An Exploration modpack

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Celestialphoenix

Too Much Free Time
Nov 9, 2012
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Tartarus.. I mean at work. Same thing really.
I agree on that, or posibly going with mapwriter... Then again I think mdiyo added something so that vanilla maps can be displayed in the corner like a minnymap...

The airship feels a bit slap together craftable for me... I'd probabl go with Archemede's ship, as it's actual construction of a ship, block by block.

I remember Nature Overhaul... I think it's been long since dropped however... But it did kinda go haywire...I wouldn't mind a successor to it..

The vanilla map thing sounds interesting- I'll check it out.

Pchan's airship was only in MC beta, the recipes haven't updated since. I guess minetweaker is worth a shot?

There is a forward port for Nature Overhaul, so you can have 1.6/1.7 (the sapling/item spam been dropped, but I think the rest works)
 

KillerRamer

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Jul 29, 2019
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The vanilla map thing sounds interesting- I'll check it out.

Pchan's airship was only in MC beta, the recipes haven't updated since. I guess minetweaker is worth a shot?

There is a forward port for Nature Overhaul, so you can have 1.6/1.7 (the sapling/item spam been dropped, but I think the rest works)
Aye it does, but it's in the new experimentle build for 1.6.4 so it isn't all exactly tidy. Just report issues and such when you find em.

It isn't so much the cost, I just like the idea of having an inworld build of a ship.. It feels special, like it's actually built with love and care. Each ship is unique.. and it can even be a home to I believe... It's strictly dependent on the person who's working on the ship.

Oh really? Interesting I'll have to take a look for that and see how that goes then...
 
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GreenZombie

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Jul 29, 2019
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So a provisional pack I made:

Tech with
Applied Energistics
Ender IO

Magic with
Thaumcraft
Blood Magic

Utility with
Voxel (Zans) MiniMap
Craft Guide
Hopper Ducts
Iron Chests
Bibliocraft
Archimedes Ships

Exploration Content with
Ruins
Lycanites Mobs
Doomlike Dungeons

Comments:
1. CraftGuide is an excellent lightweight replacement to the "NEI" cluster, but unfortunately does't understand Ender IO's allow smelter or the new AE "press" and other crafters.

2. Lycanites mobs is really dissapointing. On the overworld the mobs are underwhelming, in the nether, well the nether is basically unplayable. The 3d models are gorgeous but ARE NOT ANIMATED, which really spoils it. Hoping for Grimoire of Gaia to be ported to 1.7.2

3. I couldnt find 1.7.2 versions of Better Dungeons, Dimensional Doors, or Atum and I haven't managed to chance across any doomlike dungeons, so I can't comment on how they are layed out.

4. Holey @#$( EnderIO is a competent little TE replacement. I love the all-the-cables-in-one block approach that would help my regular automate-all-the-things MFR builds immensely. Ender IO provides RF via solar power, which neatly sidesteps the lack of automated farming in this pack.

5. I didn't want to use a biome mod as Ive heard (and seen) good things about vanilla world gen in 1.7.x

Mods I am surprised don't find their way into more FTB packs:
CraftGuide (as a 'lite' alternative to NEI). Archimedes Ships for the ships. Ruins, for the ambiance - It could do with some popular support, and wider variety of templates.
 

Mevansuto

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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So a provisional pack I made:

Tech with
Applied Energistics
Ender IO

Magic with
Thaumcraft
Blood Magic

Utility with
Voxel (Zans) MiniMap
Craft Guide
Hopper Ducts
Iron Chests
Bibliocraft
Archimedes Ships

Exploration Content with
Ruins
Lycanites Mobs
Doomlike Dungeons

Comments:
1. CraftGuide is an excellent lightweight replacement to the "NEI" cluster, but unfortunately does't understand Ender IO's allow smelter or the new AE "press" and other crafters.

2. Lycanites mobs is really dissapointing. On the overworld the mobs are underwhelming, in the nether, well the nether is basically unplayable. The 3d models are gorgeous but ARE NOT ANIMATED, which really spoils it. Hoping for Grimoire of Gaia to be ported to 1.7.2

3. I couldnt find 1.7.2 versions of Better Dungeons, Dimensional Doors, or Atum and I haven't managed to chance across any doomlike dungeons, so I can't comment on how they are layed out.

4. Holey @#$( EnderIO is a competent little TE replacement. I love the all-the-cables-in-one block approach that would help my regular automate-all-the-things MFR builds immensely. Ender IO provides RF via solar power, which neatly sidesteps the lack of automated farming in this pack.

