What cool little thing have you discovered today?

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Nuclear_Creeper0

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Mar 30, 2017
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I just started playing Sprout after hearing everyone rave about it, but I've spent a couple of hours wandering around aimlessly, not sure what I should be doing. Am I supposed to be looking for NPCs to get quests from? I'm used to starting off with a quest book so am a little unsure of how to progress.
Good question. I've just been exploring. Found some dungeons. Got loot.
 

Hambeau

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Jul 24, 2013
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I've not had a chance to look at Sprout yet, but a couple of "Let's Plays" I've seen indicate that there's a book you get from an NPC in a building that looks a bit like a church near spawn.

Unless this has been changed, that is :)
 

thephoenixlodge

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Jul 29, 2019
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I've not had a chance to look at Sprout yet, but a couple of "Let's Plays" I've seen indicate that there's a book you get from an NPC in a building that looks a bit like a church near spawn.

Unless this has been changed, that is :)
If you're referring to Kryllyk's LP, that church is a village structure that they hijacked to use as the spawn for the server and moved the Traveller NPC to. General starting guide though; Do Traveller's intro/tutorial quests (the reward is lucrative) and then you can read his journal to get some hints on where to go from there. I should warn, the tech side of the pack is having quite a bit of work done to it for next update (which ideally I'll be able to push this week), so don't expect it to continue to be the path of least resistance that it is currently.
 
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Kira Wroth

Guest
If you're referring to Kryllyk's LP, that church is a village structure that they hijacked to use as the spawn for the server and moved the Traveller NPC to. General starting guide though; Do Traveller's intro/tutorial quests (the reward is lucrative) and then you can read his journal to get some hints on where to go from there. I should warn, the tech side of the pack is having quite a bit of work done to it for next update (which ideally I'll be able to push this week), so don't expect it to continue to be the path of least resistance that it is currently.
Thank you so much! I've been having a blast exploring even without much direction - I will backtrack to the Traveller and obtain the quests. I appreciate all the work you've put into this modpack, it's remarkable and right up my alley:)
 

Hambeau

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Jul 24, 2013
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If you're referring to Kryllyk's LP, that church is a village structure that they hijacked to use as the spawn for the server and moved the Traveller NPC to. General starting guide though; Do Traveller's intro/tutorial quests (the reward is lucrative) and then you can read his journal to get some hints on where to go from there. I should warn, the tech side of the pack is having quite a bit of work done to it for next update (which ideally I'll be able to push this week), so don't expect it to continue to be the path of least resistance that it is currently.

I loaded up Sprout later yesterday (put my money where my mouth is :D ) and indeed found the Traveller was the only source of info. As others have said, it's been a blast trying it out the first time and learning from mistakes. Some of the world gen villages are pretty detailed and talking to the NPCs adds a dimension that MC has been missing for me... I come from a D&D background and it's a welcome change.
 
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Nuclear_Creeper0

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Mar 30, 2017
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I loaded up Sprout later yesterday (put my money where my mouth is :D ) and indeed found the Traveller was the only source of info. As others have said, it's been a blast trying it out the first time and learning from mistakes. Some of the world gen villages are pretty detailed and talking to the NPCs adds a dimension that MC has been missing for me... I come from a D&D background and it's a welcome change.
Yeah I found some NPCs, the Slayer Guild. They killed me.
 

Pyure

Not Totally Useless
Aug 14, 2013
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Waterloo, Ontario
Sometimes I learn cool things, like when I figured out how to make a Hybrid Breeder in Reactorcraft. That was fairly clever.

Other times....yesterday I decided branch mining with two blocks between branches was inefficient. That's the "popular" way to do it, but veins are almost always at least 2 blocks wide, so unless you're looking for something that usually spawns a 1-2 blocks at a time, it makes more sense to do 3 blocks between branches. You'll still come across 99% of the ores and do it more efficiently too.
 
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Kira Wroth

Guest
I started playing Simple Life 2 and was progressing through the quests when I ran across one that has you place something called a "Supply Camp" - I had no idea what it was until I placed it. I had never even heard of Minecolonies before - was a really fun way to discover the mod, spent the entire evening building up my colony:)
 

Celestialphoenix

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Nov 9, 2012
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Tartarus.. I mean at work. Same thing really.
Sometimes I learn cool things, like when I figured out how to make a Hybrid Breeder in Reactorcraft. That was fairly clever.

Other times....yesterday I decided branch mining with two blocks between branches was inefficient. That's the "popular" way to do it, but veins are almost always at least 2 blocks wide, so unless you're looking for something that usually spawns a 1-2 blocks at a time, it makes more sense to do 3 blocks between branches. You'll still come across 99% of the ores and do it more efficiently too.

A while ago I found a thread on MCF where someone crunched all the numbers for strip mining- so to cut a 10,000 world phd thesis down to size;
Spacing the shafts 2 blocks apart will find every ore in a given area- useful if you're stuck with a limited world size/mining space (speaking from experience this is also good for Gregtech style ore deposits)
Spacing the shafts 3 blocks apart will find almost every ore in a given area, but gains more ore per shaft.
Spacing the shafts 7 blocks apart will (apparently) giving you the most ore per shaft, since you'll never encounter the same ore seam twice.
There is no statistical increase in efficiency beyond 7 blocks apart.​
 
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Pyure

Not Totally Useless
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A while ago I found a thread on MCF where someone crunched all the numbers for strip mining- so to cut a 10,000 world phd thesis down to size;
Spacing the shafts 2 blocks apart will find every ore in a given area- useful if you're stuck with a limited world size/mining space (speaking from experience this is also good for Gregtech style ore deposits)
Spacing the shafts 3 blocks apart will find almost every ore in a given area, but gains more ore per shaft.
Spacing the shafts 7 blocks apart will (apparently) giving you the most ore per shaft, since you'll never encounter the same ore seam twice.
There is no statistical increase in efficiency beyond 7 blocks apart.​
Yeah this is great. I'm thinking the biggest factor is vein size. If I'm desperately looking for IC2 Uranium for some reason (which tends to spawn in 1-2 blocks), 4+ blocks apart may be inefficient. But if all I care about is Coal (which has giant veins of 10+ frequently) that 7 block width makes a ton of sense.

Another way to read "ore per shaft" might be "ore per hour", which seems obvious but makes it a bit more clear that what we're trying to save here is time. In terms of "ore per chunk", its actually less efficient: occasionally, ultimately, you're going to miss some ores doing the 7-width business. We just don't care: that's the cost of saving time, and its a dirt-cheap price to pay.

edit: unless its a restricted world/mining area. If you're mining asteroids for naquadah or something, you want to waste time and check every possible block.
 
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Xavion

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Yeah this is great. I'm thinking the biggest factor is vein size. If I'm desperately looking for IC2 Uranium for some reason (which tends to spawn in 1-2 blocks), 4+ blocks apart may be inefficient. But if all I care about is Coal (which has giant veins of 10+ frequently) that 7 block width makes a ton of sense.

Another way to read "ore per shaft" might be "ore per hour", which seems obvious but makes it a bit more clear that what we're trying to save here is time. In terms of "ore per chunk", its actually less efficient: occasionally, ultimately, you're going to miss some ores doing the 7-width business. We just don't care: that's the cost of saving time, and its a dirt-cheap price to pay.

edit: unless its a restricted world/mining area. If you're mining asteroids for naquadah or something, you want to waste time and check every possible block.
Also, 7 width has the potential for you to go back later and turn it into 3 width. Do 7 width for most of the ores, once the tunnels are too long and you're getting lazy go down the middle of each 7 wide block to turn them into 3 wide gaps.

If you've got something like 3x3 mining it's even more effective, as when you go back to punch holes down the 7 wide block you'll be turning them into 2 wide gaps instead of 3 wide, and each segment will be 10 blocks wide instead of 8 so overall miss nothing and cover space faster. Much as you'd expect from 3x3 mining.
 
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Celestialphoenix

Too Much Free Time
Nov 9, 2012
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Tartarus.. I mean at work. Same thing really.
Personally I prefer spelunking- running through caves allows me to check far more blocks per hour than strip mining.
Though once the caves are cleared, I tend to do 7 block spacing for vanilla style ore gen, then turn it to 3 block spacing with the second tunnels vertically offset by 2-3 blocks.​

As for ore deposits of 1-2 blocks? Sod that- run a bloody quarry and be done with it.
 

Pyure

Not Totally Useless
Aug 14, 2013
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Waterloo, Ontario
Personally I prefer spelunking- running through caves allows me to check far more blocks per hour than strip mining.
Though once the caves are cleared, I tend to do 7 block spacing for vanilla style ore gen, then turn it to 3 block spacing with the second tunnels vertically offset by 2-3 blocks.​

As for ore deposits of 1-2 blocks? Sod that- run a bloody quarry and be done with it.
Must be nice to play modpacks with early-game quarries :)

(mostly kidding. I can't off the top of my head think of any 1-2 block resources I really want in the first couple days)
 

KingTriaxx

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Jul 27, 2013
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I can't wait for Buildcraft to be in a version I'm playing again. I MISS that fantastic quarry. Just a dozen diamonds and a bit of lapis and you can mine forever. Builder, Quantum Quarry, even the digital miner just aren't the same.

I like strip mining with a 7-wide central tunnel, then I lay tracks down and bring a train down, mine 3x3's off the side, and then when the train is full, or I'm done, I just drive back to the surface.
 
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Drbretto

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Mar 5, 2016
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I can't wait for Buildcraft to be in a version I'm playing again. I MISS that fantastic quarry. Just a dozen diamonds and a bit of lapis and you can mine forever. Builder, Quantum Quarry, even the digital miner just aren't the same.

I like strip mining with a 7-wide central tunnel, then I lay tracks down and bring a train down, mine 3x3's off the side, and then when the train is full, or I'm done, I just drive back to the surface.


There's something about that quarry, man!