Battlecat's Better than Wolves game Journal.

[Battlecat]

Battlecat's Better than Wolves Game Journal

In the interest of providing some feedback on the current state of the mod, I’ve decided to record brief entries describing my progress in a brand new game. I'm starting from scratch using the 2.94 release that contains among other things the significantly revised tech tree. This will just be a simple text based review of my progress through the game. I’ve examined the mod quite extensively but what with one thing and another, I’ve never actually played with it. That changes today.

I have no intention of rushing through the tech tree, but I’m not planning on dawdling either. My prime focus in this journal is playing and testing the features of the mod. And what better place to test this out than on the Glacier seed?

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Getting Started: The Age of Vanilla

Entry 1: Played about an hour getting shop set up before realizing I’d buggered up the installation because of the HD patcher. Fixed the problem and crafted gears. The ability of BTW to seamless add to a vanilla game shows it’s value once again!

Entry 2: About 4 stone hoes later I acquired 5 hemp seeds. I built a small ugly cobblestone greenhouse to start propagating them. I’ve heard how long they take to grow and it’s part of a lot of recipies so I’d better get started early.

Entry 3: Started digging a mineshaft from my base inside one of the epic cliff faces. On a whim, I left the shaft appropriately set up for a simple elevator setup as a thought for the future. For now though, ladders will have to do.

Entry 4: Struck Lapis of all things near the bottom of the shaft. It’s so much more exciting to get now that it’s useful. Quickly collected 25 pieces, enough for two detector blocks. Right below the deposit is a cave system. At depth 17, it’s a perfect spot to set up a deep base in preparation for a mining operation. I’ve got enough iron for my first pick and possibly even a cauldron. Granted, I don’t think I can use it until I have netherrack but it’s good to test these things. It’s interesting that the mod has me wanting to get access to nether materials before I even have my first diamond.

Entry 5: A quick excursion after some pigs for healing lead me to a small desert coastline with both cactus and reeds. I collected some samples and set up a small farm. Breaking some tall grass also gave me some wheat seeds so that’s coming up soon as well.

Entry 6: My first mod block is now crafted, although it’s not functional yet. One cauldron that is simply serving to store porkchops right now! I greatly appreciate getting the bucket back from the crafting recipie! Hemp production is also coming along nicely. I’ve harvested 7 hemp and added 6 more plants to the farm. I’m glad I started this early, the plants grow very slowly.

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And that’s a wrap for this update. My first round of gaming with this mod went well except for the small glitch installing the mod with HD textures. I’ve got the preliminary farms in place and I should be able to start work through the first mechanical power tier soon. Let me know if you have suggestions or critiques for my approach or if you want to see something I mention but didn’t show.

By the way, if anyone is curious, I’m using a personal mix pack of Albion, Misa and a handful of homespun textures of my own.

[Stormweaver]

Sounds interesting...I might do something like this after the next major release.

Till then, the lapis thing...you only need 2 pieces of lapis for a detector block now, so you could make 12 if you wanted.

[diegokilla]

Very much liking the battle journal! More pics :D

[duartemad]

Sounds interesting...I might do something like this after the next major release.

Till then, the lapis thing...you only need 2 pieces of lapis for a detector block now, so you could make 12 if you wanted.

Thinking the same thing! Might even start doing it today.

Edit- Battlecat you dont mind do you?

[Adjudicator79]

Hmm, you have inspired me. I'm going to start something like this, but probably do it in-character. I think it could be fun to have a running journal from Steve's perspective, rather than the player. It might also help me think out the tech progression from his perspective, as well!

I love what you've done so far, Battlecat. Keep up the good work!

[Battlecat]

Thanks very much! Glad to hear everyone likes the idea! I’m writing up these entries as they happen so things might be a bit slower after I finish my holiday this week.

@Stormweaver: I completely forgot about that change. Granted, It’s only marginally helpful right now since I don’t have much redstone yet! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

@diegokilla: Thanks! I’ll see what I can do.

@duartemad: I wouldn’t even dream of objecting, ideas are free and open for use! I’d love to see what you come up with!

@Adjudicator79: That would be a neat approach as well! Funny enough, I write in character for my dwarf fortress game but I didn't think to for this one. Look forward to seeing what you come up with!

