[1.7.10][LISTED] InfiTech 2 Modpack v3.2.21 [HQM][GregTech balanced hard-mode modpack]

[Pyure]

Hello, I am new to this mod pack. What is confusing me is the ore generation. I've done my best to look up what it's like and I have a good idea of what it's like (Ores generate here and there as "small" versions and also in large veins). I've found charts that list where in the y axis certain ores generate at, but I'm not sure anything that I've read is accurate to the current version of this modpack. Example: I've read that iron generates from 10 to 40 on the y axis; I've seen it generate far above that. Is there an accurate chart somewhere or some kind of resource I can look at? Thanks.

I think Ieldra covers this but Iron spawns in multiple veins. For the most part you'll get it in Chalcopyrite and Limonite veins which spawn in the range you mentioned. Magnetite veins however are extremely common on the surface and they also spawn iron to some degree.

I posted this a few comments ago but here's the most recent resource I'm aware of for ore generation.

Thanks. I happen to be in a region with lots of hills with exposed flanks, and after a while I found some tin. However, the water problem proves to be even more intractable than I anticipated. I have (or know where to find) basically everything to enter the steam age, except a water source. Slimes are nowhere in evidence, the methods to make slimeballs are beyond me (where the heck do I find a jellyfish?), and so I wasted a Thaumium pick I made from looted thaumium to mine 10 obsidian in order to enter the Nether, and I find that I can't make the flint and steel I need to make fire? Really, I can run a furnace but I can't make fire anywhere else? Isn't that a bit much? Tbh, I have no idea how to proceed... I searched nearby villages for perhaps a steel ingot or two, but I find lots of interesting stuff (even dark steel), but nothing of what i need.

Ieldra, don't worry, these are all common frustrations. I'll even add to your list that I think we could probably benefit from another source of slime balls, or at least it couldn't hurt.

For the flint and steel thing, the standard response is, you can't make flint and steel w/o steel. For what its worth, I think the reasonable answer to that is to give us another means of making fire then. It shouldn't be gating mechanism to the nether, particularly since steel is extremely prevalent in villages (you're unlucky as all hell btw)

If you're feeling particularly clever and patient, you can light a nether portal using lava underneath some wood next to a portal. But of course one hates being at the mercy of Ghast fireballs gone astray on the other side.

I don't typically have trouble finding slimes. They spawn obnoxiously in your old mines in anything marked as a slime chunk. But you can get them with ic2 crops and (I believe) bees if you're so inclined.

 

[Reign Dance]

I thought of another question. I occasionally hear explosions somewhat in the distance. What's up with that?

 

[Xavion]

Ieldra, don't worry, these are all common frustrations. I'll even add to your list that I think we could probably benefit from another source of slime balls, or at least it couldn't hurt.

You forgot Pneumaticcraft plants I take it? Just use some bone meal on a mature slime plant and wait a few seconds and a slime should spawn, very nice use of them. You can do a similar thing with squid and squid plants. Definitely the easiest way to get them in my opinion, I think with a fortune II sword I averaged something like seven slimeballs per bone meal from memory.

I thought of another question. I occasionally hear explosions somewhat in the distance. What's up with that?

Probably creepers, enderminies will attack them which causes them to become aggressive and explode to attack back. It can be somewhat annoying.

 

[Ieldra]

Ieldra, don't worry, these are all common frustrations. I'll even add to your list that I think we could probably benefit from another source of slime balls, or at least it couldn't hurt.

For the flint and steel thing, the standard response is, you can't make flint and steel w/o steel. For what its worth, I think the reasonable answer to that is to give us another means of making fire then. It shouldn't be gating mechanism to the nether, particularly since steel is extremely prevalent in villages (you're unlucky as all hell btw)

I get that something named "flint and steel" should actually contain some steel. However, I think the function of the tool should determine how it should be rebalanced, if such is considered necessary, and renaming should be considered if the description makes no sense. It makes no sense that we can't make fire early in the game. Even a caveman knows how to do this, and our ability to make furnaces and smelt basic ores implies that we can make fire. As for realism, fire can be made using only wooden tools, so it would actually make sense to have a fire-making tool that doesn't require any metal at all.

