. When TE adds larger sinks (upgrades for example), it will add larger generation as well, which actually makes for good gameplay. Adding a ridiculously large generator is a massive disservice if you don't have an interesting/useful sink for the energy. That's one of the absurdities of RailCraft. There's nothing actually in RailCraft that needs a 144 MJ/t boiler.

As far as resources...

Lava is renewable. Blaze Rods in a Magma Crucible. And even barring that, it's so plentiful that it's absurd.

[Teraku]

Honestly, you all have powerful tools at your disposal. Use them. If you need Lava, go to the Nether, there's tons of it. Even if you take the Nether out of the picture for some reason, you can still make Lava Ocean worlds with MystCraft, which not only is a HUGE amount of Lava (Seriously), but you can make more worlds with Lava Oceans.

[ONeill87]

I have to say that you guys have some very fine ideas of making energy by using all those hidden edges of Tekkit... Me likes that :P

[jadon_guy]

I have to say that you guys have some very fine ideas of making energy by using all those hidden edges of Tekkit... Me likes that

They all have wonderful ideas lol, because I suck at powering everything so that's why I'm here right now.

[Aurrin]

Honestly, you all have powerful tools at your disposal. Use them. If you need Lava, go to the Nether, there's tons of it. Even if you take the Nether out of the picture for some reason, you can still make Lava Ocean worlds with MystCraft, which not only is a HUGE amount of Lava (Seriously), but you can make more worlds with Lava Oceans.

Well, if you can find the page with the symbols. And all the symbols needed to make a stable age. And afford to buy them with lots of emeralds if you do find them. Come to think of it, Mystcraft's difficulty slider ramped way, waaaay up in the 10.X update.

But even then, lava isn't the be-all end-all. It's finite, and even if you can always find more (not a given on a server where multiple people are competing for it and mystcraft may be completely disabled), it still means you have to move your pumping station (at a minimum) over and over as it runs out. A lot of people want to be able to design a system and then have it work from then on, instead of needing to fix it repeatedly.

Bio-fuel is a better choice, though I'd like to eventually see a more technological-themed solution. Auto-farming plants for fuel always struck me as somewhat... backward... but that may just be personal preference.

[Teraku]

IMO Mystcraft becoming more difficult is exactly what it needed. All you needed before the 10.X update was enough leather, paper and feathers and you could easily have all the symbols. That was borderline OP.

But it's a bit too difficult now, IMO. To be able to write a stable age, you need to visit A LOT of dungeons/villages, and you also need lots of luck. And to write an age you want, you'll have to do it LOTS more.