Mod updates

So, for all of you who are interested, the 1.8.1 compatible version of several mods has been released. Currently, we have:

• Industrialcraft (with SMP support! Expect a few bugs, however)
• Better tha Wolves
• Minecraft Forge (obviously, since you need it for some of these mods XD)
• Portal
• Mo's Creatures
• RedPower 2

However, you should know some details:

First, Redpower 2 is an ALPHA, a pre-release with probably tons of bugs (according to Eloraam herself), with some nasty possibilities about corrupting your savegames. You have been warned!

Second, Buildcraft's thread seems to not show in the usual URL... nor can it be found using the search... However, I manually found it here, and I updated the link in the sidetab. Also, SpaceToad has opened a contest for the best 5 worlds made using Buildcraft (using the default config file, and maybe only minecraft... sadly).

It also seems like MineFactory has found some loving modder that not only updated the mod for 1.8.1, but also added some really interesting features for those people who don't have machines that can keep up with thousands of tiny blocks flowing around pipes, or laying down a pipe system kilometers in length... now it includes minecart support! so carts will pick up/drop out stuff inside chests! Also, Minefactory reloaded is SMP-compatible!

I'll try to upgrade all my stuff to Minecraft 1.8.1 and make a huuuuge map with all the stuff integrated. Before sunday, I hope. Bets are on the table, I'll start in about 14 hours...

Edit: it's all working, at least for now... The IDresolver mod (see the sidebar for the link XD) has proven to be extremely useful, and my only regret is that I couldn't install Steamcraft (the game runs out of terrain sprites). Right now, I have installed the following mods in my 1.8.1 version of the game:

• Modloader, Audiomod, Minecraft Forge, Modloader MP, IDresolver, SingleplayerCommands, ToomanyItems, and the GUIAPI
• Wireless redstone and Wireless remote
• Better than Wolves
• Buildcraft 2.2.0
• Industrialcraft2 1.15 (plus the "patches". The working sound fix is here (apply last))
• Minefactory reloaded
• Redpower2 (currently disabled, but I'm waiting for a TMI compatible-version).

For now, the only trouble I found was solved by changing the order of the mods in the .minecraft/mods folder (put first Industrialcraft2), and that TooManyItems doesn't show all the goodies after some RP2 ones. Oh, and that the game went from 16Mb of the basic version to 64Mb without any map loaded... and that my texture packs no longer work fine because of the hunger bar ^^.

Mob of the Week: Mo's Creatures' Ogre family

So I was planning on a new video... but for some reason Fraps refuse to record today XD. Let's hope I have it solved for the weekend, when I'll try to give some spotlight to an underground base and some wiring basics for Industrialcraft. In the meantime, I'm gonna share information with all of you regarding one of the most dangerous family of mobs from Dr Zhark's Mo's Creatures: the ogres.

First, their "measures": 3 blocks high and 2 blocks wide, and 1 block in the remaining coordinate. That means they don't fit into a door's space, but this is quite irrelevant unless your house is made of ores or obsidian (or if you use Industrialcraft, reinforced stone/glass/doors). The good news, however, is that by default they don't show on easy difficulty unless you choose to.

They attack in a wide area (about 3 blocks in all directions, sparing the ground), destroying (as in "first turning them into the dropped version you can loot, and then consuming the blocks like lava") all blocks but obsidian and ores, unless you tweak their strength level in the mod's ingame options, making them weaker. They will use that attack each time they are damaged (and they won't always make the attack animation of raising their arms), and the damage will affect other mobs.

As for their agresiveness, during the day they are passive until they despawn, and during the night you need to get fairly close to attract their attention, and you can outrun them easily (as long as you don't run into another mob, of course XD).

All this has some interesting implications to our usual gameplay:

First, your best defense at the start of the game is to keep your distance from them, since the walls that are effective against all other mobs are useless in this case.

Second, Cacti are useless: they will break them in less than three or four seconds.

Third, if you make a skeleton to hit an ogre, or an ogre makes his attack in the middle of a mob group, expect a massacre.

Fourth, the usual grinders are useless against ogres unless you adjust their strength to a weakened state. You might think "well, they will break cacti, but a lava trap in an obsidian room will work". False: the lava trap requires two ladders to keep both water and lava out of the collection pit, and the lava from consuming the drops aswell.

As for effective defenses, pits might work, water currents will work, and lava will work. Again, distance is the most effective protection against this mobs.

Now for the three types of ogres in the mod, we have the standard ogre (in the screen above), which is the most frequent and weaker of all, and drops obsidian blocks (from 0 to 3...); we also have the fire ogre, which is red, rarer and stronger and drops fire (so you can craft chainmail... personally, I tend to disable this one); and finally we have the cave ogre, a blue mob with a single eye that drops diamonds, and will spawn only under a certain layer (thing of a super slime, if you want). However, the cave ogre is so rare and requires a ceiling of 3 blocks high, meaning it's quite difficult to run into one (but not impossible).

The best tactic to kill one of these is to be out of their reach, so for example in a high position with a bow. They also seem to be quite blind, so they won't usually move if you attack them from out of their range of aggro.

So you see, these are quite dangerous. However, they are very straightforward. I hope the next spotlight will be the werewolf (again from Mo's Creatures), and then I'll go over some "vanilla" mobs like spiders and creepers.

See ya, and please comment!

New mod: Mo' Creatures

Well, I was planning on other entry in the blog, but the planned work got derailed because, first, I had literally no time to play on saturday or Friday, and second because my idea of using the Allocator to load a minecart with a chest didn't worked. And since none of the mods I use have been actualized to 1.7, I'm still playing on 1.6.6... Which leads to the next spotlight mod: Mo' Creatures.

First, this mod requires two other mods: the GUI API and Modloader with audiomod (remember if you are going to install this mod, to download 1.6.6 compatible versions of ModLoader, the API and Audiomod).

Second, Paulosoaresjr has a video on the mod in his channel.

So, what does Mo' Creatures add to Minecraft? More creatures. More than that, you can adjust the number of different creatures that will spawn of each type thanks to the API mod, and change the level of difficulty at which those creatures will spawn. Since I'm a kind of chicken, I set them all to show up on Easy difficulty XD.
While the mod is great and adds things like mounts, it also adds Ogres and Werewolves. Werewolves can only be killed permanently by using gold weapons (well, during daytime with a stone sword you can kill one in his human form if you are fast enough ^^). Ogres are... really dangerous. They are the first mob I've seen in Minecraft that can destroy blocks without inmolating himself (creeper!! XD), and thus far only obsidian and ores are safe materials to build houses (and if use Industrialcraft, they don't break reinforced stone, doors or glass). Also, Ogres are 3 blocks high, so consider making your grinders 4 or even 5 blocks high for them to spawn and die.

My quick and small advice about setting up defensive structures when playing with this mod would be to use water currents to protect your house (so the water will take the mobs away), use double or even triple block walls, or the most safe measure I can think of: make a floating base as soon as you can, but add more than one access to it so in case an ogre breaks one of the stairs you can still reach the base. And have more than a single safe spot, of course ^^.

The next update will be, if all goes ok, on thursday, unless a couple of my mods get actualized and I can start exploring them in 1.7.
Also, regarding Industrialcraft, his creator has said that he will update the mod to 1.7 and add some new stuff too.
Have fun!