(WIP) Project X - Survival Wasteland Modpack

[Golrith]

Oh dear god, not another one!

I've always liked the idea a big wasteland, with challenges to gather even the basic resources to get going, with then eventual travel to space. There are packs out there, but I've always found they "miss the mark" with weird gates, recipes, artificial difficulty and pointless grind.


Project X (name TBC) presents the player with skybox style starting challenges, no water, no dirt, limited food, but with a technological "SCIENCE!" approach in making these resources (and more) from what the wasteland offers. "One mans Toxic Waste is another mans Treasure!"

HQM will be included as a getting started guide, and also as a simple "exchange" system using repeatable "quests". It won't have pointless quests to make things you'll never use, nor will it try and teach you how to use the mods.

Tech progression will be starting with Forestry and Railcraft, leading to Immersive Engineering, followed by GalacticCraft, Thermal Expansion and Mekanism (plus with some others).
TE and Mek will have recipes adjusted to be very expensive (to be on par with Immersive Engineering) and requiring resources which you can mainly find off planet.

While being a tech themed mod, it will include Magical Crops (recipes adjusted to be more "SCIENCE!" crafted) and Thaumcraft (as it's on the border of magic/tech).


I'd like to gather any ideas/suggestions from anyone interested, what have you enjoyed in other survival style packs, what have you hated?

 

[darthwesix]

this mod pack sounds cool have you thought of applied energetics

 

[Golrith]

this mod pack sounds cool have you thought of applied energetics

Yes indeed. I've got a vague notion that AE progression leads to the RF tools, with it's digital dimension system. Seems a natural progression, and an additional "end game" goal to work towards (make your own worlds after exploring/exploting space). I'm thinking also that most of the AE2 resources generate offworld, so you might be able to scavenge together a small setup from the overworld, but once you hit a certain planet, the resources are much more plentiful.

 

[Pyure]

I can't get enough of this genre. Crash Landing nailed it and I'm looking forward to someone else really taking it a step further. Keep at it @Golrith

My advice: Be really careful with Magic Crops as it can be a runaway fix-all-your-problems solution.

Thaumcraft is probably fine. If you've read Terry Brooks, its the same vision: post-apocalyptic setting ignites magic bla blah blah (I forget how that all worked but its reminiscent)

 

[Dylz101]

I would love this. I am totally into the apocalyptic themed anything. Hopefully you finish this one

 

[Golrith]

I can't get enough of this genre. Crash Landing nailed it and I'm looking forward to someone else really taking it a step further. Keep at it @Golrith

My advice: Be really careful with Magic Crops as it can be a runaway fix-all-your-problems solution.

Thaumcraft is probably fine. If you've read Terry Brooks, its the same vision: post-apocalyptic setting ignites magic bla blah blah (I forget how that all worked but its reminiscent)

I enjoyed crash landing up till the point that to progress was just a case of trying to loot from the cities. For me that then got boring and restrictive. I want to ensure that both exploration and crafting will both reward you.

With Magical Crops (aka Mutant Crops in this pack...) I'm thinking of the same settings as I'm using in my OmegaDawn pack, but with different crafting recipes. I'm also using the original version, and not the lastest version (not keen on the latest changes)

Every seed has to be crafted. There's only a 1% chance of a new seed. Crafting the Essences only generates 1 ore block. To SCIENCE! it up, I'm thinking you have to make use of Radioactive Rock fragments, along with a seed, something to represent the resource, some other stuff and zap the whole lot in a buildcraft laser system (IT'S ALIVE!). There's no Essence Ore, and no real point to the starting essence seeds. Plus it adds some food seeds as a bonus.
I'm also thinking of something similar to include Botania, which you get started with by making Floral Fert with a new recipe involving some nice healthy toxic waste. That's still on the drawing board at the moment as some things might make things too easy/pointless.
Both Toxic Waste and Radioactive Rocks will decrease your sanity (which will be a retextured Radiation meter with environmine) so there are side effects from gathering these wasteland resources. Gathering these resources is a key part to the progression. You are going to have to get radiated (insane) in this pack to progress.
I've mentioned Enviromine, and at this point it will only be hydration and radiation (insanity). I've tried time and again to get temperature to not be annoying, but it's just too sensitive mainly due to the speeded up timescale of minecraft.


At the moment I'm experimenting with the world gen, and planning in my mind the steps you need to take to gather the starting resources (dirt, water, saplings) which the HQM will guide you on, then you are pretty much on your own with minor guidance/assistance from HQM.
It's looking pretty good so far, might have some screenies later. After that, review the ores, mods, planets, and sort out the progression path, and minetweak away to achieve this.


There will be a number of ways of gathering resources, it won't be from a simple cobblegen setup though and all methods will have a time element to them, so it becomes more efficient to actually get to the other planets and mine there (well, that's the idea....)


I also need to think of a good way of getting organic resources (aka sieving dirt). HQM and chest loot will provide some/all, but I'd like to have some "tech" approach too.

I would love this. I am totally into the apocalyptic themed anything. Hopefully you finish this one

So do I, and it will be finished. My first version of Omega Dawn (private server 1.4 era) used just wasteland biomes, and the players loved it. The mad scramble just to find wood and any sort of sapling! We ended up as a team and built a base together, so chat was constantly "Found some wood over here, bringing it back", and "Going to use X pieces of wood for Y, is this ok?". I think it took us a couple of days to actually find a tree, and get a sapling from it.

