Floramancer? Floramaster!

[mathwiz617]

I've been interested in expert packs since IE:E, but rarely do you stick with one mod long enough to truly explore the possibilities. Enter Floramancer, a Botania-centric expert modpack. Very few changed recipes, no questbook, and a clear goal with no defined path forward all make for an entertaining pack.

The twist to this pack is... all generating flowers decay. Yep, one hour each, no exceptions. This may sound simple enough to work around - set up a jaded amaranthus, craft a huge backlog, and stay AFK for a while - but every flower will need to be automated. On top of that, storage options are limited.

I have decided to undertake this challenge. Armed with only my knowledge of vanilla redstone and Botania (and youtube, if needed), I strive to make over 1,400 pools worth of mana between every flower to make the Galactic Potato - a nine-times compressed tiny potato. I do have cheats on so that I can go into spectator mode and take pictures, but otherwise this'll be full survival. On top of that, I'm adding the additional challenge of not using mana voids.

Guys and gals, wish me luck.

 

[mathwiz617]

Oh gosh, I forgot about this thing... kinda.

Really, though, cheating was too tempting for me. It happens all the time in my worlds - I get impatient, cheat just a little, then cheat some more, then get ashamed of myself and restart. Therefore, I am lifting the restrictions on creative mode.
Of course, I can still undertake this challenge this way, since it is based off automation, not combat or exploration. So, I'm only implementing the following restrictions:

• I can only spawn in vanilla items on day one.
• Every day (real time), I can choose one additional item to spawn in once.
• No creative items, that would defeat the purpose of the pack.
• Everything must be automated to the best of my abilities.
• All automation (besides lava bucket filling, which can only be done in the Nether) must be done in the overworld.

Of course, pics will be uploaded here if possible.

Oh, feel free to comment on these as well. I welcome all feedback.

 

[mathwiz617]

Ok, 10 days of items have passed. I spent these on a mana spreader, two pulse spreaders, two bore lenses, a mana pool, and a wand of the forest (3 twigs). With these, I set up some basic pure daisy production.



I should clarify the rules a bit. By "spawn in" I mean, "grab out of the creative mode menu, or middle-click out of the world". Since this is a creative mode only playthrough, that essentially means one non-vanilla item that I haven't yet crafted per day. In addition, anything I don't have automated must be deleted from my inventory after being placed. This way, I should be able to limit my progress a little bit. However, I will be able to middle-click a block I placed, move it elsewhere, and break the original.

Next, "automated" would be from start to finish. Endoflames would need Mystical flowers grown, then crafted to petals, then dropped in the apothecary, then placed to count as automated. Until this is true, I have to delete an endoflame from my inventory (or throw one in lava) for every one I place.

Finally, I'll try to limit myself to items nearly in reach. No need for gaia spreaders at this stage, after all. This isn't a hard rule, but a soft suggestion.

 

[mathwiz617]

Urgh, remembering to update this thread is hard. I've still been playing this pack, but started a new creative world to test contraptions. I'll just upload and explain those pics when I get around to it.

Spoiler: Mega spruce tree farm

An automatic charcoal farm is a big boon. Using 2x2 spruce trees seemed like a good way to get the wood, so I linked four bore/warp lensed pulse spreaders down through efficiency/resistance equipped prisms into force relays. These are linked to spruce logs 17 blocks above the dirt. Thanks to vanilla tree mechanics, the tree will still grow if the logs above are of the same type. Firing the spreaders once every 5 seconds, with a pulse extender set to 8 ticks, will break 68 logs in 25 seconds without destroying the dirt. You could then use a drum of the canopy or a munchdew to get rid of the leaves. A hopperhock pics up the logs, and another picks up the saplings to return them to the rannuncarpus to replant and restart the cycle.

Spoiler: Cobblegen start

Cobblegen. Simple, yet effective. The pulse spreaders have weight lenses. A hopperhock picks up the results and placed them in their own chests.

Spoiler: Anvil smashing, gravel and sand

There's no one good angle of this. It's ugly, but that's pre-corporea for you. The cobble from the generator gets placed on livingrock, then an anvil drops on it. The livingrock is then retracted, dropping the now-gravel and anvil on a half slab, breaking them and placing them in the hopper below. The anvil is sorted out and another is dispensed (there's 49 anvils in this system, I need to refine that) to be picked up by the hopperhock above. Meanwhile, the gravel goes down a hopper chain to be sorted out into another chest.

If you turn the cobble -> gravel timer off and the gravel -> sand timer on, the process repeats, converting gravel to sand instead. You can do 1 gravel or 1 sand every 10 seconds (1 red sand).

 

[mathwiz617]

Better, but still not perfect. This only has 1 anvil, using a rannuncarpus to place the anvil on the lapis block, which is retracted slightly before the livingrock, instead of the hopper chain. Gravel and sand pickup is managed by hopperhocks, leaving the anvil to be replaced. Unfortunately, this occasionally damages the anvil. Not sure why.

 

[Mathwiz000617]

Oh, look, I can't log in via Facebook anymore... and I can't access my old profile.

Anyway, here's automation of snow, ice, and packed ice. Winter runes require 2, 1, and 1, respectively.





Pretty simple. a floating pure daisy turns flowing water into snow (4 blocks) and picked up using sticky pistons. Then, a potency/bore lens breaks them for 16 snowballs, and those go into a crafty crate for the blocks again. A corporea funnel grabs 2 snow and puts them into an open crate over an alchemy catalyst, turning them into ice. A rannuncarpus places one ice block next to another floating pure daisy, which transforms it into packed ice. This is then pushed away from the concrete it was placed on and shot down onto a slab with a weight lens. All timers are 70 seconds (7 red sand), all item pickup is with hopperhocks.