ores manually until later. Ultimately both approaches are viable: You do need a considerable amount of resources to set up an automated AE2 system, with all the bells, whistles and supporting infrastructure that needs to function, but you don’t need so many that you couldn’t possibly get by without an early automated system. Conversely, having such an automated system can greatly ease the progress through the early tiers, not having to worry about whether there’s enough copper or gold to craft circuits and instead just throwing mountains of stuff at massive batch crafts of everything you could ever need, and more
All told I’m in the camp that advocates for heavy investment into automated ore processing systems at basically each tier, but I admit it’s not required for progression. Is it easier? After the initial time and resource investment, yes. Could that be better spend progressing? Maybe. It depends on your playstyle
That preamble out of the way, let’s get into the ins and outs of ore processing, tier by tier. Oh, PS: Don’t expect an exhaustive list of how to filter each ore at any given point. That would take far too much effort to copy from NEI and maintain, not to mention that your specific need for a given resource may vary wildly from someone who went a different path or invested into other processes. For example someone who invested into TC Transmutation might find Tantalum Dust terribly bothersome to deal with, whereas for you it might be your only income of the stuff. You’ll need to judge your supply/demand and adjust accordingly
Stone Age The Stone age has very few options (or needs) in terms of ore processing, but even here here are some tricks that’ll give you a good boost early on. The basics like “how do GT ore veins work” and “what’s the difference between a large ore and a small ore” are covered by the questbook, so I won’t repeat that here
Your only real ore processing tools this early on are the almighty(-ish) GT Hammer (note: Hammer, not Soft Mallet - those are two different tools) and vanilla Cauldron. The questbook covers how to use these tools: Use a GT Hammer to break ores into crushed ores, hammer that crushed ore in a crafting table to get impure dust, and wash that in a cauldron to produce clean dust. What isn’t mentioned is that breaking an ore block with a GT hammer is the equivalent of running that ore block through a Forge Hammer, a machine you’ll have access to in the steam age. This has two major implications:
1: Actually processing your ores in the stone age is useless >99% of the time. A few very notable exceptions aside (we’ll get to them later), smelting (raw) ore directly has the same result as smelting a crushed ore, an impure dust, or a pure dust. Don’t waste materials on hammers needlessly - if you don’t get anything special out of (Forge) Hammering an ore, don’t bother. Just smelt the raw ore directly, save yourself the time and the materials needlessly processing things for nothing 2: Coal can be doubled and processed, without having to burn fuel on smelting it, in the Stone Age. Coal ore is a rare (but not unique) exception that actually yields two coal when Forge Hammered, but only one coal when smelted. Since GT Hammers are effectively a Forge Hammer in tool form this lets you get a lot more out of any coal ore early on. Note, BTW, that this only applies to large ores. Small ores cannot go through any form of ore processing even if you were to somehow get the full block (they can’t be Silk Touched), and breaking them with a hammer is not different than breaking them with a pickaxe Also note how this process interacts with the 2.7 addition of Raw Ore - Forge Hammering Raw Coal Ore still yields 2x coal straight up, but you obviously cannot place raw ore in world to whack it with a hammer, and crafting gives Crushed Ore instead. You’ll need a Forge Hammer machine to process Raw Coal
The other major ore processing point for the Stone Age is the aforementioned concept of Raw Ore. Mining a large ore (without Silk Touch, if for some strange reason you need to manually mine actual ore blocks) will yield a Raw Ore item rather than the ore block, and this raw ore yield is affected by Fortune (though only up to a limit of Fortune III, and only when mined by a player rather than I.E. a GT miner, TC Acrane Bore, etc. No fun allowed in this household, unfortunately). The same trick that applies to Coal applies, to a lesser extent, to Lapis, Redstone, gems like Diamond ore, and so on - hammering the large ore block directly yields the result of Forge Hammering the block without any actual processing, letting you get ready to use lapis/redstone/etc. without machines. Of course using Fortune to get Raw Ore, then Forge Hammering the raw ore in a machine would have higher yield, so don’t go too crazy hammering ores early on
Early Steam Early steam is when the first few actual ore processing machines become available, and when newcomers (who got this far) will discover the true depth of this pack’s insanity in that regard - 40 seconds per ore in the basic macerator, using a full two thirds of the steam produced by the basic small coal boiler
This is where you need to learn that GTNH plays by it’s own rules. Ore processing in this pack is completely different from even normal expert packs. It requires a different approach, and that approach is the key to successful ore processing moreso than anything else this tab is going to mention. Hence why I separated early and late steam, and why there’s anything to say about an era where the sum total of your ore processing system is about as many machines as most initial “pulverizer/crusher -> powered furnace” setups. And about as complicated, at least in terms of the machines
