How do some of you play this game without breaks?

[Tyrindor]

I love this game, but whenever I make a new world I put about 30-40 hours into it and then I can't stand the game for the next 6+ months. I can't imagine how someone like DW20 keeps himself playing on a daily basis.

My process is generally:
- I start the world, go immediately into double ores with Thermal Expansion.
- Getting lava power going within the first two hours, and then it's just making multiple magma dynamos for nearly infinite power.
- Set up a basic sorting system with ExtraUtilities.
- Set up a basic automatic mining system, like a quarry.
- Chests start getting full, so I setup an AE system/Autocrafting.
- Set up a QuarryPlus or multiple quarries even though it's completely unnecessary.
- Fully research Thaumcraft for some things to play around with.
- Get bored. Very bored.

I've branched out, made free farms (MFR/Forestry), oil refineries, connected them to steam boilers, etc. It all seems incredibly pointless though, I already have enough power. I made a BigReactor and it was pulling like 21k RF/t which seems absurdly high for anything I'd want to do. I could learn Mekanism and start doing 5x ore processing but... Why? I already have 30-40k of each type of metal. I started blood magic and fully maxed it out, it's cool and my bound armor is awesome, but again there's nothing I really need this for. I started bees but Magicial crops gets me virtually everything I need that my quarry doesn't get me.

I am not a creative person, I am completely unable to come up with cool build ideas. I also have bad memory, so despite watching multiple DW20 seasons and other videos, I usually forget any ideas I once had. To top it off, I like things clean and minimalistic. Having advanced complex builds with tubes going everywhere kind of annoy me - and that's impossible to avoid.

Perhaps I should stop playing packs with 250 mods? I always install them because they have the potential of making the longest lasting world, but at the same time a slightly easier mod makes half a dozen other mods not appealing.

So what's the problem here? Is it my mindset?

 

[asb3pe]

You're not alone. Your process is basically my process, and I also hit the wall at the same point. I have an Ultimate world and a Monster world where I've basically built everything I want to build and then don't know what to do anymore. I'm also not a creative builder so I lose interest once my base is done, I've got every bee making every raw material and all my production is automated. Maybe it is our mindset, I often dream of building something majestic and wonderful but after spending a bit of time I inevitably give up and go do something else. I greatly enjoy the journey from "nothing" to "everything", but once I have everything, I tend to get bored like you and drift off to play other games and wait for the next big FTB update.

 

[KnightOwl]

I've suffered from the same problem in the past but recently my wife and I have started playing the 3rd party mod packs like Agrarian Skies, Blood N Bones and most recently Crash Landing. I've found that the packs each provide a different experience with new opportunities to learn and have fun.

 

[Ritt]

I love this game, but whenever I make a new world I put about 30-40 hours into it and then I can't stand the game for the next 6+ months. I can't imagine how someone like DW20 keeps himself playing on a daily basis.

My process is generally:
- I start the world, go immediately into double ores with Thermal Expansion.
- Getting lava power going within the first two hours, and then it's just making multiple magma dynamos for nearly infinite power.
- Set up a basic sorting system with ExtraUtilities.
- Set up a basic automatic mining system, like a quarry.
- Chests start getting full, so I setup an AE system/Autocrafting.
- Set up a QuarryPlus or multiple quarries even though it's completely unnecessary.
- Fully research Thaumcraft for some things to play around with.
- Get bored. Very bored.

I've branched out, made free farms (MFR/Forestry), oil refineries, connected them to steam boilers, etc. It all seems incredibly pointless though, I already have enough power. I made a BigReactor and it was pulling like 21k RF/t which seems absurdly high for anything I'd want to do. I could learn Mekanism and start doing 5x ore processing but... Why? I already have 30-40k of each type of metal. I started blood magic and fully maxed it out, it's cool and my bound armor is awesome, but again there's nothing I really need this for. I started bees but Magicial crops gets me virtually everything I need that my quarry doesn't get me.

