A Journal of a Determined Soul (Infitech2 Let's Journal)

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I've started this playthrough because while discussing FTB Continuum, I was reminded that somehow I never got around to playing this pack back in the 1.7 heyday. Probably it was GT that scared me off, I was never a huge fan of that mod, but maybe it is time to revisit that.

Journal Entry: Day one - a strange text

Let it never be said that I shied away when life issues me a challenge. Or perhaps it might be better said that I have a tendency to let my curiosity get the better of me. Either way, when I found a strange manual, it sparked my interest. No mere subsisting in a village anymore, it was time to go forth and forge a new life for myself. Perhaps to die horribly, yes, I accept the risks, but to see before me a path to something more than subsistence level farming and to turn from it... that would be the far more cruel way to die.

The village priest took one look at the text and recoiled in horror, urging me to destroy it immediately, muttering something about a great evil, even moreso than the feared Herobrine... that name, uttered in whispers, was nothing less than Gregorious himself. That name struck fear in the hearts of many, but for some strange reason, it never did for myself. Maybe it is a fey mood that has struck me, maybe it was just that anything seemed better than the utter boredom of village life. The priest then gave me the ultimatum: destroy the book, or be banished. I chose a third option: to leave, with nothing more than the clothes on my back.

I journeyed for some time before pausing to get my bearings. I was well and truly lost, which simply removed one more temptation from my path. How could I go back now, when I didn't even know where 'back' was? With this last tie to my past severed, the only way onward was forward.

Spoiler: pictures

On one side, a dark and forbidding looking forest. On the other, and equally dangerous looking jungle.

My first goal is to establish myself a defensible position. Food, water, shelter, and the tools to make them with. Fortunately, a small pond had a gravel bed that I can start the process of obtaining flint to make the most basic of tools with.

Equally fortunate is that there was a small flock of sheep nearby, so I could make a bed, because I was certainly not ready to take on the night.

Journal Entry: Day four - New Beginnings

I seem to have found a few stumbling blocks into what I thought was a trivial process. It seems that I can no longer simply craft flint from gravel, I will need a mortar to do so, which requires smooth stone. Fortunately, wood stands in as an acceptable substitute for coal or charcoal, but apparently it takes a coking oven to make charcoal these days. I've also got a very primitive farm going, with a cereal grain and tomatoes. Hopefully, I will find more hearty foods in my adventure.

Once I had finished the task of crafting the flint tools and the mortar, I found some coins that had been left on the crafting table, and no clue of how they got there. Very mysterious. However, even more mysterious is that the book has expanded and given me some information on ores, what can and cannot be obtained yet. It took me a bit to find a herd of cattle for the leather needed for the book, and poking my nose into a cave yielded some small ores that were obtainable with my petty flint pickaxe, but I found myself incapable of producing paper for the book to make the guidebook with.

It seems clear that now I must obtain either many small piles of ore to produce a hammer with, or find some limonite. But without an ore guide, I will be blindly staggering about. But if I wanted easy, I would've stayed back in my home village.

 

[Pyure]

Sweet! If you can tolerate the pack for more than a week given your lack of interest in GT, utter kudos.

Your picture thumbnails appear to be busted btw.

And I'll be happy to delete/bumpdown this post if you particularly wanted to second post for yourself.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Journal Entry: Day... Seven-ish? - Hierarchy of Needs

So, I have no shelter, no real steady food supply, and a distinct lack of knowledge about the area. It's time to solve at least none of these problems, apparently. Spent the past couple of days scouting the area. This plains has many small ponds, and a river which runs through it, and it is riddled with very shallow caves. Shallow enough that it even pokes through in some places. It makes it far easier to explore, although the typical caving hazards, namely monsters, are still prevalent. Fortunately, I found a few rubber trees, so I have an adequate supply of torches for my initial expeditions, which yielded a few small ores of various types, including some copper and tin. I did find a couple of areas which had Magnetite Ore, which seemed to have some Gold mixed in, but no way of collecting it, or of using it even if I could.

The big break came yesterday. While wandering, I emerged into a savanna that led to a desert. This was useful for obtaining Cactus, which I have a sneaking suspicion will be required later. But more importantly, it led me to another village! While not my home village, and the occupants weren't particularly chatty, I did discover an abandoned forge and found a good stash of Bronze and an iron pickaxe. While the pickaxe was a vanilla one, which didn't seem particularly useful at the moment, I was confident there would be ample uses for it later on. There were also a few crops that I helped myself to, just one or two of each for planting purposes mind you. I wasn't going to steal every last bit of food they had, after all. But some potatoes would go a long way to establishing a stable diet. Furthermore, there was a library in town, which gave me a ready supply of books, of which I was grateful since paper is apparently more difficult to make these days.

Heading back with my mostly-legitimately gotten gains (they didn't argue, after all), I immediately make myself a Bronze Hammer, plus a wooden mallet. Then a Bronze file.

