IC2 release

Quote from cpy

I must say, that forestry is hellova addon for mc, that biodiesel (biofuel) is just pure goodness, no more pesky oil grabbing.

I agree. It does love it's dirt though. I have to be careful with my recycling chain until I get the full farm set up.

Quote from cpy

I must say, that forestry is hellova addon for mc, that biodiesel (biofuel) is just pure goodness, no more pesky oil grabbing.

I'm glad you tried it and very glad you like it! YEah, this is the first time in all my many moons of playing Minecraft that I've actually run low on dirt!

It's going to be harder in 1.0, though - diamonds have been moved 2 levels lower, meaning they are very scarce above the lava layer and when they are found, it's more likely rhey will be in among bedrock. Consequently, it's tough as hell to find the number of diamonds you'll need.

It won't be so bad once IC2 makes the leap - at least, then, you can create them.

Quote from cpy

I was thinking of making charcoal farm for diamonds, but then i'd still need other material, but doing all of this without EE might be really harder, and probably more fun
Anyone have some opinion on NOT using Equivalent Exchange?

All i've got to say is that I used it on 1.8 and it felt a *lot* like cheating to me. Turning renewable resources (cobble counts) into anything you want? eh... not so much. Then there's the aggrigators, those just make the whole thing even worse.
Anyway: once I really got established I didn't really have want of diamond, though it did take a little bit to scrape up enough for a quarry. (had a diamond drill by then, lucked out and found 3 pretty early in my digging) Though this was also largely before the glass fibre recipe got knocked in half but I still don't see a huge diamond problem in my future for 1.0

Supposedly the rarity of diamonds increased by a noticeable quantity in 1.0. There hasn't been any update yet on the other wiki ( http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Diamond_Ore ) but that does follow the trend.

You won't find diamonds where they were before, and you won't find as many of them overall.
It used to be a safe bet to mine on level 12 ("sea level" for lava), quench any lava you came across, and find diamonds in the caverns. Now, most of them will be below the level of lava - so you won't be able to search as many places and you'll have to mine much more carefully.

Quote from cpy

I was thinking of making charcoal farm for diamonds, but then i'd still need other material, but doing all of this without EE might be really harder, and probably more fun
Anyone have some opinion on NOT using Equivalent Exchange?

In my opinion is EE just for fun and not so that you really could use it as a Industrial-ish mod Like BC, IC or even Railcraft. Mostly it's ok having fun with, but not getting super large machineries (sry if i mispoke it O_o..). But that's just my opinion..

Quote from cpy

I was thinking of making charcoal farm for diamonds, but then i'd still need other material, but doing all of this without EE might be really harder, and probably more fun
Anyone have some opinion on NOT using Equivalent Exchange?

I ran the last version of EE for about 5 hours in a new build. Had a diamond factory up in that time and figured it wasn't much fun. The new version looks better but meh. In my current world I have run 100% legit never taking it off normal mode and I have more diamonds than I have uses and I fab mostly Iron followed by redstone when needed.

Currently running 25 gen wind tower, 300+ gen water tower, 350+ solar panels, 2 nukes (1) six chamber (1) single chamber.

So yes you do not need EE to get a lot done. It's in my opinion more fun to have to manage resources tightly. I just wish there was more use for copper. I am now making blocks for a future building made from it.

Running IC2,BC,RP2, portal, wireless redstone.

Quote from mahkra

I just wish there was more use for copper. I am now making blocks for a future building made from it.

Heh, that sounds familiar. in my current world (the one that's mostly been abandoned in the wait for 1.0) i've got a two story copper block shack (like maybe 4x4 on the inside) just because I had that much copper sitting around.

Iron is pretty abundant from sea level on down. I don't ever "search" for it per se, but I mine all of it that I find. Usually I just follow cave networks as far down as they go. I always get plenty of coal this way, too.
As for gold? You'll generally find it at the same altitudes as redstone. I like to mine at level 12, this way any lava lakes I come across are at my feet and I can quench them with a water bucket and continue on.
I wouldn't say I ever have a "lot" of gold, but I always seem to have more than I need.

Quote from cpy

So how do you guys find gold and iron? Especially lapis! I guess without EE world will be always fun to drill with quarries
Hole what hole?.... AAAAAAAaaaaaaaaa splash!
I wish i could only keep fuel making from EE, redstone -> mobius fuel, i mean damn that thing burn good! And destruction catalyst, you just zap zap zap and have hole underground.

in 1.8 and before? branch mining at level 12. Probably going to have to move it to level 6 or so in 1.0
"Branch mining" being a central (in my case 3x3 but it can be smaller) tunnel with offshoot shafts every three blocks (two solid in between) so no block gets misses.
hope that made sense

once I get going the underground mine tends to be abandoned in favor of quarries or miners.
as to the giant quarry hole? I tend to build them off in the distance so it isn't too much of an issue. (yay teleport pipes!) If they're too close i'll cover it in dirt with wool corner markers and a sign warning of the thin dirt cover.

I tend to use the filler to put back all the unneeded cobble and dirt - there's usually enough to almost fill it up.
That's why I like IC2 Miners better - they harvest from the same amount of area, but they only collect cobble that's directly in the path of the shaft to whatever real resources they are after. And if it comes across lava, it doesn't stop providing you have a pump.

Quote from HeadHunter67

And if it comes across lava, it doesn't stop providing you have a pump.

Not only that... I added two geo generators to my mining rig (4x diamond drill/OV/pump), and am able to get 20-40% of the power for it from the lava it pumps up.

Quote from HeadHunter67

I tend to use the filler to put back all the unneeded cobble and dirt - there's usually enough to almost fill it up.
That's why I like IC2 Miners better - they harvest from the same amount of area, but they only collect cobble that's directly in the path of the shaft to whatever real resources they are after. And if it comes across lava, it doesn't stop providing you have a pump.

personally I don't like miners for just those reasons. leaves the underground a royal mess vs. a nice, "clean" hole. Call it a personal choice/thing/whatever. I also usually fill in any holes in the walls as it goes if I get there in time. Has lead to more than one quarry "mining" a several torches as I shuffle the thing to the side some if there's a cave I explore.
plus I can re-purpose the hole should I so choose. in the IC1 (1.7.3) days I turned my first quarry hole into a cactus farm to feed some recyclers.
as to lava? isn't much of a problem if you flood the hole, with a default size quarry I think you only need 1-2 buckets of water in a corner. any lava automatically becomes obsidian and mined.

Quote from cpy

Sounds like more fun having to play without EE, but what the hell you do with all the dirt and cobble? Route it to recyclers?

The forestry mod will use some of this. I turn cobble into stone bricks or sand/glass. If I have too much of these, off to the recycler!