Current modpack comparison?

[Cougar281]

I have been playing Direwolf20 1.7 for some time, and jus tstarted playing around with the 1.10 version, and to be honest, I'm not really liking it because there's so much that seems to be missing from it (for one example - it has MFR and TE, but it doesn't have all the MFR and TE machines), so I'm interested in looking at something else that might be more in-line with the 1.7 version of DW20, maybe with a few more mods.

I searched around, but the only comparison I could find was an old excel doc from about two years ago - is there any current side by side comparison of what packs contain what mods?

 

[erindalc]

1.7.10 to 1.10.2 lost a number of mods to dev inactivity or a mod overhaul. There's lots of thing missing but there's also lots of new mods to replace them.

MFR specifically didn't get updated, but there are lots of alternatives in Ender IO, Actually Additions, and Extra Utilities.

Things are definitely different, but there are lots of benefits (support, new technologies that allow for new mods such as chisel and bits) to updating that outweigh the loss of old familiar mods.

 

[Cougar281]

I've been looking through everything that's part of the 1.10 version of DW20, and there just doesn't seem to be a viable way to do most of the things I usually would do early game.

My typical progression in a new world would be to mine until I got the resources to build a mining turtle, which I would then use to quarry, until I had the resources to build a quarry. Once I had those resources, I would also start in with power generation - possibly something like a leadstone energy cell and some way to generate RF. My early(ish) game RF generation was usually a boiler fired by coal/charcoal, which drove one or more steam dynamos or similar. I would then scale that up from small time to the largest HP boiler and as many steam turbines as it could run, powered by charcoal sourced from a tree farm out side using two MFR planters and harvesters, planting and harvesting eucalyptus trees, feeding the wood to a small bank of redstone furnaces, which then output the charcoal to a chest, which went on to the boiler. In my long running world, I have eight steam boilers making 1200RF/t which has been running non stop for a very long time with no intervention and is my primary power source. I then have a Big Reactors reactor that I built that can put out something like 48K RF/t for when I fire up my ender quarry. Which gets power and sends items using tesseracts.

Essentially, none of this exists in 1.10, unfortunately. Best I can tell, there is no effective way for me to build anything like this in DW20 1.10. I have a builder created (which works nice as a quarry, even though it's quite power hungry), but the power gen isn't there - it's taken ages to get (and burn) enough resources (coal/charcoal) to make enough RF to use it three times for a 9x9 quarry.

Am I missing something? What is everyone using for early game automated power gen?

 

[erindalc]

Tree farms to fuel Stirling or steam engines or magmatic generators with nether lava is why most people use for early game power generation.

Automated mining should not be something you immediately obtain. Hammers are super easy to make, so take a hammer, some forestry bags, a bunch of torches, and mine for a few hours at different levels. You'll probably have enough resources for a while. However, there are void ore miners from environmental something or other, and the ic2 miner.

Also, try new things. There's lots of other power options (look and the new thermal expansion dynamos and some of the new ExUtil2 generators. Don't just stick to the same things, or you might as well play 1.7.10 forever.

 

[Starfang42]

Tree farms to fuel Stirling or steam engines or magmatic generators with nether lava is why most people use for early game power generation.

Automated mining should not be something you immediately obtain. Hammers are super easy to make, so take a hammer, some forestry bags, a bunch of torches, and mine for a few hours at different levels. You'll probably have enough resources for a while. However, there are void ore miners from environmental something or other, and the ic2 miner.

Also, try new things. There's lots of other power options (look and the new thermal expansion dynamos and some of the new ExUtil2 generators. Don't just stick to the same things, or you might as well play 1.7.10 forever.

The mod with the ore miner is Environmental Tech.

Also, I prefer Iron Backpacks. Mining upgrade + Compression Upgrade = awesomeness. Especially if Extra Utilities is installed, since you can use the compression upgrade to compress the cobble.

 

[Inaeo]

Early game power generation with Actually Additions Canola is pretty simple to get going, and it can scale up as your needs grow. The AA Farmer or EnderIO Farming Station can take care of your crops and tree farms. If Forestry is in (I forget the exact mod list), you have the old reliable Multifarm, which as much as I dislike setting up, is quite efficient as a charcoal farmer. If you hadn't heard, Big Reactors is no more, but it's spiritual successor, Extreme Reactors, is basically a direct port for now (with plans to expand and reimagine as time moves on), so your medium-large scale power is basically the same if you can find enough fuel for it.

I'm a firm believer in the RFTools Builder, as it works fantastic as both a quarry and an actual building tool. It's ability to move and/or copy existing structures makes it invaluable to me. If all you're looking for is a mining solution, the XU EnderQuarry has been replaced by the Quantum Quarry, and it mines a different dimension rather than your own. I believe you can tell it which biome to mine from, in case you need something dependant (Emeralds from Extreme Hills, extra gold from Mesas, etc.).

Over all, the answer is to step outside what you would have done when you knew all the answers and find new ways to do things. 1.10 brings new things, and even the things you used to rely on may have changed. Welcome to the beginning of a new era. I hope you enjoy your stay.

 

[Cougar281]

I have been playing around and still am on the fence. I did set up a Canola farm, but while it's better than getting coal/charcoal to power the furnaces, it's nothing compared to the function of the tree farms I've set up in the past.

It's not terribly fast at producing canola, so power comes in spurts - and it seems like the oil generators never stop running and are continuously burning oil. What I was hoping/expecting is that when power usage is low, maybe one of the generators would run, and there woudl be enough oil built up in drums to keep it full while keeping a reserve for when I need more power. But as I said, the canola production is pretty slow. And that's with TWO farmers running. Also, another problem I've had, which was easy to solve with the MFR Planter and harvester, is seed overflow. If left unattended, eventually, the farmers fill up with seeds and seem to stop working.

