Better than Wolves review, MC Forge 1.0.0!

Minecrat Forge for Minecraft 1.0.0 has been released! Grab it at MCForum! But keep in mind that, while MC Forge and ModLoader might be up to date, the mods themselves might not. And make backups before any actualization! That includes the mincraft.jar file! And of the big mods that use MCForge, I thing only Buildcraft has been actualized, and it's a version 2.2.6 (not 3.0, which seems to still be on beta).


So I was a little "saturated" from the let's play (frankly, I don't know what the hell I'm doing wrong, but I tend to face heavy FPS losses every now and then... maybe it's the outrageous amount of engines I use, or the huge concentration of teleporting pipes, or...), and I decided to go check some of the new parts of Better Than Wolves I had missed the last time I was able to play it with other mods. It's a pain in the ass, by the way, because the mod has to be injected inside the minecraft.jar file and uses a lot of itemIDs, but it is also a great mod, with a lot of interactions between its components ouside of machines (kinda like Buildcraft 2's interactions between the engines and the blocks).

Anyway, I was looking some awesome videos made by Battosay52 and I really wanted to make an automated pottery "factory". Well, not really automated (but changing the button for a timer would have made it fully automated) but I liked the way it looked at the end. Hell, I even installed a second .minecraft folder and I've been playing around in a clean world trying some stuff. And truth be said, Redpower 2 is a lifesaver (aah, those gems that you can only use to craft diamond-level tools... sadly, they don't seem to be hooked at BTW, unlike the Nethercoal working into an alloy furnace, but oh well...). Anyway, I'll stop the rambling and show you the final product here, in two videos. Yes, I know FlowerChild (BTW's developer) has decided to drop out from the MC Forge project.

And don't worry, tomorrow you will have your dose of Tale of Kingdoms ^^

Tale of Kingdoms Episode 8: Against the Reficul!

I now have gear good enough to kick them without help, tricks or dying. Sadly, the Reficuls retaliate inmediately. Will the Guild survive?

On the good side... I will publish two episodes in two days! Yay!

Censorship day, take two

I received this email, so I thought it would be good to share it with you all.

The Internet Censorship Bill took a massive beating last week (yeah, you did that!) but drug companies, movie studios and the Chamber of Commerce do *not* go down easy.

Now-- get this-- they're telling Congress it's a "jobs" bill.

This is dangerous.  Everyone in Congress is desperate to do something to create jobs.  Now the most powerful lobbies in Washington are banging down their doors, saying "this is your (only) chance to pass a jobs bill."

Since Congress is away for the holiday, there's one priority: sign up  as many people as possible for a massive call-in day when Congress returns.

Click here to join in, by committing to call your Senator

Since the House's "SOPA" has such a bad name (yes, you did that) lobbyists are moving their weight behind the Senate version, PIPA ("The PROTECT IP Act"). The Senate's censorship bill is just as bad; it's only missing a few of SOPA's extra-crazy provisions, like the ones that could send you to jail for singing a pop song on YouTube.  The website blocking provisions are all there.  Still, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid thinks that with the attention on SOPA, he can sneak PIPA through quickly when Congress returns.

Reid needs to know this bill won't move forward without a fight.  That's why we're organizing a call-in day for Tuesday, using the same tools that our heroes at Tumblr used last week.  It's kind of perfect.  While Congress rests we've got 5 full days to sign up friends, colleagues, Twitter followers-- everybody.  Then on Tuesday we'll unleash a storm of phone calls.

Click here to sign up, and then get others signed up too.

This weekend, instead of nobly vegging out on the internet, you can fight for the future of the internet and freedom of speech.  Every ounce of time you spend counts.

Signups now, phone calls Tuesday.  Start your engines.

Holmes Wilson
Fight for the Future / AmericanCensorship.org

P.S. Are you a Tumblr user?  We just put up a special section with extra-easy instructions for Tumblr users to add a "Stop Censorship" button to their site:  http://americancensorship.org/#tumblr

I really do hope that this silly idea of censoring the internet won't come to pass. After all, America is a country of freedom, isn't it?

Tale of Kingdoms Episode 7: EEenergy

Now we place some Energy Collectors and Solar Panels. Things start to speed up!

Tale of Kingdoms Episode 6: Electricity and food

Sixth episode. Fortunately, soon I will get really good stuff...

