Magic vs Tech?

[MikW]

I'm playing DW20 1.12, and I'm interested in doing some magic mods (I almost never touched any magic), there's Botania and Astral Sorcery, but what are the advtntages of those magic mods over tech mods? Are there any cool gadgets or blocks?

 

[GamerwithnoGame]

I'm playing DW20 1.12, and I'm interested in doing some magic mods (I almost never touched any magic), there's Botania and Astral Sorcery, but what are the advtntages of those magic mods over tech mods? Are there any cool gadgets or blocks?

I think if you want to look at them in a competitive comparison, you might find it difficult. With magic mods I find its less about what's "better" in terms of material advantages, and more about the more complex mechanics and awesome aesthetics.

Botania is in many ways a tech mod disguised as a magic mod; while there are no GUIs to look at or numbers to optimise, there is a mechanical nature to the way things are done in my opinion. Astral sorcery introduces some interesting mechanics and things you have to do to progress in the mod. They're rarely about just a single cool thing you want to build, and more about the whole experience, as you invariably have to go through most aspects to get to and use the later-game stuff.

I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I'm not sure you're asking the right question. If you look at it from purely a "versus" perspective, you may not be valuing the more subtle benefits of the magic mods, such as the experience and fun found in exploring them. Does that make sense?

 

[MikW]

I think if you want to look at them in a competitive comparison, you might find it difficult. With magic mods I find its less about what's "better" in terms of material advantages, and more about the more complex mechanics and awesome aesthetics.

Botania is in many ways a tech mod disguised as a magic mod; while there are no GUIs to look at or numbers to optimise, there is a mechanical nature to the way things are done in my opinion. Astral sorcery introduces some interesting mechanics and things you have to do to progress in the mod. They're rarely about just a single cool thing you want to build, and more about the whole experience, as you invariably have to go through most aspects to get to and use the later-game stuff.

I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I'm not sure you're asking the right question. If you look at it from purely a "versus" perspective, you may not be valuing the more subtle benefits of the magic mods, such as the experience and fun found in exploring them. Does that make sense?

I think I'll do the tech stuff for a bit, maybe get a renewable power gen first, and then I'll go try the magic mods.

 

[GamerwithnoGame]

I think I'll do the tech stuff for a bit, maybe get a renewable power gen first, and then I'll go try the magic mods.

That seems sensible. There's a lot to enjoy about magic mods, but having a secure base with some stuff like basic ore processing will help!

When first starting Astral Sorcery, location plays a fairly big part; its less important later when you can focus starlight and stuff, but until then you'll want to find a place high up, ideally with good starlight. You'll also need to find one of the temples that gens in the world; I think you need at least a medium size one to start with. Once you've gone through the first few bits in the AS book, you'll be able to make a tool that can help you find good locations, and the whole thing gets a bit more straightforward.

 

[SolManX]

Botania gives you some really nice early game, but very useful, tools ...

Some examples ...

Rod of the seas - infinite blocks of water
Rod of the lands - infinite dirt
Sojourners sash - speed and step-up
Magnet
Manasteel tools - pick/axe/shovel/sword/shears (mana keeps them repaired)
Vitreous pick - silk touch pick for glass/glowstone

All depend of having a decent source of mana on your person to repair/fuel the tools. You should have baubles so you can use a 'band of mana' but a mana tablet works as well.

A good cheap way of generating mana is coal/charcoal feeding endoflames. You can use some pretty simple setups to do the feeding and a tree farm to produce the charcoal would really make it work nicely.

 

[KingTriaxx]

It's less a question of advantages over tech mods, as what differences. Tech mods require physical power connections for example. Botania's power actually flies through the air. So does Astral Sorcery's. Tech mod magnets require you to keep going back to a power source to recharge them. Botania's can be powered on the fly with the Ring of Mana and Band of Mana. Storing and Generating respectively. Same with the various other bits of armor.

On the other side, magic mods require more personal interaction to do things. While you can automate some things, you're not going to be dumping piles of resources in one end, and getting larger piles out the other. You can, but you'll probably have to pick up and move the stuff to the next stage manually.