Ark's Ark

I’d set out into the Great Desert to gather sand, and have a look inside the Pyramid, but as I set about digging, I noticed the entrance to an underground labyrinth from Project Zulu. I couldn’t resist taking the chance of encountering some of CrudeDragos’ monsters!

Mods Encountered

Project Zulu 1.0.3.9 by CrudeDragos: This episode was almost pure Project Zulu, with it providing both the scenery and the opposition. I suspect that the pyramid might also be Project Zulu, but so many mods add pyramids that it is hard to be sure until I dare to enter!

By default, I think Project Zulu minotaur, mimics, and haunted armour will only spawn in the labyrinths, so it was nice to find one so close to home. I’ll be returning to grab the rest of the goodies.

It’s a mod that deserves far more recognition than it receives. A fine addition to any adventuring mod build.

7th of July 2013 Update:

The main changes since the last update:

• Extra Trees is now bundled up with Extra Bees, adding another 75 breedable tree species.
• I’m giving the Fossil and Archaeology mod a tryout. While I’m not going to find much from it until I go out into newly generated areas, it seems stable so far.
• Railcraft, too, has arrived late at the station. I didn’t include it originally, as I didn’t want to go overboard with tech mods, but there’s a few bits within it that I think I’m going to be wanting soon.

There’s probably not going to be too much in the way of change to my build until I make the leap to 1.6, which is going to have to wait until all the important mods have updated. Could be a while.

Worldgen

Extra Biomes XL 3.13.4 : A wide range of additional biome types to explore, as well as some new plants. I have all of the biomes disabled right now, so that my initial area will be base biomes.

Biomes O’ Plenty 0.5.5 : Another biome mod. Once again, the biomes are disabled in the main overworld, meaning I’ll only have vanilla biomes. However, when I start journeying the multiverse with Mystcraft, any biome from EBXL or BOP could make an appearance. 0.5.5 now adds biomes to the Nether dimension too.

I’m not sure I really recommend BOP at this time. The developers have been taking a very aggressive stance around not caring about mod compatibility and customisation, so it is probably a poor choice for anyone wanting to use large numbers of mods. It’s still listed here because I have it installed, and it would probably break things badly to remove it from my world.

Metallurgy 3.1.1 : Adds a wide range of additional metals, and ores. It’ll be dealing with most of the ore generating in worldgen, apart from a few from Tinker’s Construct that it doesn’t include. I’ve turned the rarity of ore up from its default settings which seem rather too generous to me.

Dungeon Pack 1.5.2 v3 : Adds a variety of structures to the land of minecraft. I have a lot of mods which add structures, so I’ve made these pretty rare. I’ve also disabled quite a few structures that I didn’t like the look of, particularly ones that float in the sky. I like my sky clear!

Ruins : More structures added to the world. Once again I’ve turned the rarity right up.

Natura 2.1 : Some new trees, and a variety of berry bushes. I particularly like the Eucalyptus tree. Now also makes significant changes to the Nether.

Wild Caves 3.0.4.2 : Adds stalactites, spiderwebs, and other decorations to caves and other underground areas. It makes spelunking a little more interesting, and usefully for me, the increase in diversity makes it harder to get lost!

Better Dungeons 1.07 by Chocolatin: Even more structures, but this time with some new enemies too. Warning: May contain pirates!

Quality of Life

Not Enough Items 1.5.2.25 : This adds a recipe search system, which becomes increasingly vital the more mods you’re using. It also has quite a few cheat options, but I shall not be using those unless its needed to recover from a serious bug. NEI requires CodeChickenCore (I’m using version 0.8.6.15), available from the same page. Its tooltip option interacts badly with certain objects from other mods I’m using, so I’ll be keeping that off most of the time.

Continue reading My Adventuring with Ark Minecraft Build – 7th July Update.

Mods Encountered

Buildcraft 3.7.1 maintained by CovertJaguar: The pump works pretty well, even just using the free-to-operate redstone engines. My next step is to build a permanent oil tank in a refinery room below my valley. I’ll set up a temporary pipe to send the oil over until the well is dry.

Primitive Mobs 1.4 by Daveyx : Primitive Mobs has three villager types that can spawn in the world, though none appear on the surface in an Extreme Hills biome, which is why I’d not bumped into any as yet. They are an excellent way to start your own village. I also expect that the Travelling Merchants and Summoners will be spontaneously starting their own little villages when they happen to bump into suitable buildings from other mods.

Village Info by Trunkz : I just installed this a few days ago, to give it a bit of a test. Seems to work pretty well, and is certainly invaluable for anyone wanting to be sure how well their village is designed.

Extra Trees came out today, adding 75 more tree species to the Forestry tree-breeding system. This jolts me into finally taking a look at what new trees my bees have cooked up for me.

But first, there’s a spot of business to take care of to the south of my bee-garden.

Mods Encountered

Forestry 2.2.8.3 by Sir Sengir: I’m quite excited to get started on this second strand of Forestry’s Mendelian genetics simulation. For now I’m probably just going to let the trees take care of themselves, and see what I get. Unlike with Bees, I’m not limited by a finite number of Queens, and the need to bring multiple lines up, so it will probably require a lot less fiddling. Not that I don’t love fiddling, but I have my hands full of bees.

Extra Trees 1.7 by Binnie : I didn’t really encounter anything from this mod, but it came out today, and inspired me to get on with things, so it deserves a mention!