Witchery and...

[GreenZombie]

I like to experience new mods in isolation, or as much isolation as makes sense, to get an idea for their balance and how they help the game. My usual strategy is to put all my current gear in a chest, grab a bed, run 2km in some direction, and setup shop at the new place - with the goal of as much as a vanilla + new mod experience as possible.

Now, witchery doesn't add a lot in terms of tools and/or ore doubling, and I have (regretfully) grown completely addicted to ore doubling. Those first three pieces of iron required to make a bucket to get a tinkers construct smeltery smelting leave scars on my soul.

So, (out of Monster) the two mods I am permitting myself to use are Tinkers construct and Witchery.

And I am having a tough time actually starting witchery. Growing the basic witchery herbs - scavenged from seeds is all well and good. And the books are easy enough to make.
But then, to actually start the tech tree it seems mutandis is required. and mutandis requires, well, saplings to be burnt, and is horribly inefficient at getting you the witchery herb or sapling you are actually seeking.
Problem: saplings are actually hard to come by in vanilla minecraft. At least I get bored chopping down enough trees block by block, so my Witchery game turns into a farm-enough-iron to create the TiC Tool Forge to make the TiC tier2 axe that has a tree-capitator effect. And to make the tier 2 excavator to help gather the clay needed for clay pots.

So, before long, I have a mine down to bedrock, a portal to the nether, a TiC workshop producing alumite weapons and tools that ive mossed & lapis & quartz'ed up. A ranch with sheep, cattle and chickens.

And I still havn't done anything with Witchery outside of making a desultory quantity of mutandis, and deciding that the effort involved was so high that I might as well wander a bit further in the nether, get some netherwart, and jump to mutandis extremis to validate the effort that has gone into producing this stuff.

Tell me I am doing this mod wrong. It looks like it is supposed to be "simple" - a witches hut nestled in the woods. But its requirements instead imply a well functioning industrial complex to gather the raw materials needed to begin even just its first tier in ernest.

 

[Golrith]

Erm, you could have just gone for stone tools. There's no need really for all the upgrades or extra metals.
Sure stone won't be as fast as those more advanced materials, but you don't actually need them. Plus as a result, I don't believe you need the forge at all (if you can live without ore doubling).

If you can live with yourself, you could just sneak in a MFR tree farm, powered by the logs it will produce, and maybe a sludge boiler on the side for clay and other potential useful materials. This would be a smaller foot print and feel less "industrial".

 

[GreenZombie]

The tools are stone, but to make the 2nd tier TiC tools (and get the chop-a-tree-down-all-at-once axe) you need a tool forge, which requires 5 iron blocks - which is enough iron that making the smeltery is a net benefit.

 

[Democretes]

I'm going to be honest here and now, Witchery is a fun mod, but most of its features are more fun on a server. A lot of Witchery is based on combat and buffs. In a single player world, this can be fun, but you're not going to get the full experience the way it was intended.

As far as getting started goes, you're just going to need a lot of clay, and some patience. The mutandis thing can be rather annoying, but once you have the plant you need, get saplings/shear the plant to grow as much as you can. This is all Witchery really requires. A heavy industrial set up isn't necessary. At best you're going to need a nice chunk of coal and clay and the occasional diamond, as far as iron and gold goes, you won't need much. Upgrading your oven will be the most expensive thing you do, but it is hardly necessary to move up in the tech tree.

 

[Golrith]

The tools are stone, but to make the 2nd tier TiC tools (and get the chop-a-tree-down-all-at-once axe) you need a tool forge, which requires 5 iron blocks - which is enough iron that making the smeltery is a net benefit.

5 iron blocks isn't that big of a deal (45 ore) if the rest of the mod doesn't make much use of iron.
Never used Witchery myself (no interest), but it seems it's a slower paced mod then the more tech mods you are used to. Hence the frustration.

 

[Wraithflay]

It's a bit slower (like most magic mods I've found), but nowhere near as slow as the likes of Thaumcraft in my experience. The biggest challenge honestly lies in where you're having issues: getting enough saplings to get the stuff you need for things like Mutandis, then hoping the RNG likes you enough to get you the unique plants you need to continue. Once you're over that one early hurdle, the rest of the mod falls into place pretty well. Insofar as it being better on a server, I'd be inclined to agree, but not strongly. Sure you won't get to mess with voodoo dolls and such quite as much nor can you curse other players, but there's something satisfying about spontaneously growing an oasis in the middle of the desert or ripping a chunk of land out of the earth to float in the sky. It may have humble beginnings, but a skilled witch can do some pretty fun (non-combat) stuff!

 

[DanteGalileo]

5 iron blocks isn't that big of a deal (45 ore) if the rest of the mod doesn't make much use of iron.

Especially with all of those TiCo gravel ores around. I'm using TiCo and Thaumcraft, plus a few utility mods like Iron Chests, right now and I don't even double my ores in the smeltery (just using TiCo for the crafting table and decorative blocks really) and I have more iron and gold than I will ever use without having any tech mods.