Making a Private Pack focused around RotaryCraft and Thaumcraft

[mallrat208]

TLDR; What mods do you think should be in a mod pack focusing around RotaryCraft and Thaumcraft?

I've used RotaryCraft, not nearly enough for as critical of it as I am sometimes, and one thing that has kind of stood out for me is that on that it's usually thrown in as an afterthought or otherwise not a focus of the pack. From my experiences I really think that is doing a disservice to the mod itself as it has a drastically different style and learning curve compared to most mods. So for a little side project I want to put together a private modpack focusing on most of Reika's mods. Not including stuff like Not Enough Items, Inventory Tweaks, or required coremods, here's a rough idea of the mod's I've been thinking about,

Must Have Mods

• 
  
  
  • RotaryCraft
  • ReactorCraft
  • ElectriCraft
  • ChromatiCraft
  • ExpandedRedstone

Simple list here actually. The only thing really must have are Reika's mods. I have skipped over a few as I don't care for the Vents in GeoStrata nor do I want to deal with Meteor's or Void Monsters.

Tech Mods

• Applied Energistics 2
  • Extra Cells
• Open Computers
  • Computronics
  • Open Peripherals
• Railcraft
• PneumaticCraft

Yep, Railcraft by itself with no other RF using mod. Insanity? Not really. I primarily want it for the rail portion of the mod and not the RF based content so I can safely disable it's power cost. If I set HSLA Steel to be acceptable in regular Steel Recipes that would also go a long way to helping tie things together.

Magic Mods

• Thaumcraft
  • Automagy
  • Thaumic Tinkerer
  • Thaumic Horizons
  • Thaumic Energistics
  • Witching Gadgets
• Witchery
• Botania
• Bloodmagic

I was originally going to include Blood Magic and Botania as well but I'm not sure how well they'd fit. Between Thaumcraft, it's add-ons, and Witchery... that's a lot of magic.

Adventure Mods

• Roguelike Dungeons
• Balkon's Weaponmod
  • Expanded Armory
• ChocoCraft
• The Twilight Forest
• The Erebus
• Atum
• Mystcraft

I've got a soft spot for Roguelike Dungeons, they're always fun to explore. Balkon's is just for some different weapon type, Expanded Armory will allow access to materials for Balkon's (Quartz, Thaumium, Steel etc). The Twilight Forest, The Erebus, and Atum are all included for the purposes of 'Adventure' as they're not needed but it's always great to get a change of scenery and a few mobs to kill.

Utility Mods

• Iron Chests
  • Iron Chest Minecarts
• Iron Backpacks
• BiblioCraft
• Chisel 2
• Carpenter's Blocks
• Storage Drawers
• JABBA
• Pistronics 2
• Tool Utilities
• Redstone Paste
• Open Blocks
• Extra Utilities (Generators/RF Items Disabled)

I've opted to skip Project Red as I'd like to keep the number of multipart using mods to a minimum. Tool Utilities allows you to upgrade vanilla or tools that extend the vanilla class to be upgraded to mine additional areas or allow rightclick block placement. I would have liked a mod to hand item movement. Lacking one I can use Transfer Nodes from Extra Utilties or Golems I suppose.

So... what else?
What remains is this... What mods have I skipped that you think would be a great addition? (Note from mallrat: Maybe a backpack mod?) What mod have I included that you think would be absolutely terrible? I'd appreciate any feedback given.

 

[nckheinrich]

personally i add tinkers and iguana tweaks to pretty much all my packs. I like to use iguana tweaks for what it was made for. Only ever needing one tool.

 

[cornsoup1]

One of my all time fav mods is an thaumcraft addon its forbidden magic its my fav.

 

[ljfa]

You're not gonna have a good time transporting items indeed. You could use Thermal Dynamics there. It does in fact work without TE but you're gonna have to adapt a few recipes.

 

[mallrat208]

One of my all time fav mods is an thaumcraft addon its forbidden magic its my fav.

Forbidden Magic is pretty fun. Were I to include it that would be a huge plus to also including Blood Magic, Botania or Both. That mod has so many great cross-mod items.

