Want to play modded Minecraft, but can't get the beginning.

[NeptuneJr2]

I really love the complexity of modded Minecraft, especially the machines. I started to progress far once, but stopped, base building was to stressful. So my problem is, I need everything perfect, and have trouble making a base, and I can't get anything done. So I'm trying to start FTB Infinity Evolved , hard mode, and don't know how to start. The beginning is no fun for me, trying to find a base. Then building a final base is even more stressful. I also want the whole experience from the first stages to the last. Any recommendations to make it more fun would be appreciated, and any really easy starter base and final base would be appreciated. I never seem to be able to finish a world off, always have trouble with making a permanent residence. (Never defeated the Ender Dragon, couldn't get a base started, and I really want machined now). So thanks for any ideas to progress through the beginning and make a permanent residence fast. I really look forward to making an enjoyable world.
Again, Thanks.
NeptuneJr2

 

[Scottly318]

the thing with modded minecraft imo is that it's not about how you get from point a to point b. For me in ie:e I had to have a semi permanent base to even get started. Look at the progression in NEI. Fast is going to be a relative term.

 

[Aetherpirate]

You won't have a permanent base at first. You can't do it all at once.

You'll have a shack while you acquire resources. At some point you'll hit a critical mass of stuff and you can start building what you really want.

Then you'll make a nice place. Then you'll progress more and change it. Then again. Then you'll get into another mod and add a whole lot more.

The fun is in the building. Not the finishing. Slow down.

 

[NeptuneJr2]

So, get resources, make a base, THEN start working on mod progression? And build off your or original base, expanding it? Also, where is a nice spot to make one? That's one of my big problems needing a perfect spot. @Aetherpirate.

 

[BIG mac]

If you struggle to find a way to start, you have made a pretty good choice playing on expert mode. What I did when I was playing it, was I basically just looked at what machines I needed to build to get to the next machine I wanted and so on. I started by making a coke oven to get to the bucket, and went from there. Unfortunately I barely use any magic mods in any pack. Honestly just starting with a hole in the ground or some walls in a well lit area is probably the way to go for a while. Because you have to make so many machines, it can be hard to expand a proper base fast enough for a while. In my playstyle, I usually wait until I get a quarry to build a base, because that way I can easily get a ton of stone. In infinity evolved expert mode, that is pretty far down the tech tree.

This is a good thread if you are looking to see how progression sort of works in this modpack
http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/share-your-progress-on-infinity-evolved-expert-mode.130112/

 

[PierceSG]

Just go for it and expand on your temporary base.

You can either start prettying up your temporary base, and turn it into your permanent base. Or you can start hunting for your perfect spot once you have your resource gathering and processing stuffs working.

Don't stress on having everything perfect from the get go. Having fun is more important.

 

[GreenZombie]

I'll go against the flow and say that you have chosen entirely the wrong pack given your wants. You want to dive straight into machines, so a pack like FTB Inventions would probably be more appropriate.

Starting a new survival game can be a bit intimidating as you do quickly get into the standard minecraft paradox: you want to make a nice base to work in. To make that base you need some blocks that are made with a machine. To make those machines you need resources. To get those resources you need other machines and to mine. And you can't start gathering resources and making machines until you have a nice base to work in.

There are a few ways of avoiding this:
* Start a skyblock map such as Infinity Evolved Skyblock or Agrarian Skies. This is not the quick entry to machines, but your starting choices are so limited (theres no map to explore, the initial progression is very constrained by the fact that all resources essentially come from a cobblegen) that it resolves the circular paradox - you are always working towards an attainable thing.
* Start a scenario map such as Material Energy 4 - This starts you with a nice base, that you simply need to start populating with machines.

Or, simply resign yourself to a staged approach:
Before you even explore, puch a tree, dig some dirt and cobble, dig a staircase down. Gather coal and iron ore - smelt enough iron to make a bucket and fill that with lava. Explore for clay, make grout and a Tinkers Smeltery. You now have ore doubling. Make the rest of the Tic work benches and some nice tinkers iron tools. Gather more iron ore, double it in the smeltery and upgrade the TiC table to the iron leg version. Make a stone hammer and tree chopper.

