[Intentional][79.4] Sluices create fresh-water tiles

[Two 21]

When placing a sluice properly, the bottom water block that is created as soon as the sluice is watered is (in this version) a permanent fresh-water block that remains there even if the sluice is deconstructed. I haven't tried the previous versions, but I am pretty sure this is new in 79.4.

While this is not causing any issues, it is a very easy exploit to get fresh water close to your house at a very early stage of the game.

Edit: it seems the water tile is not always fresh water, however I couldn't find any correlation to the input water type yet.

[wodahs 1]

how are you building a sluce? the directions in the wiki are not visible.

[Kittychanley 1,002]

This is not new behavior, and is how sluices have always worked. This is intentional, and not a bug because it is extremely hard to exploit considering that water does not generate above sea-level, so even if you manage to get water close to your home, it would be water fairly deep in your basement.

[Thrainn 2]

This is not new behavior, and is how sluices have always worked. This is intentional, and not a bug because it is extremely hard to exploit considering that water does not generate above sea-level, so even if you manage to get water close to your home, it would be water fairly deep in your basement.

I didn't even notice - why is it so that water doesn't generate above sea-level?It's a pity when we can't have waterfalls or such, which would make TFC world gen even prettier ...And how is it "intentional", that salt water magically turns to fresh water after being 'filtered' by a sluice?

[Kittychanley 1,002]

I didn't even notice - why is it so that water doesn't generate above sea-level?It's a pity when we can't have waterfalls or such, which would make TFC world gen even prettier ...And how is it "intentional", that salt water magically turns to fresh water after being 'filtered' by a sluice?

 

The reason for why water doesn't generated above sea-level is a big complicated. Mainly, in practice it's a lot harder to implement nicely than it is in theory.

 

It doesn't. If the sluice is filled with salt water, it generates salt water below. If the sluice is filled with fresh water, it generates fresh water below. The only way that Two could possibly be seeing a lack of correlation is if he's in an area that has both salt and fresh water within the same body of water.

[DriftinFool 8]

Um, I wish I would have saved the world. I had small pools of water generating in mountain tops.

 

As for the sluice, I never played when it was implemented in the past. Does it work like the way the wiki shows it?

[Kittychanley 1,002]

Um, I wish I would have saved the world. I had small pools of water generating in mountain tops.

 

As for the sluice, I never played when it was implemented in the past. Does it work like the way the wiki shows it?

 

Those were likely hot springs, or other water fissures.

 

This page has the big scary outdated warning on it, but the placement rules are still essentially the same:

 

http://wiki.terrafirmacraft.com/Sluice

[DriftinFool 8]

Those were likely hot springs, or other water fissures.

 

This page has the big scary outdated warning on it, but the placement rules are still essentially the same:

 

http://wiki.terrafirmacraft.com/Sluice

Yeah found more in another world and realized they were hot springs. What exactly is a water fissure? The tubes that run vertically to deep down in the Y level?

 

And thanx for the answer on the sluices. Because the WIKI says that, I wasn't sure. I figure the mechanics are different now from what I read in the changelogs, but wasn't sure if the basic setup was the same.

[Kittychanley 1,002]

Yeah found more in another world and realized they were hot springs. What exactly is a water fissure? The tubes that run vertically to deep down in the Y level?

 

And thanx for the answer on the sluices. Because the WIKI says that, I wasn't sure. I figure the mechanics are different now from what I read in the changelogs, but wasn't sure if the basic setup was the same.

 

Essentially, yeah just a tube that runs vertically down to bedrock. They can be filled with air, water, hot springs, or even lava.

[Two 21]

As the sluice mechanics are currently, they aren't that useful, as the chunk you place them runs out of ore rather fast. So either you need to move your sluice about once a day, or you use the gold pan, which is in the end faster.

The good thing about sluices is that you do not need to do the work, they do it for you, however the downside for that is that they are slower and the output is lower.

[Kittychanley 1,002]

Sluices are also prospectors. They scan the area and give you small ore pieces of ore that is within its radius.

 

Gold pans just give you native metal nuggets regardless of if a vein of that metal is located anywhere nearby.

 

E.G. Gold pans get you copper, and maybe the stuff to make black bronze. You can use sluices to get a good deal of extra garnierite.

[Two 21]

That makes sluices even worse, because all I want the time I am using those is copper. If gold pans do give you just a nugget without actually checking if that ore is present, then I can just run around and pan till I get my copper.

Sluices check a 100x100x50 area, which means the position I build them needs to be in range of water AND the copper, which limits the positions I can put them up. Given the dirty details I read from the sources, I will get on average 2.5 copper per sluice best case. That is if there is only copper around, and I feed only gravel to it. As there is usually more than one ore in range, it will be more like 1 copper per sluice setup until the chunk is overworked. And then gold panning is much faster as well.

Unless I miss something, sluices currently sound not very useful to me.

[Kittychanley 1,002]

Ok. I see where the miscommunication is happening now. There are two tools in the game that do essentially the same function: Soil -> Ore, with a limit of use per chunk. The gold pan is the tool that has been written with the idea of early gameplay in mind. This means that it is the better of the two tools when it comes to getting the starting ores such as copper, and some of the stuff to make black bronze. The sluice comes into play and is better than the gold pan in regards to mid-to-late game (Steel onwards), specifically because the gold pan is limited to only the native metals (Copper, Gold, Silver, Platinum).

 

When you've reached steel, the biggest bottleneck that exists to keep progressing forwards is usually Nickel (Garnierite). The gold pan does absolutely nothing in regards to nickel.

 

Unlike the gold pan, the stuff that you get from the sluice is dependent on the ores around it, meaning that not only can it be used to squeeze a few more pieces out of an existing vein, it can also be used to help find the vein. When you come across a large gabbro stone layer that has a body of water nearby, you can set up a system of sluices that are spread out to help prospect the area for you, instead of digging tunnels and using up propick durability in search for garnierite. With many of the basic redstone contraptions such as dispensers now available for crafting via a config option, the player can set up a battery of sluices that are fed by a series of dispensers hooked up to a redstone clock so that they periodically drop gravel/sand. The player can then start searching in another, nearby section of the stone layer (must stay loaded), while the sluices do their thing. If they come back when the chunk limit has been hit, they can check if any of the sluices have a piece of garnierite in them. If they do, then they know that the vein is within a certain range.

 

Garnierite veins are also relatively small when they do generate, so the sluice helps in that you get to squeeze out every single piece of garnierite possible in an area (Sluice first, Mine Second!).

[Two 21]

I would agree if they did not have the chunk limit, because as long as they do, you won't get much more than 2-3 nuggets out of each chunk (as above). And you need to be very desperate for nickel if you are willing to spend all that time setting up for just a few nuggets.

[Kittychanley 1,002]

I would agree if they did not have the chunk limit, because as long as they do, you won't get much more than 2-3 nuggets out of each chunk (as above). And you need to be very desperate for nickel if you are willing to spend all that time setting up for just a few nuggets.

 

Have you ever played through TFC all the way up to Blue/Red steel? I would say most players are that desperate for Nickel unless they got a super lucky world seed. Also, those 2-3 nuggets tell you that more nickel is in the area.