Request for help

[Mevansuto]

I was in the process of making a private server modpack for me and my friends and I had a couple of great concepts that I thought could stand-alone well enough to be a public pack.

My aim was to create a Minetweaked TPPI-style pack. I decided all tech mods in the pack would support Redstone Flux, and I was going to keep MJ Mods, just remove all power generation and transport. I also was going to try to unify the mods in feel by having all machine have Thermal Expansion style crafting. Lastly, I was going to have a mini-guide in the form of Hardcore Quest Manager.

I came across two problems, my modlist was getting too big and bloated, and secondly Minetweaker was refusing to work for me.

Here is the current modlist: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bJluZ7vAmse6gE3leBjmKosQ04JW_d5tGpruibaeKJA/edit?usp=sharing

Here are the current planned changes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qaX82wSwezdeGG4Eyn5E4ZRmvl8Wu_EcWUtedXRacGw/edit?usp=sharing

I was wondering if anyone else was willing to help me with these problems and things like bug support and hopefully hear their own idea for progression.

Any takers?

 

[Padfoote]

One thing I saw when looking through the mod list is that you have Blood Magic listed as a Thaumcraft Mod when it only has a single item that requires TC4.

 

[Mevansuto]

Yeah, I only listed it there because an mod with Thaumcraft support makes it harder to remove. And I thought it was 2 items.

 

[Padfoote]

Nah, just one. The Sanguine Helmet.

I don't know if this'll help, but @SatanicSanta wrote a guide on how to use MineTweaker: http://wiki.feed-the-beast.com/How_to_Use_MineTweaker

 

[VapourDrive]

The problems that I have had with similar packs of my own is that when you want them to be so well rounded, everything that you would cut out seems so valuable.
In terms of boiling down the number of mods:
You have themes that mods fit under, and you have those listed. Sometimes I just look at a group of 10 tech mods and tell myself to take out 3 (same with the magic mods etc). Sometimes I say that I want to take out the majority of the magic aspect (remove all but maybe one or two).
General cutback:
Sometimes I ask myself what mods I use most and take those out, to get myself to see if I actually appreciate the others. if I do, then the most-used ones come back in, many of the others get cut out. If I do have a genuine like for the others, I leave the well-used out and try something new for me, exploring some of the mods that I don't use as much.
I do agree that TE can provide a good backbone for recipes and make the tech game seem very unified.

 

[Mevansuto]

Nah, just one. The Sanguine Helmet.

I don't know if this'll help, but @SatanicSanta wrote a guide on how to use MineTweaker: http://wiki.feed-the-beast.com/How_to_Use_MineTweaker

Thanks. My problem is no matter how many times I proof-read my configs, some recipes just don't get changed. I assume I'm doing something wrong, but I wouldn't know.

The problems that I have had with similar packs of my own is that when you want them to be so well rounded, everything that you would cut out seems so valuable.
In terms of boiling down the number of mods:
You have themes that mods fit under, and you have those listed. Sometimes I just look at a group of 10 tech mods and tell myself to take out 3 (same with the magic mods etc). Sometimes I say that I want to take out the majority of the magic aspect (remove all but maybe one or two).
General cutback:
Sometimes I ask myself what mods I use most and take those out, to get myself to see if I actually appreciate the others. if I do, then the most-used ones come back in, many of the others get cut out. If I do have a genuine like for the others, I leave the well-used out and try something new for me, exploring some of the mods that I don't use as much.
I do agree that TE can provide a good backbone for recipes and make the tech game seem very unified.

I'll try and narrow down the mods using your system, my problem is, what do my friends use? Maybe the pack would benefit from being Tech-only? There is no way to unify Magic outside of making everything a Thaumcraft addon. TBH I'm tempted to write a mod that does this, but I doubt the mod makers would like something like this.

Should I make it Thaumcraft addons only, no magic at all or leave magic as it is?

 

[VapourDrive]

I'll try and narrow down the mods using your system, my problem is, what do my friends use? Maybe the pack would benefit from being Tech-only? There is no way to unify Magic outside of making everything a Thaumcraft addon. TBH I'm tempted to write a mod that does this, but I doubt the mod makers would like something like this.
Should I make it Thaumcraft addons only, no magic at all or leave magic as it is?