I have two goals today. The first is to begin production of materials for basic mechanical power. The second is to figure out some way to access the nether, which should be interesting in the absence of diamonds so far.

Session 2 - Age of Wood Tier 1: Basic Mechanical Power

Entry 1: The millstone and many other recipies in this mod now require smooth stone. I’ve got a stack baking while I head down to the depths to seek out a magma pool. I think molding the portal will be faster now than the alternative of waiting till I stumble onto diamond.

Entry 2: Not only did I find magma, I also managed to acquire a small batch of redstone dust as well on my way down. I’m going to build the portal in the basement since I only have enough iron left right now for two buckets and a single flint and steel.

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Entry 3: What does it say about a mod when going to the nether is higher priority than acquiring diamond or even acquiring string to get a bow? Nothing but good if you ask me! After all, I think I can get string from hemp.

Does anyone else find it ironic that the primary purpose of going to hell is acquiring materials that produce light?

Entry 4: The portal appeared on the shore of a magma sea quite exposed. Fortunately, I’ve got cobblestone to fortify the area before the first Ghasts show up. Once done, I gathered a quick stack of netherrack and headed back to the real world and get the cauldron fired up.

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Entry 5: Time to take the first small steps towards industrialization.

One Millstone plus one Handcrank . . .

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. . .plus some time hitting the switch equals Hemp Fibres! Not a bad quantity either, looks like 4 per hemp leaf which is reasonable considering the rate the plant grows. I then quickly confirm that hemp fibres can be turned into string (2 fibres for 1 string) and craft a bow. Now I need to go wolf hunting. I’ll grab some basic gear and head out.

Entry 6: After a good solid 6 days of game time searching, I realized I had chosen the wrong direciton to hunt for wolves. Everywhere I looked was jungle and desert. I need cold biomes to have a good shot. But it wasn’t entirely in vain. 3 stacks of clay blocks were gathered from the desert, to be stored for future projects. And more importantly, out of the corner of my eye I noticed something just as I was heading back to my main base.

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I didn’t build that . . .

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And lo, there was a spider spawner. I left the spawner intact, gather the mossy cobble stone and headed back to spawn. 55 moss stone is enough to build 11 block dispensers under the modern recipe. I make it safely home and store the valuable materials. I’ll have to try wolf hunting again another day.

And that’s a wrap for today. Here’s my base at the Glacier Seed after two sessions:

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That tree farm is going to get relocated before long so I can add some class to my main entrance. I’m almost ready to move into the second tier of the Age of Wood but I’ll need to find a wolf to finally make it through by building a saw. I’ll have to try exploring in another direction and see what I can find. Hemp is still slowly growing but I’ve almost got enough fibres to make a windmill I think.

[Battosay]

Very cool man, love it :)

Does anyone else find it ironic that the primary purpose of going to hell is acquiring materials that produce light?

Eheh, yeah I had the same thought on that :)
Quite ironical indeed ^^

[duartemad]

Nice another journal page!
Like the 1st one very entertaining and I learned a few things!
Working on the my diary now, lets hope it is entertaining too!

[Battlecat]

@Battosay: Thanks for stopping by! Love the videos, I’m really looking forward to developing some automation projects like you have.

@duartemad: Thanks kindly!

Session 3: Age of Wood Tier 1 Continued

Entry 1: My work on gathering the materials to move onwards to the second tier of the age of wood continues. My mind turns to cleaning up the entrance to my base to make it more presentable. As such, I chopped down all the trees as I mentioned in the last update. The access bridge will be replaced at a later time.

Entry 2: The knowledge that a wolf is a necessity for processing leather into a malleable yet strong form continues to prey on my mind. As such, I make plans to do a second exploratory trip away from my home base. Last time I travelled east, this time I’m heading to the north.

Entry 3: I was beginning to despair, this area seemed just as unlikely to have any of the blasted animals as the last. But then just as the sun was beginning to set I saw them. A pack of 5 animals running around. I had to move quickly.

I only had enough bones to tame 4 of them, but that’s more than I need. Soon I’ll be ready to start leather production. I dig in for the night and the next morning lead the annoying creatures back to my home.

