Create: Dragons Plus guide for FTB Skies 2 1.0.1 to 1.5.2

Same as in the All the Mods 10 8.1 guide

Create: Dragons Plus is a Create addon that adds convenient features for players, plus dev utilities for other Create addon authors. As a player, you'll mostly care about the first part: it gives your Encased Fans new jobs and makes tank handling easier.^[1]

This pack ships version 1.11.7b, and the mod has been in the pack since 2.47 or earlier.^[2]

What it adds

• Bulk Coloring: use Dye Fluids with an Encased Fan to dye items. It supports most crafting recipes that use dyes.^[1]
• Bulk Freezing: use Powder Snow with an Encased Fan to freeze items.^[1]
• Bulk Ending: use a Dragon Head or Dragon's Breath (fluid) with an Encased Fan to infuse items with energy from The End.^[1]
• Bulk Sanding: use Quicksand with an Encased Fan to polish items. It supports all Sand Paper polishing recipes. Since version 1.8.5, Quicksand is no longer required if the Bulk Sanding block tag contains any block.^[1]
• Fluid Hatch: works like the Item Hatch, but gives you convenient take and deposit operations on Fluid Tanks.^[1]

Who it's for

If you already run Create and want to process items in bulk with fans instead of one at a time, this mod is for you. It's also handy if you want simpler fluid tank access.^[1]

The mod also has optional integrations with other mods, such as Create: Simulated, Create: Granished, Create: Dreams & Desires, The Aether, Dye Depot, Dyenamics, Arts & Crafts and Ars Nouveau. Each one only matters if that mod is installed. Its features can be enabled or disabled, unless a dependent mod forces them on or off.^[1]

Unverified The sources don't show any quests for this mod, any role on the ATM Star path, or an in-game guidebook. They also don't confirm which of the integration mods are in this pack, or whether the pack changed any of the mod's configs or recipes.

Create: Dragons Plus adds extra Encased Fan processing to Create, plus one handy block for tanks. The starting point is short, so you can get going quickly. Here is the order I'd do things in, and why.^[1]

First, make a Fluid Hatch

The Fluid Hatch is the one crafted item from this mod in the pack's recipe list. It makes a fluid tank easy to use by hand. You can deposit fluid from a held item into the tank it is placed on, or pull stored fluid out with empty fluid containers. It is also built from an Item Drain, so it slots right into a Create setup.^[3][4]

Fluid HatchMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• any copper ingot
• Item Drain

Recipe id: create_dragons_plus:crafting/fluid_hatch

This is a shapeless crafting recipe, so no pattern to remember.

Next, get your dyes ready

Bulk Coloring uses the mod's dye with an Encased Fan to dye items. In this pack, each color has a Create mixing recipe that turns the matching regular dye plus water into the mod's version, such as Red Dye. Every color follows the same pattern, and red is shown here as an example.^[1][3]

250× Red DyeMod recipe

Mixing (create)

• Red Dye
• 250× Water

Recipe id: create_dragons_plus:mixing/red_dye_from_item

The other colors use the same kind of mixing recipe.

Then, get Dragon's Breath

Dragon's Breath is one of the things that powers Bulk Ending. The pack has a Create emptying recipe that converts dragon's breath into this version and gives you the glass bottle back.^[1][3]

250× Dragon's Breath, Glass BottleMod recipe

Emptying (create)

• Dragon Breath

Recipe id: create_dragons_plus:emptying/dragon_breath

Emptying recipes like this run in a Create item drain.

Finally, put it all under an Encased Fan

The mod's processing works by passing a fan's air flow through a material. Each material gives a different setup:^[1][4]

• Dye gives Bulk Coloring. It works automatically with certain crafting recipes that use dyes, and it can also change the color of entities and the armor they wear.^[1][4]
• Powder Snow gives Bulk Freezing.^[1][4]
• A Dragon Head or Dragon's Breath gives Bulk Ending.^[1][4]
• Quicksand gives Bulk Sanding, which is automatically compatible with Sand Paper sanding recipes.^[1][4]

Create: Dragons Plus adds new Encased Fan processing types, called bulk processing, plus a small fluid helper block. Most of it is switched on in this pack, and the sections below point out the one exception.^[1][5][6]

