[1.7.10] Frostfall - 0.9.0

[Erik3003]

Frozen World Survival

Code: hypothermia
​

Story:
It's dark here, our once blue pearl transformed into a grey shining snowball. But we knew to well, that this was going to happen sometime... Years and years of burning fossil fuels, billions of tons of Carbon Dioxide pumped into our once so fresh atmosphere. We know that this could cause climate change, we know that we could have stopped this, but our industry was more important than our planet.
Temperature differences were proven to be growing, the world was heating up, year after year, but nobody cared. Only when the polar caps were melting, that major cities got flooded and countries gut buried after under oceans, we reacted. But we couldn't stop it. The permafrost melted down to water and methane, lots of methane, blocking the sun under a grey film. Now it really started. It got cold, very cold, temperatures of under -34°C in the Sahara! Mass extinction, 99.997% of all life on earth dead.

Information:
Hypothermia is a modpack where you need to survive in a frozen world. The player starts in a medium sized bunker with some resources. The surface is a very dangerous place, the custom mod Frostfall adds a temperature system that forces underground survival. A (incomplete) story and full (incomplete) ingame instructions are delivered by books and OpenComputers. Mobs and animals are completely (except for dungeons) disabled and the only way to get valuable mobdrops is by searching for custom dungeons on the surface or normal dungeons underground.

WARNING: THIS PACK CONTAINS FASTCRAFT!
When sending bug reports to mod developers please mention this.

ALPHA RELEASE: This pack is incomplete and future updates may force you to restart or forgo new story and map elements. ​

Spoiler: Modlist

BiomeTweaker, allowed custom generation.
Recurrent Complex, generates dungeons and the bunker.
Lockdown, only way to use OpenComputers with Recurrent Complex.
Perfect Spawn, self explaining.
OpenComputers, provides programmable computers.
TIS-3D, providing low-tech computering options.
Railcraft, minecarts extended.
Immersive Engeneering, low-tech industry.
RotaryCraft, very complex and awesome tech-mod.
ReactorCraft, nuclear reactors for RotaryCraft.
ElectriCraft, electricity for RotaryCraft.
Fossil and Archaeology, the "animal" mod for you.
RedLogic, redstone wires and gates.
GrowthCraft, make your own beer.
Realistic Torches, they can't burn forever.
AgriCraft, better farming.
WildCaves 3, better caves.
IguanaTweaks, adds some challenge.
Weather 2, storms and tornadoes.
Chisel 2, nice looking blocks.
SimpleAchievements, some tasks for you.
Enchiridion 2, helpful books.
ItemPhysic Lite, looking awesome.
And some small utility mods and addons.

Spoiler: Changelog

Update 0.9.0:

• Updated Reika's mods
• Updated CoFH Core
• Updated Thermal Foundation
• Changed IguanaTweaks to be less painful
• Fixed OreGen

Update 0.8.2:

• Updated Frostfall

Update 0.8.1:

• Added RedLogic
• Added Immibis Core
• Added Immibis Microblocks
• Added SimpleAchievements
• Added Enchiridion 2
• Added Tis-3d
• Added ItemPhysic
• Updated Reika's mods
• Updated Railcraft
• Updated Immersive Engeneering
• Updated Agricraft
• Updated everything else
• Removed Project:Red
• Updated books
• Updated struktures

Spoiler: Pics

 

[Craig bruyson]

This theme seems interesting. one i have considered role playing in other pack. i look forward to seeing it develop

 

[Shiphty]

I LOVE the premise of this pack and the starting map is excellent but since I'm a noob it's pretty daunting to get into. I think HQM would open this pack up to folks like me.

 

[Cilaren]

"winter is coming" i mean. its here.

looks like an interesting pack. about to try it out.

 

[NoxVindicta]

Only when the polar caps were smelting

*Gasp* polar caps ingots! I am downloaded the pack right now. Oh and I noticed TiC not on the modlist. Isn't Iguanas Tweaks for it?

 

[Erik3003]

I LOVE the premise of this pack and the starting map is excellent but since I'm a noob it's pretty daunting to get into. I think HQM would open this pack up to folks like me.

Thanks, I'm glad you like it
As for HQM, I thought of using it, but decided against it, because I wanted to use OpenComputers instead. Maybe I'll change to HQM, OC isn't really working that well and provides some limitations (no "random" world seeds...)

*Gasp* polar caps ingots! I am downloaded the pack right now. Oh and I noticed TiC not on the modlist. Isn't Iguanas Tweaks for it?

Thanks for the reminder, I'm not native, I'm german in fact, and in germany we say "schmelzen" for smelting and melting
Iguana Tweaks is a standalone mod making the game a little more difficult, you are talking about Iguana Tweaks for TiC.

