Well, listen to my story ’bout a man named Ark,
A poor mountain wizard tired of living in the dark.
But when he set off to acquire himself some fuel,
He ended up discovering something that’s mighty cool.
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.
For too long have I wondered at the permanent lightning storm on the desert’s edge. It is the work of Jupiter, or at least his statue, buried beneath the ageless sands. I break out my pick and prepare for a spot of combat archaeology.
Mods Encountered
Household Gods by ThisGuyIsJoe : With the power of Juton on my side, I shall be, hmm, much the same as I was before. Once I collect the second statue, I will probably have enough parts to come up with some useful combinations.
I have statues set to be rather rare, but it is likely I’ve come very close to others. If they’re buried, you’ll only notice they’re there if their combination does something obvious on the surface. Most will probably not.
Project Zulu by Crudedragos: The centipede is a rather beautiful piece of work. It must have snuck on over from the forest biome while I was fumbling over what I was going to say.
Wild Caves : The glowing blue mushrooms I encountered were added by Wild Caves. They’re a rare early source of glowstone dust in the Overworld.
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!
I am knee deep in bees, and so it follows that I am also getting swamped with honey combs. Trying to centrifuge them all just using the clockwork engine is going to give me wrist-strain. It is time to upgrade my Buildcraft energy system.
I show how to make energy pipes, chutes, and Stirling engines, and do some wiring behind the walls.
Mods Encountered
Buildcraft 3.7.1 maintained by CovertJaguar: Since I recorded this episode I’ve run an energy pipe as far as the enchanting chamber underneath the east wizard tower. Even wizards want to be connected to the grid! I’m still deciding how I want to work the oil refining.
I’ve also put a chute on the Stirling Engine itself, realising it’s a great place to throw any unwanted saplings and wooden items.
Forestry 2.2.8.3 by Sir Sengir: My bees are coming along really well. I’m working on improving the quality of my mundane bees before I get too far into more advanced and tricksy species. By crossing my Forest Bees with some Modest bees from the desert, I have managed to, after a lot of back-crossing, develop a stable line of nocturnal Forest Bees. Being able to work during both day and night, they’re far more productive than their ancestors. That hive is now turning out high quality drones that I can put into more complex breeding programmes.
If I’m going to survive outside the relative safety of my valley, I’m going to need better gear. Thanks to the generosity of the local ogre population, I now have enough obsidian to build my very own enchantment table. At the cost of my levels, I’ll be able to imbue weapons, tools, and armour with random magics. Sounds like a plan!
Mods Encountered
Bibliocraft by Nuchaz : Such excellent bookshelves that I couldn’t resist using them again. If you’re looking to a more compact enchantment table setup than usual, Bibliocraft bookshelves, filled with books, will take up half the space of regular bookcases.
Mo Creatures by Dr Zhark and Bloodshot42 : The Mo Creatures ogre is notable for its tendency to drop obsidian blocks.
The Lion King Mod : The Lion King put in an unexpected and not entirely welcome first appearance, granting my weapon the power to smite hyena. I’m sure that’ll turn out to be incredibly useful once I decide to visit that leonine dimension.
My plans for an episode about village-building were thrown into disarray by the arrival of a baby elephant on the borders on my home. I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to make a mighty new friend!
Mods Encountered
Mo Creatures 5.2.3 by Dr Zhark and Bloodshot42 : Mo creatures pretty much managed to grab my full attention for this episode. I’ve run into various elephants and mammoths previously, but this was the first baby one I’ve spotted near to my base.
I’m not in a brilliant spot to make good use of ground mounts, with trees and hills everywhere. When I have secondary bases in less lumpy and verdant places, they’ll get a lot more use. I am in the process of making a tree-free path along the western edge of the river, so I can at least get up to the desert without bouncing off 3 dozen trees on the way.
For details on making the sugar lumps,renaming medallion, and animal pens check out episode 24 when I set about gathering my horses.
Primitive Mobs by DaveyX : This has finally come out for 1.5.2, and I thoroughly recommend it. As well as adding quite a number of extra foes, it adds three new sorts of Testificate (the villager types) who can spawn out in the wilderness. As they appear to count as full villagers, I am theorising that they will spontaneously make my base count as a village if they happen to come upon its wooden doors, and then begin to multiply. Time will tell if that is correct.
I begin still in that rather fine Ars Magica wizard tower, with plans to house-nap it. I go through the Travelling House process, and bring it back to my valley.
But I am not alone. Whom the gods would destroy, they first give melons.
Mods Encountered
Travelling House : This was the clear star of the episode. While it had sounded amazing, I was interested to see how well it would work in practise. It performed flawlessly!
I’m now the proud owner of another wizard tower. Once I put wooden doors in all its entrances, enough to support 16*0.35 testificates, it’ll be a very useful part of my village.
Household Gods : I can thing of no other explanation of the mysterious pumpkin and melon spawning than the presence of Demeter, goddess of the harvest. Or at least some portion of her. The Household God statues are randomly assembled with feet, torso, and head of a number of different gods, with each piece forming part of a sentence that describes the statues power. They can appear on the surface, but both statues I have a lead on appear to be submerged. I’m going to have to don my Fedora and engage in a spot of archaeology.