The Northmet Server: The server we are playing on now

Okay I've created a new thread specifically for the Northmet server I'm renting.

The server started off on a Realms trial server, but my trial is expiring and I'm not 100% satisfied with Realms.
So I've moved to Multiplay. I've used them in the past for COD.

The new IP is: 69.39.239.163:26565

And look we get a banner now:

I wish we could do something with more depth or community. Playing vanilla minecraft alone with occasional notes or very rare visits isn't doing much for me. It would be a lot of fun, for example, to progress through terrafirmacraft as a team with all of us in the same little town and relying on each others' progression. We could even go into specializations that way: mining, building, smithing, wood gathering, farming, cooking, exploring, etc.

I suppose we could do something different. I'm not familiar with Terrafirmacraft, never played it, watched it or read about it. (and no time just this second to catch up) I'll look into it later I guess.

How much RAM would be required? I only gave the server 1gb

On Realms I could see the login and logouts times for every player quite easily. Everyone was logging in fairly regularly, so it wasn't a matter of rare visits, it's just we kept missing each other. A lot of the visits happened a half hour after a previous player logged off.

Terrafirmacraft is a single overhaul mod that makes things more realistic with focus on fun realism rather than strict realism. It just adds depth that vanilla minecraft lacks. I don't imagine it's much more resource heavy than vanilla. There are other mods that can be used as "plugins" to extend TFC's functionality, but TFC is perfectly playable by itself. You'd probably want to tweak some of the settings for an always-on server if you decide to use it since food spoils, crops and animals grow according to season, etc.

A visit to me is direct communication with another person in the same place with the purpose of communion with each other. It builds relationships and a sense of community between people. What we have now is like we're all living on different floors of the same apartment building but never actually seeing each other except in passing. It doesn't make us feel like we're a part of each others' lives; we just have an approximate spatial and chronological proximity to each other.

If we could all work on the same thing or rely on each other and see others' progress affect our own play it would at least give us a feeling that we're part of each others' lives even if we don't get to visit--more akin to housemates than apartment building neighbors. It would be much less lonely. I think this is a big part of why our treecrafters server slowly died out. As we spread out more and more we had less and less interaction. The lack of interaction sapped the meaning out of multiplayer. Spread is a necessary counter to theft and griefing on open servers, but it's detrimental to community on small, closed servers like ours.

I've played TFC before too, and I think it would definitely manage to keep us close together, at least in the beginning. The problem would be getting a good spawn I think.

At the least we could potentially support each other in that early game survival aspect.

What makes a good spawn for this mod? Particular resources? Or a biome?

A lot of factors go into calling a place a good one to settle. I would consider a place good if it has fairly easy access to an ocean for long distance travel, fresh water, fluxstone, copper, tin (or zinc and bismuth), igneous rock (for a starter anvil), and a moderate climate (+-10k to 18k Z coordinate). 0 Z is the equator and beyond +-30k Z is the arctic.

It's been a long time since I've played, so I may be forgetting some stuff. There are lots of different types of fluxstone and igneous rock. Ores can appear in different forms--copper, for example, can be native copper, malachite, or tetrahedrite--and each form only spawns in certain types of stone.

Ores, minerals, and resources are not necessarily distributed equally throughout the world like they are in vanilla, so it's possible to end up in a place where there is no copper or tin (or any other specific ore or rock type) for thousands of meters in any direction.

I don't mind travelling to a dedicated mine if we need to, it fits in better with the new realism setup if we have a site like that, as opposed to digging in the basement like we all end up doing. Decorating a mine and coming up with transport options to our industry could be fun projects. It would provide incentive to make rails and tame horses.

I'll work on upgrading the server when I get a chance, as well as double checking if there is a light mod that may be useful.
If anyone wants to scout out a good seed that would be awesome. (large biomes ok?)
You could give me the seed name and coords of the site. I think MC lets you remap the spawn point, so feel free to explore.
Resources are important, but somewhere aesthetically pleasing is important too

Check out Terrafirmapack on the ATLauncher. It has a lot of mods to pick and choose from so you can get an idea of what's useful. Cellars can be especially handy for food storage.

I'm pretty sure there aren't world type variations for TFC, so you can't do a large biomes map. There's not much point in it anyway since TFC doesn't use the biomes system in the same way as vanilla.

I'm really liking the area around 0, -8700 on the seed "Bloodwood"
I've only found a tiny bit of copper around here, but there's a very nice variety of stone types, crops, and fruit trees. Game and livestock are scarce, but they don't seem all that important.

I'll check out the seed when I can.

I think I found a small list of mods that could make life more interesting:

DiscordChat
- Better communication between us

BiblioCraft
-  Really brightens up your home

Toomuchtime
- Didn’t know this existed, been wanting it for a long time

Railcraft
- Better transport for material and players without spoiling anything

Localized Weather & Stormfronts
- You can turn block destruction off. The mod just adds atmosphere and forces us inside occasionally.

