The most underused starting strategies?

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Zelfana

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Jul 29, 2019
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If you don't consider it cheating then turn on slime chunk highlighting in Rei's Minimap, find a couple close together, and just dig out a slime spawning area at somewhere just below Y-level 40. I got plenty of slime that way after flying for many hundreds of blocks in each direction in search of a swamp.
Yeah, I examined the slime chunks and checked entity radar and there was only one slime for each slime chunk. In my vanilla world I got way more slimes. Probably just that other mobs are still spawning as I have not lit up the caves yet. Making an actual spawning area would be too much of a trouble when I can just go find the swamp as I would want to find a Witch Hut anyway.
 

MrZwij

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Jul 29, 2019
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I always look at the slag furnace, consider it, and pass. It just doesn't seem worth it to me to blow through all that extra fuel for a few more ingots. When I think about it though, it probably would speed things up a wee bit, if only to get more iron pickaxes so I can get the stuff I really want, namely gold and redstone for my first pulverizer.

I almost always dig for a few hours when I start a map: One thing I always make sure to do in the first hour or two is make stairs. Stairs may be the single most underrated way to save precious food in the very early game.
 

Lambert2191

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Jul 29, 2019
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yeah I used the slag furnace just a little bit... but now I've moved onto TE machines and have my first (of usually 4) coke ovens sorted
 

Golrith

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I always look at the slag furnace, consider it, and pass. It just doesn't seem worth it to me to blow through all that extra fuel for a few more ingots. When I think about it though, it probably would speed things up a wee bit, if only to get more iron pickaxes so I can get the stuff I really want, namely gold and redstone for my first pulverizer.

I almost always dig for a few hours when I start a map: One thing I always make sure to do in the first hour or two is make stairs. Stairs may be the single most underrated way to save precious food in the very early game.
I agree with you there. I built my base on top of a redrock ridge mountain, which means an extra 40+ blocks of travel with my loot. By the time I'd jumped all the way back up from the depths, I was near starving all the time.
 

Abdiel

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Jul 29, 2019
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I'm not sure if this is so underused as I've seen a few people do it too, but I make a jetpack and a generator to charge it in among my first machines, way before I develop any real power system. (Making the glowstone for the jetpack out of gold of course.) I also use steel found in mineshaft and dungeon chests to make power tools early on.
 

AlanEsh

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Jul 29, 2019
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My starts are pretty generic, but last server I started playing on I forewent the typical "get a macerator as fast as i can" route and went with Thermal Expansion machines fed by a steam boiler system. This was a pretty slow way to start, but it was much more interesting.

The only thing that I consider a stumbling block to this strategy is that GregTech forces you to make a Compressor for components of some Thermal Expansion recipes (weird.), so you do have to venture out of TE as you expand your base capabilities.
 

Zelfana

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Jul 29, 2019
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GregTech forces you to use itself or IC2 when you try to advance in any other mod. Quarry requires a diamond mining drill etc. So for the Mindcrack pack you kind of have to start with IC2.
 

Mero

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Jul 29, 2019
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My starting routine is the same as vanilla for the most part. Wander around until I find a spot I want to live at. Gather as much wood as possible the first day there. Start digging down switching to stone tools on the way. Find 3 or 4 iron then find lava. Make a Nether portal. Go get Netherrack, NetherBrick, Glowstone, Blaze Rods, Soul Sand and Netherwart and if lucky magma cream then head back to the overworld.
Then I start on the Mod stuff. Make wheat, corn, flax farm and possible potato farm if I ran across a village. Place some bog earth to cure. Head down to lvl 12 and start branch mining until I get 11 diamond and stopping up at copper level on the way out. Make a pulverizer and a peat engine. Start on biomass production(peat engine is for powering the pulverizer). Make quarry and biogas engines and let that run.
 

DoctorOr

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Jul 29, 2019
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GregTech forces you to use itself or IC2 when you try to advance in any other mod. Quarry requires a diamond mining drill etc. So for the Mindcrack pack you kind of have to start with IC2.

To this day, I have yet to make a quarry in my world. Not only that, GregTech does that only because it has been configured to do so, which you can change. "Force" is thus an improper word choice, at least from the mod
 

KirinDave

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Jul 29, 2019
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It seems like Gregtech totally changes the starting strategies. I haven't used it before, so I looked at what it does. Macerators are clearly not something to leap for.

Anyone wanna give some advice there?
 

SReject

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Jul 29, 2019
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I personally don't really like it if you're on a server and people move away like 3000 units. Kinda defeats the purpose of being on a server if you're nowhere near each other IMHO.

