Automation issue - any way to prevent lazy hoppers?

[Jacsmac]

I'm working on unlocking steel and have begun the process of making refractory bricks. To make things easier, I have set up an automatic pulverizer that takes rocks out of one reed chest and should deposit all of the products into another. However, when I am not at the windmill or my house next to it, more than half of the crushed rocks disappear! (I know of crushed titanium requiring multiple ores, but not Quartz or Bauxite.)
As it turns out, I have to keep my eye on the system as the hopper refuses to pick up some of the items:

Is there something I can do to make sure all of the items make it into the hopper without my intervention? If it helps, I've noticed that when more items come out and push the crushed rocks around the hopper decides to pick all of them up.

[Professor Dragon]

1 hour ago, Jacsmac said:

Is there something I can do to make sure all of the items make it into the hopper without my intervention? If it helps, I've noticed that when more items come out and push the crushed rocks around the hopper decides to pick all of them up.

Hello @Jacsmac,

Welcome to the forums - and nicely written post. I could immediately understand what the issue is.

As it happens, I've just been through the same process.

If you surround the top of the hopper with blocks (or at least the inside face of a block), then stuff doesn't slide off the slides, or slide and bounce up something.
In your case, one block here:

I used glass, so that I can see what happens. 

This should fix the issue for you.

BONUS TIP - Did you know?

You can have the output chest for the pulveriser on the same side as the input chest?

You just need to face the pulveriser the other way around.

This is useful for some layouts where space is tight - I was able to get a nice flow and staircase layout just now, where there wasn't room in the "standard" orientation. Transmission and clutch are on the other side.

 

Professor Dragon.

 

 

Edited October 19, 2025 by Professor Dragon

[LadyWYT]

15 minutes ago, Professor Dragon said:

If you surround the top of the hopper with blocks (or at least the inside face of a block), then stuff doesn't slide off the slides, or slide and bounce up something.
In your case, one block here:

I used glass, so that I can see what happens. 

This should fix the issue for you.

Instead of glass, you can also chisel the block you place as a barrier. It'll help funnel more material into the hopper, while being unintrusive.

[Professor Dragon]

6 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Instead of glass, you can also chisel the block you place as a barrier. It'll help funnel more material into the hopper, while being unintrusive.

Thank you! I meant to mention using slabs, but chiselling is even better.
That was what the "inside face" was alluding to, but not as clear as you put it.

Edited October 19, 2025 by Professor Dragon

[Jacsmac]

I appreciate the fast response! The solid block next to the hopper did reduce the problem.
However, there is still a loss of material if I am not standing next to the output to pick up loose items.
I did some searching, and found this on GitHub from a few years ago:

The amount of material lost decreased significantly, but about 5-10 per stack is still lost (more or less than the 10% mentioned in the bug report).
Is this behavior still intentional? It's frustrating to see items floating in the center of the hopper and not getting into the chest.

[Professor Dragon]

7 hours ago, Jacsmac said:

I appreciate the fast response! The solid block next to the hopper did reduce the problem.
However, there is still a loss of material if I am not standing next to the output to pick up loose items.
I did some searching, and found this on GitHub from a few years ago:

The amount of material lost decreased significantly, but about 5-10 per stack is still lost (more or less than the 10% mentioned in the bug report).
Is this behavior still intentional? It's frustrating to see items floating in the center of the hopper and not getting into the chest.

5 - 10 per stack seems high (?).
I'll run through a few tests tonight on my world and see what numbers I get.

I've found the post you referenced on the Issue Tracker: https://github.com/anegostudios/VintageStory-Issues/issues/789
 

According to that, a stack of 64 should lose less than 7 items per stack on each run through, so your results are in the right area of expectations.
Radfast is on the Development Team, so if they say that's how they're meant to work, then that's how they work - although we can put through something on the Suggestions board.

I see there is a mod called "Better Hopper" which may help, as it lets it pull from further vertically away. I can't speak to how it would work in this scenario - haven't tried it.

I'm going to assume that when you say that you're "not standing next to the output" that you mean "not standing on the block next to the output."
If you mean that you've gone far enough that you are not in chunk loading distance, then that's a different story, with the answer being "Don't go that far away from automation." But it sounds like you mean the former.

Professor Dragon.

Edited October 20, 2025 by Professor Dragon

[Never Jhonsen]

Something I've always done, was make a "chute" out of a chiseled block. Place a full block on top of your hopper, and hollow out the entire inside, leaving one chisel voxel around the whole perimeter. (I'm specifying a CHISEL voxel, as one chisel voxel is 8 actual voxels (2x2 cube))

In front of your pulverizer, at the output, place a full block, and chisel it out into a "C" shape; three thin walls one chisel voxel wide, no top or bottom, with the open side against the pulverizer.

I've been using this for years, and my unscientific tests conclude this stops all mis-thrown items 

Edit: My preferred block of choice, is Bauxite Rock, as it's close enough to a copper texture to blend in, without using 12 (TWELVE!!) copper ingots to make an actual copper block

Edited October 20, 2025 by Never Jhonsen

[Professor Dragon]

4 hours ago, Professor Dragon said:

I'll run through a few tests tonight on my world and see what numbers I get.

I rebuilt your setup, and got 100% throughput. I even used the same orientation.

Loading up the reed chest. The first stack shows 61, because three drop straight into the system straight away.

 

100% efficiency.

 

I got nothing.  Did I miss a block?

Mods? Current version 1.21.5?

Professor Dragon.

EDIT

Your post on the other hand, did help me. When I was testing, I found a flaw with my own main world which I had to fix.

• Do NOT put a Clutch next to the hopper. 
  (Where the pink block in this screenshot. Correct is on the other side where it is.)

