EQNext : Do You Hear the Ratonga Squeak?

Ratonga in EQNext

Ark’s Magical Modded Minecraft Misadventure 48 : Aquaculture

I’m taking some time to recover from my brutal experiences at the hands of the goblin village, and what could be a better way to recuperate than to do a spot of fishing down by the river?

Mods Encountered

Aquaculture by Shadowclaimer and Rebel Keithy : Aquaculture is a solid little mod that adds a lot of variety to Minecraft’s fishing system. It’s worth mentioning that while I only found fairly basic catches today, there are some rather rarer and more powerful results, including the fabled Neptunian ingots, a material more durable than diamond, though perhaps even less common.

Forestry by Sir Sengir: When working with a new species of bee, getting fertility up to 4 should usually be the first trait to improve, as it makes selecting for other traits much easier when you have a wider choice of progeny to pick from. Once you have a stable population of an improved basic species, it is trivial to upgrade any extra princesses you find, merely by breeding them with drones from the improved colony until they’re up to speed.

I’m currently trying to get the fast working trait into my standard populations. That comes from the Cultivated bees species that you can get by crossing a Common Bee with any basic species. A fairly simple task, though it is made more complicated by them already having many good traits that I want to keep. The closer you get to perfection, the harder it’ll get!

Ark’s Magical Modded Minecraft Misadventure 47

After spending the night in the Taiga’s tower, my gear is far too beaten up to risk confronting the goblins again, so I carry on looping around to home again.

Mods Encountered

Dungeon Pack : I think Dungeon Pack was the source of the Castle of Disappointment. It was probably the victim of some bad timing, in as much as it had only just generated when I arrived, so it had not had a night-time period that would have allowed the spider spawner to put out some minions. Regardless, the zombie spawner was never going to do too well in a roofless building, unless I was foolish enough to attack at night.

Not Dungeonpack’s finest moment, but it does have some pretty good structures that I’ll be encountering before too long.

Taigore’s Inventory Saver 3: Another showing for Taigore’s. I should probably not make a habit of that.

Grimoire of Gaia by Silentine : I think that was the first time I’ve had my head torn off by a gryphon since they were changed to only spawn above a certain height. That’ll teach me to not look both ways before running into my valley.

Grimoire of Gaia mobs often drop small chunks of iron, emerald, or even (rarely) diamond. Once you have enough of them, you can combine them for a full gem. Beyond that, they also have a range of unique drops, so the reward is certainly there to balance out the risk.

Ark’s Magical Modded Minecraft Misadventure 46 : Taigore Trumps Taiga Troubles

Returning from a brief hiatus, I am filled with the desire to expand my horizons. Packing my best sword, I head off into the Taiga west of my home. Until now, I’ve only explored the edges, while looking for bees, and setting up some hives. What other mysteries must it hold?

Mods Encountered

Taigore’s Inventory Saver 3: Astonishingly, I think that might have been my first on screen death. I can assure you there have been plenty of off-screen ones. So it is that this is the first time I’ve had a chance to demonstrate Taigore’s Inventory Saver. It is a great boon for anyone who finds the idea of all their vital stuff despawning after 5 minutes to be an unimaginable horror.

It might not be too awful in vanilla, I suppose, but losing my spellbook, my thaumic goggles, and all my backpacks would be overly punitive.

Extra Biomes XL 3.13.4 : The giant oak tree I was using as a landmark is a rare addition from Extra Biomes XL. Would probably make a very nice spot for a tree house.

Goblins 4.2 by Sartharis : Grrrrrr, GOBLINS!!! They’re a menace to Minecraftia, and shall feel my just wrath. Though possibly not quite yet. While I handled the small patrol camp in the desert easily enough, goblin villages are a very different kettle of fiends.

We got a glimpse of a colourful totem pole within the village. Those are unique blocks that can be used for some special recipes.

Ark’s Magical Modded Minecraft Misadventure 45 : Thaumcraft : Goggles of Revealing and Vis Nodes

Gathering my ingredients, and calling forth the power of Vis, I succeed in creating some rather snazzy headgear.

I then go on a quick tour of my local nodes, examining common, pure, and unstable varieties. I don’t know any of any dark nodes in my world, which is probably a Good Thing.