 

[ljfa]

I think Chromaticraft has BM integration as well.
And it might have Botania integration in the future.

 

[mallrat208]

You're not gonna have a good time transporting items indeed. You could use Thermal Dynamics there. It does in fact work without TE but you're gonna have to adapt a few recipes.

That's the main thing I'm worried about. I've used Nodes before. They're .. Ok. I wouldn't use them as a first option however. I honestly don't know of many stand alone pipe systems.

I had been considering say Blue Power since it's tubes have worked fairly well for me they are unfortunately made of brass and I'd rather avoid adding any more world gen stuff especially considering nothing else in this would use Zinc/Brass.

Tubes! is also an option though that would require FMP. May not be so terrible especially considering Witching Gadgets will let Essentia Tubes work as multiparts..

Thermal Dynamics will require MineTweaker to function properly.

Failing that .. what.. Buildcraft 7 once you're able to get just the pipe stuff by itself?

 

[TomeWyrm]

ExU is perfectly acceptable as an item transport system. It's filterable at multiple points, you can directionally route items, you can transfer items and liquids over the same pipe. It really is VERY powerful.

Botania x 1800000000. Seriously. It enables SO MANY THINGS that are useful. Sand to clay, straight-down item dropping, area block placing on filter blocks, item magnets, filterable area item pickup, flight, better potions… i could go on for AGES

 

[moltenbrain]

I'm currently playing a similarly Reika centric pack I put together. I recommend including pneumaticcraft. It has a compatible feel to it, and you are going to want a way to harvest leaves for ethanol. Also, maybe you'll have better luck, but I was unable to load Railcraft without Buildcraft. Weirdly, the dependency only manifested itself when I included Electricraft. I have found having the Buildcraft pipes to be helpful anyway.

 

[keybounce]

TLDR; What mods do you think should be in a mod pack focusing around RotaryCraft and Thaumcraft?

Well, what do you mean by focusing on RoC and ThC?

... one thing that has kind of stood out for me is that on that it's usually thrown in as an afterthought or otherwise not a focus of the pack. From my experiences I really think that is doing a disservice to the mod itself as it has a drastically different style and learning curve compared to most mods.

So first question: How do you want to make it the focus of the pack? How do you want it to not be separate from the rest of the pack?

The only method that I have come up with is to make the only source of power be RoC/ReC/etc, and require everything else to use its converters.

That makes everything else after RoC.

Essentially, RoC is a single big black box, with one input (customizable blast furnace) and outputs (power, and blocks). There is no way to integrate it with something else, other than gating behind some other mod's tech, or gating something else behind some aspect of it.

Now, requiring that HSLA steel be used instead of other mod's carbon steel? Requiring that other mods use RoC-converted power? Using the extractor/grinder to provide you with some drop needed by another mod? Using ethanol, or jet fuel, in recipes?

I can't think of many other ways to do it.

But ... Thaumcraft ... does ThC have a way to say "you need radioactive waste to make flux/taint"?

 

[mallrat208]

I don't want to shoehorn RotaryCraft into a mod where it wasn't before. What I want to do is setup an environment where RotaryCraft and it's sibling mods are the main tech mods. To that end, I'm trying to avoid including mods that fully duplicate a task or some other function already covered by one of Reika's mods. The four additional 'tech' mods I've included all do something that is either unique or otherwise isn't covered by RotaryCraft. AE2 can even be powered directly using RotC for added convenience. While OpenComputers can be powered by a wide variety of mods (even Factorization Charge, that amused me to no end), it cannot be powered directly by RotC. That's OK however as I can disable the energy requirements and end up with a 'cost' that's similar to ComptuerCraft.

 

[ljfa]

Well, what do you mean by focusing on RoC and ThC?



So first question: How do you want to make it the focus of the pack? How do you want it to not be separate from the rest of the pack?

The only method that I have come up with is to make the only source of power be RoC/ReC/etc, and require everything else to use its converters.

That makes everything else after RoC.

Essentially, RoC is a single big black box, with one input (customizable blast furnace) and outputs (power, and blocks). There is no way to integrate it with something else, other than gating behind some other mod's tech, or gating something else behind some aspect of it.

