Industrial Farm

The Industrial Farm (IF) is an MV tier multiblock for the mass farming and harvesting of crops. The IF can only grow a single type of crop at a time, but the capacity increases significantly with the tier of the seed beds and therefore the length of the machine since the two are linked together. The IF simulates the growth of crops inside the machine as if they were placed physically in the world, except that weeds cannot grow and crops cannot get sick. The only inputs are water, power, and potentially fertilizer. The outputs scale with the crop's average stats, any environmental bonuses, and upgrade unit bonuses. There are five unique upgrade units in total and 1-12 upgrade slots based on the length of the machine, but they must match the tier of the seed beds exactly.

The length of the IF ranges from 3-14 blocks long based on the tier of the seed beds. Upgrade units are limited to any wood frame box on the top layer of the structure and must match the tier of the seed beds exactly. Buses/hatches are limited to the center bricked agricultural casings on either end of the structure. The glass determines the maximum tier of the energy hatch. Laser energy hatches are not supported, but there can be a single multi-amp energy hatch if there is an overclocked growth acceleration unit present. If not, there can be multiple regular energy hatches. Use the Multiblock Structure Hologram Projector to visualize/build the structure with subchannels "if_tier" and "glass" to specify the structure and glass tier, respectively. Upgrade units are not auto-placed unless subchannel "if_upgrade" is set to 1.

Wallsharing

IFs may wallshare each of their sides to save on casings, glass, and buses/hatches. Overlapping the top layer with another one directly overhead and upside down is the most effective and highly recommended because it shares an entire set of upgrade units. Do not forget to rotate the controller of the top one with a wrench.

The IF has three operating modes, listed below. Switch modes in the GUI of the controller, or by right-clicking the controller with a screwdriver. Seeds and undersoil blocks may also be inserted or extracted manually through the controller while the machine is disabled regardless of the current mode. The operating mode does NOT generate additional seeds, only products.

• Input - Imports seeds and undersoil blocks from an input bus. Does not consume power.
• Farm - Grows the seeds and pushes products to an output bus.
• Output - Exports any stored seeds and undersoil blocks to an output bus. Does not consume power.

The IF runs on a fixed 5 second cycle regardless of the current seed(s) or their stats, and has a base power consumption of 0.9375A at the voltage tier of the seed beds. At the beginning of each cycle, the IF consumes water from an input/reservoir hatch and optionally fertilizer from an input bus. The amount consumed depends on the total seed capacity of the machine, as seen in the following equations. Enriched fertilizer's potency bonus still applies which means it is consumed at 1/10th the rate as regular fertilizer (multiply by 0.1 inside the ceiling operator). It does not matter how many seeds are actually inside the machine so there is no benefit to running the farm with any less than the maximum capacity.

${\displaystyle {\displaystyle {\text{Water/Cycle (L)}}=\lceil {\text{Seed Capacity}}\times 2^{\text{OC}}\times 100/256\rceil }}$

${\displaystyle {\displaystyle {\text{Fertilizer/Cycle (L)}}=\lceil {\text{Seed Capacity}}\times 2^{\text{OC}}\times 100/256\rceil }}$

The IF simulates the growth of the crops inside and scales the average result. It uses all the same equations as crops in the physical world except the hydration and sky access bonuses are both automatically maxed out regardless of the weather or the IF's surroundings. That means humidity, biome, and fertilizer are the only environmental factors that impact the performance of the machine, but even then the humidity is irrelevant as long as one or more biome preferences are met. Easily change biomes with Witchery's brew of shifting seasons, Thaumcraft's arcane terrestrial reformer, or Bloodmagic's ritual of gaia's transformation. Fertilizer can still be supplied even without a fertilization unit.

Next, calculate the overall growth percentage of the crops from its growth speed and growth mult. These primarily depend on the nutrient score above and the crop's average stats (${\displaystyle {\displaystyle {\text{Ga}}}}$=Gain, ${\displaystyle {\displaystyle {\text{Gr}}}}$=Growth, ${\displaystyle {\displaystyle {\text{T}}}}$=Tier). The overclocks only apply if there is an overclocked growth acceleration unit present. The maximum growth per cycle is 100% even if the crops could theoretically grow more in under 5 seconds.

