FTB Infinity Skyblock 1.7.10 Help, Venting and Discussion Thread

[Dkittrell]

Started playing it yesterday, and the first thing I have to complain about (Jordan? Complaining? No... this can't be true) is the stupid early game recipes from Infinity Expert mode are still here.

As much as I hated the entire progression line for that pack, I can let it slide, as you can get infinite amounts of almost every resource just from cobblestone.
However, why did the nerfed recipes for planks and sticks make a return. Same for the furnace.
I will allow the recipes for all other vanilla stuff to slide, but not these. The first 2 resources you are expected to get in a skyblock, where resource count is limited, and you are having to grind for twice as long.
Where in a normal skyblock a single tree's wood could last you at least until another tree grows naturally just doesn't cut it here. Getting 2 planks per log really does slow the game down to a snails pace. When you're in an actual world, having 3 or 4 trees to cut down near to each other is easy to get. However, on a limited skyblock, it's not.
Then there's the cobblestone generation. When you have a 100% (unless mining in a precarious place) to pick up all stone you mine, 81 cobble isn't the end of the world, however, when at least half of the cobble you mine goes into lava, 81 cobble is a pain to get, especially seeing as stone tools can't even mine 81 blocks.
Yes you can make the slab furnace, however, why should I? They are ugly and they don't play well with inventory tweaks/NEI/etc. (shift clicking stuff, etc.). Not to mention they are useless. When you get enough iron to make an iron furnace, you upgrade the MC furnace, which you can just mine up and use; wasting less resources. Whereas the slab furnace can't be used as such. Even if the furnace recipe was just 2 slab furnaces (with the vanilla furnace recipe) I think I'd be OK with the recipe. However 81 cobble when attaining the resource is a pain isn't fun.

And then there's the grout. I complained about this last time, when getting clay wasn't a massive pain in the arse. However, now you actually have to wait until it rains to get clay, so yes, the grout recipe is even worse now. Why halve the output of grout from its default recipe?

I have decided to take it upon myself to do as I did with Infinity Evolved, add Mekanism and Arcane Arteries (for if/when I get into magic), however I have decided to remove the unnecessary recipe changes for the wood and grout (I will leave the furnace recipes alone, as later game they aren't as much of a pain), as well as changing the recipes for the EnderIO conduits and re-adding some of the extra utilities generators, as these things were nerfed way too much, and not needed to be removed, respectively. The removal of some of the generators makes me wonder why. Everyone uses the quite OP culinary generators, but they get left in, however remove the pink and potions generators... why? Pink generators are hard to automate while getting a net-gain in RF, and potions generators are just as powerful as culinary generators (until you get some of the "top tier" food) but require a little more "skill" to automate.

[/rant]

i really dont understand why you expected anything to be different in expert skyblock? They start you off with bonemeal which will get you a decent amount of wood, enough to make slab crafting tables so you can place the lava and water source block they give you to make a cobble gen. Then mine cobble while your tree grows naturally and use the cobble to make a mob farm which will get you more bonemeal to grow more trees, this can be done in ~20 min of starting the pack. Also just use the slab furnance until you get auto cobble gen setup if you dont wanna use it any longer if thats your choice. Then the grout complaint is dumb IMO and incorrect, you dont need to wait for it to rain. Make water bottles and collect water from the source block they give you, they dont get used up and 4 water bottles will fill up a barrel, you can get unlimited grout pretty quick, cooking the grout will be your bottleneck.

Im just going to speak my mind here, you just dont seem to like this pack, you complained about it on the non skyblock version and you're complaining here so why play it if you're not going to play it as intended, why not just play the regular version?

 

[jordsta95]

i really dont understand why you expected anything to be different in expert skyblock? They start you off with bonemeal which will get you a decent amount of wood, enough to make slab crafting tables so you can place the lava and water source block they give you to make a cobble gen. Then mine cobble while your tree grows naturally and use the cobble to make a mob farm which will get you more bonemeal to grow more trees, this can be done in ~20 min of starting the pack. Also just use the slab furnance until you get auto cobble gen setup if you dont wanna use it any longer if thats your choice. Then the grout complaint is dumb IMO and incorrect, you dont need to wait for it to rain. Make water bottles and collect water from the source block they give you, they dont get used up and 4 water bottles will fill up a barrel, you can get unlimited grout pretty quick, cooking the grout will be your bottleneck.

Im just going to speak my mind here, you just dont seem to like this pack, you complained about it on the non skyblock version and you're complaining here so why play it if you're not going to play it as intended, why not just play the regular version?

I wanted to play Infinity in a skyblock, with some type of progression line. Is that a crime?

However, I have never, and probably will never, agree with what the FTB team classes as "balance", as it seems to be very badly skewed in favour of certain mods (e.g. Thermal Dynamics over EnderIO's conduits).

The mod pack as a whole is great, when you look just at the mod list, nothing wrong with it. However, when you look at the very linear progression line it becomes a little less great.
There's what, 4? different "100% tech mods" (EnderIO, Thermal Expansion, IC2, and Immersive Engineering - Mods which can cook, double ores, and generate power... as well as other stuff), so why you have to do one, to get into the next is beyond me. I can understand saying you can only use <mod> to get steel, but you shouldn't be forced to only use IC2 until you have steel, or only be able to use IC2 to make steel, however you can make EnderIO machines without steel, or something

 

[Dkittrell]

I do agree, the progression was poorly done, but who am i to complain,i didnt pay for the pack. My comment was based you complained about the Expert non skyblock and now you're complaining about the expert skyblock. There are other skyblock kitchen sink packs( sky factory for example) that might suit your play style better that isnt as "grindy".

 

[Digdug]

Then there's the cobblestone generation. When you have a 100% (unless mining in a precarious place) to pick up all stone you mine, 81 cobble isn't the end of the world, however, when at least half of the cobble you mine goes into lava, 81 cobble is a pain to get, especially seeing as stone tools can't even mine 81 blocks.
Yes you can make the slab furnace, however, why should I? They are ugly and they don't play well with inventory tweaks/NEI/etc. (shift clicking stuff, etc.). Not to mention they are useless.
[/rant]

Slab vs. regular furnaces is one of the early examples of how there is "progression" in this pack. Why make a slab furnace? Because it's quick and easy. By the time you're going to be doing any of the even most basic stuff where you would run in to the non-visual complaints that you have you'll have cobble generation going and should have plenty available to make regular ones if you prefer that. Then you can just toss the slab furnace. It's 8 cobble, you won't care about losing that. (also, regular furnace is 72 cobble, 9*8, not 81)

Side note: if you're using the chicken hammer on the cobblestone and are standing closeby you will get 100% of the gravel. Don't waste time by mining the cobble just to set it down again to hammer it.

potions generators are just as powerful as culinary generators (until you get some of the "top tier" food) but require a little more "skill" to automate.

It's been a while since I used potion generators but I recall getting like 640 RF/t for some potions, while culinary are like a little over 60rf/t with the best food. That means you have more power output from 1 potion generator than you would get from an 8x culinary generator. In addition to that, you can brew potions 3 at a time so the ingredients for a potion actually make 3, so that would bump you up to almost 2k RF/t. The blaze rods for the brewing stations are just blaze powder (sifting) in a compressor, so there's not even any danger to get them made. It's not that hard to automate either, just use pipes with filters.

 

[Nedrith]

Honestly the FTB teams progression line isn't perfect but it's still good. You might not agree with some of it but it's there. You also NEVER need to make steel with IC2, I think it's easier to automate IC2 steel but personally I've been making what little steel I need through IE. You get more than enough coal to turn into coal coke through sifting. The tree nerf makes sense, your supposed to work a bit harder to get trees until you automate it. And you really start to see the effect when making compressed hammers early on.

For the most part until end tier I would say thermal dynamic's pipes are less powerful and the recipes reflect that.. Sure the energy conduits pump out less energy, but there are very few things that require more than 5120 rf/t let alone the 20480 rf/t to make the need of a resonant fluxduct or cryo-stabalized fluxduct. So most of the time the ability to have multiple conduits together is better. Overall I would say the eitem conduits are more powerful than a normal item conduit because of the instant transfer rate, the lack of a need of a servo and the ability to use multiple types of conduits in one block not to mention they are easier to configure. So the FTB team fixed it and made it require 2 servos instead of one and 3 warp itemducts. You still save the power that warp itemducts use to warp.

As for why starting off with IC2. A few reasons IMO, first it has the metal former, bending plates is a great way to make the switch to expert mode as it adds a step to the crafting process that doesn't require just the crafting table. Second it's slow out of the gate until overclockers. third, it has some unique methods to create items with the compressor and other machines which are nice for setting a early game progression.

 

[Bashful Giant]

From my experience: It seems you can't bonemeal (not even with Forestry fertilizer) the ore crops. (but you can use Forestry fertilizer on redstone crops)
The watering can does seem to work on some of them.
I've just resorted to letting some of the crops grow naturally myself. A bit annoying, but oh well...

The sprinklers from both Agricraft and Extra Utilities work wonders as well

 

[Dkittrell]

The sprinklers from both Agricraft and Extra Utilities work wonders as well

they just kill ur FPS

 

[jordsta95]

Honestly the FTB teams progression line isn't perfect but it's still good. You might not agree with some of it but it's there. You also NEVER need to make steel with IC2, I think it's easier to automate IC2 steel but personally I've been making what little steel I need through IE. You get more than enough coal to turn into coal coke through sifting. The tree nerf makes sense, your supposed to work a bit harder to get trees until you automate it. And you really start to see the effect when making compressed hammers early on.

For the most part until end tier I would say thermal dynamic's pipes are less powerful and the recipes reflect that.. Sure the energy conduits pump out less energy, but there are very few things that require more than 5120 rf/t let alone the 20480 rf/t to make the need of a resonant fluxduct or cryo-stabalized fluxduct. So most of the time the ability to have multiple conduits together is better. Overall I would say the eitem conduits are more powerful than a normal item conduit because of the instant transfer rate, the lack of a need of a servo and the ability to use multiple types of conduits in one block not to mention they are easier to configure. So the FTB team fixed it and made it require 2 servos instead of one and 3 warp itemducts. You still save the power that warp itemducts use to warp.

As for why starting off with IC2. A few reasons IMO, first it has the metal former, bending plates is a great way to make the switch to expert mode as it adds a step to the crafting process that doesn't require just the crafting table. Second it's slow out of the gate until overclockers. third, it has some unique methods to create items with the compressor and other machines which are nice for setting a early game progression.

No, but the energy conduits transfer less than the TD ones, and you use 3 TD pipes per 3 conduits (unless this changed) which kinda defeats the purpose.

As for the steel, no I know. But what I said about the steel was an example. In a pack the size of infinity a single path progression line for both tech and magic is a little TOO narrow.
I'm all for narrow progression lines, as long as the potential alternatives are limited.
For example, if you have a pack with just EnderIO, Thermal Expansion, and Immersive Engineering as your only tech mods, no RFTools, Railcraft, IC2, etc. then I can understand saying "you must have got to at least the alloy smelter in EnderIO before you can get into Immersive Engineering, which you will require to get into Thermal Expansion" However, when there's over 16 mods, 1 strict path, which you constantly have to walk down again, is bad design in my opinion.

I probably would complain less about the narrow path if you didn't have to revisit it later, e.g. when you get to the point you have made at least 2 or 3 resonant frames (use dimensional shards or whatever they're called for RFTools to ensure this is the case) you shouldn't have to use the annoying assembly table to craft even your basic machine frames.
Or the need to make plates when you are crafting machines which you physically can't make unless you have already got to a point where the metal former will have been crafted (though, I could let this slide if the some of the recipes were more realistic, as plates do make sense - I'm looking at the need for machine frames for Ender Chests)

 

[Nedrith]

Yes the energy conduits transfer less but like I said, how many machines are you using that really require more than 5120 or 20480, unless It's been changed the transfer rate is per a connection not in total. I can only think of my reactor which produces more than that, but the only thing that can take my reactors output is either DE's transfer mechanic or a cryo-stabalized fluxduct. You also get the added benefit of being able to transfer items,fluids,energy,redstone and ME data on the same block and the capability to remove the cables from view with the ender IO wrench. IMO that makes conduits a lot more powerful than TD pipes.

If you are at the point where you need 2-3 resonant frames you should be at the point where you can automate it, it's not hard at all. Early on you might need 2 frames, one for the ender chest/tank(you get 8 of them per a frame) and 1 for the QED. Personally I haven't touched the assembly table recently, I made 10 frames at once and at 3000 RF/T the table moves relatively quick. I still have 8 of them left so I haven't bothered automating it. If I needed to I would just add it to my active supplier module to store 5-10 of them at all times. That is IMO one of the goals of expert mode, not to just make some super item, but to be able to automate the production of said super item.

As for the price of a enderchest. They offer you the ability to do long distance runs without a ton of wire, they make certain automation easier or atleast less complicated and offer a lot of utility, I would say a resonant machine frames do make sense. Would I prefered a lower tier machine frame, probably but I think that was compensated for a bit and probably more by only needing one frame per 8 chests.

Honestly more ways to do things would of been decent but I think the best thing would of been the intermingling of tech and magic. Allowing the use of magic mods to skip certain parts of the tech progression and vice-versa. Nothing huge but it would of been nice to use the infernal blast furnace(yes, I know the mod for that isn't in) to produce steel. However, I believe most of the recipe changes were done by one person and there has been a lot of recipe changes. I would say this is the most heavily modified pack ever. Yes regrowth and others did some pretty large recipe changes but generally they changed a few key recipes to halt progression.

 

[Dkittrell]

i agree regarding the ender io condiuits, yea you probably wont make them early on but once you have AE going you most likely have a good amount of materials and the little extra cost isnt much for the ease of use factor the conduits give. Also the ender chest cost isnt that bad considering it mainly cost energy, enderium is pretty cheap in skyblock considering you get tons of shiny metal from sieveing and you can make multiple ender chests from one crafting of the ender tank things you gotta make. One thing i do think is they should of made the machine upgrades more expensive, making a machine with a basic machine frame and then just upgrading it to the resonant version is very cheap, they need to keep the upgrade route but make it require maybe the ender tank thing you have to make for the ender chest.

 

[jordsta95]

i agree regarding the ender io condiuits, yea you probably wont make them early on but once you have AE going you most likely have a good amount of materials and the little extra cost isnt much for the ease of use factor the conduits give. Also the ender chest cost isnt that bad considering it mainly cost energy, enderium is pretty cheap in skyblock considering you get tons of shiny metal from sieveing and you can make multiple ender chests from one crafting of the ender tank things you gotta make. One thing i do think is they should of made the machine upgrades more expensive, making a machine with a basic machine frame and then just upgrading it to the resonant version is very cheap, they need to keep the upgrade route but make it require maybe the ender tank thing you have to make for the ender chest.

Oh don't get me wrong, I think the COST for it is about right. However, the materials used don't make sense. A block of enderium and the portable black hole (or whatever it is, from Portal Gun) would have been able to make it costly, without it making no sense as a recipe.
If the chest required power, then I could see why the machine frame was used somewhere in the crafting process, however, it doesn't

 

[jordsta95]

Episode 1: I am a noob who remembers some of the more obscure mechanics of modded MC, but cannot remember almost any of the vanilla mechanics :|

 

[Azzanine]

I have finally rage quit this pack
Not really for any reason specific to the pack. More my recklessness leading me to losing my stuff to a buggy mod feature.

The Immersive Engineering Skyhook sounds like a neat way to travel around a sky block base. It is so long as you don't glitch through the floor or crash mid travel.

Try not to use skyhooks and if you do insist on it double or triple layer the points where cables end and make sure the lines are not above the void. That last parts a no brainer.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[winky]

How do you get blitzes in this modpack?

 

[TrJace]

How do you get blitzes in this modpack?

Just need the right biome. Think it's desert, savanna etc.

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

 

[mohrad]

Is it intended that the AOBTD's "Dust" ore blocks are the only ones that can be put into QED of ExU for triple ingot smelting?
I noticed it on Cobalt Ore Dust, the one from ExNihilo (1657:2) is not allowed into QED, while the Cobalt Ore Dust from AOBTD (2386) does work.

The only difference is the ExNihilo's comes out of machines while AOBTD's comes out of manual breaking.

If I'd want to add those two to Ore Dictionary - How'd I go about doing so? Are there some chat commands?

 

[jordsta95]

Is it intended that the AOBTD's "Dust" ore blocks are the only ones that can be put into QED of ExU for triple ingot smelting?
I noticed it on Cobalt Ore Dust, the one from ExNihilo (1657:2) is not allowed into QED, while the Cobalt Ore Dust from AOBTD (2386) does work.

The only difference is the ExNihilo's comes out of machines while AOBTD's comes out of manual breaking.

If I'd want to add those two to Ore Dictionary - How'd I go about doing so? Are there some chat commands?

You could put the one you want in a barrel/storage drawer and then pipe/hopper in the ones you want to convert to.
Assuming they have the same oreDict entry then they will convert.

 

[mohrad]

You could put the one you want in a barrel/storage drawer and then pipe/hopper in the ones you want to convert to.
Assuming they have the same oreDict entry then they will convert.

I did try that with JABBA, no result.
Thus the question about manual add to the OreDictionary and the intended behaviour.

 

[jordsta95]

I did try that with JABBA, no result.
Thus the question about manual add to the OreDictionary and the intended behaviour.

Ahhh, give Storage Drawers a try, if you haven't already.
If that doesn't work then there's the OreDict thing from MFR (not sure how it works though), or you may just have to hammer them all :/

 

[Xavion]

It won't work as Ex Astris doesn't have theirs oredicted, at least that was the issue last I checked.