I am not a creative person, I am completely unable to come up with cool build ideas. I also have bad memory, so despite watching multiple DW20 seasons and other videos, I usually forget any ideas I once had. To top it off, I like things clean and minimalistic. Having advanced complex builds with tubes going everywhere kind of annoy me - and that's impossible to avoid.

Perhaps I should stop playing packs with 250 mods? I always install them because they have the potential of making the longest lasting world, but at the same time a slightly easier mod makes half a dozen other mods not appealing.

So what's the problem here? Is it my mindset?

I think most people get a bit burned out here and there. You have to remember that it's not just fun for Direwolf20, it is his job also, which gives him some motivation to keep going that those of us doing this for fun might not always have.

What KnightOwl just said makes a great point. Sometimes a quest mode pack might be more fun. Or if you find (as I often do) that a couple hundred mods in a pack is just too much stuff, you could find or make a smaller, more focused pack. Perhaps you might enjoy some of the other magic mods as well?

It's all optional fun entertainment, too. If Minecraft stops being fun, there's nothing wrong with taking a break to do something else.

 

[Henry Link]

@Ritt
DireWolf20 actually has a full time real life job. The stuff he does on youtube is because he wants to. Either way it is amazing that he keeps going.

 

[Ritt]

@Ritt
DireWolf20 actually has a full time real life job. The stuff he does on youtube is because he wants to. Either way it is amazing that he keeps going.

What he does with Minecraft and Youtube is even more amazing now.

 

[PureEvil]

I am having exactly the same issue as you, every now and then I get to play Minecraft once again, I get bored very quickly (week of playing or so). I can't find a point to build any complex stuff, since there is no need when my AE or barrels are full of this and that, my energy supplies surpass my current needs and even if they ran out, I can easily double, triple, quadruple the outcome by just adding dynamos, quarries...It feels for me like finding another sources or ways to accomplish certain goals has no real (economical, practical or any other) justification apart from "being fun to do". I feel like building something just for the sake of it is not worth my time as I come back from work tired and I need the game to be fun, stuff I do inside should yield quick results and be as pleasant and consistent as possible.

Looking at this from the other side, you can dig a hole and cover it with dirt so there's no need for armor and those complex yet beautiful bases protected with MFFS, Thaumcraft...could go on and one like that forever.
Maybe I should try Agrarian Skies or any quest based modpack some time

 

[Strikingwolf]

I work with it. I have much more fun with projects for the community than actually playing. I am strange in that regard

 

[Bigpak]

I am definitely not a creative builder or even a good builder for that matter... but it doesn't have to be extremely detailed and odd shapes and whatnot to be able to make it look majestic and beautiful. you could use all squares and tunnels. Honestly what I do is I just go until I can't play on that world anymore which is quite a LONG time. Having FPS problems because of rendering all your machines? I just separate them into different areas and have portals and what not. TPS lag? Find out what is causing it and if it is fixable, if its not and its unplayable start a new world and try to make things less laggy. Opis helps a lot with this.

 

[GreatOrator]

So, being that direwolf is one of the youtubers I watch and have for quite some time, maybe I can put a little explanation. While this is my opinion after all, I have seen this as an almost universal method on many of the youtubers that focus almost entirely on minecraft.

One thing specific with direwolf, he does actually map out what he wants to do during a season of his videos and tries each season to switch it up, he rarely does the exact same thing twice and that is on purpose. He wants to keep it interesting and experiment with news ways to do the same basics. That way he is always working through "problems" and how to solve them instead of defaulting to the same methods each and every time (part of why we regular people burn out, we don't change and stick to what's familiar to us). He'll usually play for 4-8 hours and make several episodes at a time (part of why he always has a new one at the same time every day).

For the rest of them, it is basically the same process, they try new things they have never done before to take themselves out of a comfort zone which keeps it interesting. In some cases they may play different versions, vanilla, modded, even game maps or skyblocks like Ag Skies and Crash Landing.

That really does help keep things interesting and when I play I try to do the same thing when a new pack comes out. I also try to never duplicate the same thing I have done before, keeps me thinking and interested.

 

[Flipz]

My burnout cycle goes a bit differently; very rarely is it that I get bored with a world or modpack, it's that I get burned out.

