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Alveary
| Alveary | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name | Alveary |
| Source Mod | Forestry |
| ID Name | Forestry:alveary
|
| Type | Block |
| Stackable | Yes (64) |
| Blast Resistance | 7.5 |
| Hardness | 1.0 |
| Solid | Yes |
| Transparent | No |
| Affected by Gravity | No |
| Emits Light | No |
| Flammable | No |
| Required Tool |  |
The Alveary is a multiblock added by Forestry used for Bee housing. An advanced version of the Apiary, it allows for combs and other bee produce to be generated quickly due to a natural speed multiplier (x1.0 vs. x0.1) and ability to switch out its standard blocks for upgrades with extra abilities. Alvearies have a 3x3 block footprint and are 3.5 blocks tall, due to the slabs used for the top layer. Each one can hold a single working Queen. Both Industrious and Imperial Bees are necessary to obtain the resources for building the Alveary, unavailable without some progress in Bee Breeding.
Construction
The Alveary requires 27x Alveary blocks placed in a 3x3x3 cube with 9x Wooden Plank Slabs (of any variety of vanilla or Arboriculture-origin wood; wood from ExtrabiomesXL yet untested) on the top of the Alveary. While the slabs do not all have to be made of the same wood, none can be double slabs. The top layer and center block of the second layer must be regular Alveary blocks, the remaining 17 can be replaced with modifier blocks to influence the Alveary's operation. All exterior faces of the top layer of Alveary blocks, marked with bell-shaped openings, cannot be obstructed by non-transparent blocks or the multiblock will not form. Placing additional Alveary blocks that touch the 3x3x3 will invalidate the multiblock. Alvearies do not drop bees or bee products when broken, which allows for Alveary blocks to be freely replaced with minimal interruption to the multiblock's operation. At least one of the original Alveary blocks must be kept in order for the rebuilt multiblock to retain the original items, breaking all blocks in an Alveary will destroy any bees and product within.
Recipe
Upgrades
Each upgraded Alveary block requires a basic one as part of its recipe. They can be substituted 1:1 anywhere in the Alveary's bottom two layers except for the central one with no accessible outer sides; thus there are seventeen blocks that can be swapped out for any combination of upgrades. The top layer of the Alveary where the dome shaped holes appear cannot be replaced or the Alveary will not form.
Upgrades can change the internal temperature of the Alveary using the Alveary Heater or Alveary Fan in order to accommodate bees that require hotter or colder climates. Mutators increase chances of mutation, Alveary Lighting and Alveary Rain Shield to allow bees without the Nocturnal and Flyer traits to work during the night and rain, respectively, and the Swarmer to consumes Royal Jelly to create princesses that last for a limited number of generations. The See Also section lists additional upgrade blocks for the Alveary.
The Alveary has no natural slots for frames; each Frame Housing upgrade can hold one. It takes frames worth 354 logs and 354 string per 24 hours to keep an Alveary working at maximum speed. Doing so makes it about 100x more productive than a basic Apiary.
Piping Information
Items may be extracted from all faces besides the top, due to it being made of slabs.
RedPower Tubes:
- The bottom face is used for pulling products out of the grid
- The NORTH and SOUTH sides are used for DRONE input
- The EAST and WEST sides are used for PRINCESS/QUEEN input.
BuildCraft Pipes:
- No difference between faces
Maximizing Production in Alvearies
Several factors determine the speed at which a Queen will produce items in an Alveary. Together, these factors determine how quickly certain combs or specialty items will be produced. Before describing these factors, a brief description of how time works in Alvearies (and Apiaries, for that matter) is necessary:
Alveary Ticks
All activity in an Alveary, including the production of items, occurs on Alveary ticks. One Alveary tick happens every 550 Minecraft ticks, or once every 27.5 seconds. On each Alveary tick, the Queen's life is reduced, Frame durability is consumed, conditions for continued operation are checked (e.g. the presence of appropriate "Flowers"), and, most importantly, there is a chance that items will be produced.
There are three factors that determine the production speed of items in an Alveary. One factor is determined by the item being produced; one factor is derived from the Queen; and one factor depends on the Alveary.
Base Production Chance of the Item
The first of these factors is the "Base Production Chance" of the item being produced. This chance is an inherent quality of the species producing it, though it is influenced by the Genome's default values for production speed. Generally, the rarer or more valuable a product is, the lower base production Chance it will have.
Percentage production chances are usually shown in NEI, when looking up the 'recipe' of a comb. If not, the base production chance of any item may be derived by working backwards from the information provided in the Apiarist Database, using this formula:
- Base Production Chance = (Alveary Tick Length, in Seconds) / (Speed Trait Multiplier * Item Production Time, in Seconds)
- The "Alveary Tick Length" is always 27.5 seconds.
- The "Speed Trait Multiplier" depends on the default speed of the genome, found in the Apiarist's Database. This is NOT based on the speed of the individual princess you have happened to breed; the speed of the princess is factored in later:
- Slowest: 0.3
- Slower: 0.6
- Slow: 0.8
- Normal: 1.0
- Fast: 1.2
- Faster: 1.4
- Fastest: 1.7
- The "Item Production Time" is shown on the production tab in the Apiarist's Database. (Convert to seconds before plugging into the formula.)