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Pushy little buggers, I’m glad there aren’t any cliffs on the way home. I took the long way around a local magma pool.

Entry 4: I’m gathering so many different materials it’s getting hard to keep it organized. I quickly reorganized the warehouse, but I’m certain it’s insufficient in the long run. But for the moment it will do.

Entry 5: It’s getting close now. I’ve got a lot more hemp to grind to have enough to build a windmill but it won’t be long now. The question is, where to build it. I had considered building a mill facility, but with the terrain around here I’m feeling rather dwarven, so I’m going to do something slightly different.

Entry 6: I started with 16 hemp. After griding it all down and doing some crafting I have precisely enough for 5 units of rope and 6 fabric, just enough for one sail and some axle pieces. Looks like it’s going to be a while yet to wait for my first windmill. On the bright side, the first hemp farm is fully seeded now and half the plants are full grown. Full grown hemp base sections seem to produce harvestable top sections quite quickly.

Here’s my BTW materials chest. Really it’s just stuff that I know will be used extensively with the mod.

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Entry 7: I’ve prepared the site for my first windmill but I’m keeping it under wraps until I have the materials to put it all together. I’m one fabric short of my second sail. As such, it’s time to expand the hemp farm. That’s the last job for today. By the time I finished building the second hemp farm greenhouse, I had enough seeds to fill almost all the space in it. Only one plant in the original farm hasn’t reached full growth yet, but it’s close!

Conclusions for today: The growth rate of hemp is certainly a limiting factor for producing continuous mechanical power in the mod. That’s not a bad thing, just an observation, after all there is lots to do to get a base established while the hemp grows. But about every 2 or 3 harvests produces an addition seed, so the more hemp you have, the faster you can grow your farm. I can see why a fully automatic hemp farm would be a top priority.

I’m also getting really tired of the handcrank. I can’t imagine why on earth people would have wanted to handcrank all the way to steel when the windmill exists! My last thought at this time on the mod is I really like how Flowerchild has incorporated otherwise useless things (*cough wolves) into the tech tree and given them a purpose.

See you next time when I should be able make the technological leap to continuous mechanical power!

[Battlecat]

Session 4: Age of Wood, Moving to Tier 2

Entry 1: I’m only a small number of hemp plants away from having my last sail. In the meantime I’d better check what it takes to produce the other mechanical components I need:

A second Millstone,

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Gearboxes,

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And Axels.

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Everything is ready to go except for the windmill itself. Grow hemp grow!

Entry 2: It’s done, the hemp has grown up. Here we go:

Hemp Fibres make Fabric:

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Fabric and wood make Sails:

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And the 4 Sails in a circle creates a windmill.

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Now I just have to get up to where i have to be to install the windmill . . .

Entry 3: Installing the windmill was actually fairly straight forward. Making sure to follow the oft repeated instructions about gearboxes I set up the mechanical room and then dirt stacked myself up to where the windmill would go. For an extra splash of color, I dyed it red. Then I stepped back to look at my handiwork.

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The industrialization of Glacier has now begun! I dash up the stairs to the machine room to test it out.

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Everything is hooked up. There’s a manual override and a rain detection unit outside. It looks like its working but I have to be sure. I grab some wheat I was growing just for this occasion and throw it in. A few moments later, out pops some flour. I wait a while and then throw half in a furnace to bake and half into the cauldron. Mmmmm, bread and dounuts, what a way to celebrate!

The view of my operation from upstairs is quite nice, I can see a new batch of hemp is already full grown and ready for harvest.

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Conclusions Day 4: The windmill is absolutely gorgeous to watch. The animations are seamless and the model looks fantastic. It’s so nice not having to use the hand crank anymore. I don’t intend to look back.

The saw is next on the list but as I read it, the elevator is already possible at this mechanical tier as well. But my priority right now is to begin design and construction of an automated farm for hemp. That means the hopper is a top priority for gathering the products of said farm. So I’ll be moving on quickly to the next age!

[Damion Rayne]

Very cool! Good stuff, I was going to do this in video format soon myself.

[Adjudicator79]

What texture pack are you using, Battlecat?