One thing you could try would be complete RF and Thaumcraft based (excluding aesthetics of course). I have also heard that some of the Thaumcraft addons floating around aren't of the absolute greatest quality...
If you are using minetweaker, you may not even need to remove as many mods, just remove the bloat and intensive items/blocks.
For me, tech has been my favourite theme, but I get bored and the best thing about the magic mods has been the exploration factor, giving me some adventure.

 

[Mevansuto]

One thing you could try would be complete RF and Thaumcraft based (excluding aesthetics of course). I have also heard that some of the Thaumcraft addons floating around aren't of the absolute greatest quality...
If you are using minetweaker, you may not even need to remove as many mods, just remove the bloat and intensive items/blocks.
For me, tech has been my favourite theme, but I get bored and the best thing about the magic mods has been the exploration factor, giving me some adventure.

Now I really want to do this, but I feel I'll miss Blood Magic too much, and Witchery is meant to be good too (never played it. Sorry @SatanicSanta).

As for low quality Thaumcraft addons, I've spied a lot of them recently, but I've extensively looked into these mods myself, so I trust the quality of them. Others may not.

 

[VapourDrive]

Blood magic doesn't have much overhead if I see it correctly (might be wrong of course), and probably neither does witchery. I would say keep them. Thaumcraft probably has more overhead than almost any other mod, but it and its addons have high quality gameplay.

The list of mods I would remove personally would be:
Bibliocraft, chisel, dartcraft, dartpatch, openblocks, gravity gun or portal gun, random things, switches, replace mystcraft with aroma's mining dimension, either opencomputers and addons or computercraft and addons, UE mods, extra utilities, and either gany's end or hardcore ender expansion,
I also remove half of the gen that natura adds to the overworld, maybe gany's nether and overworld could just replace it...
Not saying this is what you have to do at all, this is just what I have left to offer, I can explain anything further if desired .

 

[Mevansuto]

Blood magic doesn't have much overhead if I see it correctly (might be wrong of course), and probably neither does witchery. I would say keep them. Thaumcraft probably has more overhead than almost any other mod, but it and its addons have high quality gameplay.

The list of mods I would remove personally would be:
Bibliocraft, chisel, dartcraft, dartpatch, openblocks, gravity gun or portal gun, random things, switches, replace mystcraft with aroma's mining dimension, either opencomputers and addons or computercraft and addons, UE mods, extra utilities, and either gany's end or hardcore ender expansion,
I also remove half of the gen that natura adds to the overworld, maybe gany's nether and overworld could just replace it...
Not saying this is what you have to do at all, this is just what I have left to offer, I can explain anything further if desired .

For me, the number of mods isn't really about overhead (all my friends have decent computers), but trying to prevent bloat.

Wow. Really not the kind of mods I would have removed. Someone hates aestics. I might move Portal/Gravity Gun. Dartcraft is kind of a guilty pleasure, despite its OPness. I don't really understand why you'd remove Open Blocks, Random Things and Extra Utilities. Also XU is one of the most import RF Mods out there. Do you not like the lack of direction? I wasn't planning on using Mystcraft for mining, but. I would defiantly remove it if it were not for my friends. I may remove it anyway. Screw them. UE mods are my favourite mods, it was tough making the decision to exclude, RI and AS, But they just don't fit in. I might remove both Lua mods. Gany's mods do very different things to Natura and HEE. I might remove Gany's mods anyway. Natura looks too good to remove.

Just my opinion on your opinions. Care to expand on yours further?

