The most underused starting strategies?

[KirinDave]

I was watching a Let's play the other evening for another modpack where someone actually started from scratch and I saw them begin their initial smelting without building a slag furnace from factorization. "Slag Furnace!" I shouted. "Slag Furnace! Slag Furnace!" It's the earliest access to ore increasing you can get, I think.

But then I realized there are probably dozens of things in the early game of mixed modpacks I don't know about, and I figured it'd be fun to share them.

What do you do with the first 2 hours of your game? Mine? Sure. Build a cave? Sure. But what machines do you aim for early-game? Do you leap straight for quarries or take it slow the way Direwolf20 does?

 

[Sprung]

I only play Mindcrack with zero edits to the config (hard mode). I should for a full set of thermal expansion gear before ever using any EU based tech. I tried a full factorization ore setup in creative that was semi automated and it was just not for me (no processing of exotic ores)

 

[SpitefulFox]

The one thing I never seem to see LPers doing in the VERY beginning is smelt logs for charcoal instead of bumbling around in caves hoping to find coal for torches.

 

[Lambert2191]

I've never once made a slag furnace...
I always start now with coke ovens and thermal expansion machines

 

[SpitefulFox]

Slag furnaces are kind of a must for me in the beginning game. The chance of doubling makes me feel less like I'm "wasting" ores that I smelt without pulverizing. Plus, the extra lead from Silver Ore is nice. It's kind of to the point that Factorization is one of those mods I MUST have even at the cost of others.

 

[ayc]

playing mindcrack base config,
first 10 minutes : find swamp -> find clay -> alloy furnace + coke oven for every coal i find + smelt logs for charcoal (can't waste coal)

mine until 11 diamonds

generator + macerator -> diamond block + diamond handsaw -> frame quarry
remaining diamonds from the block go for a steve's cart wood farm with tracks from mineshaft

2h of playing : never mine again, expandable frame quarry, working on solid fuel iron boiler powering fermenters and still for liquid fueled boilers. Then trip to the nether for blast furnace and upgrade to HP boilers.

 

[Velotican]

For me, a very old, deeply ingrained habit is to powerlevel from scratch to running a stable medium voltage power grid and a suite of Advanced Machines in one day's play. I use my IC2 progress as a springboard to invest in other mod tech trees from there and tend to have a massive surplus of materials by that point. If I haven't got diamonds within 45 minutes I'm having a slow run. This approach tends to leave me dangerously low on food for quite a while unless I'm lucky enough to find a wandering herd of cattle nearby.

I did try starting via Thermal Expansion as appears to be the popular choice these days but I found that it just doesn't work for me as well as having a solid IC2 system to start out.

 

[madaffacca]

Every time I start on a new world I try something different. I always try to add some challenges to make my experience more interesting and, according to the challenge I set up for a world, I start in a different way.

 

[Tabu]

First 2 hours for me are strictly sea level exploration. Looking for villages, tc dungeons, areas with animal populations, potential base locations, cactus/reeds, pumpkins, all that kind of stuff.

I then waypoint the important areas.

Then I spend about the same amount of time caving.

My most recent world I have about 30 hours into it and have not set up any machines other than vanilla furnaces, chests, and workbenches. I have in the past ruined it for myself by trying to get everything built yesterday. This time around I am trying to slow my pace to a point where I enjoy it more.

I have tried many strategies and ways to play, so far this has been the most fun for me.

I noticed one thing recently, all the lpers I watch put me in bad habits. I would make my world in the same order they do. Things like a sorting machine wont be part of my world. Handling my resources makes it more "intimate" and I notice I care more about them and don't waste as much.

idk, might seem odd, but like I said I have tried hundreds of strategies and an easy 500 worlds, so far my new strat is keeping me happy, keeping the game fresh and has created more all around enjoyment for the game.

 

[Revemohl]

Getting a TE setup ASAP is what feels best for me, simply because of the chance to get extra dust with the Pulverizer. That 5-10% gold from copper REALLY helps early on.

 

[Quesenek]

In the past I've done everything from bc setups to red power setups in both I've gone straight to the quarry as fast as possible.
However that is very boring to me now, after one 64x64 quarry you have enough mats to build more quarrys and then you got creative mode. You pretty much have all the mats to build everything without a challenge.

My next world will be powered on bees for fuel like gennyB is doing to produce lava or the ones that spawn zombies for a zombie flesh grinder. For things like charcoal and food I'll use steves carts but not automated which is basically easymode with very little investment at all. I will also only gather ore by bees or by mining no turtles, or quarrys. The turtles are not as bad as the quarrys because you have to know how to program to use them properly, but to be honest I can program them to be a lot more powerful than a quarry just by using an ender chest.

Pretty much I will be avoiding anything that can make playing "easy" because that's no fun.

 

[KirinDave]

I've never once made a slag furnace...
I always start now with coke ovens and thermal expansion machines

Why do you go for coke ovens so early? Just so you've got a strategic reserve of creosote oil?

 

[DaveSW]

All forms of teleporting are banned in my server, so I set 3 or more coke ovens asap.