If you're feeling particularly clever and patient, you can light a nether portal using lava underneath some wood next to a portal. But of course one hates being at the mercy of Ghast fireballs gone astray on the other side.

I don't typically have trouble finding slimes. They spawn obnoxiously in your old mines in anything marked as a slime chunk. But you can get them with ic2 crops and (I believe) bees if you're so inclined.

I haven't found any mineshafts so far, and it doesn't help that exploring caves in this pack is something of a downer - with there being nothing worthwhile in them. Also, how do you know it's a slime chunk? I recall Mapwriter could show me this, but I'm using the default Journeymap (which I like better anyway). I got my slimeballs (almost half a stack from one night, if you can believe that) by travelling 500 blocks to a swamp-like biome and sitting in a tree to await the night, but not everyone has a swamp biome nearby (if you can call 500 blocks that in the early game). I think it's possible to get seriously stuck on the water issue as you're attempting to progress to the steam age.

Regarding the looted steel, I'm finding quite a few items made of steel, but I can't smelt them down without a blast furnace. Zero ingots though. BTW, as unlucky as I've been with the steel, my location is really nice. I'm in an ExtraBiomesXL Extreme Jungle biome (very beautiful) with some other warm forest-like biomes turning into swamp further away on one side (I already found a rubber tree, though only one) and an expanse of desert and mesa on the other, all liberally sprinkled with hills with some exposed metal and coal veins. I'm sitting under a giant copper vein (which makes me think of making a Forestry Tree farm in the hope the recipes haven't been too heavily Gregified - these farms are ridiculously expensive in copper without GT adding to it), and the omnipresent vines make it possible to climb the cliffs to the exposed ores. It's why I hope I can successfully transfer my world to v3.

BTW, is it standard GT that GT axes can fell whole standard-sized trees by breaking the lowest block in the trunk? Also, do you get any advantage except durability from making axes from (harder) metals? I'm still using flint axes since metals are still somewhat scarce with the low-tech 2:1 ingot to plate ratio.

 

[Ieldra]

One more question: is there any method in Infitech2 to convert power between GT and the RF/MJ world? I see a mod named "Enetbridge" is installed, but I don't know what the technical description means in practical terms. Does it only convert to IC2? To IC2 and GT? To and from IC2 and GT? Also, does BC now have native RF capability? We don't have TE with its implicit RF/MJ conversion.

Edit:
I was reading the planned changes for v3. May I suggest that the recipe for the Forestry farm block (not the functional blocks, just the basic "farm block", i.e. the filler blocks for the multiblock structure) is not made more expensive? I've always found it ridiculously expensive as it is, considering that these blocks are just filler. They aren't even designed as walls, you just have to fill out space with them. Also, I'm thinking of what I should consider a cheat in my current game: what are the plans for Steve's Workshop production table? If it's just that it now requires at least one iron plate and a basic GT tool or two, that's no problem.

 

[Pyure]

I get that something named "flint and steel" should actually contain some steel. However, I think the function of the tool should determine how it should be rebalanced, if such is considered necessary, and renaming should be considered if the description makes no sense. It makes no sense that we can't make fire early in the game. Even a caveman knows how to do this, and our ability to make furnaces and smelt basic ores implies that we can make fire. As for realism, fire can be made using only wooden tools, so it would actually make sense to have a fire-making tool that doesn't require any metal at all.

I hope you understand that you're echoing me and we're in essential agreement on this I've never believed that steel should be a gating mechanism to the Nether. That said, its never been a big obstacle to me, whether because I've played the pack too much or because I've been lucky.

I haven't found any mineshafts so far, and it doesn't help that exploring caves in this pack is something of a downer - with there being nothing worthwhile in them. Also, how do you know it's a slime chunk? I recall Mapwriter could show me this, but I'm using the default Journeymap (which I like better anyway). I got my slimeballs (almost half a stack from one night, if you can believe that) by travelling 500 blocks to a swamp-like biome and sitting in a tree to await the night, but not everyone has a swamp biome nearby (if you can call 500 blocks that in the early game). I think it's possible to get seriously stuck on the water issue as you're attempting to progress to the steam age.

