Gregtech question.

[Enigmius1]

I disabled GregTech very early on because the kind of "challenge" it adds to the game is not the kind of "challenge" I'm interested in. With some other similar modpacks, people would go to the Nether very early on for glowstone dust to make EE2 items anyway. Once you've spent a certain amount of time in the Nether it becomes much less dangerous and far less intimidating than it seemed when you first went. If a person can survive a trip to the Nether to build a cobblestone nerd pole to the ceiling to harvest glowstone, they can harvest nether brick and magma cream. The "hard" part becomes finding the fortress, which basically amounts to a time sink. Followed by a time sink farming the items, and another time sink waiting on your coke ovens to make the fuel for the blast furnace that takes another half decade to make the steel that you'll use to make your starter rechargeable tools. I've got two blast furnaces and four coke ovens in my world and the only thing that makes their sluggish performance a non-irritant is the fact that I'm not chomping at the bit to make anything out of steel.

But then we look at some of the other recipes and changes and it just seems all around unnecessary. Diamonds for a macerator. I personally don't care if you can achieve the same outcome with a pulverizer, it just doesn't seem in any way necessary. Adding substantially to the energy requirement of "simple" tasks is a whole other kvetch.

All of this, of course, is opinion, and it's the opinion of someone who sees IC2 as a means to an end, not an end in of itself. I'm more interested in learning complex systems like RP frame creations, and I'm looking forward to getting into some RC stuff as well. IC2 provides me with the refined resources to do a lot of those fun things. If I add GregTech's "challenge" to it, all it's doing is gating access to the things I actually want to do.

 

[SilvasRuin]

"Gating access" to UU Matter is one thing. Frankly that needed some sort of "nerf." But GregTech seems fond of convolution for the sake of tedium, which seems completely nonsensical to me in an intentional design. For example, many of the Centrifuge recipes lead to Cells containing things that are utterly useless that you then throw into an Extracter to empty again. It adds an extra step to a lot of it that really did not need to be added. Getting some of the sometimes hard to find materials from a Centrifuge is really neat. Making Ruby Dust, only obtainable from Rubies or obliterating your Redstone supplies, the only source for Chrome which is one of the key components of the Highly Advanced Machines is not neat. Making you have to mine 20-40 chunks to bedrock on average (depending on if you use Silk Touch or a Quarry) before you can even hope to access the Highly Advanced Machines is not neat either.
So again I'll say it focuses far too much on tedium rather than actually smoothing out the pacing, especially since it ultimately leads to the same end result as "vanilla" IC2 (god-suit and flooding in UU Matter to create anything).

In the context of Feed the Beast, it also adds a lot of redundant tools to work with Buildcraft or substitute for it that are far and away too expensive compared to their counterparts they try to replicate. They should at least be disabled for FTB to reduce useless clutter. It even winds up being expensive and convoluted for a vanity item, the Sonictron. Yes, the Jukebox costs a diamond. That shouldn't be taken as encouragement to make a compressed Note Block array so danged expensive, especially when it has no practical use. (Not to mention its interface is utter garbage and is too much of a mess to make proper use of.) I'm particularly bitter the only charging station it has is a Highly Advanced Machine and there aren't any lower tier options besides the standard single slot energy storage blocks. I'm aware the Advanced Solar Panels can charge multiple things, but they're not part of GregTech and they're meant to send energy into your network, not the other way around.

That said, I do think the mod itself has a place in Feed the Beast. UU Matter needed throttling just as EE2 needed its condensers and collectors removed. It also adds tiered currency which provides a great foundation for a server economy if the admins so choose. The Lightning Rod provides the Wind Mill generator a much needed (indirect) upgrade (though at a ridiculous expense far too late in the tech tree). After all, Solar Panels and Nuclear Reactors shouldn't get all the love. Adding more Nuclear Reactor options are probably a good thing as well. Making circuitry interchangeable is great, and so is allowing players to stretch their materials farther by using more advanced metals. GregTech does do a lot of good things... it just has a LOT of fat that really needs to be cut out of it.

 

[Pinkishu]

"Gating access" to UU Matter is one thing. Frankly that needed some sort of "nerf." But GregTech seems fond of convolution for the sake of tedium, which seems completely nonsensical to me in an intentional design. For example, many of the Centrifuge recipes lead to Cells containing things that are utterly useless that you then throw into an Extracter to empty again.