 

[Jetsetlemming]

Feedback:
Please add WAILA or some similar functionality. I walked right past most of the resources at first until I hit numpad zero and triggered a basic block identification popup to appear (not sure what is providing it). I thought those wooden blocks in front of the computer monitor was just some multiblock IE thing or something.
You're thrown in the deep end at the start. I know the basics of Immersive Engineering, but I still couldn't figure out how to solve the "puzzle" the pack starts with. I built an IE pipe pump, but I couldn't get it to extract the steam from the iron tank.
I was confused by the setup outside those two issues on top of that, until I (slowly, painfully) dug up the walls around the containers. Does the wooden tank just refill on its own automagically? It's gaining water slowly but I have no idea how. I dunno what mod it's even from.
If there's a config or mod that can remove the depth fog, that would be really helpful for the intro to the pack. It gives an unnecessary oppressive atmosphere to that bottom floor that hides options and areas.
In EnderIO they have dark steel ladders that climb way faster. I don't know if anything else adds that, but it would make the central shafts a lot more comfortable.
Not sure why spice of life and slow digging speeds are here, if the focus of the design is on puzzle solving. They just get in the way of me trying to reason out fixing the base, making it aggravating when I'm, for example, digging out the wall trying to see where on earth the pipes are going.
That pile of coal coke by the solid fuel boiler led me to throw it in the boiler as soon as I had dug it all out. It didn't burn long enough to actually make any steam though, since the boiler takes forever to warm up, so I just wasted it all. I later found the resources to put together the IE coke oven, but that's also pretty slow. Maybe just put that coke with the other resources, so I don't expect to use it right away?

I love the idea and basic design of the pack. I look forward to seeing it advance.

 

[Erik3003]

Feedback: -snip...-

Thanks for the feedback
I'm decided to rework (or better add) the documentation using Enchiridion (awesome books!) and SimpleArchivements. As you pointed out the current documentation is very bad and using OpenComputers just adds up to the challenge of creating the documentation.
As for WAILA, I'll look into it, there may be some problems with the NEI version and CC, but that should be doable.
The whole IE piping system is also a mystery to me, I'll figure it out and add documentation. The wooden tank is from RailCraft and does slowly refill itself, maybe not quick enough for the boiler, when it's fully active.
Removing depth fog should be easily doable (considering Frostfall adds fog everywhere, I should reconfigure it to be foggy when at the surface...)
I initially threw SpiceOfLive in to force some food variety, but I am not sure if I should keep it. The slow digging speeds come from Iguana Tweaks and should encourage the player to use automated mining solutions like the tunnel bore (RailCraft is really underused), but I will tweak the speed a little, to be far less annoying.
I might as well redo the industry area (steam...) to be more understandable.
And now to the real problems: ladders. EnderIO isn't an option, because it is focused on mobdrops (rare in Hypothermia) and conducts.
Some sort of elevator would be cool, but Recurrent Complex hates microblocks (if I would use forge relocation)
And again, thanks for the feedback, it is very valuable for me.

 

[Jetsetlemming]

There's the elevator from Open Blocks:
http://ftbwiki.org/Elevator
It's an extremely basic teleporter that moves players up to 30m up or down at a time, they just need to be placed in vertical line with each other. They've got a limit of how many solid blocks can be in between, configurable. They're a bit disorienting, since they are instant teleports, but with proper signage and maybe glass/visibility it could work.

 

[ashwindov]

As someone who has been playing tonnes of modpacks, most of which have HQM, a disaster theme and common tech mods, I have to say that I am completely lost on this one. It took me forever to figure out how to actually get the energy system going, only to be stumped at where to find your instructions on the computer, as I've only encountered the opencomputers LUA tutorial. While I think the premise of the modpack is great, it is extremely poorly executed for a modpack that looks like it has a lot of effort put in it. If it wasnt great I wouldnt bother commenting at all, so please, either make your energy puzzle and computers more straightforward, or just use HQM. Personally, I hope you do the former, since its unique and has the potential to be a great alternative to HQM. But right now its unplayable.

 

[Erik3003]

As someone who has been playing tonnes of modpacks, most of which have HQM, a disaster theme and common tech mods, I have to say that I am completely lost on this one. It took me forever to figure out how to actually get the energy system going, only to be stumped at where to find your instructions on the computer, as I've only encountered the opencomputers LUA tutorial. While I think the premise of the modpack is great, it is extremely poorly executed for a modpack that looks like it has a lot of effort put in it. If it wasnt great I wouldnt bother commenting at all, so please, either make your energy puzzle and computers more straightforward, or just use HQM. Personally, I hope you do the former, since its unique and has the potential to be a great alternative to HQM. But right now its unplayable.

