Immersive Steam Powered Rails

[Viperion]

So I've put together a modpack and although I haven't gone very deep into it yet, I'm loving how it's turned out. It's steampunk based - there are no magic mods, and no super-tech mods like Galacticraft or ComputerCraft or AE2. The three mods I'd consider "core" to it are Immersive Engineering (love those wires!), Railcraft, and Flaxbeard's Steam Power. I did include Thermal Foundation/Expansion, but I'm thinking of taking it out as being a bit too "modern" (I initially put it in purely to use the Energy Cells, but the Immersive Engineering Capacitors are doing the work for me atm ) I also left out Tinker's, because IMO it makes tools and weapons too easy-mode.

If I were to upload the pack to the curse launcher (if/after it gets approved, of course), would anyone be interested in giving it a test run for me? It runs almost entirely off Curse-enabled mods, with Mekanism v9 being the sole exception.

 

[KingTriaxx]

I'd be happy to have a look at it. I've done my own mod pack based off Intro2Mods, though I kept Thaumcraft and Twilight forest so it's got a bit of a magical flavor to it. I always enjoy Railcraft as central to a mod pack.

Wouldn't mind a mod list so I can see if I have any additions that strike me.

 

[Viperion]

Cool I'll have a go at uploading/submitting it through Curse. Current modlist is:

Backpacks
Bibliocraft (& BiblioWoods Biomes O Plenty version)
Biomes O' Plenty
Buildcraft (and Compat)
Carpenter's Blocks
Chisel
Climate Control
CodeChickenCore
CoFHLib
Enchanting Plus
Ender Storage
Extra Utilities
FastCraft
FastLeafDecay
Flaxbeard's Steam Power
Garden Stuff
iChunUtil
Immersive Engineering
Inventory Tweaks
Iron Chests
JourneyMap
LootBags
Mekanism (and Generators and Tools)
Mouse Tweaks
MrCrayfish's Furniture
NEI Integration
NotEnoughItems
NotEnoughResources
OreDictionaryConverter
Railcraft
Realistic Terrain Generator
Simply Jetpacks
StatusEffectHUD
Storage Drawers (and BoP addon)
Thermal Foundation (and Dynamics and Expansion)
Torched
Waila (and WAWLA)

Mods in Bold are staying no matter what, mods in Italics are on the chopping block

 

[KingTriaxx]

Can I ask why Biomes o Plenty instead of Highlands?

I'd definitely ditch Simply Jetpacks and Thermal Foundation/etc. The former makes the game too easy. Being aware Mekanism has a Jetpack, but it can't have it's power generated on the fly, and you can't recharge it while in the air.

LootBags can probably stay as long as you tweak what it can drop.

Definitely want to add Immersive Integration. The ability to run redstone wiring alongside your power lines, and extend your power poles higher is very nice. It does other things I can't remember off hand.

Enchanting Plus kind of demands Open Blocks, if only to store the XP. Me personally, I'm ambivalent about Enchanting Plus, but last time I played it had a bit of an exploit where taking single levels of enchants off would give more XP than it cost to put them on.

I'm on the fence about suggestion Xeno's Reliquary, since it feels kind of magical, but at the same time, having it on hand makes life a lot easier. Nothing terribly OP in my opinion, and things like the Coin of Fortune, or Witherless Rose make life easier.

Pam's Harvestcraft is a mod I'm very fond of, if only because I like to make the huge variety of foods that I can make farms for.

Pneaumaticraft I would suggest. While it's not steam based, it has some very cool features, like multi-directional hoppers, and fluid hoppers. Plus loading and unloading trains with drones is really awesome looking.

Also, consider Logistic's Pipes.

 

[Booker The Geek]

Would add:

• Cooking for blockheads

 

[Viperion]

Can I ask why Biomes o Plenty instead of Highlands?

Only because I know BoP and don't know the first thing about Highlands; I'll go look it up but have you got a mini-review?

I'd definitely ditch Simply Jetpacks and Thermal Foundation/etc. The former makes the game too easy. Being aware Mekanism has a Jetpack, but it can't have it's power generated on the fly, and you can't recharge it while in the air.

Yeah I quite like the Mekanism jetpack (I had one in a Resonant Rise series I was doing). Mekanism is also kinda/sorta on the chopping block; I put it into get the early game ore-doubling (since I'm not using Tinkers) but Immersive Engineering does that too although it's a LOT more resource intensive

LootBags can probably stay as long as you tweak what it can drop.