Smelting up some of the small copper bits I had attained in my surface spelunking, I was able to fashion a pot and a saucepan and cutting board. Then with some clay, I was able to make bakeware, then proceeded to craft a mortar and pestle out of some stone and a stick. With these tools, I might be able to make myself a steady diet. However, there was just one problem... almost everything I was looking at making required bread, and bread required dough, and dough required water which required a bucket... which required iron plates.

Frustrated at my lack of progress in obtaining a decent source of food beyond cooked potatoes, I continued exploring and found a small vein of lignite coal. This permitted me to craft the guidebook (finally). Only to find it... almost completely useless. You see, while it gave detailed instructions on which dimension each material was found in, and even the approximate depth it could be found in... it did NOT mention what biomes they were to be found in. Actual progression accomplished: almost none whatsoever. Frustration levels: elevated.

Okay, fine. So, with the small amount of iron ingots I found in the forge, I make a plate, and with the hammer and file, make an iron pickaxe head, then fashion a pickaxe from it. Note that had I tried to do this in one step, it would have made the nearly useless vanilla version, so I was grateful that I checked the manual twice before proceeding.

Heading back to the Magnetite ore, I carefully carve some out... only to discover that while it has some iron in it, I cannot extract the iron from it yet. Because of course not. Studying the guidebook on ore veins, it seems as though there is a different type of iron deposit I'll need to find in order to find enough iron to get me going. Exploration seems in my future again.

Between the small iron ore found around the magnetite deposits and the iron I found in the village, I was able to craft for myself a bucket. And that was when I realized that the infernal demonic influences which had taken hold of reality had changed the properties of water so that it does not return when used. Surely, the tremor I feel is not an earthquake nor even myself trembling in rage, but the laughter of some infernal beast rocking the very foundations of reality with the volume of its mirth.

At least temporarily, however, I have berries picked from a garden and grown in my humble plot, I have peanuts, and I have sugarcane and a mortar. Thus, do I have jelly from sugar and berries, and peanut butter from the peanuts, and bread to put them on, and so the staple diet of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches have been established.

You know... I never knew how satisfying it could be to make a simple, humble sandwich until the effort required to produce it was increased to these levels. All this effort, nearly a week striving, and all I have to show for it... is a full belly. For now, at least.

On the morrow, I will try to progress with more infrastructure. Build an actual base instead of this ad hoc mess I live in at the moment. And the book hints at something called a 'wrench' which I should probably produce. Who knows what marvels it might unlock next?

 

[Pyure]

Schneekey, this is genuinely interesting, well-written and fun to read.

Couple of thoughts, bearing in mind my intention is not to steer you towards any particular strategy (which would void at least one of the purposes of this whole journey)
* Ores aren't biome dependent. I'm 99.4% sure. I'm always curious about these sorts of problems because it often means a failure on the part of the dev. Did we imply or claim somewhere that ores are biome dependent?
* Magnetite veins have iron ore sporadically through them (gold too). (I see now you found the Iron. I'm making these notes as I go)
* Magnetite veins are obnoxiously prevalent.
* Ores in veins are "layer" dependent. In other words, once you're familiar with veins, you'll learn to mine certain layers of them for the specific ore you're interested in.
* Ore veins are always 7 blocks tall
* Love your feedback about the nearly-useless crafting steps. When building a questing experience for a player I'd want to know about these annoyances.
* IT2 does in fact have finite water turned on. There are a few early-game infinite water solutions.
* Glad you found a torch solution
* Edit: why couldn't you mine the iron? Did you still have iron/bronze pickaxes? Even as vanilla I'd think they'd be sufficient.

 

[SolManX]

Enjoying reading about your pain journey!

Couple of things ...

'... it did NOT mention what biomes they were to be found in.' GT Oregen is not biome dependent.
'... changed the properties of water so that it does not return when used.' That's not a GT thing, that's a Jason McRay thing ...

About not infinite water... Reason it is this way is that I dont personaly like to have 2x2 water pool inside my base and constantly taking the water from it. If anyone else want to get the infinite water back, I have nothing against it, its your decision.

To enable the infinite water it is under CodeChickenCore.cfg: finiteWater=true/false (https://github.com/JasonMcRay/InfiTech-1.7/blob/master/config/CodeChickenCore.cfg#L16). Change it to false and there you go.

If you get some slime balls, a railcraft water tank can be useful. Later on, Ender IO comes to the rescue!

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Schneekey, this is genuinely interesting, well-written and fun to read.

Couple of thoughts, bearing in mind my intention is not to steer you towards any particular strategy (which would void at least one of the purposes of this whole journey)
* Ores aren't biome dependent. I'm 99.4% sure. I'm always curious about these sorts of problems because it often means a failure on the part of the dev. Did we imply or claim somewhere that ores are biome dependent?
* Magnetite veins have iron ore sporadically through them (gold too). (I see now you found the Iron. I'm making these notes as I go)
* Magnetite veins are obnoxiously prevalent.
* Ores in veins are "layer" dependent. In other words, once you're familiar with veins, you'll learn to mine certain layers of them for the specific ore you're interested in.
* Ore veins are always 7 blocks tall
* Love your feedback about the nearly-useless crafting steps. When building a questing experience for a player I'd want to know about these annoyances.
* IT2 does in fact have finite water turned on. There are a few early-game infinite water solutions.
* Glad you found a torch solution
* Edit: why couldn't you mine the iron? Did you still have iron/bronze pickaxes? Even as vanilla I'd think they'd be sufficient.

