I am opposed to automation. Is this wrong?

[Punnikin]

I know that so many mods out there are geared toward automation, BTW included. I can appreciate that. Modern life is also progressing toward automation and for a very good reason, but I just can't seem to grasp the concept of automation in a single player game. I used to use Buildcraft, Industrial Craft, Redpower, etc and it just felt to me like I was working my ass off toward a self-defeating goal.

I'm not saying this to detract from BTW or any other mods that do this, but to find out if anyone else feels this way. Don't get me wrong, I love the saw, grindstones, hoppers, windmills and all that as they serve specific uses that the mod allows, but my hemp farm is not automated, nor are my other farms and such. I sprint through my hemp punching the tops off, same with the sugarcane, no machines necessary. To me, that feels like an integral part of the game instead of a burden to be "fixed" somehow.

In a multiplayer setting I can see how automation might be beneficial but as a single player it's a totally different mindset. If BTW ever goes multiplayer and this community sets up a server, I'll be right there in line to get whitelisted and do my utmost to contribute but until then, I'll work on my (meager) redstone skills and machine configurations and maybe get a building design that promotes efficiency and production, but only as a single player.

I don't know what it is that drives me to be such a caveman. I love everything BTW has to offer, probably won't mess with BTB, and I have a blast with the steel tools but I just can't fathom having a switch that makes everything work and I have nothing else to do. I guess I need to live in a multiplayer scenario more often to get this concept cemented in my head.

So I guess my real question is this. Am I the only luddite when it comes to BTW, or automation in general?

[FlowerChild]

All I'll say about this, is automation is about the journey, not the destination :)

Seriously, I think why I, and most other people here enjoy that aspect of the game is the logical puzzle that it involves, which provides a kind of challenge that is barely present in vanilla, but for which the game has huge potential. It was a game in which you could build pretty much anything, but for which there was little incentive to do so, and those creations didn't serve any in-game purpose for the most part.

Before this mod existed, the project I probably spent the most time on in vanilla, was my gigantic mob trap that is still central to my world. That made me realize that the game was capable of so much more than the design for it was really allowing the player to explore.

Anyways, I won't say I disagree with you entirely, because BTW is probably the most difficult "tech mod" out there to automate things with. Again, that's because I value solving the puzzle more than the end result. Automation itself doesn't really have any gameplay value. Difficult automation tasks in which the output is the cherry motivating you to complete them is a whole other ball of wax.

Also, you may notice that this mod tends to differ in design from other comparable ones in that I tend to constantly provide new automation challenges and new resources to gather to move forward to avoid the gameplay "plateau" you're talking about. The other mod I am most familiar with is BC, and I know that at a certain point, you definitely reach that stage where you feel you've "won Minecraft" and have nothing left to do. It's something I actively try to avoid.

And as a bit of forewarning, and as many others have already realized...progressing beyond a certain point in the mod will simply not be feasible without automating.

[Punnikin]

Perhaps when this is capable of multiplayer and I do get to play on a server my outlook will change. Please don't take this as any kind of hint about the direction I want to see BTW go or anything of the sort. I just so rarely play on public or even private servers as I can't trust other people so my viewpoint is extremely limited. I can also see your point about personal challenges, and BTW certainly offers a very interesting build scenario. Nothing is just handed to you. You have to try at it, climb the tech tree, and make it work. It's a great approach, one that other mods have done to some extent but don't leave you feeling overpowered and useless at the end of it all.

Industrial Craft is one of those mods. After you get your power sources and machinery set up you're practically a God. Nothing left to do but start over fresh and see if you can be godlike a little faster. I played on a small Tekkit server for a bit and it got old so fast... the biggest challenge was workarounds for bugs. That's another huge reason I like BTW. It doesn't break 10 times a day.

For me though, my challenges right now as I see them are getting more skill with redstone, as I absolutely suck at wiring, and building a base/house that I would be proud to show off. For me, funtional is everything, aesthitics mean nothing as I play alone always. I'm thinking of making a WWII era twin propeller fighter plane with windmills as the props, and maybe waterwheels embellished with black wool as wheels. Something like that. I just don't feel the motivation to do things like that as I don't have anyone around to appreciate it. Some day perhaps, but the idea of some dipshit with a lava bucket wrecking it for fun puts me off that project too.

