Gregtech Survival Guide

[Someone Else 37]

You may not *have* to replace all your LV machines for each power tier... although I'm sure having all the machines on the same MV or HV cable line would look nicer (and run faster) than some steam-powered machines over near the boilers, some LV machines over here, some MV ones on that cable line over there...

One of these days, I kind of want to put together a HQM pack (probably just Resurrection with a custom HQM config) with easy repeatable quests for basically every GT ore in existence, so I can go through making all the machines and progressing through the tiers without having to mine all the time, which I personally find really boring. Or maybe I'll just spawn in a couple of creative strongboxes and ore blocks as needed, with the self-imposed restriction that I can only use the strongboxes to make ores and more strongboxes (which I can still only use for ores).

That was based on a idea I had back in MC 1.4 or 1.5 that I never got around to in which I would give myself a mass fab, a few stacks of plutonium dust, and an HV solar panel cover.

 

[asb3pe]

One of these days, I kind of want to put together a HQM pack (probably just Resurrection with a custom HQM config) with easy repeatable quests for basically every GT ore in existence, so I can go through making all the machines and progressing through the tiers without having to mine all the time, which I personally find really boring. Or maybe I'll just spawn in a couple of creative strongboxes and ore blocks as needed, with the self-imposed restriction that I can only use the strongboxes to make ores and more strongboxes (which I can still only use for ores).

I toyed with this exact idea the other day... however, I was mining an ore vein and I realized "this is too much fun!" Boring as it is, there's something enjoyable about pickaxe'ing my way thru a vein and collecting all of it. So I returned to a favorite trick and used the CoFH clearblocks command on a copy of my world to expose all the GT oreblocks, copied down the coords, and bingo - I've still got my mining, but eliminated the long period of time where I might be stranded without a critical ore like nickel. I'd love to play "by the book", and I do for the most part, but the closest nickel vein is 360 meters away according to JourneyMap... I really do shudder to think about how long it would have been to find it if I didn't cheat my way right to it. It's our world, we can do what we want to...

 

[asb3pe]

You may not *have* to replace all your LV machines for each power tier... although I'm sure having all the machines on the same MV or HV cable line would look nicer (and run faster) than some steam-powered machines over near the boilers, some LV machines over here, some MV ones on that cable line over there...

Makes sense. I just made the MV Steam Turbine, so all those LV Turbines I made solely to run the Blast Furnace are now sitting idle... and I'm sure not gonna just throw em in my AE and forget about em.

I don't even have any idea how much faster the MV machines are over the LV versions. I can def see how the big part of the fun is discovering stuff - like how to make gases to use in the Blast Furnace - and maybe it's a good thing the Guide doesn't cover everything.

 

[asb3pe]

How come the EBF works with two 32v inputs, but when I replace them with a single 128v input, it doesn't work? I guess it requires more than one amp? I'll make a 4-battery Buffer and put 2 batteries in it and see if that does the trick.

Edit: Nevermind, figured it out, forgot to upgrade the Energy Hatch itself to the MV version. Doh.

Another question - GT covers, which Chloe mentions in her videos... perhaps Inpure Core is blocking the recipes, but when I type "cover" into NEI, there's only one cover listed (Crafting table cover). I found four more "covers" except they are named "Detector". How can I find out every cover available for GT machines? I'm thinking there might be a cover/panel that shows the info like volts/amps or steam production rate?

 

[mr10movie]

Our Pal MrMoo. He is going to be doing 2 minute quick "bite" sized videos on GT.

Woo, now I actually have to complete this monumental task ahead of me... XD

If anyone is interested, here's my 'master list' so to speak. I'll be updating this every time I make a new video, or you could just check out my youtube every so often.

 

[mr10movie]

Another question - GT covers, which Chloe mentions in her videos... perhaps Inpure Core is blocking the recipes, but when I type "cover" into NEI, there's only one cover listed (Crafting table cover). I found four more "covers" except they are named "Detector". How can I find out every cover available for GT machines? I'm thinking there might be a cover/panel that shows the info like volts/amps or steam production rate?

