BuildCraft is one of the earliest game mods for Minecraft. It is primarily based around automating vanilla mechanics, such as moving items around, processing them, and mining.
The main site and download for BuildCraft is here
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BuildCraft contains examples of:
- Awesome, but Impractical: Quartz Pipes. They move items along at a much quicker pace than cobblestone pipes but require quartz to craft, which can only be found in the Nether (which means quarries aren't good for mining them, since the mining arm is blocked by lava) and are in short supply, meaning cobblestone pipes are generally a better choice when it comes to resources.
- Boring, but Practical:
- Cobblestone Pipes are by far the slowest of the pipes at moving items, but they're also by far the cheapest to make and thus the easiest to make a system out of.
- Sandstone Pipes don't connect to anything but other sandstone pipes.
- Redstone engines have low output but do not require any fuel, making them useful for transporting items and liquids.
- Container Maze: Your base can become a mess of machines if you don't plan their layout beforehand. You can't walk through pipes, and they will get in your way.
- Difficult, but Awesome:
- Prior to Buildcraft 5, Combustion Engines would explode if they were not cooled properly, but they are the best source of power in the mod. Downplayed as of version 5, where they simply shut down and must be manually restarted.
- Refining oil. A single Refinery needs 4 Diamonds to make, is slow, and needs tons of power, but it converts oil into fuel. Fuel is used in combustion engines to generate 60 RF/tick, instead of 30 RF/tick for raw oil.
- Quarries are very expensive, and need to be moved once they reach bedrock, but they automatically mine for you in a huge area.
- Explosive Overclocking: Prior to Buildcraft 5, conductive pipes would explode if they were overloaded, rather than simply limiting transfer.
- Magic Tool: For cross-mod compatibility, you can use the BuildCraft wrench on almost any tech mod's machines.
- Pipe Maze: Your base can easily become one if you don't organize your pipes well.
- Power Limiter: If you try to push too much energy through your Kinesis Pipes, the power line inside will turn red, indicating that the power flow is being limited by the pipe.
- Technology Levels: As you get resources, you get better and better pipes, from cobble and stone pipes all the way up to diamond, emeralds, and obsidian pipes.
