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81 KiB
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81 KiB
Markdown
Minetest technic modpack user manual
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====================================
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The technic modpack extends the Minetest game with many new elements,
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mainly constructable machines and tools. It is a large modpack, and
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tends to dominate gameplay when it is used. This manual describes how
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to use the technic modpack, mainly from a player's perspective.
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The technic modpack depends on some other modpacks:
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* the basic Minetest game
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* mesecons, which supports the construction of logic systems based on
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signalling elements
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* pipeworks, which supports the automation of item transport
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* moreores, which provides some additional ore types
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This manual doesn't explain how to use these other modpacks, which ought
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to (but actually don't) have their own manuals.
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Recipes for constructable items in technic are generally not guessable,
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and are also not specifically documented here. You should use a
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craft guide mod to look up the recipes in-game. For the best possible
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guidance, use the unified\_inventory mod, with which technic registers
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its specialised recipe types.
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substances
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----------
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### ore ###
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The technic mod makes extensive use of not just the default ores but also
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some that are added by mods. You will need to mine for all the ore types
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in the course of the game. Each ore type is found at a specific range of
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elevations, and while the ranges mostly overlap, some have non-overlapping
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ranges, so you will ultimately need to mine at more than one elevation
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to find all the ores. Also, because one of the best elevations to mine
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at is very deep, you will be unable to mine there early in the game.
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Elevation is measured in meters, relative to a reference plane that
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is not quite sea level. (The standard sea level is at an elevation
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of about +1.4.) Positive elevations are above the reference plane and
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negative elevations below. Because elevations are always described this
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way round, greater numbers when higher, we avoid the word "depth".
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The ores that matter in technic are coal, iron, copper, tin, zinc,
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chromium, uranium, silver, gold, mithril, mese, and diamond.
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Coal is part of the basic Minetest game. It is found from elevation
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+64 downwards, so is available right on the surface at the start of
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the game, but it is far less abundant above elevation 0 than below.
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It is initially used as a fuel, driving important machines in the early
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part of the game. It becomes less important as a fuel once most of your
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machines are electrically powered, but burning fuel remains a way to
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generate electrical power. Coal is also used, usually in dust form, as
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an ingredient in alloying recipes, wherever elemental carbon is required.
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Iron is part of the basic Minetest game. It is found from elevation
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+2 downwards, and its abundance increases in stages as one descends,
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reaching its maximum from elevation -64 downwards. It is a common metal,
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used frequently as a structural component. In technic, unlike the basic
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game, iron is used in multiple forms, mainly alloys based on iron and
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including carbon (coal).
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Copper is part of the basic Minetest game (having migrated there from
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moreores). It is found from elevation -16 downwards, but is more abundant
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from elevation -64 downwards. It is a common metal, used either on its
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own for its electrical conductivity, or as the base component of alloys.
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Although common, it is very heavily used, and most of the time it will
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be the material that most limits your activity.
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Tin is supplied by the moreores mod. It is found from elevation +8
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downwards, with no elevation-dependent variations in abundance beyond
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that point. It is a common metal. Its main use in pure form is as a
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component of electrical batteries. Apart from that its main purpose is
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as the secondary ingredient in bronze (the base being copper), but bronze
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is itself little used. Its abundance is well in excess of its usage,
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so you will usually have a surplus of it.
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Zinc is supplied by technic. It is found from elevation +2 downwards,
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with no elevation-dependent variations in abundance beyond that point.
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It is a common metal. Its main use is as the secondary ingredient
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in brass (the base being copper), but brass is itself little used.
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Its abundance is well in excess of its usage, so you will usually have
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a surplus of it.
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Chromium is supplied by technic. It is found from elevation -100
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downwards, with no elevation-dependent variations in abundance beyond
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that point. It is a moderately common metal. Its main use is as the
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secondary ingredient in stainless steel (the base being iron).
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Uranium is supplied by technic. It is found only from elevation -80 down
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to -300; using it therefore requires one to mine above elevation -300 even
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though deeper mining is otherwise more productive. It is a moderately
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common metal, useful only for reasons related to radioactivity: it forms
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the fuel for nuclear reactors, and is also one of the best radiation
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shielding materials available. It is not difficult to find enough uranium
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ore to satisfy these uses. Beware that the ore is slightly radioactive:
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it will slightly harm you if you stand as close as possible to it.
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It is safe when more than a meter away or when mined.
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Silver is supplied by the moreores mod. It is found from elevation -2
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downwards, with no elevation-dependent variations in abundance beyond
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that point. It is a semi-precious metal. It is little used, being most
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notably used in electrical items due to its conductivity, being the best
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conductor of all the pure elements.
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Gold is part of the basic Minetest game (having migrated there from
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moreores). It is found from elevation -64 downwards, but is more
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abundant from elevation -256 downwards. It is a precious metal. It is
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little used, being most notably used in electrical items due to its
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combination of good conductivity (third best of all the pure elements)
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and corrosion resistance.
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Mithril is supplied by the moreores mod. It is found from elevation
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-512 downwards, the deepest ceiling of any minable substance, with
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no elevation-dependent variations in abundance beyond that point.
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It is a rare precious metal, and unlike all the other metals described
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here it is entirely fictional, being derived from J. R. R. Tolkien's
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Middle-Earth setting. It is little used.
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Mese is part of the basic Minetest game. It is found from elevation
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-64 downwards. The ore is more abundant from elevation -256 downwards,
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and from elevation -1024 downwards there are also occasional blocks of
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solid mese (each yielding as much mese as nine blocks of ore). It is a
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precious gemstone, and unlike diamond it is entirely fictional. It is
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used in many recipes, though mainly not in large quantities, wherever
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some magical quality needs to be imparted.
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Diamond is part of the basic Minetest game (having migrated there from
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technic). It is found from elevation -128 downwards, but is more abundant
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from elevation -256 downwards. It is a precious gemstone. It is used
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moderately, mainly for reasons connected to its extreme hardness.
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### rock ###
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In addition to the ores, there are multiple kinds of rock that need to be
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mined in their own right, rather than for minerals. The rock types that
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matter in technic are standard stone, desert stone, marble, and granite.
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Standard stone is part of the basic Minetest game. It is extremely
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common. As in the basic game, when dug it yields cobblestone, which can
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be cooked to turn it back into standard stone. Cobblestone is used in
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recipes only for some relatively primitive machines. Standard stone is
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used in a couple of machine recipes. These rock types gain additional
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significance with technic because the grinder can be used to turn them
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into dirt and sand. This, especially when combined with an automated
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cobblestone generator, can be an easier way to acquire sand than
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collecting it where it occurs naturally.
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Desert stone is part of the basic Minetest game. It is found specifically
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in desert biomes, and only from elevation +2 upwards. Although it is
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easily accessible, therefore, its quantity is ultimately quite limited.
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It is used in a few recipes.
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Marble is supplied by technic. It is found in dense clusters from
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elevation -50 downwards. It has mainly decorative use, but also appears
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in one machine recipe.
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Granite is supplied by technic. It is found in dense clusters from
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elevation -150 downwards. It is much harder to dig than standard stone,
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so impedes mining when it is encountered. It has mainly decorative use,
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but also appears in a couple of machine recipes.
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### rubber ###
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Rubber is a biologically-derived material that has industrial uses due
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to its electrical resistivity and its impermeability. In technic, it
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is used in a few recipes, and it must be acquired by tapping rubber trees.
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If you have the moretrees mod installed, the rubber trees you need
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are those defined by that mod. If not, technic supplies a copy of the
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moretrees rubber tree.
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Extracting rubber requires a specific tool, a tree tap. Using the tree
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tap (by left-clicking) on a rubber tree trunk block extracts a lump of
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raw latex from the trunk. Each trunk block can be repeatedly tapped for
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latex, at intervals of several minutes; its appearance changes to show
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whether it is currently ripe for tapping. Each tree has several trunk
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blocks, so several latex lumps can be extracted from a tree in one visit.
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Raw latex isn't used directly. It must be vulcanized to produce finished
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rubber. This can be performed by alloying the latex with coal dust.
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### metal ###
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Many of the substances important in technic are metals, and there is
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a common pattern in how metals are handled. Generally, each metal can
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exist in five forms: ore, lump, dust, ingot, and block. With a couple of
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tricky exceptions in mods outside technic, metals are only *used* in dust,
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ingot, and block forms. Metals can be readily converted between these
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three forms, but can't be converted from them back to ore or lump forms.
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As in the basic Minetest game, a "lump" of metal is acquired directly by
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digging ore, and will then be processed into some other form for use.
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A lump is thus more akin to ore than to refined metal. (In real life,
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metal ore rarely yields lumps ("nuggets") of pure metal directly.
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More often the desired metal is chemically bound into the rock as an
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oxide or some other compound, and the ore must be chemically processed
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to yield pure metal.)
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Not all metals occur directly as ore. Generally, elemental metals (those
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consisting of a single chemical element) occur as ore, and alloys (those
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consisting of a mixture of multiple elements) do not. In fact, if the
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fictional mithril is taken to be elemental, this pattern is currently
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followed perfectly. (It is not clear in the Middle-Earth setting whether
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mithril is elemental or an alloy.) This might change in the future:
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in real life some alloys do occur as ore, and some elemental metals
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rarely occur naturally outside such alloys. Metals that do not occur
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as ore also lack the "lump" form.
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The basic Minetest game offers a single way to refine metals: cook a lump
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in a furnace to produce an ingot. With technic this refinement method
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still exists, but is rarely used outside the early part of the game,
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because technic offers a more efficient method once some machines have
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been built. The grinder, available only in electrically-powered forms,
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can grind a metal lump into two piles of metal dust. Each dust pile
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can then be cooked into an ingot, yielding two ingots from one lump.