For some reason, I had remembered GregTech doing biome-dependent oregen. If this is not the case, then I just need to find the various deposits.

I found a couple of small iron ore, but didn't find a whole lot of actual iron ore in the magnetite vein. I'm assuming this is because there was a cave running through the exposed deposit, and I will be heading back there in a bit with my actual iron pickaxe in hand to see what I can find. The first time I encountered the vein, I didn't have the iron pickaxe, only the flint one, so I was only able to glean some of the small ore around the area.

My only issue (such as it is) with the nearly-useless crafting steps is that I thought I was almost done because I forgot to check each and every step, only to encounter another roadblock where I didn't expect one. It is that sort of expectation collision that caused some minor frustration on my part, however this IS an Expert Pack, so these sorts of things are to be expected and anticipated. In future pack development, you may wish to drop hints that 'anything you thought you knew is probably no longer accurate, and you should check all steps in a project before beginning, lest you find half-way through that you are unable to complete it yet'. But at least I have a surprising amount of tool infrastructure built up so far, most of the Pam's cooking tools, for example. Is Cooking For Blockheads in th

Now that I have a semi-stable food supply sorted, I can start working on a defensible base. I think you're really going to like this, as I don't recall seeing anyone else use this method of base defense before. I'll be making a small drawbridge out of trapdoors and have some quicksand underneath it, two blocks of quicksand, then a collection area underneath it. So not only is it base defenses, it is a proto-mob-trap to start gathering mob drops that I'm assuming will be necessary later on.

As far as renewable water... I notice that the Pam's sinks are disabled, not particularly surprised by that, and there is no Cooking For Blockheads or Agricraft either. Railcraft's water multiblock seems to be around, that's going to be five crafts, if I'm doing the math right, which is going to be ten more iron plates, plus some slimeballs. And without AA or Tinker's, slimeballs are actually interesting to obtain. You can get them from Jellyfish, which I assume needs a Pam's fish trap... that might be doable. I also probably want to try and find olives so I can make cooking oil for more efficient bread production. Maybe ExUtil? I notice the fluid node is available, as well as the world interaction upgrade, I think that just creates water instead of actually sucking it up. We'll find out, I suppose.

 

[Pyure]

Right on all counts. That quicksand idea is definitely novel to me. If iron weren't at a premium at that stage I'd say you could put hoppers everywhere for collection. That said, I believe there's an early method to blow entities around, so you could get away with a single hopper in all likelihood.

The RC multiblock is indeed a popular method for water. Not many people do the jellyfish trick (I do, but I'm too lazy to find slimes).

Given the chance I'd provide an alternative slimeball source.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Journal Update: Day... twelve? Maybe?

Hard to keep track of time these days. Need to figure out a better way of keeping track of journal entries.

Today I return to my base, having traveled the world and walked upon it, with my bags full and my belly empty and favoring my left leg a bit still.

While I found a few pieces of iron ore around that magnetite deposit, it wasn't really enough for my tastes, so I decided to go exploring further. In my travels, I saw many things that I didn't feel quite ready to pursue at the time. Strange obsidian obelisks, for example, and areas which glowed in the dark even in the dead of night with no visible source for the glow. Surely, these will be places I will need to revisit later, but for now I give them a wide berth. Likewise, I found several mineral deposits that looked like they might be useful to me later, but not at my primitive level of technology. Of note were not one but two Bauxite/Aluminum deposits exposed to the surface. While it wasn't the Tetrahedrite/Copper or Cassetterite/Tin deposits I was looking for, it was interesting enough for me to mark it for later study.

My travels provided me with a mixed blessing. On the one hand, I did find several useful plants. I found some very blue flowers which I was able to crush into dye, which seems to be useful for the crowbar that my manual says is in my near future. I found some cotton growing wild, which I harvested with alacrity. This will help me get started on any number of products without having to rely upon spider's silk. And out of a leafy garden came spinach. Memories of my mother's Beef Wellington cause rumblings in my belly, and it doesn't seem particularly difficult to make. Of course, one does not simply live on Beef Wellington alone... but it sure as heck beats starving, especially seeing as how it is more efficient with my dough, only needing one lump for the recipe instead of two lumps for bread. I also found some grapes, which I took back with me to see if I could grow them myself, in the event vinegar was ever needed.

But it was my journey into the jungles that brought me closest to Herobrine's doorstep. I had thought the dark oak forest was bad enough, with a monster lurking behind every trunk, but I very nearly ended my career before it even began when I turned a corner and nearly fell into a pit of quicksand. Fortunately, I caught myself just in time, but it did make me wonder... how useful would this be as a base defense? Could I build a moat with quicksand, perhaps even a collection room below it so that I could gather the resources even as I defend my property? We shall see, it seems. I also obtained Soybeans from a stalky garden, which might well end up replacing the need for actual meat if I could find a way to process it efficiently. Unfortunately, the recipe for a Presser is... unattainable for me at the moment, requiring steel plates.

