BTW Pure Mods

[Sarudak]

Just to reign this back in, this isn't a thread about BOD, it's one about 'good mixers' with BTW.

In other news :o omg! BTW just updated 5 mins ago! *downloads*

It's not about "good mixers", it's about "pure mods", which is even further.

Good mixers just work fine with BTW and play nice;
Pure mods are mods that don't change anything about the balance.

For example, BuildCraft is a good mixer, BOD is pure

I don't know that I would agree that BOD doesn't change anything about the balance...

[Mr_Hosed]

So I've been trying some of these out. The following is my new preferred list of mods.

-BTW (Obviously)
-Better Ore Distribution (A bit odd seeing nothing but rock everywhere at first, but I LOVE how it forces mining colonies)
-Timber (Because floating trees are stupid)
-CraftGuide
-ZombieAwareness (SO good. Makes combat interesting.)
-NightmareMode (Adds a need to fortify and tool up when mining.)

I'm also looking at the Invasion Mod. Adds a toggle-able (via a placed block) "Tower Defense" aspect to Minecraft. However, it also adds a few new weapons, which some may not like. Here's the link if anyone else wants to check it out.

http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/780 ... gh-do-you/

I should also note that everything above ZombieAwareness has been updated to 1.0.0 and is compatible with the latest release of BTW.

[Dr Ug]

There has been a lot of interest in BOD recently, and while I was impatiently waiting for it to update to 1.0 earlier in the week, I started work on my own ore redistrubtion mod, now called "Better Veins". It makes large (actually contiguous) veins, but also some small veins. If anyone is interested, here is the link to the MCF page, and to the DL (Mediafire).

Should be completely compatible with BTW.

[Zhil]

I don't know that I would agree that BOD doesn't change anything about the balance...

Oh? Explain?

[Sarudak]

I don't know that I would agree that BOD doesn't change anything about the balance...

Oh? Explain?

It makes attaining massive amounts of mineral resources much easier (at least with default settings). Lapis is espescially easy as it's been move to occur up at the surface in huge veins. But I think it should suffice to say I've been playing for two days and I have

3.5 stacks lapis BLOCKS
1.5 stacks diamonds
11 stacks redstone (and know where to get tons more)
1.5 stacks iron BLOCKS
1 stack gold Ingots

I think it's fairly obvious that it makes mining easier. On the other hand it makes it more fun and interesting and I like how it alters the game play as previously mining was dull as dirt and took no thought whatsoever.

[Zhil]

Sure, but you can just dial it down if you think it's too powerful. The mod is configurable.

Anyone up for creating the ideal BTW+BOD config file for BOD?

[Sarudak]

Sure, but you can just dial it down if you think it's too powerful. The mod is configurable.

Anyone up for creating the ideal BTW+BOD config file for BOD?

I'd be interested in that myself.

Problem 1: I don't seem to have a config file with mine.
Problem 2: I have no effecient way of testing.

[Shengji]

Sure, but you can just dial it down if you think it's too powerful. The mod is configurable.

Anyone up for creating the ideal BTW+BOD config file for BOD?

I'd be interested in that myself.

Problem 1: I don't seem to have a config file with mine.
Problem 2: I have no effecient way of testing.

Do a search for BOD_Properties.txt

Also if you want to test settings, try Minecraft XRay

here's my configuration

Spoiler

Show

#Dirt
3Rarity=80
3VeinSize=15
3VeinAmount=10
3Height=128
3Diameter=32
3VerticalDensity=15
3HorizontalDensity=10

#Gravel
13Rarity=80
13VeinSize=15
13VeinAmount=10
13Height=128
13Diameter=32
13VerticalDensity=15
13HorizontalDensity=10

#Gold
14Rarity=260
14VeinSize=20
14VeinAmount=35
14Height=128
14Diameter=100
14VerticalDensity=30
14HorizontalDensity=10

#Iron
15Rarity=130
15VeinSize=20
15VeinAmount=35
15Height=128
15Diameter=80
15VerticalDensity=15
15HorizontalDensity=20

#Coal
16Rarity=130
16VeinSize=16
16VeinAmount=44
16Height=128
16Diameter=60
16VerticalDensity=75
16HorizontalDensity=10

#Lapis
21Rarity=460
21VeinSize=20
21VeinAmount=25
21Height=128
21Diameter=50
21VerticalDensity=30
21HorizontalDensity=10

#Diamond
56Rarity=430
56VeinSize=20
56VeinAmount=25
56Height=40
56Diameter=10
56VerticalDensity=80
56HorizontalDensity=10

#Redstone
73Rarity=190
73VeinSize=25
73VeinAmount=20
73Height=30
73Diameter=25
73VerticalDensity=30
73HorizontalDensity=5

#Tin
170Rarity=190
170VeinSize=25
170VeinAmount=20
170Height=30
170Diameter=25
170VerticalDensity=30
170HorizontalDensity=5

I think it gives a nice balance between frustration of never finding everything and difficulty. As you can see, I've made diamond and redstone very hard to find as they are very rare and only found very deep. The others can spawn at any depth so although they have a similar rarity, they have a much greater volume to spawn in, which nicely offsets the bonus of finding them at the surface. Very interested to try other peoples configs though.