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This doubling of material value means that you should only cook a lump
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directly when you have no choice, mainly early in the game when you
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haven't yet built a grinder.
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An ingot can also be ground back to (one pile of) dust. Thus it is always
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possible to convert metal between ingot and dust forms, at the expense
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of some energy consumption. Nine ingots of a metal can be crafted into
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a block, which can be used for building. The block can also be crafted
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back to nine ingots. Thus it is possible to freely convert metal between
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ingot and block forms, which is convenient to store the metal compactly.
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Every metal has dust, ingot, and block forms.
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Alloying recipes in which a metal is the base ingredient, to produce a
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metal alloy, always come in two forms, using the metal either as dust
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or as an ingot. If the secondary ingredient is also a metal, it must
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be supplied in the same form as the base ingredient. The output alloy
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is also returned in the same form. For example, brass can be produced
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by alloying two copper ingots with one zinc ingot to make three brass
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ingots, or by alloying two piles of copper dust with one pile of zinc
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dust to make three piles of brass dust. The two ways of alloying produce
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equivalent results.
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### iron and its alloys ###
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Iron forms several important alloys. In real-life history, iron was the
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second metal to be used as the base component of deliberately-constructed
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alloys (the first was copper), and it was the first metal whose working
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required processes of any metallurgical sophistication. The game
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mechanics around iron broadly imitate the historical progression of
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processes around it, rather than the less-varied modern processes.
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The two-component alloying system of iron with carbon is of huge
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importance, both in the game and in real life. The basic Minetest game
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doesn't distinguish between these pure iron and these alloys at all,
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but technic introduces a distinction based on the carbon content, and
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renames some items of the basic game accordingly.
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The iron/carbon spectrum is represented in the game by three metal
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substances: wrought iron, carbon steel, and cast iron. Wrought iron
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has low carbon content (less than 0.25%), resists shattering, and
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is easily welded, but is relatively soft and susceptible to rusting.
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In real-life history it was used for rails, gates, chains, wire, pipes,
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fasteners, and other purposes. Cast iron has high carbon content
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(2.1% to 4%), is especially hard, and resists corrosion, but is
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relatively brittle, and difficult to work. Historically it was used
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to build large structures such as bridges, and for cannons, cookware,
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and engine cylinders. Carbon steel has medium carbon content (0.25%
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to 2.1%), and intermediate properties: moderately hard and also tough,
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somewhat resistant to corrosion. In real life it is now used for most
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of the purposes previously satisfied by wrought iron and many of those
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of cast iron, but has historically been especially important for its
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use in swords, armor, skyscrapers, large bridges, and machines.
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In real-life history, the first form of iron to be refined was
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wrought iron, which is nearly pure iron, having low carbon content.
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It was produced from ore by a low-temperature furnace process (the
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"bloomery") in which the ore/iron remains solid and impurities (slag)
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are progressively removed by hammering ("working", hence "wrought").
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This began in the middle East, around 1800 BCE.
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Historically, the next forms of iron to be refined were those of high
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carbon content. This was the result of the development of a more
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sophisticated kind of furnace, the blast furnace, capable of reaching
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higher temperatures. The real advantage of the blast furnace is that it
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melts the metal, allowing it to be cast straight into a shape supplied by
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a mould, rather than having to be gradually beaten into the desired shape.
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A side effect of the blast furnace is that carbon from the furnace's fuel
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is unavoidably incorporated into the metal. Normally iron is processed
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twice through the blast furnace: once producing "pig iron", which has
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very high carbon content and lots of impurities but lower melting point,
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casting it into rough ingots, then remelting the pig iron and casting it
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into the final moulds. The result is called "cast iron". Pig iron was
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first produced in China around 1200 BCE, and cast iron later in the 5th
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century BCE. Incidentally, the Chinese did not have the bloomery process,
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so this was their first iron refining process, and, unlike the rest of
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the world, their first wrought iron was made from pig iron rather than
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directly from ore.
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Carbon steel, with intermediate carbon content, was developed much later,
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in Europe in the 17th century CE. It required a more sophisticated
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process, because the blast furnace made it extremely difficult to achieve
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a controlled carbon content. Tweaks of the blast furnace would sometimes
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produce an intermediate carbon content by luck, but the first processes to
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reliably produce steel were based on removing almost all the carbon from
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pig iron and then explicitly mixing a controlled amount of carbon back in.
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In the game, the bloomery process is represented by ordinary cooking
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or grinding of an iron lump. The lump represents unprocessed ore,
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and is identified only as "iron", not specifically as wrought iron.
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This standard refining process produces dust or an ingot which is
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specifically identified as wrought iron. Thus the standard refining
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process produces the (nearly) pure metal.
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Cast iron is trickier. You might expect from the real-life notes above
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that cooking an iron lump (representing ore) would produce pig iron that
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can then be cooked again to produce cast iron. This is kind of the case,
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but not exactly, because as already noted cooking an iron lump produces
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wrought iron. The game doesn't distinguish between low-temperature
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and high-temperature cooking processes: the same furnace is used not
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just to cast all kinds of metal but also to cook food. So there is no
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distinction between cooking processes to produce distinct wrought iron
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and pig iron. But repeated cooking *is* available as a game mechanic,
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and is indeed used to produce cast iron: re-cooking a wrought iron ingot
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produces a cast iron ingot. So pig iron isn't represented in the game as
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a distinct item; instead wrought iron stands in for pig iron in addition
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to its realistic uses as wrought iron.
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Carbon steel is produced by a more regular in-game process: alloying
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wrought iron with coal dust (which is essentially carbon). This bears
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a fair resemblance to the historical development of carbon steel.
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This alloying recipe is relatively time-consuming for the amount of
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material processed, when compared against other alloying recipes, and
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carbon steel is heavily used, so it is wise to alloy it in advance,
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when you're not waiting for it.
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There are additional recipes that permit all three of these types of iron
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to be converted into each other. Alloying carbon steel again with coal
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dust produces cast iron, with its higher carbon content. Cooking carbon
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steel or cast iron produces wrought iron, in an abbreviated form of the
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bloomery process.
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There's one more iron alloy in the game: stainless steel. It is managed
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in a completely regular manner, created by alloying carbon steel with
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chromium.
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### uranium enrichment ###
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When uranium is to be used to fuel a nuclear reactor, it is not
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sufficient to merely isolate and refine uranium metal. It is necessary
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to control its isotopic composition, because the different isotopes
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behave differently in nuclear processes.
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The main isotopes of interest are U-235 and U-238. U-235 is good at
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sustaining a nuclear chain reaction, because when a U-235 nucleus is
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bombarded with a neutron it will usually fission (split) into fragments.
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It is therefore described as "fissile". U-238, on the other hand,
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is not fissile: if bombarded with a neutron it will usually capture it,
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becoming U-239, which is very unstable and quickly decays into semi-stable
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(and fissile) plutonium-239.
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Inconveniently, the fissile U-235 makes up only about 0.7% of natural
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uranium, almost all of the other 99.3% being U-238. Natural uranium
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therefore doesn't make a great nuclear fuel. (In real life there are
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a small number of reactor types that can use it, but technic doesn't
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have such a reactor.) Better nuclear fuel needs to contain a higher
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proportion of U-235.
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Achieving a higher U-235 content isn't as simple as separating the U-235
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from the U-238 and just using the required amount of U-235. Because
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U-235 and U-238 are both uranium, and therefore chemically identical,
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they cannot be chemically separated, in the way that different elements
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are separated from each other when refining metal. They do differ
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in atomic mass, so they can be separated by centrifuging, but because
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their atomic masses are very close, centrifuging doesn't separate them
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very well. They cannot be separated completely, but it is possible to
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produce uranium that has the isotopes mixed in different proportions.
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Uranium with a significantly larger fissile U-235 fraction than natural
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uranium is called "enriched", and that with a significantly lower fissile
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fraction is called "depleted".
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A single pass through a centrifuge produces two output streams, one with
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a fractionally higher fissile proportion than the input, and one with a
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fractionally lower fissile proportion. To alter the fissile proportion
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by a significant amount, these output streams must be centrifuged again,
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repeatedly. The usual arrangement is a "cascade", a linear arrangement
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of many centrifuges. Each centrifuge takes as input uranium with some
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specific fissile proportion, and passes its two output streams to the
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two adjacent centrifuges. Natural uranium is input somewhere in the
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middle of the cascade, and the two ends of the cascade produce properly
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enriched and depleted uranium.
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Fuel for technic's nuclear reactor consists of enriched uranium of which
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3.5% is fissile. (This is a typical value for a real-life light water
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reactor, a common type for power generation.) To enrich uranium in the
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game, it must first be in dust form: the centrifuge will not operate
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on ingots. (In real life uranium enrichment is done with the uranium
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in the form of a gas.) It is best to grind uranium lumps directly to
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dust, rather than cook them to ingots first, because this yields twice
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as much metal dust. When uranium is in refined form (dust, ingot, or
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block), the name of the inventory item indicates its fissile proportion.
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Uranium of any available fissile proportion can be put through all the
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usual processes for metal.
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A single centrifuge operation takes two uranium dust piles, and produces
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as output one dust pile with a fissile proportion 0.1% higher and one with
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a fissile proportion 0.1% lower. Uranium can be enriched up to the 3.5%
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required for nuclear fuel, and depleted down to 0.0%. Thus a cascade
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covering the full range of fissile fractions requires 34 cascade stages.
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(In real life, enriching to 3.5% uses thousands of cascade stages.