At this point you can dig 3x3 tunnels, chop down entire trees, prepare yourself some basic iron armor and will have several chests of starting materials. The sun will be setting on the end of the first day. Ok, maybe it took a bit longer, but now you are prepared to venture forth, find an actual place to settle and build a base.
I would normally pick a tech mod to start with in the new base, but Infinity Evolved Expert mode has everything interlinked

 

[Azzanine]

Need to learn how shit works before you can be perfect. No wonder you are "stressed".
Folks like Rhn don't get to that level over night. I'd like to say they work at it but it's not work it's just doing.

Unfortunately tech mods don't give you much structure to work with. No centerpiece items to base a design on.
Things like Railcraft and Immersive Engineering are an exception and maybe most power setups. I often make a 15x20 or so building for my tech mods only to find I severly overshot what I needed. Only exception being farms, mob grinders and the rare multi blocks.

Magic mods tend to be the best for base building though. They tend to have a lot of set peice items like Thaumcrafts Altar and Blood magic's (although that one's big enough to build INSIDE of). Sometimes they even have neat tools for building like wand of equal trade and in 1.8 the builders focus. I guess you could even call ExtUtils builders wand magic even though ExtUtils is a mixed bag mod.

Either way you have to learn how things work before you can make that perfect layout.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[NeptuneJr2]

So, it sounds like to make it more fun I should start in a little hut, then amass resources and start a final base, which is expanded upon. For an easy base idea, maybe do a simple underground and above ground lab thing in a plains biome? Or any other cool ideas appreciated. Thanks for helping me get organized in my worlds here.

 

[Scottly318]

How to build will always be a matter of personal preference. If you need ideas of what to build... The community showcase is filled with great example. @rhn has a lengthy post where he has shown of his builds (they're incredible). If nothing there sparks your creativity... Go look in any major city near you. For me? I tried modeling a build of the Mayo clinic hospital (my builds? Terrible). Ideas are all around.

 

[BIG mac]

If you are really set on building a nice base first, you could just hop into creative mode. Sometimes I start a modpack by building a giant base that I like in creative mode, and then I go into survival mode and play it like a normal survival series. I don't actually spawn anything like machines or ore or anything that would ruin my progress of the game, because that ruins the fun for me. I just get my base looking nice then I go out and punch trees and stuff like a normal first night in minecraft survival.

 

[rhn]

This is how I do it:

• I accumulate ideas for RL, other games, google image searches and so on all the time. Every now and then I think "I would like to build something like that one day"
• When it is time to start a new world I spawn worlds, hop into creative and fly around until I find a location I like. I might get inspired by something or it might be something specific that fits a build I had in mind. If I don't find it in reasonable distance of spawn, I spawn a new world.
• Once I find something I like, I recreate the world and now I know which direction to start walking in.
• I set up initially somewhere temporary. I try not to make the location of whatever I build interfere with building the main features. This can be a cobble cave, a small hut somewhere or if landscape presents a nice location, something prettier.
• From here on I try and make my use of mods focus on what I need for sustaining myself, gathering resources and building the main feature. I don't do machines just for the machines sake. As I start getting tools, mobility and resources, the basic machine setup grows slowly. As I build more and more, I also need more resource or simply want to add features surrounding mod items. So the building is the main focus and the mods and machines simply comes naturally as support for it.

 

[Hambeau]

As several have stated above, starting Minecraft is a personal journey... For many of us in Creative mode

I Personally (in a 1.7.10 pack which has the Natura mod) look for a Natura Redwood. These come in several diameters, the largest of which is 13x13 blocks wide and over 200 blocks high. Hollowed out 3 blocks high this serves as living quarters/temp. storage area until I dig down to level 50 and set up rooms for all my operations (mining, farms, machines, etc.). As a side benefit I have wood resources for days

 

[KingTriaxx]

Infinity Expert Mode is exactly that, a mode for experts. I'm also annoyed by Infinity because it's that 'one pack' that everyone is playing.

Try out Space Astronomy instead. It's a lighter pack, with Hardcore Quest mode, but without Hardcore mode. It's more of a guided experience, than a YOU MUST FOLLOW THIS PATH style. Instead you get rewards for doing things you'd do any way, while giving you a 'go here next' suggestion. The best fun is actually going off the rails, but it provides some nice rails for you to start out on.

Don't try to jump into 'high end, super fancy'. Build your starter vanilla, and then dig up ores and goodies. And then you can move on to the fancy machines and stuff. Just don't try and rush things. That'll help a lot.

 

[Inaeo]

My best advice for beginning MC is to play Vanilla. What I mean by that is, life is easier in modded worlds when the basics like a manual tree farm, some growing crops for sustainable food, maybe animal pens for easy access to wool and leather have been addressed. Then, once you have a little Vanilla homestead, you can enter into the mod scene at your own pace and in the direction you see fit.

