we've been getting back into minecraft recently, and I thought it might be fun to log progress here every now and then! specifically, I just started a new world under the star technology modpack (version theta hotfix 3). it's a skyblock modpack based on gregtech, and has very extensive progression. we're currently six hours in.
my goals for today were storage and power, and those are done.
the large chest is from Colossal Chests (it has 3375 item slots) and is my storage. it has a Tom's Simple Storage terminal attached, so I can search its contents and craft things very rapidly. I also have a wireless terminal, so I can press "e" on my keyboard from anywhere to access it.
the large copper tanks are steam engines from Create, and generate 589,824su. ("su" are the unit of power Create uses. it's equivalent to the watt. 589,824su is PLENTY for early game.) the math for this is kind of interesting -- it's powered with lava buckets, which have a 1000s burn time. there are 36 total, so we need 36 mB/s (millibuckets per second) of lava. to create that there are crucibles which melt cobblestone. each generates 4 mB/s of lava, so technically I only need 9, but there are actually 15, to help keep up with any irregularities in the system. the cobblestone and lava are piped around via the Pipez mod. cobblestone comes from a stone barrel (which is part of the GregTech core mod iirc).
I haven't set up create power (su) to gregtech power (EU) yet. if i remember, the optimal conversion rate is 128su = 4 FE/t = 1 EU/t, but we'll probably have some loss so I wouldn't expect to be much more efficient than 196su : 1 EU/t. by the way, FE is "forge energy" and is a general standard for modded energy; FE/t stands for "forge energy per tick". EU is GregTech's electricity unit (it stands for electricity unit I think (how creative); hopefully I'll talk about it later); EU/t is "electricity units per tick".
the other important semi-automated contraptions are crushing wheels to get gravel, sand, and dust; a sieve to extract minerals out of gravel, sand, and dust; a set of encased fans to smelt and wash minerals and other miscellanea; a mechanical arm next to a bunch of campfires to burn iron into wrought iron and glass dust into glass (glass is harder to get than in vanilla); and that 3x3x4 contraption behind the crushing wheels (6th photo, looks it's encased in dark bricks) which creates steel from wrought iron and coal.