[misterwuggles]

I'll be sticking with the default config for a while, but there's certainly a huge difference. I'm pretty sure I got lucky, but the first cave/mine I hit (right under my first shelter) has gotten me 3.5 stacks of diamonds, a few stacks of iron and more coal/redstone than I'll likely ever use. I'd say I'm maybe only 20% done mining it out. I'd like to give it a bit more time to test it out and see how sparse these mines are, but so far it seems like when you DO hit a mine you hit it pretty gosh dang big. I kinda like it since I can be more loose with my resources and it doesn't really affect the difficulty or pacing of BTW, but I'll probably end up tweaking the config file over time and toning it down a bit.

Either way, I think I'd prefer even a default BOD over vanilla ore distribution. I'll gladly take a bit of 'overpowered-ness' (not that I've EVER had trouble finding materials in vanilla) for mining that has a much cooler feel to it. Blandness is not always a good form of difficulty, and that's more or less what vanilla provides.


Honestly, even though I already have more than I'll probably ever be able to use, I'm still very interested in mining this vein out and finding new mines and connecting my outposts and whatnot.

[MoRmEnGiL]

Can we agree though that bringing mining charges in the equation does weird things for the balance? :p As in making them totally obsolete for mining.

[Shengji]

Can we agree though that bringing mining charges in the equation does weird things for the balance? :p As in making them totally obsolete for mining.

While I do agree that it certainly affects the balance of the mining charges, in my view it makes them massively overpowered - they can mine out an entire seam in moments once you've located one!

[misterwuggles]

Well, that depends on your opinions I suppose.

Personally, by the time I got to Mining Charges with vanilla ore distribution I didn't really need them anyway, they were just a neat alternate way to mine. While it's true that with BOD I have even less need for mining, the level of need doesn't really change the fact that with both scenarios I don't really NEED the Charges. For me, the ore layout is more interesting and more enjoyable and I'm more inclined to use Mining Charges to look for new veins so I can become some sort of ridiculously wealthy ore baron. In vanilla I'd say you not only get less from your Mining Charge prospecting, but it's also less interesting in general due to the completely random layout of vanilla ore. Again it largely comes down to personal preference, but that's how I feel about it.

Admittedly, this is only based on a day or so of playing with it, so I'll have a more concrete opinion on it in the future. So far it did FEEL overpowered at first but now that I've been playing for a bit, so far (may change once I get further into the BTW tech) I'm in the same exact boat as if I were doing things pure vanilla. I've usually found enough coal/iron/diamonds by this point to keep a steady flow of everything going anyway, so really it's the difference between having 20 diamonds that I don't need or 120 diamonds that I don't need.

[MoRmEnGiL]

While I do agree that it certainly affects the balance of the mining charges, in my view it makes them massively overpowered - they can mine out an entire seam in moments once you've located one!

The time you save does not justify the cost of the charges. It is an entirely different thing to blast mine with charges on layer 13 with normal distribution (instead of branch mining,a long and arduous process), and to have this huge vein you are too bored to hack away at (a really short and easy one)

[Mr_Hosed]

The time you save does not justify the cost of the charges. It is an entirely different thing to blast mine with charges on layer 13 with normal distribution (instead of branch mining,a long and arduous process), and to have this huge vein you are too bored to hack away at (a really short and easy one)

Actually, I use mining charges for exploration pits. Setup a quary with a dispensor and mining charges and let 'er rip. Move over 32 blocks and do it again! Eventually you put a shaft down the edge of a vein and voila! New mining outpost.

The nice thing about this is now I have a reason for my automated reed farms, for setting up an automated saw dust mill, and for building the silly pig breeder/pig slayer. Once auto-breeding is introduced the whole process becomes automated at my base while I'm out finding the next vein.

Also, in vMC I end up with diamonds very quickly since I like to just plop a 2 block shaft straight down after I have some saplings and wood. But with BOD I spent 6 hours searching and fighting through caves before I even found iron or coal. I then spent another 6 hours before I found diamonds and redstone. I still haven't found gold after 15 hours. Really keeps me motivated to build those mining charge quaries ;)

[MoRmEnGiL]

Hm, yeah if you put it that way you are right, with bod charges are not really for mining but for finding veins. Good point.

[Mr_Hosed]

Hm, yeah if you put it that way you are right, with bod charges are not really for mining but for finding veins. Good point.

