I live here now

  • 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

KingTriaxx

Forum Addict
Jul 27, 2013
4,266
1,333
184
Michigan
If your speed issue for the Quantum Quarry is throughput through the ducts, you'll want either Ender Item ducts which have no travel time, or just to use Impulse Ducts, which are expensive on glowstone.
 

Drbretto

Popular Member
Mar 5, 2016
1,886
781
139
I'll have a whole new system at that point. This one here is just to get it started. Thanks for the tip though, I'll keep it on mind fir the future.

As for drawers for blocks, I'll adjust as needed, but this is good for a while. This is just my lab, basically. The real library of mats will be an above ground building and totally different. This here is just to get by in the mid game.
 

Drbretto

Popular Member
Mar 5, 2016
1,886
781
139
Great sorting system. I would make a recommendation though. Get some drawers with upgrades. The crates can hold 234 stacks each, which is great for ingots and gems but for things such as cobblestone and gravel they quickly fill up.

Cobblestone, gravel, netherrack and sand all compress, but I might need to do something like this for some of the other blocks. Storage drawers has always been my go-to, and I might stick with it, but I'll look into other options when I get to that point. That machine is mostly for the spillover stuff. Eventually, the whole thing will be much, much more complicated.


And yes, @Inaeo, there will be carts! Eventually. :p
 

KingTriaxx

Forum Addict
Jul 27, 2013
4,266
1,333
184
Michigan
I've discovered this obnoxious interaction between Storage Drawers and Logistics Pipes, which only affects me, because I'm still playing 1.7.10, but while the LP system is requesting ingots, it does not read there being any ingots in the drawer system. Which means trying make something that requires them while the system is requesting them, means it tells me I'm missing the ingots.
 

Drbretto

Popular Member
Mar 5, 2016
1,886
781
139
I am progressing at breakneck speed. It's really time to slow it down and build something because the whole point of this thing is to stop and smell the roses. This weekend, like Friday after work until Sunday night, I will be packing up my PC and heading down for a Minecraft marathon weekend with two others from my server. I'm going to spend some time helping them learn how to do some stuff, but hopefully I'll get a chance to get up there and start building above ground, nice looking things instead of just digging a giant hole underground.

Not that I don't like my giant hole, mind you. In fact, there's something about it. I absolutely love it. It is a damn pleasure to be in my base. Rebecca thinks it's just a mess, but I think it's a beautiful mess and I love it. There's a method to my madness, BTW. I feel like I haven't *had* to mine this entire run because of this new method I'm running. No more strip mining for me! This is more fun, leaves behind something cool to look at and lets me fight a bunch of monsters as I go along. It's quite profitable, too.

So, last night, I decided to run a test. My game ran out of memory while I was making the camera path last night, so I'll record it tonight instead, but I did get this one on the record. The terms of the test are to see how many resources I can pick up, as well as how big of a hole I can dig, using the AA drill, 5x5 with max fortune upgrade, two quintuple batteries (16m RF each) and my ring of magnetizing, one stack of baked potatoes and one stack of torches.

I didn't quite make it the full 32 million. For one, about 6 million of that went into the ring of magnetizing. I could cut that part out and cover more ground, but that's just no fun. For another, I actually ran out of food and torches around the same time with about 4 million left. I kept going for as long as I could, maybe another half a million from there, but I had also amassed 45 levels and I am intentionally not collecting any XP passively, so I didn't want to die and waste it. Scaling health is about half way full and the monsters I run into now are no joke.

So, I picked up about 22 million RF worth in the end. Being fair, I was never going to cut out the magnet, so if we include that then it was about 28 million worth. After I completed the run, I went back to my base and jotted down the totals for diamonds, iron and gold just as a few things to count, then sent in everything I picked up all at once. Mind you, I also didn't have to stop and unload my inventory at all, though I did twice have to rearrange a few things in my bags. The final tally by the time everything was done processing (and my current personal single-trip manual mining record) :

Total dig time: about 90 minutes @ y=11, 45 Levels (between mining and kills), 206 diamonds, 227 gold, 1064 iron. By the time the Autosort 9000 finished auto-processing my loot, I had passively recharged my 32 million RF batteries on the wireless charger.

