FTB Infinity Skyblock (No not expert mode)

goreae

Ultimate Murderous Fiend
Nov 27, 2012
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Raxacoricofallapatorius
So you may have heard of the infinity expert mode skyblock in the works. It uses ex nihilo and looks pretty cool. Now I'm not saying ex nihilo is a bad descision, but there are alternatives. In fact, it is entirely viable to do everything in infinity on a normal skyblock. Even without the sand island and the obsidian.

Granted that was normal infinity, but it should be theoretically possible to do everything in expert too, it just takes a lot more work. For example, the first step, the coke oven. To get to that stage, you need to go to the Nether, get a brewing stand, and cure some villagers and get some witchery villagers to get clay for the coke oven. Once you do that however, you can make a cayconnia from botania and get more clay that way.

But I didn't just make this thread to discuss a vanilla infinity skyblock, I came here to showcase it! First, here's a list of things to note about this series:

  • I do have a few additional mods installed. They shouldn't hurt progression too much though. They are as follows:
    • Thaumic bases: Adds a bunch of stuff to make thaumcraft less agonizing. Mainly farmable knowledge fragments.
    • ProjectE: I use this mod on another save. Just ignore it.
    • Ztones: because I start out this skyblock with an ofanix. It may be overpowered yes, but I'd rather grab cobble out of the ofanix and do something instead of sitting there mining cobble. Same result, it just saves a lot of time.
    • TC Inventory Scan. Because it should seriously be built into thaumcraft.
  • I'll be playing on normal mode. I may do expert in the future, but right now just normal.
  • I start with a watering can because it'll be a while until I get the iron necessary to make my own. Plus it helps a lot in skyblock.
  • I also start with a builder's wand. The reason for this is in a normal world, you already have platforms set out to build on. In skyblock, you have to build them out yourself. It'll be a long time until I get to unstable ingots and the wand saves so much time and effort without causing any progression jumps either.
  • I have agricraft resource crops on. Keep in mind that you need the resource in question in order to actually grow the crops. You can't farm diamonds without diamond ore for example, making them a late game resource generation option.
  • I added a recipe for the runic dungeons magical staff that requires all three types of attuned witchery chalk.
  • I also have the ender portal frame recipe from garden of glass. Just so I can go to the end.
  • I generally will exploit any resource available to me. There are a few exceptions to that though:
    • I will not do autocrafting of any sort with the ofanix. If I want a machine to have infinite cobble I'll set up something else to feed it. I will also not craft further ofanixes.
    • I will avoid going to the twilight forest if I can. Mostly because having an overworld-esque dimension to hop to sort of defeats the point of a skyblock.
    • Nether ores will require a pulverizer to process.
    • Agricraft resource crops will need ores generated using a laser drill, orechid, etc. Nether ores will not be useable for this purpose.
Superflat skyblock building tutorial:
First go to create a new world. You'll want to make it a superflat world with structures off and on creative mode. That part's important as when you spawn in for the first time you can fly up and not have to fumble with NEI or commands.

Go into the superflat config page, remove the grass and dirt layers, then go into the presets menu. There should be a single seven in the line of text on the top of the screen. Change that seven to a zero. This changes the single layer of bedrock into a single layer of air.

Then generate the world. I would go to a different window while it's generating, as that automatically pauses the game when you log in. When you do spawn, immediately try to fly. It may take a few tries to actually start flying. Then spawn in an angel block, place it down, and build your island, spawn in whatever resources you want, (I suggest one lava bucket, and ice/a water source) and you're done.

The last step is then to change your gamemode to survival. Then you can play.
Quick guide to simple minetweaker scripts:
First of all, check out the minetweaker wiki: http://minetweaker3.powerofbytes.com/wiki/Main_Page
As well as minetweaker recipe maker (MTRM): http://minecraft.curseforge.com/projects/minetweaker-recipemaker

First things first, go into the infinity directory, which should be FTB/FTBInfinity/minecraft/scripts, FTB being whatever folder your launcher is in, and and make a new text file with a .zs extension. I don't know about mac, but on PC it's as easy as renaming the file, selecting the whole file name and renaming it "recipes.zs" or something like that. If it's recipes.zs.txt you're doing it wrong and it won't run.

Next, go in'game and spawn in (or gather your choice) the items needed to make the recipe you want to make and the item you want the recipe to make. For example's sake, I'm going to do the end portal using a gaia spirit and some obsidian. You then hold the item in your hand (in this case the end portal) and use the command "/mt hand". This will copy the item's name into your clipboard.

