So i am going to try and get going without item cheating, and I was wondering if anyone had any tips with what I should be doing first to get going with the machines. Right now I am just going to dig and get some resources as usual but I want to get my automation going, so any suggested first steps?
You need rubber. If you can find only one or two rubber trees, I suggest making an Extractor first. That costs six rubber, which you can only get by cooking resin at this point. This means you'll have to tap three or four resin knotholes.
Run the Extractor off of redstone dust, at about 1 per operation. Once you've made it, chop off and extract all of the rubber tree blocks except the ones that have the resin knotholes. Replant any rubber saplings that fall from the leaves -- I recall reading that they need to be planted on grass, not just dirt.
Once you have decent supplies of rubber, make a Generator and a Macerator.
If you start with lots of rubber nearby, go Generator and Macerator and wait on the Extractor for a bit.
After that, my suggested order would be Batbox, powered hand tools + a spare battery, Batpack, Electro Furnace, more Generators and Macerators, at least one more Batbox, then convert to solar.
Mmm, I'm forgetting something. Well, you'll figure it out.
Edit:
Neat idea, but I don't need 50 different variations of "cock-and-balls statue made of golden blocks".
If I want one of those, I'll build it myself. (Like my Terraria skeletal wyrm arena.)