Charging from pure canola power, and not a reserve. I had to update my ExU2, which emptied my barrels, so that was all as it grew, thought that does include the time I was mining. That is one 9x9 AA autofarm with all 81 blocks under greenhouse glass, pumped through multiple canola presses, sent through an array of fermenting barrels, into an array of 10 oil generators. I haven't totally finished this system, I need to set up more power up top to run the actual farm now, so I don't know what the limits are, but this gets me about 1000 RF/t with renewable energy.

For what this is for, this is a great little power system. This is more than enough to run this base, but don't worry, this is just early to mid-game stuff to get me through to the next steps. My minecolonies town will run off windmills, water mills and a lightning rod. And I will separately have a full rainbow generator setup as well as deep resonance, possibly a nuclear reactor, and most likely a DE reactor at some point. But for right now, I'm sittin' pretty on all the fluff stuff. And out of excuses to not be building.
 

Drbretto

Popular Member
Mar 5, 2016
1,886
781
139
Well, Minecraft Marathon weekend came and went. Not much built per se, it ended up being all about character development. Mostly teaching my friends how to gear up, and used the opportunity to broaden my own horizons. I also spent a half a day fixing the server. There's a memory leak, and I can't figure it out.

But, I learned some things of my own. Silent's Gems quickly became one of my favorite mods. I figured out how to collect enough chaos to take the magic effects on the weapons a bit more seriously. It's a whole new game, now.

I'll expand in detail tomorrow instead of work, but here's me with my new toy, the Silent's Gems scepter. I'm in the nether to collect the gem I need to build its enchantments, so it'll get more powerful down the line. That was my first skirmish with this three weapon system. A really strong, quick action infinity (no arrow needed, btw) bow in the off hand slot, and switching back and forth between a decent sword and the scepter in the main hand. The scepter needs time to recharge, so it's beneficial to swap. Eventually laziness will kick in a different I'll replace that with a single Katana which is a nice little hybrid magic/physical weapon.

The bow is obviously for the long range, but prying that torch out of the off hand slot is so worth it. Being able to quickly transition from close range to long range on the fly like that is huge. With the knock back, I can combo a slash and a quick arrow to the face and get a mob way out of the way.

The scepter is deceptively awesome. It doesn't just do a little damage, those balls seem to be able to proc weapon effects. This one has lightning aspect so far, but there's a few more effects I can add to it. When fighting large groups, those things can really cut down some health and spread debuts so you can hang longer. It's really well done. And fun, and looks neat. Check it out!

 

Drbretto

Popular Member
Mar 5, 2016
1,886
781
139
There's a memory leak. I don't want to release anything until I figure that one out at least. What you're looking at is mostly silent's gems, though, if you want to try it out before then
 

Drbretto

Popular Member
Mar 5, 2016
1,886
781
139
Well, 3 of us on this server still haven't really built my thing yet. But one of us, Rebecca, has bee building like crazy. I also let her wind up with the better looking plot again!

But, mostly what I've been doing is killing things and building better equipment to better kill the things. I also got my hands on an Elytra for the first time this game, and flew it for the first time ever. Well, lemme start over, I had to get 3.

Got the first one at Minecraft Marathon Weekend a couple weekends back. We ended by killing the Ender Dragon and learning about rwtema's penchant for robust derrieres. I tried to fly it. I failed, but managed to accidentally activate it a couple of times, so it was damaged. Not that I cared, I could float just fine.

Second one was when someone let me know you could attach that to the dark steel armor instead of the glider. I figured I'd be more apt to try it if I didn't have to repair it or swap it out or anything. But, since the other one was damaged, it was useless. I passed that one on so the others could try it.