Yeah I had a look at the config at didn't immediately see an option to disable drops for passive mobs; getting good stuff for killing cows and sheep seems kinda cheaty to me

Definitely want to add Immersive Integration. The ability to run redstone wiring alongside your power lines, and extend your power poles higher is very nice. It does other things I can't remember off hand.

Thanks I'll look into that one too

Enchanting Plus kind of demands Open Blocks, if only to store the XP. Me personally, I'm ambivalent about Enchanting Plus, but last time I played it had a bit of an exploit where taking single levels of enchants off would give more XP than it cost to put them on.

The only reason it's there is because the enchanting system in 1.7.10 SUCKS. I don't want to have XP tanks if possible b/c that makes enchanting way too easy (note that I have Bibliocraft, so with enough levels I can duplicate enchanted books)

I'm on the fence about suggestion Xeno's Reliquary, since it feels kind of magical, but at the same time, having it on hand makes life a lot easier. Nothing terribly OP in my opinion, and things like the Coin of Fortune, or Witherless Rose make life easier.

Again I'll look into it, but if it's not techy I probably won't add it since I want to keep the feel consistent

Pam's Harvestcraft is a mod I'm very fond of, if only because I like to make the huge variety of foods that I can make farms for.

I like Pam's - I was playing Life in the Woods Renaissance for a while, which uses a heavily modified version - I'm just a bit over it at the moment. I may add it in just using it's standard configs at some point

Pneaumaticraft I would suggest. While it's not steam based, it has some very cool features, like multi-directional hoppers, and fluid hoppers. Plus loading and unloading trains with drones is really awesome looking.

I did look at Pneumaticraft; I decided it was just over the line as far as "too advanced" goes. The drones were definitely part of that decision.

Also, consider Logistic's Pipes.

Ah yeah I'd forgotten about this one; will look at it and see what else it would add.

Thanks for all the comments!

Would add:

• Cooking for blockheads

Does that do anything without Pam's installed?

 

[KingTriaxx]

Highlands adds a lot of vertical terrains. And very tall ones. Some things like the Flying Mountains go up to y-180 or more, and have some simply amazing features. Over hangs, and falling water that just looks amazing. I did this video in my LP and it shows off some of the kind of terrain you get. It does tweak some ore gen though, and things like rock mountains and a few other things get ores at double the height, or extra diamonds in some (rare) biomes. But the big reason I like it, is the lack of poison ivy and thorn bushes, but most importantly, the lack of quicksand. It does have some very nice looking Redwoods, and the wood they give is actually redish. Personally I like it's variety of woods more than what you get out of BoP. It also has a Bibliocraft add-on of it's own I believe.

As for Mekanism, it'd be interesting if you could minetweak it so you had to have the IE crusher instead of the Mekanism one. So Mek gets you ore doubling, but to get further, you need an IE crusher. Though if you want to fix enchanting, and pull Mekanism, switching wholesale to EnderIO is a viable option. It has the ability to craft the enchanted books, and has an experience obelisk to store levels, letting you duplicate the books a lot easier than the rare materials needed to craft it.

If you do go with EnderIO, I suggest snagging RFDrills to replace the Mekanism Tools. It has saws and drills, that can be crafted with EnderIO materials.

Xeno's is not really much more magical than the vanilla enchanting.

An interesting and underused alternative to P-craft, is actually Hydraulicraft. It uses fluid pressure to do things. It's got a very cool farming system that's not terrifically fast, but at the same time, has a really cool design. It's also got a hydraulic saw for automated microblocking. (Minor issue that it can only cut one way automatically, but can auto cut an entire stack if you put it in place manually.)

Cooking for Blockheads should simplify cooking vanilla recipes, such as cake or cookies, but I don't think it'll have the special features. Then again, it might not even work without Pam's.

Also check out Steamcraft 2 as an addition to Flaxbeards. It's a separate mod, but adds a few cool things that sync well, and very much keeps the steampunk Aesthetic.

 

[Viperion]

Removed Simply Jetpacks and Thermal <X> mods. Added one of the Tombstone/Grave mods because as I found out last night armoured skeletons and creepers suck as a team-up (skellys kill you, then a creeper blows up your stuff when you're trying to get it back)

What is it with Mekanism and armouring up every ********* mob?

 

[Azzanine]

Mekanism is a tad too high tech for steam level isn't it?

