MFFS is giving me fits

[Digdug83]

Can someone point me to a video for the version of MFFS we're using on 1.2.9e? Youtube isn't being helpful as all the versions use joules apparently and we use kL which makes exactly zero sense to me. The energy distribution mechanics of this mod are severely pissing me off and seem to make no mathematical sense at all.

[Curunir]

I haven't even looked into Modular Force Field System yet (and I find it annoying, that nobody ever spells it out - think of the newbies, people). But I read somewhere that MFFS comes with a converter block to turn MJ or RF into the juice that it needs.

[Digdug83]

Yeah it handles power input just fine. It's how it uses it and displays it that makes me bang my head against a wall.

[redsector]

When I started fiddling around with MFFS, I couldn't (under-) stand the weird distribution mechanics and operation modes of Fortron Capacitors either, so my ultimate solution was to simply not use them at all. Fortron is a Forge-registered fluid and can be pumped around using fluiducts and tesseracts.

 

Leaving out the Fortron Capacitors makes the entire system a lot easier to use. All you need to do is feed power (RF) into a Coercion Deriver which will convert power into fortron at some fixed rate that you usually don't need to care about, maybe pump it into a storage tank if you want some kind of buffer, then use fluiducts to transport the fortron to its respective consumer device (Interdiction Matrix or Force Field Generator). No need to worry about frequencies, filling mode, distribution mode, emptying mode or whatever you can set the quirky capacitors to. As long as you're producing more fortron than your end devices are using, their internal fortron tanks will first fill up, and once the'yre full, the Derivers should regulate themselves to only produce as much fortron as your devices are actually consuming (i.e. they'll simply consume less RF). No need to worry about kL or whatever units it's measured in either, though keep in mind the 200 mB/tick limit (or was it 120 mB/t? can't remember) on fluiduct connections which may become bottlenecks at higher fortron consumption rates. I can't remember the conversion rate between kL, mB and RF right now, have to check ingame when I get around to it.

 

It's probably not exactly how the mod authors intended us to use their machines, but hey, it's not our fault if they're not providing any useful documentation about the inner workings and mechanics of their mod.

Edited July 19, 2014 by redsector

[Digdug83]

That...is fucking brilliant. I had no idea it was a fluid. I'd name my first born after you but I'd have to have kids first and let's be honest, redsector would be nothing but trouble for a kid in school. Thanks a ton!

 

Edit: In response to your comment about conversion rates, it appears to be 2:1. For every 1 Fortron 'litre' or whatever they call it you get 2mB. My tesseract is connected on 4 sides by fluiducts and between them (480mB/t) they're almost dead even with my projector's demand of 9.6kL.

Edited July 19, 2014 by Digdug83

[Curunir]

Good find. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "provide juice to the machines".

[redsector]

Glad I could be of help!  Come to think of it, maybe this little bit of information would also fit nicely into the "Did you know?" thread. Maybe I'll rewrite and post it there later.

 

 

Regarding the conversion rates between kL and buckets, though, my results are different from yours. I pumped some fortron back and forth between a Coercion Deriver and a portable tank and found that 1 kL equals 1 bucket (1,000 mB). I had a hardened portable tank filled with 8,000 mB of fortron. Pumping it into a Deriver gave me 8 kL there, and pumping it back into the tank resulted in the original 8,000 mB.

 

So: 1 kL = 1,000 L = 1,000 mB = 1 B.

 

For consumption rates, which are measured in L/s, the formula is: 1 L/s = 1 mB/s = 0.05 mB/t.

 

 

Now, the RF->Fortron ratio ... well, I have no idea and my the results of my experiments aren't consistent, ranging between 1:4 and 1:6. I hooked up energy cells containing different amounts of RF to empty Coercion Derivers and immediately pumped out the resulting fortron into a tank, using fluiducts in force extraction mode (doesn't seem to work in other modes anyway) to avoid their fluid amount conversion bug. Here's what I found so far.

- Cell with 1,000 RF -> derived 5,500 mB of Fortron (RF : Fortron = 1 : 5.5)

- Cell with 4,000 RF -> derived 22,500 mB of Fortron (RF : Fortron = 1 : 5.625)

- Cell with 16,000 RF -> derived 68,900 mB of Fortron (RF : Fortron = 1 : 4.30625). Integrating this back into RF gave me 12,268 RF (Fortron : RF = 5.616).

 

My actual MFFS network consumes 5,040 L/s = 252 mB/t and the dynamo supplying the two Derivers is running at 56-57 RF/t, so that's 252 mB/t / 56.5 RF/t = 4.46 mB/RF.

 

 

Needs moar science, I guess.

 

 

[Curunir]

You know that the Hardened Portable Tank has a capacity of 16 Buckets, not eight? Eight is what the basic (Copper) Portable Tank holds. I suggest you double-check that you actually fed 8000 mB in there, not 16000 mB.

[redsector]

Yeah, I know. And it's all correct, I specifically used a 16 mB tank with only 8 mB of fluid to have enough space left for any eventual overflow after pumping the stuff back out of the Deriver. Got to be prepared for everything with those weird conversion mechanics in place

[Curunir]

Good man.

 

I guess I'll have to look into MFFS myself one of these days.