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

Celestialphoenix

Too Much Free Time
Nov 9, 2012
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Tartarus.. I mean at work. Same thing really.
Ooh nice one with the macerator.

Point of interest: On my last playthrough, I skipped the iron tank for a long time. I managed to get by with just a very tall stack of BC tanks. Which is still expensive in glass, but glass can be easier to deal with than iron. Also, it kinda looked cool.

Nice idea- but how'd you get the steam out the tanks? Do BC tanks auto-output like the RC ones?
 

ShneekeyTheLost

Too Much Free Time
Dec 8, 2012
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Lost as always
Point of interest: On my last playthrough, I skipped the iron tank for a long time. I managed to get by with just a very tall stack of BC tanks. Which is still expensive in glass, but glass can be easier to deal with than iron. Also, it kinda looked cool.

And how in god's name have you managed to dodge a diamond vein this long? Statistically if you're branch mining at around y:15 you should have hit several by now. Are you doing branches several chunks apart, or the traditional branches that are only a couple blocks apart?
Traditional only a couple of blocks apart. And I didn't find any above Y10, at all. Part of my problem is that my first attempt was at Y20 which led into a cave system that didn't really go below Y10 and was lousy with lava lakes resting at Y10. So I wasn't at the proper Y level. So I dropped to Y5, and just started branch mining. The first few small diamond ores made me wonder if I was Doing It Right (tm) because I couldn't use the dang things because it was the wrong diamond. But when I got my first one, I knew that this was the 'intended path', so just kept going until I found a second. It just took for bloody ever.

Journal Entry: Steam Machinations

With my large iron tank in place, and performing some calculations, I have discovered some frightful things about this steam system...

* Machines consume steam even when not in use. I confirmed this by having my big tank of steam disconnected from the Alloy Smelter, which was returning a net positive steam, then attaching the Alloy Smelter, which resulted in a sharp net negative steam in the tank, even without an action to take. This is... less than idea. FAR less. Then I realized that I had the solar boiler turned the wrong way. After inserting in the proper direction, I still had issues with choking machines. That was when I realized I had made copper piping instead of bronze, which has half the throughput. Upset with myself over the mistake, I swapped out the piping. While I was still steam negative, I was at least able to get the machines to run.

At some point, it stopped being steam negative, which indicated to me that each machine had a reserve of steam that it could store, instead of being a constant drain, or at least if it has a constant drain then it was much lower than I had feared. Determined to never repeat the ardurous task of delving for diamonds again, I put the machines to use. A half of a stack of coal ore went into the macerator, then the crushed coal ore into the steam-powered hammer to make impure coal dust, which then gets washed to produce coal dust. Eight coal dust around a flint makes a coal ball.

The other thing I discovered is that the alloy smelter really eats up the steam. It cannot run continuously if it is on the same line as any other machine running at the same time, eventually the throughput will be choked enough that it won't get enough steam. Fortunately, since I had made eight valves to my tank, I could give it a dedicated line on a different side of my tank to solve this problem. I just need to be sure that there is adequate steam reserves before running.

The steam extractor and furnace came next, and were relatively straightforward now that I understand the principles behind them.

It is unfortunate that for some reason, the valves on the bottom row won't dispense steam, it likely needs a certain percentage to function, so on the bottom of the tank, I created not a small bronze liquid pipe, but a regular one. Only got two out of the craft instead of six, but it has three times the throughput, which means I can have one small tube feeding the other machines, and one feeding the Alloy Smelter.

am64dcX.png

Looking into the manual again, I am glad I did so... six stacks plus of bronze is in my future... fortunately, I have the alloy smelter up and running, although I'll have to be careful about my steam levels and do small batches at a time, unless I want to significantly increase the throughput of steam. That might be unavoidable, but for now I am hoping not.

But hey... progress is progressing. Six stacks of bronze... that's gonna be a stack and a half of tin plus four and a half stacks of copper. Now I need, desperately, to find ore deposits.
 

Pyure

Not Totally Useless
Aug 14, 2013
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Ooh nice one with the macerator.

Nice idea- but how'd you get the steam out the tanks? Do BC tanks auto-output like the RC ones?
Nope. But worst case scenario, you get a "free" crap-tier EIO fluid conduit via quest and can use that to extract into whatever pipes you like. Small bronze in this case.

Traditional only a couple of blocks apart. And I didn't find any above Y10, at all. Part of my problem is that my first attempt was at Y20 which led into a cave system that didn't really go below Y10 and was lousy with lava lakes resting at Y10. So I wasn't at the proper Y level. So I dropped to Y5, and just started branch mining. The first few small diamond ores made me wonder if I was Doing It Right (tm) because I couldn't use the dang things because it was the wrong diamond. But when I got my first one, I knew that this was the 'intended path', so just kept going until I found a second. It just took for bloody ever.
Ok that adds up a bit. This is where your extensive MC experience is biting you in the ass. "Everyone" knows you branch a couple blocks apart, but in GT, it makes no sense. You want to maximize your chances of hitting a vein, so its actually more sensible to spread out your branches several chunks apart. (especially since you don't decrease your chances of finding small ores this way)

Also, since Diamond spawns Y5-20, and veins are 7 tall, you maximize your chance of finding one at anywhere between 8->14 more or less, depending on whether they "start" generating from the top or the bottom or the middle or what. I actually have no idea how they spawn, but it means the difference between whether you could see the bottom of a vein at Y19 up to Y26 etc.
 