${\displaystyle {\displaystyle {\text{Growth Speed }}={\begin{cases}\lfloor (6+{\text{Gr}})\times (1+0.05{\text{Nutrients}}-0.1{\text{T}})\rfloor ,&{\text{if Nutrients}}\geq 2{\text{T}}\\\lfloor {\text{Max(0, }}(6+{\text{Gr}})\times (1+0.2{\text{Nutrients}}-0.4{\text{T}}))\rfloor ,&{\text{if Nutrients}}<2{\text{T}}\end{cases}}}}$

${\displaystyle {\displaystyle {\text{Growth Mult}}=(1+{\text{Growth Acceleration Units}})\times 2^{\text{OC}}\times {\begin{cases}1.0,&{\text{if no fertilization unit}}\\1.5,&{\text{if fertilization unit}}\end{cases}}}}$

Finally, calculate the overall output from the additive bonus and mult bonus. These primarily depend on the crop's average stats and are boosted yet again by the fertilization unit. This is also where the seed bed bonus and advanced harvesting unit bonuses are applied. The fertilization unit (FU) output bonus is 0 without a fertilization unit present and 0.5 with a fertilization unit present.

${\displaystyle {\displaystyle {\text{Additive Bonus}}=0.01\times ({\text{Ga}}+1)}}$

${\displaystyle {\displaystyle {\text{Mult Bonus}}=({\text{Crop Drop Rate}})^{\text{T}}\times 1.03^{\text{Ga}}\times (1+{\text{Seed Bed Bonus}}+{\text{FU Output Bonus}})\times (1+0.2\times {\text{Harvesting Units}})}}$

The IF may be equipped with various upgrade units to improve the growth rate of crops and the overall performance of the machine. There are 5 unique upgrade units to choose from and 1-12 upgrade slots based on the length of the machine, since they replace the wood frame boxes on the top layer of the structure. The tier of the upgrade units must match the tier of the seed beds exactly.

The following table lists the optimal upgrade configurations for each IF tier from MV to UXV. Optimal in this case means the highest output per cycle with 31/31/31 seeds assuming that enriched fertilizer is always present, there is enough power for the maximum number of overclocks, and all nutrient bonuses come from Environmental Enhancement Units rather than natural biome matches. The following are the abbreviations for each upgrade unit:

• F = Fertilization Unit
• G = Growth Acceleration Unit
• E = Environmental Enhancement Unit
• H = Advanced Harvesting Unit
• OC = Overclocked Growth Acceleration Unit

Notice that upgrading seed beds beyond ZPM does not allow you to add more upgrade units because each one has its own individual cap. Output production continues to increase from the higher seed bed bonuses and the higher seed capacities, but it does not scale nearly as well as additional imperfect overclocks on ZPM farms. In other words, stop upgrading the seed beds and instead upgrade the energy hatch, as seen in the following table. This also saves from having to completely re-pattern and re-build all existing IFs each voltage tier.

Imperfect overclocks are clearly better than upgrading the seed beds, but they are still not perfectly energy efficient. Their 2x speed for 4x power doubles the total EU cost per seed which is eventually unsustainable. The next best option to scaling production is building additional IFs. That requires more seeds and upgrade units, but it keeps power costs low. For example, four ZPM farms each with a 64A ZPM energy hatch have the same output as one ZPM farm with a 64A UHV energy hatch but cost 25% of the power.

See More: CropsNH

The following table lists all the crops that specifically require the IF. Their required light levels can be ignored since that has no effect on the operation of the machine, but their biome preferences directly impact the nutrient score. The drop multiplier is typically ${\displaystyle {\displaystyle 0.95^{\text{Tier}}}}$ but there is one exception here highlighted BLUE. Magical nightshade is instead ${\displaystyle {\displaystyle 0.93^{\text{Tier}}}}$. For a full list of crops and their stats, visit the CropsNH page linked above.

• The seed bed bonus of the Industrial Farm is 4x the drop rate bonus of the Crop Manager.