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Also, centrifuging is less effective when the input isotope ratio
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is more skewed, so the steps in fissile proportion are smaller for
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relatively depleted uranium. Zero fissile content is only asymptotically
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approachable, and natural uranium relatively cheap, so uranium is normally
|
|
only depleted to around 0.3%. On the other hand, much higher enrichment
|
|
than 3.5% isn't much more difficult than enriching that far.)
|
|
|
|
Although centrifuges can be used manually, it is not feasible to perform
|
|
uranium enrichment by hand. It is a practical necessity to set up
|
|
an automated cascade, using pneumatic tubes to transfer uranium dust
|
|
piles between centrifuges. Because both outputs from a centrifuge are
|
|
ejected into the same tube, sorting tubes are needed to send the outputs
|
|
in different directions along the cascade. It is possible to send items
|
|
into the centrifuges through the same tubes that take the outputs, so the
|
|
simplest version of the cascade structure has a line of 34 centrifuges
|
|
linked by a line of 34 sorting tube segments.
|
|
|
|
Assuming that the cascade depletes uranium all the way to 0.0%,
|
|
producing one unit of 3.5%-fissile uranium requires the input of five
|
|
units of 0.7%-fissile (natural) uranium, takes 490 centrifuge operations,
|
|
and produces four units of 0.0%-fissile (fully depleted) uranium as a
|
|
byproduct. It is possible to reduce the number of required centrifuge
|
|
operations by using more natural uranium input and outputting only
|
|
partially depleted uranium, but (unlike in real life) this isn't usually
|
|
an economical approach. The 490 operations are not spread equally over
|
|
the cascade stages: the busiest stage is the one taking 0.7%-fissile
|
|
uranium, which performs 28 of the 490 operations. The least busy is the
|
|
one taking 3.4%-fissile uranium, which performs 1 of the 490 operations.
|
|
|
|
A centrifuge cascade will consume quite a lot of energy. It is
|
|
worth putting a battery upgrade in each centrifuge. (Only one can be
|
|
accommodated, because a control logic unit upgrade is also required for
|
|
tube operation.) An MV centrifuge, the only type presently available,
|
|
draws 7 kEU/s in this state, and takes 5 s for each uranium centrifuging
|
|
operation. It thus takes 35 kEU per operation, and the cascade requires
|
|
17.15 MEU to produce each unit of enriched uranium. It takes five units
|
|
of enriched uranium to make each fuel rod, and six rods to fuel a reactor,
|
|
so the enrichment cascade requires 514.5 MEU to process a full set of
|
|
reactor fuel. This is about 0.85% of the 6.048 GEU that the reactor
|
|
will generate from that fuel.
|
|
|
|
If there is enough power available, and enough natural uranium input,
|
|
to keep the cascade running continuously, and exactly one centrifuge
|
|
at each stage, then the overall speed of the cascade is determined by
|
|
the busiest stage, the 0.7% stage. It can perform its 28 operations
|
|
towards the enrichment of a single uranium unit in 140 s, so that is
|
|
the overall cycle time of the cascade. It thus takes 70 min to enrich
|
|
a full set of reactor fuel. While the cascade is running at this full
|
|
speed, its average power consumption is 122.5 kEU/s. The instantaneous
|
|
power consumption varies from second to second over the 140 s cycle,
|
|
and the maximum possible instantaneous power consumption (with all 34
|
|
centrifuges active simultaneously) is 238 kEU/s. It is recommended to
|
|
have some battery boxes to smooth out these variations.
|
|
|
|
If the power supplied to the centrifuge cascade averages less than
|
|
122.5 kEU/s, then the cascade can't run continuously. (Also, if the
|
|
power supply is intermittent, such as solar, then continuous operation
|
|
requires more battery boxes to smooth out the supply variations, even if
|
|
the average power is high enough.) Because it's automated and doesn't
|
|
require continuous player attention, having the cascade run at less
|
|
than full speed shouldn't be a major problem. The enrichment work will
|
|
consume the same energy overall regardless of how quickly it's performed,
|
|
and the speed will vary in direct proportion to the average power supply
|
|
(minus any supply lost because battery boxes filled completely).
|
|
|
|
If there is insufficient power to run both the centrifuge cascade at
|
|
full speed and whatever other machines require power, all machines on
|
|
the same power network as the centrifuge will be forced to run at the
|
|
same fractional speed. This can be inconvenient, especially if use
|
|
of the other machines is less automated than the centrifuge cascade.
|
|
It can be avoided by putting the centrifuge cascade on a separate power
|
|
network from other machines, and limiting the proportion of the generated
|
|
power that goes to it.
|
|
|
|
If there is sufficient power and it is desired to enrich uranium faster
|
|
than a single cascade can, the process can be speeded up more economically
|
|
than by building an entire second cascade. Because the stages of the
|
|
cascade do different proportions of the work, it is possible to add a
|
|
second and subsequent centrifuges to only the busiest stages, and have
|
|
the less busy stages still keep up with only a single centrifuge each.
|
|
|
|
Another possible approach to uranium enrichment is to have no fixed
|
|
assignment of fissile proportions to centrifuges, dynamically putting
|
|
whatever uranium is available into whichever centrifuges are available.
|
|
Theoretically all of the centrifuges can be kept almost totally busy all
|
|
the time, making more efficient use of capital resources, and the number
|
|
of centrifuges used can be as little (down to one) or as large as desired.
|
|
The difficult part is that it is not sufficient to put each uranium dust
|
|
pile individually into whatever centrifuge is available: they must be
|
|
input in matched pairs. Any odd dust pile in a centrifuge will not be
|
|
processed and will prevent that centrifuge from accepting any other input.
|
|
|
|
### concrete ###
|
|
|
|
Concrete is a synthetic building material. The technic modpack implements
|
|
it in the game.
|
|
|
|
Two forms of concrete are available as building blocks: ordinary
|
|
"concrete" and more advanced "blast-resistant concrete". Despite its
|
|
name, the latter has no special resistance to explosions or to any other
|
|
means of destruction.
|
|
|
|
Concrete can also be used to make fences. They act just like wooden
|
|
fences, but aren't flammable. Confusingly, the item that corresponds
|
|
to a wooden "fence" is called "concrete post". Posts placed adjacently
|
|
will implicitly create fence between them. Fencing also appears between
|
|
a post and adjacent concrete block.
|
|
|
|
industrial processes
|
|
--------------------
|
|
|
|
### alloying ###
|
|
|
|
In technic, alloying is a way of combining items to create other items,
|
|
distinct from standard crafting. Alloying always uses inputs of exactly
|
|
two distinct types, and produces a single output. Like cooking, which
|
|
takes a single input, it is performed using a powered machine, known
|
|
generically as an "alloy furnace". An alloy furnace always has two
|
|
input slots, and it doesn't matter which way round the two ingredients
|
|
are placed in the slots. Many alloying recipes require one or both
|
|
slots to contain a stack of more than one of the ingredient item: the
|
|
quantity required of each ingredient is part of the recipe.
|
|
|
|
As with the furnaces used for cooking, there are multiple kinds of alloy
|
|
furnace, powered in different ways. The most-used alloy furnaces are
|
|
electrically powered. There is also an alloy furnace that is powered
|
|
by directly burning fuel, just like the basic cooking furnace. Building
|
|
almost any electrical machine, including the electrically-powered alloy
|
|
furnaces, requires a machine casing component, one ingredient of which
|
|
is brass, an alloy. It is therefore necessary to use the fuel-fired
|
|
alloy furnace in the early part of the game, on the way to building
|
|
electrical machinery.
|
|
|
|
Alloying recipes are mainly concerned with metals. These recipes
|
|
combine a base metal with some other element, most often another metal,
|
|
to produce a new metal. This is discussed in the section on metal.
|
|
There are also a few alloying recipes in which the base ingredient is
|
|
non-metallic, such as the recipe for the silicon wafer.
|
|
|
|
### grinding, extracting, and compressing ###
|
|
|
|
Grinding, extracting, and compressing are three distinct, but very
|
|
similar, ways of converting one item into another. They are all quite
|
|
similar to the cooking found in the basic Minetest game. Each uses
|
|
an input consisting of a single item type, and produces a single
|
|
output. They are all performed using powered machines, respectively
|
|
known generically as a "grinder", "extractor", and "compressor".
|
|
Some compressing recipes require the input to be a stack of more than
|
|
one of the input item: the quantity required is part of the recipe.
|
|
Grinding and extracting recipes never require such a stacked input.
|
|
|
|
There are multiple kinds of grinder, extractor, and compressor. Unlike
|
|
cooking furnaces and alloy furnaces, there are none that directly burn
|
|
fuel; they are all electrically powered.
|
|
|
|
Grinding recipes always produce some kind of dust, loosely speaking,
|
|
as output. The most important grinding recipes are concerned with metals:
|
|
every metal lump or ingot can be ground into metal dust. Coal can also
|
|
be ground into dust, and burning the dust as fuel produces much more
|
|
energy than burning the original coal lump. There are a few other
|
|
grinding recipes that make block types from the basic Minetest game
|
|
more interconvertible: standard stone can be ground to standard sand,
|
|
desert stone to desert sand, cobblestone to gravel, and gravel to dirt.
|
|
|
|
Extracting is a miscellaneous category, used for a small group
|
|
of processes that just don't fit nicely anywhere else. (Its name is
|
|
notably vaguer than those of the other kinds of processing.) It is used
|
|
for recipes that produce dye, mainly from flowers. (However, for those
|
|
recipes using flowers, the basic Minetest game provides parallel crafting
|
|
recipes that are easier to use and produce more dye, and those recipes
|
|
are not suppressed by technic.) Its main use is to generate rubber from
|
|
raw latex, which it does three times as efficiently as merely cooking
|
|
the latex. Extracting was also formerly used for uranium enrichment for
|
|
use as nuclear fuel, but this use has been superseded by a new enrichment
|
|
system using the centrifuge.
