This is something that has been buzzing around in the back of my head since... well... since I discovered Super Hostile maps and Modded Minecraft play, but particularly since I ran into Tinkers Constructs. Basically creating a Super Hostile type map which is built around, designed with, and fully supporting a specific mod pack.
This idea has been once again revived by KirinDave's Lethamyr series, which has a lot of really awesome potential.
In effect, I use mods which make the game more difficult as well as mods which add additional player options. And of course there are all kinds of synergy with some options with mods and Vexian-style build designs.
One of the problems with some of his earlier Super Hostile maps, which he addresses in his Inferno Mines dev commentary, is that Pointless Grinding is not necessarily more difficult, just more tedious. For an LPer, this is a very bad thing, particularly for some of the big-name LPers who do actually attempt to make a living off of their YT videos. It means that many more hours of game play per video released. Which means your map is much less likely to be LP'd.
To this end, he has presented the user with early-game enchantment options, the flame-spiders in his White Wool dungeon in Inferno Mines, for example, drop Bottles O' Enchanting, enchanted books, and the enchanted swords. This doesn't throw off the overall balance of the map, because the whole map is balanced on the fact this is the absolute minimum you should be using at any given time. He gives a plethora of enchanting tools and anvils to take advantage of them, because he expects you to need them as you progress through the map.
This is the sort of idea I had, although with some mods, it will become VASTLY easier to do. For example, Tinkers Constructs has its own enchanting system, all you would really need to do is provide the supplies. Which, conversely, means that you can gate certain options by restricting the access of those supplies. So, for example, you can gate Auto-Smelting by restricting when the players can get access to Blaze Rods. You can gate Fortune by gating Lapis. This means all those mobs that drop all those enchanting materials will become unnecessary for the purpose of obtaining the basic tools of survival.
Another idea I had was automation. In Inferno Mines, Vechs provided the player with an enormously automated base at the monument. He has also been providing 'rail kits' for some time now in several of his maps, to facilitate moving from a 'forward' base to the monument and previously conquered areas that are presumably pacified. Railcraft can bring this to a whole new level, and can create complex rail systems which can route you to any destination you wish effortlessly. It also brings Reinforced Rails which are not only Creeper Proof, but provide a noticeable speed boost. Oh, and more power options, steam-powered technology, and tanks. I'm rather tempted to disable the chunkloaders here, but since they run on EnderPearls, they might be able to stay.
Thermal Expansion is another mod I was strongly considering, due to automation. Let's face it, in a Super Hostile map, once you hit a resource, you pretty much have enough of that resource that refining it for double effect isn't really going to be a major game-changer. However, it is the level of automation they provide which is the true benefit here. Tesseracts are not going to be easy to produce... I'm not just going to be handing out EnderPearls, and EE3 is NOT going to be any part of this map, and neither will the End, so farming EnderPearls will actually be a challenge. This makes Tesseracts a useful tool, but not one which is created trivially.
KirinDave uses Factorization in his Lethamyr map. It's... umm... not my favorite mod. Yes, it can produce 3x returns, but no one bothers with it most of the time when TE is installed, and I prefer the convenience of TE's automation. Liquiducts and Energy Conduits are just that necessary.
MFR is another mod to be included in this setup, again due to automation requirements. Basically, it is a convenience and time-saver. Automation of harvesting food isn't going to break a game, but it will make things easier for the player. Plus Conveyor Belts are a good way of running things around. Rednet gives me all kinds of... interesting options for automated shenanigans.
AE will be 'Sir Not Appearing In This Map'. It's an enormously wonderful mod, it's just too powerful. Iron Chests will be included for storage convenience.
Forestry would also be included. You might find certain bee types in chests, or even certain beehives in remote locations. I had an idea for the Infested Orchard which had a lot of the Forestry aboriculture trees already grown in neat little rows... of course, you wouldn't have access to bronze yet, so you couldn't do much with them at that point, but it makes for lovely trees to fight in and around, knowing that you don't want to destroy them because they will be a valuable resource later on.
I may include Twilight Forest. Not because you are actually going to be able to travel to that dimension, but because of all the fun things it gives me to play with while constructing dungeons. Blocks that replace themselves when broken would be a great way to keep tunnel-rats from bypassing challenges. And of course, the mobs. After all, what would be the point in a Haunted Crypt without some ghosts to haunt it? I will disable the Uncrafting Bench, before you ask.
Now then, those are the tools you have available to you. But what you have to face? Well, with TiC and Natura come Nitro Creepers, and since I'm building this world from the ground up, I can include Nitro Creeper Spawners into things like the Creeper Toilet. Yanno, just to spice things up a bit. Also, Infernal Mobs will spice things up a bit, and I think I can custom create Infernal Mobs to pose as mini-bosses in certain areas.
Ars Magika would be another option, however it tends to be too open-ended for me to really throttle, and I doubt I could get permission to distribute in a mod pack, meaning I would then have to basically ship the mod pack without the mod installed, and ask the players to manually download and include the mod. But it does add in a lot of interesting opponents to fight.
I'm looking for other mods which might provide me with tools to make the maps a bit more... interesting. Granted, with MFR's Rednet, I have the potential to make some truly interesting traps and mechanisms, and you've seen the kinds of things Vechs can pull off with pure vanilla mechanics anyways with custom mob information, so when you combine that with more options from the various mods... mwhahaha. Oh, and I have been GM/DM/Storytelling for nearly thirty years now. If the name Tucker doesn't make you nervous... it will, oh it will.
Mind you, this is going to be a long-term project here. I will be effectively using it to teach myself all the ins and outs of map creation, probably teaching myself the latest version of MCEdit at the same time. At a minimum, it will take me months to put something together. So I'm wondering if there is any actual interest in a project like this before devoting all those hours of work.