Doing so causes output to periodically be forced upwards. So, thanks for that - I might not have noticed.

I ran through a final test, which was a trunk full of bauxite in my main world - I was on a small test world before.
This time the wind conditions were a lot more variable, ranging from a Strong Breeze to a Hurricane.
I was wondering if very light winds were throwing the results.

Anyway, 100% throughput again.

So I'm not sure where the differences might be.

Professor Dragon.

 

 

Edited October 20, 2025 by Professor Dragon

[Professor Dragon]

Hi @Jacsmac

May I double-check the basics?

1) Confirm version is v1.21.5.

2) Go to Settings, Graphics and confirm what "View Distance" is set to.

3) How many blocks are you from the Hopper during testing? For testing, be far enough that you are not picking up the output as it is created, but only a few blocks further. Say 7 blocks.

4) Creative test world.

• Backup Save your main world
• Disable any mods
• Create a small size (not a million blocks, but say, 50,000) Creative test world. 
• Recreate your setup.
• (OPTIONAL) Replace the windmill rotor with the blue/green component "auto rotor (Creative)'.
  Click this so that the Power is 100% and it will give consistent speed output without relying on wind.
• Replace your reed baskets with single chests
• Fill the chest with Quartz Chunks - note the amount exactly
• Change to Survival mode /gamemode survival
• Start the Clutch
• Note output amount
• If not close to 95 - 100% then advise us here the number and screenshot the setup.
• If it works here in Creative (near 100%), then retest in your Survival world under similar conditions (ie no mods, stand close)

4) If we can't solve it here, then you are in a position I feel to screenshot this, gather the logs and put through a request to the Issue Tracker. Perhaps as a comment or linked to that same post.

Thanks, Professor Dragon.

 

 

[Jacsmac]

Quote

1) Confirm version is v1.21.5.

2) Go to Settings, Graphics and confirm what "View Distance" is set to.

3) How many blocks are you from the Hopper during testing? For testing, be far enough that you are not picking up the output as it is created, but only a few blocks further. Say 7 blocks.

4) Creative test world.

Backup Save your main world
Disable any mods
Create a small size (not a million blocks, but say, 50,000) Creative test world. 
Recreate your setup.
(OPTIONAL) Replace the windmill rotor with the blue/green component "auto rotor (Creative)'.
Click this so that the Power is 100% and it will give consistent speed output without relying on wind.
Replace your reed baskets with single chests
Fill the chest with Quartz Chunks - note the amount exactly
Change to Survival mode /gamemode survival
Start the Clutch
Note output amount
If not close to 95 - 100% then advise us here the number and screenshot the setup.
If it works here in Creative (near 100%), then retest in your Survival world under similar conditions (ie no mods, stand close)
4) If we can't solve it here, then you are in a position I feel to screenshot this, gather the logs and put through a request to the Issue Tracker. Perhaps as a comment or linked to that same post.

My game version is v.1.21.4 and View Distance is set to 256; I was not more than 50 blocks away while the stones were processing.
In a creative test world, 100% of the pulverizer product made it into the chest in multiple trials, even if some of the items stuck around for about half a second or so before the hopper decided to pick them up.
When going back to the original world on singleplayer, the results closely mirror that of the test world trials (while standing 2-5 blocks away from the hopper and pulverizer and watching closely).

What I had failed to consider previously was that I was losing materials while another player was connected to my world via LAN connection; trials ran with multiplayer enabled and other players connected proved that an amount of items less than 10% was lost because the items despawned before being hoppered into the chest (they lingered on top of it for much longer than tests in singleplayer).
Furthermore, if the power to the pulverizer is cut while an item is hanging out on top of the hopper, it is likely that the item will despawn because the output of the pulverizer will not 'motivate' the hopper to pick it up by pushing it. 

I will update to v1.21.5 and run more trials to make sure what the definitive cause of this issue is. 

[Jacsmac]

Should clarify: 50 blocks was the distance I was away from the pulverizer before doing trial tests (when I first noticed odd behavior), and I ran trials at distances from 2 to 100 blocks away in the Creative mode world. Survival mode singleplayer and multiplayer tests were both from 2 to 5 blocks away.

Edited October 21, 2025 by Jacsmac

[Professor Dragon]

1 hour ago, Jacsmac said:

My game version is v.1.21.4 and View Distance is set to 256; I was not more than 50 blocks away while the stones were processing.
In a creative test world, 100% of the pulverizer product made it into the chest in multiple trials, even if some of the items stuck around for about half a second or so before the hopper decided to pick them up.
When going back to the original world on singleplayer, the results closely mirror that of the test world trials (while standing 2-5 blocks away from the hopper and pulverizer and watching closely).

What I had failed to consider previously was that I was losing materials while another player was connected to my world via LAN connection; trials ran with multiplayer enabled and other players connected proved that an amount of items less than 10% was lost because the items despawned before being hoppered into the chest (they lingered on top of it for much longer than tests in singleplayer).
Furthermore, if the power to the pulverizer is cut while an item is hanging out on top of the hopper, it is likely that the item will despawn because the output of the pulverizer will not 'motivate' the hopper to pick it up by pushing it. 

I will update to v1.21.5 and run more trials to make sure what the definitive cause of this issue is. 

This is FANTASTIC testing. Nice job!   

You've confirmed good single player results after blocking in the hopper, and nailed down the loss issue to the multiplayer one that @radfast mentioned they would work on:

It would be great if you could make an account on the Issue Tracker (after updating to 1.21.5 or whichever is the current latest release) and putting those same results in a comment against that thread. It would be great to show that it is a confirmed issue, experienced by more than the original poster.

Professor Dragon.

Edited October 21, 2025 by Professor Dragon