5. I didn't want to use a biome mod as Ive heard (and seen) good things about vanilla world gen in 1.7.x

Mods I am surprised don't find their way into more FTB packs:
CraftGuide (as a 'lite' alternative to NEI). Archimedes Ships for the ships. Ruins, for the ambiance - It could do with some popular support, and wider variety of templates.

Personally, I made was also disappointed with Lycanite's Mobs - so I made it so they only spawn in dungeons. Made them really fun.

As for a biome mod, 1.7 still doesn't come close for me to BoP, Highlands or ATG. But your choice.
 

Golrith

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Nov 11, 2012
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Played with Lycanites Mobs on a Hard Difficulty server, get raped by massive flocks of raptors. Was using it, but we found it's mobs would fill the mob caps. Even hitting the configs hard with the nerf hammer didn't help that much.
Other problem we had was all the overworld dungeons (vanilla and modded) tended to be 90% nether mobs, making those dungeons neigh on impossible. Overall consensus was to remove the mod, and we've enjoyed things much more. Actually turned out made the server more dangerous, due to running Zombie Awareness, nights are now lethal due to the undead being able to spawn due to space in the mob cap limits.


Also use the Ruins mod. It's good, it might not be included as the ruins are subject to taste (there is a download for more ruins), there were a some ruins/structures I disabled, plus having to put the structure files into a folder per biome is a big amount of setup. Another downside might be the mob spawners in some of the ruins. Having an overworld ruin with Blaze Spawners in it can "break" the progression of some mods.


Another mod you might want to help with the exploration is Unique Artifacts. Adds towers that are trapped, which contain randomly generated unique artifacts, which can be either useful, fun, or not that helpful.
 

GreenZombie

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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Played with Lycanites Mobs on a Hard Difficulty server, get raped by massive flocks of raptors. Was using it, but we found it's mobs would fill the mob caps. Even hitting the configs hard with the nerf hammer didn't help that much.
Other problem we had was all the overworld dungeons (vanilla and modded) tended to be 90% nether mobs, making those dungeons neigh on impossible. Overall consensus was to remove the mod, and we've enjoyed things much more. Actually turned out made the server more dangerous, due to running Zombie Awareness, nights are now lethal due to the undead being able to spawn due to space in the mob cap limits.


Also use the Ruins mod. It's good, it might not be included as the ruins are subject to taste (there is a download for more ruins), there were a some ruins/structures I disabled, plus having to put the structure files into a folder per biome is a big amount of setup. Another downside might be the mob spawners in some of the ruins. Having an overworld ruin with Blaze Spawners in it can "break" the progression of some mods.


Another mod you might want to help with the exploration is Unique Artifacts. Adds towers that are trapped, which contain randomly generated unique artifacts, which can be either useful, fun, or not that helpful.

Did you ever look at Grimoire of Gaia? Im hoping it gets ported to 1.7.2. The mobs are... bloody gorgeous, animated "enough", and provide a varied and interesting challenge.

wrt ruins - it is possible to drop a template into a single folder (generic), and Ruins will automatically copy it to the relevant biome folders based on the text markup in the .tml file.

But, the ruins are rather tricky to audit to ensure mod progression isn't broken. Well, a simple text search over the .tml files can find instances of blacklisted things - such as enderman and blaze spawners.
It looks like @AtomicStryker has moved the offending ruins into the obsolete folder so they don't generate.

I didn't see a download link for any additional ruins...?

This is why I am avoiding CARuins / City Walls. On the one hand it is bloody epic finding massive caverns filled with buildings. On the other... ive found citites made largley of glowstone and obsidian, filled with enderman spawners, and villager spawners tend to occur in the walls. This does rather interfere with progression. (We also found spawners as loot in chests when running these mods - but vanilla spawners, which are well bugged when held as they stack, regardless of nbt data, making them reset and make pigs only).
 
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Golrith

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Nov 11, 2012
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I don't use the Generic system, as you can get some odd results especially with biome mods. Plus, with some biomes more open then others, some biomes overspawn ruins compared to others (especially the Ocean, by default that fills with Ships, Lighthouses and Floating Castles).
So instead I allocate a % chance to different biomes, then put in the ruins I want in each biome. Also allows for some extra atmosphere like drowned buildings.

My "Also use the Ruins Mod" should have read "I also use the Ruins mod" :p

Link for Unique Artifacts: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic...ly-generated-items-now-with-99-less-crashing/

I use the CARuins / City Walls, but it's heavily configured changing weights and distances/chances. The most common "city wall" I generate are the ruined roads (fits with the theme of my pack)
Common trend I find in all mods is that their default settings are always too generous, and depending on the setting *4 or /4 the value is a better "balance".
 