For a steam punk pack it's going to very much be a less is more affair. In comparison, Mekanism is going to supplant all others. Especially Flaxbeards, which is a shame, it does things in interesting ways and is without mistake the most Steampunk mod you could possibly get. Immersive Engineering comes rather close but seeing though it has no steam power as such, it's disqualified.

Not saying mekanism a bad mod but depending on how much you want to adhere to the steam punk esthetic it's kind of an odd choice.
You have made some very good choices and some very bad ones on top. It's like you can tell your mod list is a tad lean so you threw some mods In you know are fun to pad it out at expense of the esthetic.
I'd say make hopper ducts your primary item logistics system. I know it's comparitivly horrible to pretty much every sort of item transport, but it fits the motif and still does the job.

Also one suggestion would be to add Steve's Carts maybe tweaked to build faster. Because you seem to lack a method of tree farming. Unless Flaxbeard has something for that now? Plus it fits the rail bill. Failing that Forestry will do.

My idea of a good steam punk pack would be about big builds a lot of low tech solutions to problems. Little to no magic boxes (which is where Flaxbeards excels)

I'd make one myself if it didn't mean using up my free time which is kinda limited.

Maybe ill just do it anyway

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[Viperion]

I'm shooting for Steampunk not Steam Powered. Immersive Engineering with it's wires and big multiblock structures and moving parts is awesome for the feel (I first saw the mod in Etho's modded series where he's using it in his steam punky Coke factory)

I know nothing about Steve's Carts except I've heard it's very technical to get right and quite grindy. I'll look into it though.

What bad choices do you see? (Genuine question)

Yeah the list is light but that's the way I want it; aside from anything else I have a low end computer so want something that doesn't slow it down too much - but also I don't want a kitchen sink pack where I'll only ever use 1/3 of the mods involved.

I'll look into hopper ducts too.

Thanks for the comments

 

[KingTriaxx]

If you remove Mekanism Tools, that's what armoring the mobs.

Steve's Carts isn't that Technical. As for Grindy... The first two levels of mining/farming/tree cutting heads have durability. Basic ones eat diamonds, the second levels eat Reinforced Metal and the third level is hard to acquire, but will go forever. (There are four levels of mining drill and the basic one just requires iron to keep running.) It also syncs up with Railcraft, so you can have a steve's cart with solar panels adding power to a Railcraft train if you like. Very much makes mining trains better because you can give them that bit of extra power, and still have the RC loco with it's ticket for routing.

That said, Buildcraft's Robots can act as a tree farm. They're not quite as good something dedicated to it, but they can do it. you'll just want to lay it out so there's some space between the trunks, so the robot doesn't get stuck.

Hopper Ducts are pretty awesome. They solve the big issue Hoppers have, which is an inability to move things UP. They also have filtered hoppers, and I think they're cheaper over distance than all hoppers. You should also be able to insert from IE conveyors, and so have items pumped onto conveyors, and then into ducts to go up on top of things like the Crusher.

 

[Azzanine]

I'm shooting for Steampunk not Steam Powered. Immersive Engineering with it's wires and big multiblock structures and moving parts is awesome for the feel (I first saw the mod in Etho's modded series where he's using it in his steam punky Coke factory)

I know nothing about Steve's Carts except I've heard it's very technical to get right and quite grindy. I'll look into it though.

What bad choices do you see? (Genuine question)

Yeah the list is light but that's the way I want it; aside from anything else I have a low end computer so want something that doesn't slow it down too much - but also I don't want a kitchen sink pack where I'll only ever use 1/3 of the mods involved.

I'll look into hopper ducts too.

Thanks for the comments

Only bad in the sense that it goes against the esthetic. Mekanism is one of the good RF mods, it's the most fleshed out and the most stand alone.
Steam punk is either spring loaded, steam or low tech electrical with a bit of Victorian era industrial age thrown in.

Realizing the italics in your list are planned for removal I suppose you only have Mekanism as a questionable choice. It would probably fit cyber punk better where you have the gritty high tech angle covered. I mean keep it in by all means just know it will supplant all the other mods in function and will overpower the Steampunk esthetic with it's jetpacks, atomic dissesemblers and fusion reactors. If only there where more Steampunk styled mods.

As for hopper ducts I will warn you if you are used to Thermal Dynamics and EIO, Hopper Ducts are going to be HORRIBLE to work with. However only comparitivly, if you didn't know about those other mods comeing from vanilla, Hopper Ducts are godly.
Also if you appreciate challenge in builds it's a good choice.



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[RyokuHasu]

Yay another industrial pack, I can't wait!

looks good, can't wait to try it!

