What Items Do You Think Players Under-Use?

[Eunomiac]

Thought I'd start a thread to see if there are any buried treasures among the embarrassment of riches comprising the FTB pack. They're those staples you rely on that you think might be underappreciated, underestimated, underused, or under... uh, under... whatever, I finished my under-hatrick.

For me, after watching lots of Let's Plays and an unhealthy amount of Yogscast, it's Factorization's Pocket Crafting Table. I don't understand why no one else seems to use it. It makes the Minium Stone (and, by extension, the current incarnation of EE3) almost entirely superfluous; it doesn't need a spot in your hotbar; and it's so easy to build you can skip the Crafting Table and have one while you're still punching trees.

Forestry's various Backpacks are another gem, especially with the added functionality of the different Sneak-Right-Click modes. Combined with RedPower's Canvas Bags, you can make derping into lava extra-special soul-crippling. (Yes, yes, "Ender Pouches ho!" and all that, but everyone already knows about Ender Pouches.)

Everyone knows about Thermal Expansion's almost-too-good-no-seriously-really-they-are Redstone Energy Cells, but did you know they work ridiculously well with Wooden Waterproof/Transport Pipes, emphasis on "ridiculously"? They're almost as good as a Combustion Engine burning Fuel at their lowest setting, a mere 1/20th of their full potential, and a simple Gate configured to output a redstone signal when the attached inventory is empty will ensure they only ever spend MJ when there's stuff to move. They're also the best thing to pair with a Filler: At max power, the Filler will Box up an area so quickly it sounds like machine gun fire.

Finally, RedPower's new Kinetic Generator plus a Wind Turbine solves all your Blulectric needs, while being so gorgeous to look at you'll feel like a monkey meeting the Monolith at the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's so absurdly pretty I don't even care that I'm only using mine to power a pair of Sorting Machines

 

[Whovian]

Slag Furnace. For early ore processing, that is.

 

[bwillb]

Chainsaw. It does some wicked damage, it can cut logs, it can collect leaves, and it can even shear a sheep!

 

[Djharts]

I hate the PCT actually. It's so annoying when almost your entire invo is full and the PCT can't be used. I'll sacrifice a spot on my hotbar for the Minium Stone. Plus it can transmute things which is. You know.... Awesome.

 

[Molten]

A hell of a lot of Minefactory stuff. All sorts of machines / blocks for farming, mob management etc. Not to mention coloured glass and roads that have the effect of ice to make speed lanes. Personally I will never stand waiting at a river with a fishing rod waiting for fish to bite ever again.

 

[PeggleFrank]

Slag furnaces are really good if you get a furnace heater hooked up to some mirrors early game, plus they can increase your lead income by about 2.5x.

I don't ever use any IC2 electric tools. Why would I want to get some iron and cook it with some redstone and rubber and whatnot when I can just punch a tree and make a treetap or a wooden hoe? Is there a 10% chance to lose your machine with the normal wrench? Omniwrench.

The grate from RP2 is totally useless. I've never found a reason or need to fill up a large area with liquid, considering most liquids can't be placed on the ground.

Combustion engines. I can make a solar electric engine that outputs 5x the energy that these things make, and it doesn't explode and kill me.

Arcane bores. Ignoring my location, these are completely underpowered. Would you rather waste 150 levels to get a decent pick and wand, or would you rather spend some diamonds gold and iron to get something that does what the arcane bore does much faster? Quarries also don't corrupt my aura nodes. Grrr...

Most of the wrenches. Do I need a Forestry wrench? No, BC wrenches are cheaper. Do I want a BC wrench? No, quartz wrenches are cheaper. Do I want a screwdriver? No, because it's a pain to craft more. Do I want an omniwrench? No, too expensive. Do I want an IC2 wrench? No, because it's not lossless. Do I want an electric IC2 wrench? No, because I have to keep recharging it? Do I want a gravitool? Wtf, I would rather make another wrench rather than get an electric wrench that steals 1 million EU.

Turtles & computers. I'm just too stupid to use these things, sorry.

EDIT: Oh, my bad, I misread what the OP was implying. I thought this was a place to say what's most useless to us, not most useful.

 

[Whovian]

Combustion engines. I can make a solar electric engine that outputs 5x the energy that these things make, and it doesn't explode and kill me.

Sorry to bash, but you're saying you can't be bothered to put down a pump, an aqueous accumulator, or whatever that xy thing is that outputs water?

And I assume you have an industrial blast furnace to make those solar panels?

Something else I find contradictory.

Is there a 10% chance to lose your machine with the normal wrench? Omniwrench.

Do I want an omniwrench? No, too expensive.

And they only cost a couple Diamonds. And then you have your one tool forever.

And, to the IC2 Electric tools, how about drills? You do have to recharge them, but you also have to "recharge" every other mining tool.

 

[KirinDave]

Factorization in general. And I see more people using it in ultimate.

MineFactory Reloaded. Folks: did you know you can set up high output farms for trivial energy costs? MFR machines behave like Buildcraft machines: they slowly nibble up power. So unlike a lot of EU-based machines you can undervolt them and they still work, albeit slower. Did you know you can produce biofuel directly from seeds and saplings with MFR? Did you know that MFR conveyors never drop items?

And the animal farms! For just the cost of a LV powersource you can have infinite leather, wool, feathers and meat. Did you know the safari net can move villagers huge distances?

 

[ApSciLiara]

And the animal farms! For just the cost of a LV powersource you can have infinite leather, wool, feathers and meat. Did you know the safari net can move villagers huge distances?

Just as long as the animals don't get organised and start a communist uprising. We all (should) know those turn ugly pretty damn quick.

 

[RavynousHunter]

Never got around to playing with MFR, alas. But...it can make creating biofuel less of a whore? WHERE DO I SIGN?! That's seriously the most handy thing I've heard of, because biofuel is fairly useful, and renewable.

As for what's used the least...probably the blulecric furnace. I can see where, compared to other mods, its entry cost is a bit higher than normal, but it works with RP2 pneumatic tubes, which occasional lagginess aside, are damned handy, and with a few thermopiles, you have a furnace that runs at a decent speed and requires absolutely zero fuel.

 

[Lambert2191]

For me, after watching lots of Let's Plays and an unhealthy amount of Yogscast, it's Factorization's Pocket Crafting Table. I don't understand why no one else seems to use it. It makes the Minium Stone (and, by extension, the current incarnation of EE3) almost entirely superfluous; it doesn't need a spot in your hotbar; and it's so easy to build you can skip the Crafting Table and have one while you're still punching trees.

People rarely use it because it is completely outclassed by the minium stone. If you are able to keep 9 slots of your inventory free while doing even the most rudimentary task then you're doing something wrong, son.

 

[mrkite]

A hell of a lot of Minefactory stuff.

There's a lot of MFR stuff I'm looking forward to playing around with. So far I only have one complaint, conveyors are a cool idea in theory, but they act too much like water, negating fall damage for mobs for example.

 

[Zjarek_S]

People rarely use it because it is completely outclassed by the minium stone. If you are able to keep 9 slots of your inventory free while doing even the most rudimentary task then you're doing something wrong, son.

If you want free inventory, use bag of holding, it works great with PCT. For me the power of it is not only in portable crafting and taking items straight from chest to correct place in inventory, but also in shortcuts. For example to craft buffer I do like this, pressing C (to distribute items in clockwise pattern), C (to rotate items, because I always forget those alternating recipes) and B to balance them (no mouse click from first image to the last):

 

[bwillb]

People rarely use it because it is completely outclassed by the minium stone. If you are able to keep 9 slots of your inventory free while doing even the most rudimentary task then you're doing something wrong, son.

Honestly, I don't care about the inventory space. I can tuck some stuff away in a bag temporarily, no big deal. What gets me, though, is that the PCT lags to hell. I can open the minium stone instantly, but the PCT interface takes a couple seconds to load up!

 

[brujon]

Grate from RP2 is pretty handy for terraforming. If you want to pretty up your base, look no further. It can create lakes where there were large holes, it can relocate lava to make lava moats, and all kinds of nice looking things. It's a very unique pump in that it can pump to the overworld, and i like it very much.

Omniwrench is not actually that bad resource wise, and you'll never have to craft another wrench again, which is handy, since many have durability.

Arcane Bore is the coolest looking thing ever. No, seriously. It looks just too. goddamn. cool. And it works on frames, auto-applies Fortune/Treasure if the pick/wand has it, and can work near constantly if both have Repair III in them. The aura problems are negated by moving frames and mining far from the main base, or possibly, mystcraft world. It's not the fastest quarry in the world, but it's fast enough, and the resource yield compensates for it's speed. Native Ore Clusters are 3x ores with bonus nuggets when tossed into infernal furnaces with bellows, and getting 3x diamonds for each ore is not too shabby when it's being done automagically. I don't think nothing comes close to it in diamond/lapis/redstone yields. plop it down at Y 8 or 9 with the Earth focus and it will mine everything down to bedrock and up to the upper diamond strata... With Fortune III. It's pretty awesome. Definitely a fun way of getting extra diamonds and getting to use all that thaumcraft research. So fun watching it dig.

Item that's not normally use but i think are fun? Note blocks. Clicking a button, hearing a nice sound, and then something getting done, is much more satisfying than the plain button sound... I like how SOTMead used one in his little thaumcraft elevator.

Speaking of which, the Arcane Levitator is another underused item. So cool, place it above you, it negates fall damage, put it below you, it lifts you up. So neat.

 

[Jeff Fisher]

Factorization Routers << I love them! I dont see enough folks using them it seems, I think they understand them.

 

[extrem09]

The Quartz grinder. They are the only way to double ore output before you get a pulveriser/macerator, and the best part is that they don't actually require any ores to set up. so you can have 100% ore double from the the beginning of the game. Only downside is that you have to right click alot, but if you set up a macro like I did, leave it running for 5 min with a stack of iron ore, and you have 2 stacks of iron dust.

 

[Poppycocks]

The Quartz grinder. They are the only way to double ore output before you get a pulveriser/macerator, and the best part is that they don't actually require any ores to set up. so you can have 100% ore double from the the beginning of the game. Only downside is that you have to right click alot, but if you set up a macro like I did, leave it running for 5 min with a stack of iron ore, and you have 2 stacks of iron dust.

I see them quite often actually and to be honest, I'm comming to believe, that in the time spend right clicking, you could mine all of the material lost when not doubling the ores required for a pulverizer + hobbist steam engine.

 

[extrem09]

Yeah I guess, but I like to take things slow, and don't really enjoy manual mining too much, so I like to use them. I mean I really just use them till I get pulverisers, powered furnaces and 3 steam engines. But I do understand where you are coming from.

 

[Kocyk]

Never got around to playing with MFR, alas. But...it can make creating biofuel less of a whore? WHERE DO I SIGN?! That's seriously the most handy thing I've heard of, because biofuel is fairly useful, and renewable.

Machine for that is in 2.3 version of MFR, not yet in Ultimate. Check out this: