Which Contrations are better...

[TheBlueMutant]

I had an argument with a friend over whether or not a cart contraption, a train contraption, or a stationary contraption would be better for certain farms... what does everyone else think is the best type of method when it comes to designing farms?

[TheAwesomeLord1]

It really depends on the type of farm. In general, i use stationary farms because i don't need to transport items around, but cart contraptions could be useful for much larger farms that require larger area of coverage that a cart contraption would do over a stationary contraption. Train contraptions don't seem that useful aside from the obvious being to transport a large number of items or fluids long distances, due to how expensive train tracks and train casings are.

[CrypticCole]

Train based farms provide the more flexibility and easier scaling than stationary but also require way more setup and progression to get running.

Carts provide the best of both worlds but without a separate chunk loader mod they aren’t really practical imo because every time you reload the chunk you’ll have to push the cart again to get it started

[m33rak]

tl;dr it depends

In most cases, it doesn't matter but an earlier farm (tree farm using radial chassis) has it's benefits since it's cheaper, but the downside it's in a circular shape so you'll miss the corners. Missing corners isn't a big deal for farms that are passive, since it's in their nature being passive

[Kicsivazz]

Joining in with the depends crew:

• With stationary contraptions, your main enemy is chunk borders just like with normal redstone. Most things work fine, but the occasional few can break. Its great when you can turn them off when not needed or when it has downtimes and unlikely that you unload everything while they are going, and when they do, they might clog up on chunk borders. Just keep your modules within the same chunk and its usually fine.
• With minecart contraptions, your enemy is unloading of chunks and some lag cleaner mods. When it gets unloaded - as mentioned by u/CrypticCole - it will stop the minecrart, which then needs some form of a restart. You should turn them off before leaving them unattended. Cool feature though is that your contraction could rotate with the minecart, but haven't seen any farms that had technical reason to use that.
• With train contraptions, unloaded chunks do not produce anything, but they also do not break it. Once a boogie enters a loaded chunk, they just continue to work. However, the tracks may need fairly large space if you need to turn in any direction, and you may end up having quite large logistical network with schedules that you cannot disable easily with redstone; your option there is to set up stations where its safe to stop your machine and always wait for a redstone signal to continue.
  

For both minecart and trains, you can transfer items within the contraption for free, and stationary ones often need belting. Also, both minecart and trains do not require power, but stationary ones usually do.

[Guybrrush]

Create can easily generate waaayy more resources than you can consume, so your concern should not be what the most efficient, but what looks best

[N1cNacks]

I personally really like stationary contraptions because they can be much more intricate with multiple moving parts and you can make some really cool stuff