 

[VapourDrive]

No problem at all, to everyone their own.
But yeah some explanations:
Portal-gun and Gravigun basically do the exact same basic thing, portal gun just does more, removing gravity gun would be the way I would go.
Chisel seems to magical for my taste, being able to randomly make stacks of stuff turn into completely different stuff. This was my reasoning for making valued decor (not near as extensive as chisel but fit my taste.)
Dartcraft is "op" in a dangerous way (I look at the amount of things that break with the dartwrench) - this was a long time ago and haven't looked into it since.
OpenBlocks has no direction at all (everything is cool, but removed the feel of the game for me.) I have replaced what I liked about it with others (http://www.curse.com/mc-mods/minecraft/simplefluidtanks) and others. I do miss the glider though, sniff :'(
ExtraUtilities seems like it want to do everything that other mods do, just easier. Magical and with no real direction. All the power gen is either already done exactly the same as something else or is just "place item x in generator for power". The pipes are cheeper and more powerful than anything else really (the mod sorting option has no real basis to it). The drums are far to convenient for my liking. Not to bash Tema but as a "modder" I know that much of the mod is purely convenience based because he knew he could make something easier (golden lasso? sound muffler?). The only thing I truly miss is the amazing pump, fantastic thing really.
Random things I have never tried, the thread documentation was lacking and the name threw me off (I really shouldn't have said to remove it)
Switches felt like the did the same thing as levers without feeling like minecraft-style... just didn't like them.
UE mods have a poor reputation, have never looked back since the cuffuffle with the two modular forcefields. I adopted mekanism when it split off.
gany's end, nether and surface, as well as natura and hardcore ender expansion were really just server load things for the most part.
Natura suffers from the "make everything convenient" problem that ExU does for me (overworld gen food, nether furnace) the trees just seem out of place. It was designed because Mdiyo really likes wandering around (from his LP talk).
Open Computers and Computercraft seem like they would have far too much overlap (I use neither of them to be honest, CC seems like too much of a crutch to me)
This also isn't to say that I have all the others on your list.
Again, this isn't forcing my opinion on anyone, just voicing it in a hopefully respectful manner

 

[trajing]

No problem at all, to everyone their own.
But yeah some explanations:
Portal-gun and Gravigun basically do the exact same basic thing, portal gun just does more, removing gravity gun would be the way I would go.
Chisel seems to magical for my taste, being able to randomly make stacks of stuff turn into completely different stuff. This was my reasoning for making valued decor (not near as extensive as chisel but fit my taste.)
Dartcraft is "op" in a dangerous way (I look at the amount of things that break with the dartwrench) - this was a long time ago and haven't looked into it since.
OpenBlocks has no direction at all (everything is cool, but removed the feel of the game for me.) I have replaced what I liked about it with others (http://www.curse.com/mc-mods/minecraft/simplefluidtanks) and others. I do miss the glider though, sniff :'(
ExtraUtilities seems like it want to do everything that other mods do, just easier. Magical and with no real direction. All the power gen is either already done exactly the same as something else or is just "place item x in generator for power". The pipes are cheeper and more powerful than anything else really (the mod sorting option has no real basis to it). The drums are far to convenient for my liking. Not to bash Tema but as a "modder" I know that much of the mod is purely convenience based because he knew he could make something easier (golden lasso? sound muffler?). The only thing I truly miss is the amazing pump, fantastic thing really.
Random things I have never tried, the thread documentation was lacking and the name threw me off (I really shouldn't have said to remove it)
Switches felt like the did the same thing as levers without feeling like minecraft-style... just didn't like them.
UE mods have a poor reputation, have never looked back since the cuffuffle with the two modular forcefields. I adopted mekanism when it split off.
gany's end, nether and surface, as well as natura and hardcore ender expansion were really just server load things for the most part.
Natura suffers from the "make everything convenient" problem that ExU does for me (overworld gen food, nether furnace) the trees just seem out of place. It was designed because Mdiyo really likes wandering around (from his LP talk).
Open Computers and Computercraft seem like they would have far too much overlap (I use neither of them to be honest, CC seems like too much of a crutch to me)
This also isn't to say that I have all the others on your list.
Again, this isn't forcing my opinion on anyone, just voicing it in a hopefully respectful manner

DartCraft is very configurable, you can make a blacklist for the force wrench.

 

[VapourDrive]

DartCraft is very configurable, you can make a blacklist for the force wrench.