And the third one is because I'm a gd diva. I didn't like the Elytra at first, but I liked how it looked like a cape, so I went back to the original glider and used this one in the cosmetic slot. The cape goes well with my giant helmet I got from mowzies mobs. Line us all up, you know who the king is. But, when I decided I liked the Elytra, I had to enchant it, and that made it all shiny and gross. So I immediately went back to the End and flew around for 45 minutes to get one more just for the cosmetic slot! Heavy lies the crown, or something.

Anyway, here's a video of me flying around now that I got the hang of it. It was a real pain in the butt trying to keep me in view, but that's all real-time. No speed ups or slowdowns.


There are two things at play there. The Elytra, of course, but also my new favorite toy, the Ender staff. You can see it in my off-hand. It's from the same grappling hook mod I've been using since Sprout, but doesn't require a block to connect to. It just flings you in any direction. Is it OP? Yeah, but it's my precious and you can't take it away from me. I justify it for real by reminding myself that creative style flight is for building, not traveling.

Behind Rebecca's mountain home, btw, is a real cool looking ruin that spawned there. We didn't build that. Everything else in that area was built by her, though. The wall was nice, I thought. I might need a wall for my area but I'm afraid to ruin my landscape with my building, lol. But anyway, her lot is looking really good, and us boys need to catch up. I can't keep upgrading forever!
 

Drbretto

Popular Member
Mar 5, 2016
1,886
781
139
I have similar options as well. I have fun with the Elytras, but it's a lot easier to control the glider. I can also let the glider glide while I look something up on my phone while the Elytra is a little more hands on.

I definitely will need to make a series of rings to fly through- like a whole obstacle course. But I'll probably swap the glider back in for practical use. I should also make a jetpack ever finally, or just say screw it and go git an angel ring.

You're right, though, there's still so much I could upgrade, lol.
 
  • Like
Reactions: KingTriaxx

Drbretto

Popular Member
Mar 5, 2016
1,886
781
139
Boy, we ain't castaways anymore. We are officially residents of this Minecraft world. Well, according to The Martian, that was back when I built my first farm. But this weekend I realized just how established we are. I haven't "built" much yet still, but I've done a ton of work.

It turned into another Minecraft marathon weekend with my friends. We got a lot done. So much that I don't even know where to start. So, I'll start where I started and ended the weekend: An in-effing-believable amount of ineffable glass.


Unfortunately, the dark ineffable glass doesn't show too well with the shaders, but it looks great in real-time. I surrounded my who underground base (dubbed The Batcave) with it so I can easily get out there to do my mining. It's incredibly convenient. I also used a bunch of it in the Nether for a wither skeleton grinder. Originally, it was a lot bigger, but the fans were strong enough to actually kill anything, so I shrunk it and didn't bother cleaning up half of it.

I'm getting started with Dronconic Evolution. Very early stages, just got my first energy storage multiblock started, but I don't have enough draconium lft to actually connect it to anything, so it's just sitting there. Which is find since I believe breaking the core loses the stored energy and I have every intention of moving this very soon. So, hopefully that gets me up above ground and building soon.

Speaking of above ground, I updated Mincolonies, now I'm getting barbarian raiding parties coming in and wiping out my villagers every night! How do I stop this? I think I'm gonna have to wall it all in and set up a bunch of iron golems to protect them. Not show in the video is a massive underground grid below my village with 3x3 tunnels along the chunk lines just under the surface. I learned a lesson from the Sprout game there, to just get those tunnels all dug up properly before trying to wire anything. Those tunnels will be perfect for running a system of powered lanterns which should also help a lot, but more importantly, it lets me dig a hold down at the corner of any chunk and I can tap into a power source for anything.

It's all coming along, I promise. I'm not always just flying around aimlessly trying to fly through tunnels like in the video, lol. But really, really soon we're going to start getting into the stuff that's really worth showing.

Edit: Oh, yeah, also in that video is an update on Rebecca's plot, now shared by her and her husband and my BFF, Tim AKA Hardcheez. He's a bit of a troll sometimes, but he went and learned the basics of a pipe system on his own, so they finally actually have some working machines! Without me having to do it for them! lol
 

Drbretto

Popular Member
Mar 5, 2016
1,886
781
139
Well, at least the combat is fun!