In the .zs file, you type "recipes.addShaped(" and do ctrl+v to paste it into the file. It should look like "recipes.zs.addShaped(<minecraft:end_portal_frame>". You do this for all items you want to add into the recipe.

Now, the structure for a recipe goes as follows:
recipes.addShaped(output, [[input1, inputs, input3], [imput4, input5, input6], input7, input8, input9]]);

Recipes must also be rectangular in shape, not neccesarily square. For example, let's use the wooden pressure plate, stick, and wooden button recipe. The recipe for a button (shaped at least) is like so:

recipes.addShaped(<minecraft:wooden_button>, [[<minecraft:wood_planks>]]);

The recipe for sticks is:

recipes.addShaped(<minecraft:stick>*4, [[<minecraft:wood_planks], [<minecraft:wood_planks>]]);

And pressure plate:

recipes.addShaped(<minecraft:wooden_pressure_plate>, [[<minecraft:wood_planks>, <minecraft:wood_planks>]]);

The full recipe for the end portal for garden of glass is as follows:
recipes.addShaped(<minecraft:end_portal_frame>, [[<minecraft:eek:bsidian>, <Botania:manaResource:5>, <minecraft:eek:bsidian>]]);

The semicolon on the end is important! This is just a basic tutorial so if you want to learn more go to the wiki at the top of the spoiler! If you don't want to learn more but still want to make recipes for yourself get MTRM also at the top of the spoiler!

I already played a bit on my save. I didn't download a map, I just made my own. It's really easy. Just set a superflat preset with one layer of air and use an angel block in creative mode to build an island. I keep the angel block because it does come in handy. I'll have the first diary post up shortly.
 
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goreae

Ultimate Murderous Fiend
Nov 27, 2012
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Raxacoricofallapatorius
Day 1 post hype!
2016-02-21_19.16.00.png

The actual island I made. I used an apple sapling from pam's. It just gives a bit of starting food, and helps negate the being screwed by RNG and having absolutely nothing to eat early on.
2016-02-21_19.16.32.png

The starting chest. I used a copper chest to put the stuff in. It's not much bigger than a regular chest but still stands out against other chests and doesn't impact progression at all. The water isn't entirely neccesary but it does help a lot. The bucket and lava however are entirely necessary for progression.
2016-02-21_19.16.48.png

Off the side of the map I see a hobgoblin hut. It has a cauldron I can use to start witchery if I really wanted to. The biggest boon out of doing that is mutandis. Which I may do next time.
2016-02-21_19.16.42.png

Off of the other side, I see a circle structure. That is absolutely wonderful because one of the first things you need is lots of dead witches. You can get them with a regular mob farm, but the circle greatly speeds up the process with two spawners.

So I actually get to work and cut down the tree, making sure to break the apples first. Then I plant a new sapling and make it grow, expanding the platform to get all the drops. I also make tinkers tools more to chop the apples down faster than anything else, but still only using cobble for tools is rather nice. I also made a squeezer for apple juice and tore down the island so I could get a better setup. Here's the result:
2016-02-21_19.33.02.png

Left with like 55 dirt left to do whatever with. I also made a barrel to catch water when it rains to get an infinite source.
Not much done yet, but tomorrow I plan to bridge over to the hobgoblin hut and witch circle to get those going. I also want to get a mob farm going. I know a great setup using wooden spikes that works wonders.
So questions comments concerns?
 
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goreae

Ultimate Murderous Fiend
Nov 27, 2012
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Raxacoricofallapatorius
Alright, new day, new progress! I got a lot done today, so let's get started!
First thing I did: build a bridge to the hobgoblin. I took the cauldron, checked his trade and sealed him in so he doesn't kill himself.

The bridge with my platform at the end.
2016-02-23_08.28.23.png

I used a water bucket to get down and get the cauldron. I had to build a platform underneath it to pick it up but yeah.
2016-02-23_08.31.10.png

His horrible trade. I'd have killed him, but hobgoblins can be really useful and I may require his services in the future.
2016-02-23_08.31.13.png

Next I set out to build a mob farm. I was going to need bonemeal to get the cauldron anyways so might as well do that first. While I was building out the initial platform, I looked over to my platform and noticed a horse.
2016-02-23_08.53.51.png

I ran over to investigate and found a horse, a hobgoblin, and two chickens on the grass platform.
2016-02-23_08.54.05.png
Acting quickly, I built a little pit to store the animals in. I ended up saving the hobgoblin and one of the chickens. The other chicken and the horse both fell to the void. But still, one chicken can breed an army and the hobgoblin can be used to collect the eggs that drop from it automatically as soon as I get a slimeball of some description.
2016-02-23_08.56.40.png

I also put down a door to check his trade real quick. Two koboldite nuggets for a leather cap. Yawn. At that point, it was night time, and since the platform I had built was absolutely swarming with monsters of all sort, I elected to spend the night chopping wood instead. I also set up some cobblestone fences around the grassy platform to keep any new spawns in.