Pyure

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* Machines consume steam even when not in use.
....
At some point, it stopped being steam negative, which indicated to me that each machine had a reserve of steam that it could store, instead of being a constant drain,
Yeah, a constant drain would suuuuck (although it wouldn't be totally unrealistic...steam should condense over time, but w/e)

The other thing I discovered is that the alloy smelter really eats up the steam. It cannot run continuously if it is on the same line as any other machine running at the same time, eventually the throughput will be choked enough that it won't get enough steam.
Yep you've already identified what is a bit of a minor GT-challenge-gate. Everyone needs to learn to adapt to the selfishness of the alloy smelter.

It is unfortunate that for some reason, the valves on the bottom row won't dispense steam, it likely needs a certain percentage to function, so on the bottom of the tank, I created not a small bronze liquid pipe, but a regular one.
iirc, the level of the hatch influences how much % is required to PULL out of the tank, and it only PUSHES out the bottom face.
 

ShneekeyTheLost

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Dec 8, 2012
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Journal Update: Copper and Tin!

Well, going the exact opposite direction that I was going, I finally found deposits of Tetrahedrite/Copper and Cassetterite/Tin in a mesa that had a river running through it. The deposits are within a hundred meters of each other, and they are around a kilometer from my home, just in the other direction from where I was exploring. However, this should give me the resources to get started with my next major project.

Fun fact, Tetrahedrite can be smelted into Copper, however 3x tetrahedrite dust + 1 tin dust = 3 bronze in the alloy smelter, not 4, meaning I first need to smelt the tetrahedrite into copper ingot or else lose on a quarter of my production. However, tin dust and 3x copper dust make four bronze, meaning I can macerate copper ore, hammer it, wash it, and skip the smelting step and turn it straight into bronze in the smelter. It seems to be a bit faster to do it this way as well.

While time consuming, the process is becoming more resource efficient, which is a lifesaver given the quantities I'm preparing at the moment. That macerator in particular is extremely slow. I'd be tempted to double up on it if I thought I could handle the steam throughput. I'd hate to double up my steam production only to discover it obsolete.

I've also noticed that my steam driven hammer consumes almost as much steam as the alloy smelter does when it is used to produce metal plates, something else I will need to take into consideration for the future.
 

ShneekeyTheLost

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Journal Update: Blasting Off Again!

Wow, that was one of the most boring times of my life. I had to carefully juggle my steam production vs my steam consumption while making and stamping all that bronze. Those two boilers were insufficient for any kind of consistent tempo, but I'm just as glad I didn't make more, because sure enough, now that I am officially in the steel age, I have better options.

While waiting, I realized that I could also make brass in the alloy smelter, and so between bronze batches, I made up a bit of brass and made myself a Thaumonomicon, and a copper-tipped wooden wand, and an arcane workbench, and a Cauldron. And played our favorite game: Scan All The Things. And that STILL wasn't enough time spent doing productive things. However, I really didn't have any other realistic options. Sure, I could've just hand-crafted the dust recipe and accepted the 25% loss of production, but that seemed... excessively painful. Besides, the Tetrahedrite would've needed to have been macerated, then hammered, then smelted, then macerated AGAIN to do that, and the time spent macerating the copper ingots back into dust would've blown any time savings by not using the smelter for no good effect.

And now that I have the Blast Furnace up and running? Ugh. This thing. This thing right here. TAKES... FOR... EVER..TO...WORK. It makes Ents seem hasty. It literally is slower than grass growing. Fortunately, I had already found a small store of steel ingots from a chest found in a zombie spawner dungeon, which did help, but relying on this thing for main steel production is just not going to be an option. Not in the least. It is just too slow to produce steel in the quantity I will need at any point before the next ice age. Perhaps I should brush up in my Thaumonomicon and see if there are any arcane alternatives, because the blast furnace seriously blows.

End Of Bronze Age Comments from the Player:

The start of the age was really good, in fact I'd say it is the best start of any Expert mode pack I've ever played, including AoE. Yes, you get hit with the reduction in planks from logs and sticks from planks, but unlike Continuum, a) you aren't required to have a metric ton of it (wooden gears for every damn thing, really?), and b) you have almost immediate access to the Flint Axe which has psudo-treecapitator capability, making harvesting less of a pain. So yes, there is a resource tightness, but you aren't replacing it with grind, you are replacing it with viable and interesting alternatives that plays to that shortage. I was thoroughly enjoying the game and the challenges and hazards it presented.

This came to a screeching halt when I came to the Macerator. Part of this is me the player needing to think differently about the problem, but part of this is worldgen in general, and something to take note of. I never found a Graphite/Diamond deposit. Not one. Still haven't. I had to old-school branch mine to glean Small Diamond Ore, which appear to simply randomly spawn in singletons much like vanilla oregen but with a guaranteed singleton instead of possibly more, just about as rare as vanilla spawning (roughly one per chunk), and they don't always generate the type of diamond you need (my experience was 13 small diamond ore needed to obtain 2 actual Diamonds, the rest provided either the poor diamond shown in screenshot above, or more frequently, either impure diamond dust or crushed diamond ore. This was *PAINFUL*. Fortunately, there were other aspects to the game that I could go into, such as base-building and exploring for tin and copper deposits, to distract me from this, so that when I came back to it I could get the thing done. I may simply be a victim of really bad RNG here, or it may simply be expected for GregTech living up to the nickname GregNerf.