The key: Be inefficient to be efficient. Meaning, don’t macerate all of your ores. Keep smelting raw ore directly, unless the material is rare and valuable enough to justify the time and energy spent processing it. It might sound crazy when you need oodles and oodles of resources to make even one machine, but consider: Does it take you 40 seconds to mine another Limonite ore, even assuming you’ve got no Fortune bonus to potentially get more than one raw ore per large ore block? No. So does it make sense to spend 40 seconds macerating a Limonite ore to double it, when it’s faster to get a second ore block and directly smelt both raw ores? Or, with Fortune, even “all of them”? No. Especially considering there are ore blocks that rare enough to justify macerating (or that can try to make a case for it, at least). Macerating all of your Limonite will delay how quickly that ore gets processed, which adds up fast. Macerating a stack of Limonite would take ~42 minutes. Spending those minutes mining Limonite while, say, Gypsum is being macerated will make a huge difference in progression speed, simply because of time and resources being used efficiently
So what ores are worth macerating, and what are you supposed to do with this steam forge hammer anyhow? Ultimately, it depends on your situation. Maybe you settled your base right on top of a Mineral Sand vein, and have Gypsum literally being dug out of your walls as you build a room for steam machines. Maybe you had a rough time finding your first Mineral Sand vein, and the only one you found within three hundred blocks of your base was half overwritten by a Roguelike Dungeon, leaving only a very slim pickings of Gypsum. Or maybe you’re playing on a server and there’s nothing stopping you from stuffing multiple chests worth of stuff to process overnight, or until the supply of steam runs out at any rate. How much ore processing you should do is something you’ll have to get a feel for yourself, how big (or small) you want to build it, how much effort you want to put into automating it rather than doing things manually, etc. This song and dance is going to continue literally until the endgame, albeit on a much bigger stage and with different actors, but for the same reason it’ll pay to master these basic concepts early. They will be utilized at all points throughout the pack, the only thing that will change is the stakes involved
(Broadly spreaking, this early on the Forge Hammer will be used to hammer the raw ores of materials that you cannot process into usable materials from their dust form into usable materials, even if the yield is lower. I.E. Lapis would need LV machines to get from ore if you don’t Forge Hammer it in the Steam Age)
Late Steam So you’ve solved the quandry of whether to macerate Gypsum/Calcite, you’ve managed to build your first BBF, and are cooking steel as fast as one can this early off of the back of doubled coal ore turned coal coke. Now what? More/better steam machines? Push into LV? Set up early automation before LV? After?
Again, as always, the answer depends on your situation, not to mention what you want to do in terms of progression - slow down and smell the roses, or rush forward at maximum speed? As such from now on I’ll try to outline what I would consider not necessarily the best or most optimal progression in terms of ore processing, but the one I’ve used in my own survival playthrough and didn’t regret doing. Minus all of the baffling mistakes and decisions sometimes bordering on cartoonish levels of incompetence, but hey, no one is born an expert, right? At least I know what finer points to maybe consider avoiding. Strongly
First, upgrade to HP steam machines. They are incredibly cheap to upgrade to, needing only a single steel plate and a bunch of Wrought Iron, and will double in processing speed for only doubling in steam consumption rate. Effectively HP Steam machines are LV machines that run off of 100% fuel efficient steam, in stark contrast to much more expensive actual LV machines that consume electricity produced by an inefficient steam turbine send across lossy cables. You will want to swap over to all electrical machines eventually, just for logistics’ sake, but for now HP steam machines will work as well or better
“That costs a lot of Wrought Iron”, you say? Yes, but here’s a helpful tip: Pure crushed ores - meaning Crushed Iron Ore or Crushed Copper Ore, not Crushed Magnetite or Crushed Malachite ore - directly smelts into 10 nuggets rather than an ingot. The extra step required to compress those nuggets into ingots makes it decidedly not worth doing in most cases, but Wrought Iron is initally crafted from smelting iron nuggets. Macerating Raw Iron Ore and smelting the crushed into nuggets not only gives you a small yield bonus, but skips having to turn iron ingots into nuggets when crafting Wrought Iron
Second, start looking into multiblocks, specifically the Steam Grinder and the Steam Oven. These are two early multiblocks that offer much faster (and efficient) macerating and smelting of items using steam. They are expensive, so you might wish to wait until you’ve made at least a few LV machines to make them cheaper to craft, but you can set them up now if you really want to. If you think it’s better to wait for LV machines, that’s fine, just keep in mind that these two early multis will be your future, so try to plan ahead accordingly
