Getting to Steel - A beginner's guide to BTW

[Starshifterxen]

Hi guys,

I have decided to make a new video series called "Getting to Steel". This is intended to walk new BTW players (or veterans) through the steps necessary to get to Steel (and beyond).

I would recommend you play and explore the mod as much as possible, as that is part of the fun! :) But if required, these guides will walk you through the core of the tech tree.

I will update this topic with new episodes as I make them. I will also share the world download for each episode so you can follow along / examine things / blow up everything with TNT.

As always, comments welcome.


Episode 0.5 (The prelude): The Age Of Wood, Tier 1: Basic Mechanical Power

In this episode we will:

- Plant and harvest hemp
- Make a millstone and handcrank
- Grind enough Hemp to construct a Wind Mill.
- Craft some gear boxes and axles
- Power the Mill Stone using the Wind Mill
- Collect dung from wolves

Spoiler

Show

Video


Prerequisites
I am assuming that you have:
- Played Minecraft before :)
- Mined iron, coal and redstone
- Have a good supply of wood
- Have tamed some wolves

World Download
If you want to follow along with me, here is the world download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ttv4tl5l9x58p42

Episode 1: Age of Wood, Tiers 2 & 3: Continuous Mechanical Power and Power Tools

In this episode we will:

- Construct a Stewing Pot and heat it with burning Netherrack
- Improve Hemp production through the use of Light Blocks
- Tan Leather and construct a Saw.
- Process wood into Sidings, Mouldings and Corners
- Construct a Hopper.
- Start using Water Wheels as an alternative for powering our mechanical devices.

Spoiler

Show

Video


Prerequisites
I am assuming that you have:
- Found wolves and began collecting Dung.
- Collected and ground enough Hemp to construct a Wind Mill.
- Powered a Mill Stone using the Wind Mill

World Download
If you want to follow along with me, here is the world download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?qwgawlhdrh9dd6l

Episode 2: Age of Wood, Tiers 4 & 5: Automation, Basic Alchemy and Fire Mastery

In this episode we will:

- Process Netherrack into Concentrated Hellfire
- Build a Hibachi
- Build a Bellows
- Build a Turntable
- Create a stoked fire

Spoiler

Show

Video


Prerequisites
I am assuming that you have:

• - Found wolves and began collecting Dung.
  - Collected and ground enough Hemp to construct a Wind Mill.
  - Powered a Mill Stone using the Wind Mill
  - Constructed a Stewing Pot and heated it with burning Netherrack
  - Improved Hemp production through the use of Light Blocks
  - Tanned Leather and constructed a Saw.
  - Processed wood into Siding, Corners, and Moulding
  - Constructed a Hopper.
  - Started using Water Wheels as an alternative for powering your mechanical devices.

World Download
If you want to follow along with me, here is the world download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?b5tkb99a65hdv5s

Episode 3: Age of Wood, Tier 6: Pottery & A New Age Tier 1: Steel

In this episode we will:

• - Use a turntable to create unfired pottery
  - Create a Crucible to be used in making Steel.
  - Create an Urn for soul urns
  - Create a Kiln and fire the pottery
  - Turn the Urn into a soul-urn
  - Create Carbon dust by grinding coal in a millstone
  - Smelt Steel

Spoiler

Show

Video


Prerequisites

• I am assuming that you have:
  - Found wolves and began collecting Dung.
  - Collected and ground enough Hemp to construct a Wind Mill.
  - Powered a Mill Stone using the Wind Mill
  - Constructed a Stewing Pot and heated it with burning Netherrack
  - Improved Hemp production through the use of Light Blocks
  - Tanned Leather and constructed a Saw.
  - Processed wood into Siding, Corners, and Moulding
  - Constructed a Hopper.
  - Started using Water Wheels as an alternative for powering your mechanical devices.
  - Process Netherrack into Concentrated Hellfire
  - Build a Hibachi
  - Build a Bellows
  - Build a Turntable
  - Create a stoked fire

World Download
If you want to follow along with me, here is the world download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?8u6zxcc9z9up9g5

Episode 4: Beyond Steel

In this episode we will:

- Create an anvil
- Create a block dispenser
- Create a buddy block
- Create a detector block
- Create a lens
- Look at some of the uses of these blocks, culminating in the demonstration of the mechanisms involved in an auto-soul urn factory.