Tale of Kingdoms Episode 5: diamond factory

Now let's make some diamonds. In case Steve? founds a girl to his liking...

Tale of Kingdoms episode 4: Cobblestone

And let's see how I make the the Diamond factory. Believe it or not, once you have enough Dark Matter to craft four Antimatter Relays and the Energy Collectors to keep them fed, then your cobblestone factory will become obsolete, sadly.

And no, I won't update Minecraft for this series even if the mods actualize. Once I finished the series, then yes.

Tale of Kingdoms Episode 3: hitting the industry

Let's place some Industrialcraft machines. And cabling...

Censorship day (scroll down to see the link)

Most of you visit this blog from America. While I do not reside there, I am a 100% against censorship, and I find quite shaming for a goverment claiming to protect "freedom" to do things like yesterday's police charge in New York. Words like "No right is absolute", as Mr. Bloomberg said, are quite correct: we lose what we don't protect.

I'm not someone who likes to talk about politics (but I tend to think almost all politicians would be better in the bottom of the sea, with weights attached to their knees...), but let me tell you something: a goverment whose only interest is to remain in the power (or to "have turns" with a second block, leaving every other possiblity without any chance of posing a threat to the status quo) fears freedom of speech; and Internet provides that.

Look at this past month's Middle East revolutions. Internet was used as a way to keep people organized against tyranny. Don't let a handfull of modern "Nobles" play everybody like this was the Middle Ages.

No right is absolute. That means that no right can protect itself- so to let our rights to protect us, we need to protect them.

Edit: As asked, I will keep this post until the censorship bill is dead. I ask you to talk with your friends, neighbours, and eveybody you know. After all, democracy is about the power of the people, isn't it?

Tale of Kingdoms Episode 2: Lava tycoon

There we go again, with the attack of the cobblestone generators. While interesting, however, a cobblestone generator is not as potent as Equivalent Exchange's collectors and an Energy condenser working together with a bunch of Antimatter Relays. But as a starting solution, is quite good.

Tale of Kingdoms episode 1: the nightmare begins!

As promised, here we have the first episode. I intend to make them between 15 and 25 minutes, and to release them rather quickly for the next two weeks. Also, on the first bunch of videos I will show the start of my development, before going around to fight against the different enemies.

Oh, and I intend to use all the tools at my disposal when facing enemies. Including my tendency to place a portal inside the Guild and send there the mobs to be minced XD.

Tale of Kingdoms: a start

Here you have it, a 25 minutes preview of my "test run" with Tale of Kingdoms, using the seed Paulosoaresjr shared about two weeks ago:  -7618727627503294865

I recorded this video at the end of the game, using the version 1.1.2 of the mod (version 1.2 with Tier 3 of the town has just been released!), and it will serve as a heads-up of what I hope to accomplish in the upcoming series. My objective would be to reach an endgame status where I can just sit an see how things manage themselves, getting the best equipment I can, and making a bigger IC2 "engineering room". Oh, and since I just succesfully updated my map (after making a full backup of the .minecraft folder, just to be on the safe side), we will discover the Tier 3 together.

Also, as a bonus for those loyal readers who come here, I will release the videos here first, and a few days later (three or so) I'll make them public in Youtube.

I hope you enjoy the video, and to see you around!

Buildcraft 3.0 Alpha released & tutorial

Yeah, that's true. Buildcraft 3.0 has been released as an alpha version (meaning you will find tons of bugs, unstable stuff, etc... and that previous mods won't work), and SpaceToad has released a new video with a tutorial on the new stuff.

You can download the mod in Buildcraft's page: http://www.mod-buildcraft.com/

And the video, here you have it:

I'm working on other stuff on my part, and I won't be updating to the new BC3 at least until next weekend. The projects I have running actually are two, one of them being Skyrim (my Breton is not the same now that the birthsigns have dissapeared... but I will end the game faster than usual, since now you cannot customize spells, a part of Morrowind and Oblivion I tend to spent more than 10 hours of working, preparing and such), and the other being a Tale of Kingdoms "Let's Play", with my usual collection of mods in support. It will be a short series, because I made a sort of test one that I will present as the first video and it took me less than 10 hours of playing (and about 5-6 of AFKing while stuff was being made by itself), but will cover the steps from a fresh game to a full Tier 2 ToK's town and Red Matter gear with Equivalent Exchange (which is "endgame").