Incidentally, while I wouldn’t expect (or would even necessarily recommend) setting up some kind of basic automation this early, it is possible if you so wish. Hoppers can push directly into GT item pipes, which can than send those items wherever. There’s little to no filtering possible quite yet, but it’s a start
Steam Multis overview Before covering the basics of ore processing that can be done in LV I should mention that, as of 2.7, there is a larger collection of steam multis than previous versions. The total lineup include the Steam Grinder (macerator), Steam Squasher (compressor), Steam Separator (centrifuge), Steam Purifier (Washer and Simple Washer), Steam Presser (forge hammer), and Steam Blender (mixer), in addition to the Steam Pump (water pump). All of these multis can be upgraded to High Pressure variants by building them out of steel variants of their relevant blocks rather than bronze ones, which - like with regular steam machines - doubles their speed and steam consumption rates. In addition, except for the Steam Pump all multis are able to run up to 8 recipes in parallel, are 25% faster than a single block machine of their tier (regular or high pressure), and consume only 62.5% of the steam such a single block machine would (Left out of the above lineup as it is from a different mod with it’s own mechanics, BTW, is the Steam Oven from Railcraft. It’s a rather expensive multi that consumes more than a bit of steel to put together, but is able to see to your regular smelting needs until you can craft an electric Multi Smelter multi circa HV) (To clarify: Steam Ovens do ~9 times the work of a low pressure steam furnace at four times the steam consumption)
Truthfully - and this may be acute lack of survival experience not several years out of date speaking here - I don’t see great value in the new steam multis. The Grinder is still solid, and the new HP upgrade for it is likewise very welcome, but the others (to me) seem too expensive to be worthwhile. They consume an awful lot of bronze to build the original version, more than I’d expect to be reasonable in the steam age even with the Raw Ore changes, and their HP versions cost more steel than their equivalent amount of processing capacity worth of single block machines. Not to mention even the bronze versions cost a whole lot of steam to run, so much so that I’m not sure how to consistently produce that much without investing into some manner of Railcraft boiler setup - something I generally recommend against as steam is simply not a long term power solution…though perhaps EU production was never the main point of it? I did mention elsewhere that even with zero effort put into maintaining so much of a pretence of efficiency you can get 95840mb steam out of a bucket of creosote oil, which you ought to have in large quantities, and if iron railcraft tanks weren’t relatively cheap before the Raw Ore changes they sure ought to be right now
In short, if you want to figure out the value of the new steam multis, you’re going to have to experiment or get advice from someone with early game survival experience. Creative testing is great, but it does unfortunately have it’s limits. That all said I can still offer two pointers to maybe make steam multis easier to
Some steam multis require a non-steam fluid hatch to work, and unlike input/output buses there is no steam version of it, so you’ll need to rely on ULV Hatches pre-LV. This requires Lead, which can be found in the Nether as small ores. It’s not a reliable source, but if you I.E. want a steam pump now it’s an option Steam multis can be wallshared, same with the BBF and other multis. It might be challenging to wallshare some of them, but it’s not impossible. Steam Washers in particular are prime candidates for wallsharing if you are going to build multiple, because the large water basin structure can easily be wallshared between up to four of them. How? Sneak-right click the middle of a controller block, and (if it is available for a given controller) you can mirror it. This lets you have one Steam Washer with the water basin on the right, and another with the same basin mirrored on the left. You can do the same twice again, if you wish “Couldn’t you just have the mirrored steam washer controler on the other side of the 3x3 cube, so it thinks the basin is in the right direction?” you ask? Well…yes, but listen, symmetry is important…when it makes me look less dense. Otherwise I usually recommend asymetry to give a build some character
Ore Processing basics LV is when ore processing really opens up, with several new machines becoming available and actual, honest-to-goodness automation being on the table. To start with I’ll briefly cover the basic ore processing paths, as well as the machines involved. Note that I won’t be directly telling you stuff like “washing Crushed Magnetite for an 11.11% chance at getting a bonus Iron Dust isn’t worth” or “Macerate -> Wash -> Macerate -> Centrifuge is more energy efficient than Macerate -> Wash -> Thermal Centrifuge -> Macerate”, because if I did that for every ore I’d go insane. And I imagine most people would start to gloss over the massive wall of text pretty quickly (if they aren’t doing so already) anyhow. NEI is very good with showing all kinds of information about ore processing at a glance these days, if not quite everything, but all the same study it and learn to make the most of it. In any case, the machines:
