[CHALLENGE] (v4.3-ish 6/7/18) Refugee to Regent Kingdom Building Challenge

  • Please make sure you are posting in the correct place. Server ads go here and modpack bugs go here
  • The FTB Forum is now read-only, and is here as an archive. To participate in our community discussions, please join our Discord! https://ftb.team/discord

What do you think of the Serf to Supreme Challenge?

  • City Construction Challenge was better!

    Votes: 9 7.0%
  • It's okay, but there's definitely room for improvement

    Votes: 35 27.1%
  • Give me my Electrics sooner!

    Votes: 14 10.9%
  • I enjoy the slow introduction of mods.

    Votes: 43 33.3%
  • I wish Element Animation would hurry up with the next episode.

    Votes: 24 18.6%
  • I love it!

    Votes: 51 39.5%

  • Total voters
    129

Acredium

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
44
0
0
The main wiki is pretty scattered and certainly unfinished, and @Maul_Junior seems to be gone for an extended time now, but you'll find a link on there to the "Classic Wiki" version or something like that - those are more complete and are a good place to look if you're interested in this sort of thing.

Thanks, I'll check it out.
 

Monarch_of_Gold

Well-Known Member
Jul 1, 2015
291
164
69
I think I've got the old wiki still bookmarked. The links are unorganized and at first I couldn't really figure much out. One rule that, to me, doesn't make sense is not being allowed tools until you get to the named stage

I mean, it does make sense, but, to me, it also makes it way harder.

Sidenote: decided to personally start the castle challenge with FTB: Infinity Evolved. Will post wood age soon after this. Already started stone age.
 

Acredium

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
44
0
0
I think I've got the old wiki still bookmarked. The links are unorganized and at first I couldn't really figure much out. One rule that, to me, doesn't make sense is not being allowed tools until you get to the named stage

I mean, it does make sense, but, to me, it also makes it way harder.

Sidenote: decided to personally start the castle challenge with FTB: Infinity Evolved. Will post wood age soon after this. Already started stone age.
I've also been following your modded challenge on the Minecraft forums. But that changed radical with the latest version.

Always wanted to do one of these challenges cause I love to build. But I know I'm gonna need a partner in crime to keep going.

But the scattered rules is an issue ;)

Send with Tapatalk
 

Monarch_of_Gold

Well-Known Member
Jul 1, 2015
291
164
69
I just personally disliked the whole restriction thing so I basically removed them. I can put some back in if you would prefer. Think the old ones are still around somewhere

Sent from my SM-T230NU using Tapatalk
 

Acredium

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
44
0
0
Thanks Mobius, bookmarked that one. Indeed much cleaner.

And Monarch, you should make the challenge like you want it to be. I do think I like the restriction in the beginning. To each their own I would say :p
 

Monarch_of_Gold

Well-Known Member
Jul 1, 2015
291
164
69
Considering it's a modded challenge I figured it'd be easier to start with stone and let you have iron early on, as most mods are blocked off until then and a modded challenge isn't fun if you can't play with the mods. I can make some of the restrictions heavier in the beginning.

Sent from my SM-T230NU using Tapatalk
 

Senseidragon

Well-Known Member
May 26, 2013
703
319
88
The Hermitcraft guys can be fairly inventive given that they've restricted themselves to vanilla 1.9 mechanics.
 

TomeWyrm

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
898
1
1
I get bored with the lack of materially different things to do in vanilla. Automation really has to be a major component in my game, and the resources required to do that in vanilla are generally absurd or abuse bugs or "gaps" in the game that pretty obviously were never, and would never have been, intended by Mojang.

Hence my love of mods. They add enough content to keep me interested... but even barring that I still rush to endgame, become unkillable, and the game becomes "Grind in the mine for materials", "build the same thing I've built before", and "stare at a place thinking 'I need to put something there', yet never following through".

Which is what this challenge excels at breaking. It gives structure without being (usually) prescriptive, it limits with clear unlocks, and it focuses on a non-progressive component to do so.
 

Senseidragon

Well-Known Member
May 26, 2013
703
319
88
I wasn't suggesting vanilla, I was commenting on their inventiveness in having to work around the lack of mods. Some of their contraptions are huge monstrosities (automatic tree crusher?) when constrained by only using hoppers, repeaters, comparators and the like - but they're still clever.

I think my game has devolved into "build the best modpack for this" rather than actually putting a line in the sand and playing it. I'm trying to get out of that rut right now.

1.8.9 is tempting me pretty strongly though, so it is difficult to firmly pick (for me) right now. I can write my own mods in any version, so for stuff short of CoFH-level complexity, I'm not really concerned.

With 1.9 out now though, and some mod movement actually starting to show there, going to 1.8.9 might be moot. The effort in moving my stuff from 1.8.9 to 1.9 is pretty darn trivial. Nothing like from 1.7.10 to 1.8.9. I think the only funky bit I hit was figuring out that "rendering in either hand" thing that 1.9 brings.
 
  • Like
Reactions: The Mobius Archives

The Mobius Archives

Well-Known Member
Mar 31, 2013
642
366
88
www.youtube.com
Automation really has to be a major component in my game
I think in Gold City with "second tier" technology and magic opening full automation feels possible. These are limited systems but not as clunky as the redstone expansion stage. I think one of my early base changes will be to automate meal production because I have insta-death via hunger overhaul turned on.
 