Anyways, once day rose I went back to work. I ended up making the platform 33x33, which was far too big actually. I didn't realise that until after I finished it but yeah. I eventually ended up trimming it down to 25x25 instead. I had gotten the platform and the beginning of the walls laid out when I took this pic:
2016-02-23_09.08.27.png

I had built up the walls before I noticed there was another chicken at my platform. I hurried over and pushed it into the chicken pit. Walking back, I got a good view of the wall:
2016-02-23_09.13.40.png

So I had finished the roof (put some slabs on the top to stop mob spawning) and the spawner was complete. Now was the fun part: the collection chamber.

Here's a bit of how this mob spawner works: the chamber is large enough so that standing outside, mobs will still be able to spawn inside. Standing in front of it, the monsters will walk towards you to attack, only to fall in a pit of wooden spikes to await your murderous fists. This trap is great for a classic skyblock because it allows you to get rare drops like iron from zombies as well as stupid amounts of records. Seriously I got like 5 copies of cat in as many minutes.

Anyways, while I was building the chute, I noticed a blue slime in the spawner. So I cracked the thing open to let it out. I ended up falling into the collection chute with a bunch of mobs and died to a creeper. But at least I got some slime and a neat memento from it all!
2016-02-23_09.29.28.png

2016-02-23_09.35.10.png

So I made some spikes, installed them at the bottom of the chute, and started grinding mobs. I got a lot of resources including a potion of weakness which I will keep for curing zombies, a potion of invisibility which I drank for the empty bottle, and a of bones and a piece of redstone. Not a bad haul at all.

Now, since I reached the upload limit and not much more happened, here's a short list of things I did after this:
  • bonemealed grass for flowers and witchery seeds
  • Got some wheat and at least two of each basic witchery seeds.
  • Made annointing paste and made my witches cauldron.
  • Also I made seeds to breed chickens. I have a custom recipe that allows you to make a seed with a wheat and a pestle and mortar.
  • It also rained so I have water now.
  • I used a couple of flowers to make some floral fertilizer and got a few botania flowers.
Tomorrow I'll go to the witch circle thing and farm up enough redstone to go to the Nether. Stay tuned!

Oh, and regarding Nether Ores: they're a nice boost, but absolutely not necessary for progression. Last time I played skyblock, I actually disabled nether ores on the instance.
 

goreae

Ultimate Murderous Fiend
Nov 27, 2012
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Oh, update! I checked on the mob farm and found two baby zombie villagers running around down there! I had also made a mistake in the last post when I said the horse died in the void. It actually dropped leather. I made a couple of safari nets and captured them. They will be the seeds that grow my empire.
 
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goreae

Ultimate Murderous Fiend
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Thanks for this series Goreae. i think i will enjoy seeing your progress. keep it up
I'm going to be releasing a post daily. I have actually finally broken out of the stone age into the iron age. It's a lot of fun just to play. If you don't mind waiting for villagers to breed that is.

Plus a quick notification: I just disabled mystcraft in my instance. The reason for this is the villagers can't be picked up by the golden lasso, their trades are entirely worthless to me, and I was never planning to use mystcraft anyways for the same reason that I'm not going to the twilight forest. It sort of defeats the point of a skyblock map if I can just pop into a normal map at my leisure.
 
S

Sv443

Guest
Can you post a download link pls? wanna play this with my friends (maybe even a server jar?) would be very nice ;) or is this coming in the FTB or any other launcher soon?
 

goreae

Ultimate Murderous Fiend
Nov 27, 2012
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Raxacoricofallapatorius
Can you post a download link pls? wanna play this with my friends (maybe even a server jar?) would be very nice ;) or is this coming in the FTB or any other launcher soon?
Dude this is just regular infinity. Like from the launcher. All I did was add a couple of mods, tweak a few recipes and config files and build an island in a superflat void world. That's it.
You can actually do pretty much everything I do on default infinity normal mode. Like straight out of the box. I'll add a quick tutorial on how to make a skyblock world in superflat in the OP.
 