Macerators you are already familiar with from the steam age - slow as molassses, but cheap to run. They’re an essential cornerstone of early ore processing, given they process raw ores/ore blocks, but otherwise don’t see use until HV. Then they can get byproducts, like other machines can starting at LV tier Forge Hammers are another familiar face, but a very important one not to forget. Macerators are slow, expensive, and don’t even yield byproducts before HV. So until then, and whenever the byproduct isn’t worth it later down the line, use a Forge Hammer instead to process stuff very quickly and cheaply Ore Washing Plants are slower than molasses going uphill both ways in January, but are consistent in their time/power cost. They require either water or distilled water to run, the latter making the machine process recipes faster. Unfortunately it’s not worth using distilled water this early, barring bizarre situations Simple Washers are an alternative to ore washing plants, trading the chance at a byproduct for incredibly fast (and cheap!) processing speed. This machine, more than any other, examplifies the mindset you need to succeed at GTNH ore processing: 0.11 Iron dust is not worth 24.75 seconds of processing time Chemical Baths are another way to wash crushed ores, using Sodium Persulfate or Mercury to get a high chance at a byproduct you wouldn’t otherwise get. This process is even slower than regular ore washing, but critically important to get byproducts you’re unlikely - or even unable - to get otherwise Centrifuges are the first machine with highly variable recipe times for ore processing recipes - as much as >300 seconds per dust of diamond centrifuged for it’s Graphite byproduct. Though the idea doesn’t change - check the recipe and see if the time/energy spend is worth the byproduct, skip it otherwise Thermal Centrifuges, in stark contrast, are consistent with their time/energy requirements for ore processing recipes. Unfortunately they are slow, and require 2A to run, often making them the more expensive machine to use compared to a centrifuge. Not always, mind, though you won’t use too many of these Electromagnetic Separators are odd ducks. They almost never see use in regular ore processing, but are used in two special processing lines, and one super lategame material. Don’t worry about these guys until HV, there’s not a high chance you’ll use any before that point (though you can, if you really wish) Sifting Machines are what you use to process purified gem ores into actual gems, rather than dust you’d than have to process further into actual gems. Usually at a much worse rate than sifting. Sifting machines are very slow and the yields are random, but they’re necessary machines with an early multi Electrolysers serve a vaguely similar purpose as centrifuges sometimes do, separating useless stuff into useful stuff (or useful stuff into other useful stuff). Their recipes require varying amounts of materials, time and energy, making these an automation nightmare, but you’ll get multiple tools to deal with them
Autoclaves are, for the record, the machine you would use to turn most gem dusts back into actual gems.That said if you’re diligent with your sifting you should never need to do this. Which is good, because the recipe will be lossy without Molten Void, and slower than molasses without at least Distilled Water Chemical Reactors also see uses in ore processing, usually to apply IC2 crop drops to crushed ores to quadruple the purified output and (usually) give a small guaranteed bonus yield on top. There are, frankly, many issues that make this mechanic obscure and largely unused, but it can have niche use cases Blast Furnaces (bricked or electric) also have recipes that can cook two dusts of impure material (meaning I.E. Limonite Dust, but not Iron Dust) into three ingots, and rarely even some byproducts. Unfortunately your BBFs/EBFs will be kept busy with other stuff, and these recipes are slower than molasses
Of course there are also multiblock versions of these machines available, but this early on you’ll only have access to the steam multis. The Large Sifter is the first electric multi that opens up in HV (if you don’t count the EBF in MV), and EV is when multiple multiblocks start to become craftable…albeit, for a cost
So that’s a lot of machines just to cover the basics of ore processing, what’s left? For one, special processes/outputs. If you look at, let’s say, Chalcopyrite’s ore processing NEI page you’ll find a number of things listed on the bottom (you might have to scroll down to see this). You’ll unfortunately have to dig through NEI to figure out how to turn Chalcopyrite into Platinum Residue Dust or to figure out what Blue Vitriol Water Solution even is, but taking a look at these unsorted outputs is critically important. More than a few ores have special processes they can go through to yield precious materials - or garbage - and some of these are not directly shown in the ore processing NEI tab. Does that make figuring out ore processing a giant pain? Why, yes, it does, but it’s worth looking for these things as they’re usually worth doing. Take Ruby Juice as an example: You can centrifuge Purified Pile of Ruby Dust to get a 11.11% chance of Red Garnet Dust, or you can mix it with a tiny pile of Sodium Hydroxide into ruby juice and centrifuge that for a 50% chance at a Chrome dust, among other things