Now, requiring that HSLA steel be used instead of other mod's carbon steel? Requiring that other mods use RoC-converted power? Using the extractor/grinder to provide you with some drop needed by another mod? Using ethanol, or jet fuel, in recipes?

I can't think of many other ways to do it.

But ... Thaumcraft ... does ThC have a way to say "you need radioactive waste to make flux/taint"?

I'm doing it like this in my personal pack. E.g. minetweaking some recipes from other mods to include HSLA, blast glass and bedrock dust, and removing all RF generators.

 

[moltenbrain]

Some other thoughts: there are biome ID conflicts between Twilight Forest and Chromaticraft Rainbow and Ender Forests, so be sure to fix that. Also, AE power was not working for a while after Reika changed his API, so make sure you get the latest AE beta.

I agree that the goal is to make Rotarycraft the main power generator, though it need not be the exclusive generator. Mods that have their own system of power, like Pneumaticraft or ComputerCraft, are fine. The key is to not include mods that can do end runs around Rotarycraft’s progression.

 

[TomeWyrm]

If you're not dead-set on Thaumic Horizons, I'd switch it out for Forbidden Magic and grab Botania at the very least, Blood Magic if you're really feeling it. Botania meshes amazingly with Thaumcraft, and is the tech-iest magic mod out there. The only mod I've ever seen with more automation helpers is Automagy, or one of the LUA interpreter mods. While that may seem like a lot of magic mods... you're going to want something to do while taking a break from ChromatiCraft progression... from what I've noticed it can be a bit... grindy if you try and do ONLY CrC for very long. Also TC+Addons (especially Automagy) and Botania give a lot of VERY unique capabilities.

Witchery... I'm very ambivalent about, it doesn't mesh well with any of the other mods you have thematically in my opinion. It also offers very few capabilities that if you're aiming for a RoC-centric pack will be particularly intriguing. But if you like it, hey who cares? I run what is basically a refined and integrated Kitchen Sink pack — think Monster/Unleashed/Non-Derpy-Infinity, except the FTB team had an OCD integration nut on staff that's trying to give TC Aspects to everything, Project E EMC to everything, make sure all the furnaces work for everyones mods, that the alloyers all make every alloy they can, and just generally that the mods remain themselves but you can make as much as possible in everyone else's machines and such.

Also if you haven't really seen ExU piping systems used to their full extent? Watch this tutorial, and read some of the comments (there are some people that make corrections down there, it's not the usual YouTube fare)

Also don't disable RF - Reika's mods all handle RF wonderfully. Magnetostatics, the Turbine Generators, Electricraft even has infinite RF cables!

Let's see.... You have Twilight Forest, OpenBlocks, and Extra Utilities so you have the capability to auto-farm mobs from captured spawners for RoC-required items that you don't usually have to auto-farm in mods. Stuff like Ghast Tears (and gunpowder).

You have Golems (and hopefully Botania) for non-derp treefarms (I can NEVER get that blasted woodcutter to do its job properly).

You look like you've got all the bases covered honestly. I can't think of anything you'd have any particular trouble doing if you research the mods in the pack.

 

[mallrat208]

Little update to my list.
I've added Extra Cells, PneumaticCraft, and Open Peripherals in the tech side of things. Magic's seen the addition of Forbidden Magic, Botania, and Blood Magic. For general Utility, i now have Iron Backpacks and Iron Chest Minecarts.

 

[TomeWyrm]

Extra Utilities does have the bags of holding. Just saying

 

[mallrat208]

Extra Utilities does have the bags of holding. Just saying

It does, but have you looked at the features of Iron Backpacks? Way more useful than a simple bag. My favorite bit is probably the ability to upgrade a Bag so that you can shift rightclick it on a chest to transfer the bags contents to the chest.

 

[TomeWyrm]

I have indeed (the mod is in my personal pack for a reason), but adding more and more mods takes the focus away from RoC and the rest of Reika's mods.

 

[colt29]

I'd love to talk some about this. I'm interested in putting together a mod pack where everything is as realistic as I can reasonably make it, so the core mods will be Reika's. If you have another form f voice or typed communication let me know.