Thermal Mods

The Thermal mods (by Team CoFH) are the core of this modpack, and are focused on metals, technology, and automation of manual tasks. The mod authors provide very good reference documentation covering all of the things added by these mods, which you can consult for more detailed information, but the basics are explained here.

New Resources

Thermal Foundation adds a number of new metal ores to the game: copper, tin, silver, lead, and nickel are the ones which are enabled in this modpack. Platinum can also be obtained as a byproduct of processing nickel, but cannot be mined directly. You can smelt them with a regular furnace, but see the ore doubling section below for more efficient ways to smelt ores. There are also various alloys that can be created by combining metals and sometimes other ingredients: steel, electrum, invar, bronze, constantan, signalum, lumium and enderium.

These metals can be used to make most of the same items that iron and gold can: there are versions of all the basic tools, weapons, and armour made from these metal ingots, using the same shape crafting recipes as with iron. These have a range of different stats, and may be better or worse than iron for various purposes.

Thermal Foundation also adds a number of kinds of liquid, some of which appear in an “ore” form in the world that can be melted down to produce the liquid (e.g. Destabilized Redstone Ore).

New Mobs

Thermal Foundation adds three new elemental mobs: blizzes in cold biomes, blitzes in desert biomes, and basalzes in mountainous biomes. They appear similar to blazes and drop their own elemental rods similar to blaze rods, which are used in higher level crafting. The projectiles they shoot inflict status effects, so be careful when encountering them for the first time!

Redstone Flux

Redstone Flux (abbreviated to RF) is a very important concept introduced by these mods. RF is a form of energy that can be generated, stored, and used to power machinery, and is often used to replace manual work by the player. This modpack uses only RF power, and not any other system you may be familiar with from other mods/packs. One of the first things you’ll want to do is set up a system to generate and store RF for use by other machines.

The Crescent Hammer

You’ll want to craft this useful tool as soon as you start working with Thermal’s machinery. The crescent hammer can rotate blocks and machines by right clicking them, and can instantly dismantle machines by shift-right clicking. Machines keep their settings and current level of power when dismantled, but any items in the machine will be dropped on the ground, and any fluids in the machine will be lost.

Machine Upgrades

There are five tiers for most machines in Thermal mods: basic, hardened, reinforced, signalum, and resonant. Machines will all be basic tier when crafted, but can be upgraded by placing them in the world, and then right clicking on them while holding an upgrade kit. Each tier increases the amount of power the machine can store, and also the speed at which it can generate or consume power (which will speed the machine’s operation up). Tier upgrades are permanent: the machine will remain upgraded even if you dismantle it, and the upgrade can’t be removed to apply it to another machine.

Each tier also adds one augment slot to the machine (for a maximum of four; basic tier machines don’t have any slots). There are a variety of augments that can be installed in machines to give specific effects. Some augments are generic and apply to any machine; others only work on a particular type of machine. Some augments are “specialisations” - only one specialisation can be installed in a machine at a time, and they often change the way the machine works significantly. Augments can be freely removed from machines and installed elsewhere, even specialisations.

Machine UI

Thermal machines all have a standardised UI which allows you to select which sides of the block should be used as an input or output, view power consumption information, and install augments.

TODO: screenshots and explanation.

Ore Doubling

TODO: show basic ore doubling setup.