AE2 Things [Forge]

Overview

AE2 Things is a focused addon for Applied Energistics 2 that addresses two pain points every AE2 player eventually hits: the type limit on standard storage cells and the one-item-at-a-time bottleneck of the Inscriber. The mod introduces DISK cells (Deep Item Storage disK) that trade the type limit system for a simpler one-byte-per-item model, and an Advanced Inscriber that processes full stacks without sided automation headaches.

The mod adds 7 items total: a Disk Housing crafting component, five tiers of DISK storage cells (1k through 256k), and the Advanced Inscriber block. You can browse every item and recipe using the tabs at the top of this page. Because this is an AE2 addon, you'll need a working ME Network before any of these items become useful.

Prerequisites

AE2 Things requires Applied Energistics 2 as a dependency. You'll need a functioning ME Network with an ME Controller, power, and at least an ME Drive before DISK cells become useful. For the Advanced Inscriber, you should already have access to standard AE2 Inscriber Presses and be familiar with the Inscriber's role in crafting Processors.

Both DISK cells and the Advanced Inscriber require materials from mid-to-late game progression. The DISK Housing recipe calls for Netherite Ingots, so you'll need to have visited the Nether and obtained Ancient Debris before you can craft any DISK cells. You'll also need Amethyst Shards and standard AE2 components like Quartz Glass and Certus Quartz Dust.

DISK Storage Cells

The DISK (Deep Item Storage disK) is the main feature of AE2 Things. Standard AE2 storage cells have a type limit: each unique item type consumes a chunk of bytes, meaning a 1k cell can only hold a handful of different item types even if it has storage space left. DISKs completely eliminate this restriction. Every single item stored in a DISK counts as exactly one byte, with no per-type overhead. You can store hundreds of different item types in a single cell, as long as you have the raw byte capacity.

There is a small trade-off: you lose 24 bytes per kibibyte due to limitations in the cell format. For example, a 1k DISK has 1,000 bytes of total capacity rather than 1,024. In practice this is negligible, and the freedom from type limits more than compensates. DISKs slot into standard ME Drives just like any other AE2 storage cell.

How DISK Storage Works

Under the hood, DISKs use a UUID-based storage system that saves data to the world file rather than to the item's NBT tag. When you first insert an item into an empty DISK, it gets assigned a unique UUID and the storage manager creates a disk record in the world save. This means the DISK item itself stays lightweight regardless of how many items are stored in it.

Each DISK supports 2 upgrade slots. You can install a Fuzzy Card for fuzzy matching or an Inverter Card to switch the partition list from whitelist to blacklist mode. The partition (filter) system works exactly like standard AE2 cells, so you can configure DISKs to accept only certain items.

When to Use DISKs vs Standard Cells

Standard AE2 cells are more byte-efficient when you're storing large quantities of a few item types, because they pack items tightly within each type allocation. DISKs shine when you have many different item types in relatively small quantities, which is the common scenario in heavily modded packs where you might have hundreds of different materials, components, and intermediate crafting items. A single 64k DISK can hold 64,000 individual items across any number of types, while a standard 64k cell would hit its 63-type limit long before running out of byte capacity in a diverse inventory.

The Netherite cost makes DISKs a mid-to-late game investment. In early game when you only have a handful of item types, standard cells work perfectly fine. As your storage grows and you start running into "cell is full" warnings despite having byte space remaining, that's when DISKs become worth the Netherite.

Crafting the DISK Cells

Every DISK cell starts with a Disk Housing. The Housing recipe uses Quartz Glass, Redstone, Netherite Ingots, and an Amethyst Shard. Once you have the Housing, you can combine it with any AE2 Cell Component in a simple shapeless recipe to create the matching DISK tier. Alternatively, there's a shaped recipe that builds the complete DISK in one crafting operation without pre-crafting the Housing separately.

Advanced Inscriber

The standard AE2 Inscriber is one of the most tedious machines in the mod. Each slot only accepts a single item at a time, and automation requires careful sided insertion with specific face assignments for top, bottom, and side inputs. The Advanced Inscriber from AE2 Things fixes both of these problems.

Every slot in the Advanced Inscriber accepts up to 64 items per stack. The top plate slot, bottom plate slot, and center input slot all handle full stacks, so you can load up a batch of materials and let it run through the entire stack without babysitting. The output slot also holds a full stack, and once it fills up, completed items are automatically pushed directly into your connected ME Network.

Speed and Power

The Advanced Inscriber has a base processing time of 100 ticks (5 seconds) per operation. It supports up to 5 Speed Cards, and each Speed Card multiplies the processing speed factor by an additional 3x increment. With no Speed Cards, the speed factor is 1x. With 1 Speed Card it jumps to 4x, with 2 it reaches 7x, and at maximum 5 Speed Cards the factor hits 16x, processing items in under a third of a second.

Power consumption scales linearly with speed: the base draw is 20 AE/t, multiplied by the speed factor. At maximum speed with 5 Speed Cards, the Advanced Inscriber consumes 320 AE/t. It has an internal power buffer of 1,600 AE, so it can sustain short bursts even if your network power fluctuates. If insufficient power is available from the internal buffer, the machine will attempt to draw directly from the ME Network's energy service.

Automation Without Side Restrictions

One of the biggest quality-of-life improvements is that the Advanced Inscriber has no sided automation restrictions. With the standard AE2 Inscriber, you need to pipe items into specific faces: top for the top press, bottom for the bottom press, and a side for the center input. The Advanced Inscriber accepts any valid item from any face. Its internal filter logic automatically routes items to the correct slot based on the current recipe context, checking whether a given item matches a top plate, bottom plate, or center input for any valid Inscriber recipe.

This means you can pipe in all your materials from a single Hopper, Import Bus, or item conduit, and the machine will sort them into the right slots. The only restriction is that you can only extract from the output slot (slot 1), which prevents accidentally pulling out your press plates.