What mods, configs would people here suggest using?

1st Official Post

    (my apologies if this is not posted in the right place)


    Well to try and sum up what advice Im looking for: I found FTB and started playing it, but after months of playing I felt it was too easy. I posted on their forums months ago about this and... that started a few months of people there constantly attacking me. "Minecraft isn't hard, its a building game!' IMO it's also a resource gathering and survival game. But the way FTB packs are set up, you quickly move to it only being a building game, survival and resource gathering are not an issue not long after starting a new world.


    i saw on Direwolf20s videos of Forgecraft3, where Player (he is a dev here, correct?) said "instant item transportation ruins the game". it was a comment he posted while playing, i read it on direwolf's screen. it was not him talking to direwolf or anything. I like this idea, i think teleportation should come with a cost, like the IC2 teleporters.


    Also this being where gregtech is, and from things Ive read here< im thinking this forum is my only hope to try and make modded minecraft have more 'struggle'. honestly, i dont know if I could do real hardmode gregtech, as I have kids and a wife and really... Im not sure that I could get a world to be stable for a long enough time to even get to end game if things were set to what I hear the new gregtech is about.


    So I thought I might toss out what im trying to do, and see if others have any suggestions. I use FTB at the moment becaue it is easy, and id rather not spend my few free hours messing aroudn with ID conflicts. Is there a better way than FTB that isn't too hard to set up?


    These are the ideas I have on how to adjust 'common' modpacks, ftb, technic, etc. Im playing DW20 1.5 right now on ftb and ... it's ridiculous.


    Removing MFR


    Setting Forestry to 'normal', although not sure how to do that, I just looked at forestry configs today. Amazed to find out forestry defaults to 'easy' in FTB packs.


    Remove computer craft


    Install gregtech for harder quarry. Id like to make quarries require more power, but I dont see anything in the buildcraft config. :/ Id like to find a way to make other automining options more viable, and not have people just jump to quarries as the default way of automining.


    Either remove EE3, or what I am trying now is to set the minium stone durability to 15, instead of 1521. nice in a pinch, but you aren't going to be making stacks and stacks of ender pearls with them anymore.


    Use gregtech MPS recipes, or just increase the power consumption of the MPS jetpack by a LOT and use IC2 recipes. maybe reduce the armor effectiveness, making it better than a nano suit, but not Godmode. Cant say I enjoy even a Quantum suit. no risk = no fun.


    Thermal Expansion? Not as bad as MFR, but still very powerful and easy mod. Lemming told me once that he had Steel recipes but they were 'for masochists'. I liked the idea. Im thinking that using TE steel recipes might be ok, but I dislike 4 mj/t getting you ore doubling, so I think using TE at all kind of kills balance. Even the macerator with gregtech installed seems too easy. Althought... the pack im playing also has very high ore gen, so maybe it wouldnt be as bad if ore gen were more 'normal'. Thought about disabling macerator and only allowing Railcraft Rock Crusher, and then the Gregtech Industrial grinder? Ore doubling should be, to me, a big milestone. Also makes the cost of the Industrial grinder worthwhile.


    Thaumcraft... seems more balanced than most mods. But golems are pretty strong once you get them with farming. No power, etc. Does anyone use it, but just adjust the research configs so taht it requires more resources to get through the research. I have one player on my server who loves TC, but Im thinking that if I adjust forestry and install gregtech, etc. that thaumcraft will be too OP.


    Also.. i have no experience with forestry, ive read that Binnies addons make forestry too strong? Anyone have thoughts on this?


    Anyway if anyone has any advice or thoughts on this, I would appreciate hearing it. :)

    Unless you spend a long time balancing all configs, you'd have to do real Hardmode GT (GT + IC2 + nothing) or your pack will be easy. Literally any other mod can break GT balance when not carefully configured, even Railcraft.


    Plus, the real fun in minecraft isn't progressing to endgame, it's designing original contraptions and architecture, for which the "difficulty" of mods has no real bearing on.