Oh you meant for it to be Steampunk... Well ya Mekanism is a bit too high tech.

Personally I like the utility and look of Better Chests over Iron Chests even though they don't get as big. Since Better Chests have diffrent kinds of modules and upgrades for them.

Also would you consider adding in Clockwork Phase? it's a Clockwork based magic mod and it's relatively new.

 

[KingTriaxx]

If you avoid some of the high end toys, Clockwork Phase fits perfectly well in a steampunk world.

I'm partial to Better Storage myself, because the lockers can be opened when there's something above them, and the crates look really cool when used decoratively.

It might help, if you let us know what Steampunk means to you. I know to me, it's things you'd do with grid based power that you instead do with little steam generators providing power to the individual machines. And little steam powered gadgets. Instead of IC2's Electric Wrench for example you'd have one powered by a steam tank.

 

[Viperion]

Only bad in the sense that it goes against the esthetic. Mekanism is one of the good RF mods, it's the most fleshed out and the most stand alone.
Steam punk is either spring loaded, steam or low tech electrical with a bit of Victorian era industrial age thrown in.

This, too, is Steampunk (to me):

Spoiler: Big Image

Yay another industrial pack, I can't wait!

looks good, can't wait to try it!

Oh you meant for it to be Steampunk... Well ya Mekanism is a bit too high tech.

Personally I like the utility and look of Better Chests over Iron Chests even though they don't get as big. Since Better Chests have diffrent kinds of modules and upgrades for them.

Also would you consider adding in Clockwork Phase? it's a Clockwork based magic mod and it's relatively new.

I'll look into both of those - it really depends how "magic" Clockwork Phase is. Clockwork is a good start though

If you avoid some of the high end toys, Clockwork Phase fits perfectly well in a steampunk world.

I'm partial to Better Storage myself, because the lockers can be opened when there's something above them, and the crates look really cool when used decoratively.

It might help, if you let us know what Steampunk means to you. I know to me, it's things you'd do with grid based power that you instead do with little steam generators providing power to the individual machines. And little steam powered gadgets. Instead of IC2's Electric Wrench for example you'd have one powered by a steam tank.

Wires. Pumps. Cogs. Unnecessarily complicated dipping mechanisms. Rayguns. Rail. Boilers. Smoke. Goggles. Big Machines, and futuristic vehicles.

 

[KingTriaxx]

Clockwork Phase feels a lot like Doc Brown's train from the end of Back to the Future III.

I firmly approve of your idea of Steampunk. I almost want to suggest Archimedes Ships, because they really fit the aesthetics, but that doesn't fit quite right.

Magneticraft is a mod that feels excellent for the steam punk aesthetic as well. Huge multi-block processing buildings, very cool looking oil pumpjacks, electrically powered chainsaws and jackhammers. THE COILS OF NIKOLA TESLA! A multi-block steam generator, that can also output waste heat.

Steve's Carts will definitely fit in. Being able to jump in your coal powered cart, and ride the rails as you please.

 

[RyokuHasu]

Clockwork phase is pretty much you build a gear box to run your tools and armor and it's magic is pretty much as you use your tools they collect timesands which give your tools and items magical properties.

The most magical it gets is the world clock and Chronomancer's Hourglass where you use timesands in the hourglass to grant magical effects like regen, a form of flight, fire resistance, etc.

 

[KingTriaxx]

Mostly I just love that you can make a stupendously fast pick and carry the charging thing along with you, so the only limit to your mining is your personal inventory space. And since I bring a dozen or so minecarts down the mine with me...

 

[Viperion]

I've gone through all the suggestions on this thread (thanks people!) and have added the following mods:

Better Storage
Clockwork Phase
Hopper Ducts
Immersive Integration
Logistics Pipes
Steamcraft 2

I decided not to add Better Chests, Reliquary, Pneumaticraft, Magneticraft, Hyrdaulicraft (all of those last three do things the pack already does, and it seems all of them require insane amounts of resources and fiddling about with for very little gain), and... Steve's Carts. I really do want to add it, but having to wait 30 minutes to build a single minecart, after you've spent God knows how long collecting the resources for it, seems really over the top and dull.

I'm going to look into publishing Alpha v0.1 sometime in the next few days

 

[KingTriaxx]

Steve's Carts isn't that bad. Mostly you set it up, power it and then go do other things while it's working. Like setting up the track for it to run on, or setting up it's manager if you're making a tree farm. Still, fair enough.