The two big bio-based ways for items are Forestry's bees, and IC2's Crops. They're both genetics and somewhat random, but what I find is bees are a little better due to their automation and their larger amount of items that can be received. Mailing items to everyone on the server is possible only with bees (or enderchests...or item tesseracts).
IC2 crops have their advantages as well. They can be somewhat automated (Crop-Matron), and they have no negative effects on those nearby (you won't get poisoned, no lightning) and they can be done underground.
Unfortunately, bees are not good due to lack of automation until you get an Alevary, because frames need replacing. IC2 has a way to harvest them through GregTech's Crop Harvestor, but there is no way to replant these plants, unless the harvestor (why'd they spell it wrong D
only "right clicks" the block instead of obtaining a seed bag.
My question is what is more worth it? Bees can be bred and mutated to get everything up to platinum, while IC2 crops need certain conditions (redstone torch light, ore blocks beneath), but so do bees (environment--much harder to do so than ores and light).
IC2's easier, but bees have so much more potential! I know IC2 crops pretty well (on account of beer--yes, beer--being a hot commodity on a Tekkit server I once played). Bees, on the other hand, I do not. I also don't know how to automate them with buildcraft logic pipes. But I can learn, while with IC2 there's not much information found online about it.
Well, you just read a back and forth with my mind about whether I should use IC2 crops or Bees...all I can completely automate is Fertilizer and Hydration Cells, though I can set up a spider spawner and some centrifuges paired up with magma crucibles, and use some of the output redstone from the farm to make Weed-Ex, a bit complex though.
IC2 crops have their advantages as well. They can be somewhat automated (Crop-Matron), and they have no negative effects on those nearby (you won't get poisoned, no lightning) and they can be done underground.
Unfortunately, bees are not good due to lack of automation until you get an Alevary, because frames need replacing. IC2 has a way to harvest them through GregTech's Crop Harvestor, but there is no way to replant these plants, unless the harvestor (why'd they spell it wrong D
only "right clicks" the block instead of obtaining a seed bag. My question is what is more worth it? Bees can be bred and mutated to get everything up to platinum, while IC2 crops need certain conditions (redstone torch light, ore blocks beneath), but so do bees (environment--much harder to do so than ores and light).
IC2's easier, but bees have so much more potential! I know IC2 crops pretty well (on account of beer--yes, beer--being a hot commodity on a Tekkit server I once played). Bees, on the other hand, I do not. I also don't know how to automate them with buildcraft logic pipes. But I can learn, while with IC2 there's not much information found online about it.
Well, you just read a back and forth with my mind about whether I should use IC2 crops or Bees...all I can completely automate is Fertilizer and Hydration Cells, though I can set up a spider spawner and some centrifuges paired up with magma crucibles, and use some of the output redstone from the farm to make Weed-Ex, a bit complex though.