The builder is pretty good as a quarry - its biggest drawback being that it's power hungry.

 

[Drbretto]

There's an AA tree farm?? I'm on that!

And you've really sold me on that RF Tools builder.. I think it's time to look into that one too.

 

[Cpt_gloval]

You can speed up Canola growth with worms, hoe grass and you will get a few. They will keep a 3x3 area moist and increase growth ticks.
You can also, once you het further up the tech tree for AA, make Greenhouse glass which also increases growth ticks.

I can usually run 4 canola presses to 5 fermentation barrels on 2 AA farms this way and keep up with demand.
Then, when you are ready, using fluid droppers from ExU you can build out auto creation of the two upgrade oils for even more power.

As for turning off the generators when not in use, they are redstone controlled. They stop running if they receive a signal.
You can use an EnderIO power monitor to supply that.

Takes a bit to get there but in my play through od DW20's 1.10 pack I had 10 Canola Generators running on empowered canola oil for 3500k rf/t.
Was plenty for most things until I got to the point I made a reactor.

 

[Cougar281]

How did you overcome the problem of the seeds filling up the farmer? With the MFT Planter and Harvester, it was easy - set the planter with a a higher priority than a garbage can on the conduit so the saplings would go to the planter - but when it could no longer take any more, they would then go to the garbage can. Can't figure out how to address that with the way the farmer works. I could remove the seeds, but then it would not have any to plant.

 

[Inaeo]

How did you overcome the problem of the seeds filling up the farmer? With the MFT Planter and Harvester, it was easy - set the planter with a a higher priority than a garbage can on the conduit so the saplings would go to the planter - but when it could no longer take any more, they would then go to the garbage can. Can't figure out how to address that with the way the farmer works. I could remove the seeds, but then it would not have any to plant.

I believe the seeds in the left side are kept as a planting stock, while any that enter the right side are available for export.

 

[GamerwithnoGame]

I believe the seeds in the left side are kept as a planting stock, while any that enter the right side are available for export.

I can second this, the seeds for planting on the left do not (or at least should not) get taken by item export.

 

[Cpt_gloval]

Correct. Pipe to large void drawers and you are all set.dont toss the extra seeds, you need bunches if you want to higher tier fuel. Y seeds per bucket of empowered.

 

[GamerwithnoGame]

Correct. Pipe to large void drawers and you are all set.dont toss the extra seeds, you need bunches if you want to higher tier fuel. Y seeds per bucket of empowered.

DEFINITELY seconding this as well. I actually found I needed a LOT more seeds than I realised - expanding on what Gloval said, you need 1 seed (crystallised) per bucket of crystallised oil, and 5 more seeds (4 normal, 1 crystallised) per bucket of empowered oil. Something that might be useful is the fact that (I believe) canola can be crafted into canola seeds, so if you've got a huge backlog of canola, and are a bit shy on seeds, you can make more fairly easily. There are very simple setups available for the crystallisation (the AA manual even includes instructions on this) and the empowerment is actually very straightforward too. The power gain you get from taking these extra steps is more than worthwhile.

 

[Drbretto]

Doesn't the AA farm get stuck if there are too many seeds in there? If you can't pipe them out, wouldn't that cause some jams?

 

[Cougar281]

Doesn't the AA farm get stuck if there are too many seeds in there? If you can't pipe them out, wouldn't that cause some jams?

Yes, it would, but as it turns out,t he machine doesn't allow the pipe pulling inventory to pull from the left side, only the right, so once the left side fills and the seeds start spilling over to the right side, they can be pulled from the right side as long as you don't have a filter stopping it (I did have a filter because I didn't realize it wouldn't pull from the left side).

What mod are the 'Large void drawers' from? The only drawers I could find in the DW20 pack are from 'Storage Drawers', which don't seem to have a void upgrade that I could find, and the largest one only holds 32 stacks (although the largest upgrade can go to 13x base - if you fill that up you definitely don't want to break it).

 

[Drbretto]

Oh, ok, I didn't realize they spilled over to the other side. That works, then!

Storage drawers have do void upgrades, though. I built some just last night. To be fair, though, I overlooked them like 15 times in the JEI window.

 

[GamerwithnoGame]

Oh, ok, I didn't realize they spilled over to the other side. That works, then!

Storage drawers have do void upgrades, though. I built some just last night. To be fair, though, I overlooked them like 15 times in the JEI window.

Yep, its easy to miss it - I've done the same. And yeah, its a really nice feature of the AA Farmer - the way it spills over, so there's always enough seeds to replant, but excess has a route to be exported. I really like AA - I may have mentioned this

 

[Drbretto]

I really like AA - I may have mentioned this

Since actually trying it, it's been my new favorite. It's my new ExU1

 

[GamerwithnoGame]

Since actually trying it, it's been my new favorite. It's my new ExU1

While it doesn't have some of the random super useful utilities ExU originally had, I totally get what you mean! it does add some lovely functionality, I think the drill is brill, the phantomfaces are spookily good, and the whole canola oil system is just really... nice! (I couldn't think of a word play for that)

I haven't used the item laser system in AA yet, but the power lasers are surprisingly straightforward to use. Power storage is one thing I'd like to have seen a bit more of - although I did realise recently that the Energizer and Enervator have HUGE power transfer rates - so assuming you can get power into and out of them fast enough, one trick you could use is to take AA batteries (the mod kind, not the 1.5V kind), say the quadruple or quintuple ones, and send those between locations. So for example, you have your big power gen factory - that charges up a battery, which goes into an ender chest. That's pulled out at your power use end and thrown into an enervator for using the power, then sent back when its done.

I haven't tested the viability of this system, mind, but I reckon it would work.