In post 12430, Rhinox wrote:Thanks for the help and support guys. I know I'll eventually figure it all out, I'm just frustrated because lately it seems like I only have smaller chunks of time to get on, and I'm ready to actually start seeing results rather than perpetual set-up. I've been "starting bees and trees" for 2 weeks now.
Heh, you picked one of the largest mods to start with
If you feel frustrated, take a break from "climbing the tech tree", and use the cool natural blocks (marble, basalt, autumn trees) to just build architectural stuff.
Thats my plan. I was going to start with railcraft but then decided I wanted to start out with something a little simpler. Forestry seemed simpler, and I get something IMO useful out of it (new wood colors).
Well, both Railcraft AND forestry are expansions to Buildcraft, so you can't really get into any of these without learning a bit of BC first. Here is my particular breakdown of mods, maybe it can help you to see which are related:
Buildcraft tree:
* Buildcraft (BC): Adds tree engines, "tubes" transport system, quarries and fillers, marble and basalt and a few machines to automatically process ore.
* Thermal expansion (TE): Adds more engines, better tubes and energy transport system, resource teleportation, more machines to process ores. Depends a bit on Buildcraft to get started, but can be done without BC if you really know the mod.
The following three depends on having a basic BC or TE system stablished:
* Railcraft: Changes the rail system of vanilla, adds tons of options to rails, adds steam power and liquid tanks. Adds automatic feeders.
* Forestry: adds biofuel, automatic farming, backpacks (these are super useful, and not dependent on the rest of the mod)
* Bees/Extra Bees: Adds new ways to generate resources, new trees, colored glasses
IC Tree:
* As buildcraft, adds an energy system, lots of machines for processing ore. Also adds many tiers of tools and armor. Some interesting "offshoots" in the mod are the crops system (farming resources, super time intensive) and nuclear generation of energy.
* Important: IC does not include an "Item transport" system - so you have to either move everything by hand, or mix it with BC a bit.
* Modular Powersuits: Not exactly an extension of IC, but depends on IC for power, and the recipes based on IC are simpler. This is a very fun to play armor system: you create an armor and add/remove abilities to it to make different configurations.
Thaumcraft:
An independent, really large and in-depth mod about magic items. It has almost all the functionalities as the other mods, but in a slightly different order. Includes a fair number of new blocks as well.
RedPower2:
Unlike BC and IC, where you have "machines" with complex functions, in RP2 you have blocks with very simple functions that can be put together to make large machines. So you have a block that breaks other blocks, and you have a block that moves other blocks - you can combine both (and a few other stuff) to build a machine that breaks a line of blocks and move itself forward to break the next line. Includes a lot of "redstone gates" blocks, to make building redstone mechanisms simpler.
Redpower2 also includes the "microblocks" that can be great for improving builds.
ComputerCraft:
Includes a computer and a robot (turtle), both can understand a programming language called LUA. The computer can send wireless signals to other computers, set redstone signals around it, and write to a piece of paper or to a large "monitor" block. The turtle can do all of the above, and also move around and use tools like a player.
Factorization:
Includes machines for processing ores but, frankly, they are kinda clunky. Has the famous barrels, and upgrades to those barrels, as well as a "magic" sorting machine (the router).
Twilight Forest and Mystcraft: adds new worlds to explore, so there is not really a tech tree to climb here. Twilight forest adds a bunch of new blocks and mobs in itself.
Xycraft: Adds a lot of new crafting blocks, and a few "magic" machines that work well along with other mods, such as an auto crafting table, a tank, a block that destroys liquids, a block that creates ice, etc, etc.
I might be forgetting a few ones, but these are the main ones that involve new blocks.