How would I slow game progression down?

[zorn]

Was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to slow down the rate at which the game progresses. Here is my dilemma:

I am playing ultimate. Some things id like to change:

I made a cow farm for mob essence and a tree farm for power, MFR with quartz upgrade. I have 5 boilers going and still have excess charcoal and saplings. Once I got the cow farm running I thought 'hey ill centrifuge the beef for some more power' and... it added not even 16 EU/t on top of my 5 boilers. I was going to milk the cows with ranchers and make biogas engines, but again, it would be a few engines at1 mj/t each, it seems pointless (to me anyway) when I have 5 boilers going already.

I like utilizing all my resources and making things more efficient. So for example I set up blulectric furnaces and solar panels to smelt all the charcoal from the farm. Its fun for me to think that I made the system more efficient. An induction furnace would use some of the charcoal from the farm while my redpower setup does not... but its already so much power, it doesn't seem to be too useful. There isn't much satisfaction from it, as the tree farm boosted me so far up the Progression Ladder that going up one more rung using Redpower isn't noticable, and so for me, not too satisfying.

I also got cracked sand from the sludge boiler, so I thought Id centrifuge it into fuel cans to put in generators. Except even with AE you cant input and remove the cans (AFAIK) so it has to be done by hand. It would be fun to set up multiple generators and log on, toss fuel into each generator and do a little manual work to feel i was subsidizing my power... but it just seems pointless as it is a drop in the bucket compared to the power the boilers are putting out.

Is there a way to change the game (configs?) so that things slow down? I have some friends who just got into the game , and they are using mining wells and one guy is using a single mining turtle, with the default scripts (read: slow). To them, getting some biogas engines from milk would be a big boost, maybe the solution is to just eliminate quarries and only allow mining wells and ic2 miners? Unfortunately without quarries, gregtech is really impossible, I think, or a 6 month project, which is too long for me.

This is how I enjoy the game, anyone out there feel the same way and found ways to make things slower? or have suggestions on what to change? Id like to have some sort of mining assistance, but also not have it so you have so many resources that you just ignore almost all resources you see when walking around. Id like to see some copper on the surface and actually think 'oh cool gotta grab that'.

id also like to make the changes restrictive, not just say 'dont use MFR farms'. Id like to have to look at the items available in NEI and enjoy figuring out how to get the most out of each block or system, and not have to judge in my head if I should use an item or not. If necessary, id just remove MFR altogether. IF its the harvester that is so strong (multifarms might be slower?) If I cut back on automated mining, MFR systems are cheap to make, I end up with tons of power and nothing to do with it. If i cut out tree farms and nether lava... well would that be the right change? (Ive actually never used nether lava) Are tree farms the real culprit here?

 

[Henry Link]

Maybe start a new base (don't take anything with you from your old base except some basic iron tools & armor) and set yourself a restriction like "I won't use any railcraft boilers".

 

[kittle]

Im not sure whats available in the configs - but if you can find a way to reduce the amount of power produced from the MFR stuff. That will reduce or eliminate the perpetual motion cycle you have going.
But once you start down that road, you will need to edit everything else in the same way -- if its even possible.

 

[RedBoss]

I know you like the Ultimate pack, but honestly the 1.6.4 Gregtech would slow you down. Like completely. I haven't delved into it much but when BevoLJ, a guy the LOVES Gregtech, is daunted by the progression, then there's a HUGE hurdle to cross. Barring that, I'd suggest moving to the Unhinged pack since GT is a bit more difficult there as well.

As far as staying in the 1.4.7 version of mods, I lack the knowledge to assist you with configs. Maybe establishing a rule set of what not to use and forging a play through around those tenants.

 

[Celestialphoenix]

Later versions of MFR have options of Thermal Expansion or GregTech based recipes, but the config here's quite limited.

-You could disable the machine recipes, and have a server shop to buy them from at a higher cost. Thats the only thing I can think of here without messing with the world/current builds.​

I know you like the Ultimate pack, but honestly the 1.6.4 Gregtech would slow you down. Like completely. I haven't delved into it much but when BevoLJ, a guy the LOVES Gregtech, is daunted by the progression

I've just started at with 1.6.4 GregTech, and I feel like an ant on the foot of Mount Everest. Some of the hurdles look painful, but the emergent gameplay as as result should prove interesting.

 

[zorn]

I'm honestly not sure gregtech is the answer. It creates more things to do but even in newer versions does it make methane from some cows a noticeable jump?

My friends are hand mining and building basic machines. Hand mining is a bit too slow but quarries are too much- except when using gregtech. Greg said "people have all these ways
to get power and get resources but nothing to use them on, I'll give them a single machine that even a full size boiler can't run, (grinder) and a machine that costs more than any machine ever seen (fusion reactor).