Dark Steel Elytra upgrade + ring of the flying squid + silents gems bow = fun

Plus, quick tour of the new guy's base. This was the guy I built that mini pack for. We've been keeping him so busy with all these upgrades and whatnot, he only recently found himself a place to set up shop and start building a base. Dude designed websites, so he's got an eye for stuff. Can't wait to see what he comes up with.


Also, I got everything I needed for the angel ring, except the bat. I don't think I've seen a single bat in this game. It took an hour to find squid, though, so maybe they're just rare now. But, I did happen to have enough bat wings from chests to go fir the wings of the bats instead. Arguably even better, and it doesn't make me give up the squid ring. Creative flight is for building, the elytra/flying squid option is still the only way to get around.

So, of course, that means I need dragon's breath, which means I needed to revive the ender dragon. And, wouldn't you know it, the recipe for the end crystals were changed to require nether stars.

In short, I had two options, find a single bat and click on it with a golden lasso, or, go to the nether, collect 4 ghast tears, spawn and kill 5 withers, go to the end, revive the dragon and collect its breath in bottles. That's how rare bats are, apparently. I guess I'll keep that ghast as a pet.
 

Drbretto

Popular Member
Mar 5, 2016
1,886
781
139
Of course you can always go without creative flight.

I thought loooooong and hard about this, actually. And I'm 100% ok with it as it stands (the flight progression). I talked about it at length in the pack creation thread, but this world I'm building has the dual purpose of being a testing ground for it.

First, I've been in this minecraft world for nearly 7 "Minecraft Years". And that time was spent pretty much doing nothing but advancing. Normally, I might take it slow on some of these steps, but I powered through. This ring was a long time coming.

The flight progression in this pack is actually kind of perfect. First up is the basic OpenBlocks glider. It's neat. It's serviceable. It's satisfying. But, it's not perfect. You have to actually hold it in your hand, which means you can't really use it and a sword at the same time, or you can't eat while you're floating to save time or anything. Not to mention your view is obstructed. It gets you around way better than running on foot, but there's plenty of reason to want more.

You can combine this with the grappling hooks to get up in the air and switch out the glider. This is good enough for a while because it doesn't require making giant ugly pillars to leap off from. But, again, it's pretty cumbersome for every day use, so we move to the next step, which is the Dark Steel glider. This has the benefit of being equipped directly, doesn't obstruct your view and lets you use other items as you're out there. This is a perfectly viable option. And combines especially well with the grappling hooks' "End Rod" option, which is like the grappling hook, but doesn't need something to latch onto. It just flings you up in the air. You can keep using it after a cooldown, so you can remain in the air indefinitely. This can certainly be where you stop, if you so desired.

But, I don't desire! I desire more fun and faster flight, and that's where the Elytra comes in. The flight mechanics are very different from the standard glider mechanics. It's cooler looking. It feels more fun. But, at this point, there isn't really an "advantage" to them over the dark steel glider. It's just an option (and options are good!). But, combine it with the ring of the flying squid, which is a basic cheap jetpack-like thing that you can keep in your inventory. Hold the jump button to float up. Combine this with the elytra and it's a much smoother, easier to control experience. Just like the Dark Steel Glider option, you can remain in the air indefinitely. But, the Elytra is actually TOO fast with the End Rod, so this is the much better option. It's also much, much easier to land on a dime in the middle of the sky. This is the best free-form method to get around. This is the combo I'm using as I'm floating around like a butterfly and stinging like a bee in that last video.

But, Minecraft isn't all about getting around. It's about building things. And, so far, all of my flight options are bad for building things. That's where the Angel Ring or Wings of the Bats come in handy. I can fly way faster and it's a lot more fun using the Elytra, but only creative flight lets you build large things unimpeded. Given that this thing cost me 5 Nether stars and 4 ghast tears, and I already have better travel methods, I couldn't justify NOT going for it at this point.