 

[Lambert2191]

Slag furnaces are kind of a must for me in the beginning game. The chance of doubling makes me feel less like I'm "wasting" ores that I smelt without pulverizing. Plus, the extra lead from Silver Ore is nice. It's kind of to the point that Factorization is one of those mods I MUST have even at the cost of others.

Holy shit, just made a slag furnace... that thing Noms the coal![DOUBLEPOST=1360197447][/DOUBLEPOST]

Why do you go for coke ovens so early? Just so you've got a strategic reserve of creosote oil?

coal/charcoal -> 8 smelts
coke coal -> 32 smelts.

all it takes is time

 

[Mero]

The one thing I never seem to see LPers doing in the VERY beginning is smelt logs for charcoal instead of bumbling around in caves hoping to find coal for torches.

The thing about LP' ers is they are making these video's for entertainment purposes not for the best way to do stuff.

What is more entertaining to watch, someone making charcoal and lighting their way into a cave for resources or going into a dark cave and getting jumped by tons of mobs and must likely getting killed a time or two?

 

[Lambert2191]

The thing about LP' ers is they are making these video's for entertainment purposes not for the best way to do stuff.

What is more entertaining to watch, someone making charcoal and lighting their way into a cave for resources or going into a dark cave and getting jumped by tons of mobs and must likely getting killed a time or two?

the former

 

[Mero]

the former

What's entertaining about somebody doing everything the safe and most efficient way? You might as well be watching someone in creative if there is no danger to them or at least someone doing tutorial like video's, such as DW.

 

[KirinDave]

Holy shit, just made a slag furnace... that thing Noms the coal![DOUBLEPOST=1360197447][/DOUBLEPOST]

Indeed. 8 smelts per coal. My strategy is to get 2 furnaces and 1 slag furnace and get charcoal constantly cooking. This is still valuable though early on because you tend to dart through copper layers and tin layers trying to make a deep mine for gold and diamonds, but you actually need those.

coal/charcoal -> 8 smelts
coke coal -> 32 smelts.
all it takes is time

Yeah I guess the cost is so low, why not?

Another thing I see is that people don't utilize bronze very much despite being flush with copper and tin and groveling about for iron. Bronze is great. Bronze tools are great. Bronze armor is great.[DOUBLEPOST=1360198564][/DOUBLEPOST]

What's entertaining about somebody doing everything the safe and most efficient way? You might as well be watching someone in creative if there is no danger to them or at least someone doing tutorial like video's, such as DW.

There is a fine line between "safe and informative" and "everyone knows this is ridiculous." Caving in the dark is way over on the "ridiculous" side of things.

Actually I have a hard time watching a lot of lets plays besides DW's because none of them have a damn plan. They're just noodling around having tedious conversations with friends. I was watching one for a bit where 2 hours in they hadn't even built ore processing and had barely started farming, but had done a ton of caving. I had to pull the D-ring on that playlist. Not. For. Me.

When I do SSP, I tend to play on hardcore. You die if you don't have a plan.

 

[slay_mithos]

I usually spend quite a long time above ground at first.

I gather wood and food, start to find a nice area to live in.

I usually gather some animals when I know where I want to build, and build some early buildings.
And many barrels.

Once I have a storage room, a bed, and enough food to keep me alive for quite a bit, I start by finding a nice cave nearby.
I cave for a while, gather some copper, tin, iron and coal.
If possible, I try to get at least 3 of the same gems (or diamonds) and some redstone too.

I decide for where I want my mine entrance to be, and dig down (either stairs or ladder), making stops at various levels for future branch mines.
I plan my main branch mining at y 14 (feet position), to leave me the possibility to do 5 and 9 too later.

Once I have what I need to make a turtle, I make a mining one, and equip it with my branch mining program, 20 torches and make it make 2 tunnels, 100 long, 2 high, torches every 10 blocks (yeah, I know...).

I then manually mine everything I need from these, and repeat as needed.

I then make a hobbyist steam engine, aqueous acumulator, powered furnace and pulverizer, for an early processing plan.

After that, it's more of a "build on a whim", as I try to build a little (with no skill at all in that), and not to leave big holes in the ground.

I do some Thaumcraft, some bees, automations for many things, and I try to make my own tier V spawners for everything, even if it's not really needed (having trouve with bats though, and wither skeletons/creeoers are a bit rares).

That's about it, but I am quite proud to say that I try my best to have at least a bit of every mod, even if it takes a lot of time and effort to have some really cool stuff.


Oh, and when I really need automated mining, I usually just throw in mystcraft, and make some frame quarries there, but no abuse on dense ores because I ddon't find it fun.

 

[Lambert2191]

Indeed. 8 smelts per coal.

in a slag it's 5 smelts per coal

Another thing I see is that people don't utilize bronze very much despite being flush with copper and tin and groveling about for iron. Bronze is great. Bronze tools are great. Bronze armor is great.

You must be watching different lets players and reading different forums than I... people are having a hard time adjusting to copper being on a different level than diamond, so people aren't so flush with copper as they are with Iron. I have far far far more Iron than I do copper.