I don't think that exists in GT itself. There are energy detectors, which output energy levels as redstone signals (also a variant exists for items and fluid amounts). There is an activity detector which if the machine is running will output redstone, and a redstone controller which requires a redstone signal to make the machine work. Also the drain + shutter module, which absorbs fluids and blocks fluid/item passage.

 

[asb3pe]

Woo, now I actually have to complete this monumental task ahead of me... XD

If anyone is interested, here's my 'master list' so to speak. I'll be updating this every time I make a new video, or you could just check out my youtube every so often.

Guides are certainly very helpful... but there's really nothing like watching a youtube of someone explaining things, building and operating the machines in real time. If an image is worth a thousand words, one good video can be worth many thousands. Subscribed! Thanks for making them. Instant feedback: the audio in the Polarizer video seems very low volume on my end, you might need to turn your voice up louder when you make them.

 

[mr10movie]

I did notice that. I'm still getting to grips with my new microphone and how strong it is. I must have over-compensated and turned it too low. Will fix it for next time

 

[KingTriaxx]

If the circuit assembler is as good as it used to be, it's probably better to make circuits and things in there. I know that the 'old'(1.4.7) version was more efficient than a lot of the tools. Such as the wire mill making more wire than the manual crafting recipe. Or being able to duplicate certain things like the RP2 diamond draw plate.

That said, I've never seen anyone but Bevo manage to get beyond basic GT.

 

[asb3pe]

If the circuit assembler is as good as it used to be, it's probably better to make circuits and things in there. I know that the 'old'(1.4.7) version was more efficient than a lot of the tools. Such as the wire mill making more wire than the manual crafting recipe. Or being able to duplicate certain things like the RP2 diamond draw plate.

That said, I've never seen anyone but Bevo manage to get beyond basic GT.

There's just so many machines. Every day I discover a new one - today it's the "Forming Press" so I can semi-automate my circuit production. I am SO sick of making those silly circuits by hand...

I think I'm finally gonna make it to GT endgame this time... but I fully admit to a bit of "cheating" here and there (/cofh clearblocks is awesome for eliminating "exploration downtime" hehe).

Oh that raises a question - what's the best way to obtain GT silicon if you haven't discovered any Silicon Ore yet? Obv it should be simple materials. I see you can electrolyze 8 sand and get a silicon dioxide dust, which can then electrolyzed again to make silicon dust. Is there an easier or a better way perhaps?

 

[Queue]

If the circuit assembler is as good as it used to be, it's probably better to make circuits and things in there. I know that the 'old'(1.4.7) version was more efficient than a lot of the tools. Such as the wire mill making more wire than the manual crafting recipe. Or being able to duplicate certain things like the RP2 diamond draw plate.

That said, I've never seen anyone but Bevo manage to get beyond basic GT.

If you take a look at the Kirara server, almost everyone gets past basic GT fairly quick. The key is time+efficiency. Time is my biggest constraint (and a lot of other people too), but efficiency is what this guide is for.

 

[Queue]

Oh that raises a question - what's the best way to obtain GT silicon if you haven't discovered any Silicon Ore yet? Obv it should be simple materials. I see you can electrolyze 8 sand and get a silicon dioxide dust, which can then electrolyzed again to make silicon dust. Is there an easier or a better way perhaps?

I think that's the quickest way w/out the ore

 

[asb3pe]

If you take a look at the Kirara server, almost everyone gets past basic GT fairly quick. The key is time+efficiency. Time is my biggest constraint (and a lot of other people too), but efficiency is what this guide is for.

Yeah, I've had to walk around sloooowly in order to explore... couldn't find a saddle. My base is surrounded by a hundred horses roaming around... so it was very discouraging. I finally was able to make MFR machines, and even tho it might seem an odd choice, the first MFR block I constructed was the Fisher. Within the first half hour it gave me a saddle, and 24 hours later I've got 7 or 8 of em. Just a little handy non-GT tip, but certainly applies to GT since ore veins can be quite a distance from home base and having a saddled horse can be immensely valuable to "efficiency" on a server where it's more of a competitive race against the other players than anything.

