Botania: Mana Generation
Let's talk about mana, shall we?
Botania doesn't like to show you numbers and such, which is both a blessing and a curse. Much like Vanilla Redstone mechanics, it leaves it up to the player to figure it out, only laying out the basic rules. Some of us have an easier time with said rules than others. Ask me to build a CPU with Redstone and I'll just walk away, even though it's entirely possible.
This tends to frighten people away, especially in the beginning, as they simply have no idea where to start. So let's cover some basic mana generation.
Endoflames will likely be where you start with mana generation. They're decently inexpensive to craft and offer better returns than the alternative.
These flowers are pretty simple in terms of what they need:
- Any furnace fuel
- A place to send their mana
- Time
They'll happily eat any burnable items that are dropped in the area and slowly convert them to mana. Once they've finished burning an item, they'll grab a new one.
What we need:
- Some Endoflames
- Pressure Plate
- Any Solid Block
- 2 Redstone Dust
- Mana Spreader
- Mana Pool
- Open Crate
- Hopper
- Fuel
Above we see a really basic setup of Endoflames being fed by an Open Crate, which drops any items it receives on the the ground.
The Endoflames themselves are placed at their very limits for reference. This is as far as they can be from the charcoal in the middle and still pick it up. Consequently the mana spreader is similarly as far as possible from the Endoflames. These can all move around as desired, however we're going to use this current orientation to our advantage.
So the way this is working is fairly simple. The Hopper is full of Charcoal and feeds it into the Open Crate, which consequently drops it on the pressure plate. The pressure plate then sends a signal along the dust and up the block, locking the hopper. This prevents it from spewing out all of the fuel on the ground. Not only is this server friendly, it also means your fuel isn't despawning before it's consumed.
But, what happens when the pool fills up? Well, it just slowly drops all the fuel, each piece despawning after five minutes and being replaced. That's no good, right? Let's fix that.
What we need:
- Some more solid blocks
- A bit more Redstone
- A Redstone Comparator
- A Redstone Repeater
- An Analog Lever
For anyone that's played Vanilla for a while, this shape may seem familiar: It's the same setup used for most Vanilla Filtering systems. Except here, we're using this as a master shut-off circuit for mana production.
The Comparator reads the fullness level of the mana pool and would output that as a signal down the line of Redstone. We're putting a limit on that, however:
By sending a signal into the side of the Comparator, we're effectively telling the it "Only output a signal if your signal is greater than the signal from the side". In this case, the signal from the side is 14. This is handily provided by the Analog Lever which allows you to set an exact signal strength. It could also be provided with another comparator and an inventory mostly full of items.
This means, we'll only get a signal running down the line of Redstone if the pool is full. That runs down, powers the block that the repeater is against and which in turn relays the signal into our original circuit, locking the hopper and stopping production entirely.
And to get a bigger buffer of fuel, simply attach another hopper on the front, pointing into the first, and add a chest of some sort on top.
Now... yes, you can fit 45 flowers on the ground here. And technically you could fit three more layers of floating flowers for a total of 180 around this... but you wouldn't right? Right?
Just like with FE generation, there are better ways than spamming Coal burning generators. Let's explore a few.
Once you've mastered the Runic Altar and started generating some Runes, a couple new generating flora open up to you. One of the cheapest to make is the Rosa Arcana.
The Rosa Arcana operates on a similar principle to the Endoflame. Rather than burning coal, however, it converts XP orbs to mana, and does so rather quickly. It's more efficient if it's pulling XP straight off of a player standing nearby, but we want this to run when we're off doing other things. Right?
This setup relies heavily on other mods in the pack. Cross mod interactions for the win!
What we need:
- Rosa Arcana
- Mana Spreader
- Mana Pool
- Redstone Comparator
- Redstone Repeater
- Analog Lever
- Some Redstone Dust
- Some Solid Blocks
- Mob Spawner
- Block of Coal
- Five Pedestals from the Pedestals mod and some Upgrades
- Exp Magnet Upgrade
- Exp Tank Upgrade
- Exp Dropper Upgrade
- Auto Attacker Upgrade
- Export Upgrade
- Some inventory for storing drops
So, let's start with the actual Rosa Arcana setup. We see the same shut-off circuit as used for the Endoflames, so we won't cover that again. Just remember it's always best to turn things off when they're not needed. Especially things that are dropping items into the world. Pedestals are always on unless powered by a Redstone signal.
With Pedestals, orientation is important. Take note that the Pedestal under the Mana Spreader, which has the Exp Dropper Upgrade installed, is in fact upside down. This way the orbs drop down instead of being shot up and through the other blocks. Installing Upgrade coins onto Pedestals is as simple as a right click.
To the side of the Rosa Arcana setup is another Pedestal, this one with the Exp Tank Upgrade installed. This simply provides an extra buffer of XP and is, for the most part, optional. Link it to the Exp Dropper Pedestal with a Linking Tool: Hold the Linking tool in your hand and Sneak Right click the receiving Pedestal, then Sneak Right Click the sending Pedestal. So, start with the Dropper, then the Tank.
Next up is the actual mob spawning area. Do note that Vanilla Spawners may be moved if broken with Silk Touch. Mekanism Cardboard Boxes also work, as does the Ars Nouveau Extract spell. So feel free to build this anywhere you like. Putting it under your base is a good way to have constant XP generation.
Apotheosis, the mod responsible for this mobility, also allows Spawners to be upgraded. Of note, sneak right clicking it with a Redstone Comparator will make the Spawner react to Redstone signals. Handy!
Pictured above is a simple spawn chamber. We won't discuss that any further here other than to mention Vector Plates which are what's being used to move the mobs around. What's important is the actual Pedestals.
First up, we have the Auto Attacker Pedestal directly in front of where the mobs come out. This attacks in an area, so exact placement isn't vital, but it was a handy way for me to stop the mobs from pouring out. By placing it on a Coal Block we are also filtering it so it won't attack us. This Pedestal will also act as item collection for us. It's linked to the Pedestal shown on the left which has the Export Upgrade installed. So all the drops are going into the inventory below that pedestal. Be sure to build in some overflow protection!
Next, to the right of the Auto Attacker is the Exp Magnet Pedestal. This quite simply picks up the XP orbs generated from killing the mobs. It's linked to the tank so that it's sending the XP to the Tank and the Tank sends to the Dropper. Optionally, Exp Relay Upgrades can be used to 'pipe' the XP even further. It really all depends on if you prefer moving XP or moving Mana.
That's the setup complete. Very lightweight and easy to build early on. The best part, however, is that this scales well. The Spawner can be replaced with either a Mob Duplicator or a Pressurized Spawner, both of which can spawn mobs incredibly quickly. All of the Pedestals Upgrade coins can be enchanted to speed them up and increase their range. The Auto Attacker Pedestal can even be given an enchanted sword to increase it's damage, give it looting, etc. To install the weapon, simply hold it in your off hand and right click the Pedestal with a Tool Swapper. And, of course, the Mana Spreader can be upgraded as well.
How far can you take it?