|
|
|
|
Compressing recipes are mainly used to produce a few relatively advanced
|
|
artificial item types, such as the copper and carbon plates used in
|
|
advanced machine recipes. There are also a couple of compressing recipes
|
|
making natural block types more interconvertible.
|
|
|
|
### centrifuging ###
|
|
|
|
Centrifuging is another way of using a machine to convert items.
|
|
Centrifuging takes an input of a single item type, and produces outputs
|
|
of two distinct types. The input may be required to be a stack of
|
|
more than one of the input item: the quantity required is part of
|
|
the recipe. Centrifuging is only performed by a single machine type,
|
|
the MV (electrically-powered) centrifuge.
|
|
|
|
Currently, centrifuging recipes don't appear in the unified\_inventory
|
|
craft guide, because unified\_inventory can't yet handle recipes with
|
|
multiple outputs.
|
|
|
|
Generally, centrifuging separates the input item into constituent
|
|
substances, but it can only work when the input is reasonably fluid,
|
|
and in marginal cases it is quite destructive to item structure.
|
|
(In real life, centrifuges require their input to be mainly fluid, that
|
|
is either liquid or gas. Few items in the game are described as liquid
|
|
or gas, so the concept of the centrifuge is stretched a bit to apply to
|
|
finely-divided solids.)
|
|
|
|
The main use of centrifuging is in uranium enrichment, where it
|
|
separates the isotopes of uranium dust that otherwise appears uniform.
|
|
Enrichment is a necessary process before uranium can be used as nuclear
|
|
fuel, and the radioactivity of uranium blocks is also affected by its
|
|
isotopic composition.
|
|
|
|
A secondary use of centrifuging is to separate the components of
|
|
metal alloys. This can only be done using the dust form of the alloy.
|
|
It recovers both components of binary metal/metal alloys. It can't
|
|
recover the carbon from steel or cast iron.
|
|
|
|
chests
|
|
------
|
|
|
|
The technic mod replaces the basic Minetest game's single type of
|
|
chest with a range of chests that have different sizes and features.
|
|
The chest types are identified by the materials from which they are made;
|
|
the better chests are made from more exotic materials. The chest types
|
|
form a linear sequence, each being (with one exception noted below)
|
|
strictly more powerful than the preceding one. The sequence begins with
|
|
the wooden chest from the basic game, and each later chest type is built
|
|
by upgrading a chest of the preceding type. The chest types are:
|
|
|
|
1. wooden chest: 8×4 (32) slots
|
|
2. iron chest: 9×5 (45) slots
|
|
3. copper chest: 12×5 (60) slots
|
|
4. silver chest: 12×6 (72) slots
|
|
5. gold chest: 15×6 (90) slots
|
|
6. mithril chest: 15×6 (90) slots
|
|
|
|
The iron and later chests have the ability to sort their contents,
|
|
when commanded by a button in their interaction forms. Item types are
|
|
sorted in the same order used in the unified\_inventory craft guide.
|
|
The copper and later chests also have an auto-sorting facility that can
|
|
be enabled from the interaction form. An auto-sorting chest automatically
|
|
sorts its contents whenever a player closes the chest. The contents will
|
|
then usually be in a sorted state when the chest is opened, but may not
|
|
be if pneumatic tubes have operated on the chest while it was closed,
|
|
or if two players have the chest open simultaneously.
|
|
|
|
The silver and gold chests, but not the mithril chest, have a built-in
|
|
sign-like capability. They can be given a textual label, which will
|
|
be visible when hovering over the chest. The gold chest, but again not
|
|
the mithril chest, can be further labelled with a colored patch that is
|
|
visible from a moderate distance.
|
|
|
|
The mithril chest is currently an exception to the upgrading system.
|
|
It has only as many inventory slots as the preceding (gold) type, and has
|
|
fewer of the features. It has no feature that other chests don't have:
|
|
it is strictly weaker than the gold chest. It is planned that in the
|
|
future it will acquire some unique features, but for now the only reason
|
|
to use it is aesthetic.
|
|
|
|
The size of the largest chests is dictated by the maximum size
|
|
of interaction form that the game engine can successfully display.
|
|
If in the future the engine becomes capable of handling larger forms,
|
|
by scaling them to fit the screen, the sequence of chest sizes will
|
|
likely be revised.
|
|
|
|
As with the chest of the basic Minetest game, each chest type comes
|
|
in both locked and unlocked flavors. All of the chests work with the
|
|
pneumatic tubes of the pipeworks mod.
|
|
|
|
radioactivity
|
|
-------------
|
|
|
|
The technic mod adds radioactivity to the game, as a hazard that can
|
|
harm player characters. Certain substances in the game are radioactive,
|
|
and when placed as blocks in the game world will damage nearby players.
|
|
Conversely, some substances attenuate radiation, and so can be used
|
|
for shielding. The radioactivity system is based on reality, but is
|
|
not an attempt at serious simulation: like the rest of the game, it has
|
|
many simplifications and deliberate deviations from reality in the name
|
|
of game balance.
|
|
|
|
In real life radiological hazards can be roughly divided into three
|
|
categories based on the time scale over which they act: prompt radiation
|
|
damage (such as radiation burns) that takes effect immediately; radiation
|
|
poisoning that becomes visible in hours and lasts weeks; and cumulative
|
|
effects such as increased cancer risk that operate over decades.
|
|
The game's version of radioactivity causes only prompt damage, not
|
|
any delayed effects. Damage comes in the abstracted form of removing
|
|
the player's hit points, and is immediately visible to the player.
|
|
As with all other kinds of damage in the game, the player can restore
|
|
the hit points by eating food items. High-nutrition foods, such as the
|
|
pie baskets supplied by the bushes\_classic mod, are a useful tool in
|
|
dealing with radiological hazards.
|
|
|
|
Only a small range of items in the game are radioactive. From the technic
|
|
mod, the only radioactive items are uranium ore, refined uranium blocks,
|
|
nuclear reactor cores (when operating), and the materials released when
|
|
a nuclear reactor melts down. Other mods can plug into the technic
|
|
system to make their own block types radioactive. Radioactive items
|
|
are harmless when held in inventories. They only cause radiation damage
|
|
when placed as blocks in the game world.
|
|
|
|
The rate at which damage is caused by a radioactive block depends on the
|
|
distance between the source and the player. Distance matters because the
|
|
damaging radiation is emitted equally in all directions by the source,
|
|
so with distance it spreads out, so less of it will strike a target
|
|
of any specific size. The amount of radiation absorbed by a target
|
|
thus varies in proportion to the inverse square of the distance from
|
|
the source. The game imitates this aspect of real-life radioactivity,
|
|
but with some simplifications. While in real life the inverse square law
|
|
is only really valid for sources and targets that are small relative to
|
|
the distance between them, in the game it is applied even when the source
|
|
and target are large and close together. Specifically, the distance is
|
|
measured from the center of the radioactive block to the abdomen of the
|
|
player character. For extremely close encounters, such as where the
|
|
player swims in a radioactive liquid, there is an enforced lower limit
|
|
on the effective distance.
|
|
|
|
Different types of radioactive block emit different amounts of radiation.
|
|
The least radioactive of the radioactive block types is uranium ore,
|
|
which causes 0.25 HP/s damage to a player 1 m away. A block of refined
|
|
but unenriched uranium, as an example, is nine times as radioactive,
|
|
and so will cause 2.25 HP/s damage to a player 1 m away. By the inverse
|
|
square law, the damage caused by that uranium block reduces by a factor
|
|
of four at twice the distance, that is to 0.5625 HP/s at a distance of 2
|
|
m, or by a factor of nine at three times the distance, that is to 0.25
|
|
HP/s at a distance of 3 m. Other radioactive block types are far more
|
|
radioactive than these: the most radioactive of all, the result of a
|
|
nuclear reactor melting down, is 1024 times as radioactive as uranium ore.
|
|
|
|
Uranium blocks are radioactive to varying degrees depending on their
|
|
isotopic composition. An isotope being fissile, and thus good as
|
|
reactor fuel, is essentially uncorrelated with it being radioactive.
|
|
The fissile U-235 is about six times as radioactive than the non-fissile
|
|
U-238 that makes up the bulk of natural uranium, so one might expect that
|
|
enriching from 0.7% fissile to 3.5% fissile (or depleting to 0.0%) would
|
|
only change the radioactivity of uranium by a few percent. But actually
|
|
the radioactivity of enriched uranium is dominated by the non-fissile
|
|
U-234, which makes up only about 50 parts per million of natural uranium
|
|
but is about 19000 times more radioactive than U-238. The radioactivity
|
|
of natural uranium comes just about half from U-238 and half from U-234,
|
|
and the uranium gets enriched in U-234 along with the U-235. This makes
|
|
3.5%-fissile uranium about three times as radioactive as natural uranium,
|
|
and 0.0%-fissile uranium about half as radioactive as natural uranium.
|
|
|
|
Radiation is attenuated by the shielding effect of material along the
|
|
path between the radioactive block and the player. In general, only
|
|
blocks of homogeneous material contribute to the shielding effect: for
|
|
example, a block of solid metal has a shielding effect, but a machine
|
|
does not, even though the machine's ingredients include a metal case.
|
|
The shielding effect of each block type is based on the real-life
|
|
resistance of the material to ionising radiation, but for game balance
|
|
the effectiveness of shielding is scaled down from real life, more so
|
|
for stronger shield materials than for weaker ones. Also, whereas in
|
|
real life materials have different shielding effects against different
|
|
types of radiation, the game only has one type of damaging radiation,
|
|
and so only one set of shielding values.
|
|
|
|
Almost any solid or liquid homogeneous material has some shielding value.
