User blog:Malsf21/Red Army's Power vs. Building and Crafting

Lets. Get. Down. To. The. Point. (punny!). What tubing system is better? RedPower2's unstoppable Pneumatic Tubes, or the Piping which makes Buildcraft3 the mod to have? Let's duel!

I've made a quick criteria on what piping systems need to have in general, and a few specifics: But first, a little background:
 * 1) Cost/Affordibility
 * 2) Ease-of-Use and Accesibility
 * 3) Precision/Accuracy
 * 4) Mod Support and Interaction
 * 5) Lag Inducing Effects
 * 6) Space Occupied

Background Information
RedPower2 and BuildCraft3 are both widely-known brand-name mods. They are famous for innovation, and large world-gen modifications.

RedPower2
RedPower2 is noticeable for its large changes in Redstone; it adds hundreds of logic gates, cables, cells, and materials. It allows players to make Redstone contraptions so complex, that they would require hours of learning to figure them out. There are even machines which respond to Redstone Signals, which break blocks, use items, etc. It is also known for the giant Volcanoes it spawns into the world, made out of Basalt. It even adds Blutricity, a new type of electricity, though with limited uses.

It also features a tubing system. While the tubes are quite simple, one-directional, and uniform, the machines span a vast page of NEI. Filters, Transposers, Retrievers, Retrievulators, Block Breakers, Deployers, AUGH!!!! SO MANY MACHINES!!! Machines are definitely the backbone of the piping system, as they change the orientation, direction, and placement of all items in the tubing system.

RedPower2 has some piping rules, in order of priority:
 * 1) RedPower tubes only interact with other RedPower Tubes and blocks with Inventories
 * 2) A Redstone Pulse is required to output items.
 * 3) Machines will only output into Tubes if there is a final destination: a cut-off pipe, full final destination, or no item-specific destinations will shutdown the system.
 * 4) Items in Pipes will go toward the nearest destination; if two or more are equal, they will be equally divided.
 * 5) Items will go to their color-coded destination than a non-color-coded destination, provided they are the same length.
 * 6) An Item will not go towards a destination it has already been rejected from, unless it is the only destination.
 * 7) A Machine cannot output into itself.
 * 8) Items in Pipes with no destination will bounce back and forth until a destination is added.
 * 9) Items will go into/out the inventory slot correlated with the pipe position; Machine specification does nothing.
 * 10) Two or more items can occupy the same slot, with a limit of 64x64 items per pipe.

BuildCraft3
BuildCraft3 has two focal points: One, to create a great piping system, and Two, to create machines which can do menial tasks, like mining or filling holes. It is known by the Oil Geysers it spawns, as well as the numerous amount of pipes it has. It also clutters NEI up with tons of Facades of different shapes.

Its Driving Force (hahahaha pun) is the Engine. There are three types of Engines: Redstone Engine, Steam Engine, and Combustion Engine. Each tier produces MJ (Minecraft Joules), a form of electricity which powers everything BuildCraft. When MJ is provided to a Wooden Transport Pipe, the Pipe will start outputting items from the connected inventory, into adjacent pipes/inventories. From then on, other pipes must be used to carry items over long distances. The amount of pipes are numerous, as each material used to make them have different uses. They can even carry liquids, and MJ over distances. Some even allow you to Teleport Items! BC3's pipe system is definitely pipe-based.

BuildCraft also has its rules:
 * 1) Wooden Transport Pipes must be used to output from an inventory.
 * 2) BuildCraft tubes do not output to other tubes of other mods.
 * 3) Items sent to a Tube which outputs into a Non-Inventory Block will ouput the item onto the floor.
 * 4) Wooden Transport Pipes will output the most items it can at a time; every outputted amount is called an item stack.
 * 5) If there are two or more routes an items/item stack can go, the items/item stack will split evenly; Diamond Transport Pipes/Distribution Pipes are an exception.
 * 6) A block with a full inventory is considered a non-inventory block
 * 7) Items will go into/out the inventory slot correlated with the pipe position; if full, it will input/output into the next availabe inventory slot of that block.
 * 8) A Pipe with an Item inside, when broken, will not yield the item.