The real reason I built the Fisher first was not for saddles (that was a wonderful byproduct), but for the fishes, to extract the fish oil, to turn into lubricant for the Cutting Saw so I could make diamond plates for the BC Quarry. GT at its finest, right there. Need one simple material? Gotta make 3 or 4 machines and figure out how to bring it all together and make it all work.

Oh, I also found the best method for getting Oxygen gas (its free!). I was looking in the wrong place at the wrong machines. But now that I've discovered it, I'm pretty happy about it. Time to finally dismantle those big Bronze Blast Furnaces... goodbye Bronze Age!

 

[KingTriaxx]

Yeah, I remember first setting up my system to automatically process Bauxite into Aluminum. Half the fun is working out what you need, and what's a useless byproduct. And what can be repurposed.

 

[Pyure]

@asb3pe, I can see you've had a ton of questions here and I'm not really sure what you're still curious about, or I'd answer better.

Regarding your EBF, you can definitely get it to work with a single 128v input if there's no maintenance problems. For that matter, two LV inputs work fine if supplied by 2+ amps each.

Regarding duct tape, its kind of annoying to get because you need to operate at crap efficiency for a while until you get get your first MV machines. I'm always tempted to just spawn it in, but "shit-efficiency-EBF" is a legitimate tier at the moment.

What's your solution for oxygen? Compressing empty cells? (You get compressed air which you can electrolyze into Oxygen and nitrogen iirc)

For silicon: its found in a million things. I don't even recall how I get the bulk of mine with LV tech sadly, and I'm not really sure that silicon ore is actually a thing.

Weird thing I haven't tried yet: a player on our server said the small (OD?) GT scanner will NAME nearby ores in a certain radius. I was always aware of the big (OV?) scanner which would give you a magical number based on the quality of ores beneath you, but the OD scanner trick was new to me. Either of these toys might assist players in finding ores, but the OD version might help you locate specific ones that you might narrowly miss while branch-mining.

 

[asb3pe]

@asb3pe, I can see you've had a ton of questions here and I'm not really sure what you're still curious about, or I'd answer better.

Regarding your EBF, you can definitely get it to work with a single 128v input if there's no maintenance problems. For that matter, two LV inputs work fine if supplied by 2+ amps each.

Yeah, I dorked out and forgot I still had the LV Energy Hatch installed on the EBF. Once I upgraded to MV Hatch, it worked fine on one amp (after I used Duct Tape on it).

Regarding duct tape, its kind of annoying to get because you need to operate at crap efficiency for a while until you get get your first MV machines. I'm always tempted to just spawn it in, but "shit-efficiency-EBF" is a legitimate tier at the moment.

Yep, Greg clearly intended this as a sort of "sub-tier", and if the Maintenance Hatch text wasn't so goofy and impossible to decipher properly, I'd say he did a good job with it. But "circuit burned out" and "duct tape" IS just goofy. Duct tape? Obv a joke, but come on Greg...

What's your solution for oxygen? Compressing empty cells? (You get compressed air which you can electrolyze into Oxygen and nitrogen iirc)

Yep, you got it. No nitrogen (maybe he removed it or maybe that's at the very upper tiers) but all I need is the oxygen for some of the metals like steel and (I think?) annealed copper.

Except as usual, I jumped the gun. I got everything ready, ran my empty cells thru the compressor, and only then did I see and realize that the Distillery recipe for Oxygen from Air is a 128v recipe. DOH. LOL

For silicon: its found in a million things. I don't even recall how I get the bulk of mine with LV tech sadly, and I'm not really sure that silicon ore is actually a thing.

It is a real ore, it's listed in NEI anyway... but since the BR modpack has Galacticraft in it, for all I know the ore might only be found on Jupiter or something. That's part of the problem with GT - I might identify an ore as something I need, but I might be looking in the total wrong dimension to find it and could spend an eternity hunting and pecking.

By the way, I found another silicon recipe (yeah there are lots of em)... Almandine ore (which I already found two veins of) can be broken down to provide (a) Aluminum, (b) Iron and (c) Silicon... which basically makes it the perfect ore for me at this LV-to-MV stage I'm currently in... I think it requires an MV Electrolyzer tho... so I'll be working on that machine very soon.

Quite honestly, in BR modpack the Ender IO silicon is equivalent, so it's a no brainer to use that version instead... but I really would prefer to do everything in GregTech version if possible.

 

[Someone Else 37]

Yep, Greg clearly intended this as a sort of "sub-tier", and if the Maintenance Hatch text wasn't so goofy and impossible to decipher properly, I'd say he did a good job with it. But "circuit burned out" and "duct tape" IS just goofy. Duct tape? Obv a joke, but come on Greg...

I know that at some point in the past (specifically, in the last version of GT that I researched, probably the one in Unhinged), the mod added a Soldering Iron that was used to fix one of the problems in the multiblocks, which could easily be the burnt circuit. Duct tape was intended as a temporary fix for ALL the problems, because duct tape fixes everything.

However, the soldering iron was evidently removed at some point, and hasn't been re-added yet. I'm guessing it happened in the update that added all the metatools, and Greg never got around to adding a meta-soldering iron.

 

[asb3pe]

I know that at some point in the past (specifically, in the last version of GT that I researched, probably the one in Unhinged), the mod added a Soldering Iron that was used to fix one of the problems in the multiblocks, which could easily be the burnt circuit. Duct tape was intended as a temporary fix for ALL the problems, because duct tape fixes everything.

However, the soldering iron was evidently removed at some point, and hasn't been re-added yet. I'm guessing it happened in the update that added all the metatools, and Greg never got around to adding a meta-soldering iron.

Thanks for that explanation, it makes much better sense when you know the back-story to it.

What I do not understand is that he gives these large multiblock structures a very nice GUI with a very big area for text information... but then he doesn't put any text in there except meaningless text like "hit with rubber hammer". How about a progress bar in the GUI? A temp indicator? I just find it odd.

 

[Queue]

I know that at some point in the past (specifically, in the last version of GT that I researched, probably the one in Unhinged), the mod added a Soldering Iron that was used to fix one of the problems in the multiblocks, which could easily be the burnt circuit. Duct tape was intended as a temporary fix for ALL the problems, because duct tape fixes everything.

However, the soldering iron was evidently removed at some point, and hasn't been re-added yet. I'm guessing it happened in the update that added all the metatools, and Greg never got around to adding a meta-soldering iron.

Soldering iron has yet to be re-implemented, and duct tape is temporary until all the old machine fixing tools are back.

 

[asb3pe]

I only have one complaint about ore distribution now... why doesn't Gold Ore have it's own vein?

In the Guide, there is a chart (from the wiki I believe) showing the various Ores, grouped by Primary/Secondary/In-Between/Around.

Here's the line for Gold: Magnetite/Magnetite/Vanadium Magnetite/Gold

So that means Gold is the Quaternary, or "Around", Ore. And that means there isn't very much of it to be found.

Gold is a popular material. Too popular. Since most mods didn't account for gold being so rare in a GregTech-based world, they use gold as a construction material too much (Ender IO for example uses a lot of gold).

How do some of you handle the gold deficiency? Do you go right to bees and get them started ASAP? Do you build an immense Obsidian Portal matrix in the sky for a Zombie Pigman farm? Do you have a method I didn't think of yet?

Most of the gold I have in my inventory, I've gotten it from chest loot (such as gold horse armor), I can Macerate it down into gold dust, and quite a bit of it too (thank goodness). But sooner or later I'm gonna run out of dungeon or Nether Fortress chests to rob.