Which magic mod to get started in?

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Azzanine

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Yeah but you have no control over how an open crate drops it just drops whatevers put in. You can however control a hopper connected to it.

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KingTriaxx

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Exactly, I just run up from the mana pool I'm filling to the hopper. I use a 3x3 of buffer pools so I don't drop more than can be used. Of course since I'm paranoid about wasting even charcoal, I also have it controlling a timer that activates a mana powered Hopperhock to suck up any excess.
 

ShneekeyTheLost

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Well, all three major magic mods have been mentioned, but I'll go ahead and give my two cents on them:

Thaumcraft: A bit grindy (although that may be because of how many times I've done it now), but has some useful stuff. You're going to start by playing Scan All The Things, which is a bit tiresome.

Botania: Some of the trinkets are very valuable. Make sure you disable passive flower decay.

Blood Magic: Really needs Tier 4 to get going with the Well of Suffering for truly passive LP generation.
 

RavynousHunter

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If the option of adding ChromatiCraft is out, then I'd probably have to vote Blood Magic. The problem I have with the others is that, by default, the barrier for entry into actual content is annoyingly long. If you do things right, your barrier for entry into BM is some food and vanilla brewing for basic heals, which itself only really requires a nether wart farm, a melon farm, and a fair supply of gold, all of which are pretty easy to get in the first couple of hours of playing, again, even by vanilla standards. Just cut yourself like a really bad stereotype, make a bunch of slate, and get going. Before you get speed runes, things do take a little while to get made, but still less time than, say, scanning crap in Thaumcraft or waiting for your passive flowers to give you enough mana to actually do something in Botania. Again, this is all just based off my experience.

TL;DR: Add ChromatiCraft.
 
V

Viperion

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The problem I have with the others is that, by default, the barrier for entry into actual content is annoyingly long. ...or waiting for your passive flowers to give you enough mana to actually do something in Botania. Again, this is all just based off my experience.
Making a few Endoflames (the ones that eat combustibles like coal and convert them to mana) will generally get you off to a pretty good start. I typically (well OK I've only done it three times :p ) start off with 3-5 endoflames and just drop a coal block on them (manually) whenever I go past. Gives me all the mana I need for early-mid game, no problems.
 
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KingTriaxx

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I would like to like Chromaticraft. I don't. It's an amazing mod. I just can't stand it.

Botania Passive Generation is like bees. Set it up, and then go do something else. Eventually you'll get what you need, and then you don't have to deal with the frustrating part any more. Until then, it's best to have something else to work on while you wait.
 

Azzanine

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Blood magic takes a long time to get In to. The mod doesn't really start until the t2 altar. All you get before then is a few utility sigils.
I determined at the start you need to stab yourself 5 times per slate assuming im right about 200 lp per stab. You then need to baby sit it or waste possibly an equivalent of time automating the extraction.
To get T2 you need 16 slate, that's 2 per 1 needing 8 total. That's 40 stabs, 40 hearts of damage. Having the forthought to make a bunch of health potions speeds this up considerably. But it's still an arduous task. Incencse also makes it less stabby.

Of course once you get past T2 you're golden and 1.8.9 blood magic actually has a few new tools to aid in early blood acquisition.

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KingTriaxx

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The fact that each individual craft is all on me is part of it. But more it's I can advance to a point, then I have to guess which thing I have to do to unlock more. Or I spend forty minutes hunting for a burrow, or sandy burrow, or several hours looking for the underground one.
 

RavynousHunter

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The fact that each individual craft is all on me is part of it. But more it's I can advance to a point, then I have to guess which thing I have to do to unlock more. Or I spend forty minutes hunting for a burrow, or sandy burrow, or several hours looking for the underground one.

Aye, that is a little annoying, at times. Though, honestly, I feel the content by and far outweighs the occasional annoyance. Hell, it'd be worth it just for the tile accelerators alone. And the cool blocks. I will admit that it really helps if you know some basic code and read thru the GitHub for it. I've had a few hiccups in progression that were solved by checking...certain classes in the mod. Might it be cheating? Eeh, not really. Still gotta do the actual footwork.
 

RavynousHunter

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Tile Accelerators? I didn't notice any, but then again, some of the descriptions are kind of obscure.
Think Torcherino/Watch of Flowing time, but able to be cranked up to insanity. Only downside is they need to be directly adjacent to whatever they're boosting, and some things don't take kindly to acceleration, like Project:Red electricals (nikolite-based things) and AE crafting units. Other things like most RoC machines (those that take/make shaft power) don't even interact with them. However, for other things, they are incredibly broken. Pop a high-level accelerator on a vanilla furnace and you've got insta-smelting at the cost of fuel. XU generators? Fuel might not last for shit, but you'll get power insanely quick. They are wonderfully fun to use when absolutely breaking Minecraft.
 
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RealKC

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What could you do with them and a Tier 3 Energy Collector from ProjectE. I think that the Blaze Rod exploit is actually balanced when compared to the tile accelerators.
 

Someone Else 37

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What could you do with them and a Tier 3 Energy Collector from ProjectE. I think that the Blaze Rod exploit is actually balanced when compared to the tile accelerators.
The tile accelerators are pretty expensive, and ChromatiCraft is not a very easy mod to get into, if all the grumbling on the forum about progression, burrows, and info fragments is any indication. While I can't say much on the matter myself, it's entirely believable to me that by the time you get to the tile accelerators, you've already done enough work to deserve such powerful items.
 

Inaeo

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If you do so, you disable 1/3 of the challenge and at least fun of Botania. No good advice

I feel like this is a personal preference/playstyle thing. For instance, when I build a power network in a tech pack, I usually have some sort of passive backup system that i can use to jumpstart critical components in the event of something going pearshaped. I also use this type of setup for remote locations and rarely used systems that I want primed and ready when I do actually use them.

I treat Botania the same way. Start out with passive flowers. As demand increases, more powerful mana gen is needed, but I still like having the passive trickle to top off the pools while I'm off doing other things.

I agree that if all you do is spam 9001 Dayblooms you're missing out on a great deal of the mod (and realistically making your build more cumbersome than it needs to be), but I'm not one to dictate how others should enjoy their game. I'm not a fan of passive flowers wilting, personally, so when I can I disable it. I believe that if passive flowers wilt and die, all flowers should in time, but frankly nobody, myself included, wants that.