Gregtech seems far from finished and is updated like weekly it seems, so they might get a use in the future. RP2 has Tungsten too which is useless in 1.2.5 (any maybe the new version too).

Making you have to mine 20-40 chunks to bedrock on average (depending on if you use Silk Touch or a Quarry) before you can even hope to access the Highly Advanced Machines is not neat either.
So again I'll say it focuses far too much on tedium rather than actually smoothing out the pacing, especially since it ultimately leads to the same end result as "vanilla" IC2 (god-suit and flooding in UU Matter to create anything).

Well but you need much more work to go to "UU-flood" I mean 1 UU costs 16.6m of energy I like the nerf and that you have to actually need some work before you can go lolquantum.

In the context of Feed the Beast, it also adds a lot of redundant tools to work with Buildcraft or substitute for it that are far and away too expensive compared to their counterparts they try to replicate. They should at least be disabled for FTB to reduce useless clutter.

Such as?

It even winds up being expensive and convoluted for a vanity item, the Sonictron. Yes, the Jukebox costs a diamond. That shouldn't be taken as encouragement to make a compressed Note Block array so danged expensive, especially when it has no practical use. (Not to mention its interface is utter garbage and is too much of a mess to make proper use of.)

I find the interface fully OK to use, if you have a suggestion to make it better, try to suggest that to Greg? And jukebox doesn't really play anything besides records. And noteblocks can't play all the sounds the Sonictron is able to play. Danged expensive? I dunno once you have Grinders, Miners, and all that fancy stuff you're swimming in resources anyway

I'm particularly bitter the only charging station it has is a Highly Advanced Machine and there aren't any lower tier options besides the standard single slot energy storage blocks. I'm aware the Advanced Solar Panels can charge multiple things, but they're not part of GregTech and they're meant to send energy into your network, not the other way around.

Well that I can kind of agree with, some lower-tier charging station would have been nice till you get to this one, but nonetheless I still like it.

That said, I do think the mod itself has a place in Feed the Beast. UU Matter needed throttling just as EE2 needed its condensers and collectors removed. It also adds tiered currency which provides a great foundation for a server economy if the admins so choose. The Lightning Rod provides the Wind Mill generator a much needed (indirect) upgrade (though at a ridiculous expense far too late in the tech tree). After all, Solar Panels and Nuclear Reactors shouldn't get all the love. Adding more Nuclear Reactor options are probably a good thing as well. Making circuitry interchangeable is great, and so is allowing players to stretch their materials farther by using more advanced metals. GregTech does do a lot of good things... it just has a LOT of fat that really needs to be cut out of it.

I agree, though fusion reactors are far more powerful than solars and nuclear reactors imo ^^ And yeah the lightning rod could require a little less



-----

I disabled GregTech very early on because the kind of "challenge" it adds to the game is not the kind of "challenge" I'm interested in. With some other similar modpacks, people would go to the Nether very early on for glowstone dust to make EE2 items anyway. Once you've spent a certain amount of time in the Nether it becomes much less dangerous and far less intimidating than it seemed when you first went. If a person can survive a trip to the Nether to build a cobblestone nerd pole to the ceiling to harvest glowstone, they can harvest nether brick and magma cream. The "hard" part becomes finding the fortress, which basically amounts to a time sink. Followed by a time sink farming the items, and another time sink waiting on your coke ovens to make the fuel for the blast furnace that takes another half decade to make the steel that you'll use to make your starter rechargeable tools. I've got two blast furnaces and four coke ovens in my world and the only thing that makes their sluggish performance a non-irritant is the fact that I'm not chomping at the bit to make anything out of steel.

Well as people already pointed out, a newer Gregtech version hands you a different way to make steel. Not sure why you *need* a coke oven for your blast furnace thoughh, i just threw tons of charcoal into it

But then we look at some of the other recipes and changes and it just seems all around unnecessary. Diamonds for a macerator. I personally don't care if you can achieve the same outcome with a pulverizer, it just doesn't seem in any way necessary. Adding substantially to the energy requirement of "simple" tasks is a whole other kvetch.

Well I doubt you'll have much luck grinding up ores with just flint for a long time. Not sure what you mean with energy requirement of "simple" tasks there though?

 

[PieExplosion]

Gregtech heavily changes the progression of IC2. Many people dislike it. After playing with it and playing without it, it's not THAT bad if you know your ways around the tough parts.

