Background:

I love Sky Block type maps, it is probably the challenge of starting with nothing and building something cool that keeps me coming back.

I also love playing with mods, particularly IC2, Forestry, Buildcraft, EE2, etc..

The Problem:

In order to use most of the major mods, various additional ores are needed.

To use mods in a Sky Block setting the additional materials have to be provided somewhere in the map, this usually takes the form of extra islands or chests that the player must build a bridge to.

This is not a challenge, just an exercise in holding down SHIFT.

In 1.2.5 minecraft I usually use EE2 to solve the resources problem, but that still needs sufficient "examples" to teach to a transmutation tablet to get started. These recipes will allow lots of useful challenges without giving the player chests full of materials

A Partial Solution:

I was looking at the transmutation recipes in craftguide and I realised that EE3 can be used on even the classic Sky Block map to get most Vanilla materials even starting with nothing but the standard map and an inert stone.

Unfortunately there is no way to get certain materials, the most important being redstone, without which automation is not possible.

There is no way to get ores like copper, silver, lead, tin, etc, without which most tech mods are useless.

Full solution:

I have worked out some additional transmutation recipes which should enable almost the full range of both vanilla and mod gameplay starting with a bare minimum of materials (possibly no more than 1 bedrock, 1 chest, 1 dirt, 1 sapling, 1 sugar cane, 1 inert stone and for the wimps a bone):

All recipes require a transmutation stone.

Ores--

1 iron ingot + 1 smooth stone --> 1 iron ore
1 iron ore + 1 smooth stone --> 2 copper ore (this makes copper a bit more expensive than EE2)
1 iron ore --> 1 tin ore
2 iron ore --> 1 silver ore
4 iron ore --> 1 lead ore
8 iron ore --> 1 gold ore
2 gold ore --> 1 lapis ore
3 gold ore --> 1 emerald ore
4 gold ore --> 1 diamond ore
2 diamond ore -- 1 tungsten ore (if redpower installed)

No need for reverse recipes and no nead to transmute vanilla metals directly to mod metals (which is too easy).

Fuels--

4 charcoal <--> 1 coal (reversible recipe)
1 coal + 1 smooth stone --> 1 coal ore
1 coal ore --> 1 redstone ore
1 redstone ore --> 1 nikolite ore (if Redpower installed)
4 glowstone (block) --> 1 uranium ore (makes uranium a bit more expensive)

Food-- (cycles)

seeds --> pumpkin seeds --> melon seeds --> seeds
potato --> carrrot --> Sugar cane --> cactus --> red mushroom --> brown mushroom --> potato
leather --> raw beef ---> raw pork chop --> raw chicken --> raw fish --> leather

Mob Drops--

1 spider eye <--> 4 slime ball
4 arrow --> 1 feather
8 rotten flesh --> 1 leather
2 gunpowder --> 1 glowstone dust
2 glowstone dust --> 1 blaze powder

Nether--

1 sand + 1 bonemeal --> 1 soul sand
7 smooth stone + 1 magma cream --> 7 netherack (much more expensive than EE2)

Water and Lava--

1 bucket + 7 slime balls --> 1 bucket of water
1 bucket + 1 magma cream + 1 smooth stone --> 1 bucket of lava (much more expensive than EE2)

Balance:

I wanted to get away from the convert anything into anything else of EE2 which makes it too easy and boring, why build a farm if you can just condense food?

The one-way recipes mean that a bit of thought is needed to ensure that the desired end product is obtained.

Obviously, a player can abuse macerators, rock crushers, pulverisers and enchantments to create infinite materials, but anyone really worried about that probably thinks cobble generators and bonemeal are OP.

This started when I thought "I could build an auto cobble gen and tree farm if only I could get a piston or three, now how do I get redstone?"

I'm very happy to see the ideas here, but several won't work for balancing reasons (for example, iron ingot + smooth stone = iron ore, then iron ore to macerator for 2 iron dust, then smelted for 2 iron ingots, then repeat).

Thanks for the thoughts though. I do have a different system in mind so don't you worry. You might even find hints of it in the code ;-)