    Quote from Nonotan

    Unless you spend a long time balancing all configs, you'd have to do real Hardmode GT (GT + IC2 + nothing) or your pack will be easy. Literally any other mod can break GT balance when not carefully configured, even Railcraft.


    Plus, the real fun in minecraft isn't progressing to endgame, it's designing original contraptions and architecture, for which the "difficulty" of mods has no real bearing on.


    Well i find it fun to design original contraptions AND have to struggle to make things. I also enjoy feeling that something I made solved a problem. Like for example, I feel MPS suits ruin a lot of the fun in teh game, because it kills rail systems. A friend told me 'if you enjoy rail systems, make one and have fun'. But to me half the fun is knowing that I solved a problem (item/player transport for long distances) not just riding in a mining cart. If i have an MPS suit and tesseracts, building a rail system is not really that enjoyable for me.


    I dont know if I would do true hardmode GT, as I said I dont have that much time to play so some shortcuts would be ok to me. I like railcraft and buildcraft (except quarries) as examples of balance. And forestry, although im thinking 'normal' would be interesting, instead of the default easy mode.


    Do the big gregtech players around here not even use buildcraft? no quarries, just ic2 miners? That is definitely hard mode.

    • Official Post

    I, for certain, do not use BC, But I think most of us still use Railcraft, and some still use forestry.
    If you want my super hardcore pack then sure, but it takes a whole ton of time you dont seem to have :P

    No buildcraft due to quarries? That means no basic pipes, that seems very hard. Yes unfortunately I dont think i could do super hardmode. Unfortunately it seems that balancing mods is not as easy as it looks, if not impossible. And even ifyou do, a new version comes out and bam! new features, mod devs make their own changes.... have to playtest all over again to try and find balance.


    Id be curious to know how you play, do you have a post here detailing your pack? I assume you guys put your packs together yourself?

    Quote from zorn


    ...


    i saw on Direwolf20s videos of Forgecraft3, where Player (he is a dev here, correct?) said "instant item transportation ruins the game". it was a comment he posted while playing, i read it on direwolf's screen. it was not him talking to direwolf or anything. I like this idea, i think teleportation should come with a cost, like the IC2 teleporters.


    Most of us here share this sentiment; we don't have tesseracts or ender chests here, to encourage long pipelines and rail transport.

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    Also this being where gregtech is, and from things Ive read here< im thinking this forum is my only hope to try and make modded minecraft have more 'struggle'. honestly, i dont know if I could do real hardmode gregtech, as I have kids and a wife and really... Im not sure that I could get a world to be stable for a long enough time to even get to end game if things were set to what I hear the new gregtech is about.

    Normal mode GregTech should suffice for non-hardcore players. (I.e. leave config as it is)

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    So I thought I might toss out what im trying to do, and see if others have any suggestions. I use FTB at the moment becaue it is easy, and id rather not spend my few free hours messing aroudn with ID conflicts. Is there a better way than FTB that isn't too hard to set up?

    That's not really a worry. With the 20-odd mods I have now I haven't got a single ID conflict. 1.6 is also much better.

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    These are the ideas I have on how to adjust 'common' modpacks, ftb, technic, etc. Im playing DW20 1.5 right now on ftb and ... it's ridiculous.


    Removing MFR

    I keep MFR, but set it to use GT recipes and up the power costs to 5x. To fit GregTech, maybe change the power costs to 2-3x.

    Quote

    Setting Forestry to 'normal', although not sure how to do that, I just looked at forestry configs today. Amazed to find out forestry defaults to 'easy' in FTB packs.

    Forestry... less OP than it was when there were still the single-block farms, but then there are still the bees. Bees' and general Forestry's difficulty should be turned up at least 1 - 2 levels. To be honest, I don't see any real need for Forestry, considering how unpopular the passive MJ draw is now. Farms - you can replace with MFR; biomass/ethanol - you can replace with MFR too; bees/trees - you can replace with IC² crops.