Bulk processing with Encased Fans

Each bulk type works like Create's own Bulk Blasting and Bulk Smoking. You send an air flow through a specific block or fluid, and that turns the flow into a processing setup for items. The mod adds several of these, and the pack has every one of them enabled.^[1][4][6]

• Bulk Coloring: air flowing through liquid dye creates a Coloring setup. It works automatically with certain crafting recipes that use dyes. recipes.enableBulkColoring is true.^[1][4][6]
• Bulk Freezing: air flowing through Powder Snow creates a Freezing setup. recipes.enableBulkFreezing is true.^[4][6]
• Bulk Ending: air flowing through a Dragon Head or through Dragon's Breath creates an Ending setup, which infuses items with energy from The End. recipes.enableBulkEnding is true.^[1][4][6]
• Bulk Sanding: air flowing through Quicksand creates a Sanding setup. It is automatically compatible with Sand Paper sanding recipes. recipes.enableBulkSanding is true.^[4][6]

Coloring air flow doesn't only affect items. It can also change the color of entities, and any armor they have equipped gets colored too.^[4]

Dye fluids

Bulk Coloring needs liquid dye, and the pack has the dye fluids enabled through features.fluid.fluid/dye. Each dye color has a Create mixing recipe that combines the matching vanilla dye with water to make the mod's dye. Red is shown below as an example, and the other colors follow the same pattern, such as Blue Dye and Lime Dye.^[3][5]

250× Red DyeMod recipe

Mixing (create)

• Red Dye
• 250× Water

Recipe id: create_dragons_plus:mixing/red_dye_from_item

Every dye color has its own version of this mixing recipe in the pack.

Dragon's Breath

Dragon's Breath is a fluid that Bulk Ending can use. It is enabled through features.fluid.fluid/dragon_breath. You can get it with a Create emptying recipe, shown below. The pack also has features.recipe.recipe/automatic_brewing/dragon_breath set to true, so automated brewing recipes for Dragon's Breath are generated.^[3][4][5]

250× Dragon's Breath, Glass BottleMod recipe

Emptying (create)

• Dragon Breath

Recipe id: create_dragons_plus:emptying/dragon_breath

Emptying a vanilla Dragon's Breath bottle gives you the fluid and a glass bottle back.

Fluid Hatch

The Fluid Hatch makes a fluid tank easy to use with fluid containers. It is enabled in the pack through features.block.block/fluid_hatch.^[4][5]

Place it on a tank. With a filled item in your hand, it deposits the contained fluid into the tank. With empty fluid containers, it retrieves the stored fluid from the tank. The mod's page describes it as the fluid version of the Item Hatch.^[1][4]

Fluid HatchMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• any copper ingot
• Item Drain

Recipe id: create_dragons_plus:crafting/fluid_hatch

Sand Paper polishing recipes

The pack generates Sand Paper polishing recipes for oxidized blocks, polished blocks and waxed blocks. The options are features.recipe.recipe/sand_paper_polishing/oxidized_blocks, features.recipe.recipe/sand_paper_polishing/polished_blocks and features.recipe.recipe/sand_paper_polishing/waxed_blocks, and each of them is set to true. Bulk Sanding is compatible with Sand Paper sanding recipes, so those can be automated with a fan.^[1][4][5]

Vision through fluids

The client config has options that scale how far you can see through the fluids. dragonBreathVisionMultiplier applies to Dragon's Breath and is set to 1 in the pack, the same as the mod default. dyeVisionMultiplier applies to the dye fluids and is also set to 1, matching its default. Each of them accepts values from 1.0 to 256.0.^[7]

This mod doesn't come with a tier ladder in this pack. What the recipe data shows is one crafting recipe, one Create emptying recipe and a set of Create mixing recipes for dyes, so that's what I'll walk you through.^[3]

Unverified The sources here show no quests involving this mod, so what the pack's quest book says about it, if anything, is unverified. There is no quest-guided order to follow.

Fluid Hatch

The Fluid Hatch is the one item from the mod with a normal crafting-grid recipe. It's shapeless, so the arrangement in the grid doesn't matter.^[3]

Fluid HatchMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• any copper ingot
• Item Drain

Recipe id: create_dragons_plus:crafting/fluid_hatch

Dragon's Breath

Dragon's Breath comes from a Create emptying recipe. It takes vanilla dragon's breath and gives you the mod's version, plus a glass bottle.^[3]

250× Dragon's Breath, Glass BottleMod recipe

Emptying (create)

• Dragon Breath

Recipe id: create_dragons_plus:emptying/dragon_breath

Dyes

Every dye color in the mod has its own Create mixing recipe, which turns the matching vanilla dye into the mod's version of that color. They all follow the same pattern, so red is shown here as the example.^[3]

250× Red DyeMod recipe

Mixing (create)

• Red Dye
• 250× Water

Recipe id: create_dragons_plus:mixing/red_dye_from_item

Blue and white use the same kind of mixing recipe, for example Blue Dye and create_dragons_plus:white_dye.