On the other hand, however, I found no Tetrahedrite or Cassetterite deposits exposed to the surface in my travels, which I find mildly disappointing. In examining the book of ores, I discovered why I wasn't finding any iron deposits, and that was because I was still far too high an elevation, for it seems to spawn deep in the bowels of the earth. I see that branch mining is going to be in my near future. I will have to stock up on torches and other supplies. Perhaps I should make a stand of rubber trees instead of just harvesting what grows naturally, but before I do that I need to establish my base's layout. Also, I'm worried about my iron pickaxe's durability. The flint pickaxe was rendered useless in fairly short order, and iron is still a precious resource to me. Indeed a large reason why I was looking for copper and tin was to try and make bronze for tools and reserve my iron for other things which may only be made of iron.

Both tin and copper deposits are going to be found at relatively high elevation, mostly above sea level in fact according to my manual, which means I am going to be more likely to find them in mountainous regions... not because of a particular affinity for any given biome, but because these are the sorts of terrain most likely to have stone above sea level that might house said deposits. Unfortunately, my surface-level inspection of the region turned nothing up, so I will likely have to be more thorough the next time. Perhaps simply exposing stone under mounds of dirt might be sufficient? I'd really rather not resort to excevation of mountainous regions if I don't have to, I really don't have the resources to support that just yet and I'm going to need them for my branch mine to get iron.

I want this to be a logically laid out and orderly place. Also, for some unknown and mysterious reason, my stomach churns at the thought of merely creating cubes of cobblestone, and even thinking about making them nine yards on a side nearly brings me to my knees. Fortunately, my father was a mason, and I know how to make stone bricks which are a bit more aesthetically pleasing. Coupled with the stint working for the architect, and I should be able to make a practical and pleasing abode. The dark oak wood ought to make for a pleasing contrast to the gray stone of the region, and the contrasting patterns ought to turn out aesthetically pleasing as well. Wooden floors and roofing, with log beams supporting the roof and a second story, stonework for the ground floor walls as being sturdy enough to fend off intruders. And of course, a basement. I feel I will need a particularly large basement before I am done. An unwelcome mat to fend off zombies and door-to-door salesmen will also be necessary, perhaps one fashioned of trapdoors suspended over quicksand?

It seems a mere surface level examination of my region is insufficient to garner the resources I truly need. Therefore, I need to delve deeper. Perhaps there is a bit of dwarven blood in my lineage, for even as I appreciate the hazards and difficulties this will entail, I find myself almost looking forward to it. There's a few ways to go about opening the initial mineshaft, either a steep vertical shaft with ladder for conveyance, or an angled shaft with smoothly terraced staircase contours that gently descends into the deep. The former lets me drill a shaft clear to bedrock that still can see the light of the sun, which will at least let me keep in touch with the passage of time, or at least the day and night cycle. However, drilling a 3x3 mineshaft is not a trivial process by any means. I will almost certainly need a store of flint pickaxes to manage the task, I'm not going to waste my iron pickaxe on humble stone. Not yet, at least, it is too valuable. Maybe once I have located an iron deposit I may change my mind. Maybe.

Ahh, my meal seems about ready to eat. I shall do so, then retire for the evening. Hopefully tomorrow will bring new hope and energy for my planned activities.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Journal Entry: The Next Day

While scouting out a decent place for a more permanent abode, I ran into another Magnetite vein, this one with a bit of iron ore exposed as well, not just small iron ore. As I delved into the deposit, I got a sense that there was a small layer some two meters deep in the middle of the deposit in which actual Iron Ore can occur. I took nearly a half of a stack of ore back with me once my iron pickaxe broke, but I consider it worth it!

Taking this newfound theory to the old magnetite deposit I had originally found yielded yet another half a stack of iron ore, so I must consider this experiment an outstanding success! The only fly to this ointment is that I still have yet to find a tetrahedrite or cassetterite deposit yet. I can foresee a time in the very near future in which both Copper and Tin are going to be needed in ample supply, and I am concerned that while logical, I may be missing something with respect to the generation of these ores. I suppose the next step would be taking a shovel and scouring away the dirt from any raised hills I encounter, in the hopes of finding a deposit, but that seems an awful lot of work and durability drain on my tools.

So excited was I that I had forgotten my initial project to scout out a proper site for my new home. It will need to be a broad and relatively flat expanse of land, perhaps near to several different sorts of biomes, in the event I would need biome-specific materials in the future. I have noticed that while I have a forest and meadow bee, obtained from a nearby village, that are working quite happily, the Modest bee, despite having cactus nearby, considers the plains to be too cold to operate in. Besides, who wants to hear the pitter patter of rain all night long? But I feel like I should also be housed near jungle, for I suspect there are useful bees lurking and acclimated to the hot and humid clime.

