Modular Engine System
Background & motivation
The mainstream power sources currently have these problems:
- Create's steam boiler is too bulky
- Create: Aeronautics' portable engines output too little — stress sources are scattered and hard to integrate
- Engines from other mods are hard to fine-control
This mod's Modular Engine System offers a new solution: a modular multi-block Create stress-network power source.
| Block | ID | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Engine Core | ccpe:engine_core |
Multi-block skeleton: cores placed in a row form one engine (1×1×N, N≤21); the whole row shares a running state. Only the controller outputs and makes decisions |
| Fluid Combustion Chamber | ccpe:fluid_combustion_chamber |
Burns fluid fuels from other mods; 8192 SU per chamber (× the fuel's stress multiplier) |
| Steam Power Chamber | ccpe:steam_power_chamber |
Burns water + fuel to produce steam; 4096 SU per chamber; simple and stable, never overheats |
| Cooling Air Duct | ccpe:cooling_air_duct |
Cooling fins + adjustable shutter |
Engine fuel-supply helper blocks:
| Block | ID | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Quick-Fill Fluid Tank | ccpe:quick_fill_fluid_tank |
4000 mb single-slot fluid storage |
| Quick-Fill Fuel Vault | ccpe:quick_fill_fuel_vault |
Single-item-type storage (capacity 1024); the steam chamber's solid fuel source |
The two engines side by side
| Fluid engine | Steam engine | |
|---|---|---|
| Output | 8192 SU/chamber (× stress) | 4096 SU/chamber |
| Fuel | Pure datapack (engine_fuel/*.json) |
Pure vanilla (bucket items' furnace burn time + solid items' burnTime, auto-drawn from the fuel vault) |
| Mixture / economy zone / shutter | Yes — the core gameplay | None (constant 1.0) |
| Temperature | Newton cooling + overheat/overcooling management (fixed engine thresholds) | Closed boiler self-regulates, pins at 155°C, never overheats |
| Consumption | Fuel ∝ throttle (lever × economy × overcooling) | Consumption ∝ throttle (real steam throttle: low throttle saves fuel), parallel burning |
| Complexity | High ceiling: fuel-saving / cooling / mixture triple management | Simple and stable: ignite & warm up → generate |
The two chamber types are physically mutually exclusive: one engine cannot mix fluid combustion chambers and steam power chambers (placement is blocked; the controller arbitrates by majority).
Page index
- Engine Core — networking, placement, output model
- Fluid Combustion Chamber — datapack fuel, mixture and economy gameplay
- Steam Power Chamber — water + fuel, warm-up, residual-heat operation
- Cooling Air Duct — cooling fins and the shutter
- Temperature & Cooling Model — how heat is generated and dissipated (altitude → temperature & pressure)
- Fuel & Fuel Sources — datapack fuel, vanilla fuel, quick-fill tank / fuel vault
- Lua API — the
ccpe:engineperipheral reference - Example — a complete example using the fluid combustion chamber, automatically controlling engine temperature and mixture