I played ftb a while ago but not for to long. I've craved playing it once again and want to know if someone can help me out by telling me an order of which mods I should approach first to save time. Thanks for anyone who helps!
Easiest way to start out?
- Thread starter Sobe Fanta
- Start date
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vanilla. Get yourself set up vanilla wise, a nice source of food, tons of materials from mining. Then do whatever you like.
Steves carts tree farm, Thermal expansion machines seem to be very popular starter machines now, etc etc ad infinitum.
Steves carts tree farm, Thermal expansion machines seem to be very popular starter machines now, etc etc ad infinitum.
^^^ This.
And I would include MJ power generation in the list of good starter machines from thermal expansion.
(Magmatic and steam engines.)
And I would include MJ power generation in the list of good starter machines from thermal expansion.
(Magmatic and steam engines.)
I'm going to go out on a limb.
Everything hard is optional.
You could play this just like vanilla 1.4.7. Dig some dirt, make some walls, and go caving. Come out with your prizes and go again.
Now, just a warning, the thaumcraft angry zombies are going to hurt a little more then anything else, so you'll want to spend more of your resources on armor earlier then you would in vanilla.
(Check my sig, I've got a lovely collection of guides in it to help you)
Now, thaumcraft? You'll need iron and lava and one shard. That's all it takes to start out with.
The first researches you can cover with wood (crafting table, bowl) , cobblestone (furnace), iron, sand (chisseled sandstone, glass), food (meat, bread), torches, redstone, and seeds.
Most of that is stuff you can handle pretty early, in enough of an amount to do the research, without even using any of the machines.
Everything hard is optional.
You could play this just like vanilla 1.4.7. Dig some dirt, make some walls, and go caving. Come out with your prizes and go again.
Now, just a warning, the thaumcraft angry zombies are going to hurt a little more then anything else, so you'll want to spend more of your resources on armor earlier then you would in vanilla.
(Check my sig, I've got a lovely collection of guides in it to help you)
Now, thaumcraft? You'll need iron and lava and one shard. That's all it takes to start out with.
The first researches you can cover with wood (crafting table, bowl) , cobblestone (furnace), iron, sand (chisseled sandstone, glass), food (meat, bread), torches, redstone, and seeds.
Most of that is stuff you can handle pretty early, in enough of an amount to do the research, without even using any of the machines.
The "when" question of Thaumcraft is completely up to you. It all depends on what style of game you want to play. You could play nothing but Thaumcraft quite comfortably if you wanted to. Or you could go with a tech-heavy approach and avoid magic altogether. Personally, I usually end up getting into Thaumcraft pretty late because by then the research is easier since I have so many materials. But as I said, that's strictly personal preference. There's no reason at all why you couldn't start almost right away. (Well, after you mine at least a little while...)
The truth is some friends of mine started playing a few days ago and I wanted to know the quickest way to catch up to them. I know you can jump right in and start doing whatever you like but I was wondering if there was a certain order to maximize the amount of output. For example say you start out working on Thermal expansion, and working on Thermal expansion makes another mod easier to accomplish and so on. There's just so much stuff to do and I can't even decide where to start, I know there's no wrong or right but I want to try and catch up to my friends as fast as possible. Also thank you for those who've already helped me 
I like this twist to the question as well.
In addition to the above clarifications, what would you consider the most important factor(s) when it comes to defining "catching up"? The physical size and/or complexity of your base? The amount of raw resources you have collected? The amount of power you can produce? Obviously these things are somewhat interconnected and I'm sure you'd like a mixture of all three (and perhaps some other things as well). But knowing what you're most interested in might lead to some more specific tactics being suggested.
In addition to the above clarifications, what would you consider the most important factor(s) when it comes to defining "catching up"? The physical size and/or complexity of your base? The amount of raw resources you have collected? The amount of power you can produce? Obviously these things are somewhat interconnected and I'm sure you'd like a mixture of all three (and perhaps some other things as well). But knowing what you're most interested in might lead to some more specific tactics being suggested.