On the contrary I think you were lucky to find such a close jungle. I've noticed some odd biome arrangements and its normal to basically never find a jungle at all.

I was referring to your OWN mining operations btw for slimes. And yes, mapwriter shows those chunks, but honestly I don't use it. They're all over the place (not grouped together), so if you have mines of any kind, you'll eventually hear slimes hopping around. And a large vein excavation can often lead to a large clump of slimes bouncing around. Smack them with a fortune sword and you're good to go. (Thaumium and Aqua-shard swords are early-ish game)

BTW, is it standard GT that GT axes can fell whole standard-sized trees by breaking the lowest block in the trunk? Also, do you get any advantage except durability from making axes from (harder) metals? I'm still using flint axes since metals are still somewhat scarce with the low-tech 2:1 ingot to plate ratio.

This is a newish change in GT (the weak treecapitation). I love to take advantage of it by finding trees that are 2x2 trunks with no branches, but it does deprecate better axes/chainsaws a bit sadly.

In addition to durability, some tool materials confer enchantments. Like mentioned above you can get fortune from thaumium and aqua, but you can also get silk touch from Ordo shards, Fire Aspect from fire shards, and more. Fire aspect on a shovel is a handy way to get glass quickly from a desert or bricks from a claypit.

One more question: is there any method in Infitech2 to convert power between GT and the RF/MJ world? I see a mod named "Enetbridge" is installed, but I don't know what the technical description means in practical terms. Does it only convert to IC2? To IC2 and GT? To and from IC2 and GT? Also, does BC now have native RF capability? We don't have TE with its implicit RF/MJ conversion.

Enetbridge is from "player" (who codes IC2). I don't find it very reliable and I have henpecked Jason to get rid of it.

There are two options that I know of to convert power at this time aside from enetbridge: through galacticraft energy storage clusters (late game, poor conversion ratio, but easy to use) and pneumaticcraft conversion machines (flux compressiors, pneumaticc generators, etc). These can theoretically convert at nominal ratio (4:1 RF:EU) but are much more tricky to use efficiently because they overheat. I find if I cool them really well with heat sinks etc, I can convert around 1500 RF/T with one before I start losing efficiency. I typically run them around 70% efficiency if I'm trying to handle the output of a Big Reactor.

I was reading the planned changes for v3. May I suggest that the recipe for the Forestry farm block (not the functional blocks, just the basic "farm block", i.e. the filler blocks for the multiblock structure) is not made more expensive? I've always found it ridiculously expensive as it is, considering that these blocks are just filler. They aren't even designed as walls, you just have to fill out space with them. Also, I'm thinking of what I should consider a cheat in my current game: what are the plans for Steve's Workshop production table? If it's just that it now requires at least one iron plate and a basic GT tool or two, that's no problem.

Forestry Farms: Probably a good idea?
Steve's Workshop: This mod let you create late-game GT multiblocks such as the Multi Smelter during the early steam age, it was pretty silly. Worse still, if you leveraged solar power on them, they ran for free and very quickly. Whatever solution implemented (whether nerfing the recipes or removing the mod entirely) will need to ensure that the core GT machines don't become useless as a result.

 

[Pyure]

I thought of another question. I occasionally hear explosions somewhat in the distance. What's up with that?

usually ender-minis and creepers fighting it out I believe.

You forgot Pneumaticcraft plants I take it? Just use some bone meal on a mature slime plant and wait a few seconds and a slime should spawn, very nice use of them. You can do a similar thing with squid and squid plants. Definitely the easiest way to get them in my opinion, I think with a fortune II sword I averaged something like seven slimeballs per bone meal from memory.

I've been playing a lot of peaceful mode lately and I totally forgot about these. You're right, if you can find PC slimeball plants, this makes slimeballs utterly trivial.

 

[Ieldra]

Steve's Workshop: This mod let you create late-game GT multiblocks such as the Multi Smelter during the early steam age, it was pretty silly. Worse still, if you leveraged solar power on them, they ran for free and very quickly. Whatever solution implemented (whether nerfing the recipes or removing the mod entirely) will need to ensure that the core GT machines don't become useless as a result.