Jabba
- Because Chests are annoying long term

Hopper Ducts
- A quieter replacement for Buildcraft pipes

Redstone Paste
- Better red stone for better projects

Mo' Creatures
- Vanilla mobs are a joke, will only turn on a few hostile ones. Will keep off most ambient mobs

Better Records
- Lets us share music with each other. A social thing, low impact on the server.

Deconstruction Table
- Helps us empty those chests full of Mob loot

Second Screen for Minecraft
- Improved info on whether people are online, makes it easier to meet up

Waterproof
- Makes life less annoying

Streams
- Tempting, but I don’t know if it will cause problems later

Almost all of what you know about vanilla or modded minecraft doesn't apply in TerraFirmaCraft. It is truly a complete overhaul. It's more like this than it is like the minecraft you know. Just about any mod you want to use will have to have a version coded specifically for TFC.

DiscordChat: sure.

Bibliocraft: yeah, there are versions that work with TFC. Good mod.

TooMuchTime: might be okay, depending on what you do with it.

Railcraft: its theory does kind of work with TFC. I think there's a version rebalanced for it. Rails are crazy expensive in TFC, though.

Localized weather and stormfronts: I'm not sure this would work. TFC replaces all of the vanilla biomes and almost all of the vanilla blocks with its own versions. And TFC has its own local climate and temperature system.

Jabba: definitely doesn't mesh with TFC's storage theory. There's very little that you'd end up with huge stockpiles of. You probably wouldn't even be able to craft them, anyway, without access to vanilla-style blocks.

Hopper Ducts: similar problem as Jabba. TFC systems don't lend themselves to automation. And ducts would be useless without vanilla hoppers (which are uncraftable) anyway.

Redstone paste: don't know about this one. I haven't progressed far enough into TFC to ever get to redstone stuff. I don't know if it uses vanilla redstone mechanics.

Mo Creatures: unnecessary. TFC mobs are definitely not vanilla. We won't be spending nights out in the wild for quite a while, and even once geared up, mobs are a threat.

Better records: jukeboxes can't be crafted.

Destruction table: wouldn't even be craftable. Little is crafted vanilla-style anyway.

Second Screen: sure. If you want.

Waterproof: totally unnecessary in TFC. I can't think of any situations where I've had to be careful to avoid flooding my builds. It takes a lot of progression to even have enough tech to make a bucket.

Streams: Water is handled somewhat differently in TFC, but I think there might be a version of this or another one like it for TFC. It could be useful for ore panning on the go.

Mailleweaver wrote:
TooMuchTime: might be okay, depending on what you do with it.

Nothing fancy, just want to extend the day cycle a bit. To provide more time to explore, build or farm outside,

Mailleweaver wrote:
Localized weather and stormfronts: I'm not sure this would work. TFC replaces all of the vanilla biomes and almost all of the vanilla blocks with its own versions. And TFC has its own local climate and temperature system.

They shouldn't even notice each other. The weather mod adds some sky effects and wind/storms, but they are separate from vanilla events and don't add a temperature system. Mostly it's interesting as a tool to push you to be more cautious, and to build shelters when exploring.

Mailleweaver wrote:
Jabba: definitely doesn't mesh with TFC's storage theory. There's very little that you'd end up with huge stockpiles of. You probably wouldn't even be able to craft them, anyway, without access to vanilla-style blocks.

Okay np then.

Mailleweaver wrote:
Hopper Ducts: similar problem as Jabba. TFC systems don't lend themselves to automation. And ducts would be useless without vanilla hoppers (which are uncraftable) anyway.

That's sad, I'll miss moving items around.

Mailleweaver wrote:
Redstone paste: don't know about this one. I haven't progressed far enough into TFC to ever get to redstone stuff. I don't know if it uses vanilla redstone mechanics.

I suppose we can skip it, we can add it later if it seems viable.

Mailleweaver wrote:
Mo Creatures: unnecessary. TFC mobs are definitely not vanilla. We won't be spending nights out in the wild for quite a while, and even once geared up, mobs are a threat.

I hope so

Mailleweaver wrote:
Better records: jukeboxes can't be crafted.

so I can't go crank the stereo while working...

Mailleweaver wrote:
Destruction table: wouldn't even be craftable. Little is crafted vanilla-style anyway.

Not a problem, skippable

Mailleweaver wrote:
Waterproof: totally unnecessary in TFC. I can't think of any situations where I've had to be careful to avoid flooding my builds. It takes a lot of progression to even have enough tech to make a bucket.

Streams: Water is handled somewhat differently in TFC, but I think there might be a version of this or another one like it for TFC. It could be useful for ore panning on the go.

Np again, just extra mods.

I'll see about popping in the few mods that made it with the Bloodwood seed later.
I'll let you know when it's online, as well as provide a DL link to a zip of the mods.

Okay! That should do it

As far as I can tell everything is working as it should.
The approved mods are installed, and after finding a workaround to get the server to switch to 1.7.10 everything is live. (The Host had options for FTB packs, but no option for an empty 1.7.10 Forge)

The recommended spawn point has been set, a nice area btw, and the Weather mod is doing it's thing with no issues.

