Thaum-it-ry? Let's Play Tekkit + Thaumcraft and Forestry

[Dreadmaker]

Hey Everyone!

I've just started a new let's play with tekkit where I've manually installed Thaumcraft and Forestry, two of my favourite mods. Here's the most recent one in the series, where I crawl through a Dimensional Dungeon and get a surprise!

About me and the let's play series:

I posted a few minecraft videos long ago when the game was in Alpha, and they were pretty popular; I never actually managed to do a let's play series though. I just finished my undergrad, and in the summer prior to my Master's degree, I figured I'd use my spare time to go back to doing something I loved: Minecraft.

Why is my series different than all the others?

My intent in the series isn't just to play, but to teach too. My logic: if you want to watch people play, why not just play yourself? Or get some friends over? When I watch videos, I usually do it for comedy value and/or learning potential. I love mod spotlights. So, my hope is that as I come across mods and content in tekkit/Thaumcraft/forestry, I'll actually look at them in some detail and talk about what you can do with the mods and how they're useful. My goal is to look at as many as possible during the course of average, regular play. What does that mean? It means I'm not going to rush to the high end mods just to showcase them; rather, I'll play like normal, and if I come across some content I'd like to get into (like dimensional doors or something), then I'll talk about it at a basic level and introduce it, rather than just hopping in.

So why watch my series? (TL;DR): Essentially, watch it if you aren't a tekkit expert and want to know a thing or two about the mods in the pack, but don't want to just watch endless mod spotlights; this will be an 'organic' explanation in that we'll address things as they come up.

I've linked the most recent rather than the first one to give a faster start; my first two are just exploration and getting set up a bit. Starting with 3 and onwards, it gets much more exciting. I've recorded a few more that I have yet to post, and it goes places I didn't expect it to in exciting ways. Come join me for the ride!

Any suggestions or comments are more than welcome! Thanks for watching guys!

[Dreadmaker]

Hey everyone!

My let's play series is at episode nine now, with episode 10 on monday, and I thought I'd link it here and give you a better idea about what the series is about.

Mods and goals of the series:

In this series, I use tekkit, included in the technic platform, and thaumcraft, forestry, and thaumic bees (but not extra bees). in episode 10 (forthcoming) I also installed optifine, after discovering tekkit doesn't have it by default, as well as bibliocraft.

As for series goals, I want to do your average let's play while talking about the mods in tekkit and doing short little 'mini spotlights' on them. that is to say, it's a bit of a tutorial series as well as an average let's play. I've played around with some of the mods, but not all of them, and I want to learn and discover them and bring you along for the ride. So far, the most attention has been given to Dimensional Doors, just by cooincidence of there being a lot of them around me. Episode 10 briefly features bibliocraft, and I have plans in the future to spend a good chunk of time with forestry and thaumcraft, two of my favorite mods. Soon, we'll get into power generation and ore processing and such, so we'll talk a bit about thermal expansion and buildcraft as well. So, all in all, it's a let's play for people who don't mod often, or are curious about the tekkit pack. I try to explain a bit about it and the mods in it while playing regularly.

30 second summary:

I landed on a small island where not much was going on. I wanted to leave and find something better. Found the entrance to a dimensional door. Went in, fell through the world, landed 31km away from home. Found another landmass which wasn't very nice, found another rift, fell through the world again, landed across the world again, then sailed for a long time and found our current home, which is gorgeous. in the latest episode, I explored the island and built a beautiful (I think) new home.

2 minute summary:

I landed on a small group of three islands which together were quite small. One was a large tundra biome, and the other two were small hilly islands. I explored these places pretty throughly, and I discovered a large cave as well as a dimensional door. I went through the dimensional door, and got a lot of quick and easy loot, only going down about 3 levels. I came back out, stored all of the gear I got, then tried to go into that big cave. I died in there several times in quick succession (was shot off a ledge by a skeleton, and it was a chasm. the other two deaths were attempts with no inventory or prep to rescue my gear). I then went back into the Dimensional door to go deeper and get more gear before building a house on my island. Things didn't work out that way, though, and instead, I fell through a hole in the rift and landed 31,000 metres away from home.

