LifeCrops Automation

Short Summary

LifeCrops: Automation is the official automation companion for Life Crops. It adds Auto Harvesters, upgrades, Life Essence fuel, and configurable harvesting systems so players can build larger resource farms with less manual work.

Description

LifeCrops Automation is a standalone automation expansion designed to pair with the LifeCrops mod. It adds machines that use Life Essence fuel, reservoirs, and upgrades to reduce repeated farm work while still requiring the player to build, fuel, fill, and tune their setup.

The Auto Harvester harvests mature nearby crops and stores the output internally. The Auto Crop Pot grows crops internally from inserted seed bags and soil, with optional water and fertilizer boosters for faster growth. Sprinklers and Fertilizer Spreaders maintain world farmland coverage, while the Auto Tree Planter grows base-game saplings internally and produces simulated tree outputs.

Features

- Auto Harvester block for automated mature-crop harvesting
- Auto Crop Pot block for internal seed-bag crop growing and harvesting
- Auto Tree Planter block for internal base-game sapling growing and tree drops
- Basic, Standard, and Advanced Sprinklers for watering world farmland
- Basic, Standard, and Advanced Fertilizer Spreaders for fertilizing world farmland

- Output, Transfer, and Input Item Pipes for first-pass item logistics
- One-slot exact item filters on Output and Input pipes
- Chest-to-chest routing through connected pipe networks
- Chest-to-machine routing into legal fuel and seed or sapling slots
- Radius and forward coverage modes for world service blocks
- Life Essence fuel slots and internal output storage
- Soil requirements for Auto Crop Pot and Auto Tree Planter growth
- Optional water and fertilizer reservoirs for internal growth boosts
- Generic external Auto Crop Pot growth-stage visuals
- Generic external Auto Tree Planter growth-stage visuals
- Two-page custom UIs with main controls and upgrade tabs
- Simple Sprinkler and Fertilizer Spreader UIs
- Tiered Automation upgrades: Basic, Refined, Advanced, and Masterwork
- Shared Speed, Fuel Efficiency, and Yield upgrade behavior across compatible machines
- Range upgrades for the Auto Harvester
- Water Efficiency and Fertilizer Efficiency upgrades for the Auto Crop Pot
- Sapling Recovery upgrades for the Auto Tree Planter
- Automations Workbench recipe tabs for Machines, Sprinklers, and Upgrades
- Runtime configuration for scan interval, range, harvest limits, output mode, fuel item ID, upgrade behavior, catch-up caps, and world service block behavior

How It Works

Place an Auto Harvester near mature crops. Add Life Essence fuel, then let the harvester scan nearby crops. Harvested output is stored in the harvester output slots.

Place an Auto Crop Pot when you want an internal growing machine. Add fuel, a supported seed bag, and soil. Normal seed bags are consumed one per successful harvest, while eternal seed bags act as reusable templates. Water and fertilizer are optional boosters and drain slowly while active.

Place Sprinklers or Fertilizer Spreaders near tilled soil when you want world farmland support. Choose radius coverage or forward coverage, fill the reservoir for Basic and Standard tiers, and let the machine update covered farmland. Advanced tiers do not consume water or fertilizer.

Place an Auto Tree Planter when you want internal tree growing. Add fuel, a base-game sapling, and soil. Water and fertilizer are optional boosters. The machine consumes saplings per harvest, can recover saplings with a base chance, and can improve recovery with tree-planter-specific upgrades.

Use Item Pipes when you want machine output or storage output to move automatically. Output Pipes pull from Automation machine output slots or adjacent normal inventories, Transfer Pipes connect a 3D network, and Input Pipes insert into adjacent normal inventories or legal Automation machine fuel and seed or sapling inputs. Output and Input pipes each have a one-slot exact item filter; empty means unfiltered. Soil slots are deliberately not pipe-managed.

Use the custom UI to:

- Deposit Life Essence fuel
- Pull fuel back out
- Collect output
- Add seed bags, soil, water, fertilizer, and upgrades where supported
- Pull upgrades back out

If the player inventory is full, pull and collect actions stop safely and leave remaining items in the machine.

Upgrades

Upgrades use four tiers:

- Basic
- Refined
- Advanced
- Masterwork

Higher tiers count as more upgrade weight. Machine effects clamp at their configured caps, and the machine UIs show current values, caps, and unused extra weight.

Current upgrade types:

- Range: increases Auto Harvester range.
- Speed: improves Auto Harvester throughput and reduces Auto Crop Pot growth cycle targets.
- Fuel Efficiency: gives a chance to preserve fuel after a successful harvest.
- Yield: increases expected harvest output in both machines.
- Water Efficiency: slows Auto Crop Pot water drain.
- Fertilizer Efficiency: slows Auto Crop Pot fertilizer drain.
- Sapling Recovery: raises Auto Tree Planter sapling recovery chance.

Known Notes

- The Auto Crop Pot currently uses generic staged crop visuals rather than crop-specific plant models.
- The Auto Tree Planter currently uses generic staged tree-planter visuals rather than sapling-specific tree models.
- The Auto Harvester is intended for crop automation, not general-purpose block harvesting.
- Sprinklers and Fertilizer Spreaders service world tilled soil; they do not refill internal machine reservoirs.
- The Auto Tree Planter grows trees internally and does not place or harvest world trees.
- Server owners can tune machine behavior through the generated `LifeCropsAutomationAutoHarvester` config.

Links

- Wiki: https://hytale-lifecrops.fandom.com/wiki/Hytale_LifeCrops_Wiki