Here’s a tip for trying to find these alternative processes easier: Look up “Juice” in NEI, as several processes produce a juice fluid, or look up the uses of Sulfuric/Nitric/Hydrochloric acid, as these processes tend to use those acids. It’s not a foolproof system, but it’ll fish a few processes out of NEI fairly easily
Ore Processing in LV Ore processing in LV regrettably won’t amount to much. Though you have most of the components for a good ore processing system several key features (notably an HV tier macerator, to get maceration byproducts) is still missing. And while you can set up a fully automated ore processing system right now you will be replacing/adjusting a lot of it in disappointingly short order. Moreover, it’s simply hard to justify doing a lot of actual ore processing when machines are so painfully slow, stuff is still relatively expensive, and both cheaper and better solutions are looming on the horizon. That’s not to say you won’t be using your machines quite yet, just that you probably won’t be using them in in any sort of large automated setup
For now give your ore processing machines the most basic of basic setups: Hopper feeding into the machines, automated output (either from the machines themselves or, in the case of the steam multis, more hoppers) feeding the biggests output chest you can craft, and GT tanks where fluids are needed. Manual processing is going to be the name of the game right now, until at least late MV/early HV would be my recommendation. That said if you really want to set up something bigger earlier, or wait until EV/IV to set up automation, both are viable approaches. Just plan accordingly for whatever you get yourself into
Be very choosy about what you send through expensive ore processing methods, and don’t be afraid to ignore even valuable byproducts if you don’t judge it worth the detour/time. In example, getting Platinum Metallic Powder Dust from Nickel is very good. But is it worth delaying your EBF to run glacially slow chemical bath recipes? Do you have enough mercury to run that chem bath recipe, actually? Is it worth the detour to get mercury first? If it is, do you just grab/process a quick redstone vein or do you set up (the beginnings of) an automation for it? It will certainly feel wasteful not getting valuable byproducts out of ores, but you’ll have to balance short term progress with long term investment. Management of your time will help a lot - if you can do Thaumcraft research while the chemical bath prepares nickel for your EBF, or you still need to go looking for a Mica vein anyhow, slow machines won’t be so much of an issue
Not unrelated, rely heavily on Forge Hammers/Simple Washers. You do not want to bother with having to manually chuck stuff into a cauldron by this point, but neither do you want to wait very long on stuff to process just to get a chance at getting something that might not even be worth it. Yes, I’m sounding like a broken record right now, but it’s worth hammering in the point that GTNH requires you to be picky about what you process and how. Otherwise the processing cues will become unsolvable, key resources will dry up as stuff waits forever to get processed, and progress grinds to a halt
To give an idea, it’s no exaggeration to say that >90% of your ores will go through the Steam Grinder, than Forge Hammer, than Simple Washer, than Steam Oven at this point. You might chemical bath, centrifuge or even ore wash the odd ore to get something useful for later or something you’re very low on, but that won’t become the norm until you set up a proper ore processing system, be it in late MV/early HV or sometime around EV/IV. “Why even bother with the simple washer, in a lot of cases?” Good question. In many cases you could skip that step, and even the forge hammer step before it, but for as much as I harp on not doing needless processing there is something to be said about standardizing production chains to reduce the amount of brainpower required to manually sort items before you have automation to do that for you. Manually sorting ores individually each time, depending on your exact state of material supply (including stuff like Sodium Persulfate/Mercury for ore processing itself) and both current and future demand for said materials, would be best…but also very hard to manage. If you can’t do that for whatever reason, don’t bother and don’t feel bad about it. There’ll be more ore to process efficiently, automatically, later
Ore Processing in MV/HV Late MV/early HV, around when you can craft your first HV Macerator, is when you’re faced with a choice: To invest into an automated ore processing system, or to delay it until you can access more technology? As mentioned I would recommend investing. Applied Energistics does not grow on trees, and neither do circuits. You need resources to craft that stuff, and those resources need to be processed from ores - preferably with minimal manual effort once all is set up. Of course I’ll not deny that setup is going to be an ordeal to build, in brain power as much as resources, but it’s worth doing to sove both said problems
The first step is to make sure your fledging factory is ready for an ore processing system in the first place. It’s going to take a fair bit of space and power to build and run, so if you’re lacking either that’ll have to be addressed first. How much power you need is highly dependant on how much ore processing you’ll choose to do, but a steady supply of power is going to be necessary in any case. You’ll also need a steady supply of steam to run any steam multis - yes, even at this stage - although you can use Fluid Heaters for that if you’re not worried about spending a bit of EU on just brute force solving that problem
