Issue Severity: Minor
Impacts: Ease of Progression (Note rate of progression)
Affected Mod(s): AE2 Fluids Crafting, Applied Energistics, Extra Cells 2

TLDR: Setting up AE2 Fluids crafting may not work with certain fluids. Specifically, only Lava and Water fluids have a native "drops" item. When a AE2 crafting Pattern is generated, it uses "drops" of a fluid as a placeholder in the crafting pattern. However, most fluids don't have "drop" items - as a result, the AE2 system will not recognize the fluid as being accessible and will not perform the craft.

Issue Discovery Context: I was setting up a AE2 autocrafting request system for making Fluxed Electrum Blend. Still early game, so I was going to use buckets of Destabilized Redstone (Fluid) with Pulverized Gold and Pulverized Silver. Setting up the system, I had a ME drive that was being filled with an automated Destabilized Redstone generator. The pattern was setup using the AE2 Fluids Crafting mod's ME Fluids Pattern terminal. It recognized the recipe, and I clicked on the "Encode Pattern" button that specially encodes the pattern for Fluids crafting handling. I then put this pattern into an ME interface (as it was implied that I could put this in any AE item crafting system). Upon requesting the crafting of the Fluxed Electrum Blend however, the Crafting window noted that there was no Destabilized Redstone available. I double-checked the ME Fluid Terminal, and there was at least 100 buckets available. The recipe only required 1 bucket.

After further investigation, it seemed that the Crafting terminal was requesting Destabilized Redstone "Drops", not mB of fluid. Investigating JEI, it appeared that only Lava and Water has drops. As a result, it seems the AE2 Fluids Crafting will only convert vanilla fluids into "Drops" to be recognized as craftable. Just in case, I removed and placed the pattern into the ME Fluids Assemble (AE2 Fluids Crafting version), and reattempted the craft. Same issue appeared. Finally I attempted this using the Extra Cells method (reprogrammed the pattern for using buckets, setup the Auto Bucket Filler and ME Fluids Assemble (Extra Cells 2 edition). This time, the craft would not complete, but it failed to show why it would not complete (likely it did not recognized that Destabilized Redstone was in the system).

Potential Solutions for Resolution

• Double check the configuration for the AE2 Fluids Crafting mod. Its possible its not auto-generating "drops" for other fluids per a config option.
• Likewise, double check the config of Applied Energistics 2. I did notice the liquids do not show up in the regular ME Terminal - only the ME Fluids Terminal. This possibly could be making it so that the AE2 crafting system does not recognize any fluids in the system, which could be inducing the described issue.
• Finally (and most painful) is create "drops" for each fluid that used in a "hybrid" crafting recipe (i.e. a recipe including items and fluids).

Image Examples

Issue Steps for Recreation:

1.) Setup an AE2 Network:

• Requires at least (1) ME controller, (1) ME Drive Bay, (1) Crafting CPU (16k used in this example), (1) ME Fluid Terminal, (1) ME Fluid Pattern Terminal), (1) ME Fluid Storage Drive (64k used in this case), (1) ME Storage Drive (16k used in this case), (1) ME Interface w/ at least (1) Molecular Assemblers, and (1) Energy Acceptor with some sort of power generation.
• Use Fluix Cables as necessary to connect systems.
• This was attempted with both the AE2 Fluids Crafting "ME Fluids Assembler" and the Extra Cells 2 "ME Fluids Assembler" + ME Fluids Auto Filler.

2.) Fill AE system with ingredients for a hybrid fluids + item craft (example, for Fluxed Electrum Blend). For example:

• At least (64) of Pulverized Silver
• At least (64) of Pulverized Gold
• at least (64000 mBuckets) of Destabilized Redstone (ideally should be a non-vanilla fluid, say creosote oil or energized glowstone)

3.) Program a Fluids Crafting pattern for hybrid component. Ensure to click the special "Encode Pattern" button for the Fluids Crafting.

• For example, setup the pattern for Fluxed Electrum Blend. It will require (1) Pulverized Gold, (1) Pulverized Silver, and (1) Bucker/1000 drops/mB of Destabilized Redstone. Upon pressing the Encode Pattern button for fluids, you should have a pattern with a texture on it.

4.) Place the Hybrid Pattern into the appropriate fabrication interface.

• Note: This was attempted with the pattern stored in an ME Interface, Molecular Assembler, and/or the AE2 Fluids Crafting ME Fluids Assembler. Results seems to be the same.

5.) Access the ME Terminal and request the crafting of at least (1) of the Hybrid Item

• For example, request (1) of the Fluxed Electrum Blend.
• Result: in this specific example, the autocrafting request screen will show, but the Destabilized Redstone will show as "Unavailable", even though the ME system clearly recognizes the fluid as available.
• Most likely, the craft will not be able to continue.

Workarounds
Use an external crafting mechanism for crafting hybrid components - for example using EnderIO Crafter with a bucket filler solution to craft the hybrid part, and make them available in a Drawer connected to the AE2 system via a ME Storage Interface.

I'm closing this issue. After more tinkering, I found I was missing a critical component - the AE2 Fluids Crafting block "ME Fluid Discretizer". This converts all fluids to the "drops" from, enabling autocrafting.

Apologies for the mistake. Hopefully this is helpful to anyone unfamiliar with this mod as I was. Have a wonderful day.