I honestly enjoyed the earliest part of the early game GregTech changes, but even now I find the ore generation to be pants-on-head silly. To date, I've found a single tin and single tetrahedrite deposit. I have yet to find the other type of Copper deposit found down around Y20, so I still haven't finished the ores quest. And I'm not doing traditional branch mining for that one either. I'm going out every ten blocks for a branch at Y20, and still coming up empty. And yet I have found almost twenty Magnetite deposits, which are nearly useless to me at the moment, other than for the iron ore mixed in the middle of the deposit on a two y-level slice.

I would advise a bit more direction on this matter. Gregorious has never done feature documentation well. In fact, he considers the lack of feature documentation to BE a feature of GregTech, and a 'not holding your hand, so git gud' sort of attitude that is sure to chase off people new to the experience. If you are going to significantly change ore generation, you need to significantly document these changes, and make sure the player actually knows about them. The GT manual is by no means sufficient.

Also, if Thaumcraft is going to be a dual-progression tree thing, you probably need to start hinting to the player a bit more firmly that they might want to get started down that road a bit sooner... oh wait, they can't, because of the brass required for the book. Which means they need an alloy smelter before they can begin that progress. And this was actually one of the frustrating things about the experience with the diamonds... I was trying to think outside the box and be innovative. I looked into created diamonds, even before the quest came up, I looked into trying to progress in Thaumcraft... but I was stymied at each turn. Every time I tried to find some way to either get a Tier 3 pick so I could mine obsidian or Diamond Ore found in the Abyssal Nodes at the bottom of the ocean, I was shut down. I felt like there was something I just Wasn't Getting, that was the frustrating part, more than the time investment. After I had gone through several small diamond ores and didn't come up with an actual usable Diamond, I began to doubt that I would find one in them and I needed to think of doing something else. Partly, this is RNG pulling an X-COM on me, but partly because it wasn't spelled out clearly how I was expected to get over this hurdle. Or rather, alternatives were presented that were not permitted at that time, which was exceedingly frustrating... to see something and be unable to do it.

Now let's talk about after the Macerator. Once I got that machine, I was pretty much happy, after I figured out what I was doing wrong (using copper instead of bronze pipes and not having enough throughput for the machines). While I didn't exactly have direct pointing, I was able to figure it out in fairly short order by experimentation. And actually, I did enjoy that... you didn't hold my hand when it came to steam. I made a few mistakes, I learned from said mistakes, I corrected said mistakes, and got a deeper understanding of how the game mechanic worked. I figured out pretty soon that the Alloy Smelter was a steam hog that needed its own dedicated line, so I built a bigger 'main' pipe and have two side pipes coming from it, one feeding to the Alloy Smelter, and the other going to Everything Else. You might've wanted to maybe hint that 'hey, this thing is going to need a bit more than the rest' for people who aren't as stubborn determined as me, but I actually enjoyed the fact that I figured out this faced on my own without hints.

Idea: Have a 'hint book', with the caveat 'this contains some content which may be seen as spoilers and is intended for players new to expert packs or these mods to go over things you might miss' or perhaps 'this contains spoilers, but if you get stuck on trying to figure something out, this will probably have your answer'. This lets people who want to do it by themselves to do it by themselves, and gives the casual players trying expert mode packs for the first time the training wheels they need to get going.​

Then I hit the next brick wall... steam production vs steam consumption, and the long and excessively boring wait to make bronze and turn it into plates. Could I have simply hammered everything out by hand? Sure, I could've done that. It would've been a hell of a lot faster making a half dozen hammers than waiting for the steam hammerer. But the Alloy Furnace's 25% production boost (actually... now that I think about it... 33% boost) (4x instead of 3x bronze per craft) is just TOO good to pass up. However, the Alloy Smelter consumes more steam than both of my boilers produced combined, which meant there was significant periods of downtime between alloy smeltings, and because this is coming at the end of an age, there wasn't anything else to do in the chapter that I felt I could actually accomplish. Which meant I pretty much brought up my inventory, tabbed out to watch Youtube, and came back every ten minutes or so to sleep so I didn't get mobs in my manufactory. And waited. And I did this pretty much all day long.

Crafting the blast furnace was bad enough, waiting for it to get done was, in many ways, even worse. Yes, I know, you're supposed to have stupidly-slow production now so you can be thankful for the slightly-faster-but-still-slower-than-RC's improved Blast Furnace that comes later, or at least that I assume comes later, from what I've seen in NEI and based on the tiering logic presented to me so far. But give me something to do while it is doing that, please! I can't even go exploring because I get more than four chunks away and it unloads because I don't have a chunkloader and it completely seizes up and halts production, so I can't even go exploring for ore deposits. I did as much out of Thaumcraft as I was going to do. I have pretty much all the aspects except the taint aspect unlocked already. I've got a Cauldron down, although I haven't crafted the nitor yet because I don't have the netherrack to light under the cauldron to heat it up for the actual production OF said nitor. Because I still have no way of mining Obsidian yet (trying to make a vanilla diamond pickaxe is not going to happen).