Second, you’ll have to decide on a filtering solution. Since different methods can yield different byproducts, which you might (not) want to get at any given point, you’ll have to filter each ore processing step of every ore. That’s a lot of filtering, and basic five slot item conduit filters are not going to cut it even remotely. There’s a number of different ways you can accomplish mass filtering, but generally I would choose between one of two options: Extra Utilities Item Filters, or EnderIO Existing Item Filters. The former are nine slot filters that can be nested, meaning you can (and, in my survival playthrough, did) have filters in filters inside a filter. It’s a crude, brute force solution, but it works. EnderIO Existing Item filters, meanwhile, are able to save a snapshot of an inventory’s content and filter those items. Removing entries from an existing item filter requires clearing and redoing the snapshot, but whether this is less convenient than redoing nested filters is up to you. One trick with nested filters is that they do respond to NEI’s highlight feature (double-click the item search bar), so at least it’s easy to find which filter needs updating at a glance
“That sounds like way too much effort”? Possibly, but by and large it’s a one and done affair. All the same there is an alternative approach to filtering every item individually, and that is only filtering the exceptions whereas everything else gets send down default ore processing paths depending on what type a given item is. For this style of filtering you will want to look into Logistics Pipes, which was changed in 2.7 to be much less comically unbalanced with recipes being far too expensive (mostly), or possibly EnderIO - I’ve not tested the latter extensively, but it might be able to work. Regardless Extra Utilities is not an option largely because it would be difficult to set up priorities with it. Not impossible, in theory, but very obnoxious. Intead set up either Type Filter ItemSink modules to designate a default path for a given oredict type and ItemSink Modules for items filtered to go elsewhere (if you use an extraction module the Logistics Pipes system will automatically prioritize itemsink destinations over type filter itemsink destinations), or use Advanced Filters to set conduits to ignore Metadata to (maybe?) turn them into functional oredict type filters, given that I.E. all crushed ore is, mechanically, the same item with different metadata…I think (if the ignore metadata trick proves unreliable there is another alternative you can try: GT Type Filters explained below. They have all the type filter settings you’ll need for an ore processing system, so in combination with higher/lower insert priority on item conduits they will get the job done)
In addition to a mass filtering solution you’ll also need a few specialized filtering solutions, which come in the form of GT Item Filters and Type Filters. GT Item Filters allow you to regulate the output size of up to nine different filtered items, which is crucial if you’re intending to add electrolysing to your automated ore processing setup. Up to you whether that’s worth it, but without item filters it definitely wouldn’t be. Type Filters, meanwhile, act as filters for all instances of a given type of item, I.E. all chipped gems, all flawed gems, etc. These aren’t as crucial as they once were with the removal of most small/tiny dust piles you used to get in ore processing, but they’ll still be useful to send specific types of items one single direction (and without having to invest into Logistics Pipes to replicate their effect with Type Filter ItemSink Modules, if you weren’t planning on using a Logistics Pipes-based sorting system)
If this is all starting to sound like an impossible mess to untangle, there’s one thing you can try to maintain some sense of order: Color coding. Chisel adds a full set of present chests available in the standard 16 colors, which might help keep track of what is supposed to go where. They’re not good to use as actual storage given that Inventory Tweaker doesn’t recognize them, meaning if you wanted to organize those chests you’d have to do it all manually, and vanilla double chests might not be enough buffer storage for ore processing besides. Still, if you’re desperate for any kind of anchor, this is an option
The third step is designing the system. Keep in mind power as well as item/fluid I/O, and put it together in a way that’s organized, expandable, and hopefully at least somewhat pleasing to look at. Or if not that, easily dressed up. Completely lost as to where to even begin? Start with a central input chest. This chest will see multiple different types of items given that mining will inevitably pick up crushed, impure dust and pure dust through small ores if nothing else, so assume this chest is going to be your general input and sorting chest. From this central chest draw a straight line of conduits or pipes, depending on what sorting system(s) you dediced to use (you aren’t limited to only one), and lay out squares of processing areas to the left and right - be generous with space, leave room to expand later as well as space for filtering, power, item/fluid I/O, etc. On the outside of these squares draw a line of item conduits back to the central chest. Don’t worry about what machines a given square will have, it’ll all go back to the central chest to be sorted/further processed regardless. I’d also recommend keeping the central sorting spine and the outbound lines separate, as this gives great flexibility with how to design both lines separately
