FTB without the Nether

[Omicron]

Yesterday when tinkering and browsing recipes, I somehow ended up along a line of thought that concluded with "you can pretty much make everything that exists in the nether without going there nowadays". At which point I stopped, blinked, and went on to entertain the thought of such a world, and if it would work at all. Since I am currently bored, I thought I'd let you guys join in

So picture this: you're playing FTB on a server which has allow-nether=false set in server.properties. The dimension is not spawned, portals won't ignite, you literally have no way to access the nether or anything in it. How would you go about working around that?

As far as I gather, there's the following recipes:
- Glowstone Dust: 5 Redstone + 4 Gold Dust; also UU-Matter
- Netherrack: UU-Matter
- Nether Brick: compressed Netherrack
- Blaze Rods: UU-Matter
- Magma Cream: 1 Blaze Powder + 1 Slime Ball
- Nether Wart: Industrialcraft crops

(Did I forget anything? And do you know viable alternative recipes?)

The first thing you'll notice is that four out of six items are 100% reliant on UU-Matter production, which is a cruel requirement in the presence of GregTech. Probably so cruel, in fact, that even the hardest of the hardcore would throw up their hands in frustration and leave. I know for sure I wouldn't want to be in that situation.

But what if the standard IC2 mass fab was available? One recycler and one mass fab would cost you 9 glowstone dust, which while expensive (18 gold ore and just over a 3/4 stack of redstone) is nothing a single player can't achieve, and groups will be faster. Forestry coupled with Railcraft offers essentially unlimited charcoal and peat to burn in generators with practically zero running cost, and there's still a lot of lava lakes to fuel your geothermals within the depths of the overworld. And two more glowstone dust will open the way to a nuclear reactor, which can be extremely powerful via GregTech.

I wonder how such a scenario would impact the old issue of "UU-Matter breaks server economies". Will it lessen the problem, because people need to keep spending their UU-Matter on basic resources like blaze rods, glowstone and netherrack? Or will it worsen the problem because UU-Matter generation is pushed into the center of attention?

And, what do you think of such a world in general?

 

[Meldiron]

Can't find the recepie you'r mentioning that turns 5 redstone and 4 gold dust into glowstone dust.
But you could get glowstone dust from scrap boxes too.
And since that's the only nether ingredient needed to make a mass fabricator / matterfabrikator should it be possible at least.
But all it would do is severely messing with the balance of mods that use more nether resources then other.
Like when people playing the FTB map had to user UU matter to get cactus for waterproof pipes

 

[Omicron]

The recipe is bog standard IC2, but it's hidden by default, much like the nuke and the UU-Matter recipes. You can disable hiding of recipes in the config, then NEI will show you.

 

[Katrix]

Even funner idea: You can't mine diamonds yourself, you have to use a quarry or mining craft or something like that.

 

[NosajDraw]

Even funner idea: You can't mine diamonds yourself, you have to use a quarry or mining craft or something like that.

Doesn't that pose a chicken and egg issue? You need diamonds to build a quarry, and mining turtles... not sure about other mining devices...

 

[Omicron]

Oh, it would work. You can use an IC2 Miner to get diamonds without spending any.

That said, I expected comments like Katrix's. But I also know there's some people on these boards who are able to hold a meaningful discussion, so I'm holding out for those

 

[Meldiron]

Or you could use industrial diamonds, but it would require you to use a ton of coal and flint (for mortars).

 

[MCJinzha]

Nether is just too much fun to go to . And it gives GregTech Pyrite Ores. 3 Pyrite dusts = 1 iron dust

 

[Omicron]

Is Pyrite actually used for anything that isn't provided by something else? Is it exclusively used to convert into iron? *has no recipe database here*

 

[Meldiron]

It's primary use is to produce sulphur which is an alternative way of getting gunpowder

 

[MCJinzha]

It also makes sulphur (dust?), but I'm relatively sure you can get sulphur many other ways.

 

[b0bst3r]

You also get iridium ore in the nether, not sure if it spawns in the overworld, I've never found any in OW but have in the nether.

 

[Omicron]

Yeah. I am positively swimming in sulfur just through cave-exploring in the overworld. Basically every lava pool is surrounded by 10-20 nodes which each drop 2-4 pieces. And why on earth would you want more gunpowder?

Since it's a GregTech thing, I was expecting it to be a centrifuge ingredient to isolate one very specific material that cannot be gotten elsewhere (or only with difficulty) that is needed for the high-end toys... but if it's only gunpowder and iron, meh. Not even worth listing under nether resources.

And yes, iridium ore spawns in the Overworld too, but due to the nether being smaller and a lot more open, it is far easier to spot there. There's a 20% chance to generate one single ore block somewhere in a chunk - it can be anywhere that is stone or netherrack. A chunk in the overworld may have many tens of thousands of solid stone, but a chunk in the nether may only have a few layers of netherrack in very thin and easy to examine sheets, plus the stone texture stands out from the uniform red. I'm not even sure this isn't an unintended effect that makes it way too easy to get the stuff.

 

[beringtom]

Mystcraft age with Glowstone in
also, using a mining well to get the diamonds... it's possible to play without mining any diamond your selfs and without going into the nether...

 

[Katrix]

I was actually trying to be serious. At one point in my world i found nearly no diamonds, (had a couple from before). Made i mass fab to produce diamonds for me instead as i had moved to Thermal Expansion.
I Have gotten back to one diamond i used to make it, but it's slow.
Luckily now that i have the perfect mining age and a Rockcutter i have gotten around 40 diamonds. Scraping that idea from my world.

 

[jdreeve]

What about Ghast Tears?

 

[bobbysq]

Even funner idea: You can't mine diamonds yourself, you have to use a quarry or mining craft or something like that.

Or at all. Meaning that UUM is impossible, gregtech or normal ic2 (diamonds needed to make massfab) and so you would need to use a rock crusher on gravel or the complicated IC2 diamonds-from-coal-and-obsidian method (meaning that gregtech would make it impossible because of the macerator).

 

[Wabbit]

You also get iridium ore in the nether, not sure if it spawns in the overworld, I've never found any in OW but have in the nether.

It does but it's exceedingly rare.

 

[Naextec]

Don't forget about glowstone from the new witch mobs.

 

[Wabbit]

Don't forget about glowstone from the new witch mobs.

I must admit, I've never come across a witch hut yet. Relying on them alone for glowstone would be fairly hard.

In fact relying on all of these options are very impractical when you can just go to the nether and farm it. Seems like more trouble than it's worth to do without.

It also makes sulphur (dust?), but I'm relatively sure you can get sulphur many other ways.

Sulphur's fairly common in some overworld biomes.