A few issues:
-The 8 Iridium Ore for the Matter Fab is a pain. But, it's more due to the lack of a mod with easy smart sorting (factorization's router is just plain weird to use). Also, it encourages players to wreck large chunks of land. A dedicated mystcraft age for quarrys recommended.
-SMP servers will suffer when people are crafting many Advanced Solar Panels and avoiding the upgrades, since the upgrade to Hybrid/Ultimate uses Iridium and UU (for the Sunnarium).
-Ran out of Lapis Lazuli. Seriously.
-Distributing instructions for changed Gregtech configs is a PITA.

Here's a few tips:
-Lime dye + Milk in the Factorization crystallizer for Slimeballs.
-Don't forget the entire portal gun mod. Factorization's barrels can be moved by portal guns!
-Get the Rockcutter as soon as you can.
-Be aware of all the industrial centrifuge recipes. If you have access to glowstone crystals in a mystcraft world, they're a good source of GOLD.

 

[bigtwisty]

The Lightning Rod provides the Wind Mill generator a much needed (indirect) upgrade (though at a ridiculous expense far too late in the tech tree). After all, Solar Panels and Nuclear Reactors shouldn't get all the love.

Actually, the lightning rod was the next high level machine I made after the matter fab. My team mate took them to a charged stormy Mystcraft age and set up a couple of quarries to keep it loaded and an Enderchest/router network to keep it fed with scrap. It is still one of the fastest sources of uu we've got.

 

[MCJinzha]

-Ran out of Lapis Lazuli. Seriously.

I laughed out loud xD

 

[Orion]

Hm... if you ask me i think Gregtech is a tad overdone.... making a more endgame content was the best thing he it does, but it was not worth the price of the sheer complexity of the rest of the add on. all our favorite and ever familiar IC2 recipes to tally gone.... I find the re balancing of the original IC2 features unnecessary , as it was already fairly well balanced and on par with the other mods. I myself am fairly new FTB but have been on technic for a good long time, and am quite familiar with the mods. but with gregtech, i was totally thrown off balance. Up till now, i have yet to understand the uses of a centrifuge properly, sticking with the original IC2 features. (i know, im such a noob ). I think there are better addons that should be included in the pack like compact solars, advance generators, and the new expansion of charging bench whose name change slips my mind.

 

[Bluehorazon]

Hm... if you ask me i think Gregtech is a tad overdone.... making a more endgame content was the best thing he it does, but it was not worth the price of the sheer complexity of the rest of the add on. all our favorite and ever familiar IC2 recipes to tally gone.... I find the re balancing of the original IC2 features unnecessary , as it was already fairly well balanced and on par with the other mods. I myself am fairly new FTB but have been on technic for a good long time, and am quite familiar with the mods. but with gregtech, i was totally thrown off balance. Up till now, i have yet to understand the uses of a centrifuge properly, sticking with the original IC2 features. (i know, im such a noob ). I think there are better addons that should be included in the pack like compact solars, advance generators, and the new expansion of charging bench whose name change slips my mind.

Well advanced generators make OP generators even more OP... a geothermal that produces 30% more EU per Lava-Unit and may output additional EU/t without fuel? A generator that not only produces more EU but also produces scrap, which is actually one of the core fuels of a generator. It is an issue of Gregs not addressing the balance-issues of Generators and Geothermals in the first place, he might do this in the future, since he plans to add new early-game generators.

That said, I do think the mod itself has a place in Feed the Beast. UU Matter needed throttling just as EE2 needed its condensers and collectors removed. It also adds tiered currency which provides a great foundation for a server economy if the admins so choose. The Lightning Rod provides the Wind Mill generator a much needed (indirect) upgrade (though at a ridiculous expense far too late in the tech tree). After all, Solar Panels and Nuclear Reactors shouldn't get all the love. Adding more Nuclear Reactor options are probably a good thing as well. Making circuitry interchangeable is great, and so is allowing players to stretch their materials farther by using more advanced metals. GregTech does do a lot of good things... it just has a LOT of fat that really needs to be cut out of it.

Hmm... the problem are some bottlenecks, but one of them, the blast-furnace is already removed by creating his own furnace. It seems as if he is also looking into more materials and maybe ores.

