Fair Start Opinions

[SourC00lguy]

I hope others are like myself, where the beginning of a world is very tedious. Chop wood, mine for hours, then proceed. For someone who doesn't have a lot of time to play, but still likes to have some aspects of survival, I would like to see the opinions of others where a healthy medium lies. What would others see fair to give to an individual in the beginning to spend the process along. You can add some lore to it to justify as I have. For example
I've given myself in the past a Myscraft book with a good amount of useful pages to start out. The lore was that I was a wizard or such, that went through a traumatic experience but still had the knowledge he learned.
I know I could always just build in creative, which I do for time to time for the large multi block structures (Reactorcraft Fusion Reactor :-D). But the real creative drive comes from necessity. So how can I have that necessity drive, but boost forward a little more fairly. If it matters I'll be doing this on the Infinity pack with Reika's (Rotarycraft, Reactorcraft, ChromatiCraft) installed.

 

[RedBoss]

I don't always have time to grind materials. This is mainly why I use Tinker's Construct. I know how to get a smeltery going within an hour. I can have a hammer and lumber axe in no time. I don't want to trivialize my play but helpful mods and knowledge can ease the pain significantly.

I also see zero harm in using the bonus chest option upon world creation.

 

[RJS]

I don't always have time to grind materials. This is mainly why I use Tinker's Construct. I know how to get a smeltery going within an hour. I can have a hammer and lumber axe in no time. I don't want to trivialize my play but helpful mods and knowledge can ease the pain significantly.

I also see zero harm in using the bonus chest option upon world creation.

The main aspect of early-game grind I dislike is food. The joy when I spawned right next to a Mushroom biome and could just steal a Mooshroom to provide all my food was incredible. Early game mining I find enjoyable provided I find a decent cave system.

That being said, one time I set up a world where I did a small amount of initial mining, before getting the rest of my resources from Chocolate Quest dungeons. You can get quite a reasonable haul of materials from those, if you're more the adventuring type. Only problem is they do eventually get boring after a while.

Tinkers is a great way to reduce a lot of early-game grind - A cobblestone hammer with a diamond on it will revolutionise your mining in the early game for minimal cost. That being said, I'm currently trying to actively avoid TiCo in packs, not because of any dislike of the mod but rather because I always end up using it for my tools if I have it. Compare that to my Magic World 2 world, where I really enjoyed using AM2 and Thaumcraft Spells/Tools as an alternative.

I guess one way to do it is find an aspect that frustrates you the most and set up a very basic system in creative to sort it out. For example, I might set up a small golem-powered crop farm to save the frustration of food production, or maybe a small iron spike mob farm for mob drops.

Ultimately, it's your game, and you play it your way.

 

[Yusunoha]

I often actually make the early game harder for me, because early game is pretty much the same thing everytime and I'll hit a wall as soon as I hit midgame (not knowing what to do next)
but there were times that I started a world so many times within a week that early game just became very tedious.

in those cases I'd often install veinminer, which allows you to mine ore veins by simply mining 1 ore of a vein (some call it cheaty, which it can be, but configured in default it still requires you to actually dig and find the ores before you can veinmine them) and I'd also install the backpacks mod and give myself a large backpack, so if I go exploring I'd have enough inventory space to keep all the items. I'd also start with the beginner's chest and sometimes give myself 16 bread, 32 torches and a tinker's pickaxe, shovel, hatchet, sword, hammer, excavator, lumberaxe and cleaver, but all made out of stone and wood. this way you can still repair the tools if they break, but the tools aren't the most effective because of their low tier components.

 

[SourC00lguy]

I appreciate all the responses, and I like this last idea very much.

 

[Fuzzbling]

I like to make the early game more challenging, I'll add Iguana Tweaks and Hunger Overhaul. The defaults for both those are perfect for me. I'll also install tree capitator cause chopping down those giant trees (redwoods, etc) one block at a time from the bottom up ... is not fun or enjoyable in any way.

 

[SourC00lguy]

Iguana tweaks is looking more and more interesting

 

[Succubism]

I find HQM helps a lot in that respect.

Basically, cut down a tree, get tools, mine a little bit, get some iron, etc.

Nothing too drastic, but it certainly speeds up and even makes the beginning a little more interesting, depending on the modpack.

 

[GamerwithnoGame]

I am with @Yusunoha and @Fuzzbling - things to make that early game stuff more interesting is definitely a benefit! Although that said, I do really enjoy the early game too!

Here is where I confess that my first experience with MC was actually the demo of the XBox version...

*ducks*

The thing is though, that battle for survival (a battle I lost the first couple of tries I had at it!) was the same thing that got me hooked! Each time I tried, I lived a bit longer.

So, back on topic: I think start chests of a few essentials really help avoid the tedium - add to that Tinkers which makes the early game more fun and Iguana tweaks to make THAT even more fun, and Hunger Overhaul and /or spice of life to make food a focus, and you're into a good start

EDIT: And Pam's Harvestcraft, if you're going to put in HungOver and SoL into it!

 

[Fuzzbling]

There's also two mods I've recently started adding, Primitive Mobs [Link] and Minecraft Comes Alive [Link]. While neither change the dynamic of the early game, they do add "life" to the world and can both offer some entertaining moments (Rocket Creepers .. , lost villagers (befriend one, have them follow you home and tell them to make that their home, will spawn additional villagers and guards)).

 

[Yusunoha]

by the way, if you're like me and you restart a world as soon as you die each time because you hate dying and losing any experience (items nowadays gets stored in graves) you might want to consider turning on keepInventory. with this when you die, you'll respawn with all of your items and experience still intact. nowadays I don't use it anymore as I try to stop the ragequitting, but it's a nice way back then to keep myself from deleting world after world.

 

[SourC00lguy]

Yea I don't really delete world's, I push past stuff or cheat my items back haha backing up my items with NEI is super helpful. I like the iguana tweaks idea and giving myself simple tools to start, seems fair enough seeing as Steven a miner

 

[Fuzzbling]

Just an FYI, there's a chance to get a "Starter" tool / weapon with iguana tweaks if you choose the "Bonus Chest" option when creating your world. I've gotten things like a slime skillet, wooden axe, paper bow, to a netherrack sword.

 

[SourC00lguy]

Well that would be nice for a start, I normally do activate bonus chest

 

[Azzanine]

As I have RoC installed starter chests tend to have enough HSLA in them to make a HSLA steel Pick. Gets you straight in to tech as HSLA picks are redstone lvl mining, you can just make a b-line to diamond/gold country and get started right away.
You'd be surprised how much you can skip by just cheating in and iron pick.

 

[ratchet freak]

is there any mod that allows you to add items (by config) to the n00b chest? so it's more than a wooden axe and some planks

 

[Yusunoha]

is there any mod that allows you to add items (by config) to the n00b chest? so it's more than a wooden axe and some planks

there might be... a while ago I suggested a mod that works similar the the dartcraft loot bag, you can open it and take items out, but you can't put items back in, and when all items are taken out the bag would disappear.
you'd be able to add items ot the bag through configurations and you'll be given this bag upon world creation.

 

[SourC00lguy]

This is what I found from one quick search.
http://minecraft.curseforge.com/mc-mods/60331-custom-chest-loot/images