The problem I had with diamonds was at least partially my fault, partly RNG's fault, partly worldgen's fault, and partly lack of clear direction on how to obtain diamonds. Someone more familiar with GregTech (this is actually legitimately the first time I've ever played a pack with GT, by the way) and a more in-depth knowledge of oregen mechanics in GT would've probably had far fewer problems than me. But that end-of-age bronze grind? That's a boring grind that needs to get looked at how to improve. Maybe spawn several side-quest things at that time to give you other things to do while waiting for the bronze to cook? Maybe hint a bit more strongly "Hey, now that your alloy smelter is up, I bet you could make Brass for your Thaumonomicon..." so that they can go play Scan All The Things while waiting for the bronze to cook/hammer up. But because it consumes more steam than you can produce with the two boilers you were required to make, you probably need to either hint 'hey, either make more boilers or micro-manage your production, 'cause running out is going to stall production indefinitely and that will suck'.

This would make a perfect introductory period for other side mods that will be important going forward, and if I were doing this in 1.12.2 this is probably where I'd introduce Astral Sorcery, which has some grindy parts that require nighttime so you can't just sleep the nights away for max efficiency on the solar boiler, I probably wouldn't even unlock the Thaumcraft chapter until the Alloy Smelter quest and I'd really point out 'hey, might want to check that out now' or at least have it show up flashing on the quest menu or something. Modern questing mods are a lot better at being able to do that these days than you had back in 1.7.10. Give me something to do while the bronze is cooking, and especially when the blast furnace is cooking. I had already exhausted most of my options on the diamond phase while trying to get here, maybe someone more familiar with GT might've held off of some of the side quests until now, I don't know. But good lord, if you're going to have me wait literal hours for production to finish, at least distract me with Shiny Things(tm) that I can play with in the meantime.

You set the hook just fine in the early game. One of the bumps in the road might've been mitigated with more experience with GT oregen. But the other... yea, it comes right after you've pretty much already done everything else in the questbook, amounting to little more than a time gate for your next age to unlock. This could stand some looking at.
 

SolManX

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Jul 29, 2019
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I agree with a lot of what you say, especially about the chunkloading issue, preventing you from exploring since exploration is such a huge part of the early game. Looking for ore veins takes a lot of time, and going on raiding expeditions for desert temples, greatwood trees, dungeons etc is almost required to find some items to get through the diamond gate.

Experienced GT-ers may have strategies for mitigating the problem, but I just cheat in a chunkloader (specifically the chickenchunks version that doesn't cost ender pearls). I would go as far as to say it should have been an early reward from a quest.

Re steam. One thing I've noticed about GT is that it does often pay to make multiple versions of machines and boilers. Making three or so more boilers would pretty much solve your steam throughput issues.

Also, the solar boilers are only so useful because they have a cooldown, where they become less and less efficient over time and can only be reset by picking them up and placing them down again (making sure the water supply is reconnected of course). Again, having multiple solars mitigates this slightly.
 
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Pyure

Not Totally Useless
Aug 14, 2013
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Thanks for the feedback sir.

Wow, that was one of the most boring times of my life. I had to carefully juggle my steam production vs my steam consumption while making and stamping all that bronze. Those two boilers were insufficient for any kind of consistent tempo....
One thing I think is burning you a bit is a predisposition against "spamming" machines. GT is a bit factory-oriented. Yes you can earn "better" machines later on, but between stages you're sort of encouraged to find a balance between "how much faster will X machines get things done" and "how much of my precious time will I waste burning resources on those machines." For me, I often do something like...5 solar boilers and 1-2 coal burners. I realize you're glad you didn't scale up more but I'm not really convinced that you found the long-term sweet spot.

TAKES... FOR... EVER..TO...WORK.
People here either
a) scale up. 4-6 BBFs aren't uncommon. They can share walls, so you save a ton of resources. Given your bad experience above, this likely wouldn't be an ideal solution for you.
b) Do thaumcraft asap for steel (my current favorite approach, and my money is on it being yours as well)
c) "cheat" by leaving the BBF on in server/lan while they're away
d) Give up on the modpack forever

This came to a screeching halt when I came to the Macerator. Part of this is me the player needing to think differently about the problem, but part of this is worldgen in general, and something to take note of. I never found a Graphite/Diamond deposit. Not one. Still haven't. I had to old-school branch mine to glean Small Diamond Ore, which appear to simply randomly spawn in singletons much like vanilla oregen but with a guaranteed singleton instead of possibly more, just about as rare as vanilla spawning (roughly one per chunk), and they don't always generate the type of diamond you need (my experience was 13 small diamond ore needed to obtain 2 actual Diamonds, the rest provided either the poor diamond shown in screenshot above, or more frequently, either impure diamond dust or crushed diamond ore. This was *PAINFUL*.
...
I honestly enjoyed the earliest part of the early game GregTech changes, but even now I find the ore generation to be pants-on-head silly. To date, I've found a single tin and single tetrahedrite deposit.
I can chat all I like about this being bad RNG but I still feel like it speaks to an underlying problem with GT oregen. At the end of the day: its not super fun.

Good news is that GT-CE (community edition) kind of addresses it: While it still has giant veins, it also has surface rocks that spawn above the veins. Those surface rocks (apparently) represent the primary or secondary products of the ores beneath. So, if you find a gold rock in the grass, there's a good chance you've found a copper vein in the near vicinity beneath you.