 

[Golrith]

Couple of screenies:

Spoiler

Old village, strange tower, and floaty bits.

This is actually a dried up ocean (just needs some decoration, and ignore the spawners)

 

[Dylz101]

Oh wow that looks cool. What blocks is the surface made of?

 

[Golrith]

Oh wow that looks cool. What blocks is the surface made of?

Custom Blocks, wasteland versions of Stone, Dirt and Sand, plus hardened clay, underneath it all, normal stone. The wasteland materials will be your starting point to get resources (aka sieving), and are basically not renewable (unless you explore new chunks). I'll most likely do decorative blocks for those resources for the builders out there.
There will be super size ore veins to find, but will be rare.

There will be some more custom blocks in the world gen, but I don't want to give to much away Overall look will be a reddish desert (aka mad max, mars).

 

[Dylz101]

Custom Blocks, wasteland versions of Stone, Dirt and Sand, plus hardened clay, underneath it all, normal stone. The wasteland materials will be your starting point to get resources (aka sieving), and are basically not renewable (unless you explore new chunks). I'll most likely do decorative blocks for those resources for the builders out there.
There will be super size ore veins to find, but will be rare.

There will be some more custom blocks in the world gen, but I don't want to give to much away Overall look will be a reddish desert (aka mad max, mars).

Just be sure not to overdo the sieving and such. Nothing worse than having to sit for hours sieving for something you need.
(When I say sit for hours, I really mean put a book on the mouse for a while )

 

[Golrith]

Just be sure not to overdo the sieving and such. Nothing worse than having to sit for hours sieving for something you need.
(When I say sit for hours, I really mean put a book on the mouse for a while )

I'm using a different approach & mod for the "sieving". Just used the word as people tend to know that system. It'll be a automatic system, and it might even be an early quest reward via HQM.
As much as possible, I want to give things a tech/science approach, and not the "magical" approach you get with Ex Nilho.

Just hope all my plans are supported with Minetweaker/Modtweaker First step though is to set the stage and get the worldgen right.

 

[Golrith]

Another sneak peak. Not much progress, having a run of bad luck with COFH worldgen, and had to ditch the newest version of Enviromine for the older version. Just behaves much better and less laggy for the limited features I'm using.

A city you may find, overlooking a dried up sea (featuring one new block to break up the gravel)

Spoiler

 

[Pyure]

Another sneak peak. Not much progress, having a run of bad luck with COFH worldgen, and had to ditch the newest version of Enviromine for the older version. Just behaves much better and less laggy for the limited features I'm using.

A city you may find, overlooking a dried up sea (featuring one new block to break up the gravel)

Spoiler

Jesus dude

I need to suffer a head injury, enter a coma, and wake up just in time to check that out properly.

 

[Pyure]

Golrith, I'm tantalized by the smoke particles coming from the ground in the dried sea. What's going on there? It adds a really nice ruined-landscape touch.

 

[Golrith]

Golrith, I'm tantalized by the smoke particles coming from the ground in the dried sea. What's going on there? It adds a really nice ruined-landscape touch.

Just some railcraft smoker blocks for atmosphere.

 

[Golrith]

So, mucking about changing the actual overworld generation as an alternative in a test pack. This allows more biomes (so could include a biome mod and only allow the wasteland style biomes)

Desert hill biome edging onto a "Wasteland" taint biome, with a dried up river between. (seems there's always a river between a taint biome and another biome). At the moment in time, I'm not sure about allowing the river biome to have dirt & grass (I think I can do something with them, may replace all the blocks, or use cofh world gen to replace patches, so there's still some, but as much). Might also get the Tainted Biome to use the Natura Tainted Soil for it's surface.
Some cultists also showing up.

With taint biomes set to be rare, I don't think there will be that many living trees, plus, to get them, you'll have to get near to the taint.

Down side is that those cities don't generate. So atm it's a choice of more biomes/features and no cities, not cities, and no extra biomes.

Spoiler

 

[Golrith]

Small experiment with ore gen. Solid blocks are just representing the ore (and other things...) and they will be underground (just easier to see when it's in the sky).
It will be a case of finding an ore deposit, then mining what you need and getting it back to base. These massive clusters actually represent the ratio's of vanilla ore generation. Mining in the overworld is not really the best option as there will be a lot of chunks empty of ores.

Spoiler

 

[Pyure]

Down side is that those cities don't generate. So atm it's a choice of more biomes/features and no cities, not cities, and no extra biomes.

Why would we have to surrender the cities? conflicting worldgen mod?

 

[electrifeye]

One thing I'd recommend if you're planning on using the Ex Nilho sieve, is don't get the player to use it for too long. I don't know about others, but personally I feel way too many packs use it, and it makes all these packs the same old grind to get resources. Either introduce the Ex Astris autosieve, or give completely new ways to get resources.

Just some thoughts I wanted to share. Ex Nilho works well as a starting mod, but I feel it gets old quickly. Of course, it's your decision & I'm just trying to be helpful .

 

[Lethosos]

Alternatively you can use a structure generator like Ruins and create a City biome to put them in.

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