Ore Processing Concepts

How To Do "Good" Ore Processing?

Although there are many implementations of doing ore processing, the desired features of a "good" solution remain the same. These desirable characteristics are:

1. Flexible
2. Expandable
3. Unbreakable
4. High Throughput
5. Lag Friendly
6. Minimal Human Intervention

[Flexible]

Ores in GT: New Horizons have multiple "routes" you can take which give different outputs. (See the bauxite chart to the right.) For bauxite you can take three routes:

1. Macerate -> Macerate -> Simple Wash/Centrifuge (Grossular byproduct)
2. Macerate -> Thermal Centrifuge -> Macerate (Rutile + Gallium byproduct)
3. Macerate -> Simple/Normal Wash -> Macerate -> Simple Wash/Centrifuge (Rutile + Grossular (if normal wash) byproduct)

While for most bases, Rutile + Gallium Route 2 is superior, perhaps you already have automated gallium from essence berries. Then you might decide to do Route 3 instead, as it gives 2x more Rutile and therefore 2x more Titanium.

Every ore in the game will have a different "optimal" route for your run and base needs. This may also change over time. As a result, you want ore processing systems to be flexible - allowing different ores to go on different routes.

You also want to be able to automatically pull out things at any step of the process. For example, Rare Earths from GT++ require much higher power load, which would cause your existing macerator line to choke without modifications. You'll want to filter these out and process them in specially dedicated macerators.

[Expandable]

Depending on what batch you are processing, you may find a major bottleneck in your current system, or you simply want to replace machines with multis. This means your system must be able to expand without causing catastrophic infrastructure redesigns. Ideally you only want to change stuff in the current step you're dealing with (eg thermal centrifuging), not the whole line.

[Unbreakable]

No matter what weird combination of ores or even non-ores you feed in, your system shouldn't break.

[High Throughput]

Your choice of logistics system should not be a bottleneck for speed. For example, PRT (described in Pre-AE2 Autocrafting) has very low pipe speed (beyond not being TPS friendly at scale), so it would not be appropriate for a late game ore processing system.

[Lag Friendly]

Your choice of logistics system should not bring the server to its knees. This matters especially for late game players.

[Minimal Human Intervention]

You want to be able to throw everything into an input chest, and receive finished clean dusts and/or ingots in your output with zero intervention. You should only touch your ore processing system for upgrades or debugging issues.

Overview of Designs

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Filter Options

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[MV+] EnderIO Conduits - The "Central Line"

This shows the simplest version of a "central line" ore processing system. It has one route (priority -2) and is currently useless for anything practical. Gold chest = input and copper chest = output.

EnderIO conduits are your first and cheapest option for creating a truly flexible ore processing system. This system is built around a "central conduit line" which all ores go through, and connected "modules" route ores into machines. Because of its modular nature, it is easy to add new routes or expand old ones. This is made possible due to the EIO conduit "priority" system, which allows us to make override routes.

The priority system for the "central line" design goes as follows:

Priority 0: Override routes. For example, specific ores, rare earths, etc.

Priority -1: Type filter routes. These are your "default" paths that are taken if nothing overrides them.

Priority -2: Output routes. This goes to the final output chest.

The simplest version of this is an input chest set to extract always, some conduits inbetween, and an output chest at -2 priority. Then everything you input (ores, random tinker tools by accident, w/e) will go to the output chest. But obviously this isn't very useful.

So you start adding "modules" to your inbetween conduits. These provide routes for ores to go.

[EV+] Applied Energistics 2

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[LV+] Limited Flexibility GT Pipes

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