Crafting a Wrench, and then a Saw garnered me a reward bag which contained twenty iron and twenty copper ingots! It then went on to explain about wrought iron. While I could have wished it had done so prior to now, the technique is simple and elegant, and I am capable of producing the stuff. This earned me another twenty iron and copper ingots, giving me enough iron that I'm no longer as critically short on it for my immediate needs, although for sure it is going to be insufficient for long-term goals. Learning how to use my hammer on ores to break it down into crushed ore and then dirty ore dust netted me another twenty iron and copper ingots.

Since clearing out the iron from the nearby Magnetite deposit has nearly destroyed the pick I created before departing, I shall replace it with a wrought iron version. In fact, wrought iron seems like a fundamentally good tool metal in general, I might replace my existing flint tools with it post-haste. One of the problems with flint tools is the burning property... I want to kill cattle, not cook them, for beef wellington. And it should do a fair bit more damage to all the other monsters wishing my demise. Likewise, the flint axe I had broke very rapidly, although it cleared out wood very rapidly as well. Perhaps a wrought iron axe would be somewhat more durable and with the same tree-felling properties.

In my travels, I have also located several oil wells in the desert sands. While I don't know what to do with it just yet, I'm sure it will become important in the future.

The manual mentioned needing to wash powdered ores, which required a cauldron. While a painful depletion of my resources, I have plenty to spend at the moment. And with that, I can now make small quantities of bronze. The first of many alloys, to be sure.

While I did not achieve my intended original goal, I feel that I have accomplished much today, and will rest soundly in my makeshift hovel.

 

[Pyure]

Is it obvious/intuitive that you can wash stacks of dirty dust at a time? Some ppl miss that.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Is it obvious/intuitive that you can wash stacks of dirty dust at a time? Some ppl miss that.

It was in the quest book for the cauldron, and I caught it. However, I can see how people just grinding through quests might miss it.

Journal Entry:

So, that took a whole lot of time to make all that wrought iron for all those tools. Sheesh. I'd really like a better way of fueling those furnaces, because while I have lignite, I don't think I have a very good way of breaking it out of the ore form just yet, and I'd rather not keep burning wood. Charcoal would be ideal, but it doesn't seem to work like usual. When the laws of physics fail me, I turn to my manual to see what to do next, and as can be expected, it has an answer: a Charcoal Pile.

While not inexpensive in terms of bronze, it seems like a relatively straightforward process to make the igniter for a coal pile. It said the max size is 11x11, so why not... let's do that. 121 logs turned into charcoal ought to keep me going a moderate amount of time. And hey, I've got this new wrought iron axe to try out. So double-bonus score! For the bricks, I... ahem... borrowed the structure that seemed to be railroad focused in the town, which provided me enough bricks to get going. It's not like they were actually using it, after all. Since I needed a load of dirt to cover it with, I uncovered a face of a hill. Discovered another Magnetite deposit... maybe later I'll try to find the iron in it, but right now I'm a bit more occupied.

While that is cooking, I've got another thing to take care of. Namely, I need some water source that can replenish itself, especially since the next machine on my manual's to-do list is a steam boiler, which... does bad things if it runs dry. I've had my fish trap running for some time, and one of the byproducts of that is a jellyfish that can be turned into a slimeball. With sufficient time and patience, eventually it gave me enough to get started on this project. I don't know if there are any slime chunks nearby, but it isn't particularly relevant since I don't really have the capacity to go that far down just yet.

The promise of metal-bearing crops is tantalizing, however I fear it would take too much at this stage to really be capable of taking advantage of it. Perhaps later after I've established a more permanent residence?

This manual seems to posses several mysteries, one of which is the ability to function as a storefront for metal ingots that unlocked once I made a crowbar. Since I have literally no tin to my name, I tried it out. 32 tin for 3 credits, I'll take it, at least until I can find some ore veins.

With copper and tin come more bronze, and finally my boiler. I've connected it in the front with my wooden pipes, since it said that they were otherwise useless while still requiring that I make them, and the manual mentioned that steam will never come out the front of the machine, so it should be safe to pipe in water from that direction. The tantalizing prospect of a steam-powered macerator is calling me, but it will have to wait for the morrow. I still have very little in the way of shelter, and need to sleep the night away.

To recap: I now have wrought iron weapons readily available, I have ready access to bronze, although I still haven't found deposits of either of the component materials yet, and I'm about to fire up my first boiler. All told... not too shabby, if I do say so myself. It's been a long and arduous road, and I fear it has only begun. Yet... I now have a ready supply of food, thanks to my water tank providing the water for dough to make various meals with. I have the first worked metals, wrought iron and bronze, and enough charcoal to get me started on the next step of my journey.

My only concern is the two diamonds required for the macerator. That's either going to require extensive mining, or require extensive amounts of coal that I don't have plus obsidian that I can't collect yet.

I hesitate to say that I am optimistic, for to do so would surely invite disaster, but let us say that I am... content with my progress to date.