Maybe the answer (for me) is to slow down power and slow down resource
gathering so that normal machines become a challenge to build. Or maybe not a challenge, but at least make is that you generally have a few hundred iron on hand, not thousands or tens of thousands. Or hundreds of thousands.

Then milking cows and making biogas engines would be a noticeable achievement.

 

[Xris]

Since you did not tell what type of boiler your using I have no clue what you power output would be at now but have you thought about cutting back on the amount of power you make? Just add some personal limits on things that you do...like if you use the max input amount (its something like 160 or 200) for the quarry then you can go from lvl 64 to bedrock in just a matter of minutes but what if you where to only use say 32eu/t. You could also make your farms produce less as a time so slow it down.


EDIT: I just read your post right above this one and it looks like you already can to the same ideas that I did...lol.

 

[Ashzification]

Set time limits for game play. Only allow yourself say 2 hours to do something, and give yourself a list of tasks to do in that time frame.

 

[Saice]

Slow down?

Well you can always just... um... slow down more.

I mean that in a vary literal sense. Take some time to build something. instead of just making something that works take a moment and plan out something that works and looks good. Pick a theme and rebuild everything to match that theme even if it means having to come up with odd ways to do things.

The sad thing here is even modded minecraft once you know how to get from A to B it does not really take all that much time to do so. Most people are slow at getting to what some call end game only because they do not know the mods well yet. Heck skilled players can have self running systems for just about everything in just a day or two and at that point it just becomes a waiting game until you have 'done it all'. Pacing of game play for MC is really out the window as even the most hard core of mods once put in a pack with others has its pacing broken because of interactions that were not planed for.

So yeah you want to slow things down I would suggest just taking more time to do things. Go the extra mile on your build to get the little details right. Try some sub optimal ways to do stuff you might find it fun.

 

[Xris]

Try some sub optimal ways to do stuff you might find it fun.

Yeah I kinda do that on perpuse. I do not like using builds that are super common like thermal generators linked to the nether or AE for storage (really what are you going to do with 1 million iron ingots lol). Remember the game The Incredible Machine? I always was fond of complex machines to do simple task and I use that idea then building in Minecraft.

 

[un worry]

TL;DR Do whatever gives you pleasure or a sense of achievement

zorn, I had the same feeling while playing through Mindcrack several times, so I self-imposed some constraints when starting up with Unleashed+GT. Basically,

• no tesseracts (loved them, but decided to used Railcraft to transport fuel back and forward to mining wells and farms),
• no quarries (caving and mining by hand for basic resources, then breed the various lines of bees, when/as required)
• try out some new mods (AE, MFR, complete Thaumcraft)
• use a different fuel source for each mod
  
• set a goal to build a GT Fusion reactor and enshrine it in a nice building

Once I got some basic bees in place and the materials for constructing alvearies (Tree farm, wool->string, creosote, and of course pollen and royal jelly), I started exploring my new world.

Eventually bred Refined for fuel needs, Valuable for iridium, Ruby for chrome, but building up stocks takes time, so I worked on my base, wrote some CC scripts to construct a "Taj Mahal" dome, and had an all-round different experience than previous.

The gregtekprogression was even enjoyable (yeah, cant believe I typed that) when you have a longer timeframe in mind. So 300 hours of SSP later, I'm still in the same Unleashed world .... and yet to play with TiC or go to the End. And still having a ton of fun.

Doesnt hurt to take your time and keep it challenging -- and gregtech end-game is possible without quarries. Certus Quartz was my real challenge. (the MFR Laser yields plenty, but it felt to too easy, so gave it up after a day).

Edit to add: yeah, what Saice said

 

[Xris]

• use a different fuel source for each mod

I really like that idea man.

 

[Zenthon_127]

I think the craziest combo to slow down your game would have to be:
-No CC
-GregTech+expensive configs
-InfernalMobs+Mekanism+HungerOverhaul+IguanaTweaks+no natural life regen (OH GOD THE PAIN)
-Don't use Quarries for automining
-All automation is with either Railcraft, Thaumcraft 3/4 (preferably the latter) or Tranlocators
-Make everything look pretty
-Mekanism barrel sorting system only
-Factorization ore processing only
-No lava power
-No boilers; only get Steam from hobbyist engines
-Ultra God-Tier Extreme Hardmode: Power a Matter Fabricator though Mekanism Universal Cable made from Railcraft steel using only Sterling Engines.


Ok all of these put together would make Magic Farm look easy, but a few like make everything look pretty would actually really help. Making really nice looking but perfectly functional bases is hard, but really satisfying.

 

[rhn]

In many cases I have seen that people kinda forget what Minecraft is actually about: Building stuff. I have seen many dig a cave, fill it with machines and stop playing. Try and focus more on building something more architectural and then integrate the machinery into it. Don't build too big spaces. Try and build small and fitting machinery, cables and pipes in there(hidden ofc) will be much more fun and challenging(and time consuming).
Start beekeeping/treebreeding. That's always a good time sink.