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    Remove computer craft

    There's a new replacement for CC out now; it's called OpenComputers. It has GregTech recipes and requires power (which I think is configurable). That's about it; but not many people want to code for a game.

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    Install gregtech for harder quarry. Id like to make quarries require more power, but I dont see anything in the buildcraft config. :/ Id like to find a way to make other automining options more viable, and not have people just jump to quarries as the default way of automining.

    There is a config (in 1.6+ at the very least), D:mining.costsmultiplier. I personally turn it up to 5x, which makes max speed 200 MJ/t. Pipes are forgettable with GregTech. The filler is useful, but MFFS can replace it. The floodgate is... meh. Oil and fuel are pretty much the only reasons I keep Buildcraft since I can't be bothered to crossbreed plants until Oilberries or install Galacticraft.

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    Either remove EE3, or what I am trying now is to set the minium stone durability to 15, instead of 1521. nice in a pinch, but you aren't going to be making stacks and stacks of ender pearls with them anymore.

    EE3 just doesn't fit GregTech. They conflict themewise. You may as well turn it off.

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    Use gregtech MPS recipes, or just increase the power consumption of the MPS jetpack by a LOT and use IC2 recipes. maybe reduce the armor effectiveness, making it better than a nano suit, but not Godmode. Cant say I enjoy even a Quantum suit. no risk = no fun.

    Same here, but I think you should turn up the power consumption of all of MPS and enable GregTech recipes.

    Quote


    Thermal Expansion? Not as bad as MFR, but still very powerful and easy mod. Lemming told me once that he had Steel recipes but they were 'for masochists'. I liked the idea. Im thinking that using TE steel recipes might be ok, but I dislike 4 mj/t getting you ore doubling, so I think using TE at all kind of kills balance. Even the macerator with gregtech installed seems too easy. Althought... the pack im playing also has very high ore gen, so maybe it wouldnt be as bad if ore gen were more 'normal'. Thought about disabling macerator and only allowing Railcraft Rock Crusher, and then the Gregtech Industrial grinder? Ore doubling should be, to me, a big milestone. Also makes the cost of the Industrial grinder worthwhile.

    Yes, you can make Induction Smelter and Pulverizer require diamonds; gears instead of ingots; and require steel in machine frame. You can also disable the tesseracts and the Magma Crucible (or set the costs to 2x, like I did).

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    Thaumcraft... seems more balanced than most mods. But golems are pretty strong once you get them with farming. No power, etc. Does anyone use it, but just adjust the research configs so taht it requires more resources to get through the research. I have one player on my server who loves TC, but Im thinking that if I adjust forestry and install gregtech, etc. that thaumcraft will be too OP.

    I used to use it during 1.5, but it's too much of a resource burn now. Thaumcraft is reward worth the expenditure, but it may get a bit OP and anti-server sometimes.

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    Also.. i have no experience with forestry, ive read that Binnies addons make forestry too strong? Anyone have thoughts on this?

    Yes. Definitely.


    A few other pointers: up AE costs to at least 3x, and it may be good to use a recipe-altering mod to keep recipes the way you want it.

    Thanks. Although I like multifarms instead of MFR farms as they require you to go out and get apatite, and upping the difficulty makes the multifarms use up the apatite faster.


    I didnt know GT had pipes, only played GT in 1.4.7.


    One thing I run into with setting up my own pack... its easier for the other users to just fire up FTB and click a couple buttons and play, vs getting them to install the mods etc. Hmm, have to think on that one.


    AE, if I use it, will definitely have higher energy draw.


    The Opencomputers thing with gregtech recipes is cool, this might be the solution I needed. I have a few players who want turtles, but they are so OP that they ruin any attempt at balance. I had heard the other mod had tougher recipes, but real gregtech recipes is better. Now I guess it comes down to leaving ftb and making our own pack. :(


    I didnt know MFR had gregtech recipes, that might be interesting.