Getting started with Bees (Extra Bees & Gendustry)

  • The FTB Forum is now read-only, and is here as an archive. To participate in our community discussions, please join our Discord! https://ftb.team/discord

Lonewolf187

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
110
0
0
Firstly:

Ok, now that I have that out of my system. I havent really tried bee breeding that much before except for the one time I bred them to get bees wax for pipe waterproofing since I couldnt find any cactus. It looks like there are two bee specific mods Extra Bees & Gendustry. I was wondering what everyones opinion was on both. I have watched DW20's videos and have seen how the Extra Bees machines work but I havent seen much about Gendustry. How do the two mods compare to each other?
 

HeffronCM

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
406
0
0
From what I can tell, having played a LOT with Extra Bees and reading over what Gendustry does, the bee breeding portions are similar. Extra Bees adds a ton of new bee species, products, and effects. Gendustry does not add new bees, but does add a self-contained automated alveary with upgrades. Use Extra Bees to stick with a more magitech, steam punk, traditional Minecraft feel or if you want a BIG expansion to bee content. Use Gendustry if you want to build chrome-shelled cyber hives with mutant super bees, or want the breeding tools without a bunch of new species and world gen hives.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
 

Lonewolf187

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
110
0
0
I rember reading that Binnies Mods had a game breaking bug that could corrupt worlds, has that been taken care of?
 

Revemohl

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
595
0
0
It's simple: first you look for any resource you need, then you see if any bee can make that resource, then you feed tons of uranium or redstone to Gendustry's liquid mutation thing maker, then you use that to reliably progress through the bee breeding chain until you get to that bee you want (probably twice because I don't remeber if you get a queen or princess/drone out of Gendustry's setup). Lastly, you set up an industrial apiary with the automation upgrade and any other upgrades you want (look at the mod's website to see your options), feed it enough energy, and forget about it while enjoying your infinite resources. Unless you got the kind of bee that dies, I forgot if it's ignoble or pristine, because Sengir hates fun. I guess you can feed the extra drones to that machine that separates traits or species I don't know because you most likely won't need them.
The other options to get to a certain bee involve either way too much randomness or even more randomness at a lower chance of getting what you want, so I don't bother with them anymore.

tl;dr You will either love them or hate them, but because of some bias I'd say you're more likely to hate them.
 

WTFFFS

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
768
0
0
Bees are fun, I have bred a good portion of the Forestry\Extra Bees\Magic Bees species via vanilla forestry breeding methods all of my bees are nocturnal, cave dwelling, flyers with normal workspeed and long lives. Took a bit of time to both learn how to breed them and to actually breed them I found that starting with good base stock (so breed into your commons\cultivateds all the traits you want) works wonders in making for uberbees. I would suggest trying vanilla breeding before taking the easy route and using either Binnies machines or Gendustry. A bit of dungeon trawling for a few Oblivion Frames (Magic Bees they can be made but take an inordinate amount of materials) is a great start and if you have access to Thaumic Tinkerer the Thaumic Restorer is fantastic at keeping them in good condition.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Odovbold

YX33A

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
3,764
1
0
It's simple: first you look for any resource you need, then you see if any bee can make that resource, then you feed tons of uranium or redstone to Gendustry's liquid mutation thing maker, then you use that to reliably progress through the bee breeding chain until you get to that bee you want (probably twice because I don't remeber if you get a queen or princess/drone out of Gendustry's setup). Lastly, you set up an industrial apiary with the automation upgrade and any other upgrades you want (look at the mod's website to see your options), feed it enough energy, and forget about it while enjoying your infinite resources. Unless you got the kind of bee that dies, I forgot if it's ignoble or pristine, because Sengir hates fun. I guess you can feed the extra drones to that machine that separates traits or species I don't know because you most likely won't need them.
The other options to get to a certain bee involve either way too much randomness or even more randomness at a lower chance of getting what you want, so I don't bother with them anymore.

tl;dr You will either love them or hate them, but because of some bias I'd say you're more likely to hate them.
Ignoble Bees tend to die after a few generations.

I "suggest" you get the Nether Simulator upgrade, the Internal Lighting upgrade, Waterproofing Upgrade, and there is one more(it is the one that Internal Lighting isn't, so if Internal Lighting makes it always day, get the one that makes Caves OK for all bees as well) that I "suggest" you get. Oh, and Automation, but that's an Obvious "Suggestion".

I can only "Suggest" these upgrades, because they are truly needed upgrades. The fact that there is a Nether Simulator is amazing, as it allows you to breed Bees that must be bred in the Nether, anywhere. There are of course upgrades to make it Hotter, Dryer, Wetter, and/or Colder, which help getting bees to work(indeed, it can even get them to produce specialty stuff I think, literally anywhere), and production increasing upgrades, ones that make bees have bigger teritory, one that does something to their lifespan(that I don't quite understand), and many other useful things, but those ones I named before? All but essential for 24/7 Bee Keeping able to match a Alveary in customization, utility, and output.

If you don't mind feeding some power to a Apiary to make it as good(really, actually better) then a Alveary, use Gendustry's Fancy Apiary. If you don't mind waiting until you are late in the Beekeeping Game to have a bunch of useful Alvearies that don't work as a Nether subsitute, but don't need power, use Extra Bees Alveary blocks.

Either way, you should have them both installed. Extra Bees has Extra Bees(no shit!), but also it's BinniesMods, which includes Extra Trees(and it adds EXTRA KINDS OF TREES TO BREED! Oh and some awesome Treekeeping stuff, namely a block that mixes your wood and makes it look awesome), Gendustry has better Bee Breeding junk, and has a Powered Grafter, which is all kinds of awesome, supports RF natively, and is at least 20% cooler over all I'd say.

Also, if you have enough bee breeds to breed(hint: You don't. Period.), you may not be Interested in Magic Bees, which adds all kinds of more Magical Bees, which tend to produce things for mods like Thaumcraft, EE3, AM1/2, TE3, and other bees that are useful(such as a bee that allows you to make Wither Skulls, or one that makes Dragon Eggs), and a bunch of cool things that are semi-broken OP(a frame called the Oblivion Frame, which makes bees die instantly when you use it in a apiary, but it is awesome for breeding bees, for a example).

All in all, if you don't mind a bit of work(or tedium as some might call it), Beekeeping is a very lucrative way to make all kinds of useful things.

Also, there is a upgrade for MMPS that makes your armor double as an apiarist suit. Suck THAT, crappy Apiarist Suit!
 

WTFFFS

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
768
0
0
Ignobles do die off eventually but I have Ignoble princesses I've used to breed up 3 strains of bees (so 20-30 generations per strain) then I imprint the strain and species onto a Rocky princess via normal breeding, oh yeah one very very good way to have a lot of Pristine Princesses for imprinting with your chosen bees species\strain is to run a quarry somewhere you will gain a lot of Rocky princesses\drones (one max size quarry got me about 35 princesses) the drones are somewhat useless though.
 

Darkone84

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
220
0
0
I know how to use Extra Bees (Bennies Mod) really well is their any need for me to know how to use Gendustry?
Does it offer anything better (not easier) than whats in Extra Bees?
 

Maldroth

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
169
0
0
Ignoble Princesses are much better than the old swarmer Princesses. The drones they create are just the same as Pristine ones so you are safe to breed with them until they run out. Then you can use the drones on another princess to pick up where you left off. I've had some Ignobles last for over 30 generations already so they are much more resilient for general use. If you plan to have a breed for item production you will want to swap to a Pristine one eventually.
 

Revemohl

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
595
0
0
I know how to use Extra Bees (Bennies Mod) really well is their any need for me to know how to use Gendustry?
Does it offer anything better (not easier) than whats in Extra Bees?
http://bdew.net/gendustry/apiary
If you're into bees and you're not salivating after reading this page, then I guess you were never that much into bees.
Even with all I said above, this thing alone made me feel like trying bees again.
 

WTFFFS

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
768
0
0
http://bdew.net/gendustry/apiary
If you're into bees and you're not salivating after reading this page, then I guess you were never that much into bees.
Even with all I said above, this thing alone made me feel like trying bees again.
I'm heavily into bees but that thing really doesn't do it for me I prefer to breed those traits into my bees and I'll go to the Nether to breed up the species that need it gives me an excuse to hang around in the Nether anyways ... might make a piggyman spawner :)
 

MigukNamja

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
2,202
0
0
I know how to use Extra Bees (Bennies Mod) really well is their any need for me to know how to use Gendustry?
Does it offer anything better (not easier) than whats in Extra Bees?

