MOD sugguestions

[Dwight]

So I am running basically what we think of as a test server until Forge ( has to happen first ) and Glacticraft catch up to Minecraft 1.8, we assume it will be many months from now.
The only other mod we are using is the craft guide ( yes we know about NEI but prefer Craft Guide )

so....

We love Glacticraft... zero question and want that as the primary mod the server is built around, all other potential mods in support of Glaacticraft

so... Rad has explained that they are not going to add fluid pipes and such that can be achieved with other mods and the use of canisters and such. Understood.... and I wont ask again ( and am not asking now )

what Mod would be the minimum.... disrupt the least a Glacticraft server... adding the least ammount of stuff, but provide full functionality and piping? And perhas a couple of interesting things.

We dont want Buildcraft, or Ender IO, or the other major ones, way too disruptive, auto mining, and far to much

Know very little about Thermal Expansion

what would be the least disruptive Mod?

I did look at Mechinizm really interesting looking, loved the wind generators and such, considering that one.

Are there other mods I should be considering? which one would be the least disruptive for a Glacticraft Server?

Looking for.. fluid tanks, fluid piping, all hookups for Glacricraft machines functioning and self contained.

Would not mind a few extra machines, but not the primary goal.

 

[radfast]

It will be interesting to see what other players think here.

There are mods which only offer pipes and tanks, for example Fluid Mechanics or a small (not many downloads), more recent mod called Pressure Pipes.

For more machinery and power options, I would consider Mekanism to be Galacticraft's most natural partner. But note, all three of the 'obvious' partners for Galacticraft, that's Mekanism, IC2, and Thermal Expansion, offer some type of "ore doubling" system. These mods have machines to double your metal ingot output from ores, at an earlier stage in the game than you would be able to craft an Electric Arc Furnace from Galacticraft. Mid-game, Mekanism and Thermal Expansion can triple your metal ingots. A full build of Thermal Expansion can even quadruple the ingot production, although the cost of the machinery for that may not make it worthwhile.

From early game onwards, Mekanism is over-powered in terms of armour, swords and tools: it adds tiers of armour and tools higher than diamond, but you can have the materials to craft them within the first hour of game time. Galacticraft also adds higher tiers of armour and tools (heavy duty, desh, and titanium) but ours are only modest improvements on diamond, and the higher tiers are intended to be your reward for traveling to further planets. Mekanism spoils that progression, because its obsidian armour and tools are already better than anything Galacticraft offers. I think the Mekanism Tools component of the mod is optional though, so you could leave the Tools out to have a more balanced game.

Late game, Thermal Expansion can be considered over-powered in terms of base management and electricity generation, you can make vast amounts of almost free electricity from lava in the Nether, and move any electricity / fluid / items anywhere wirelessly, even between dimensions, using the Tesseract.

Both Mekanism and Thermal Expansion are over-powered in allowing a player to carry a portable chest (Electric Chest for Mekanism, Strongbox for Thermal Expansion) full of items in the player inventory. This means you can carry a huge quantity of items into space with you without even needing a Chest Rocket. Thermal Expansion also has the portable tank.

Although over-powered in this way, personally I enjoy playing with either of these mods. There is a learning curve for their machinery, meaning it's very satisfactory to build a fully working system. I think that it's OK for the game to progress to a stage where mining becomes easier. After you have a base full of machinery and ambitions for space travel to outer planets, you don't really still want to be spending more than 75% of your gametime on lengthy mining expeditions trying to gather all the ores needed for that. I don't hate mining - it is MineCraft after all - but I think that once you have reached mid-game onwards it needs to be done in quick efficient bursts of mining, so that it does not become a grind, and Mekanism and TE both help with that.

A final consideration is that (I think) Thermal Expansion 1.7.10 is not yet finished, so it does not yet have its Fluiducts - if someone knows differently please point me to a download so I can test them with GC.

Game balance is a subtle science, and in the end you're probably going to have to try these out for yourself for several hours to see if they fit with your server or not. It's true that all of these power/machinery mods make the game easier, but I would argue more fun.

