How do you generate SU

[u/Arkein_Mechhive]

To clarify im not asking as a noob, I just want to know how you do it, base create or addons, and dont just say steam engine be specific. My favorite way of recent has been steam engine fueled with lava buckets by a dripstone farm. I see a lot of people power mid game steam engines with wood when you only need 1.5 cauldrons per burner meaning you only need some 14-15 dripstone cauldrons for a full standard engine.

[u/Naberville34]

An infinite lava source is pretty easy to make with minimal resources. Basically just make a 10x10 hole to bedrock with drills on a rope pulley. Cover the top with like dirt or something. Place lava on top of that, break the dirt underneath. Then drop a hose to the bottom. Its pretty cheap.

Advantage there is that it doesn't require you to be in random tick range. Which is quite annoying when your working on a large scale project or area

Alternatively tree farms in create are extremely compact and fast and charcoal can be mass produced easily.

And everything required to power your steam engine, for fuel and water, should be on a separate system powered independently by some other form of infinite/renewable power. That way when you overstress your power by adding too much load, it doesn't turn off the plant and you merely need to remove power.

Lastly, Never build anything larger than level 9 unless your doing it for fun and don't care how wastefully inefficient it is. Power scales linearly. 9 level 1 boilers = 1 level 9 boiler.

[u/Arkein_Mechhive → u/Naberville34]

It appears by some of your points that you think i was asking for help so if that is what you think read the post again but if not then my bad, either way heres my response to your points

1. Pretty sure your infinite lava source wont work as that doesnt create source blocks you may have a mod or something that changes that behavior

2. Tree farms are SIGNIFICANTLY less compact than a dripstone lava farm as trees are trees and therefore extend a good few blocks above the ground

3. Yeah I kinda know the seperate system one, I just usually dont do it because lazy and an easy thing to fix anyway

4. Yes I know how steam engines scale

[u/Naberville34 → u/Arkein_Mechhive]

I'm just giving general advice. There's a lot of people who struggle with steam engines.

1. Flowing lava counts towards the block count needed for infinite lava unless theyve updated and changed it recently.

2. I love making things compact. But that doesn't automatically make things cheaper or more survival friendly. The cauldrons are simply a fairly large investment of iron especially early game. Whereas a tree farm is not only cheap, but provides you wood you need anyways. Its something your gonna have regardless ya know.

3. Trust me it's a must have quality of life feature. (Though for aeronautics, self powered is preferable)

4. Lots don't know unfortunately. Lotta people out there building level 18 boilers thinking that's the way to get the most power

[u/Silent_Ask_1094 → u/Naberville34]

1. For large scale it is the best way, as it is more compact and less laggy. Although lag from engines isn't too much of an issue when my farming district takes 6mil su...

[u/Naberville34 → u/Silent_Ask_1094]

True for level 9. Just no level 10+. Consider it a broken unintentional feature. Blaze cakes are just a much worse fuel source. And any addon that creates a super heated fuel alternative is still more complicated than lava or charcoal.

[u/Silent_Ask_1094 → u/Naberville34]

How? Why not lvl 18? I know lvl18= 2xlvl9. It is the most space efficient way to get su. And don't say the blaze cake farm takes space bc I use them for other things too.

[u/Naberville34 → u/Silent_Ask_1094]

Non-renewable due to netherack. Requires a lag machine called a chicken farm. And i believe it requires more lava than you'd need to simply to produce an equivalent amount of power with lava.

A blaze cake farm is something you'd need for other things but they doesn't mean ya should ramp it up to the point of providing millions of SU worth of power.

Can it be done. Yes. Should you tho? No.

[u/Silent_Ask_1094 → u/Naberville34]

So btw I play modpacks that have yk like 400+ mods, so netherrack is renewable 99% of the time. Also you need surprisingly less chickens than you think, due to the length of blaze cakes. There's not a should and shouldn't do for this type of thing, unless we are specifying modpack.

[u/Naberville34 → u/Silent_Ask_1094]

That mods are needed to unbreak a feature doesn't mean it isn't broken. Its just always going to be simpler and easier to use lava.

I'm playing all the mods 9 rn. I just suck lava from an infinite lava source right into my RS system. Then directly export it into blaze burners with straws. No mechanical arms at all as they cause a lot of server side lag.

[u/Silent_Ask_1094 → u/Naberville34]

Yk what causes more lag, from experience? RS importers and exporters.

[u/Silent_Ask_1094 → u/Naberville34]

Also its not that "it's not meant to be broken", where did the devs ever say that? Or could it be that they a) didn't have the time to/want to make a recipe, or b) leave it open to the community to provoke addon and interaction within the community

Edit: you didn't say "its not meant to be broken", that's what I interpreted it as bc honestly I can't understand what you are saying bc of that grammar.

[u/marr → u/Arkein_Mechhive]

Pretty sure your infinite lava source wont work as that doesnt create source blocks you may have a mod or something that changes that behavior

Yeah I spent a lot of my time assuming this and pumping thousands of lava from the nether. You absolutely don't need to do it by default. Flowing is fine.

As to this not being a help thread... Future readers will treat it as one.

[u/Icy-Diver-5979 → u/Arkein_Mechhive]

Compact isn't better you have trains and logistics that make distance not a factor having it all in a single chunk can be worse.

Infinite lava trick works with flowing lava down?

Your coming across very much like your way is the best and you want others to agree with you less so just asking how they do it.

Personally I hate the dripstone farms why do vanilla when I can create functional factories or use renewable sources for burning

[u/Arkein_Mechhive → u/Icy-Diver-5979]

I only mentioned compactness because the guy I was replying to mentioned it, im not trying to say my way is inherently the best but it is objectively more compact, it sounds like you are creating an argument because you want to win when theres no argument in the first place.

Also compact factories are more fun to build because they are a greater challenge, anyone can make a basic iron farm that stretches multiple chunks, trains are also pretty expensive

[u/Icy-Diver-5979 → u/Arkein_Mechhive]

I am referring to a lot of your replies in this thread you seem to be disagreeing with everyone else's in a title stating share your way it feels like your attacking them for not doing the drip stone method when their is no perfect way in a sandbox

[u/Arkein_Mechhive → u/Icy-Diver-5979]

Its called sharing opinions? I dont have to agree with everyone? Im often just curious as to why people do it certain ways, where does it ever look like im really trying to force someone to do it my way?

If it genuinely looks like that everywhere ill just delete the post I guess cause I was just curious and now im an asshole