Also, if Thaumcraft is going to be a dual-progression tree thing, you probably need to start hinting to the player a bit more firmly that they might want to get started down that road a bit sooner... oh wait, they can't, because of the brass required for the book. Which means they need an alloy smelter before they can begin that progress. And this was actually one of the frustrating things about the experience with the diamonds... I was trying to think outside the box and be innovative. I looked into created diamonds, even before the quest came up, I looked into trying to progress in Thaumcraft... but I was stymied at each turn.
More or less agreed. My preference would have been to leverage TC (and other mods) to provide clever solutions or shortcuts-for-experts.

Every time I tried to find some way to either get a Tier 3 pick so I could mine obsidian or Diamond Ore found in the Abyssal Nodes at the bottom of the ocean, I was shut down. I felt like there was something I just Wasn't Getting, that was the frustrating part, more than the time investment. After I had gone through several small diamond ores and didn't come up with an actual usable Diamond, I began to doubt that I would find one in them and I needed to think of doing something else. Partly, this is RNG pulling an X-COM on me, but partly because it wasn't spelled out clearly how I was expected to get over this hurdle. Or rather, alternatives were presented that were not permitted at that time, which was exceedingly frustrating... to see something and be unable to do it.
I feel like you kinda just ignored some good advice with regards to this. Cobalt in particular isn't very rare, is easy to mine, creates tier-3 picks, and has high durability.

Idea: Have a 'hint book', with the caveat 'this contains some content which may be seen as spoilers and is intended for players new to expert packs or these mods to go over things you might miss' or perhaps 'this contains spoilers, but if you get stuck on trying to figure something out, this will probably have your answer'. This lets people who want to do it by themselves to do it by themselves, and gives the casual players trying expert mode packs for the first time the training wheels they need to get going.
For streamlining purposes I'd probably prefer to work it into Quests while at the same time trying not to be spoilery.

Then I hit the next brick wall... steam production vs steam consumption, and the long and excessively boring wait to make bronze and turn it into plates. Could I have simply hammered everything out by hand? Sure, I could've done that. It would've been a hell of a lot faster making a half dozen hammers than waiting for the steam hammerer. But the Alloy Furnace's 25% production boost (actually... now that I think about it... 33% boost) (4x instead of 3x bronze per craft) is just TOO good to pass up. However, the Alloy Smelter consumes more steam than both of my boilers produced combined, which meant there was significant periods of downtime between alloy smeltings, and because this is coming at the end of an age, there wasn't anything else to do in the chapter that I felt I could actually accomplish. Which meant I pretty much brought up my inventory, tabbed out to watch Youtube, and came back every ten minutes or so to sleep so I didn't get mobs in my manufactory. And waited. And I did this pretty much all day long.
Yeah, see first comment. I have a bit of a blind spot when it comes to time-gates. I think you have a bit of a blind-spot when it comes to measuring the cost-benefit-analysis on scaling :) Some machines (like solar boilers) are really just dirt cheap and its worthwhile on the medium/long term to invest in them.

Crafting the blast furnace was bad enough, waiting for it to get done was, in many ways, even worse. Yes, I know, you're supposed to have stupidly-slow production now so you can be thankful for the slightly-faster-but-still-slower-than-RC's improved Blast Furnace that comes later, or at least that I assume comes later, from what I've seen in NEI and based on the tiering logic presented to me so far. But give me something to do while it is doing that, please! I can't even go exploring because I get more than four chunks away and it unloads because I don't have a chunkloader and it completely seizes up and halts production, so I can't even go exploring for ore deposits. I did as much out of Thaumcraft as I was going to do. I have pretty much all the aspects except the taint aspect unlocked already. I've got a Cauldron down, although I haven't crafted the nitor yet because I don't have the netherrack to light under the cauldron to heat it up for the actual production OF said nitor.
Providing alternative things to do while other processes are marching along is always a good objective :)

Because I still have no way of mining Obsidian yet (trying to make a vanilla diamond pickaxe is not going to happen).
Yeah this was kinda just an unfortunate weird thing that you specifically ran into. Most people just straight up have a obsidian-mining pick really quickly (cobalt or diamond or w/e). It still ties into the oregen being a thing that isn't Perfect in gt5 as far as I'm concerned.
 
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ShneekeyTheLost

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I am a complete and utter moron. I have had, in storage, this whole time, dark steel ingots obtained from that smith I raided waaay back in the first or second journal entry. Which has a mining level of Tier 3. Cue headdesk.

However, on the topic of expanding machines... my problem is that bronze machines are almost immediately replaced by steel ones, and there IS no good use for bronze machines once I have iron ones. I mean, I'm almost done making my high pressure coal boiler, which is over twice as effective as the copper one. Why bother building more things that are destined to be completely obsolete two steps after you make them?

This brings up my other constructive criticism of GregTech. There is no improving of already existing machines, there is merely obsolete machines taking up space somewhere and the new shiny ones to play with. That's why I am not keen on expanding my production yet, because in two steps I had a MUCH better way of doing so, which makes my current means of generation entirely obsolete.

Maybe I ought to make a museum of obsolete machines on display, complete with signs "Yes, hard to believe, but this bronze hulled boiler used to be my number one means of steam production. This lasted all throughout my bronze production phase and I built a Blast Furnace capable of producing steel. Horribly obsolete now, it stands here as a memorial to all the wasted time and materials needed to render itself obsolete..."