Please let me know what you think of the idea, if you would like to play in such an environment, and any ideas for mods to include.
This idea has been once again revived by KirinDave's Lethamyr series, which has a lot of really awesome potential.
In effect, I use mods which make the game more difficult as well as mods which add additional player options. And of course there are all kinds of synergy with some options with mods and Vexian-style build designs.
One of the problems with some of his earlier Super Hostile maps, which he addresses in his Inferno Mines dev commentary, is that Pointless Grinding is not necessarily more difficult, just more tedious. For an LPer, this is a very bad thing, particularly for some of the big-name LPers who do actually attempt to make a living off of their YT videos. It means that many more hours of game play per video released. Which means your map is much less likely to be LP'd.
To this end, he has presented the user with early-game enchantment options, the flame-spiders in his White Wool dungeon in Inferno Mines, for example, drop Bottles O' Enchanting, enchanted books, and the enchanted swords. This doesn't throw off the overall balance of the map, because the whole map is balanced on the fact this is the absolute minimum you should be using at any given time. He gives a plethora of enchanting tools and anvils to take advantage of them, because he expects you to need them as you progress through the map.
This is the sort of idea I had, although with some mods, it will become VASTLY easier to do. For example, Tinkers Constructs has its own enchanting system, all you would really need to do is provide the supplies. Which, conversely, means that you can gate certain options by restricting the access of those supplies. So, for example, you can gate Auto-Smelting by restricting when the players can get access to Blaze Rods. You can gate Fortune by gating Lapis. This means all those mobs that drop all those enchanting materials will become unnecessary for the purpose of obtaining the basic tools of survival.
Another idea I had was automation. In Inferno Mines, Vechs provided the player with an enormously automated base at the monument. He has also been providing 'rail kits' for some time now in several of his maps, to facilitate moving from a 'forward' base to the monument and previously conquered areas that are presumably pacified. Railcraft can bring this to a whole new level, and can create complex rail systems which can route you to any destination you wish effortlessly. It also brings Reinforced Rails which are not only Creeper Proof, but provide a noticeable speed boost. Oh, and more power options, steam-powered technology, and tanks. I'm rather tempted to disable the chunkloaders here, but since they run on EnderPearls, they might be able to stay.
Thermal Expansion is another mod I was strongly considering, due to automation. Let's face it, in a Super Hostile map, once you hit a resource, you pretty much have enough of that resource that refining it for double effect isn't really going to be a major game-changer. However, it is the level of automation they provide which is the true benefit here. Tesseracts are not going to be easy to produce... I'm not just going to be handing out EnderPearls, and EE3 is NOT going to be any part of this map, and neither will the End, so farming EnderPearls will actually be a challenge. This makes Tesseracts a useful tool, but not one which is created trivially.
KirinDave uses Factorization in his Lethamyr map. It's... umm... not my favorite mod. Yes, it can produce 3x returns, but no one bothers with it most of the time when TE is installed, and I prefer the convenience of TE's automation. Liquiducts and Energy Conduits are just that necessary.
MFR is another mod to be included in this setup, again due to automation requirements. Basically, it is a convenience and time-saver. Automation of harvesting food isn't going to break a game, but it will make things easier for the player. Plus Conveyor Belts are a good way of running things around. Rednet gives me all kinds of... interesting options for automated shenanigans.
AE will be 'Sir Not Appearing In This Map'. It's an enormously wonderful mod, it's just too powerful. Iron Chests will be included for storage convenience.
Forestry would also be included. You might find certain bee types in chests, or even certain beehives in remote locations. I had an idea for the Infested Orchard which had a lot of the Forestry aboriculture trees already grown in neat little rows... of course, you wouldn't have access to bronze yet, so you couldn't do much with them at that point, but it makes for lovely trees to fight in and around, knowing that you don't want to destroy them because they will be a valuable resource later on.
I may include Twilight Forest. Not because you are actually going to be able to travel to that dimension, but because of all the fun things it gives me to play with while constructing dungeons. Blocks that replace themselves when broken would be a great way to keep tunnel-rats from bypassing challenges. And of course, the mobs. After all, what would be the point in a Haunted Crypt without some ghosts to haunt it? I will disable the Uncrafting Bench, before you ask.
Now then, those are the tools you have available to you. But what you have to face? Well, with TiC and Natura come Nitro Creepers, and since I'm building this world from the ground up, I can include Nitro Creeper Spawners into things like the Creeper Toilet. Yanno, just to spice things up a bit. Also, Infernal Mobs will spice things up a bit, and I think I can custom create Infernal Mobs to pose as mini-bosses in certain areas.
Ars Magika would be another option, however it tends to be too open-ended for me to really throttle, and I doubt I could get permission to distribute in a mod pack, meaning I would then have to basically ship the mod pack without the mod installed, and ask the players to manually download and include the mod. But it does add in a lot of interesting opponents to fight.
I'm looking for other mods which might provide me with tools to make the maps a bit more... interesting. Granted, with MFR's Rednet, I have the potential to make some truly interesting traps and mechanisms, and you've seen the kinds of things Vechs can pull off with pure vanilla mechanics anyways with custom mob information, so when you combine that with more options from the various mods... mwhahaha. Oh, and I have been GM/DM/Storytelling for nearly thirty years now. If the name Tucker doesn't make you nervous... it will, oh it will.
Mind you, this is going to be a long-term project here. I will be effectively using it to teach myself all the ins and outs of map creation, probably teaching myself the latest version of MCEdit at the same time. At a minimum, it will take me months to put something together. So I'm wondering if there is any actual interest in a project like this before devoting all those hours of work.
Please let me know what you think of the idea, if you would like to play in such an environment, and any ideas for mods to include.