Incidentally, but considering the size of this build you’ll also want to keep chunk borders in mind. If you place the central item line right on the border of a chunk you’ll definitely have enough space left and right to place the processing squares without running into any borders. As for length, if you choose to go with 7x7 processing squares - and considering a GT++ Ore Washing Plant is seven blocks long this should be considered the minimum recommended size - and a one block space between each square you’ll end up with processing squares that are effectively eight blocks long. Or able to perfectly fit within 16x16 chunks without the squares ever desyncing and crossing chunk borders. Is that critically important when the entire thing will presumably stay chunkloaded anyway? Well, it at least can’t hurt. Just carefully measure the chunk alignment before you start building the entire thing. Remember: Measure twice, cut one
With a general shape in place it’s time to fill in the squares. Attach buffer chests and/or item/type filters to the central input filter line, filter them as is necessary for the machines you will be placing, and set up the machines so they’re able to process ores automatically. The output should be send right back to the central chest, and go through the process until it’s fully processed (or as fully processed as you are planning to). Once it is it’s going to need somewhere to go, so either above or below the system (your choice, could also be to the side or at the very end if you’re confident you’ll never expand the system further) set up an extension to the central input filtering line that’ll output the finished items. More than likely this will be into one or multiple drawer controllers connecting a few dozen locked storage drawers, but you could do something else too if you really want. What’s important is that if you’re using Transfer Pipes this extension is definitely going to slow down your filtering speed, so give it plenty of speed upgrades and a Stack upgrade. Item conduits won’t be as bothered by the extension, but give it speed upgrades anyway. They’re not expensive, and they won’t hurt
Although most squares will prove delightfully simple to set up, there are some exceptions - chemical baths will need sodium persulfate/mercury, and if you’re automating special processes (I.E. Ruby Juice) they can be difficult to fully automate. That said you won’t have to worry too much about these odd inputs. Remember that the entire point of setting up this system in the first place is so that you’ll have processed resources available to use by the truckload, so once you’ve build up a decent stockpile you can just throw resources at a problem to solve it. No need to automate sodium persulfate if you can batch up super tanks of the stuff, same for mercury. Need extra machines? Batch up eight stacks of circuits like it’s nothing and craft to your heart’s content. It’ll take a minute to get there and settle into the new normal as far as resource availability is concerned, but so long as the miners keep mining, you’ll stay rich
Fourth, and finally, after the system is up and running it’s time to try and balance it. If you find you’re waiting forever on Ore Washing Plants, either cut down on the number of items that go through this step or expand the ore washing square. Ore maceration taking too long? Add more Steam Grinders, or HV tier macerators if that’s what you’re bottlenecked on. Getting tired of your Sodalite drawer being full and just processing stuff only to void it? Add another extension to ore processing that handles overflow, or just manually shove 40+ stacks of Sodalite into an electrolyser from time to time. The more automated the system is the less you have to spend time on processing ores, and the more useful resources you’ll have available to just throw at every problem in front of you. This is why expandability of the system is key - as you expand and progress you’ll end up with more stuff that needs processing, more special processes you do want to do (but not manually), and if you leave enough space you won’t have to rebuild anything to do that. Just add stuff on as it becomes relevant. Rutile needs two LCRs, an EBF and a Vacuum Freezer to process reasonably fast? If you’ve got the space and resources just slam it all down, and let it run
Ore Processing Factory design Those familiar with the (in)famous Benzene setup I designed might be interested to know I’ve also designed an ore processing factory. Initially just as a braod test to see if the above steps would yield a reasonable design, but…well, suffice to say things escalated from there. If you wish to look at it the .schematica files are pinned in Threefold’s Discord, same with the Benzene setup itself. The design, which includes it’s own manual separate from this tab, was designed to be started in late MV/early HV and expanded upon until it could produce all the materials necessary to build a replacement setup circa mid-late IV