Yes. It has full support for tree breeding as well.

Another smaller, but extremely useful feature is Gendustry has templates that greatly streamline the application of multiple traits. This eliminates the Inoculator --> Synthesizer --> Purifier babysitting loop for each and every trait you impart on your princesses and drones.

One feature I don't like, however, is the oversimplification (dumbing down, if you will), of biome-specific and put-this-block-under-the-hive species mutation. I rather like that about ExtraBees. The biomes and special blocks add very good flavor and character to bee breeding. Gendustry doesn't have any biome or blocks requirements AFAIK.

The balance for this ease-of-use is increased material cost and increased power - if you can believe it - over ExtraBees.
 

Darkone84

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
220
0
0
http://bdew.net/gendustry/apiary
If you're into bees and you're not salivating after reading this page, then I guess you were never that much into bees.
Even with all I said above, this thing alone made me feel like trying bees again.

The Industrial Apiary look fun and have a lot of different upgrades but I need to see how the compare to the Alvearies.

Yes. It has full support for tree breeding as well.

Another smaller, but extremely useful feature is Gendustry has templates that greatly streamline the application of multiple traits. This eliminates the Inoculator --> Synthesizer --> Purifier babysitting loop for each and every trait you impart on your princesses and drones.

One feature I don't like, however, is the oversimplification (dumbing down, if you will), of biome-specific and put-this-block-under-the-hive species mutation. I rather like that about ExtraBees. The biomes and special blocks add very good flavor and character to bee breeding. Gendustry doesn't have any biome or blocks requirements AFAIK.

The balance for this ease-of-use is increased material cost and increased power - if you can believe it - over ExtraBees.

Yes I also don't like the oversimplification part of Gendustry. Since I know Extra Bees now I don't find it hard. If Gendustry was out before Extra Bees than I would say that Extra Bees is overcomplicated.

So if your new to both Mods maybe Gendustry might be better when frist starting out, Extra Bees can be a bit overwelling.
 

Bgraywolf

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
21
0
0
I am a pretty heavy bee breeder and have done some fantastic automation with Extra bee's (amazing what can be accomplished with gates) but I am pretty excited to try out the templates.

Also a huge wall of industrial apiary's filled with rock loving bees does give me a bit of inspiration.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TaintedHorizon

mediocretes2

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
3
0
0
I have had major problems getting bees (Austere) to produce their specialty (Powdery combs) in industrial apiaries, even after adding upgrades to exactly match the home biome (hot/arid). I've been through at least a dozen life cycles, no powdery combs. Can someone confirm that it is possible to use the upgrade to get specialties out of biome? I was hoping I'd be able to produce these things right in my main base ><
 

YX33A

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
3,764
1
0
I have had major problems getting bees (Austere) to produce their specialty (Powdery combs) in industrial apiaries, even after adding upgrades to exactly match the home biome (hot/arid). I've been through at least a dozen life cycles, no powdery combs. Can someone confirm that it is possible to use the upgrade to get specialties out of biome? I was hoping I'd be able to produce these things right in my main base ><
Honestly I was talking out of my ass when I said it could do that. I guess I should have said might be able to, or should be able to. Chances are it's a total no-go on specialties anywhere.
I mean, if even if you have bred a bee to love it exactly where you are(or manipulated it's genes to the same effect), specialty products don't show up unless you're doing this in it's native preferred climate, apparently, which is all kinds of "what?" inducing.
 

TomeWyrm

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
898
1
1
Sorry for the necro-post (I found this via a google search looking for a replacement to the old breeding chart I used to use).

Specialities are actually biome-locked, in the code, fully hard dependency style. They're the only thing that are as far as I am aware. Which means Gendustry/Extra Bees are both good for "fixing" any problems you have with bees (though my opinion of Binnies Mods went down the drain with the new Genetics/Botany/Trees/Bees update in 1.7), except producing specialties.