Monarch_of_Gold

Well-Known Member
Jul 1, 2015
291
164
69
Right now I'm at that stage where I want to do a challenge but I end up starting over so many times because of un-recoverable deaths that I'm getting tired of it. Meanwhile I'm also taking note of mods I like and I'm creating a pack around those mods. I found I like Tinker's Construct but in it's latest 1.7.10 version it just breaks the game. It made vanilla tools obsolete so you can only use them for crafting recipes. You can't make stone tools and wood tools only mine as far as cobble. To get anywhere you have to somehow make an iron pick which you can't do without aluminum brass, but to get that you HAVE TO HAVE AN IRON PICK. Ultimately it means in order to even GET STARTED now you have to cheat in an iron pick until you've got what you need to even get going so you can make a house.

WAY too frustrating for me so I canned it. If you've made it impossible to progress I don't want your mod. The only way I can think it possible to start is to have a village mod installed that gives you loads more villages that you can loot for starting tools. If you can't find one, cheat, i guess.
 

Senseidragon

Well-Known Member
May 26, 2013
703
319
88
I believe you can use a flint pick to get copper, a copper pick to mine iron, and then an iron pick can get your tin to make aluminum brass.
If you also have Iguana Tinker's Tweaks in there somewhere, you end up having to "level" the tools as well before they're effective for their mining level. While initially tempting, I ended up moving away from Tinker's Tweaks because it really compounded the problem of Tinker's Tools being pretty strong already.

In Tinker's 1.8.x they mostly got rid of the Aluminum Brass silliness. I like it a lot better than 1.7.10's version. In the configs I do *not* disable vanilla tool effectiveness so my players can use Tinkers or ignore it as they choose.

I think starting near a village is too much of a crutch, I know I ended up abusing them a lot early on.
So I tend to follow a "don't loot" mindset with them:
  1. You can harvest crops as long as you replant seeds (keeping extras if you want)
  2. Don't dismantle any of their homes, furnaces, crafting tables, bookshelves or smelteries.
  3. Don't stay more than one night at a village -- after that, it's time to move on.
  4. If you find lootable stuff in chests, trade prepared food back to them for it.
    • Example: You find some ingots and a hoe in a chest. Leave an equal number of prepared foods for them in trade.
    • Prepared foods are foods you have to craft or smelt, like cooked meat/fish, bread, baked potatoes, or if you have a food mod installed, a myriad of other possibilities.
    • Sure, a pork chop may not really be a fair trade for a Thaumonomicon, but to me it feels better than outright taking it.
    • For a particularly great find (diamonds, really good mod items, etc.) maybe fix up a few of their derpy paths or fill in some holes for them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: The Mobius Archives

The Mobius Archives

Well-Known Member
Mar 31, 2013
642
366
88
www.youtube.com
You can't make stone tools and wood tools only mine as far as cobble. To get anywhere you have to somehow make an iron pick which you can't do without aluminum brass
Fair enough.

From what I can tell Tinkers' design goes from softer, easy to acquire materials to harder materials. Wood, (stone useless except as a cast unless configured), flint/bone, copper, iron, bronze, (obsidian, alumite, ardite, cobalt, manyullum or something).
Just for interest sake the progression I see after finally reaching the gold city stage:
  1. A wood shovel can dig gravel which occasionally drops flint. (wood settlement)
  2. Flint can be used in a pickaxe head to mine aluminum and tin which when smelted together aluminum brass for casts. Flint can also be used to mine copper which can made into a pickaxe head. (Stone Hamlet)
  3. Copper can mine iron which you can use for tool parts by challenge rules (Iron Village)
  4. After iron comes bronze (copper and tin I think). (Redstone Discovery)
  5. If you have the other mods or are very lucky with chainmail drops steel is slightly better than bronze, otherwise pig iron which is blood, iron, and emeralds. (Gold city - my oops I was using steel much earlier)
  6. You need steel or pig iron to get obsidian so you can make the Alumite alloy (Glowstone expansion)
  7. Alumite is needed to mine ardite from the nether (Lapis Lazuli)
  8. Ardite is used to mine cobalt (Emerald Megalopolis)
  9. Cobalt and Ardite make Manyullum the Nether Star Imperium choice for tableware the galaxy over. (Diamond Capital/Nether Star Imperium with modifiers)
 

Monarch_of_Gold

Well-Known Member
Jul 1, 2015
291
164
69
Interestingly the recipe to get a bone pick head doesn't work. For now I just assumed it takes one bone per head and gave myself a head and tossed a bone. Same issue with bone crossbar things (the thing that connects the pick to the tool rod). Honestly as far as village chests and things go I assume the mod creators think that through before deciding on what spawns in villages and chests and what doesn't. If it's too game-breaking it won't be there.


EDIT: For whatever reason cannot make wood or bone parts. Only thing I can make is a wooden crossbar. Suddenly wondering what on earth happened to cause such a bug and am looking into re-enabling vanilla tools. Shouldn't have to cheat in beginner objects. Seriously broken and I have a hard time believing the creator of TC didn't notice a bug this huge. Also can't find a single piece of flint no matter how many gravel blocks I dig.

Am I irritated? You better believe it.

EDIT 2: Found out the mod to blame is Iguana Tweaks. Ripped it out and suddenly the world is fun again. Will use vanilla stone tools until I can swap to tinker tools. Still think the bone, wood, and flint tools are broken. Not sure, though.
 
Last edited: