Ok, so I'm planning on starting the Refugee to Regent Challenge.
I also plan on using Custom Ore Generation; along with like 200 other mods, from new tiny things like iBench to the old standbys like Buildcraft (no IC2 though), right on through giant content heavy mods (and mod families) like Rotarycraft/Chromaticraft and Thaumcraft. CoG will be in my pack regardless as I have some issues with certain worldgen features that I wish to remove, and CoG appears to be the only method of doing so at least a few cases.
I would like to use the more interesting ore generation styles like the vein and cloud distributions. The problem with this is that once I progress to the point where I am allowed to use ores to start progressing, I may have to spend hours using exploratory mining techniques in order to get into many of the mods (basically everything is gated behind iron for example. Even with the biome-based weighting, finding my first iron vein is not something I look forward to as currently described.
Which is why I'm asking you knowledgeable people. I know the basic mechanic I'm looking for. It's been done a dozen times before with mods. For example: Charlotte's Utilities, Greg's Prospecting, Finder Compass, Ender Prospecting, and MineFantasy — as well as the Sluice, Gold Pan (pre v78), and Prospector's Pick from TerraFirmaCraft, and the venerable Equivalent Exchange. There are problems with all of the methods I have available for 1.7.10. Some methods I find to be too cheaty (Finder compass, external tools, x-ray), some are gated behind metal to craft (Finder Compass, Greg's Prospecting, the Prospector's Pick, Ender Prospecting, and the useable options in Equivalent Exchange), one require examples of the ore to "tune" (Ender Prospecting), another is in a mod that isn't compatible with the rest of my pack (TerraFirmaCraft), and a lot of them haven't been updated to 1.7.10 (Everything except for TFC, Finder Compass, and Equivalent Exchange [Project E is awesome!]).
Many of them would work just fine if they were updated. Heck I'd be happy with a dowsing rod style mechanic much like the archaeology in World of Warcraft (points you somewhere in a 120 degree arc of the target when far away, 90 when at a "medium" range, and 30 when close) that I could tune myself. Or possibly a panning method that will give me nuggets so I can get some of the more inexpensive items like the medium divining rod or one of the "tuneable" prospectors. The point isn't to get resources from nothing (I'd just use Ex Nihilo if that was the case) or for no effort. What I want is a way to avoid having to search for in-game weeks in order to start on like 90% of the content in my modpack. I don't need radar, I don't need pinpoint accuracy. I just want "There's ore near here" so I can at least be directed and somewhat time efficient.
Then again I could be crazy (having never actually played in a world with CoG ore generation), and it's not actually that hard to find ores, and this whole topic might have been for naught. Obviously I can just use standard ore generation as well, but I like the idea of actually making an Iron Mine, that actually functions as an iron mine, and building a little mining village around it, with transport and all that fun stuff.
I also plan on using Custom Ore Generation; along with like 200 other mods, from new tiny things like iBench to the old standbys like Buildcraft (no IC2 though), right on through giant content heavy mods (and mod families) like Rotarycraft/Chromaticraft and Thaumcraft. CoG will be in my pack regardless as I have some issues with certain worldgen features that I wish to remove, and CoG appears to be the only method of doing so at least a few cases.
I would like to use the more interesting ore generation styles like the vein and cloud distributions. The problem with this is that once I progress to the point where I am allowed to use ores to start progressing, I may have to spend hours using exploratory mining techniques in order to get into many of the mods (basically everything is gated behind iron for example. Even with the biome-based weighting, finding my first iron vein is not something I look forward to as currently described.
Which is why I'm asking you knowledgeable people. I know the basic mechanic I'm looking for. It's been done a dozen times before with mods. For example: Charlotte's Utilities, Greg's Prospecting, Finder Compass, Ender Prospecting, and MineFantasy — as well as the Sluice, Gold Pan (pre v78), and Prospector's Pick from TerraFirmaCraft, and the venerable Equivalent Exchange. There are problems with all of the methods I have available for 1.7.10. Some methods I find to be too cheaty (Finder compass, external tools, x-ray), some are gated behind metal to craft (Finder Compass, Greg's Prospecting, the Prospector's Pick, Ender Prospecting, and the useable options in Equivalent Exchange), one require examples of the ore to "tune" (Ender Prospecting), another is in a mod that isn't compatible with the rest of my pack (TerraFirmaCraft), and a lot of them haven't been updated to 1.7.10 (Everything except for TFC, Finder Compass, and Equivalent Exchange [Project E is awesome!]).
Many of them would work just fine if they were updated. Heck I'd be happy with a dowsing rod style mechanic much like the archaeology in World of Warcraft (points you somewhere in a 120 degree arc of the target when far away, 90 when at a "medium" range, and 30 when close) that I could tune myself. Or possibly a panning method that will give me nuggets so I can get some of the more inexpensive items like the medium divining rod or one of the "tuneable" prospectors. The point isn't to get resources from nothing (I'd just use Ex Nihilo if that was the case) or for no effort. What I want is a way to avoid having to search for in-game weeks in order to start on like 90% of the content in my modpack. I don't need radar, I don't need pinpoint accuracy. I just want "There's ore near here" so I can at least be directed and somewhat time efficient.
Then again I could be crazy (having never actually played in a world with CoG ore generation), and it's not actually that hard to find ores, and this whole topic might have been for naught. Obviously I can just use standard ore generation as well, but I like the idea of actually making an Iron Mine, that actually functions as an iron mine, and building a little mining village around it, with transport and all that fun stuff.