You can go the other way and make the game harder - a modpack such as End of Light takes that to its extreme (tons of extra mobs, high damage 'Infernal' mobs, Hunger Overhaul so you have to spend the first 10 hours of gameplay just getting enough to eat, Enviromine so you have to return to your base every 10 minutes which prevents long mining or resource-gathering expeditions, Iguana Tweaks to Tinker's Construct so iron and diamond tools and diamond armour cannot be crafted without about 20 hours of grinding away at mining, and meteors and weather mods so that your house and farm are periodically randomly destroyed. Oh, and the Nether and the End have had their difficulty level increased by about 500% so you will basically die. A lot.)

Something is probably wrong, though, if you add a machinery mod and then you have to add another mod to rebalance the game so it is harder.

 

[Hanakocz]

You also can use Railcraft, which transports liquids (and items also) via minecarts in rails , not with pipes.....but you can also make full automation of machines etc (maybe it can be a little more space consuming, but also more fancy)
And the biggest plus of this mod is that you can disable all parts which you dont like, so you can keep just minecarts, rails, and stuff needed for that...
And for same prize there are also big tanks for fluids

 

[Dwight]

Thank you RAD!!!!

If Fluid Mechanics or Pressure Pipe are comparable with Glacticraft, that will be the easy way to go

I have seriously looked at Mechinizm and without ever playing it, it looked overpowerd to me, I want something that will compliment Glacticraft, not totally change all the power systems. it looks really neat... but way overpowered

I also looked at Railcraft... that in an interesting Mod but much larger then what I was looking for

Thank you for the disable info Hanakocz .....I didn't know that!

we are not totally freaked out about making the game easier... or harder... but ballance is important to us, and so many mods I have looked at would make Glacticraft easier... which is not what we are really shooting for.

Railcraft however is interestring... I can see having lots of fun with that too.

I will be checking out Fluid Mechanics and Pressure Pipe today

 

[Dwight]

alas

Pressure pipe is ONLY about high pressure piping, meant as an add on to a mod that has normal fluid pipe ( but I suppose that could still work )

and Fluid Dynamics does not seem to be updated to 1.7.10

I will keep looking

 

[Hanakocz]

Well, another good thing for RailCraft is that it can make more fancy also getting of steel (building blast furnace) , which is not really big problem for balance. Also coal coke or creosote oil are good for better powering of your base, and....people transport with rail is also really interesting to have between your bases...
Or you can easily transpot oil into your base via rail/tank-carts....etc

 

[Dwight]

You have me thinking Radfast... not sure how good an idea that is, to get me thinking I mean.
I looked at Fluid Mechanics, not updated enough for the version of Minecraft I want to use 1.7.10
I looed at Pressure Pipe, but it is more of an addon for other mods like Buildcraft
I took a longer second look at Buildcraft... and it just doesn’t seem the direction we want to go
so... this weekend I will take a more serious look at Mechinizm
and do some reading....
......... and maybe take out the garbage ( chuckle )
Bottom line is fun...but also a challenge.
I agree

 

[Dwight]

You guys have converted me to NEI from the craft guide

Im not easy to convert

 

[radfast]

One thing I forgot to say. Mekanism has a teleporter, which works to move you between Overworld and Galacticraft dimensions or any other place. So once you've taken a rocket somewhere once, you never need to take a rocket again. Opinion is divided on whether that is a good thing. People who play on public multiplayer servers generally have several ways to teleport around the map anyhow (/home, /f home, /tpa, /back, /spawn as well as any /warps set up), though on some servers access to those commands may depend on donations.

 

[Dwight]

Yeah... the more I look at it... the more it breaks what Glacticraft is and means...

we are talking but we are in a holding pattern.... I think we are going to stick with Glacticraft alone

do I have a list of wants.. sure... but these other mods just... sort of break the idea of Glacticraft... to me anyway. Dont want it easier... don't really want it harder... I like it the way it is.

Thanks for the suggestions Radfast