Any way to make manually mining more worthwhile?

[KaoticSoulz]

Alright, so I've taken a few months off of Feed the Beast, and as such remember next to nothing about it. Anyways, from what I can remember, some sort of auto-mining machine almost always has the same level of efficiency except you don't even need to be next to it for it to function. As such, as I want my new world to be more adventure-oriented, I was curious if there was any mod that someway, somehow, made mining by hand, actually going into cave systems and mining the ores with a pick, more worthwhile than the numerous auto-miners there are? I will be playing on the Monster pack with a few extras (Soul Shards 2, Dimensional Doors, Ars Magica 2, Zan's Minimap, and a couple others I can't remember). Also, if there is something already implemented that I just can't think of off the top of my head, then please let me know what that would be as well.

Thanks!
Kaotic

 

[casilleroatr]

I don't know how long you have been away but in 1.5 a major new mod called Tinker's Construct gained an enormous amount of popularity. It adds a custom tool system which makes manual mining more interesting in many ways. From a raw efficiency standpoint, you can craft a hammer out of decent materials which will mine a 3*3 area. It is also really easy to put fortune or silk touch on your hammer. The mod adds other tools and weapons, and if you haven't checked it out already, it is well worth a look.

Other mods that add good tools include Dartcraft which has some similarities to Tinker's construct in the way you use materials to upgrade your tools. I don't think it is in any FTB packs which I think is a shame because the tools are really nice and easy to get into. Thaumcraft adds some nice tools that can be really quite powerful when enchanted. Even more impressive are the tools added by popular Thaumcraft addon, Thaumic Tinkerer. This mod adds some crazy endgame tools which are hard to get but really cool (they also come with some very fashionable armour!).

Another mod that I haven't had much opportunity to play myself, but have seen used to great effect by others is Blood Magic which adds bound tools. They are obtained with a really impressive ritual and require a lot of infrastructure if you want to abuse the mechanic. All of these mods offer really good ways to improve the manual mining experience at different points in the game. While Tinker's and Dartcraft have their own built in enchantment system, the other mods really benefit from mods that improve the enchantment system. Open blocks has a liquid xp system which is quite useful as does minefactory reloaded. However, if you can get it on your modpack, LiquidXP by Immibis is also a really good enchanting mod and is my personal favourite.

 

[madnewmy]

Bound pickaxe is the most awesome and dangerous pick you can get IMHO. But try aroma's mining world: flat and a load of caves. Other place would be deep dark and TF's hollow hill.

 

[KaoticSoulz]

-snip-

Thanks a ton for the suggestions! I'll probably be adding Dartcraft and LiquidXP to the modpack as they seem pretty cool.

As for Thaumcraft, on my previous play-throughs, I never did more than fight the wisps, and I hear that it has gotten a new version which is like insanely more in-depth, so I"ll have to go into it a bit. As for TiCo, I never went too far into it. Made a few rapiers for PvP use in a server I used to play on, and a couple manyullyn (sp?) picks with zero customizations. Never experimented, and I wasn't aware the hammer was so useful. Thanks a ton for the suggestions!

Bound pickaxe is the most awesome and dangerous pick you can get IMHO. But try aroma's mining world: flat and a load of caves. Other place would be deep dark and TF's hollow hill.

I'm assuming the bound pick is from Blood Magic? It sounds like what casilleroatr was talking about. As for the mining world, sounds a bit OP which I do not want. The only way I'll go into a mining world is if I make one via Mystcraft. Twilight Forest is a good alternative for mining, which I had previously forgotten about, but it does have a lot of mobs that I won't be able to tackle while mining until I get some good armor.

 

[Steel]

On my server, I've pretty much turned myself into a walking quarry. With a bound pickaxe (Blood Magic) and a blood supply to use it, I just walk around on a spectral bridge (Blood Magic) and taken out huge 11x11x11 chunks of a mining area, and then I use a player interface (Random Things) and an upgraded transfer node (Extra Utilities) to keep my inventory clear so I can just mine for days.

 

[Qazplm601]

On my server, I've pretty much turned myself into a walking quarry. With a bound pickaxe (Blood Magic) and a blood supply to use it, I just walk around on a spectral bridge (Blood Magic) and taken out huge 11x11x11 chunks of a mining area, and then I use a player interface (Random Things) and an upgraded transfer node (Extra Utilities) to keep my inventory clear so I can just mine for days.

"walking quarrys" *drools at the thought*

 

[ThatOneSlowking]

Too make mining worthwhile:
Play TPPI

 

[KaosRitual]

With Auto-Smelt and Fortune 3 on a Tinkers tool you get more ore than you would from TE ore processing, also the sonic glasses from extra utilities make spelunking kinda fun.

 

[epidemia78]

You dont really need a quarry, I know this from experience. Made at least 3 Powersuits in 3 separate games by only manually mining. Didnt take that long, honest. Anyway heres some advice.

Use induction smelters for ore processing early on so you can build up rich slag which is a byproduct. Use silk touch on redstone so you can get cinnabar. Mine twilight forest hollow hills for huge amounts of vanilla ores. If you use a wand of equal trade its like an ore extravaganza. you can use rich slag and cinnabar to triple whichever ore you think you might be short on.

And as someone mentioned earlier, Tinker's construct tools are your best friend in this endeavor especially a Hammer. Make one for silk touch and leave the fortune3 one at home for when you need to smash a load of diamond ore. I use a builder's wand to create a big block of ore super fast. I dont need more lapis so I never bother fortune 3-ing that now.

 

[Skyqula]

Id one up Tinkers Contruct for tools. The most balanced and fun mod for it.

Also worth noting is that Dartcrafts bag system is amazing and realy good for manual mining/building.

 

[epidemia78]

You could also try adjusting the ore spawn rates in the thermal expansion config so its less stingy.

 

[Celestialphoenix]

Explore caves instead of strip mining.

The added danger and interactions with monsters keep it interesting, while not filling your inventory with crap/cobble makes it worthwhile.​

(take a look at the mods in B'n'B pack if you really want to cook it up, a least leave your super-invulnerability armour+jetpack on the surface)