Stay tuned!

Edit:
Spacetoad made a new video, with more detail and less rushing around the different concepts. Uou can see it in his channel, but I place here a link for your commodity.

Buildcraft 3.0

SpaceToad just released a video of the upcoming Buildcraft 3, with wiring and two logic gates integrated into the pipes (AND & OR). I sent him a message asking for ways to craft pipes with the wiring already in place (so if we wanna make a pipe system using the four avaiable colors, we wont need to walk & put stuff 5 times, but just put together the wiring and the pipes in a crafting table). Here you have the video:

I really like the part about being able to turn off the engines if they hit the red zone, since for some reason I always end running out of water to cool the engines XD.
I also found this thread in the Buildcraft forum about tips & tricks related to Buildcraft. Just one detail: I bet when they say "redstone engine" they refere to a hot engine (in the yellow level).

Finally, I'll be releasing some videos about Equivalent Exchange, BC2, Tale of Kingdoms, and all the other stuff I'm using. Because, to be truthful, I want to show my base before the next round of upgradings turns it to dust XD.

Updating the production lines

As promised, here you have it. a short video about two factory lines: one to produce diamonds and the other to produce lava.

Combustion Engines, infinite energy!

Ok, here we are. First of, this uses the Equivalent Exchange mod to turn cobblestone into lava (some intermediate steps are required XD). Second, it uses Redpower 2's Deployer to put that lava in a place where a Buildcraft 2's pump can gather it, put it into a deposit, and use it as fuel for combustion engines.

Notice the following points:

1. Lava is not as efficient as oil or refined oil (fuel), so don't complain because the pneumatic energy produced is not as good as you want.
2. Lava heats more the combustion engines, thus more water is required.
3. I advice against making the engine rows more than 8 engines in length. Usually, six is more than enough.
4. You can power several lava pumps if you want, and with that lots of engines. I'm presenting only a small setup, a prototype if you prefer.
5. This uses Equivalent Exchange version 4.x, the previous one to the current. I'm working in a new version, but I think it won't use the cobble generator as source.

Now with the explanations. The conversion chain up to the lava buckets you all know from the video: cobble from the cobble generators gets turned into redstone blocks, that in turn are transformed into redstone (dust), after which 3 redstone are turned into 2 coal and 2 redstone remain unchanged. Then the last step is to create a lava-filled bucket.
Redpower 2's deployer then puts the lava in a predefined place where a BC2's pump can take it. Meanwhile, the advanced wooden pipe takes away the empty buckets for reutilization.

Since lava can be used as fuel by the combustion engines, we can now power as many engines as we want, for as long as we want, andif we make the rows of six or seven engines in depth (for a total of 12 or 14 engines) it won't explode as long as we have an active water pump.

I hope you enjoyed the video!

Tale of Kingdoms & off-topic comments

First the off-topic (yeah, I'm that kind of self-centered man XD). I just ended playing the last DLC for Dragon Age 2, Legacy (I got it by error... I thought it was the other one XD) and Mark of the Assasin (the one I really wanted). I have that little mod that allows you to run at twice the normal speed when you are out of combat. It took me little less than 4 hours to end both DLCs (hearing all the dialogues and watching all the movies, but ignoring the sidequests)... The good points is that each DLC has three or four different maps (which is more in % compared with the main game...), some new mechanics have been implemented (I hate the sneaking in MotA... but anyway it's good to see new stuff), and both endgame bosses are scripted (meaning it takes more than 2 minutes to kill them). In fact, the final boss from legacy is quite hard, I had to ress my henchmen three or four times... (yeah, I was playing without controlling them or hitting the pause button XD).
About Tallis (Felicia Day's character), I'd say she is overpowered being able to jump in the introduction! Aside from that, my mage Hawke is more quick killing stuff... XD

Leaving the wall of text and small rant behind, I watched the latest video from Paulosoaresjr, the one devoted to the Tale of Kingdoms mod, and I decided to give it a try.
Good news, it takes no Item ID, and works fine with my heavy-modded version of Minecraft. Meaning you can also check if it works with yours (it's as simple as going here and download the file, place it in your mods folder -I am assuming you have modloader installed, of course!- and play the game), remember to make a backup of the whole game before!

Of course, I doubt the mod is balanced with Industrialcraft or Buildcraft in mind, but it is compatible with Equivalent Exchange (which has the more overpowered items I ever saw), so...