Do you need to build and use the design as I made it? No. Do you need such an elaborate design to handle ore processing for general progression? Goodness no. It’ll make the journey forward a very different ride, hopefully a more comfortable one, but by no means is it the only road that leads to Rome. If you want to use the design as general inspiration, or only use the shell of the design as a starting point for your own design, or even just use the manual’s documentation as a reference guide for what recipes/processes you should look into for your own design, go for it. Build and use the design as it is if you want to. If you only end up using it as a stepping stone for building your own ore processing system, in part or in all, I’d frankly call that the design serving the purpose it was made for - getting more people to join the “investing into early ore processing is good” camp. Even if (once again) my design might end up a touch overboard
The AE2 era…eventually Once you reach EV and get access to AE2 you’d obviously want to start using AE2 for all of your factory logistics. But, if you have a fully functioning and set up ore processing system that’s still churning away, why invest the effort into switching over immidiately? As with many other setups and automations, if it’s still keeping up with demand and not causing issues RE: required manual work and/or maintenance, there’s no reason to rebuild it. In this way the ore processing system you set up in early HV can last you through EV and even a ways into IV, depending on how much overhead you left yourself for future expansion
Sure, you’d probably want to swap out your old steam grinders and HV macerators for a maceration stack or two once you’re able to build that, but if you left enough space? You can just do that. Additional bauxite/ilmenite processing to get more rutile? Trivial, set up filters and a processing square. Ore Washers proving to be a bottleneck? Add more machines, or see if you can slam down a multi version. Need more of something unexpected? Swap over a few filters to get more through byproducts. Processing Rutile, Tungstate and/or Scheelite proving bothersome? Slam down a dedicated processing block for them, easy You can rush AE2 as hard as you can, but AE2 alone doesn’t solve any of those problems. Good ore processing designs, which require resources to build and power abundance to run, solve those problems. AE2 is a fantastic logistics tool, perhaps even worth waiting for, yes. But don’t expect it to do more
You will have to rebuild your ore processing system to make use of multis, AE2 and centralized power eventually, of that there’s no doubt. But unless you got this far without any ore processing system at all - at least anything more complicated than a room of machines and a bunch of chests - there’s no rush
AE2 Ore Processing Building an AE2-based ore processing system powered from a central power spine will require a lot of materials, space and supporting infrastructure, but is otherwise not fundementally different from building an MV/HV tier ore processing system. The biggest difference is in using AE2 for filtering, but storage buses can hold so many filter that you’re not likely to need more than two of them for a given ore processing step. And if you do it’s likely possible to only use two by instead blacklisting all of the materials that don’t go through that particular path anyway. Item and Type filters will also be obsoleted with multis that have many more slots to input items and oredict cards respectively, whereas output bus/hatch (ME)s, Stocking Input Buses or subnet shenaniganry will entirely replace conduits or transfer nodes of all stripes. Color-coded cables can also retire Chisel Present Chests, if you used those before
Honestly, if you need an idea on how to build an AE2-based ore processing system, look at the MV/HV tier process and just mentally replace everything with multis/AE2. Reserving space for expansion and future additions remains key, keeping things organized through color-coding remains a perfectly viable idea, and the idea of not wanting to send stuff through expensive/slow processes unless the byproduct is worth it remains as true as it has been since the Stone age. Filter, send to processing blocks/output/special processes, balance byproduct yield with available/needed processing, and watch resources come in
It is worth noting that EV and IV will complicate ore processing by introducing an increasingly large number of materials that need to go through special processing - Sphalerite and Galena need to be send off to Indium processing, various materials can/should be send to Platline processing, you can choose to add Platinum Group Sludge Dust processing if you wish, T3 planets will start yielding ores that need to be send straight to various steps in Platline, etc. Always include an exit path for stuff that enters your ore processing system, because even if you didn’t need one earlier, you will certainly need one now
Moving (ever) forward As the game progresses into LuV and beyond the core concepts you’ve been using since the stone age won’t change, so if you’ve made it this far in the first place you should be fine. In fact eventually you’ll end up directly smelting ores again, because even the old macerate -> forge hammer -> simple washer route is too much effort for stuff you’ve got literal millions of, and later still you’ll be filtering Void Miners to not pick up any of those ores at all. Your old AE2 ore processing system will once again undergo major renovations/rebuilding to introduce Integrated Ore Factories, and more