The idea is to have a solid progression line and I've got it. I think of all the things I'd want to tweak, this isn't one of them. It's kind of already in the sweet spot. And I'm excited now, because building will be soo much easier. I'm about to have to build a large tower, and it's going to be so much nicer doing the detail work without having to worry about scaffolding and all that. Sure, there's value to the more complicated builds, but I'll save that kind of challenge for my next vanilla run (sometime after the Super Duper Graphics Pack is released, and I'm sure it'll last like 2 days before I'm back to modded, lol). Right now, though, I want the freedom to build like I'm in creative. I've put in the "work" to get there, so it feels rewarding.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tianyulong

Drbretto

Popular Member
Mar 5, 2016
1,886
781
139

Just a little bonus exploration video. Found a dungeon that spawned in the same place as a giant dragon nest, which is just filled to the brim with diamonds, emeralds and gold. Also, showing off the real power of that katana.

Bit, don't you let that video fool you into thinking I'm still procrastinating on my build. Oh no, that's just what I rendered whole i did my Golf Clash tournament. I spent a solid 10 straight hours framing a really cool build that I'm hoping to get done this weekend. It's coming out really well so far. I'm pretty happy with the idea.
 

Drbretto

Popular Member
Mar 5, 2016
1,886
781
139

We're building things!

This is my lesson in the Golden Ratio. This is just the frame, but you can see that everything was based on the golden ratio or the fibonachi sequence. This thing is going to look pretty cool when it's all said and done.

I'm spoiling the effects, but that's because they're not the feature. The tower itself (tentatively titled "The Scepter") will be the feature, and this will be, basically, the right arm of my castle. You'll see what I mean there later.

What it does, and what the video shows is basically house my main Draconic Evolution stuff, and it's topped with a lightning rod. The DE Celestial Manipulator is there, and it can call its own storms. The lightning rod gets struck (a moment that magically became the automatic preview for the video) and it gains 16 million RF, then sends most of that energy to the core, minus the amount taken by the Celestial Manipulator and enough to fill up the Fireworks Box "indicators" so every time it gets struck by lightning, I get a light show.

The lightning is actually a good solid power source. This tower will be more than enough to run my whole town. I have already dug holes along the chunk lines under the whole town, so wiring it will be a breeze. I have some cool ideas for the look of the tower itself. Stay tuned!
 

OniyaMCD

Well-Known Member
Mar 30, 2015
1,438
496
99
The lightning is actually a good solid power source. This tower will be more than enough to run my whole town. I have already dug holes along the chunk lines under the whole town, so wiring it will be a breeze. I have some cool ideas for the look of the tower itself. Stay tuned!


Hm. Now you have me reconsidering - although the I:ES recipe change makes it a royal pain to craft. Maybe once I actually get into DE.
 

Drbretto

Popular Member
Mar 5, 2016
1,886
781
139
I'm not 100% I am the best person to take any advice from, lol

That were is way further along now, but no more video updates until it's done. But, having some time to test out the lightning rod as a practical power source, I've learned some things.

For one, you just can't run the wiring long distance at all. I thought I could just set up a big old grid, but apparently you loser power along the way. I skip ended up running out of my backlogged supply of canola oil.

Long story short, I was pulling about 570 more RF per tick than I was expecting when I evened it out and let it sit. And the lightning rod did NOT make up the difference when left chunk loaded fir a few days. I probably lost about 100mrf per real life day. So, it's a good, solid RF source when it's thundering, but sustained RF per tick is probably, say 400ish. Not bad for free, mind you, but not enough to run my base at all. I added 24 water wheels to make up the difference.

I'll have a lot more this weekend. I've been a bust beaver, and I've learned a lot worth reporting if anyone else is trying to do something similar.


Edit: one caveat is that my lightning rod is sitting at like 170 with a 40ish tall antenna. If you put your rid lower and run the fences to the build limit, it might be a hell of a lot better.