Cost/Affordability
Cost is very important. You don't want to be busting your arse just to realise that you ran out of Diamonds. So what piping system is the cheapest to originally create? This section is more for mid-game players, since players with Power Flower Farms, 5 Personal Safes of Red Matter and a RED MATTER FORTRESS shouldn't really care about cost: performance is much more important.

RedPower2
RedPower2 relies on some mainframe components: In their own right, these materials don't come cheap. Red Alloy Wire needs huge amounts of Redstone and Copper/Iron, which requires end-game machines to mass-produce. Using Redstone needs Redstone Repeaters and Comparators to restrengthen the signal, which leads to even more material use.
 * Lots of Redstone/Alloy Wire (which is quite expensive)
 * Filters or above
 * Pneumatic Tubes
 * Screwdriver

In addition, Filters themselves require Gold Ingots, Pistons and a Red-Doped Wafer, which require a few more mid-game materials, forcing early Tekkit players to go BuildCraft.

Pneumatic Tubes need Brass Ingots, which can't be condensed, and require heavy materials themselves. Producing them requires great cost.

Even the Screwdriver is a little expensive, as it requires an Emerald (not a problem for those EE mages!).

BuildCraft3
BuildCraft3 also relies on some components, though the Redstone Engine/Wooden Transport Pipe are the only needed ones. The Redstone Engine is by far the most expensive material from BC3, needing a Piston (like a Filter). The rest of the materials are quite simple, as mining waste and excess wood can be used to make them, which is much, much easier.
 * 1) Redstone Engine / above
 * 2) Redstone Signal
 * 3) Wooden Transport Pipe
 * 4) Stone /Cobblestone Transport Pipe
 * 5) Other Pipes
 * 6) Wrench (Buildcraft)

The Wrench is also a bit pricey, but doesn't lose durability (yay!).

Verdict
BuildCraft3 in general is extremely cheap, as most starting players can easily afford everything, using only Cobblestone, Wooden Planks and Iron Ingots. On contraire, RedPower2 needs Gold Ingots, Emeralds, and huge amounts of Redstone for automation (Engines from BC3 only need a Lever). Therefore, BuildCraft 3 has better cost varieties.

Ease-of-Use and Accesibility
Of course, no one wants to spend hours trying to get that block in place, or waste time configuring machines. Lets see what piping system is easier to use and access.

RedPower2
RedPower doesn't have much in terms of tubes: Pneumatic Tubes, and Pneumatic Tubes only. Other tubes can be used, but are not necessary. Also, there is no "input" and "output" side to piping. The tubes themselves are easy to configure.

RedPower2 also relies on machines, which one can be hand-picked from a vast amount of machines. Machines like Filters are quite simple: small hole faces the tube, give it a Redstone Signal. It can even hand-pick items from chests without additional configuration, which is a handy-feature.

Overall, RedPower's tubing system is quite simple.

BuildCraft3
BuildCraft has a huge tube database: Lots'o' pipes. Misuse of the pipes can cause total disaster. In addition, some pipes have an "input" side and "output" side, requiring a Wrench to fix the problem.
 * Wooden Transport Pipes are used for extraction of items
 * Cobblestone/Stone Transport Pipes are used for normal delivery
 * Iron Transport Pipes have many inputs but one output
 * Gold Transport Pipes give a speed boost to items
 * Diamond Pipes allow for fine-tuned precision of item placement
 * Advanced Wooden Transport Pipes allow for a re-check for items if no inventories are found.
 * Obsidian Transport Pipes suck up items in a close range to it
 * Void Pipes delete any items which come into them

In addition, the amount of items extracted is not represented by a GUI: the amount of MJ each machine produces is the benchmark. Because there is no actual in-game representation of how much MJ an Engine is producing, fine-tuning item outputs is very hard, albeit impossible.

Verdict
RedPower2 already has the upper hand. A very, very, very simple tube with easily configurable machines makes a good combo against a tubing system which has both complicated tubes and impossible to configure Engines.

Precision and Accuracy
When making a factory, storage system or mall, Precision and Accuracy are equally important. You don't want someone purchasing 32 Wooden Planks to get 33 Wooden Planks, or a full set of Quantum Armor. Lets see how our mods suit up here.