It just creates an interesting variation on the gameplay. I forgot to mention that BTW also adds a lot of activities I can do inbetween finding veins, which is why they fit together fairly well. Though, I must admit that when I was first searching caverns and finding nothing but rock, gravel, and dirt everywhere it did get to be tedious.

Also, I've found that in vMC as well as all the various mods I've played one always ends up with massive amounts of resources stock piled after a certain point in the game. Unfortunately, with the basic gameplay and crafting system of Minecraft I don't see a way around this. Even with EE you reach a point where you can literally build your castles out of DM blocks (which each requires something like 3 diamond BLOCKS to craft).

[The great randomo]

No, I played EE for a while (It didn't seem legit to me) and it takes 16 diamond blocks to make a dark matter block. Ridiculous.
I can't really see you building a castle out of the things. :)

[Mr_Hosed]

No, I played EE for a while (It didn't seem legit to me) and it takes 16 diamond blocks to make a dark matter block. Ridiculous.
I can't really see you building a castle out of the things. :)

In the 5.X releases of EE everything was changed. However, in the 3.X versions of EE I had a world where I literally had a chest full of stacks of DM blocks. The items in that mod have an exponential effect and after about 20 hours in you find yourself having more resources then you'd ever need. As I said, essentially creative mode.

[Zhil]

I just updated the OP for 1.0. If anyone knows of any mods that are now compatible and worth inclusion, feel free to tell me :)

Two of the OP mods are not updated yet.

[Yamboyz1]

This is my current setup of mods in 1.0, which I am very pleased with because they're all compatible and all awesome mods. (Even if some are kinda buggy)

Including mod APIs and mods like Modloader that other mods use, here is the list in the order of which I installed them-

Modloader
Audiomod
Better Than Wolves
GuiAPI
CustomMobSpawner
Mo Creatures
Modloader MP
Portal Gun Mod
Toomanyitems
MAtmos sound expansion
Singleplayercommands

I've considered installing elemental arrows a lot, except now since I've tried the end boss with just a homing bow and 64 explosive arrows and I managed to kill him in less than a minute without destroying any of the healing towers, I think it's not really a choice anymore.


Edit: Sorry for making an off-topic post...

[Sarudak]

So I've been trying some of these out. The following is my new preferred list of mods.

-BTW (Obviously)
-Better Ore Distribution (A bit odd seeing nothing but rock everywhere at first, but I LOVE how it forces mining colonies)
-Timber (Because floating trees are stupid)
-CraftGuide
-ZombieAwareness (SO good. Makes combat interesting.)
-NightmareMode (Adds a need to fortify and tool up when mining.)

I'm also looking at the Invasion Mod. Adds a toggle-able (via a placed block) "Tower Defense" aspect to Minecraft. However, it also adds a few new weapons, which some may not like. Here's the link if anyone else wants to check it out.

http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/780 ... gh-do-you/

I should also note that everything above ZombieAwareness has been updated to 1.0.0 and is compatible with the latest release of BTW.

Do you have a link to this nightmare mode? What does it do?

[Mr_Hosed]

Do you have a link to this nightmare mode? What does it do?

http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/817 ... ooth-rain/

Hasn't been updated to 1.0.0 yet. Nightmare Mode combined with Zombie Awareness allows you to customize spawns rates and dramatically improves the AI so your base comes under siege from time to time. Here's a series of videos done using vMC with NightmareMode installed.

Episode 1 - http://youtu.be/fN7A5JVVosM
Episode 2 - http://youtu.be/sm5bdtK87Mg
Episode 3 - http://youtu.be/UkfdsfSUK4k
Final Episode - http://youtu.be/bKl-h6wZE6U

Makes fortifying your base important.

[Zhil]

This is my current setup of mods in 1.0, which I am very pleased with because they're all compatible and all awesome mods. (Even if some are kinda buggy)

Including mod APIs and mods like Modloader that other mods use, here is the list in the order of which I installed them-

Modloader
Audiomod
Better Than Wolves
GuiAPI
CustomMobSpawner
Mo Creatures
Modloader MP
Portal Gun Mod
Toomanyitems
MAtmos sound expansion
Singleplayercommands

I've considered installing elemental arrows a lot, except now since I've tried the end boss with just a homing bow and 64 explosive arrows and I managed to kill him in less than a minute without destroying any of the healing towers, I think it's not really a choice anymore.

None of those are BTW pure though

[Yamboyz1]

Oh.. sssssssssSorry then :/

^I even Incorporated minecraft into something serious.

[Zhil]

Oh.. sssssssssSorry then :/

^I even Incorporated minecraft into something serious.

Try reading the thread again, while stuff like Portal Gun Mod are awesome and compatible, it really doesn't feel like something that fits in with BTW's technology tree.