RedBoss

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Jul 29, 2019
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I class Dimensional doors as a dimension mod, but it still enhances exploration. Plus it has a trippy style those eyes look like they have seen nothing, like pure nothing.
I don't use DimDoors. It's mainly due to the infamous Obelisk Incident back in 1.5. He wasn't responsible, but I'll always claim WayofTime had something to do with it.
 

Mevansuto

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Jul 29, 2019
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I don't use DimDoors. It's mainly due to the infamous Obelisk Incident back in 1.5. He wasn't responsible, but I'll always claim WayofTime had something to do with it.

Sorry to do this, but what Obelisk Incident?
 

RedBoss

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Jul 29, 2019
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Sorry to do this, but what Obelisk Incident?
I used to have pics but the chunks around my base in the over world became flooded with DimDoors obelisks. Then they promptly teleported you to their dimension. It was horrifically hilarious.
 

Azzanine

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Jul 29, 2019
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I used to have pics but the chunks around my base in the over world became flooded with DimDoors obelisks. Then they promptly teleported you to their dimension. It was horrifically hilarious.
Those obelisks don't exist anymore they have been replaced by the eyes (which do the same thing I guess). Void rifts are rather concerning when you find them though, they eat the world around it and spawn seemingly pre aggro'd endermen.
 
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GreenZombie

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Jul 29, 2019
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Those obelisks don't exist anymore they have been replaced by the eyes (which do the same thing I guess). Void rifts are rather concerning when you find them though, they eat the world around it and spawn seemingly pre aggro'd endermen.

The void rifts are the one reason I am unhappy with dimensional doors. Find one and you can farm endermen without going to the end. Its progression altering.
 

Azzanine

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Jul 29, 2019
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The void rifts are the one reason I am unhappy with dimensional doors. Find one and you can farm endermen without going to the end. Its progression altering.

It is a bit progression altering if you care for a set linear progression path.
A custom pack I was using had Dim Doors, I ended up with 3 stacks of pearls merely defending myself whilst building an Ars Magica area near a rift.
But I don't think this is a fault with the mod but a fault with Enderman behavior they are too easily felled by a 2 block high gap, they are supposed to be the fabled nightmarish horror of Minecraft.
Frankly I think they are a joke, that being said I guess a modder who's concerned about balanced play should take Minecrafts flaws in to consideration.
 

GreenZombie

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Jul 29, 2019
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It is a bit progression altering if you care for a set linear progression path.
...
But I don't think this is a fault with the mod but a fault with Enderman behavior they are too easily felled by a 2 block high gap, they are supposed to be the fabled nightmarish horror of Minecraft.
...

I think you are confusing them with creepers. Allthough. At a time when I had grimoire of gaia installed, I also had the one-true-mob-of-panic-inducing-horror. I could fall into a hole full of creepers and breathe a sigh of relief because there wasn't one of these.
 

GreenZombie

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Jul 29, 2019
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A reportback after a weekend of playing with this pack:

Archimedes Ships is seriously improved: The SMP support seems much much smoother than last time we tried this mod on multiplayer. Just dont derp out and accidentally press 'shift' at 64'000 feet :p

The concept as a whole appears to work. Instead of spreading with the 4 winds, players built a communal settlement, and after getting some basic farming set up, engaged in group foraging of twilight forest and explored about 4km² of map searching for some basic resources, that, with TE installed, would simply have been produced with pulverizers.
 

Azzanine

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Jul 29, 2019
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I think you are confusing them with creepers. Allthough. At a time when I had grimoire of gaia installed, I also had the one-true-mob-of-panic-inducing-horror. I could fall into a hole full of creepers and breathe a sigh of relief because there wasn't one of these.
Minotauruses? Those cows can go to hell. Those ladies did me in hundreds of times, didn't help that I had infernal mods on too.
I however found both those mods progression breakers too, set up a mob farm with both Infernal Mobs and Grimoire of Gaia and you end up with gold and iron for days. Emeralds too but gaming villager markets make emeralds trash in even vanilla (iron too).
 

GreenZombie

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Jul 29, 2019
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Weeping Angels of course, Minotaurs were far less frightening than the stoney clatter that indicates an Angel has snuck up behind you. (The minotaurs were male wern't they?)
 

Azzanine

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Weeping Angels of course, Minotaurs/Minotauresses are far less frightening than the stoney clatter that indicates an Angel has snuck up behind you.
Those angels are lame, I don't know about the Minecraft variety but I don't get why people think the ones in the show are so scary. I mean getting nabbed would be absolutely inconveniencing but if you don't care for your current state of living it could be an upgrade or at least a side grade.