I will confess to this though. I'm not one of those jungle biome haters. I absolutely love those. Finding a massive jungle tree, climbing to the top and taking the entire thing down with an axe is such a great feeling. The built-in vine ladders help a lot. :) No automated tree farms in my future. Hell, if I ever build that plane, I'll make it so it's crashing into a jungle.

Jesus I sound pathetic. I'll probably just do it so I can say I did something besides dig a bunch of holes.

[tedium]

i can certainly see the fun in running through a field of hemp, grabbing what you can... but i see the point of minecraft in general being to build stuff, and anything that makes it easier for me to build stuff without breaking the semi-realistic nature of survival mode minecraft is a good thing in my mind. automation all the way!

[Catox]

I clearly agree with how FC said the journey is more important than the destination.
Though I kind of disagree about how the absence of destination would be what make minecraft a great game.

Clearly, minecraft's journey is great and make of it a fantastic game... until, for some of us, you realize that it actually leads nowhere.
You can create your own destinations, like building a great pyramid or something, but like Punnikin mentionned, if you have no one to share it with, there's not much point to it either.

That's what mods can give us : new journeys, indeed, but also new destinations.
Exploring BTW was (and can still be) a great time to spend playing minecraft. I had fun exploring lenses when they were added, or checking how looping mechanical energy was dealt with. But clearly, the best time I had with BTW recently was when we knew that half a stack of steel blocs would be needed to advance in future tech tree evolution.
I did it, now I have my blocs and can have more on demand even though my machine isn't perfect.
And precisely because I couldn't reproduce this machine easily on a new world, I would try to attend the same objective without automating soul urn production as much as I managed to in the first place.

Maybe that's my tendency with contradiction ^^

[FlowerChild]

Though I kind of disagree about how the absence of destination would be what make minecraft a great game.

I think you misunderstood what I was saying :)

[Catox]

Though I kind of disagree about how the absence of destination would be what make minecraft a great game.

I think you misunderstood what I was saying :)

My bad then <^_^;

[Splee999]

I also personally like automating things in Minecraft / BTW because it cuts down on the amount of "chores" you need to do. I mean, sure, you could wait around your pottery wheel while it spins out two thousand urns, or you could spend some time building a shiny urn factory and let it make it's own urns. I personally like the challenge of building that factory, and then reaping the reward of lazily made urns.

[Andellmere]

So I guess my real question is this. Am I the only luddite when it comes to BTW, or automation in general?

You are not alone, my friend! The closest thing I've ever built for legitimate automation is water beneath wolves to catch their dung. There's just something nice about waking up each morning and knowing that you have a list of things you must do before you start your random wanderings. Perhaps, it's because if anything go wrong it's my fault and not a glitch. Or maybe it's that items don't 'magically' appear in chests or at drop points.

...Of course, FC is right. No way will we be able to get passed his 'Anniversary Update' without automating SFS production... Which is surprisingly fun to have blow up in my face when it all goes wrong.

[Catox]

...Of course, FC is right. No way will we be able to get passed his 'Anniversary Update' without automating SFS production... Which is surprisingly fun to have blow up in my face when it all goes wrong.

I guess it depends on one's definition of "automating", but I'm pretty sure you can avoid most of the automationnic parts of the process if you're okay with building bigger contraptions and grinding a little.

[nmarshall23]

There's just something nice about waking up each morning and knowing that you have a list of things you must do before you start your random wanderings. Perhaps, it's because if anything go wrong it's my fault and not a glitch. Or maybe it's that items don't 'magically' appear in chests or at drop points.

I feel your both, on one hand, I don't want things to magically appear. On the other, hand, there are tasks that I don't feel like doing. For a while, I would use a mod to jump back into creative mode, and fix the problem. However that's started to make everything feel cheap, and too easy.

Find your own balance between automation, and choirs.

Automate those bits that you find boring. If your having fun who cares?