I am of the opinion that resource scarcity in that manner is absolute and complete BS. If I wanted a competitive game I would sure as hell wouldn't play modded SMP. And with that, I think we can agree to disagree.
Agreed.
Anyway, seems I'm gonna have to be "That guy" again and ask a question that is being very unanswered, but by the people in this thread. So Crystal Growing is too Low-tech, eh? Throw some crystal powder into a pool of water, and you eventually get a usable crystal. That's too low tech? Fine. Does anyone know of a high tech way to do this that wouldn't gate crystals in AE 2 too late to be of use?
I ask because that's how it's normally done. Both Nature and Mankind use this sort of trick to get crystals; nature does this sort of thing all the time, albeit usually producing stalagmites and stalactites. Mankind? Heck, this is how rock candy is formed.
Also, I'm okay with wasting 2 hours to get started in AE 2. I just can't see it being only 2 hours in SMP, even if it's a friendly server, unless we can make our own presses somehow. I don't even care if in order to make any press you need all four presses first. I'm cool with that, as while I may be "cursed by the RNG" at times, in this case I can locate the resources to make a press and find a person that has all four and trade with them for a new press. Even in a Anarchy server, this is possible. It's just more tense as one has to be on the lookout for betrayal and double-crossing in this case.