Spoiler

Show

Video


Prerequisites
I am assuming that you have:
- Made Steel (and all that entails ;) )

World Download
If you want to follow along with me, here is the world download:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ao2j5yy4ach9f4u

[Starshifterxen]

Reserved

[BinoAl]

Prerequisites
I am assuming that you have:

- Found wolves and began collecting Dung.
- Collected and ground enough Hemp to construct a Wind Mill.
- Powered a Mill Stone using the Wind Mill

If this is meant for btw newbies, I wouldn't say this is a good idea. Many might not get how to collect dung from wolves, how to make a windmill, or how to set up mechanical power from the windmill.

[Starshifterxen]

Good point. I had thought that there were enough other guides out there for that and didn't want to cover old groud.

However you are right that to be comprehensive, I should cover an "Episode 0.5" at some point.

Thanks for the feedback.

EDIT: Updated OP

[Poppycocks]

Yeah, the 0.5 episode is a nice idea, I was thinking about a BTW 101 thread the second that SgtChuckle asked about powering hibachis in 3x3.

Then again I've got a creeping feeling - although I never watched any videos from Batto because I wanted to find everything on my own - that he covers pretty much everything in his videos?

Not saying that that should stop you or anything...

[Starshifterxen]

Yeah, I'm sure Battosay has covered everything somewhere in his videos too. :)

This was intended to be more focussed. A BTW 101 as you say. Just the steps absolutely necessary to get you up the tech tree.

At some point I may come back to cover the other elements that I might have been missed (e.g. planters, high effeciency recipes, etc), but that is not the main point of this series.

[Starshifterxen]

Episode 2 up. :)

[SterlingRed]

I havemt watched your vids (currently at work) but I plan to as soon as I can. I would suggest if you use certain techniques or such in your processes to list what's in each video so if someone is looking for something specific (like tuning a 3x3 grid of hibachis on/off) that they can find it if it's in your videos. For example, if you use a bd rom, monostable pulse generator, t flip flop, rsnor, on/off 3x3 hibachis, etc list them. When I was learning btw, I spent a fair amount of time looking for the small but useful things like this in battos vids and it took forever to find them. These things are an after thought to us, but revolutionary to someone new. Documenting where you use them in your vids could be helpful. (i don't lnow if you do use things like this as I haven't watched them)

[rhacer]

Having just, after much blood sweat and tears and experimentation gotten some minor steel production going, I have to say these are great videos.

Thank you.

[Starshifterxen]

I havemt watched your vids (currently at work) but I plan to as soon as I can. I would suggest if you use certain techniques or such in your processes to list what's in each video so if someone is looking for something specific (like tuning a 3x3 grid of hibachis on/off) that they can find it if it's in your videos. For example, if you use a bd rom, monostable pulse generator, t flip flop, rsnor, on/off 3x3 hibachis, etc list them. When I was learning btw, I spent a fair amount of time looking for the small but useful things like this in battos vids and it took forever to find them. These things are an after thought to us, but revolutionary to someone new. Documenting where you use them in your vids could be helpful. (i don't lnow if you do use things like this as I haven't watched them)

Thanks for the feedback. I have tried to list the steps you need to get to steel and what is in each episode clearly, but there aren't really any specific design in to list. Let me know what you think once you get a chance to watch them.

Having just, after much blood sweat and tears and experimentation gotten some minor steel production going, I have to say these are great videos.

Thank you.

No worries, glad they help! :D (although i should probably tell you off for skipping ahead :P)

[orangeweaver]

I will check them out and try to give you some feedback. I know when I was new to BTW I was living on the BTW wiki. I think this is a cool idea (and without watching the videos yet) urge you to try and balance, to the best of your ability, that feeling of exploring and earning the next tech tree, and giving the nub a path.

Though I bounced back and forth from Wiki a lot, I DID feel like everytime I built something, learned something new w/ automation was uniquely mine. Sure my shit was mostly ghetto as hell but it felt good none-the-less and afterward I felt eve more inspired to improve designs.

Best of luck to you. :)

[rhacer]

I will check them out and try to give you some feedback. I know when I was new to BTW I was living on the BTW wiki. I think this is a cool idea (and without watching the videos yet) urge you to try and balance, to the best of your ability, that feeling of exploring and earning the next tech tree, and giving the nub a path.

Though I bounced back and forth from Wiki a lot, I DID feel like everytime I built something, learned something new w/ automation was uniquely mine. Sure my shit was mostly ghetto as hell but it felt good none-the-less and afterward I felt eve more inspired to improve designs.

