I don't care much for the bazillion mods, but it's rather nice being in full survival mode again on Mirk's.
I tried to look at the wiki for some of this shit and my eyes go crossed.
How were things set up on the regular NeoGAF server if not pure survival? Everybody in creative mode or something?
As far as the mods go, I think I mentioned it to you on the server, but the best approach is probably to just pick one thing you want to learn to start and just focus on that. We're running the
MindCrack FTB pack and there's a list of the included mods there. Just read through the basic "what they do" stuff and see what sounds interesting. I'd say the only thing that's a universally good idea to set up is a basic IndustrialCraft Generator/Batbox/Electric Furnace/Macerator setup. This lets you smelt things more efficiently, and the macerator lets you double your ore output (for example, putting an iron ore into a macerator will give you two iron dust, each of which can be smelted into an iron ingot).
A good place to start is the Achievements menu. Several of the mods have their own achievement tree, and the IndustrialCraft one in particular gives you a great idea of the order you'll need to make stuff in.
Getting used to Not Enough Items is another great help. That's the mod that shows all those blocks on the right of your inventory. If you press R while hovering over an item in NEI (or your own inventory) will show you the recipe for it. Pressing U while hovering over an item will show you every single recipe that item is used in (great for all those new ores).
Also, if you double-click the text box at the bottom of your inventory screen, it will turn yellow. When its in this mode, any item matching the string that you type in will be highlighted. Great if you're trying to find something in a huge chest and you don't want to scan over the whole thing.
Another thing to keep in mind is that several of the mods offer similar features. At least three of the mods introduce some sort of electricity:
IndustrialCraft uses Energy Units (EU)
BuildCraft uses Minecraft Joules (MJ)
Redpower uses Blutricity (measured in regular Volt/Watt/Amp).
So, if you're looking up an item and you see that it uses MJ, you'll know that you need to get some Buildcraft engines going. You can also convert from one type of energy to another. Both Redpower and IndustrialCraft have engines that allow you to convert from Blutricity or EU to MJ. Some of the other conversions are a little more complicated, however.
Also, once you get into moving stuff around with tubes, both BuildCraft and Redpower have their own setups. Redpower uses Pneumatic Tubes, while Buildcraft uses various types of pipe. Each has their own pros and cons which are too numerous to type out here.
The thing is, you don't even HAVE to use any of it. There's plenty else to do. If you want to
really make Harvester 2.0, you can use the
Soul Shards mod to make a dedicated spawner for each type of animal and mob, or just make a Handsaw and use
MicroBlocks to really make some snazzy buildings.
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