|
|
At the low end of the scale, 5 meters of wooden planks nearly halves
|
|
radiation, though in that case the planks probably contribute more
|
|
to safety by forcing the player to stay 5 m further away from the
|
|
source than by actual attenuation. Dirt halves radiation in 2.4 m,
|
|
and stone in 1.7 m. When a shield must be deliberately constructed,
|
|
the preferred materials are metals, the denser the better. Iron and
|
|
steel halve radiation in 1.1 m, copper in 1.0 m, and silver in 0.95 m.
|
|
Lead would halve in 0.69 m (its in-game shielding value is 80). Gold halves radiation
|
|
in 0.53 m (factor of 3.7 per meter), but is a bit scarce to use for
|
|
this purpose. Uranium halves radiation in 0.31 m (factor of 9.4 per
|
|
meter), but is itself radioactive. The very best shielding in the game
|
|
is nyancat material (nyancats and their rainbow blocks), which halves
|
|
radiation in 0.22 m (factor of 24 per meter), but is extremely scarce. See [technic/technic/radiation.lua](https://github.com/minetest-technic/technic/blob/master/technic/radiation.lua) for the in-game shielding values, which are different from real-life values.
|
|
|
|
If the theoretical radiation damage from a particular source is
|
|
sufficiently small, due to distance and shielding, then no damage at all
|
|
will actually occur. This means that for any particular radiation source
|
|
and shielding arrangement there is a safe distance to which a player can
|
|
approach without harm. The safe distance is where the radiation damage
|
|
would theoretically be 0.25 HP/s. This damage threshold is applied
|
|
separately for each radiation source, so to be safe in a multi-source
|
|
situation it is only necessary to be safe from each source individually.
|
|
|
|
The best way to use uranium as shielding is in a two-layer structure,
|
|
of uranium and some non-radioactive material. The uranium layer should
|
|
be nearer to the primary radiation source and the non-radioactive layer
|
|
nearer to the player. The uranium provides a great deal of shielding
|
|
against the primary source, and the other material shields against
|
|
the uranium layer. Due to the damage threshold mechanism, a meter of
|
|
dirt is sufficient to shield fully against a layer of fully-depleted
|
|
(0.0%-fissile) uranium. Obviously this is only worthwhile when the
|
|
primary radiation source is more radioactive than a uranium block.
|
|
|
|
When constructing permanent radiation shielding, it is necessary to
|
|
pay attention to the geometry of the structure, and particularly to any
|
|
holes that have to be made in the shielding, for example to accommodate
|
|
power cables. Any hole that is aligned with the radiation source makes a
|
|
"shine path" through which a player may be irradiated when also aligned.
|
|
Shine paths can be avoided by using bent paths for cables, passing
|
|
through unaligned holes in multiple shield layers. If the desired
|
|
shielding effect depends on multiple layers, a hole in one layer still
|
|
produces a partial shine path, along which the shielding is reduced,
|
|
so the positioning of holes in each layer must still be considered.
|
|
Tricky shine paths can also be addressed by just keeping players out of
|
|
the dangerous area.
|
|
|
|
electrical power
|
|
----------------
|
|
|
|
Most machines in technic are electrically powered. To operate them it is
|
|
necessary to construct an electrical power network. The network links
|
|
together power generators and power-consuming machines, connecting them
|
|
using power cables.
|
|
|
|
There are three tiers of electrical networking: low voltage (LV),
|
|
medium voltage (MV), and high voltage (HV). Each network must operate
|
|
at a single voltage, and most electrical items are specific to a single
|
|
voltage. Generally, the machines of higher tiers are more powerful,
|
|
but consume more energy and are more expensive to build, than machines
|
|
of lower tiers. It is normal to build networks of all three tiers,
|
|
in ascending order as one progresses through the game, but it is not
|
|
strictly necessary to do this. Building HV equipment requires some parts
|
|
that can only be manufactured using electrical machines, either LV or MV,
|
|
so it is not possible to build an HV network first, but it is possible
|
|
to skip either LV or MV on the way to HV.
|
|
|
|
Each voltage has its own cable type, with distinctive insulation. Cable
|
|
segments connect to each other and to compatible machines automatically.
|
|
Incompatible electrical items don't connect. All non-cable electrical
|
|
items must be connected via cable: they don't connect directly to each
|
|
other. Most electrical items can connect to cables in any direction,
|
|
but there are a couple of important exceptions noted below.
|
|
|
|
To be useful, an electrical network must connect at least one power
|
|
generator to at least one power-consuming machine. In addition to these
|
|
items, the network must have a "switching station" in order to operate:
|
|
no energy will flow without one. Unlike most electrical items, the
|
|
switching station is not voltage-specific: the same item will manage
|
|
a network of any tier. However, also unlike most electrical items,
|
|
it is picky about the direction in which it is connected to the cable:
|
|
the cable must be directly below the switching station.
|
|
|
|
Hovering over a network's switching station will show the aggregate energy
|
|
supply and demand, which is useful for troubleshooting. Electrical energy
|
|
is measured in "EU", and power (energy flow) in EU per second (EU/s).
|
|
Energy is shifted around a network instantaneously once per second.
|
|
|
|
In a simple network with only generators and consumers, if total
|
|
demand exceeds total supply then no energy will flow, the machines
|
|
will do nothing, and the generators' output will be lost. To handle
|
|
this situation, it is recommended to add a battery box to the network.
|
|
A battery box will store generated energy, and when enough has been
|
|
stored to run the consumers for one second it will deliver it to the
|
|
consumers, letting them run part-time. It also stores spare energy
|
|
when supply exceeds demand, to let consumers run full-time when their
|
|
demand occasionally peaks above the supply. More battery boxes can
|
|
be added to cope with larger periods of mismatched supply and demand,
|
|
such as those resulting from using solar generators (which only produce
|
|
energy in the daytime).
|
|
|
|
When there are electrical networks of multiple tiers, it can be appealing
|
|
to generate energy on one tier and transfer it to another. The most
|
|
direct way to do this is with the "supply converter", which can be
|
|
directly wired into two networks. It is another tier-independent item,
|
|
and also particular about the direction of cable connections: it must
|
|
have the cable of one network directly above, and the cable of another
|
|
network directly below. The supply converter demands 10000 EU/s from
|
|
the network above, and when this network gives it power it supplies 9000
|
|
EU/s to the network below. Thus it is only 90% efficient, unlike most of
|
|
the electrical system which is 100% efficient in moving energy around.
|
|
To transfer more than 10000 EU/s between networks, connect multiple
|
|
supply converters in parallel.
|
|
|
|
powered machines
|
|
----------------
|
|
|
|
### powered machine tiers ###
|
|
|
|
Each powered machine takes its power in some specific form, being
|
|
either fuel-fired (burning fuel directly) or electrically powered at
|
|
some specific voltage. There is a general progression through the
|
|
game from using fuel-fired machines to electrical machines, and to
|
|
higher electrical voltages. The most important kinds of machine come
|
|
in multiple variants that are powered in different ways, so the earlier
|
|
ones can be superseded. However, some machines are only available for
|
|
a specific power tier, so the tier can't be entirely superseded.
|
|
|
|
### powered machine upgrades ###
|
|
|
|
Some machines have inventory slots that are used to upgrade them in
|
|
some way. Generally, machines of MV and HV tiers have two upgrade slots,
|
|
and machines of lower tiers (fuel-fired and LV) do not. Any item can
|
|
be placed in an upgrade slot, but only specific items will have any
|
|
upgrading effect. It is possible to have multiple upgrades of the same
|
|
type, but this can't be achieved by stacking more than one upgrade item
|
|
in one slot: it is necessary to put the same kind of item in more than one
|
|
upgrade slot. The ability to upgrade machines is therefore very limited.
|
|
Two kinds of upgrade are currently possible: an energy upgrade and a
|
|
tube upgrade.
|
|
|
|
An energy upgrade consists of a battery item, the same kind of battery
|
|
that serves as a mobile energy store. The effect of an energy upgrade
|
|
is to improve in some way the machine's use of electrical energy, most
|
|
often by making it use less energy. The upgrade effect has no relation
|
|
to energy stored in the battery: the battery's charge level is irrelevant
|
|
and will not be affected.
|
|
|
|
A tube upgrade consists of a control logic unit item. The effect of a
|
|
tube upgrade is to make the machine able, or more able, to eject items
|
|
it has finished with into pneumatic tubes. The machines that can take
|
|
this kind of upgrade are in any case capable of accepting inputs from
|
|
pneumatic tubes. These upgrades are essential in using powered machines
|
|
as components in larger automated systems.
|
|
|
|
### tubes with powered machines ###
|
|
|
|
Generally, powered machines of MV and HV tiers can work with pneumatic
|
|
tubes, and those of lower tiers cannot. (As an exception, the fuel-fired
|
|
furnace from the basic Minetest game can accept inputs through tubes,
|
|
but can't output into tubes.)
|
|
|
|
If a machine can accept inputs through tubes at all, then this
|
|
is a capability of the basic machine, not requiring any upgrade.
|
|
Most item-processing machines take only one kind of input, and in that
|
|
case they will accept that input from any direction. This doesn't match
|
|
how tubes visually connect to the machines: generally tubes will visually
|
|
connect to any face except the front, but an item passing through a tube
|
|
in front of the machine will actually be accepted into the machine.
|
|
|
|
A minority of machines take more than one kind of input, and in that
|
|
case the input slot into which an arriving item goes is determined by the
|
|
direction from which it arrives. In this case the machine may be picky
|
|
about the direction of arriving items, associating each input type with
|
|
a single face of the machine and not accepting inputs at all through the
|
|
remaining faces. Again, the visual connection of tubes doesn't match:
|
|
generally tubes will still visually connect to any face except the front,
|
|
thus connecting to faces that neither accept inputs nor emit outputs.
