So I’m getting further into the GregTech rabbit hole, and I’m looking to step up my automation game and have several of each machine working in parallel on large requests. Did everything manually for the Steam Age, then through LV and most of MV I got by with a pattern provider -> flat interface -> storage bus subnet for each machine. Obviously just having one or two of each machine was quite slow, so once I break into HV I want to have bigger production lines.

I know for single-input machines like the wiremill or the bender I can just point the pattern provider at a buffer chest and then use any number of item transfer options to round-robin the ingredients to the six or eight machines that will process them, but what about more complex recipes like the alloy smelter, assembler or circuit assembler that take multiple inputs?

If I build multiple machines, each with its own pattern provider, and put the same patterns in them all, then request, say, 4 MV circuits, would AE2 automatically split that request among 4 pattern providers that all have the MV circuit pattern? Or does it just find the first provider containing the necessary pattern and push all ingredients there? If it doesn’t split automatically, what are some other suggestions for doing this? (The simpler the better because I get distracted far too easily)

Also, as a vaguely related side note, anyone know what’s up with the basic circuit assembler? I gave it a pattern to make the first MV circuit and it seems to only work once, then require a server restart to make a second one, whether I insert ingredients manually or through autocrafting requests. Breaking and replacing it doesn’t help. The LV circuits seem to work as often as I need. Does every tier of circuit assembler do this or is it just the basic one?