 

[Pyure]

Excellent progress dude. Its interesting watching you overcome some of the traditional early-game hurdles with relative ease, and I'm just chalking it up to your general experience.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Excellent progress dude. Its interesting watching you overcome some of the traditional early-game hurdles with relative ease, and I'm just chalking it up to your general experience.

I would chalk it up to your reward system. I have yet to actually need to go mining on anything but a surface level yet because the reward bags have been keeping me in iron and copper. Yes, part of it is indeed general experience, but your material reward bags are... very generous, at least for this stage of the game. My only frustration is not being able to find any surface-level tin or copper deposits. Which means branch mining is in my very near future... after I get an actual base established. Also, I occasionally gloss over an hour or two of gameplay in a few sentences, which makes it seem less time consuming than it actually is. I would also give credit to the documentation within the quest book. You do a pretty good job of explaining how things that are different now function.

Right now, though, even though I am 'riding high', I don't really have a whole lot of resources. I have two 4x4 plots growing on two sides of a small pond for crops, a double chest for mining/smithing resources, and a double chest for everything else, and a JABBA barrel for cobble. That's pretty much the extent of what I have. It is sufficient unto the day, but it is not going to get me much further. I've been putting it off until I can get an actual base established. I want to make an actually decent looking base, not just one that is a series of 9x9 cobble cubes. I also haven't started Thaumcraft even though I did notice that chapter unlock, because again I want a permanent base before starting in on that particular mod.

I've also glossed over some issues I've had by not having an established base. There've been... a few close calls that I haven't mentioned.

However, Imgur seems to be having... issues... with the G+ login system, and I can no longer access my Imgur account, which makes it hard to do screenshots for posterity. Which kind of sucks, I may need to make a whole new account, at least temporarily, while I do this journal or something.

 

[Pyure]

Yeah, I mentioned it in the second post that your imgur links are borken.

For the branch mining, I'm curious if you keep that up. Its traditional for IT2 players to engage in a very long and boring "core sampling" expedition, where they find a single vein, go 5 chunks east, dig down from the surface, rinse/repeat all around your base.

(I say 5 chunks...there's a "pattern" to GT ore veins. I forget how many chunks apart they are, but its a thing)

That said, there's still compelling reason to branch-mine sometimes, especially when you're looking for a specific ore in a specific height range. And if that ore happens to be present in the Nether, sometimes its smarter to do the branch mining there, since netherrack breaks much faster than stone. (I often do that to find Nickel/Cobalt veins, since cobalt is awesome)

 

[SolManX]

Can I make a suggestion re copper and tin?

Tin is notoriously difficult as it blends in a bit too well with normal stone. But, I've often found tin/cassiterite by carefully checking surface level caves. And it's worth following the caves as far as possible since you will find various veins. Once you're down to approx. level 30 then you have a reasonable chance of bagging chalcopyrite veins (for copper and iron) or limonite (for iron).

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

EDIT: After closing out FTB Launcher and setting RAM max from 5GB to 3GM, it seems to be working again! Nothing to see here Citizen, move along.​

Trying to log back into my instance, and crashing. Looks like AE2 is pissing in its cheerios.

Full log found here for reference, but it looks like this is the issue:

Spoiler: code

[13:08:36] [Server thread/ERROR] [FML]: The following problems were captured during this phase
[13:08:36] [Server thread/ERROR] [FML]: Caught exception from appliedenergistics2
java.lang.NullPointerException
   at appeng.core.AppEng.serverStopped(AppEng.java:243) ~[AppEng.class:?]
   at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
   at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
   at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
   at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
   at cpw.mods.fml.common.FMLModContainer.handleModStateEvent(FMLModContainer.java:532) ~[forge-1.7.10-10.13.4.1614-1.7.10-universal.jar:?]
   at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor4.invoke(Unknown Source) ~[?:?]
   at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
   at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
   at com.google.common.eventbus.EventSubscriber.handleEvent(EventSubscriber.java:74) ~[guava-17.0.jar:?]
   at com.google.common.eventbus.SynchronizedEventSubscriber.handleEvent(SynchronizedEventSubscriber.java:47) ~[guava-17.0.jar:?]
   at com.google.common.eventbus.EventBus.dispatch(EventBus.java:322) ~[guava-17.0.jar:?]
   at com.google.common.eventbus.EventBus.dispatchQueuedEvents(EventBus.java:304) ~[guava-17.0.jar:?]
   at com.google.common.eventbus.EventBus.post(EventBus.java:275) ~[guava-17.0.jar:?]
   at cpw.mods.fml.common.LoadController.sendEventToModContainer(LoadController.java:212) ~[LoadController.class:?]
   at cpw.mods.fml.common.LoadController.propogateStateMessage(LoadController.java:190) ~[LoadController.class:?]
   at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
   at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
   at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
   at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
   at com.google.common.eventbus.EventSubscriber.handleEvent(EventSubscriber.java:74) ~[guava-17.0.jar:?]
   at com.google.common.eventbus.SynchronizedEventSubscriber.handleEvent(SynchronizedEventSubscriber.java:47) ~[guava-17.0.jar:?]
   at com.google.common.eventbus.EventBus.dispatch(EventBus.java:322) ~[guava-17.0.jar:?]
   at com.google.common.eventbus.EventBus.dispatchQueuedEvents(EventBus.java:304) ~[guava-17.0.jar:?]
   at com.google.common.eventbus.EventBus.post(EventBus.java:275) ~[guava-17.0.jar:?]
   at cpw.mods.fml.common.LoadController.distributeStateMessage(LoadController.java:119) ~[LoadController.class:?]
   at cpw.mods.fml.common.Loader.serverStopped(Loader.java:850) ~[Loader.class:?]
   at cpw.mods.fml.common.FMLCommonHandler.handleServerStopped(FMLCommonHandler.java:483) ~[FMLCommonHandler.class:?]
   at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.run(MinecraftServer.java:489) [MinecraftServer.class:?]
   at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer$2.run(MinecraftServer.java:685) [?:?]
[13:08:36] [Server thread/ERROR] [FML]: A fatal exception occurred during the server about to start event
java.lang.NullPointerException
   at appeng.core.AppEng.serverStopped(AppEng.java:243) ~[AppEng.class:?]
   at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
   at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
   at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
   at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
   at cpw.mods.fml.common.FMLModContainer.handleModStateEvent(FMLModContainer.java:532) ~[forge-1.7.10-10.13.4.1614-1.7.10-universal.jar:?]
   at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor4.invoke(Unknown Source) ~[?:?]
   at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
   at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
   at com.google.common.eventbus.EventSubscriber.handleEvent(EventSubscriber.java:74) ~[guava-17.0.jar:?]
   at com.google.common.eventbus.SynchronizedEventSubscriber.handleEvent(SynchronizedEventSubscriber.java:47) ~[guava-17.0.jar:?]
   at com.google.common.eventbus.EventBus.dispatch(EventBus.java:322) ~[guava-17.0.jar:?]
   at com.google.common.eventbus.EventBus.dispatchQueuedEvents(EventBus.java:304) ~[guava-17.0.jar:?]
   at com.google.common.eventbus.EventBus.post(EventBus.java:275) ~[guava-17.0.jar:?]
   at cpw.mods.fml.common.LoadController.sendEventToModContainer(LoadController.java:212) ~[LoadController.class:?]
   at cpw.mods.fml.common.LoadController.propogateStateMessage(LoadController.java:190) ~[LoadController.class:?]
   at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
   at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
   at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
   at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498) ~[?:1.8.0_181]
   at com.google.common.eventbus.EventSubscriber.handleEvent(EventSubscriber.java:74) ~[guava-17.0.jar:?]
   at com.google.common.eventbus.SynchronizedEventSubscriber.handleEvent(SynchronizedEventSubscriber.java:47) ~[guava-17.0.jar:?]
   at com.google.common.eventbus.EventBus.dispatch(EventBus.java:322) ~[guava-17.0.jar:?]
   at com.google.common.eventbus.EventBus.dispatchQueuedEvents(EventBus.java:304) ~[guava-17.0.jar:?]
   at com.google.common.eventbus.EventBus.post(EventBus.java:275) ~[guava-17.0.jar:?]
   at cpw.mods.fml.common.LoadController.distributeStateMessage(LoadController.java:119) ~[LoadController.class:?]
   at cpw.mods.fml.common.Loader.serverStopped(Loader.java:850) ~[Loader.class:?]
   at cpw.mods.fml.common.FMLCommonHandler.handleServerStopped(FMLCommonHandler.java:483) ~[FMLCommonHandler.class:?]
   at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.run(MinecraftServer.java:489) [MinecraftServer.class:?]
   at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer$2.run(MinecraftServer.java:685) [?:?]
[13:08:36] [Server thread/ERROR] [thaumicenergistics]: Skipping event FMLModIdMappingEvent and marking errored mod thaumicenergistics since required dependency appliedenergistics2 has errored
[13:08:36] [Server thread/ERROR] [ae2wct]: Skipping event FMLModIdMappingEvent and marking errored mod ae2wct since required dependency appliedenergistics2 has errored
[13:08:36] [Server thread/INFO] [FML]: Applying holder lookups
[13:08:36] [Server thread/INFO] [FML]: Holder lookups applied
[13:08:36] [pool-8-thread-1/INFO] [EnderIO]: ServerChannelRegister: Dimensional Transceiver data saved to /home/shneekey/Games/ftb/InfiTech2/minecraft/saves/Let's Journal/enderio/dimensionalTransceiver.json
[13:08:36] [Server thread/ERROR] [thaumicenergistics]: Skipping event FMLServerStoppedEvent and marking errored mod thaumicenergistics since required dependency appliedenergistics2 has errored
[13:08:36] [Server thread/ERROR] [ae2wct]: Skipping event FMLServerStoppedEvent and marking errored mod ae2wct since required dependency appliedenergistics2 has errored
[13:08:36] [Server thread/INFO] [FML]: The state engine was in incorrect state ERRORED and forced into state SERVER_STOPPED. Errors may have been discarded.
[13:08:36] [Server thread/INFO] [FML]: The state engine was in incorrect state ERRORED and forced into state AVAILABLE. Errors may have been discarded.