Well, that appears to fit the definition of "seriously unbalanced". I haven't tried anything fancy with Steve's Workshop yet - just a way to make my manual crafting and processing a little more comfortable. I'll keep these "abuses" in mind.

And yes, I did understand we are agreement about the ability to make fire. I also understand I was lucky to find a location where slimes can spawn aboveground. It's just that I don't consider 500 blocks "nearby" before I can fly. As for power conversion, it appears that the RF world and the EU world will remain separate for a while. That's ok, I just wanted to know. Thanks for the info.

 

[Pyure]

As for power conversion, it appears that the RF world and the EU world will remain separate for a while.

My advice: trust Jason.

 

[Pyure]

And yes, I did understand we are agreement about the ability to make fire. I also understand I was lucky to find a location where slimes can spawn aboveground. It's just that I don't consider 500 blocks "nearby" before I can fly. As for power conversion, it appears that the RF world and the EU world will remain separate for a while. That's ok, I just wanted to know. Thanks for the info.

btw: did you see the tip above about the pneumaticcraft slime plants? They're not hard to find (certainly closer than 500m), easy to breed and you can insta-spawn them with bonemeal.

Bonemeal itself is (I believe) a direct product of flying flower seeds.

Btw, for farming flying seeds, I sorta recommend you do it in a roofed farm

 

[Tsuko]

Thanks. I happen to be in a region with lots of hills with exposed flanks, and after a while I found some tin. However, the water problem proves to be even more intractable than I anticipated. I have (or know where to find) basically everything to enter the steam age, except a water source. Slimes are nowhere in evidence, the methods to make slimeballs are beyond me (where the heck do I find a jellyfish?), and so I wasted a Thaumium pick I made from looted thaumium to mine 10 obsidian in order to enter the Nether, and I find that I can't make the flint and steel I need to make fire? Really, I can run a furnace but I can't make fire anywhere else? Isn't that a bit much? Tbh, I have no idea how to proceed... I searched nearby villages for perhaps a steel ingot or two, but I find lots of interesting stuff (even dark steel), but nothing of what i need.

@Jason McRay:
Yeah, I know it'd be at my own risk.

A trick i use is to place some woodenPlanks near a nether portal and some lava, as the lava tries to spread fire the fire can lit up the portal, you don't have to use flint & steel.

Also keep exploring villages, you should find glowstone which i suspect you need (as did i) and some steel.

 

[Xavion]

I love to take advantage of it by finding trees that are 2x2 trunks with no branches,

Use mega spruce trees, absolutely great for the job. It's a vanilla thing where if you plant a 2x2 of spruce saplings they'll instead grow into a mega spruce, 2x2 trunk with no branches that's 20-30 blocks tall. No wood troubles ever again and easily farmable with rapid leaf decay.

Bonemeal itself is (I believe) a direct product of flying flower seeds.

Not quite, how they work is that each of the colours just give their seeds but those can be shapelessly crafted into the vanilla dye for their colour. There is only 14 colours though, no magenta or light grey dyes can be gained. The notable dyes though are cocoa beans, ink sacs, lapis lazuli, and bone meal, in addition to those bonus propulsion plants and flying flowers can be put in an extractor for sugar and feathers respectively. So overall generally a helpful thing to use even if you're not using pneumaticcraft.

 

[Pyure]

Use mega spruce trees, absolutely great for the job. It's a vanilla thing where if you plant a 2x2 of spruce saplings they'll instead grow into a mega spruce, 2x2 trunk with no branches that's 20-30 blocks tall. No wood troubles ever again and easily farmable with rapid leaf decay.

Not quite, how they work is that each of the colours just give their seeds but those can be shapelessly crafted into the vanilla dye for their colour. There is only 14 colours though, no magenta or light grey dyes can be gained. The notable dyes though are cocoa beans, ink sacs, lapis lazuli, and bone meal, in addition to those bonus propulsion plants and flying flowers can be put in an extractor for sugar and feathers respectively. So overall generally a helpful thing to use even if you're not using pneumaticcraft.