But it is this model of planned obsolescence which really irks me and prevents me from wanting to invest in infrastructure while I have better infrastructure that makes it completely obsolete right around the corner
 

Pyure

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However, on the topic of expanding machines... my problem is that bronze machines are almost immediately replaced by steel ones, and there IS no good use for bronze machines once I have iron ones. I mean, I'm almost done making my high pressure coal boiler, which is over twice as effective as the copper one. Why bother building more things that are destined to be completely obsolete two steps after you make them?

This brings up my other constructive criticism of GregTech. There is no improving of already existing machines, there is merely obsolete machines taking up space somewhere and the new shiny ones to play with. That's why I am not keen on expanding my production yet, because in two steps I had a MUCH better way of doing so, which makes my current means of generation entirely obsolete.
This is....kinda accurate but not 100%. For obsolete machines, virtually everything in GT can be recycled in some ways. So you tend to get a lot of your materials back if you want to.

For the "two steps" thing, you sort of described above how long things were taking you. You're totally right on that. The problem is that those "two steps" can take grievously long.

For me, I treat "time" as the underlying resource of everything in minecraft. Metal acquisition is time. Building chains are time. The only thing I care about is "how quickly can I get to the end game", and on balance, I save more time if I spend resources on a few extra machines early on. Yes I'll need to go mine replacement resources, but if I pick the right horses its outweighed by the other time I saved elsewhere.

Maybe I ought to make a museum of obsolete machines on display, complete with signs "Yes, hard to believe, but this bronze hulled boiler used to be my number one means of steam production. This lasted all throughout my bronze production phase and I built a Blast Furnace capable of producing steel. Horribly obsolete now, it stands here as a memorial to all the wasted time and materials needed to render itself obsolete..."

But it is this model of planned obsolescence which really irks me and prevents me from wanting to invest in infrastructure while I have better infrastructure that makes it completely obsolete right around the corner
Totally agree, but again this is where the recycling thing comes in. That said, I would have liked to see this done even better.

I don't necessarily think that a steam-machine should logically upgrade directly into an electric one...but its not a terrible approach either.
 
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Celestialphoenix

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Tartarus.. I mean at work. Same thing really.
I agree with you, the obsolete thing you worked so hard to obtain feels like a real kick in the teeth sometimes.
Though if it helps you could think of it as upgrading the components of a bigger whole.
-when I switched my workshop to gas turbines, I bled the leftover steam out pipes and filled the old steam tank with methane.

I also have good news; so pull your chin up and smile 'cos there is light at the end of the tunnel-
steam age is the worst of the obsolescence, electric machines are a lot more reusable, and a few of them are up-gradable

Its worth noting the bronze machines (LP steam consumers) do have a single advantage point over their High Pressure steel counterparts. Steel has bronze beat on a number of fronts, but don't scrap all your bronze yet.

Lower tier processing machines are a lot more energy efficient for the same recipe. So bronze machines will be a lot easier on your steam reserves.

If you're doing a themed build; a 'steam age museum' would look pretty cool.
 
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ShneekeyTheLost

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Lost as always
Journal Update: Arcane Research

So, while still trying to figure out how I'm supposed to get obsidian, I realized that waaaaay back in my first days in this strange land I had... ahem... 'borrowed' some Dark Steel ingots from a local smith. Fashioning a pickaxe out of it provided me with a tool suitable for mining obsidian. And so, with that, I obtained some, left some for making diamonds with, and with the rest I fashioned a nether portal.

My initial entry into this hellscape was actually not too bad. It was under a ledge in a more-or-less box canyon area, and seemed quite easily fortified. Except for one problem...

The goddamn bats, man.

You see, apparently there's a type of bat which thrives here. One which has a tendency to... well... to explode. Much like a creeper with wings and a much shorter fuse. And while this cul-de-sac is mostly shielded from ghast blasts, it is covered in soulsand... which significantly hinders my mobility... when I have exploding bats dive-bombing me. Needless to say, my initial foray did not have any photographic evidence, and much frustration was had by all. However, finally I fortified my initial portal, using a dogleg entrance design to discourage bats from finding their way in, and proceeded to explore my immediate surroundings.

There was a small supply of glowstone nearby, I obtained some netherrack for my alchemical purposes, and a very small amount of nether quartz from the small ores nearby. There was a larger deposit that I found, but I didn't know if the indigenous zombie pigmen would be upset with me for taking it or not, and I was NOT equipped to deal with an army of hostile pigmen, so I left well enough alone... for now. Besides, this was just to stick my nose into the Nether and obtain a small store of glowstone and netherrack to further my alchemical studies.

Heading back with my hard-won gains, I proceeded to get familiar with my research table. Quite familiar. The first thing I researched was... how to research better. Obviously. Because the sooner I can do that, the more efficient this entire process is going to be. I also placed a couple of bookshelves nearby, they seem to help in some way. From there, the next task was to research better node tapping. Nodes are precious resources, I don't want to harm them while attempting to collect vis for my projects. And so I researched both advanced node tapping and node preservation. However, I will need to make another wand, this time of greatwood and silver, in order to make use of node preservation techniques.