[danielngtiger]

Wow, I love this. You have inspired me to do a journal of my own, but I think I will do it in character, like Adjudicator79 suggested. Keep up the good work!

[FlowerChild]

Hehe...nice. I was putting off reading this awhile due to its length, but just did, and quite enjoyed it.

Keep it up man. It's really nice to hear someone's first experience with the mod detailed to such an extent :)

[Brethern]

You sir are a genius, I know know how to write the guide I've been putting off forever.

[Battlecat]

Session 5: Age of Wood, Tier 3: Trying to build a Basic Sawmill

Entry 1: As I mentioned last session, one of my top priorities is the automation of hemp farming and processing. A cornerstone of that project is the hopper which will allow the factory to actually store the autoharvested materials. It’s a very powerful ability and it’s appropriate that it requires mod materials to produce.

Specifically, there are two prerequisites: Continuous mechanical power and building a Saw. I’ve already got the first on a small scale. The Saw is a slightly more complex endeavor. To start, I’m going to clear out my cauldron that I’ve been throwing pork into since many days ago.

Now then, let me see. You scour basic leather using the millstone and then tan scoured leather with a piece of dung in the cauldron. I think that should do it. To the mill!

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A few moments later . . .

Entry 2: I think 10 scoured leather should do the trick to start. I throw it in the cauldron with one piece of dung to see how far it goes. For some reason I didn’t think to look a t the wiki first and I quickly discovered an unfortunate truth.

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Hrm. 1 dung produces only 1 tanned leather. I don’t think my informal wolf farm is going to be sufficient for very long. I’ve actually only got 2 more dung collected so far so I throw those in and hope that I have enough to build a saw.

Entry 3: The good news is that one single piece of tanned leather is more than enough to produce a saw. 1 tanned leather can be used to make eight straps.

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Four of those straps can be combined to make a single belt.

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And then the really complicated recipie: 3 iron, 3 gears, 1 belt and 2 wood produce a saw.

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Now I just need the materials to hook it up. I process 40 fibres but then a thunderstorm starts and the automatic shutdown works perfectly. The windmill actually visibly spins faster in the storm, that’s a very cool touch!

Since I’ve been interrupted I head back to the workshop to craft the axles and gear boxes necessary to set up the saw. Once there I discover I’ve been having so much fun with exploring the BTW items, I’ve fallen behind on mining. Specifically, I’m out of redstone, not that I had much to start with. Time for a boring few days down in the mines!

Conclusions: I really wasn’t prepared for how engrossing the mod is. I can’t believe I’ve actually neglected mining for so long. I can see redstone actually being a pretty serious limiting resource which is quite ironic considering how much there is in my SMP warehouse. This mod certainly rounds out a nice wide variety of uses for redstone! I’ll return with another update after I get a few hours of mining out of the way.

Replies:

@Damion Rayne: Thanks! Look forward to seeing your videos!

@Adjudicator79: It’s a custom blend of textures that I’ve assembled via committee for a group of RL friends for use on my SMP server. The primary sources are Albion by Dante80 and Misa’s 64x packs. I’ve added a splash of texture from other packs or completely new items where nothing fit the style we seem to be wandering towards. The BTW textures are almost entirely from Dante80’s BTW Albion except for a few that I’m altering to fit better with the blended style. I don't plan on posting it for wide release since it's really not my work.

@danielngtiger: Thanks! Looking forward to reading your work!

@FlowerChild: Thanks for stopping in and for creating the mod! Glad you enjoyed reading the thread, I certainly have to say that my first experience with the mod has been a great deal of fun to date. I’m looking forward to moving into more complex systems!

@Brethern: Thanks!

[morvelaira]

This journal has been an absolutely enjoyable read for me. I have hung around these forums and been around BTW for quite a while now, but I've still not progressed farther than you are at this moment battlecat. I'll try to keep in step with you, and maybe compare similar experiences. :)

[gftweek]

I too am enjoying reading of your experiences, they closely mirror my own when I started using BTW. Likewise I haven't run out of redstone before now, since the time I built my first overly complicated minecart station system in Alpha.

[Patt_The_ODST]

Darn-My let's plays have been getting visibly boring in the fact that I don't have a texture pack... Anyway you could it out? You know-without copyright?