|
|
|
|
Machines do not accept items from tubes into non-input inventory slots:
|
|
the output slots or upgrade slots. Output slots are normally filled
|
|
only by the processing operation of the machine, and upgrade slots must
|
|
be filled manually.
|
|
|
|
Powered machines generally do not eject outputs into tubes without
|
|
an upgrade. One tube upgrade will make them eject outputs at a slow
|
|
rate; a second tube upgrade will increase the rate. Whether the slower
|
|
rate is adequate depends on how it compares to the rate at which the
|
|
machine produces outputs, and on how the machine is being used as part
|
|
of a larger construct. The machine always ejects its outputs through a
|
|
particular face, usually a side. Due to a bug, the side through which
|
|
outputs are ejected is not consistent: when the machine is rotated one
|
|
way, the direction of ejection is rotated the other way. This will
|
|
probably be fixed some day, but because a straightforward fix would
|
|
break half the machines already in use, the fix may be tied to some
|
|
larger change such as free selection of the direction of ejection.
|
|
|
|
### battery boxes ###
|
|
|
|
The primary purpose of battery boxes is to temporarily store electrical
|
|
energy to let an electrical network cope with mismatched supply and
|
|
demand. They have a secondary purpose of charging and discharging
|
|
powered tools. They are thus a mixture of electrical infrastructure,
|
|
powered machine, and generator.
|
|
|
|
MV and HV battery boxes have upgrade slots. Energy upgrades increase
|
|
the capacity of a battery box, each by 10% of the un-upgraded capacity.
|
|
This increase is far in excess of the capacity of the battery that forms
|
|
the upgrade.
|
|
|
|
For charging and discharging of power tools, rather than having input and
|
|
output slots, each battery box has a charging slot and a discharging slot.
|
|
A fully charged/discharged item stays in its slot. The rates at which a
|
|
battery box can charge and discharge increase with voltage, so it can
|
|
be worth building a battery box of higher tier before one has other
|
|
infrastructure of that tier, just to get access to faster charging.
|
|
|
|
MV and HV battery boxes work with pneumatic tubes. An item can be input
|
|
to the charging slot through the bottom of the battery box, or to the
|
|
discharging slot through the top. Items are not accepted through the
|
|
front, back, or sides. With a tube upgrade, fully charged/discharged
|
|
tools (as appropriate for their slot) will be ejected through a side.
|
|
|
|
### processing machines ###
|
|
|
|
The furnace, alloy furnace, grinder, extractor, compressor, and centrifuge
|
|
have much in common. Each implements some industrial process that
|
|
transforms items into other items, and they manner in which they present
|
|
these processes as powered machines is essentially identical.
|
|
|
|
Most of the processing machines operate on inputs of only a single type
|
|
at a time, and correspondingly have only a single input slot. The alloy
|
|
furnace is an exception: it operates on inputs of two distinct types at
|
|
once, and correspondingly has two input slots. It doesn't matter which
|
|
way round the alloy furnace's inputs are placed in the two slots.
|
|
|
|
The processing machines are mostly available in variants for multiple
|
|
tiers. The furnace and alloy furnace are each available in fuel-fired,
|
|
LV, and MV forms. The grinder, extractor, and compressor are each
|
|
available in LV and MV forms. The centrifuge is the only single-tier
|
|
processing machine, being only available in MV form. The higher-tier
|
|
machines process items faster than the lower-tier ones, but also have
|
|
higher power consumption, usually taking more energy overall to perform
|
|
the same amount of processing. The MV machines have upgrade slots,
|
|
and energy upgrades reduce their energy consumption.
|
|
|
|
The MV machines can work with pneumatic tubes. They accept inputs via
|
|
tubes from any direction. For most of the machines, having only a single
|
|
input slot, this is perfectly simple behavior. The alloy furnace is more
|
|
complex: it will put an arriving item in either input slot, preferring to
|
|
stack it with existing items of the same type. It doesn't matter which
|
|
slot each of the alloy furnace's inputs is in, so it doesn't matter that
|
|
there's no direct control ovar that, but there is a risk that supplying
|
|
a lot of one item type through tubes will result in both slots containing
|
|
the same type of item, leaving no room for the second input.
|
|
|
|
The MV machines can be given a tube upgrade to make them automatically
|
|
eject output items into pneumatic tubes. The items are always ejected
|
|
through a side, though which side it is depends on the machine's
|
|
orientation, due to a bug. Output items are always ejected singly.
|
|
For some machines, such as the grinder, the ejection rate with a
|
|
single tube upgrade doesn't keep up with the rate at which items can
|
|
be processed. A second tube upgrade increases the ejection rate.
|
|
|
|
The LV and fuel-fired machines do not work with pneumatic tubes, except
|
|
that the fuel-fired furnace (actually part of the basic Minetest game)
|
|
can accept inputs from tubes. Items arriving through the bottom of
|
|
the furnace go into the fuel slot, and items arriving from all other
|
|
directions go into the input slot.
|
|
|
|
### music player ###
|
|
|
|
The music player is an LV powered machine that plays audio recordings.
|
|
It offers a selection of up to nine tracks. The technic modpack doesn't
|
|
include specific music tracks for this purpose; they have to be installed
|
|
separately.
|
|
|
|
The music player gives the impression that the music is being played in
|
|
the Minetest world. The music only plays as long as the music player
|
|
is in place and is receiving electrical power, and the choice of music
|
|
is controlled by interaction with the machine. The sound also appears
|
|
to emanate specifically from the music player: the ability to hear it
|
|
depends on the player's distance from the music player. However, the
|
|
game engine doesn't currently support any other positional cues for
|
|
sound, such as attenuation, panning, or HRTF. The impression of the
|
|
sound being located in the Minetest world is also compromised by the
|
|
subjective nature of track choice: the specific music that is played to
|
|
a player depends on what media the player has installed.
|
|
|
|
### CNC machine ###
|
|
|
|
The CNC machine is an LV powered machine that cuts building blocks into a
|
|
variety of sub-block shapes that are not covered by the crafting recipes
|
|
of the stairs mod and its variants. Most of the target shapes are not
|
|
rectilinear, involving diagonal or curved surfaces.
|
|
|
|
Only certain kinds of building material can be processed in the CNC
|
|
machine.
|
|
|
|
### tool workshop ###
|
|
|
|
The tool workshop is an MV powered machine that repairs mechanically-worn
|
|
tools, such as pickaxes and the other ordinary digging tools. It has
|
|
a single slot for a tool to be repaired, and gradually repairs the
|
|
tool while it is powered. For any single tool, equal amounts of tool
|
|
wear, resulting from equal amounts of tool use, take equal amounts of
|
|
repair effort. Also, all repairable tools currently take equal effort
|
|
to repair equal percentages of wear. The amount of tool use enabled by
|
|
equal amounts of repair therefore depends on the tool type.
|
|
|
|
The mechanical wear that the tool workshop repairs is always indicated in
|
|
inventory displays by a colored bar overlaid on the tool image. The bar
|
|
can be seen to fill and change color as the tool workshop operates,
|
|
eventually disappearing when the repair is complete. However, not every
|
|
item that shows such a wear bar is using it to show mechanical wear.
|
|
A wear bar can also be used to indicate charging of a power tool with
|
|
stored electrical energy, or filling of a container, or potentially for
|
|
all sorts of other uses. The tool workshop won't affect items that use
|
|
wear bars to indicate anything other than mechanical wear.
|
|
|
|
The tool workshop has upgrade slots. Energy upgrades reduce its power
|
|
consumption.
|
|
|
|
It can work with pneumatic tubes. Tools to be repaired are accepted
|
|
via tubes from any direction. With a tube upgrade, the tool workshop
|
|
will also eject fully-repaired tools via one side, the choice of side
|
|
depending on the machine's orientation, as for processing machines. It is
|
|
safe to put into the tool workshop a tool that is already fully repaired:
|
|
assuming the presence of a tube upgrade, the tool will be quickly ejected.
|
|
Furthermore, any item of unrepairable type will also be ejected as if
|
|
fully repaired. (Due to a historical limitation of the basic Minetest
|
|
game, it is impossible for the tool workshop to distinguish between a
|
|
fully-repaired tool and any item type that never displays a wear bar.)
|
|
|
|
### quarry ###
|
|
|
|
The quarry is an HV powered machine that automatically digs out a
|
|
large area. The region that it digs out is a cuboid with a square
|
|
horizontal cross section, located immediately behind the quarry machine.
|
|
The quarry's action is slow and energy-intensive, but requires little
|
|
player effort.
|
|
|
|
The size of the quarry's horizontal cross section is configurable through
|
|
the machine's interaction form. A setting referred to as "radius"
|
|
is an integer number of meters which can vary from 2 to 8 inclusive.
|
|
The horizontal cross section is a square with side length of twice the
|
|
radius plus one meter, thus varying from 5 to 17 inclusive. Vertically,
|
|
the quarry always digs from 3 m above the machine to 100 m below it,
|
|
inclusive, a total vertical height of 104 m.
|
|
|
|
Whatever the quarry digs up is ejected through the top of the machine,
|
|
as if from a pneumatic tube. Normally a tube should be placed there
|
|
to convey the material into a sorting system, processing machines, or
|
|
at least chests. A chest may be placed directly above the machine to
|
|
capture the output without sorting, but is liable to overflow.
|
|
|
|
If the quarry encounters something that cannot be dug, such as a liquid,
|
|
a locked chest, or a protected area, it will skip past that and attempt
|
|
to continue digging. However, anything remaining in the quarry area
|
|
after the machine has attempted to dig there will prevent the machine
|
|
from digging anything directly below it, all the way to the bottom
|
|
of the quarry. An undiggable block therefore casts a shadow of undug
|
|
blocks below it. If liquid is encountered, it is quite likely to flow
|
|
across the entire cross section of the quarry, preventing all digging.