From there, I delved into alchemical studies. I researched Nitor and Alumentum, and crafted some of each for my book. I don't particularly like using this cauldron, though, so I shall try to unravel the secrets of something a bit more... efficient. From there, I unlocked the secrets of Essentia Distillation, Essentia Crystallization, Alchemical Centrifuge, and finally Automated Alchemy.

Satisfied that I had a more efficient means of conducting alchemical transmutation with less of that unpleasant purple stuff arising as a result, I then began researching on some more useful transmutations. First I unlocked the basics of alchemical metal transmutation, turning iron into Thaumium, albeit at an extortionate rate. From there, I unlocked the secrets of gold transmuation, which opened up a transmutation for Wrought Iron and... Steel! I also unlocked a better Thaumium transmutation method.

While this was going on, my iron was cooking in my blast furnace for steel production, and I was able to craft a high-pressure coal boiler. FAR more efficient than the bronze one I was using, I immediately swapped them out. I also was able to craft a lava-fueled boiler... useful for peak demand, but until I find a means of piping lava trans-dimensionally it probably won't be able to be a baseline steam source. I got rid of the Solar Boiler, to be honest I wasn't sure if it was actually contributing a whole lot even by my previous standards, and now we have enough steam to keep my alloy smelter running without needing awkward pauses.

I also progressed in the steel age somewhat, although stymied at progress due to Tin shortages, requiring me to go out and obtain more ore from the deposit I had discovered. I've made some magnetic iron rods, and some tin fans, and I fear this only the beginning of the shenanigans. The thought of electric powered machines is enough of a carrot to dangle for now, and so I plod through the crafting processes, learning as I go.

Finally, while not strictly or absolutely necessary, I made one item which may seem a bit... frivelous. A Presser. At six steel plates, the cost is high, however now I can turn soybean into Firm Tofu as a meat replacement and I can now effectively get into Pam's version of beekeeping, producing both honey and wax for me.

Speaking of wax... candleberries seem like an excellent source of Ordo... except they have two Mesis for every Ordo. This is why I have been trying to refine my alchemical techniques, if I can separate them using the distillation and crystallization techniques, I can be far more efficient with it and not produce any unwanted byproducts. Or rather, I can have a void jar set up to consume said unwanted byproducts without the extra-specially unwanted taint production. But that's going to be a project for another day. For now, I shall simply sleep content in the progress I have obtained.
 

ShneekeyTheLost

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Journal Entry: More random bits and pieces

So... been working on several things lately. First, I've found that I need to start making a couple of molds if I am going to progress further, a casing mold and a plate mold. Right now, I'm using them to make NAND circuits and rubber plates respectively, but I'm sure they will have more uses in my future. That's more along the lines of an infrastructure investment... it had better be, at least, considering each one cost me four steel plates.

While working on my automated alchemical process, I ran into a few hitches. My new wand is almost complete... except the wand caps require charging, done in a cauldron, and requiring the exceedingly rare Aurom essence. I suppose I *could* simply go collect a few of those psychedelic mushrooms in that unnerving forest I found. I also picked up a small supply of silverwood and greatwood since it seems like these will be necessary in my future.

Setting that aside for the moment, I turned to rubber production as a vastly superior means of insulating wiring than, say, paper or carpet. However, creating rubber isn't as simple as running resin through an extractor and then through a furnace a time or two... oh no, you see running resin through the extractor produces rubber dust (figure THAT one out...), which needs to be vulcanized in an alloy smelter with sulfur to be turned into rubber bars. And then applied to the copper wiring by running the bars through the alloy smelter with the wiring to heat it up and give the wiring an even coating. However, it takes up twice as much rubber as it does wire... which is more than mildly annoying. Hopefully I can eventually find a way to make this more efficient.

These NAND circuits, though... this is going to drive me up a wall. Each one requires a steel casing, which I can get three-for-two in an alloy smelter since I went ahead and made myself a mold for it, instead of having to hammer down a plate at a one-to-one for plates, which makes it a one-for-two deal on the steel ingot, effectively tripling my output. That, I feel, is very much a worthwhile investment. But this is going to get expensive FAST.

Since I needed more sulfur, I went back to the Nether, figuring the place would be lousy with the stuff. Also collected some nether quartz without incident. Found another Tetrahedrite deposit in the Nether, that'll be interesting to collect, but at least it is more copper, I have a feeling that sourcing multiple deposits for copper will become a necessity in the near future. The place is also lousy with iron ore as well, which I strongly suspect will also come in handy later. I'd really also like to find another deposit of tin at some point, but the deposit I currently have located is still yielding good return for the moment so it isn't absolutely critical. I still haven't found Calcopyrite yet, or any sort of deposit with Cobalt, or a few other key resources I suspect I will be needing in the near future.

For every step forward, two more steps to take become exposed. I've made some motors, working on some conveyor belts which might be extremely useful to me in the near future, but it is a slow, convoluted, and arduous task to assemble anything, it seems.

I also looked into finding a better way of seeing magical phenomena. This Thaumometer is all well and good, but it has a very limited field of view. Fashioning a pair of goggles with two of them might be a really good idea, but unfortunately upon completing the research, I discovered that it required a golden spring, which requires a machine I don't have access to just yet.

I shall likely try to finish my new wand tomorrow, it seems to contain substantially more vis which will be necessary going forward, and it won't harm nodes while trying to refill them. I also researched the theory behind staves, but they seem less useful to me at the moment. Now, if I could figure out how to make something with the capacity of a staff, but built specifically for working in an Arcane Worktable? Now that I'd be more interested in.
 