With FTB, I dont feel it's such an issue. I mean between the portal guns, mystcraft & nether portals, teleport pipes & tesserects, etc. Players aren't really disconnected if they go way out to god-knows-where.
 

Zelfana

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Jul 29, 2019
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To this day, I have yet to make a quarry in my world. Not only that, GregTech does that only because it has been configured to do so, which you can change. "Force" is thus an improper word choice, at least from the mod
Tell that to the Mindcrack guys.
 

DoctorOr

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Jul 29, 2019
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Tell that to the Mindcrack guys.

Instead, I just unsubbed from the one that was annoying me. (Which wasn't Bdub or GenB, as they're clearly playing fun) To be fair, on a server, there is force involved. Guude is forcing that config on the other players.
 

Lambert2191

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Jul 29, 2019
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I've honestly never found any of the mindcrack guys to be interesting at all... maybe I just haven't watched the right one yet idk... either way, that's probably one of the reasons I don't use GT
 

KirinDave

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Jul 29, 2019
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With FTB, I dont feel it's such an issue. I mean between the portal guns, mystcraft & nether portals, teleport pipes & tesserects, etc. Players aren't really disconnected if they go way out to god-knows-where.

Mythcraft books being so craftable and usable actually seems like a really positive thing for servers. People can easily join a hub network but control things at a very early level. If the server uses the Nether as its hub, it's even better. Once someone gets a stable age with farmable crystals, it's better still.

Speaking of which: starting strategies. As soon as possible you should make a minium stone and use this to gain access to the nether (2 logs make 1 obsidian, be careful placing). Then you can use linking books to move between your mine, your cave and your prospective base. The biggest challenge to this is getting leather and sugarcane.
 

DoctorOr

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Jul 29, 2019
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It seems like Gregtech totally changes the starting strategies. I haven't used it before, so I looked at what it does. Macerators are clearly not something to leap for.

Anyone wanna give some advice there?

Tune the config it the way you want. If pulverizer isn't equally on hard-mode (there is such an option in TE config) then turn macerator hard mode off.

Personally, I turn macerator hard mode off, forestry bronze on, and crafting storage blocks instead of compressing.[DOUBLEPOST=1360263891][/DOUBLEPOST]
Mythcraft books being so craftable and usable actually seems like a really positive thing for servers. People can easily join a hub network but control things at a very early level. If the server uses the Nether as its hub, it's even better. Once someone gets a stable age with farmable crystals, it's better still.

Odd, I find the ability to use books to travel from nether to overworld an oversight bug and breaks the "story" of Myst books not allowing inter-Age travel. The nether and end (and twilight forest) are clearly all the same "Age" as you cannot travel to them from other Ages.
 

Mero

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Jul 29, 2019
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Mythcraft books being so craftable and usable actually seems like a really positive thing for servers. People can easily join a hub network but control things at a very early level. If the server uses the Nether as its hub, it's even better. Once someone gets a stable age with farmable crystals, it's better still.

Speaking of which: starting strategies. As soon as possible you should make a minium stone and use this to gain access to the nether (2 logs make 1 obsidian, be careful placing). Then you can use linking books to move between your mine, your cave and your prospective base. The biggest challenge to this is getting leather and sugarcane.

All you need to get to the nether is 1 bucket, flint and steel, access to 1 source block of water and a lava pool. Everything that can be found on the surface.
 

Raitor

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Jul 29, 2019
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1. Get one diamond.
2. Rush to twilight forest. (Hope to not appear in hollow hill)
3. Find castle.
4. Take ALL the book shelves.
5. Go nuts with mystcraft ages.

And a bit later on.
1. Go to nether.
2. Find blaze spawner.
3. Setup Mystcraft portal to bring all blaze on a single kill spot.
4. Farm Soulshard.
5. Create new blaze farm with Mystcraft portals again.
5.a Setup 4 attack turtles with attack command in the the boot sequence. (lagged server out way too often from people forgeting to turn on turtles)
A note for brain in a jar : They now have a limit of 30 levels in them so it's no longer pertinent to put them next to the blaze farm.

Never have to worry about fuel or xp again.

This can be done in 4-5 hours with 1 person. Much less with coordinated team.
 
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Saice

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Jul 29, 2019
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1. Get one diamond.
1. Go to nether.
2. Find blaze spawner.
3. Setup Mystcraft portal to bring all blaze on a single kill spot.
4. Farm Soulshard.
5. Create new blaze farm with Mystcraft portals again.

You do know you can skip 3 and 4 and just consume the spawner most Neither forts as 2 to 4 of them and you only need 6 to max out a shard.