Example
To determine the base production chance of an Impregnable Queen's chance to create a Titanium Comb, begin by finding the three values needed for the equation (the first is always the same; the second and third are taken from the Apiarist Database entry for Impregnable Bees):
- Alveary Tick Length = 27.5 seconds
- Speed Trait Multiplier = 0.3 (The Impregnable Genome has the "Slowest" Speed trait by default)
- Item Production Time = 1.3 hours = 4,680 seconds.
Plug these into the formula, and convert it to a percentage:
- Base Production Chance = (27.5) / (0.3 * 4,680) = 0.02 (or 2%)
An important note on Base Production Chance: It is always rounded to the nearest integer. This means the lowest possible Base Production Chance is 1%, which has important ramifications in terms of frame use.
Speed of the Queen
The second factor is the active Speed trait of the working Queen. Determine the appropriate multiplier in the table above, then multiply it by the Base Production Chance of the item.
Continuing the earlier example: While Impregnable Bees have a natural Speed trait of "Slowest", Suppose this one was bred for greater pluck. This Impregnable Queen now has the "Fastest" Speed trait. Referring to the table now yields a multiplier of 1.7. This is then multiplied by the Base Production Chance calculated for Titanium Combs (2%) to get a modified production chance of 3.4% (1.7 * 2%).
Frame Housings
Frame Housings replace standard Alveary blocks, and allow for the addition of up to 17 Frames. Each Untreated/Impregnated/Proven Frame doubles the production speed of the Queen, and the effects are multiplicative.
After MC 1.5
| Example |
|---|
|
A Cultivated Queen produces a Honey Comb every 0.9 Minutes or 54 seconds. It also has the Fast Speed trait (1.2 multiplier). Using the formula from before yields the following:
An Alveary (most versions) has a safe production limit of 16x. This limit can be reached by use of four frames that double production. The Alveary has a base production of 100%, each frame multiplies it thusly:
This is possible using the untreated, impregnated, and proven frames, but using Chocolate Frames that only increase production by 50% would result in only being able to reach ~1140% production increase using 6 Frame Housings, as an additional +50% frame would exceed the 1600% limit. The maximum amount of Combs produced every Bee Tick ( 27.5s ) is 2 for the Regular Combs and 1 for the Special Comb (note that in some versions only one regular and special product may be produced per Bee Tick). Multiplying a 42% (0.42) chance by 1600% (16), results in a 672% (6.72). This means in theory the Queen would produce 6 Honey Combs every 27.5 Seconds along with a 72% (0.72) chance of producing 7. However, only 2 combs may be produced per tick. So in this case only 3 Frames are needed to maximize production. This gives a chance of 336%, which might give the appearance of being able to produce 3 combs if there wasn't a limit of 2. However, when calculating the odds for a second comb, the original chance is halved, so there is a 336% chance of one comb, and a 168% chance of a second. Since both are over 100%, two combs are guaranteed. |
Before MC 1.5
| Example |
|---|
| Consider a fictitious Queen that produces Unobtainium Combs with the lowest possible Base Production Chance of 1%. Assume this Queen also has a "Fast" Speed trait, a 1.2 multiplier. So, instead of a modified production speed of 3.4% (as in the first example), there is now a modified production speed of 1.2% (the Queen's "Fast" multiplier of 1.2, multiplied by the Unobtanium Comb's base production chance of 1%).
So, how many frames will it take to maximize production and guarantee an Unobtanium Comb every 27.5 seconds? Here's how chance changes with each doubling frame:
As can be seen, after the seventh frame, any additional frames only raise the chance beyond 100%. Since only 1 comb may be produced per tick in older (and some newer) versions, any excess chance is wasted, along with the frames. Note that this is only with the three standard Forestry frames (the Untreated, Impregnated and Proven Frame) as other frames (such as the Chocolate Frame, the Oblivion Frame or the Soul Frame) either do not double the productivity of a queen as described here, instead increasing it by some other value, or instead decrease the productivity of the queen in favor of some other positive characteristic (in the case of Soul Frames, an increased chance of mutation.) In conclusion: If a Queen has "Fastest" Speed, six frames maximizes production for even the rarest combs and items. Note that an Alveary dedicated to producing Honey, Royal Jelly or other more common items will require fewer frames to maximize production. |
Alveary Frame Automation
Unlike Apiaries, inserting Frames into Frame Housings can be automated. Routers with the Machine Filter Upgrade are especially useful in this regard, as they can service multiple Alvearies very quickly and without the lag issues occasionally caused by pipe/tube systems. Router use is explained in some detail on its wiki page, but briefly: Ensure all Frame Housings are connected to the Router network by a chain of inventories (Gaps between separate Alvearies may be bridged by using a line of unrelated inventories, similar to using a cable---a path of Barrels in the floor leading from the Frame Housings of one Alveary to the Frame Housings of another works well).
Another alternative is through the use of transfer nodes. An ideal set-up involves a Transfer Node (Items) which pulls frames out of a chest. Connecting Transfer Pipe to each of the frame housings in your alvearies and to the node creates a network for the node to place frames into. Applying speed and depth upgrades will ensure that the transfer node quickly and efficiently places frames in all housings.
Bugs
While only the space adjacent to the top layer blocks must be unobstructed for the multiblock to function, the Alveary will at times not form if blocks on the corners of this unobstructed region are present. Removing these blocks will not cause the multiblock to form until one of the Alveary blocks is updated or the multiblock is re-completed. These blocks can then be placed once more without any further interruption to Alveary behavior.
Video
See Also
The following items may also be of interest:
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