Best of luck to you. :)

I cannot say enough good things about this post! I'm sure that most would laugh at my contraptions, particularly the obsidian piping I have to collect all the stuff that comes out of my millstone. However, it is my work and that makes me very happy.

[Starshifterxen]

I will check them out and try to give you some feedback. I know when I was new to BTW I was living on the BTW wiki. I think this is a cool idea (and without watching the videos yet) urge you to try and balance, to the best of your ability, that feeling of exploring and earning the next tech tree, and giving the nub a path.

Though I bounced back and forth from Wiki a lot, I DID feel like everytime I built something, learned something new w/ automation was uniquely mine. Sure my shit was mostly ghetto as hell but it felt good none-the-less and afterward I felt eve more inspired to improve designs.

Best of luck to you. :)

That is really great feedback, thanks Orange!

That is exactly the balance I am trying to strike. I am trying to be focussed in explaining the steps through the tech tree, whilst hopefully also encouraging people to try their own designs and also experiment with the alternative uses of the blocks. The world downloads are part of this - To allow people to play with the blocks/designs provided.

However I have to admit it is quite challenging to meld the two together. At the moment i think it is slightly more on the focussed/clinical side, so I will try to balance this out in future videos.

[Starshifterxen]

Episode 3 up and OP updated.

I planned to release 2 more episodes: Episode 0.5 and Epsiode 4: Beyond steel which will briefly cover the uses of steel and the creation of higher tier blocks and items.

[rmdashrrootsplat]

Good stuff... I'm just starting out myself into BTW so the more guides the better. Most of them out there are woefully out of date or they're made by various Yogaboos.

The videos do seem a bit rushed but due to the limited video length I can understand that.

+1 Sub from me regardless. ;)

[Starshifterxen]

Thank you. :)

I can understand that. I wanted to make them as concise as possible, so I may have gone through some bits too fast. If there is anything in particular you think i need to focus more time on, please let me know.

[Stormweaver]

Hmm...watched the first one, I like it. I'll see them through once you've got 0.5 up, as it's always good to see other people's takes on these things.

I'm also feeling a sudden burst of inspiration...

[Starshifterxen]

Thank you Storm. Very excited to see what you produce! :D

[Kain Magin]

This DEFINITELY deserves to be Stickied.

Edit: spelling*

[whynocheese]

This definitely deserves spell check. Seriously man it is built into the forums use it or lose it. (by lose it I mean respect points). :)
OT Loving the tutorials. Gonna sub when I am not halfway delirious from a great day out.

[Starshifterxen]

This DEFFINATELY deserves to be Stickied.

OT Loving the tutorials. Gonna sub when I am not halfway delirious from a great day out.

Thanks guys, appreciate the feedback. :D

This definitely deserves spell check. Seriously man it is built into the forums use it or lose it. (by lose it I mean respect points). :)

I have just trawled through the OP for spelling mistakes, but since I couldn't find any it just occur to me that you were probably refering to the post above yours? :P

Either than or my spelling is really bad since I don't notice it!

[Starshifterxen]

Episode 0.5 (prelude) is now up and that completes the Getting to Steel part of the guide.

The final episode will focus on creation of the higher tier blocks and demonstrating some of their uses in a sample soul urn factory setup.

[Starshifterxen]

Final episode is up.

If people think these guides are useful, I would appreciate advice from the men/women in green (or yellow/red), as to the best way to make these available/obvious to new users.

I would also like to state how I rediscovered my love of BTW from making these guides. It was a lot of fun playing through the tech tree from the beginning and I feel I only touched about half of the block/items available in my play through.

This really is a fantastic mod, so thanks again Flowerchild. :)

edit: Genders :P

[EdzyWhat]

Great walk-through. I'll be showing it to my friend who's just getting into the mod. I think the challenge will be getting him to stand still that long to watch it. Some of the vids are kinda longish - more of a fact that you're covering a lot of ground, but that will probably be something you'll hear. The main question is whether a person is looking for a one-off video to learn how a specific feature works, or how to progress along the tech tree. I think more people will end up watching the former, but your type of videos are absolutely necessary, because the wiki and the one-offs fail to tell the "story" of BTW. And that's the mod's strongsuit.

TL;DR: Nice :)

[Starshifterxen]

Thanks, I agree with all of your points and I think that sums it up really well. :)