RedPower2
RedPower2's machines are extremely accurate. A combination of different modes of extraction, specific numbers and items makes these machines fit to the task. An even more intimidating display of precision comes with the Sorting Machines, which allow items to be color-coded so nothing goes wrong. When items are pulled out can be controlled by RedPower2's massive array of logic gates, from Timers to NOT Gates to XOR Gates. Wireless Redstone even comes in to the rescue, allowing remote-controlling and synchronous timing to each machine.

There are no unknown variables with RedPower2. There is no randomness with Pneumatic Tubes. There is just fine-tuned OCD Precision and Accuracy, tuned to 0.2 of a second.

BuildCraft3
BuildCraft3 is the OCD's nightmare. BuildCraft Engines pull out items randomly based on MJ; sever spikes can disrupt the amount of items supplied. In addition, there is no way to finetune the amount of items tuned out and the amount of time between pulls, other than extremely complicated 5-clocks. There are no consistent pipe-speeds: everything travels differently.

Unlike RP2, BC3 has no Sorting Machines to help you out. The only way to understand how everything would work was to try it out. There are too many variables.

Verdict
RP2 wins again. The sheer precision and accuracy makes me think that Elooram had OCD or something. It is a super-upped version of Sheldon Cooper, organizing things in such a manner that even Munk would be shamed.

Mod Support and Interaction
Anything must be flexible: if something can only interact with its own mod, its doomed from the start. It adds nothing in the way of being a game-changer. Lets see how these mods compare.

RedPower2
RedPower2 pipes can interact with almost everything, provided its on the right side. IC2 Machines, EE2 Factory Blocks, BC3 Automatic Crafting Tables, Railcraft Cart Dispensers, you name it! RedPower can do it. It even does liquids, which allows it to pump to Tanks, Combustion Engines, Water Tanks, or Grates. RP2 even has its own helper mod, known as TubeStuff.

BuildCraft3
BuildCraft3 pipes will interact with EVERYTHING! All you need to make sure is that the pipes are on the right side. BC3 also uses TubeStuff, and has Additional Pipes as well to help along.

Verdict
Its really a tie. Both piping systems work extremely well, so there is no need to switch simply because of mod support.

Lag Inducing Effects
Nobody likes lag. But it happens. Lets see what these mods do to contribute to your CPU's pile of laginess. And lets see what lag does to your system of pipes.

RedPower2
Since RedPower2 uses Redstone, there is a high chance that lag will occur. Though, lag won't effect your redstone, especially if you are on a server. If the Redstone pulse is longer than 0.75 of a second, your Filters will be fine. Though, watch out for too many 0.2 second long Timers. Your server will crash and burn.

BuildCraft3
While BuildCraft3 very rarely produces lag, lag will kill the entire system. Small amounts of lag can cause Combustion Engines to blow up due to overheating, as well as incorrectly-utilized Pumps, spazzing out and taking all the water in a 32-block radius. With lag, BuildCraft will crash and burn.

Verdict
Really, RP2 wins again. I would rather have a laggy game than a giant crater where your Solar Panel plant used to be. Just sayin'.

Space Occupied
While it isn't really important in the infi-verse of Minecraft, Space is sort of important on severs. So lets see how much these suckers take up.

RedPower2
RedPower2 doesn't need much in space, so long as you use Wireless Redstone or RedPower Logic Gates. Long strings of Red Alloy Wire may be a little space-consuming, but RedPower's Microblocks can make your Pneumatics go in any shape and form required. Your machines are all single block, which makes for very compact designs.

Buildcraft3
Buildcraft3 needs space. Combustion/Steam Engines need pools of water, Energy Condensers, or other forms of machinery to supply water. In addition, Transport Pipes cannot go in every plausible direction, since too much turns can decrease the speed of an item until ZERO.

Verdict
RP2 Wins. Case-closed.

La Finale
So who won the most? RedPower. Obviously. While it is super-expensive, it pays off with better Accuracy, Ease-Of-Use, Roominess and Lag. So next time you make a factory, go Red.

Join me next Sunday-or-so for a factual guide on why you should really, really, use Alchemy Bags instead of Personal Safes.