The rest of the set is Black Dye, Brown Dye, Cyan Dye, Gray Dye, Green Dye, Light Blue Dye, Light Gray Dye, Lime Dye, Magenta Dye, Orange Dye, Pink Dye, Purple Dye and Yellow Dye. Each one has a mixing recipe like the red one.^[3]

The clearest link between Create: Dragons Plus and another mod in this pack is the Fluid Hatch. Its crafting recipe is shapeless and involves a part of base Create, the Item Drain. The mod describes the hatch as working like the Item Hatch, giving you a convenient way to take fluid from and deposit fluid into Fluid Tanks.^[1][3]

Fluid HatchMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• any copper ingot
• Item Drain

Recipe id: create_dragons_plus:crafting/fluid_hatch

This is the in-pack Fluid Hatch recipe, and it is the only recipe in the pack data that connects this mod to another mod.

One of the inputs is an item tag rather than a single named item, so any item in that tag works for it.^[3]

Beyond this recipe, the pack data shows no other recipes that mix this mod with items from other mods, and no quests in this pack involve the mod. The Fluid Hatch is the main place where it meets the rest of the pack.^[3]

Create: Dragons Plus keeps its settings in a client, a common and a server config file in this pack. Most of what you'll care about is simple on/off switches, and nearly everything is left enabled.^[5][6][7]

Server: the bulk processing toggles

These options turn the Encased Fan processing types on or off. In this pack, each of the options below is set to true.^[1][6]

• recipes.enableBulkColoring is true. Bulk Coloring uses Dye Fluids with an Encased Fan to dye items.^[1][6]
• recipes.enableBulkFreezing is true. Bulk Freezing uses Powder Snow with an Encased Fan to freeze items.^[1][6]
• recipes.enableBulkEnding is true. Bulk Ending uses a Dragon Head or Dragon's Breath fluid with an Encased Fan to infuse items with energy from The End.^[1][6]
• recipes.enableBulkSanding is true. Bulk Sanding polishes items with an Encased Fan.^[1][6]

Common: feature toggles

This is the one place where the pack switches something off. features.item.item/blaze_upgrade_smithing_template is set to false, so the Blaze Upgrade Smithing Template is disabled in this pack. Don't plan around it.^[5]

Everything else in the common file is true, meaning enabled:^[5]

• features.block.block/fluid_hatch keeps the Fluid Hatch available.^[5]
• features.fluid.fluid/dragon_breath and features.fluid.fluid/dye keep the Dragon's Breath and Dye fluids available.^[5]
• features.recipe.recipe/automatic_brewing/dragon_breath keeps the automated brewing recipes for Dragon's Breath fluid generated.^[5]
• features.recipe.recipe/sand_paper_polishing/oxidized_blocks, features.recipe.recipe/sand_paper_polishing/polished_blocks and features.recipe.recipe/sand_paper_polishing/waxed_blocks keep the Sand Paper polishing recipes generated for oxidized, polished and waxed blocks.^[5]

Client: fluid vision

The client file has options that scale how far you can see through the fluids. dragonBreathVisionMultiplier covers Dragon's Breath and dyeVisionMultiplier covers Dye Fluids. Both are set to 1 in this pack, which is also the mod default, so the pack hasn't changed them. The allowed range is 1.0 to 256.0.^[7]

FTB Skies 2 1.5.1 ships Create: Dragons Plus 1.6.1. The mod has been in the pack since FTB Skies 2 1.0.1 or earlier, so you have had it for a long time.^[8]

Create: Dragons Plus 1.6.1

• Fix: the Blaze Block did not render its rods correctly. This is the version your pack uses, so the fix is already in.^[8][9]

Unverified No pack changelog entries for this mod were available, and no changelogs for earlier versions of the mod were provided, so changes between pack releases before 1.5.1 are unverified.