I might throw it in if/when it updates to 1.7, I really am not sure how much I feel like finding the names for a hundred blocks to add to a config though I have experience from forge microblocks.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

No problem at all, to everyone their own.
But yeah some explanations:
Portal-gun and Gravigun basically do the exact same basic thing, portal gun just does more, removing gravity gun would be the way I would go.
Chisel seems to magical for my taste, being able to randomly make stacks of stuff turn into completely different stuff. This was my reasoning for making valued decor (not near as extensive as chisel but fit my taste.)
Dartcraft is "op" in a dangerous way (I look at the amount of things that break with the dartwrench) - this was a long time ago and haven't looked into it since.
OpenBlocks has no direction at all (everything is cool, but removed the feel of the game for me.) I have replaced what I liked about it with others (http://www.curse.com/mc-mods/minecraft/simplefluidtanks) and others. I do miss the glider though, sniff :'(
ExtraUtilities seems like it want to do everything that other mods do, just easier. Magical and with no real direction. All the power gen is either already done exactly the same as something else or is just "place item x in generator for power". The pipes are cheeper and more powerful than anything else really (the mod sorting option has no real basis to it). The drums are far to convenient for my liking. Not to bash Tema but as a "modder" I know that much of the mod is purely convenience based because he knew he could make something easier (golden lasso? sound muffler?). The only thing I truly miss is the amazing pump, fantastic thing really.
Random things I have never tried, the thread documentation was lacking and the name threw me off (I really shouldn't have said to remove it)
Switches felt like the did the same thing as levers without feeling like minecraft-style... just didn't like them.
UE mods have a poor reputation, have never looked back since the cuffuffle with the two modular forcefields. I adopted mekanism when it split off.
gany's end, nether and surface, as well as natura and hardcore ender expansion were really just server load things for the most part.
Natura suffers from the "make everything convenient" problem that ExU does for me (overworld gen food, nether furnace) the trees just seem out of place. It was designed because Mdiyo really likes wandering around (from his LP talk).
Open Computers and Computercraft seem like they would have far too much overlap (I use neither of them to be honest, CC seems like too much of a crutch to me)
This also isn't to say that I have all the others on your list.
Again, this isn't forcing my opinion on anyone, just voicing it in a hopefully respectful manner

I fail to see what is 'magical' about Chisel. You take your chisel, and you chisel out patterns in the materials to make new looking materials. The chisel takes damage and will eventually need to be replaced.

As has been mentioned, you can just blacklist the Dartcraft wrench. It's just silly.

OpenBlocks has Elevators, which I find to be the single most useful block in that mod. I don't see why it would remove the feel of the game, but to each their own.

ExtraUtils is just that.. some extra utility. In my mind, it is probably the closest to 'vanilla tech' that I've seen anywhere. It's far closer to a vanilla minecraft feel than any other tech mod in existence.

I really like the worldgen from Natura because honestly... vanilla worldgen kinda suffered, particularly in the Nether. It makes the Nether a whole new dimension to explore with something other than netherrack, pigderps, and ghasts.

I would agree with CC being nothing but a crutch. You might as well just pull up a LUA IDE.

If there is any intention to make a public pack, you're going to have to remove any and all iChun mods. Permissions are rarely given.

I don't understand why anyone would willingly inflict Iguana Tweaks upon themselves or their hapless users, but to each their own.

I'm not such a big fan of the UE mods anymore, although I do highly enjoy Mekanism now that it is no longer under the UE umbrella.

 

[ThatOneSlowking]

I fail to see what is 'magical' about Chisel. You take your chisel, and you chisel out patterns in the materials to make new looking materials. The chisel takes damage and will eventually need to be replaced.

As has been mentioned, you can just blacklist the Dartcraft wrench. It's just silly.

OpenBlocks has Elevators, which I find to be the single most useful block in that mod. I don't see why it would remove the feel of the game, but to each their own.

ExtraUtils is just that.. some extra utility. In my mind, it is probably the closest to 'vanilla tech' that I've seen anywhere. It's far closer to a vanilla minecraft feel than any other tech mod in existence.