 

[Pinkishu]

Hm... if you ask me i think Gregtech is a tad overdone.... making a more endgame content was the best thing he it does, but it was not worth the price of the sheer complexity of the rest of the add on. all our favorite and ever familiar IC2 recipes to tally gone.... I find the re balancing of the original IC2 features unnecessary , as it was already fairly well balanced and on par with the other mods. I myself am fairly new FTB but have been on technic for a good long time, and am quite familiar with the mods. but with gregtech, i was totally thrown off balance. Up till now, i have yet to understand the uses of a centrifuge properly, sticking with the original IC2 features. (i know, im such a noob ). I think there are better addons that should be included in the pack like compact solars, advance generators, and the new expansion of charging bench whose name change slips my mind.

Uhm you act like he changed every single recipe in IC2. compact solars? we have advanced solars already, which imo is better anyway
I don't see how you can see UU and Quantum suit as balanced unless you're comparing it to EE2 maybe~

 

[PieExplosion]

Uhm you act like he changed every single recipe in IC2. compact solars? we have advanced solars already, which imo is better anyway
I don't see how you can see UU and Quantum suit as balanced unless you're comparing it to EE2 maybe~

Advanced Solars isn't better. It's different. Crafting advanced solar panels requires Uranium, a resource that isn't "renewable" and is also used by nuclear reactors.
UU and Quantum seem much more balanced in a vanilla + IC2 scenario, which is likely how they balance it. Gregtech seems balanced around a world of many mods.

 

[Pinkishu]

you missed the "imo", which says in my opinion its better
besides, coal is non renewable too

 

[PieExplosion]

you missed the "imo", which says in my opinion its better

Yes. I did miss the "imo". Sorry.
This Gregtech topic is still a mixed bag for me, since its mixed opinions are making people change the configs and destroying my previous impression of the mod pack being "yay I don't have to mess with configs".

 

[Pinkishu]

Well you do not have to mess with configs if you just play it as is xP

 

[PieExplosion]

Well you do not have to mess with configs if you just play it as is xP

SMP yo. Matching my client config with the server prevents derp.

 

[Bluehorazon]

Yes. I did miss the "imo". Sorry.
This Gregtech topic is still a mixed bag for me, since its mixed opinions are making people change the configs and destroying my previous impression of the mod pack being "yay I don't have to mess with configs".

Basically FTB is just a launcher. There might be several modpack-options in the future. But you don't have to mess with the configs but then you have to go with GregTech.

 

[Darlock Ahe]

Only "problem" with gregtech is that that you need some materials before you can reliably produce them (mostly iridium and nickel to some degree), some other production chain might be very useful, it shouldn't be faster, but more involving.
And as far as I understand this problem is almost completely fixed in 1.4.5 with addition of some kind of ender ore.

 

[bigtwisty]

Advanced Solars also breaks the self-replicating HV Array factory, as it requires materials not obtainable from uu matter alone. You actually have to mine stuff. GregTech's solar recipe does the same thing. This is not a bad thing, IMNSHO (in my not so humble opinion). I like how FTB picked these mods to bring the mods together and make them more interdependent. Makes it feel more like a real game, rather than a bunch of individual games thrown together.

 

[Lathanael]

Basically FTB is just a launcher. There might be several modpack-options in the future. But you don't have to mess with the configs but then you have to go with GregTech.

Not only might, there WILL be different packs.

 

[Gottfridsson]

Gregtech is starting to hurt me a bit, trying to make a quantum chest, the "Data Control Circuit" as I understand NEI should surround a iridium plate with amongst other things pulsating chipset. Does not work with that or advanced circuits. Sort of a pain to find that out while playing on smp. Any1 got a clue on how to make that one?

 

[zemerick]

Gregtech is starting to hurt me a bit, trying to make a quantum chest, the "Data Control Circuit" as I understand NEI should surround a iridium plate with amongst other things pulsating chipset. Does not work with that or advanced circuits. Sort of a pain to find that out while playing on smp. Any1 got a clue on how to make that one?

Works for me exactly as the recipe shows.

In the 4 corners, you can have any combination of: Pulsating Chipset, Diamond And/Or Gate, Advanced Circuit, Autarchic Gold And/Or Gate, Diamantine Tube.
In the 4 sides, you can have any combination of: Datastorage Circuit, Autarchic Diamond And/Or Gate
In the center Iridium Plate.

Example:
1 = Pulsating Chipset
2 = Autarchic Diamond And Gate
3 = Iridium Plate

121
232
121

Mix and match equivalents as you feel.