Just not having fun, too overwhelmed

[Enigmius1]

I'm currently using the easy mode scripts for GT. However, i'd like to update to 1.0.2 and my main holdup is the script pack I used was never updated (forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/the-universal-ftb-config-pack-easy-mode-gregtech-and-brutality-mode-everything-else-included.9536/). I'm not comfortable editing them myself, because they got even more complex with this newer version.

Everything i've read recommends using easy scripts over disabling completely because GT (apparently?) offers lots of good things. I'm not sure what these things are, and i've been debating on just disabling it completely so I can update to 1.0.2 with no script hassles.

I want to be careful in how I say this so let me just start off by saying that whatever works best for you is what you should do.

Having said that, my own personal experience with GT and keep abreast of additions and the like tells me that GT doesn't add anything so interesting that it justifies having to muck about with configs and then muck about with them again every time there's an update. It doesn't let you do anything you can't do with IC2, it just let's you do things in different ways, typically with a grossly exaggerated time and energy cost. Part of managing the learning curve is progressing through the different systems to an end goal so that you can then move on to learning the next system. When that process is artificially extended, it's even easier to become bored/frustrated/disillusioned.

 

[Chocorate]

Sometimes I just have more fun going into the caves, wandering around until I'm lost and trying to survive until I can escape with the loot. It's more fun then almost anything else, except finishing a megaproject. The feeling when I finish some huge project, it's wonderful.

Dude, I live in caves. After I go chop down a jungle with treecapitator, kill a couple sheep, get some seeds, and go spelunking. This isn't even on purpose, I used to always get lost mining because I was too greedy. Then one day, instead of being like, "Well, guess I'll start a new world or turn creative on and dig up to the surface" I decided to never even build anything on the surface. Since I don't really build anything on the surface anymore, I have nothing to lose. I live in cave systems, with little wooden cubes dug into the cave walls all over the place with things scattered around. I never lose where my stuff is because I expand and live everywhere. I'm living at level 18 with MFSUs and AE Grids just wired into walls. When I find an abandoned mineshaft, I'll light it up and expand it and make it useful. When I find a large drop in a cave system, I make it pretty and easy to access.

Never again do I have to worry about leaving my stuff up on the surface. I just conquer the caves. :3

 

[Neirin]

If you get burnt out, take a break. A week off reading a new book (or re-reading an old favorite) can do amazing things.

If you're just feeling swamped, narrow your focus a bit. Make an outline of some of your goals for your world (i.e. "I want to make an Arcane Bore"). Once you know the big projects you're shooting for, pick one and make a list of the landmarks that go into getting there. Keep repeating that process and before you know it you'll have a to-do list instead of a tangled mess.

 

[Chocorate]

If you get burnt out, take a break. A week off reading a new book (or re-reading an old favorite) can do amazing things.

If you're just feeling swamped, narrow your focus a bit. Make an outline of some of your goals for your world (i.e. "I want to make an Arcane Bore"). Once you know the big projects you're shooting for, pick one and make a list of the landmarks that go into getting there. Keep repeating that process and before you know it you'll have a to-do list instead of a tangled mess.

Agreed. Sometime you need a break from projects. I often build things if I'm feeling swamped with work. Then while I'm building a wooden hotel or something, I'll think to myself, "Wow, I need more wood for this, I'll make a farm". And I'll realize what my priorities are. I needed a tree farm MUCH more than more power for my IC2 machines. Then I feel silly that I was trying to get more power to power stuff I don't even need.

 

[Neirin]

I want to be careful in how I say this so let me just start off by saying that whatever works best for you is what you should do.

Having said that, my own personal experience with GT and keep abreast of additions and the like tells me that GT doesn't add anything so interesting that it justifies having to muck about with configs and then muck about with them again every time there's an update. It doesn't let you do anything you can't do with IC2, it just let's you do things in different ways, typically with a grossly exaggerated time and energy cost. Part of managing the learning curve is progressing through the different systems to an end goal so that you can then move on to learning the next system. When that process is artificially extended, it's even easier to become bored/frustrated/disillusioned.

As far as learning about modded MC goes, I'd kinda agree with you. A lot of the things GT adds are really just interesting to people who have already done the basic stuff from IC2 or various other mods. Lithium fueled boilers are a lot of fun to design, but they aren't exactly straight forward.

I love GT, but everything I love about it now is what would have killed me when I first got into modded MC.

 

[fergcraft]

Ya I'm still lost with some of the mods so I try and use what I know. Its all about the little steps to get to the bigger things.

 

[Chocorate]

Ya I'm still lost with some of the mods so I try and use what I know. Its all about the little steps to get to the bigger things.

I just figured out how to use Applied Energistics today, at least the storage/centralization aspect of it. It's quite rewarding to learn, and it makes everything so much cleaner.

 

[Deor]

Try a different pack, On my server we have played Minecraft for a long time and recently added mystcraft for something else to play with. Gregtec was fun to start with but being complex just for the sake of it gets boring. We are currently taking a break from it and playing Slows Streaming Pack, which is a really nice balance of basic power and machines with buildcraft, thermal expantion, forestry, railcraft and steve's carts. Then you have some magic mods line Thaumcraft and Reliquary, but the real change is Divine RPG, which just adds a whole new challenge and some weird new mobs and dimensions (all or which are nasty btw) to get to grips with.

 

[Skirty_007]

My suggestion is for you to think about something you'd like to build, and concentrate on a small part of it, play with a few methods to see what works for you, and build up/change your systems as you go. I've got a creative SSP world that I use for testing out how machines work as I don't religiously watch all the tutorials (or learn from them, other people's way of looking at things doesn't always "click" for my brain).

When we first started playing with mods, in our first world I manually dug out the top of a whole hill, and replaced the top of it with green wool (to look a bit like an aircraft hanger). I did build an automated RP2 wool farm and a cactus farm to get the wool and dye. Now if I was going to do that I'd use turtles. I built quite a few things and my partner did the sorting system, this started off using BC pipes, and graduated to RP tubes as we realised that stuff fell out of the pipes when we logged in and out with things in transit. We're now on our 4th or 5th world, we have both built many different sorting systems, I didn't even have a quarry in any form in the first world, I've now used a few different methods of quarrying.

What I'm trying to say (and is turning into my usual rambling wall of text-type-stuff) is don't rush to learn all of the things at once. Just play the game, find some good sites to look up information on machines and what they do. Once you get some experience with most of the mods you'll get more ideas for ways to use them. Hope you manage to have fun!

 

[Mash]

My favorite thing to do is to bounce around the wikis.

I do it with just about every game I play, and FTB is no exception. If I want to learn about a mod, I just open up several different tabs of interesting blocks/machines that come with the mod. Even if I don't memorize everything about it, I get a pretty good general idea. Eventually you'll just end up bouncing around all over the mod. It's good fun if that's your kind of thing. Some people learn better by doing, though.

 

[Adonis0]

My recommendation would be to play the Direwolf20 pack
That way if you're following along his LP you have all the mods he's using

Plus, it's a bit more beginner friendly without greg-tech, Sure you can learn to use it just like Mash's signature says.
Wrap your head around mods in general, then come back to playing with them on hard mode.

And for me, my playing style still after many months of playing still consists of much alt-tabbing and wiki/forum hopping, Yet I think it's so much fun.
why? Because I love the technical builds and want to plan out my projects, and get the figures of this many to this much product, etc
It doesn't have to be played that way, but it can be fun too.