S

Sv443

Guest
Or could you maybe post a list of mods you added to Infinity so i can try to do that myself? ;) :D
 

Pyure

Not Totally Useless
Aug 14, 2013
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goreae, for your pack tweaks, my thoughts
  • Thaumic Bases, ZTones: not familiar with them
  • ProjectE: sure why not
  • TC Inventory Scan: 100% agree
  • Normal Mode: Can't see any justification for this at all you mega-wuss, go play agrarian skies :p
  • Watering Can: this strikes me as a logical alternative to starting with bonemeal. Approved.
  • Builders Wand: No real arguments. I love this thing and I don't see any reason you should have to tech for it, particularly in a skyblock.
  • Agricraft resource crops: hard to justify in normal mode if you have ex nihilo. In normal mode, I'd get the ores via botania. (Lot harder in Expert mode)
  • Runic Dungeons: Most dimensions make zero sense in a skyblock but this one's acceptable
  • End Portal: Is going to the end really necessary?
  • Ofanix: wtf is this?
  • Twilight Forest: If you go there you failed skyblock.
 

goreae

Ultimate Murderous Fiend
Nov 27, 2012
1,784
2,649
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Raxacoricofallapatorius
goreae, for your pack tweaks, my thoughts
  • Thaumic Bases, ZTones: not familiar with them
  • ProjectE: sure why not
  • TC Inventory Scan: 100% agree
  • Normal Mode: Can't see any justification for this at all you mega-wuss, go play agrarian skies :p
  • Watering Can: this strikes me as a logical alternative to starting with bonemeal. Approved.
  • Builders Wand: No real arguments. I love this thing and I don't see any reason you should have to tech for it, particularly in a skyblock.
  • Agricraft resource crops: hard to justify in normal mode if you have ex nihilo. In normal mode, I'd get the ores via botania. (Lot harder in Expert mode)
  • Runic Dungeons: Most dimensions make zero sense in a skyblock but this one's acceptable
  • End Portal: Is going to the end really necessary?
  • Ofanix: wtf is this?
  • Twilight Forest: If you go there you failed skyblock.
  • Thaumic bases: adds some farmable crops for things like glowstone, gold, iron, dyes, aurum essentia, and also this neat vishroom crop that gives a bundle of aspect orbs on harvest, and a few crops for research knowledge. I find it makes thaumcraft a lot less annoying and more enjoyable.
  • ProjectE: I'm not actually using the mod. If you'd read the post, you'd know that. :p I'm just using it on another save.
  • Normal mode: You're probably joking, but I'll reply anyways. Expert mode changes things quite a bit. With my current(un-released) progress, I have like 20 villagers, and have breed at least a hundred by now. I haven't seen a single trade for clay. If I was using expert mode, I'd need a recipe for clay or to revert the cauldron recipe so I can get clay from botania. Also, this is more for a demonstration of what you can do without ex nihilo and such.
  • Resource crops: No ex nihilo. The only issue is you can get the ores from smelting nether ores. But I'm using a rule that I can't use nether ores for farming. I'm also using a rule where a normal furnace isn't powerful enough to smelt the nether ores so you need a technical furnace of some description or a pulverizer or the like. Plus you actually need the ore for a crop in order to even breed the ore. So if you want more lapis for like a terrestrial plate, you can generate a lapis ore using a drill, orechid, etc. and make breed the crop on top of it. I did that in a garden of glass world once actually. Used pistons to move the block to an open space to breed it in.
  • End portal: Not entirely neccesary no. Botania has ender air for one, but that can be done without. Actually, I may just install the hardcore ender expansion to make getting to the end the easy part.
  • Ofanix: an entirely overpowered item. Shift right click it to open a crafting table. Click it on a block to place a cobblestone for free. Put it in the crafting table to get as much cobble as you want entirely for free. It's more of a replacement for standing at a cobblestone generator all day to do anything. I've seen people use an ofanix in an ME system to autocraft cobble, get a octuple compressed cobblestone in a matter of minutes from just the one item. I'm not going to use it for that purpose. In this series, crafting from the ofanix is the equivalent of standing at a cobble generator. I won't automate the ofanix in any way.
  • Twilight forest: absolutely agree.
 

Pyure

Not Totally Useless
Aug 14, 2013
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Waterloo, Ontario
ProjectE: Sorry, I did actually read the ProjectE comment originally, but didn't understand it. It was in your list, and you want out of your way to say "used in another save, ignore it." Weirdo :p
Mode: Yes I'm (mostly) kidding about normal mode. You've also clarified here that you're not using ex nihilo, thx.
Ofanix: neat :)