I know, it's unplayable right now. I'm working on better documentation and a lot of fixes (like a rework of the generator room), but the next update will take some time, because school is rather painful right now(exams, 6PM-4AM every day) and Fallout 4 is very relaxing...
I also encounter many problems with OpenComputers (not bugs, but problems with using hard-drives across save-files ==> bad workarounds),
so I have to work on that, maybe Sengar can help me...

 

[Vegar V]

What mod is adding the frost/frost smoke effect? It`s awesome

 

[Erik3003]

What mod is adding the frost/frost smoke effect? It`s awesome

It's Coros Weather mod, tweaked a little bit to lower the clouds. The temperature system is added by my Frostfall mod.

Update might take some time, but it's still worked on.

 

[Vegar V]

Ah I see! I tried it out yesterday. A little bit confusing to begin with but it looks realy cool. The freezing atmosphere outside is realy making you feel that this is cold. Looking forward to see it updated

 

[Celestialphoenix]

Overall concept- love the idea of being stuck underground with supplies running out. Having to risk the surface to survive would play very well- bonus points for not including minimaps; makes exploration and the fear of getting lost very real.

Played for a short while; got stuck after booting the computer- Fair enough, WIP pack
Now the initial challenge building into the above is where it gets interesting;

You don't need a WAILA style thingy to tell players what something is- let them figure it out, its a part of the puzzle. (adding WAILA would break immersion and eat into the feelings of helplessness and isolation you're trying to build)
The hard part is turning it into skill rather than random luck (such as accidental clicking of the supply crate)
-a hint in the book about a pile of supplies near the computer would work suffice.

Likewise the supply pile itself is MASSIVE. You could survive indefinitely on that and never leave the base
(a couple boxes stacked against the wall would do. No saplings/renewability- save that for an outside reward)
--in addition, the stockroom upstairs is empty; so you have this negative design space where the player expects reward/acknowledgement but gets none.
--In terms of stocks, few tins of "food", misc computer parts downstairs. Tools/wire/pipes ect could go in the chest up in the workshop. Few ingots/planks in the store upstairs.
(imminent starvation, thermal clothing, and a hint about other bases would certainly get people out on the surface.)

Map design; the completed boiler is a bit of a red herring- try switching out the boiler top for something like those rusty metal blocks the base is made of, or breaking it apart its inoperable- but a smaller, functioning boiler could be built from the remaining tank and fireboxes.
RE: ladders.
Strip out one side, and we can drop down quickly even if climbing is a little slow. If there were a way to get elevators working after power supply is restored, then that'll be pretty cool. (possibly elevator rails?? computer switches them on when powered)
If you're reworking parts of the base; changing a few of the access points to use stairs instead from off the central shaft would cut out also lot of ladder climbing.​

Overall I love this idea and theres a LOT of potential in what you're designing. Good luck

 

[Erik3003]

Overall concept- love the idea of being stuck underground with supplies running out. Having to risk the surface to survive would play very well- bonus points for not including minimaps; makes exploration and the fear of getting lost very real.
[snip]
Overall I love this idea and theres a LOT of potential in what you're designing. Good luck

Thanks for the great feedback
I already have change the amount of items in the crates in my dev version, the player should have kind of a kickstart, but this was definitively
too much... The boiler room is also overhauled in the dev version, the pipes actually work now and the boiler size has been adjusted. But I really like the idea of the "rusted boiler" and I'll include it! The elevator idea with Railcraft elevator rails is brilliant! I will have some fun figuring that out.

 

[Toskin]

Maybe I'm just idiot, but I was unable to find any data in any harddisk (not counting OpenOS). By the way, should be computer in storeroom (T3 case, T2 monitor) running ? In book is written computer is without power but it's on almost full capacity.

 

[Erik3003]

Update 0.8.1 released!
This update focused on user feedback and allowed the pack to be much more playable.
Thanks for everybody, who submitted feedback.
But this pack is nowhere complete, it still lacks a lot of documentation, but that's easily patchable.
The map likely won't change now, meaning you probably won't need to create a new world every release
from now on.

Have fun and tell me about bugs and problems

 

[Erik3003]

Update 0.9.0 released
-Updated mods
-Fixes and tweaks

Leave some feedback and have fun!

 

[Voulge]

I played your pack for a few hours now. And the energy-puzzle is nice. It took a while for me to recognize, that I do not want to dig for aluminium anymore - there must be another solution for HV-Wires ... and you provided one

About the Tunnel Bore of Railcraft. It is far more slow, than digging myself. And it is not able to place tracks on top of Fossil-Mod-Blocks (i.e. Permafrost-Block). It gets stuck.

About Open Computers ... I have no idea, where to find the instructions or . So, after having enough steam to power the computer, I have no obvious goal.

Nonetheless, I like the idea of this pack. And its mood. I am going to play it a little longer, maybe I missed a clue ;-)