 

[Loufmier]

this thread kinda screams to me: tell me the reason the shoot my leg.

if you are able to rush trough "tech tree" of a specific mod pack and you don't have a clue what to do afterwards - it's your problem.
i am not going to blame you for that, in fact i have the same "problem", and that'`s the reason I'm not playing any minecraft for the time being.

if you want to slow down just try to forget about efficiency and just do stuff.

 

[zorn]

Thanks for all the suggestions, couple things:

i dont just make a cobblestone box and tech up. Here is my build on a world that just got deleted, if anyone is interested.

http://imgur.com/a/FuRTp

I think the problem is that to build 'pretty' it takes more time, so exploits or 'OP' mods like power converters can save you time to then spend having fun building stuff.

So although this isnt the prettiest build ever, its not like I dont enjoy 'building stuff'. The greenhouse, smoke stacks, the power station etc. Wtihout a mod like gregtech to make use of tons of power and resources though, its too easy to just progress right up to creative mode style play. I actually spent about 3 weeks at the end of this world's lifecycle with like 100K iron in storage, and still enjoyed just building... for awhile.

This map really shows my dilemma. I felt quarries were too OP so I thought 'ill look into other methods of mining'. I had heard of turtles, messed around with the excavate program, saw turtles get stuck on mobs etc. So i looked into scripts. It's fun to 'push', to see how you can go faster... if the game has no restrictions, then pushing to go faster just gets you to where you have tons of resoruces and power and no 'struggle' anymore. As i found with turtles, you can quickly go right on by quarries in efficiency and speed.

I can ignore turtles or do what ive done on my new world, and just limit myself to two of them, but really all that means is i have a trickle of resources coming in at all times, like a Timer that is set that says 'today you start at zero, but this timer ticks up every day, and when the alarm goes off, its Creative Mode time.' Limiting the turtles to 2 slows the timer, but part of the fun is trying to figure out how to shorten that timer. Even though it sounds weird. Its why people look for comparing one machine to another in efficiency. its fun to figure out how to optimize a tree farm, etc.

So i guess what im lookign for is a way to set the basic Timer WAY up, and then struggle to find ways to shorten it, by solving puzzles in how to make things more efficient, etc.

 

[Ashzification]

After reading that, I've gathered you don't have the self control to try the suggestions we've provided.
If all you're going to do is try to restrict the actual speed of the game, then try to speed it up during gameplay, I suggest you find yourself a server to play on that has restricted mods. This way, you aren't in control of all aspects of the game.

 

[zorn]

After reading that, I've gathered you don't have the self control to try the suggestions we've provided.
If all you're going to do is try to restrict the actual speed of the game, then try to speed it up during gameplay, I suggest you find yourself a server to play on that has restricted mods. This way, you aren't in control of all aspects of the game.

Actually I do have the self control, at this moment I'm running an auto spawner with cows for mob essence, no slimes, no soul shards. I'm restricting myself to 2 turtles. Etc etc.

Most of the suggestions were to focus more on building - I do that. Others say to set my own restrictions - I do that. I'd like to have the game set the parameters. By your post it appears you don't think highly if that, but as everyone says, the game is a sand box all play styles are valid right?

The problem is that you can often spend time making something only to find out it was a stronger option than you thought. Soul shards is a good example of that for me. So that time is wasted. I also wasn't sure what settings could be set on servers or if others had ideas for other mods to add it remove.

I appreciate people telling me to restrict myself and not only tech up... But I already build for aesthetics and don't think it's bad to set my server to restrict me either. Sorry you feel that way, but again - all play styles are valid right?[DOUBLEPOST=1384640362][/DOUBLEPOST]

I think the craziest combo to slow down your game would have to be:
-No CC
-GregTech+expensive configs
-InfernalMobs+Mekanism+HungerOverhaul+IguanaTweaks+no natural life regen (OH GOD THE PAIN)
-Don't use Quarries for automining
-All automation is with either Railcraft, Thaumcraft 3/4 (preferably the latter) or Tranlocators
-Make everything look pretty
-Mekanism barrel sorting system only
-Factorization ore processing only
-No lava power
-No boilers; only get Steam from hobbyist engines
-Ultra God-Tier Extreme Hardmode: Power a Matter Fabricator though Mekanism Universal Cable made from Railcraft steel using only Sterling Engines.


Ok all of these put together would make Magic Farm look easy, but a few like make everything look pretty would actually really help. Making really nice looking but perfectly functional bases is hard, but really satisfying.

Other than the striping engines on matter fab, (wow!) this sounds interesting thanks for the idea.

 

[The classless]

greg tech lots of greg tech

 

[Xris]

If you where to do SSP then you could start looking in the config files and there are all kinds of options then what out slow down different game/mod mechanics.