After that, I swam for about 1,000 metres and found land, but it was a giant barren wasteland of tundra and it wasn't a nice place. So, I found another rift, and with my rift blade from the previous dungeon, I entered it. It was a very interesting dungeon, and I found myself with a choice to jump into the abyss again, like a controlled version of my first mishap. I did. I landed another 31,000m away from home. I built a boat and sailed a long, long way (finding two mushroom island biomes, but no land). Finally, I found a giant, gorgeous island merely 500 metres off the coast of my home islands. There, in the most recent episode, I built a beautiful house and set the foundations for building a thriving community.

Full summary and episode guide:

Episode 1: I land in a newly generated world. I talk a good chunk about what the series is meant to be and what my plans are, while doing a little exploration and setting up shop for the night in the side of a mountain. To be honest, this is probably the worst episode in the whole series; lots of talking and not a lot of doing. Most let's plays have this problem I find; the first 10 minutes of a minecraft world are pretty awful.

Episode 2: I explored my little island to find it was actually an archipelago of three islands. I found a dimensional dungeon entrance, as well as a spreading rift that was quickly spawning endermen. As I was looking at that, I fell into a big cave and freaked out a little, but shortly got back on track. This episode was a little more exciting, but is essentially just a commentary on exploring.

Episode 3: This episode, I entered the dimensional dungeon, and it was quite exciting. I thought it wasn't the most interesting place, until I accidentally stepped on a pressure plate to reveal a hidden room full of chests. Then, I got more interested. We only went down three levels, but I filled my inventory and got lots of excellent loot. I retreated into my base for the night. Much more interesting episode; in my view, a better place to start than 1 or 2.

Episode 4: Armed with a rift remover from the dungeon, I went back to the spreading rift to close it. I did so, and then went into the cave beneath it to explore. I was shot off a bridge by a skeleton, then fell to my death at the bottom of a chasm. since my spawn was actually quite close to that chasm, I ran back there and died twice in an attempt to rescue my stuff, but it was to no avail. I gave up and went home.

Episode 5: Back into the dimensional dungeon! If levels 1-3 had nothing but loot in them, the odds are good for the rest of the place, right? Not so much. scarier rooms spawned, and by the end of it, while I survived all of the cunning traps, I accidentally fell through the world into limbo on one of the levels. I got out of limbo and fell into an ocean 31,000m away from home. The episode ends with me finding a large tundra biome. Pretty exciting episode.

Episode 6: I explore the huge new island in hopes of finding a hospitible place to put down and build a house. No dice. I wander for the whole episode, going from place to place and building houses into the sides of mountains night after night. Not a whole lot of exciting things go on in this one; it's pretty dry. Good if you've found that you enjoy the sound of my voice though.

Episode 7: One of the most exciting ones out there. I noticed a rift on the island in episode 5, and so I return to it, and with the rift blade, I go into it. The dungeon beneath it is exciting and dangerous, and I explore a lot of it and get lots of good stuff. I finally get into limbo, and fall through the world of my own volition. I land in the ocean another 31,000m from home. I land near a tiny island, where I hang out for the evening and end the episode.

Episode 8: I make a boat, and sail around looking for a new place to live. I encounter two different mushroom island biomes along the way, but no real land. In order to not make this episode boring as hell, I made a musical sailing montage, which I quite like. Finally, at the end of it, I found new land, just 500 metres from my old home (go figure) which is completely gorgeous. I stay off coast for the evening, with the promise of exploring the next day.

Episode 9 (current): In this episode, I explore some of the new island, though a lot of it I edit out to minimize wandering time in the video (which episode 2 and 6 had quite enough of). I do a flyby of the area we ultimately want to settle in and talk about some plans for the future, and then I build a new house (montaged and to music) to round out the episode. I also run back to my home island quickly to get my stuff from before, since it was only 500m away. This is, in my opinion, the best episode thus far, and if you're looking to start up my series, give this one a watch before looking at the others. Since I land on a new island and start a new life, it makes sense that it's a pretty good place to pick up the series.

I don't want to read, I just want to watch a video and see if you're worth my time!

Here you are:

Episode 9

I hope you enjoy this video, and if so, I hope you'll consider giving some of my other ones a watch. There will be a new episode out on Monday!

Thanks for reading/watching!

Dreadmaker