@Patt
Youtube.com/sour0deez

[Battlecat]

Session 6: Age of Wood, Tier 4: Fast Step to the Hopper

Entry 1: I’ve been blasting through the tiers so far with one goal in mind. That goal is to gain access to the hopper and begin design of an automatic farming system. When I last left off, I had just built a saw, and then realized I didn’t have the materials to connecting it up to the hardware. My mine is done and I’ve solved the issue. Here is my finished sawmill up beside the hopper.

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With that accomplished, building a hopper is as easy as cutting some wood and assembling the parts. For those who are interested: Logs->Wood->Panels->Moulding->Corners->Gears. Talk about a versatile device!

The hopper is a complex device requiring panels, gears, one corner and a wood pressure plate.

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You can’t make this from vanilla methods, that’s for sure!

Entry 2: Now that I have the saw in place and the ability to make hoppers, the next goal is to start designing some automated farming facilities. And my first target is hemp. Slow to grow, it’s a major bottleneck in mechanical constructions. This will be a two stage facility. On the top level, the automated farms using block dispensers to harvest the top half of the plan. On the lower level, a milling facility

Entry 3: I’m digging away when suddenly poof, I almost get pushed off a cliff by one of my wolves. Stupid teleporting thing\, I left you sitting down by the lake. I resist the urge to push it off the nearest cliff and take it back downstairs.

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Ok, I take that back. I push it off a cliff into the lake, then put it back where it belongs. Then it’s back to the boring busywork carving out my project.

Entry 4: Block dispensers are wired differently from any other device of worked with. Placing the redstone on top of the dispenser seems like the most efficient solution. It’s an interesting one, that’s for sure but it makes chaining the dispensers together very very easy! The key to placing redstone on top of it is to target the narrow profile of the redstone on the neighbouring block, not the block itself.

Next stop, the nether for materials to build lighting. I plan to use powered lighting in here, even though it’s not technically necessary. It’s a much more efficient use of glowstone as far as I’m concerned. Especially with a recipe like this:

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Entry 5: Last stop for today! The hemp is growing in the first portion of the automatic farm.

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I’ll let that sprout while I begin work to sort out a few additional issues. First, I need more mossy cobblestone. This place has every single block dispenser I can build at this moment. Secondly, I need to design a bioclock and the collection facility. Lots to do and lots of fun!

Conclusions: Nothing earth shattering today, it was a lot of fun designing the farm. Mossy cobble stone is going to be a seriously limited resource though. It’s kind of at the whim of dungeon locations. But the block dispenser is very powerful so it does seem reasonable to make it a challenge to obtain.

Replies:

@morvelaria:Thanks! The saw and hopper certainly seems like a plateau point in the game. Once you have those I feel there’s a certain logic to applying them to adding efficiencies to the earlier farming processes.

@gftweek: Thanks very much! Yeah, running out of redstone was a weird feeling. But I had neglected mining quite badly as well.

@Patt_The_ODST: Glad you like the texture. In all honesty, I can’t comfortably release the textures because they’re copy and pasted from a lot of other peoples work. However, if you like the overall feel of what I’m using, I highly recommend theAlbion Texture Pack, which was recently updated to fully support Better than Wolves. More 85% of my block textures are from that pack. The tools and mobs are from Misa’s Realistic Pack. She only support vanilla minecraft though so any mod related textures should be taken from Albion. Hope this helps!

[Adjudicator79]

Why the BDs above the hemp plants, Battlecat? I've always built my hemp farms with pistons above to break the top of the hemp plant into a water stream. How are you planning to collect the hemp from the BDs?

[Katalliaan]

Why the BDs above the hemp plants, Battlecat? I've always built my hemp farms with pistons above to break the top of the hemp plant into a water stream. How are you planning to collect the hemp from the BDs?

When they are powered again, they'll spit the hemp back out into the water streams.

Battlecat - I enjoy reading these entries, as they're almost like a guide to BTW but still keeping the feel of a narrative (which, of course, they are).

[Battosay]

Why the BDs above the hemp plants, Battlecat? I've always built my hemp farms with pistons above to break the top of the hemp plant into a water stream. How are you planning to collect the hemp from the BDs?