Now that you mention it, I believe spruce is exactly what I use. They're monstrous and look very nice in front of my base. I keep 8 of them and every once in a blue moon I'll take my blue steel axe out and clear them out. That's several stacks of wood in a matter of seconds. I don't bother with treecutting golems at all, that's for sure.

Sorry for being unclear about the flying seeds; I meant as much, but should have said a direct product of the seeds rather than the plants.

 

[Ieldra]

Oh my....how do you find diamonds? I finally got three after a slog of several hours, but this isn't my idea of fun, really. Didn't even find regular ore, just small ore x3. As usual, lots of other stuff I don't need at the moment. Is there something I overlooked or is this just beyond-ridiculously rare? Guide says small ores at levels 5-10 and reguiar ones at 5-20, so I spent most of my time at 13. Didn't find anything there though, only after going down to 8.

 

[Pyure]

Oh my....how do you find diamonds? I finally got three after a slog of several hours, but this isn't my idea of fun, really.

Stop playing this pack Ieldra. Honestly

You've just nailed one of the absolute key points of GT5, which is the oregen. I absolutely love it. Love it to death and I will never, ever play standard vanilla oregen again. That said, if it doesn't work for you, it doesn't work for you.

If you *do* elect to keep punishing yourself though: I often find diamond veins by accident. They're not common, but they're not absurdly rare either.

Dunno if this will help: some players like to spend some time on the first days doing "core sampling". Basically, you plot out a grid where you'll dig a hole straight down every 4x4 chunks or so. Its a quick way to do exploratory mining if you're not looking for anything specific.

On the other hand if you're looking for a specific ore, it really is just best to pick the correct elevation and branch tunnel (again those branches should be around 4 chunks apart at least to account for the massive size of the veins.)

Once you have found a diamond vein, you will be set for diamonds for a long time. That's what I like: you're not randomly finding diamonds, you're trying to establish a diamond mine.

 

[Reign Dance]

That's a good point, Pyure. I hate how hard it is to find something, but it makes that feeling of discovery much more euphoric; and I get to make more established mines.

Quick question. Is there a sort of "tech tree" I can look at as a resource? Like bronze machines to steel machines to whatever is above that? Also, what is a recommended build order for the bronze machines?

 

[DarknessShadow]

Quick question. Is there a sort of "tech tree" I can look at as a resource? Like bronze machines to steel machines to whatever is above that?

The tech tree is seperated in: Flint Age, Bronze Age, (ULV,) LV, MV, HV, ...

Flint Age -> Flint
Bronze Age -> Bronze
ULV -> Wrought Iron
LV -> Steel
MV -> Aluminium
HV -> Stainless Steel
EV -> Titanium
.
.
.

You can see the corresponding resource in the recipe of the Machine Casing.

Also, what is a recommended build order for the bronze machines?

I would probably go for Macerator -> Alloy Smelter (-> Forge Hammer) -> Extractor and lots of Simple Solar Boilers.

 

[Pyure]

Quick question. Is there a sort of "tech tree" I can look at as a resource? Like bronze machines to steel machines to whatever is above that? Also, what is a recommended build order for the bronze machines?

I'm not sure if it qualifies, but @Blood Asp is implementing achievements for GT5U that will almost certainly get rolled up into a future IT version. It would be of some help as a progression tree.
DarknessShadow's list hits all the major gating resources for the first bunch of tiers, and some minor resources that don't really count (wrought iron and possibly flint).

Bronze -> Steel -> Aluminium -> Stainless Steel -> Titanium -> Tungstensteel -> (Osmium?)

For machines in the bronze age, hrm. You'll want the macerator asap. The alloy smelter and extractor are critical for tiering. The forge hammer is rather nice-to-have. The furnace is completely skippable.

I just realized DS answered that part too. The only thing I'll add is that the Solar Boilers are absolutely fantastic for single player, but nearly useless in multi-player unless you're confident you can sleep through the night as often as you'd like.

 

[Ieldra]

Stop playing this pack Ieldra. Honestly

You've just nailed one of the absolute key points of GT5, which is the oregen. I absolutely love it. Love it to death and I will never, ever play standard vanilla oregen again. That said, if it doesn't work for you, it doesn't work for you.