I couldn't install the Time mod. It crashed my local client when loading a new world, no clue why, very little detail in the crash log.

The Secondscreen mod may be a washout as well. It doesn't seem compatible with a rented server  

The Discord mod is disabled for now until I set us up a Discord channel to plug into the Mods settings.
I have high hopes for this mod, at minimum it should help: 1. Show us when players have been online and offline (with timestamps) and 2. Optionally notify us when someone goes online, as they do so.
So we can have more notice when the server is active, giving you the chance to switch from watching reruns to playing Minecraft with other players.

Anyway, I have to go for now.  
I should be able to play for a bit tomorrow night, shortly after 9pm MST.
If someone feels energetic they can make a small shelter to protect from mobs.
I only know enough about the new mod to know that might take more time than usual.

Forgot I promised a zip file

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5w0j7p0txcuikbw/Northmet_modsv2.zip?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hx3tyfr6u5t60xb/Northmet_mods.zip?dl=0
and I've created a Discord channel. We'll see if I setup everything correctly.
If not, I'll sort it out tomorrow night.

Discord Invite: https://discord.gg/QkrCrdp

I made a simple log and thatch shelter at (0, -8730). A little bit of barley and cherries for food in the jar closest to the "door" (which is just thatch for now.) Jars and water jugs near the back wall are free to use. There's some drinking water in large containers outside the front door. Got a few fruit trees planted nearby, too.

I will try get on at some point this evening. What's the Dropbox for? To put into the ATLauncher? Which I think I need to redownload.

I am off fri-sun this week.

Download and install the latest version of Forge for 1.7.10, create a new minecraft profile with its own directory and set it to use this version of forge, and finally copy the mods folder from Althing's dropbox zip into this profile directory.

I also added Journeymap, WAILA, NEI, and TFC NEI plugin. Then I accidentally spawned some logs and threw them away before I remembered to go into NEI's global settings and set it to recipe mode.

Adding one of those things is making everything bug out, as far as I can tell it's NEI.

Got home late, looks like I missed you guys :/
Will try again tomorrow night

I accidentally linked to the 1.9.4 version of WAILA. It's fixed now. That's what I get for trying to do two things at once.

When you go to the NEI download page, make sure you select 1.7.10 from the drop down menu at the top and then download the latest version of NEI (1.0.5.120) and Codechickencore (1.0.7.47).

It appears that the localized weather mod is interfering with TFC features. My barrels are not collecting water when it rains. If TFC can't tell when it rains, I think it may affect crop growth as well.

I've located and started mining the tetrahedrite under our cabin. I've also set up a couple of tree farms and processed a batch of charcoal. Now I just need to build a smithy with a forge, find some borax in the salt down south, and start forging a copper anvil.

Please don't do any mining unless you know all about the TFC mining mechanics and how to prevent cave-ins. I heard a cave start to collapse somewhere beyond the eastern end of my upper mineshaft, so avoid going that direction if you do mine else a cave-in could start in those caves and propagate into the mine despite support beams. The upper shaft was just to locate the ore deposit and graze its top--should be pretty much empty by now, anyway. Do any mining in the lower shaft or below. If you want mining practice, do it with the silver or galena ores visible in the mountain behind our cabin since those metals are useless.

We're now set up for making sandwiches. All the food has been moved to the shelves above the quern and butcher block.
Early winter has set in, too. It would be nice if someone could make an exploratory hunting expedition to augment our existing food stores and locate more resources. It would be nice to know where to find fluxstone in case I can't locate any borax deposits. There's some ground salt in the right chest that could be used to preserve any meat collected.

Yeah, I had mentioned having some issues with the weather last night too. The chunks were not loading for me until right before I was in them when I had a tornado spawn on top of me and was running away. Might need to remove that feature.

You probably saw the blackberry bushes. I will try head out on a trip for meat far from home tonight or tomorrow.

I'm about ready to condemn our tetrahedrite mine. I found the collapsing cave beside the mine and shored it up. Then I moved down a level and another cave started collapsing below there. If you go mining, be extremely cautious and expect cave-ins.

If someone just wants an adventure, go explore those caves and see how far they go. You can access them from the middle level of the mine.

The forge is built and there are some copper ingots next to the anvil if anyone wants to try their hand at forging tools or weapons. I'd prefer saving some copper until I get a mine dropped on another deposit, though.

I might be dumb but I keep getting this and I dunno how to fix it. I have even deleted everything including minecraft itself and then only redownloaded the required mods and minecarft and I still get this. I have the correct forge version I'm pretty sure I downloaded the latest 1.7.10 so I dunno whats wrong =/

New required Client side mods (2):
1. https://minecraft.curseforge.com/projects/better-boat/files/2274165
Better Boat
BetterBoat-1.7.10-1.1.0.jar

2. https://minecraft.curseforge.com/projects/bookshelf/files/2278984
Bookshelf