Ah, a small piece of advice regarding the use of the Teleporting Pipes mod (called Advanced Pipes): use always the same frequency distribution. Personally, I use the same frequencies for power and liquids (so if I make a oil refinery, the refinery blocks will get power using the same frequency the oil uses to get into them, namely the #401; or water pumps using the Frequency #200 to get energy, and sending the water using the liquid frequency #200). I reserve the first 20 item frequencies for basic stuff (sorting, send to the grinding machines, or the furnaces, or extracting the rubber, or the compressors, etc...), and from the #21 to the last for specific machinery (for example, #21 is to make pistons, #22 redstone engines, etc...). Oh, I also use the #10 as a storage, and the #1 goes directly to sorting.
This last two means I can go adventuring carrying a teleporting pipe and an obsidian pipe, dial #1 in the teleporting pipe, and start throwing stuff in my sorting system (or dial #10 and send the stuff to a chest, in case it's something I don't have sorted).

I suppose I'll make a video of my base once it's a little more finished (and I will include the map for download, with the itemID file for the ID resolver mod). It will take a while, however.

Have fun!

Fully automated Wheat Farm

Here we are again, revising an old concept. We already have an wheat farm with automated harvesting options, but the planting process is a nightmare. Ok, there is this mod called Minefactory Reloaded (llok for it in the sidebar) which gives us a "planter" block; a block that will put a seed or sapling on the prepared dirt block over itself when it receives a redstone pulse.

With this and Buildcraft pipes we can make this:

EDIT: New version of the video, with fixed audio and better quality.

I used the distribution pipes from Additional Pipes mod (previously called Teleport Pipes). As you can see, I added a small part on the end of the video about using Redpower 2 logic blocks to make it fully automated (so we won't need to do anything but receive the stuff). However, I left a mistake on the video and put a comment on the description telling the people to come here and look at the fully functional version. I know, I'm evil... or a little annoyed with the people who don't bother looking the description. So here it is, the solution to the enigma:

As you can see, I added two logic blocks and some cabling between the piston control and the planting control. The toggle latch will allow the timer to start working once the pistons unpower (and release the water), so that timer needs a value equal to the time it takes for the water to take all the wheat and seeds to reach the collecting channel and dissapear (it will be different for each farm, depending on how long they are). That new timer will repower the toggle latch (blocking itself) and start the planting process.

And for my next update, I promise you an infinite source of pneumatic power using combustion engines. Equivalent Exchange and lava are involved, and the release will be first in this blog (with a video, of course), and some time later in my youtube channel.

Have fun!

Edit: Since I had a crash in the game, I can put a full list of my mods, here you have it ^^


modLoader Beta 1.8.1
mod_AdditionalBuildcraftObjects 0.5b (MC 1.8.1, BC 2.2.4)
mod_BuildCraftCore 2.2.5
mod_BuildCraftBuilders 2.2.5
mod_BuildCraftEnergy 2.2.5
mod_BuildCraftFactory 2.2.5
mod_BuildCraftTransport 2.2.5
mod_EE 1.8.1
mod_IC2 v1.23
mod_IC2_AdvMachine v2.1 modded by CPW
mod_MineFactory 1.8.1R1.3.1
mod_MineFactoryCompat_Grass 1.3.0B
mod_MineFactoryReloaded_Compat_IndustrialCraft 1.0.0
mod_mocreatures v2.13 (MC 1.8_1)
mod_PortalGun 1.8.1v1
mod_PowerConverters 1.8.1R1.0.1
mod_RedPowerArray 2.0pr3b
mod_RedPowerCore 2.0pr3b
mod_RedPowerLighting 2.0pr3b
mod_RedPowerLogic 2.0pr3b
mod_RedPowerMachine 2.0pr3b
mod_RedPowerWiring 2.0pr3b
mod_RedPowerWorld 2.0pr3b
mod_HeroesGuild 1.8.1
mod_zAdditionalPipes Rev26
mod_WirelessRemote 0.4
mod_WirelessRedstone 1.4
mod_IDResolver 1.8.1 - Update 0
mod_TooManyItems 1.8.1 2011-09-27
mod_FCBetterThanWolves 2.95
mod_WorldEditCUI v0.9.1 for mc1.8
mod_RecipeBook Beta 1.8