Journal Entry: Moving Day!

After carefully exploring my area, I've found what appears to be a near ideal location, situated on a ridge in the plains overlooking desert and jungle.

Spoiler: pictures

But I didn't want this to be some blocky cobblestone structure. After careful thought, I decided on a circular shape for the building, using ExtraUtilities stone and glass with dark oak for the planking on the floor and timber for the support beams.

I've also decided I wanted a drillshaft, so I've left an area in the center where this mineshaft shall eventually run from top to bottom. Here are some more pictures of a build in progress, but without the roof/attic space.

Also note the depression dug in around the building? This is going to be very relevant once I start building my base defenses.

Spoiler: more pictures

Now all I have to do is move all my stuff over here. To that end, I've made a Dolly. Going to be a pain to move, even with it, though.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Journal Entry: Moving In, Part Two

With the outerworks done, it was time to establish base defenses. With about three stacks of quicksand in hand, I began to fill in a two block deep moat around the perimeter of my base. Not only would this protect me from intruders, but it might even provide me with a few resources without having to fight so hard for them. I'm also using Carpenter's Blocks trapdoors because they look better.

Spoiler: picture

To connect the verticality of my base, I needed something that would lift me up and down without getting in my way. Unfortunately, elevators seem nonfunctional, so I made do with quite the sum of Rope Ladder. I'd made a whole stack, and as it turns out, there wasn't much left when I was done. Indeed, I will probably need to eventually make more, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Surrounding the rope ladder with edged glass provided an aesthetic way of looking up into the heavens unobstructed while still giving me room for descent.

Going down to the 'ground floor' of the desert beneath me, I then dug out a sizable room, one big enough to encompass the quicksand perimeter, so that hopefully things might fall into the room. This room will also function as a main hub of sorts for my complex, both vertically and horizontally. Ran through a whole wrought iron pickaxe to do it, though. Running short on iron again, but it will be worth it in the long run.

Spoiler: pictures

My hard work at drilling a central line shaft was rewarded! At almost exactly Y20, I hit a Brown Limonite and Malachite deposit! It also had a beehive that was surrounded in redstone ore that I also acquired.

Spoiler: picture

Now all I need to do is move everything in and I'll be ready to proceed. Before I start really working on advancing, however, I will need a resource room, and I will need two diamonds, somehow, to make my macerator. Without that, there is no need for steam power, and thus no need to reinstall the boiler. That is all I lack to progress further.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Journal Update: Mining Frustration

So, in my last journal entry, I had mentioned hitting a Limonite deposit. I continued mining down in the depths, hoping to find the coveted diamonds to be able to progress. Unfortunately, and after many hours of attempting... not a single diamond do I have to my name.

I found Berrylium, I found Emeralds, Galena, Silver, enough Yellorium to bring the world to its end in nuclear fire, some blue electricum stuff that doesn't seem relevant to me at the moment... I even found a dungeon with a cave spider spawner (the hard way, of course, because whenever do I *NOT* do things the hard way...) which had a couple of pieces of Iridium in it! But not a single diamond to be had anywhere. I found a basalt deposit, but it seemed to only have a small lapis ore in it, no diamonds. None whatsoever.

I broke into a cave system, and thoroughly explored it (and I have the pains to show for it). I probably went through four or five stacks of torches (thank goodness for Charcoal!) at least in the exploration thereof. I found a ravine with sniper skeletons on the ledges (ouch!). But no diamonds did I find, nor even any graphite deposits that even hint at a nearby diamond in the rough. I went through three wrought iron pickaxes in my branch mining and caving.

Unfortunately, the only other way to get diamonds, other than delving deeply and greedily, is to compress one... which requires Obsidian. Which I cannot mine with the tools currently available to me. The coal... I can come up with. Yea, it's gonna suck, we're basically talking about a stack of coal (not charcoal) per diamond. And not lignite either, apparently. But hey, I can do that. I've got several coal deposits in the area that I have located. I've got the flint for the coal balls, I can make a steam powered compressor to compact them. But I don't have any way of obtaining obsidian as an item. The only way to craft obsidian is to use a pair of lava cells and a pair of water cells, but the empty cells require an Extruding machine, which I clearly do not have.

At the moment, I am frustrated and stymied. My progress has halted for the moment, all for want of two diamonds.

 

[Pyure]

Ouch! That's a brutal impasse. Fwiw, there are those dark ocean nodes that often carry diamonds and emeralds in them.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Ouch! That's a brutal impasse. Fwiw, there are those dark ocean nodes that often carry diamonds and emeralds in them.

Yea, but those only show up under oceans, IIRC. That's gonna be a loooooong tunnel. In fact, I thought I had found one, but it was just Basalt, not Abyssal.