|
|
The depth at which the quarry is currently attempting to dig is reported
|
|
in its interaction form, and can be manually reset to the top of the
|
|
quarry, which is useful to do if an undiggable obstruction has been
|
|
manually removed.
|
|
|
|
The quarry consumes 10 kEU per block dug, which is quite a lot of energy.
|
|
With most of what is dug being mere stone, it is usually not economically
|
|
favorable to power a quarry from anything other than solar power.
|
|
In particular, one cannot expect to power a quarry by burning the coal
|
|
that it digs up.
|
|
|
|
Given sufficient power, the quarry digs at a rate of one block per second.
|
|
This is rather tedious to wait for. Unfortunately, leaving the quarry
|
|
unattended normally means that the Minetest server won't keep the machine
|
|
running: it needs a player nearby. This can be resolved by using a world
|
|
anchor. The digging is still quite slow, and independently of whether a
|
|
world anchor is used the digging can be speeded up by placing multiple
|
|
quarry machines with overlapping digging areas. Four can be placed to
|
|
dig identical areas, one on each side of the square cross section.
|
|
|
|
### forcefield emitter ###
|
|
|
|
The forcefield emitter is an HV powered machine that generates a
|
|
forcefield remeniscent of those seen in many science-fiction stories.
|
|
|
|
The emitter can be configured to generate a forcefield of either
|
|
spherical or cubical shape, in either case centered on the emitter.
|
|
The size of the forcefield is configured using a radius parameter that
|
|
is an integer number of meters which can vary from 5 to 20 inclusive.
|
|
For a spherical forcefield this is simply the radius of the forcefield;
|
|
for a cubical forcefield it is the distance from the emitter to the
|
|
center of each square face.
|
|
|
|
The power drawn by the emitter is proportional to the surface area of
|
|
the forcefield being generated. A spherical forcefield is therefore the
|
|
cheapest way to enclose a specified volume of space with a forcefield,
|
|
if the shape of the space doesn't matter. A cubical forcefield is less
|
|
efficient at enclosing volume, but is cheaper than the larger spherical
|
|
forcefield that would be required if it is necessary to enclose a
|
|
cubical space.
|
|
|
|
The emitter is normally controlled merely through its interaction form,
|
|
which has an enable/disable toggle. However, it can also (via the form)
|
|
be placed in a mesecon-controlled mode. If mesecon control is enabled,
|
|
the emitter must be receiving a mesecon signal in addition to being
|
|
manually enabled, in order for it to generate the forcefield.
|
|
|
|
The forcefield itself behaves largely as if solid, despite being
|
|
immaterial: it cannot be traversed, and prevents access to blocks behind
|
|
it. It is transparent, but not totally invisible. It cannot be dug.
|
|
Some effects can pass through it, however, such as the beam of a mining
|
|
laser, and explosions. In fact, explosions as currently implemented by
|
|
the tnt mod actually temporarily destroy the forcefield itself; the tnt
|
|
mod assumes too much about the regularity of node types.
|
|
|
|
The forcefield occupies space that would otherwise have been air, but does
|
|
not replace or otherwise interfere with materials that are solid, liquid,
|
|
or otherwise not just air. If such an object blocking the forcefield is
|
|
removed, the forcefield will quickly extend into the now-available space,
|
|
but it does not do so instantly: there is a brief moment when the space
|
|
is air and can be traversed.
|
|
|
|
It is possible to have a doorway in a forcefield, by placing in advance,
|
|
in space that the forcefield would otherwise occupy, some non-air blocks
|
|
that can be walked through. For example, a door suffices, and can be
|
|
opened and closed while the forcefield is in place.
|
|
|
|
power generators
|
|
----------------
|
|
|
|
### fuel-fired generators ###
|
|
|
|
The fiel-fired generators are electrical power generators that generate
|
|
power by the combustion of fuel. Versions of them are available for
|
|
all three voltages (LV, MV, and HV). These are all capable of burning
|
|
any type of combustible fuel, such as coal. They are relatively easy
|
|
to build, and so tend to be the first kind of generator used to power
|
|
electrical machines. In this role they form an intermediate step between
|
|
the directly fuel-fired machines and a more mature electrical network
|
|
powered by means other than fuel combustion. They are also, by virtue of
|
|
simplicity and controllability, a useful fallback or peak load generator
|
|
for electrical networks that normally use more sophisticated generators.
|
|
|
|
The MV and HV fuel-fired generators can accept fuel via pneumatic tube,
|
|
from any direction.
|
|
|
|
Keeping a fuel-fired generator fully fuelled is usually wasteful, because
|
|
it will burn fuel as long as it has any, even if there is no demand for
|
|
the electrical power that it generates. This is unlike the directly
|
|
fuel-fired machines, which only burn fuel when they have work to do.
|
|
To satisfy intermittent demand without waste, a fuel-fired generator must
|
|
only be given fuel when there is either demand for the energy or at least
|
|
sufficient battery capacity on the network to soak up the excess energy.
|
|
|
|
The higher-tier fuel-fired generators get much more energy out of a
|
|
fuel item than the lower-tier ones. The difference is much more than
|
|
is needed to overcome the inefficiency of supply converters, so it is
|
|
worth operating fuel-fired generators at a higher tier than the machines
|
|
being powered.
|
|
|
|
### solar generators ###
|
|
|
|
The solar generators are electrical power generators that generate power
|
|
from sunlight. Versions of them are available for all three voltages
|
|
(LV, MV, and HV). There are four types in total, two LV and one each
|
|
of MV and HV, forming a sequence of four tiers. The higher-tier ones
|
|
are each built mainly from three solar generators of the next tier down,
|
|
and their outputs scale in rough accordance, tripling at each tier.
|
|
|
|
To operate, an arrayed solar generator must be at elevation +1 or above
|
|
and have a transparent block (typically air) immediately above it.
|
|
It will generate power only when the block above is well lit during
|
|
daylight hours. It will generate more power at higher elevation,
|
|
reaching maximum output at elevation +36 or higher when sunlit. The small
|
|
solar generator has similar rules with slightly different thresholds.
|
|
These rules are an attempt to ensure that the generator will only operate
|
|
from sunlight, but it is actually possible to fool them to some extent
|
|
with light sources such as meselamps.
|
|
|
|
### hydro generator ###
|
|
|
|
The hydro generator is an LV power generator that generates a small amount
|
|
of power from the natural motion of water. To operate, the generator must
|
|
be horizontally adjacent to water. It doesn't matter whether the water
|
|
consists of source blocks or flowing blocks. Having water adjacent on
|
|
more than one side, up to the full four, increases the generator's output.
|
|
The water itself is unaffected by the generator.
|
|
|
|
### geothermal generator ###
|
|
|
|
The geothermal generator is an LV power generator that generates a small
|
|
amount of power from the temperature difference between lava and water.
|
|
To operate, the generator must be horizontally adjacent to both lava
|
|
and water. It doesn't matter whether the liquids consist of source
|
|
blocks or flowing blocks.
|
|
|
|
Beware that if lava and water blocks are adjacent to each other then the
|
|
lava will be solidified into stone or obsidian. If the lava adjacent to
|
|
the generator is thus destroyed, the generator will stop producing power.
|
|
Currently, in the default Minetest game, lava is destroyed even if
|
|
it is only diagonally adjacent to water. Under these circumstances,
|
|
the only way to operate the geothermal generator is with it adjacent
|
|
to one lava block and one water block, which are on opposite sides of
|
|
the generator. If diagonal adjacency doesn't destroy lava, such as with
|
|
the gloopblocks mod, then it is possible to have more than one lava or
|
|
water block adjacent to the geothermal generator. This increases the
|
|
generator's output, with the maximum output achieved with two adjacent
|
|
blocks of each liquid.
|
|
|
|
### wind generator ###
|
|
|
|
The wind generator is an MV power generator that generates a moderate
|
|
amount of energy from wind. To operate, the generator must be placed
|
|
atop a column of at least 20 wind mill frame blocks, and must be at
|
|
an elevation of +30 or higher. It generates more at higher elevation,
|
|
reaching maximum output at elevation +50 or higher. Its surroundings
|
|
don't otherwise matter; it doesn't actually need to be in open air.
|
|
|
|
### nuclear generator ###
|
|
|
|
The nuclear generator (nuclear reactor) is an HV power generator that
|
|
generates a large amount of energy from the controlled fission of
|
|
uranium-235. It must be fuelled, with uranium fuel rods, but consumes
|
|
the fuel quite slowly in relation to the rate at which it is likely to
|
|
be mined. The operation of a nuclear reactor poses radiological hazards
|
|
to which some thought must be given. Economically, the use of nuclear
|
|
power requires a high capital investment, and a secure infrastructure,
|
|
but rewards the investment well.
|
|
|
|
Nuclear fuel is made from uranium. Natural uranium doesn't have a
|
|
sufficiently high proportion of U-235, so it must first be enriched
|
|
via centrifuge. Producing one unit of 3.5%-fissile uranium requires
|
|
the input of five units of 0.7%-fissile (natural) uranium, and produces
|
|
four units of 0.0%-fissile (fully depleted) uranium as a byproduct.
|
|
It takes five ingots of 3.5%-fissile uranium to make each fuel rod, and
|
|
six rods to fuel a reactor. It thus takes the input of the equivalent
|
|
of 150 ingots of natural uranium, which can be obtained from the mining
|
|
of 75 blocks of uranium ore, to make a full set of reactor fuel.
|
|
|
|
The nuclear reactor is a large multi-block structure. Only one block in
|
|
the structure, the reactor core, is of a type that is truly specific to
|
|
the reactor; the rest of the structure consists of blocks that have mainly
|
|
non-nuclear uses. The reactor core is where all the generator-specific
|
|
action happens: it is where the fuel rods are inserted, and where the
|
|
power cable must connect to draw off the generated power.