If you *do* elect to keep punishing yourself though: I often find diamond veins by accident. They're not common, but they're not absurdly rare either.

Dunno if this will help: some players like to spend some time on the first days doing "core sampling". Basically, you plot out a grid where you'll dig a hole straight down every 4x4 chunks or so. Its a quick way to do exploratory mining if you're not looking for anything specific.

On the other hand if you're looking for a specific ore, it really is just best to pick the correct elevation and branch tunnel (again those branches should be around 4 chunks apart at least to account for the massive size of the veins.)

Once you have found a diamond vein, you will be set for diamonds for a long time. That's what I like: you're not randomly finding diamonds, you're trying to establish a diamond mine.

I actually am randomly finding - or rather not finding - diamonds, at least until I have found a vein. That's why this is so frustrating. Also, four chunks apart? Are you telling me even the diamond/graphite veins are of that size? In that case there is something I can do to increase my chances.

As for GT oregen in general, I think it works best for people who like to spend some time early in the game randomly exploring the underground - right from the start, I found some stuff I'll need later rather often - not having to look for Redstone, Antimony, Aluminium or Manganese once I get to the point where I need it is really nice (and it's why I keep going). If you're looking for something specific and rare, however, it tends to get frustrating - I see more of that coming when it comes to Nickel. I like the sense of achievement you get by discovering a new vein. However, I'm the type of player who always looks forward to the time when I spend more time building than mining - and then I end up spending two and a half hours cutting away stone in straight lines. I would have an easier time putting up with it if there was some sort of scanner somewhere up the tech tree that makes this less necessary in future, but I haven't found any. I think I might end up liking GT's tech progression better than RotaryCraft's, but the way RotaryCraft makes certain resources almost a non-issue as you progress up the tech tree definitely suits my preferred playstyle better.

On the fun side: I also spent some time figuring out how to progess to level 3 mining equipment without Thaumcraft in the pack. As far as I could determine, you need to build a blast furnace (can be low-tier) and process chrome and titanium dusts you get randomly from certain level 2 ores, then make the first level 3 pickaxe heads from chrome or titanium. Using Thaumcraft shards is way easier though. Not only are they more common if you're still limited to level 2 mining equipment, but making a pickaxe head from them only needs a file.

 

[sprAngles]

I actually am randomly finding - or rather not finding - diamonds, at least until I have found a vein. That's why this is so frustrating. Also, four chunks apart? Are you telling me even the diamond/graphite veins are of that size? In that case there is something I can do to increase my chances.

As for GT oregen in general, I think it works best for people who like to spend some time early in the game randomly exploring the underground - right from the start, I found some stuff I'll need later rather often - not having to look for Redstone, Antimony, Aluminium or Manganese once I get to the point where I need it is really nice (and it's why I keep going). If you're looking for something specific and rare, however, it tends to get frustrating - I see more of that coming when it comes to Nickel. I like the sense of achievement you get by discovering a new vein. However, I'm the type of player who always looks forward to the time when I spend more time building than mining - and then I end up spending two and a half hours cutting away stone in straight lines. I would have an easier time putting up with it if there was some sort of scanner somewhere up the tech tree that makes this less necessary in future, but I haven't found any. I think I might end up liking GT's tech progression better than RotaryCraft's, but the way RotaryCraft makes certain resources almost a non-issue as you progress up the tech tree definitely suits my preferred playstyle better.

On the fun side: I also spent some time figuring out how to progess to level 3 mining equipment without Thaumcraft in the pack. As far as I could determine, you need to build a blast furnace (can be low-tier) and process chrome and titanium dusts you get randomly from certain level 2 ores, then make the first level 3 pickaxe heads from chrome or titanium. Using Thaumcraft shards is way easier though. Not only are they more common if you're still limited to level 2 mining equipment, but making a pickaxe head from them only needs a file.

Or if you're lucky enough to have found a Nickel vein, mine out the Cobaltite ore (which can be mined with iron). Merely smelting it would give you fantastic cobalt ingots that you can use to forge level 3 picks.