Before pistons were implemented, BD were the only device available for automated farming ;)
And even now, they can still be choosed over the pistons, because they're 100% efficient, unlike the pistons, which are "wasting" 20 to 40% of the production (but in a fully auto farm, it doesn't really matter)

Thanks for the new entry Battlecat, it's really entertaining, even when you know everything there is to know about BTW ;)

[Battlecat]

Session 7: Age of Wood, Tier 4: Slow Day

Entry 1: Insult to the long search I made for wolves, a pack spawns in the lake outside my home at sunset. I go tame the fool things but I’ll probably use them for experiments. Of the three, one I failed to tame, so I killed it for meat. The second I accidently fed a wolfchop from the first one, which resulted in me having to put it down. And the third one came within a whisker of impaling itself on my cactus farm.

Sigh.

Entry 2: The rest of this session can be summed up as follows: Fell in a pit, blown up by a creeper, killed by a zombie, killed by another zombie, chased into another pit by a creeper, blown up by a different creeper and killed by a skeleton. On the bright side, I found a cave system and another zombie spawner in the process. And managed to get the materials back to base in spite of all the recovery trips. I think that’s enough pain for one night. Some days I just hate spelunking! Time to call it a night before I make a serious mistake!

Replies:

@Adjudicator79: I’ve done some farms that way as well. The wiring on this one is actually simpler, although the material cost is marginally higher. The block dispenser spits the hemp tops out much like the normal dispensers and should reliably hit the water stream in the middle. It’s modeled off one I saw in Battosay’s videos.

Also it gives me an excuse to use block dispensers! I’ve used pistons, I’ve never used these before!

@Katalliaan: Exactly! Thanks. I’ve done this with other games before, Simcity 4 being the most extensive. I do tend to think a bit mechanistically and I like to write out my chain of thoughts when I’m doing something. Glad you like it!

@Battosay: Thanks, glad you’re enjoying it. I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from your videos as well!

[Battlecat]

Session 8: Age of Wood, Tier 4: Farm Construction Continued

Entry 1: I finally got another chance to play. I immediately used the mossy cobble from the disasterous last session to make some more block dispensers and dashed upstairs to install them. To my suprise, much of the hemp here was already nearly fully grown.

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No complaints here! I immediatly installed the new dispensers and began work on the bioclock. The bioclock design is inspired by Battosay’s videos, which I highly recommend. This particular design uses 2 detector blocks, 2 block dispensers, a bundle of redstone wiring and repeaters. Oh and a couple of light blocks. I’ll get back to you when I finish building it.

Entry 2: Success has been achieved finally. At least that’s how it looks on paper, the final assessment will be made when it triggers at some future time. Here is an overview of the project. First we have the detector system:

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The detector blocks will see the hemp when it grows to full height and will transmit a signal. The block dispensers will harvest and then spit out the two hemp portions shortly after the harvest signal is sent upstairs. Ignore the reeds, they’re an experiment in aesthetics.

The next part of the system is the redstone logic. I just managed to finish it with the last scraps of redstone I had, so I’ll be back to the mines shortly. Here’s what it looks like.

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A signal will be transmitted into the AND gate by the two detector blocks. When both bioclock hemp plants are fully grown, it will transmit a delay free signal upstairs through the line I’m standing on. It will also send a delayed signal to the repeaters on either side of the and gate. That signal goes to the block dispenser beside each hemp plant to harvest them, thus clearing the detector block signal. The only problem with the system in this image is the connection to the block dispensers. The signal through those repeaters to the block dispensers needs to be inverted from its current state forcing the dispenser to be "placing" a block by default so it will harvest the bioclock hemp when it is full grown.

When the cleared signal is send, the block dispensers updstairs will spit the hemp into the water channel which flows to the collection zone, my next project. For the moment I’ve just added a temporary hopper there until I finish clearing out the interior of this mountain. For the purpose of testing, I deliberately triggered the system using a redstone torch to see if the auto harvesting works as advertised and then run upstairs to look.

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Looks like it’s working! Next, on to the collection system and after that the next phase of the project is a mill station and collection system for hemp fibres that delivers the product down to my developing warehouse.