|
|
|
|
The reactor structure consists of concentric layers, each a cubical
|
|
shell, around the core. Immediately around the core is a layer of water,
|
|
representing the reactor coolant; water blocks may be either source blocks
|
|
or flowing blocks. Around that is a layer of stainless steel blocks,
|
|
representing the reactor pressure vessel, and around that a layer of
|
|
blast-resistant concrete blocks, representing a containment structure.
|
|
It is customary, though no longer mandatory, to surround this with a
|
|
layer of ordinary concrete blocks. The mandatory reactor structure
|
|
makes a 7×7×7 cube, and the full customary structure a
|
|
9×9×9 cube.
|
|
|
|
The layers surrounding the core don't have to be absolutely complete.
|
|
Indeed, if they were complete, it would be impossible to cable the core to
|
|
a power network. The cable makes it necessary to have at least one block
|
|
missing from each surrounding layer. The water layer is only permitted
|
|
to have one water block missing of the 26 possible. The steel layer may
|
|
have up to two blocks missing of the 98 possible, and the blast-resistant
|
|
concrete layer may have up to two blocks missing of the 218 possible.
|
|
Thus it is possible to have not only a cable duct, but also a separate
|
|
inspection hole through the solid layers. The separate inspection hole
|
|
is of limited use: the cable duct can serve double duty.
|
|
|
|
Once running, the reactor core is significantly radioactive. The layers
|
|
of reactor structure provide quite a lot of shielding, but not enough
|
|
to make the reactor safe to be around, in two respects. Firstly, the
|
|
shortest possible path from the core to a player outside the reactor
|
|
is sufficiently short, and has sufficiently little shielding material,
|
|
that it will damage the player. This only affects a player who is
|
|
extremely close to the reactor, and close to a face rather than a vertex.
|
|
The customary additional layer of ordinary concrete around the reactor
|
|
adds sufficient distance and shielding to negate this risk, but it can
|
|
also be addressed by just keeping extra distance (a little over two
|
|
meters of air).
|
|
|
|
The second radiological hazard of a running reactor arises from shine
|
|
paths; that is, specific paths from the core that lack sufficient
|
|
shielding. The necessary cable duct, if straight, forms a perfect
|
|
shine path, because the cable itself has no radiation shielding effect.
|
|
Any secondary inspection hole also makes a shine path, along which the
|
|
only shielding material is the water of the reactor coolant. The shine
|
|
path aspect of the cable duct can be ameliorated by adding a kink in the
|
|
cable, but this still yields paths with reduced shielding. Ultimately,
|
|
shine paths must be managed either with specific shielding outside the
|
|
mandatory structure, or with additional no-go areas.
|
|
|
|
The radioactivity of an operating reactor core makes starting up a reactor
|
|
hazardous, and can come as a surprise because the non-operating core
|
|
isn't radioactive at all. The radioactive damage is survivable, but it is
|
|
normally preferable to avoid it by some care around the startup sequence.
|
|
To start up, the reactor must have a full set of fuel inserted, have all
|
|
the mandatory structure around it, and be cabled to a switching station.
|
|
Only the fuel insertion requires direct access to the core, so irradiation
|
|
of the player can be avoided by making one of the other two criteria be
|
|
the last one satisfied. Completing the cabling to a switching station
|
|
is the easiest to do from a safe distance.
|
|
|
|
Once running, the reactor will generate 100 kEU/s for a week (168 hours,
|
|
604800 seconds), a total of 6.048 GEU from one set of fuel. After the
|
|
week is up, it will stop generating and no longer be radioactive. It can
|
|
then be refuelled to run for another week. It is not really intended
|
|
to be possible to pause a running reactor, but actually disconnecting
|
|
it from a switching station will have the effect of pausing the week.
|
|
This will probably change in the future. A paused reactor is still
|
|
radioactive, just not generating electrical power.
|
|
|
|
A running reactor can't be safely dismantled, and not only because
|
|
dismantling the reactor implies removing the shielding that makes
|
|
it safe to be close to the core. The mandatory parts of the reactor
|
|
structure are not just mandatory in order to start the reactor; they're
|
|
mandatory in order to keep it intact. If the structure around the core
|
|
gets damaged, and remains damaged, the core will eventually melt down.
|
|
How long there is before meltdown depends on the extent of the damage;
|
|
if only one mandatory block is missing, meltdown will follow in 100
|
|
seconds. While the structure of a running reactor is in a damaged state,
|
|
heading towards meltdown, a siren built into the reactor core will sound.
|
|
If the structure is rectified, the siren will signal all-clear. If the
|
|
siren stops sounding without signalling all-clear, then it was stopped
|
|
by meltdown.
|
|
|
|
If meltdown is imminent because of damaged reactor structure, digging the
|
|
reactor core is not a way to avert it. Digging the core of a running
|
|
reactor causes instant meltdown. The only way to dismantle a reactor
|
|
without causing meltdown is to start by waiting for it to finish the
|
|
week-long burning of its current set of fuel. Once a reactor is no longer
|
|
operating, it can be dismantled by ordinary means, with no special risks.
|
|
|
|
Meltdown, if it occurs, destroys the reactor and poses a major
|
|
environmental hazard. The reactor core melts, becoming a hot, highly
|
|
radioactive liquid known as "corium". A single meltdown yields a single
|
|
corium source block, where the core used to be. Corium flows, and the
|
|
flowing corium is very destructive to whatever it comes into contact with.
|
|
Flowing corium also randomly solidifies into a radioactive solid called
|
|
"Chernobylite". The random solidification and random destruction of
|
|
solid blocks means that the flow of corium is constantly changing.
|
|
This combined with the severe radioactivity makes corium much more
|
|
challenging to deal with than lava. If a meltdown is left to its own
|
|
devices, it gets worse over time, as the corium works its way through
|
|
the reactor structure and starts to flow over a variety of paths.
|
|
It is best to tackle a meltdown quickly; the priority is to extinguish
|
|
the corium source block, normally by dropping gravel into it. Only the
|
|
most motivated should attempt to pick up the corium in a bucket.
|
|
|
|
administrative world anchor
|
|
---------------------------
|
|
|
|
A world anchor is an object in the Minetest world that causes the server
|
|
to keep surrounding parts of the world running even when no players
|
|
are nearby. It is mainly used to allow machines to run unattended:
|
|
normally machines are suspended when not near a player. The technic
|
|
mod supplies a form of world anchor, as a placable block, but it is not
|
|
straightforwardly available to players. There is no recipe for it, so it
|
|
is only available if explicitly spawned into existence by someone with
|
|
administrative privileges. In a single-player world, the single player
|
|
normally has administrative privileges, and can obtain a world anchor
|
|
by entering the chat command "/give singleplayer technic:admin\_anchor".
|
|
|
|
The world anchor tries to force a cubical area, centered upon the anchor,
|
|
to stay loaded. The distance from the anchor to the most distant map
|
|
nodes that it will keep loaded is referred to as the "radius", and can be
|
|
set in the world anchor's interaction form. The radius can be set as low
|
|
as 0, meaning that the anchor only tries to keep itself loaded, or as high
|
|
as 255, meaning that it will operate on a 511×511×511 cube.
|
|
Larger radii are forbidden, to avoid typos causing the server excessive
|
|
work; to keep a larger area loaded, use multiple anchors. Also use
|
|
multiple anchors if the area to be kept loaded is not well approximated
|
|
by a cube.
|
|
|
|
The world is always kept loaded in units of 16×16×16 cubes,
|
|
confusingly known as "map blocks". The anchor's configured radius takes
|
|
no account of map block boundaries, but the anchor's effect is actually to
|
|
keep loaded each map block that contains any part of the configured cube.
|
|
The anchor's interaction form includes a status note showing how many map
|
|
blocks this is, and how many of those it is successfully keeping loaded.
|
|
When the anchor is disabled, as it is upon placement, it will always
|
|
show that it is keeping no map blocks loaded; this does not indicate
|
|
any kind of failure.
|
|
|
|
The world anchor can optionally be locked. When it is locked, only
|
|
the anchor's owner, the player who placed it, can reconfigure it or
|
|
remove it. Only the owner can lock it. Locking an anchor is useful
|
|
if the use of anchors is being tightly controlled by administrators:
|
|
an administrator can set up a locked anchor and be sure that it will
|
|
not be set by ordinary players to an unapproved configuration.
|
|
|
|
The server limits the ability of world anchors to keep parts of the world
|
|
loaded, to avoid overloading the server. The total number of map blocks
|
|
that can be kept loaded in this way is set by the server configuration
|
|
item "max\_forceloaded\_blocks" (in minetest.conf), which defaults to
|
|
only 16. For comparison, each player normally keeps 125 map blocks loaded
|
|
(a radius of 32). If an enabled world anchor shows that it is failing to
|
|
keep all the map blocks loaded that it would like to, this can be fixed
|
|
by increasing max\_forceloaded\_blocks by the amount of the shortfall.
|
|
|
|
The tight limit on force-loading is the reason why the world anchor is
|
|
not directly available to players. With the limit so low both by default
|
|
and in common practice, the only feasible way to determine where world
|
|
anchors should be used is for administrators to decide it directly.
|
|
|
|
subjects missing from this manual
|
|
---------------------------------
|
|
|
|
This manual needs to be extended with sections on:
|
|
|
|
* powered tools
|
|
* tool charging
|
|
* battery and energy crystals
|
|
* chainsaw
|
|
* flashlight
|
|
* mining lasers
|
|
* mining drills
|
|
* prospector
|
|
* sonic screwdriver
|
|
* liquid cans
|
|
* wrench
|
|
* frames
|
|
* templates
|