I really like the worldgen from Natura because honestly... vanilla worldgen kinda suffered, particularly in the Nether. It makes the Nether a whole new dimension to explore with something other than netherrack, pigderps, and ghasts.

I would agree with CC being nothing but a crutch. You might as well just pull up a LUA IDE.

If there is any intention to make a public pack, you're going to have to remove any and all iChun mods. Permissions are rarely given.

I don't understand why anyone would willingly inflict Iguana Tweaks upon themselves or their hapless users, but to each their own.

I'm not such a big fan of the UE mods anymore, although I do highly enjoy Mekanism now that it is no longer under the UE umbrella.

Iguana tweaks is like what gregtech should have been, minus have the greg and tech.

 

[SkeletonPunk]

I fail to see what is 'magical' about Chisel. You take your chisel, and you chisel out patterns in the materials to make new looking materials. The chisel takes damage and will eventually need to be replaced.

As has been mentioned, you can just blacklist the Dartcraft wrench. It's just silly.

OpenBlocks has Elevators, which I find to be the single most useful block in that mod. I don't see why it would remove the feel of the game, but to each their own.

ExtraUtils is just that.. some extra utility. In my mind, it is probably the closest to 'vanilla tech' that I've seen anywhere. It's far closer to a vanilla minecraft feel than any other tech mod in existence.

I really like the worldgen from Natura because honestly... vanilla worldgen kinda suffered, particularly in the Nether. It makes the Nether a whole new dimension to explore with something other than netherrack, pigderps, and ghasts.

I would agree with CC being nothing but a crutch. You might as well just pull up a LUA IDE.

If there is any intention to make a public pack, you're going to have to remove any and all iChun mods. Permissions are rarely given.

I don't understand why anyone would willingly inflict Iguana Tweaks upon themselves or their hapless users, but to each their own.

I'm not such a big fan of the UE mods anymore, although I do highly enjoy Mekanism now that it is no longer under the UE umbrella.

In monster if you chisel a block it seems to disappear until i relog, its better to do it the way that takes no durability. the GUI is also cool

 

[Zenthon_127]

My opinons:

• This pack honestly doesn't seem bloated at all as-is. It's got a pretty clear magitech theme to it that resembles a stripped-down RR or Monster.
• IguanaTweaks is BEYOND out-of-place here. I mean, put it next to any of the mods you have here and it makes TiC horrifically UP. It works in some packs, but this one? Nope.
• I don't have that much experience with Gany's mods, so that one's your call. They're some of the only mods I'd call bloat here, but again I don't know all the features.
• CC is cancer. 'Nuff said. I mean, you already have SFM anyway, so it's not like you're missing anything.
• If this is 1.6, Botania's pretty meh and adds a crapton of worldgen, so I'd cut that. In 1.7 it's frickin' amazing though.
• It's nigh impossible to get perms for iChun mods in public packs, like Shneekey mentioned. Same goes with Railcraft (yet another reason why forced modpack perms are backwards and need to be purged).

Yeah, overall this is a pretty good list of mods.

 

[Mevansuto]

• It's nigh impossible to get perms for iChun mods in public packs, like Shneekey mentioned. Same goes with Railcraft (yet another reason why forced modpack perms are backwards and need to be purged).

Yeah, overall this is a pretty good list of mods.

Thank-you everyone for the advice. It has all been noted.

On th subject of permissions. This mods in paticular give blanket permissions if I use the FTB Launcher. The one thing I need to do is PM Lumien of Random Things and I have all permissions.

 

[Dylan4ever]

Things I'd remove:
- CC and OC both. Blergh LUA. And I believe there are enough ways to do what those mods do.
- Emasher's mods, but that may be personal preference.
- MystCraft is generally unneeded server load.

I for one would not remove any of Gany's mods, but I love that guy so I am probably biased. His Overworld mod does literally add crap... I'd remove that any time.

 

[Golrith]

Regarding minetweaker, I find it works best if you define recipes using ID numbers, not the ID names. The names are highly unreliable, either the recipe won't work, or it will work, but odd things will happen when trying to craft said item.