My story so far :)

[Gil 61]

Okay, finally had some time to play TFC again, and since my SMP server seems to be having issues at the moment, I decided to do an SSP play.

First few days I decided to head to the moderate climate immediately (I think I'm around -9k right now, started at -15k). Along the way I picked up a good share of the available crops, a few stacks of clay, a few stacks of peat and a willow, aspen and hickory sapling (I find those three to be the perfect three for tree farms).

When I arrived at my destination, I found a cool medium basalt biome, with a granite biome next to it. Some surveying later, I have two copper veins, two cassiterite veins, two bismuth veins and two sphalerite veins. Time to go dig!

I quickly dug up the copper and cassiterite veins and I'm now up to a copper anvil. At this point, charcoal is a huge issue, so I'm looking at a tree farm (willow) and building my iconic charcoal shed (I like to build charcoal buildings, I hate pits of em). Also, I'd love to get into crops soon, so I already marked some prime farmland . I have a single piece of wheat, so I'll also be able to lure some sheep, cows, pigs and chickens to an animal farm. Breeding them is more of a "for fun" project than necessary. I still haven't found fruit trees, but I might do an expedition soon to get some.

As for metals, I can alloy bronze and bismuth bronze right now, so if I can find some gold, I can do some black bronze and rose gold too. I'm hoping for a good iron layer too, of course, which will involve travelling around the three closest biomes, digging core samples down to level 3 to get a good bearing of my surroundings. I'd love a good supply of iron, since I plan on making some rails.

I hope I can show some screenshots too when my internet at home decides to work again . And Bioxx, if you read this: this is one heck of a mod you made, I thoroughly enjoy it so far (about 20 hours of SMP, 10 hours of SSP so far)

[MDub 68]

I love the idea of the rails. I have seen and even helped in creating a few several thousand block long rail tracks that connected small groups of homes over large distances via underground rails. While they work, the animations sucked, and it was really laggy. As for the animals, my wife and I built a huge barn and a large farm with a huge fenced in area partitioned into two areas, one for crops and the other for livestock. We were able to lure the animals using wheat, and even get them to breed and become pregnant, but unfortunately thats as far as it gets. 6 months later or whatever the livestock gave birth, but we never got any new animals. I vaguely remember hearing that they are born underground, and die shortly after but I havent a clue if thats actually true

Congrats on your progress, but imho, dont expect much from animal husbandry if anything at all, and good luck finding the fruit trees. Provided youre around when they bloom, you will pretty much never actually need farmland, because they provide way more food than you will likely need.

[Gil 61]

That's why I said the animals are more "for fun". I'd need a pretty sizable herd to have them be useful for sustenance and they take ages to mature. On top of that, birthing is very buggy indeed.

Oh, and I know about the fruit trees being OP. I do plan on only using meals containing crops as well once I'm self-sustained, so I'm always forced to keep agriculture up. I'm even debating not going for fruit trees at all, or just for looks.

I love that you play TFC with your wife. My girlfriend thinks I'm a nerd because I play video games 2-4 hours a week. Or, well, she did, until I housed with a real gamer for a while and now she realizes that I'm not really a gamer nerd . Still, far removed from getting her in TFC.

[MDub 68]

lol make no mistake, my wife still thinks im a nerd

[Gwtheyrn 70]

I play TFC with my wife too. I married a gamer girl. It's pretty awesome.

[Aridhol 41]

Haha Topic Highjacking!

My wife plays with me on rare occasion too. She hasn't ever been a huge minecraft fan tho. And she isn't a gamer I'm afraid, I just try my best to corrupt her..

Back when World of Warcraft was fun (and before we had kids..) I got her into it and good enough to be our top raid healer in Icecrown.. haha.

Still haven't convinced her to play TFC yet but I am trying

Ah fruit trees. There are dead horses to beat.. yeah they are OP. But I am addicted to meal recipes so I must have them for variety..

[AlmightySquid 72]

Haha Topic Highjacking!

My wife plays with me on rare occasion too. She hasn't ever been a huge minecraft fan tho. And she isn't a gamer I'm afraid, I just try my best to corrupt her..

Back when World of Warcraft was fun (and before we had kids..) I got her into it and good enough to be our top raid healer in Icecrown.. haha.

Still haven't convinced her to play TFC yet but I am trying

Ah fruit trees. There are dead horses to beat.. yeah they are OP. But I am addicted to meal recipes so I must have them for variety..

About the fruit trees, a simple and believable way to nerf them, yet still make orchards plausible (even more so), is to make it so that you can only harvest them one per season. The main problem currently imo is the fact that you can harvest the same tree like 10 times during it's season. Fruit doesn't grow back that fast.

[Gil 61]

I slotted 2 hours of gaming this weekend. Can't wait!

I think I'm going to go do one of my bismuth veins. I'm planning on making bismuth bronze for the less critical parts, so I can save on copper. I'll try to grab some screenshots for you guys.