Note: I have some medical stuff that happens on a three month cycle, and I’m right at the end of that, with treatment due this Thursday. I’ve been flagging for the last week or so, but for the next few days I’m mostly just going to want to sleep, and concentrating will be very hard. So in the interests of not making completely rubbish videos, I’m going to take the rest of the week off! With any luck I should be refilled with vim and vigour by Friday.

Mods Encountered

Thaumcraft by Azanor: The Goggles are mine!I’m going to try to wear them as my standard kit now, though I’ll need to keep a close eye on their state of repair. I don’t want to have to replace them.

Ars Magica by Mithion: The Hecate is quite a nuisance. It counts as a zombie for the purposes of smashing doors down, and kills villagers. It can also fly. I’m not sure if it’s capable of zombiefying them. By the time I realised there was a problem, the place was empty.

I’ve not helped myself by having a one building village. It makes a total wipeout far more of a possibility. I shall have to think about how I want to expand the living arrangements over there.

Ark’s Magical Modded Minecraft Misadventure 44 : Thaumcraft Infusion Altars

Back to Thaumcraft for a bit. I’ve finally unlocked the Goggles of Revealing research, but there’s a few things I need to make first.

While a Crucible is excellent for making basic Thaumcraft items, for most things you also need an infusion altar, which draws the aspects in from any nearby crucible or storage device.

Mods Encountered

Thaumcraft by Azanor: I am excited at being so close to getting my Goggles of Revealing. It will reveal a world of shimmering wonders. Vis nodes are a valuable resource that I shall have to take good care of. I’ve held off on tapping their potential until now, as without the Goggles it is impossible to keep a close eye on their health.

Ars Magica by Mithion: Ahh, my trusty firebolt spell got the job done, setting only half the room on fire. Don’t try this if you built your magic chamber out of wood.

Magic Bees 2.0.2 by MysteriousAges: The magic wax made by the basic bee species from Magic Bees is perfect for magical crafting. A pure source of Praecantatio can save you a lot of flux problems.

Ark’s Magical Modded Minecraft Misadventure 43 : Liquid Assets.

A bit of a jumbled mix of things I needed to get done today. I have certain rules about how I do this Let’s Play. One is that I don’t use any cheats, or give myself free stuff. I don’t feel you really come to understand a mod if you just magic all the parts or ingredients into existence.

But the rule that sometimes causes episodes like this is that I can’t do something when I’m not recording, unless I’ve already covered it in the show. And so it is that we have two pipe and liquid episodes in a row, as I really needed to get working on my full tank of oil, and I’d accidentally gone and discovered seed oil without you.

Mods Encountered

Buildcraft maintained by CovertJaguar: The refinery (and indeed the oil wells added to worldgen) is a rather high-end bit of Buildcraft kit. It is a monster of a machine that can devour far more power than I’m capable of producing right now, so it is operating rather slowly. It nevertheless is making fuel far faster than I could possibly use it. Fuel is just that energy-dense.

Using the same pipe for two different liquids is generally a terrible idea, and had I realised that cherries squeeze into seed oil rather than fruit juice I certainly would not have done it! Still, given that seed oil is something I am going to need in abundance, the discovery was well worth a few plumbing problems.

Forestry by Sir Sengir: Discovering that some trees require time for their fruit to ripen was a huge relief. I’m not really ready to be toying with Forestry automated farms just yet, so being able to get the fruit through mere patience and a spot of axing made me quite pleased.

Extra Bees and Extra Trees by Binnie: The Orchard Apple and Common Beech trees are from Extra Trees. It’s all quite seamless, so I had to nip over to his website to check the tree list. I’m not sure if anyone would want spoilers on the necessary tree crosses to get them, but as the in-game tree database that should update when I discover a new tree is not working right now, I don’t actually know. I have found that simply planting a bunch of different trees together has worked pretty well for me so far as getting all-new species is concerned. I shall certainly need to do a little more planning later on.

The Silver Lime – Apple Oak cross was more deliberate, and I picked the best one from a number of different hybrids. Twice the biomass of an apple oak, with at least as many apples, they’re my current biomass fermenting workhorses.

Railcraft by CovertJaguar : Railcraft deserves another mention, seeing as I built an even bigger tank in between episodes. 1600 buckets of fuel should be sufficient storage. If it turns out not to be, you can extend the tank upwards without losing its contents.