ShneekeyTheLost

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Journal Entry: Another hurdle

So, the wand went fairly straightforward. Messy, but straightforward. I now have a silver-capped Greatwood wand.

But the technological front has stalled, due to Sulfur. Every piece of rubber requires one sulfur and, effectively, one resin. Resin isn't a problem, I've got a big enough stand of rubber trees to keep me in resin for the foreseeable future. No, it's the Sulfur that is surprisingly obnoxiously annoying to obtain. You'd figure it would be all over places with lava, right? Wrong. It's in the Nether. I scoured the place, feeling like a mouse poking its nose out of the hole in the wall every time I walked into a big cavernous area, but still only a couple of small sulfur ores were found, no major deposits. The book says it lies in the deepest bowels of the Nether, but I haven't found one yet. Granted, I did find a redstone deposit, which will come in VERY necessary, if my current redstone consumption for making NAND gates is any indication.

Unfortunately, the nether is a really dangerous place, and mining is particularly dangerous due to the increased viscosity and frequency of small lava pockets that can flood a mining tunnel in no time.

While exploring, I found a spooky looking hill with a foreboding iron barred entrance. Breaking in, sword in hand, I managed to clear the area, scan the node within, and looted the place. Not much came of it other than some Netherwart, which is welcome since I still have yet to find a nether fortress.
 

ShneekeyTheLost

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I just realized something very unfortunate...

To make a single electronic circuit, I need the following:

2x NAND chips
1x Steel Plate
6x Copper Cable (insulated)

To make the NAND Chips, I need a Steel Casing, 2x red alloy wire, and a tin wire. Since I need two of them, that's 4x red wire. To get red wire is 4x redstone and a copper per red alloy ingot, and you need 2x ingots for the plate that makes 1 wire. So that's 4*2*2=16 Redstone *per NAND chip*, or a total of a half a stack of redstone per circuit, plus the steel, copper, and tin involved.

Uhh... that's enough to make me reconsider this. I mean, baked in resource requirements is one thing, but this is utterly ridiculous.
 

SolManX

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The resource costs come down once you get a few basic machines (bender, wiremill, polarizer).
 

Celestialphoenix

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Tartarus.. I mean at work. Same thing really.
Well the good news is you did find that redstone deposit in the nether...

That resource crunch is a MASSIVE step if you don't have a supply to hand, and this decision of what machine to make first depends on what you're most hurting for. (since building 1 drops the resource cost for the other).
I think I had bender, wiremill, polariser, lathe for my first play, and second run was polariser, wiremill, bender, lathe.

Also check all the recipes for circuits/circuit parts- since there are different crafting recipes for them you might find an easier combination.
 
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ShneekeyTheLost

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Well the good news is you did find that redstone deposit in the nether...

That resource crunch is a MASSIVE step if you don't have a supply to hand, and this decision of what machine to make first depends on what you're most hurting for. (since building 1 drops the resource cost for the other).
I think I had bender, wiremill, polariser, lathe for my first play, and second run was polariser, wiremill, bender, lathe.

Also check all the recipes for circuits/circuit parts- since there are different crafting recipes for them you might find an easier combination.
Well, my big problem as far as resources go is sulfur. As in I have almost none. And I can't seem to find a deposit. Y5-Y20 in the Nether, right? Sulfur's my choke on rubber production, and one I am NOT happy with.

I'll keep going for now... except I've got back to back doubles coming up this weekend, so probably not until Monday.
 

Pyure

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Aug 14, 2013
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I just realized something very unfortunate...

To make a single electronic circuit, I need the following:

2x NAND chips
1x Steel Plate
6x Copper Cable (insulated)

To make the NAND Chips, I need a Steel Casing, 2x red alloy wire, and a tin wire. Since I need two of them, that's 4x red wire. To get red wire is 4x redstone and a copper per red alloy ingot, and you need 2x ingots for the plate that makes 1 wire. So that's 4*2*2=16 Redstone *per NAND chip*, or a total of a half a stack of redstone per circuit, plus the steel, copper, and tin involved.

Uhh... that's enough to make me reconsider this. I mean, baked in resource requirements is one thing, but this is utterly ridiculous.
Managing your circuits, from which machines you prioritize to whether you focus on optimizing your circuitry assembly apparatus, if one of the most difficult decision trees in the pack.

My own strategy is typically to just pick my machines very carefully with half an eye towards trying to kill birds with stones that will accomplish both goals at the same time.
 

Pyure

Not Totally Useless
Aug 14, 2013
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Waterloo, Ontario
Well, my big problem as far as resources go is sulfur. As in I have almost none. And I can't seem to find a deposit. Y5-Y20 in the Nether, right? Sulfur's my choke on rubber production, and one I am NOT happy with.

I'll keep going for now... except I've got back to back doubles coming up this weekend, so probably not until Monday.
I...don't understand this. If you go to the sulfur elevation in the nether with a half-decent pickaxe (cobalt or w/e you like) and dig straight forward for 20 minutes, you will virtually always hit sulfur. And that vein will be all you'll ever need. (The lava-pocket thing isn't a big deal, just keep netherrack in your favorite oh-shit toolbar spot. Mine's 4.)