From there, use mods to improve your quality of life. Build a smeltery for ore doubling and better tools. Automate farming, and possibly expand to a full plantation depending on what mods you have. Automate lumber cutting and processing. You can do these as out buildings, or simply expand on your current building as need arises.

If you want perfect, creative mode is the easy way. Otherwise, bring a ton of patience and free time, and be willing to tear down anything you place if you don't think it's perfect (even if that realization comes uncomfortably late). Also, learn the wrench mechanic of any mod you plan to use as early as possible - it will save you a ton of hassle and greatly speed up moving some machines around (configuring them as well).

As for where to start, different people have different preferences. Some prefer open, flat spaces such as plains or desert (I have a friend who hates the sound of rain, so he builds in deserts often). I, myself, am a dwarf who has a hard time not burrowing into a cliff, then carving out new rooms as the need for space increases. I will say one benefit to burrowing for a start is minimal imprint on the surface, so you can do it near your "perfect" canvas without leaving much player contamination.

 

[Scottly318]

I don't think infinity in and of itself is the issue. The normal mode version of the pack is in essence like many of the third party packs. The problem I see is people who are realitively new to modded minecraft jumping into the "expert" mode.

 

[KingTriaxx]

Mostly I think it's because it discourages people from customizing the pack to their liking. Monster, you could disable mods from it without destroying it. Infinity Expert it's all so tightly woven that the lack of anything or presence of anything else destroys the balance.

 

[Scottly318]

That point I can agree to. I agree that people lose sight of the fact that you can play infinity without being in expert.

 

[davecats]

Infinity Expert Mode is exactly that, a mode for experts. I'm also annoyed by Infinity because it's that 'one pack' that everyone is playing.

Try out Space Astronomy instead. It's a lighter pack, with Hardcore Quest mode, but without Hardcore mode. It's more of a guided experience, than a YOU MUST FOLLOW THIS PATH style. Instead you get rewards for doing things you'd do any way, while giving you a 'go here next' suggestion. The best fun is actually going off the rails, but it provides some nice rails for you to start out on.

Don't try to jump into 'high end, super fancy'. Build your starter vanilla, and then dig up ores and goodies. And then you can move on to the fancy machines and stuff. Just don't try and rush things. That'll help a lot.

This. As a novice player i love space astronomy. It's one of my favorite packs. It has many 'easy' mods and cross mod exploits (*cough * minechem *cough*). Vein miner helps you tear down large sections of your imperfect base sans the tedium. Mekanism is really nice to people who play peaceful. Immersive engineering helps power your self sustaining power. Out of all the modpacks out there, this is the one in which I use the largest variety of mods.

It also has HQM, as KingTriaxx said. But be warned; the reward bags are kind of... Anemic.




Sent from a slightly rusty phone of brickkish nature somewhere in Neptune nine years ago. Or something.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

So, it sounds like to make it more fun I should start in a little hut, then amass resources and start a final base, which is expanded upon. For an easy base idea, maybe do a simple underground and above ground lab thing in a plains biome? Or any other cool ideas appreciated. Thanks for helping me get organized in my worlds here.

One of my more common first temporary bases is a Natura Redwood tree. Yanno, the huge ones? Yea. Hollow one out, makes a good first base. As you expand, go up and go down. Once you go down, you can expand into a grid of rooms for various projects. Go up and build platforms with great views. Doesn't need to be fancy at first.

Another one I've done on more than one occasion is simply to find a mountain and tunnel into the side, carving out a cave for myself. It's not pretty, but it's quick, cheap, and will keep the creepers off my back until I can come at them with something more dangerous than a stick.

Half a stack of dirt is enough to build a simple hovel that will at least protect you from the slings and arrows of outrageous skeletons. It doesn't have to be neat or pretty, it just has to work. Neat will come later.

Day one, punch some trees, get some cobble, get some gravel, secure a temporary secure location. Overnight, start working on basic TiCo tools, flint heads for most of them, and expand from there.

Expert mode is what it says on the tin. If you are new to modded minecraft, try normal mode. Or heck, try a lighter pack (like, say, ShneekeyCraft for 1.7.10 on the ATLauncher ) that gives you some options, but doesn't overwhelm you. Let you get adjusted to how dynamically the game changes. Go from there.