My brother owns a servers and there isn't really any bragging it's just that I kind of hate being the lone dog left behind if you know what I mean. The modpack is ultimate ftb. My brother even insists using their machines and such but being the stubborn person I am I like to do things myself but I guess I could use em if it would make it faster.
@edit
My bad Silent I posted before I saw your post. As you said all 3 are of importance but from what I know they've been focusing on Thaumcraft and beginning on Industrial Craft, I could be wrong though. I'm sure all 3 of those aspects are important but there has to be one that will provide more use than the others. Maybe the mods are to differential from where they do not impact each other as much as I thought they did.
@edit
My bad Silent I posted before I saw your post. As you said all 3 are of importance but from what I know they've been focusing on Thaumcraft and beginning on Industrial Craft, I could be wrong though. I'm sure all 3 of those aspects are important but there has to be one that will provide more use than the others. Maybe the mods are to differential from where they do not impact each other as much as I thought they did.
Well, using their machines would definitely make it faster. But I personally prefer to be able to say that I did everything myself. So I know if I was in your shoes I would want to go solo; otherwise if you do manage to catch up all the others will say that you were only able to do so because they helped you. (Maybe that would bug you, maybe not.)
In any case, I would definitely recommend looking at an operational sorting and ore-processing system as your first major milestone. A system like that will save you a TON of time. And I'm always adamant that time is the most valuable resource in Minecraft. There are a number of options for sorting systems. Using pneumatic tubes and barrels can be a great way to go without needing too many resources. But once you're even more well established nothing can currently beat the power of an Applied Energistics network IMO.
Even shorter-term though, a hopper feeding into a TE pulverizer feeding into a TE furnace feeding into a chest is a very simple way to double all your ores completely automatically, thereby saving you TONS of precious time. Then you can start working into a full-fledged sorting system from there.
I'm still quite the dummy in ftb so I didn't even understand what half of those machines do. The way I see it though is that you're telling me to focus on making machines that will make the production of ores and minerals much faster. Perhaps you could give me a simple guide or overview of what machines to build in order from 1st to last? It doesn't have to be every single machine in the game just the few common ones to get me started.
Ah, gotcha.
The reason I recommend machines from Thermal Expansion is that they can be configured to output and receive items automatically. Other machines require engines, timers, gates, or other contraptions to move items around.
Basically, first look up the pulverizer. This will take raw ores (like iron, gold, copper, etc.) and turn each ore block into two of that type of dust. When you open the pulverizer interface, click the green tab and switch the machine to accept items (blue) from the top side, and to output all items (orange) to either the left or right (whichever side you want to put your furnace on).
Next, build a Thermal Expansion furnace. You will know it's the right kind of furnace if it uses a machine frame in the recipe just like the pulverizer did. Click the green tab again and set it to accept items (blue) from the side facing the pulverizer, and to output items (orange/red) to the opposite side. On that side, place a chest to hold all your fancy new ingots.
Finally, place a hopper on top of the pulverizer so that it can feed into the blue input. This allows you to come back from a mining trip and just dump all your ores in at once rather than sitting around waiting for each type to finish. If you feel like one hopper isn't big enough, just slap another one on top of the first one!
Finally, you need to power the machines. I suggest Thermal Expansion steam engines (there's more than one kind of steam engine - this one has a redstone transmission coil in its recipe). For now, you can just feed these with coal manually, and stick water in them by right clicking on it with a water bucket. Place a wooden conductive pipe on the engine, and then run golden conductive pipes to your machines. Give the engines a redstone signal to get them running and you should see the energy in your furnace and pulverizer start to build up. If the machines get full and the engines run too long though, they'll blow up - so keep an eye on that! Also, if they ever get jammed give them a whack with a crescent hammer.
That should be enough to get you started. But in all honesty, the only way to really advance without someone holding your hand is to get really good at scouring wikis and/or watch lots of Youtube videos on FTB. I personally prefer the latter method. Direwolf20 does some excellent and very popular tutorial-style Let's Play series. But don't limit yourself to doing everything exactly like he does it. (Or like I've outlined here, for that matter!) Do something fun and creative!
I hope that helps!