Hiatus

I haven't been feeling very creative with Minecraft lately...it could be boredom or just simply not my days. For now, my progress here on Minecraft FTB will be on a hiatus. I don't know when I'll be back. In the meantime, I'm enjoying games such as Transistor and World of Warcraft (go Worgens!).

FTB Expert Mode Guide

I’ve been occupied by work a lot lately and then there were errands I had to do, but anyways, I’m going to write what I discovered at work last week: An expert mode guide! It was so helpful and I was especially glad to see that my own trial and error process was following this guide exactly.

Guide Link

There are eight ages of progression I’ve identified that are related to the path I want to take—that is the technology path—they are as follows:

• Stone
• Smeltery
• Steel
• Nuclear
• Automation
• AE2
• Dimlet
• Creative

That is in the order of advancement. The last age, creative, is where I gain the technology that basically matches the creative mode I suppose. I’ve identified myself to be in the steel age right now.

At any rate, I’m very excited to actually have some sense of direction in what I’m doing. I'm eager to get to work now!

According to this guide, it seems that nuclear generation and the production of iridium is the next step; however, I need to first focus on the list of machines it suggested and making a lot more watermills for power generation in the meantime.

Update from the Last Few Days

The three story laboratory in its completed state.

I finally finished the laboratory. I think this was one of my biggest projects I’ve had yet so far. There’s a lot of space inside for testing apparatus. The microchip facility is in the basement and is pretty much constructed. I imagine the lab will be good for a long while hopefully—meaning, I won’t need to expand it for some time.

The electronics factory is now called the electronic components factory as it is used to make wires, circuits, batteries, and such. It’s fully operational too. It was a bit difficult in the beginning as I had trouble figuring out the machinery layout. The problem was where the buildcraft pipes wasn’t inserting the items into the autocrafters. Moments later and some internet research, it turned out that I needed hook up hoppers to the autocrafters in order to transfer the items from pipes. In the meantime, I built another factory for electric engines; I suspect I’ll be using them a lot later.

Some agricultural areas were expanded. A chicken coop producing, eggs, meat, and feathers has been built. I think I’ll make an apiary or two soon.

The rock crusher has been constructed and fully operational.

The rail factory is operational as well. In there, explosives, tracks, and carts are made. I also hooked it up to the power grid.

My main concerns involve energy and rubber.

The water power plant is starting to strain. I’ve had three crises where I nearly ran out of power. This is dangerous because some areas of my town are only lit by a powered lantern—once the power goes out, monsters will plague my streets. All of my power generation options seem so far out of there and expensive. Nonetheless, I think the steam boiler is my best option.

Rubber, well, as my electrical systems develop, more and more wires and circuits are used. I only have a small reserve of raw rubber. I might need to figure out a good place to start rubber farms soon.

Progression

The new metalworks and construction shop. A couple automatic miners can be seen sitting in the yard off the side of the metalworks too.

I spent most of my time today making a metalworks, construction shop, stone smelter, and an electronics factory. I can really feel myself advancing. These new buildings will help my progression by a lot.

The electronics factory isn’t really operational yet, but the basic layout is already placed. What stopped me was the fact I needed redstone engines.

This leads me to the next thing I plan to for the next time I play: Expanding the laboratory and moving the workshop there while also developing and microchip facility. The reasons for this is because the workshop is usually a place I go to for creating newer tech. Then as they become common, specialized buildings such as factories are erected—like the electronics factory. I believe it’ll fit best in the lab.

The windmill and smeltery is slowly becoming abandoned as I move to the bigger, better buildings.

The watermill power plant is sustaining my new development well.

I’ve also been getting a ton of iron and a few diamonds from those automatic miners. They have made a great investment to me.

My main goal now is the pave the path to the Immersive Engineering’s excavator. The rock crusher makes that possible. I just need to construct a facility for the industrial squeezer, refinery, and diesel generator. But first, the lab will have my attention.

Greener Pastures

I could not believe my eyes when I saw this. If I recall correctly, I got a total of 8 diamonds from that ore vein hanging over the pool of lava.

In preparation for the upcoming goals, I decided to made a bunch of improvements and complete a rock crusher to progress to higher tier machinery.

The automatic miners in reality are very slow. The rock crusher needed diamonds to be crafted and miners only yielded some. I decided to invest another trip down with the tunnel bore in hopes of finding more iron and diamonds—that turned out to be a lucky success as I found a motherlode of diamonds in a lava cavern not far off the newly drilled tunnel.

I needed the rock crusher to make light engineering blocks for the industrial squeezer and diesel generator.

In the meantime, my settlement is in chaos. Buildings are cluttered close to each other because when I started out, this was to combat threatening monsters lurking around at night. But the place is much more secure now, so that’s the least of my worries. On top of that, I designed most of the buildings to accommodate the current technology I built them for, but the newer technology makes everything look messier or out of place.

I’ve tried a few strategies to organize them, but they all suck. It just seems that I need to move on from my original starting area and to the outer area—where everything is untouched and waiting to be utilized.

I’ll probably do this by slowly abandoning the old area and build newer, more modern facilities outward. The first buildings in the old area will be most likely be combined with the greenhouse to make the Agricultural Research Center (ARC) I’ve been wanting for a while. The workshop will be moved to the lab. An electronics factory and metalworks is definitely on my list as well.

Improvements

My settlement so far.

In preparation for the upcoming goals, I decided to made a bunch of improvements and complete the constructions of the unfinished buildings.

I also wanted to test those powered lanterns—which guaranteed to repel enemies in a 35 block radius around it—by building them in the cattle and sheep pastures. It worked really well! A couple nights passed and no enemies spawned on the grounds.

One thing got me thinking however, was how I need to start pushing now. I feel like I’m hitting a plateau. Maybe I’m afraid of expending resources on expensive projects that might not work out. Nonetheless, I should focus on a simple miner machines to speed up the ore collection or stick to the tunnel bore.

Furthermore, during my wiki research, I discovered the steam boiler. I can power it with coal and it definitely looked promising. It might be a good idea to build one if the water mill plant isn’t enough for those miners.

Automation Out of Reach

The tunnels I picked off along the sides of the main tunnel. The tunnel bore is hard at work at the end of the tunnel where it’s darker (too dark to be seen here).

I made the railroad factory and a small workshop for making industrial TNT. A few more tunnels were drilled for ores. I found it effective to also pickaxe several short tunnels off the main tunnel to check for ores as shown in the picture above. From what I see, a typical drilling delivers about 40 to 60 iron ores per trip.

Once I started research on the harvester and planter required to automate my farms, it got very complicated. I attempted a flowchart to help clarify what I needed, but it got so extensive that I decided against it. There was a certain machine, however, that proved—and I just knew—that these automation machines are far, far out of my reach at this current time: The magma crucible. Again, I need the nether bricks to complete it; which I have not found yet.

Besides, from the looks of it, I will need a network of ore processing, crafting, smelting, compressing, transporting—heck, an entire industry of factories to obtain just one automated machine.

Modern conveniences make our lives so easy but I seriously had no idea they are theoretically difficult to get. It makes me appreciate them more in real life.

So anyway, I’m going to focus on enabling myself to develop ore processing and mining machinery. However, I’ll first need a way to power them. The windmill won’t be enough. I already started work on the watermill power plant, but I know that won’t be enough too. Solar panels are impossible to gain obviously. So I have two energy options I’m aware of: Coal and oil.

Thankfully in the world of Minecraft, no skies will get polluted.

At any rate, I’ll need microchips…a lot of them; so that watermill will power mainly the research facility for them. I’ll need a ton of iron too, for making that oil/biodiesel generator and the systems that will go with it.