My goal in most modpacks is bees, plain and simple; I want stable lines of all the bee species. I have yet to accomplish this, however, because it generally takes me SO LONG to get the technology I need for a good bee setup (i.e. where I can focus almost entirely on bees without needing anything else) that I get tired and burned out with the game in general; the reward becomes not worth the continued effort. Now, ideally, I'd just take a week off and comb back to it with renewed vigour, but every time I've tried that some external factor has gotten in the way:

*1.4.7 DW20 world: 1.5 packs came out
*1.5.2 Unleashed world: StaffCraft server started
*1.5.2 StaffCraft server: server crashed and died
*current 1.7.10 private server: ??? (hit by a bus, hopefully not?)

I definitely agree that switching up what you're doing is the ideal way to avoid burnout, though.

 

[epidemia78]

Well guys like Direwolf have a financial incentive to keep playing and Direwolf himself tends to repeat the same builds over and over and pads out his lets plays by automating stuff that doesnt need automated.

Personally, I dont think I like the heavily tweaked packs like Blood and Bones because it throws a bunch of unknown factors into a game I should be familiar with already. On the other hand, theres mega packs like Infitech that look pretty interesting because they change recipes in such a way that you are required to have more infrastructure from other mods before you proceed to your usual safe zone.

Late game when things start getting boring, I do wild experiments to see what works. Sure I could do it in creative but thats not very much fun. And sometimes i find things I didnt know existed and become part of my usual minecraft routine.

 

[GreenZombie]

Keeping it fresh:

1. Realize that, outside of HQM maps, Minecraft IS a game about building. So build. If you are useless, (as am I) copy. shamelessly. The good builders that are both our inspiration and source of despair didn't (probably) start like that (I'm looking at you @rhn). they copied and built and refined.

2. Sometimes the paradox of choice is the real issue: Get something like the Refugee to Regent building challenge to give you a cut down list of things to build next.

3. If a particular game gets "old". Don't delete it and start fresh. Put all your stuff in a chest, switch to creative and /tp yourself a few km away to start anew. Do this enough times and rediscovering your old builds becomes a voyage of archaeological discovery.

4. This works particularly well if you are playing an "all-the-things" type pack: At each site choose a *different* mix of mods to specialize in. How far can you get doing *nothing* but rotary craft? Can you build a MJ power network without resorting to RF energy cells or redstone conduit?

 

[Azzanine]

Why is this even a problem for you? I see no real problem here? Don't feel compelled to play the game longer then you want.

Take your breaks they are important.

 

[malicious_bloke]

When I get bored, I change up the modlist.

And dream up new ideas for architectural creations.

Then bring the two into forceful conjunction on a new world.

 

[Giddimani]

I love this game, but whenever I make a new world I put about 30-40 hours into it and then I can't stand the game for the next 6+ months. I can't imagine how someone like DW20 keeps himself playing on a daily basis.

Since 1.1 I have played one world per major version, now in 1.6 I have played 3 because the change with HQM is just awesome.

And regarding direwolf, well, money.

 

[yoy1zoz2mom3]

Whenever I get bored (Which is often) I normally just switch modpack or go on a new sever, then when I get tired of that, return to my roots with fresh ideas
You can also, like I occasionally do, follow what youtubers do and it might show you some interesting new things.

 

[jordsta95]

I usually get bored with stuff quickly. I find that I make the machines, there is no point beautifying stuff, then there is nothing to do.
Quest packs add more to do, if you want something that'll keep you for at least a few weeks, Agrarian Skies, Crash Landing, Running Red.... any pack like that

 

[Shevron]

I'm in the same water after every map reset.

Built a base, got everything automated, unlimited power generation, I'm pretty much unkillable and can kill everything else in 2 hits, and I have 10k+ of any resource in the game.

Anything else seems pointless.

I can start doing bees for example, but why should I bother with bees that give me resources, of which I got a trillion already?

 

[jordsta95]

I have 10k+ of any resource in the game.

How does one get this amount? Digital Miner?