Update on the Future of FTB Modpacks in 1.7

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Not_Steve

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SatanicSanta

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This is everything i wanted after seeing new IC2. Now we just need an RF version of old IC2, or at least RF equivalents of the Jetpack, Drills and other tools, Nano and Quantum suits and all that stuff, and maybe even from addons like Gravitation Suite and all that.
Redstone Arsenal adds tools
Mekanism adds a jetpack
 

SavelMC

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Are the public numbers somewhere of the people who play each of the different packs?

I see Redstone as the "unobtanium" of Minecraft, capable of doing ridiculous inexplicable magical things.
Honest the unobtanium aspect of RF is the issue I have with this decision. With the 'balance' around RF power generation and transportation being what it is, why even have a power system? Why not just have blocks which do cool things and then you don't have to hook up the conduit?

RF power is very easy, block A makes RF, block B moves RF, block C uses RF. The only variation between any of this the rate, there is nothing of power handled and more is always better. Which does not make for an interesting experience with the power system itself. By pushing the flagship pack towards this system you are pushing the core playerbase towards this system or whatever Dire decides to do (from my experience people play the flagship pack or his). Since RF can auto convert to BC, we don't see BC built power systems anymore. I fear decision you have made from a mod pack side will do the same thing to the mods we see developed, and this is not good for the modding community.

ninja edit : quote added for easier to follow
 
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TheCupcakeisaLie

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It seems like a inevitable case of "inflation" if you will. A power system with a few transformers and macerators was standard long ago. But mods continue to make things easier and easier, the pulverized is what, 4 times faster than the macerator? And gives extra free stuff? Count me in! Railcraft tanks used to be the only way to go. Just slab down some obsidian and glass and you've got a near infinite, cool, dynamic tank. Things just keep getting simpler and simpler, and o/c we have all those cool realistic mods but they are just outclassed by the easiness and simplicity of others like rf. why make kinesis pipes that could potentially explode if not used right, when I can make a cheaper, easier, "energy" conduit that never explodes, hooks up to handy 8mj/t engines which outclasses nearly all bc engines, and are completely safe?


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Zenthon_127

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Honest the unobtanium aspect of RF is the issue I have with this decision. With the 'balance' around RF power generation and transportation being what it is, why even have a power system? Why not just have blocks which do cool things and then you don't have to hook up the conduit?

RF power is very easy, block A makes RF, block B moves RF, block C uses RF. The only variation between any of this the rate, there is nothing of power handled and more is always better. Which does not make for an interesting experience with the power system itself. By pushing the flagship pack towards this system you are pushing the core playerbase towards this system or whatever Dire decides to do (from my experience people play the flagship pack or his). Since RF can auto convert to BC, we don't see BC built power systems anymore. I fear decision you have made from a mod pack side will do the same thing to the mods we see developed, and this is not good for the modding community.

ninja edit : quote added for easier to follow
And other power systems are "harder"? IC2 basically the same thing plus a tiny bit of loss (oh yeah, and outside the nukes power is far easier to set up). Actual BC systems have rarely been used since as far back as 1.2.5 Tekkit and frankly is just the same thing with no storage and an absurd cost to get it to not completely suck. Then there's RotaryCraft, which has lag issues due to sheer numbers (and surprise surprise most people just convert from RF anyway). And finally we have UE, which is too unstable to be properly used atm.

The only power system that frankly can compete with RF in terms of features on any level is RoC's, but not everyone wants that level of complexity.
 
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AlCapella

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Basically 5 mods do not support RF natively. IC2, Buildcraft, Forestry, Factorization and Railcraft. Continuing to place mods in the main packs that do not support RF makes no sense. We end up going "everything can be run off this one power system, except these 1 or 2 mods which need their own thing." MJ can fit because the conduits convert to MJ. But IC2 and FZ just don't fit. When IC2 and BC were the mods that everyone used for power the packs were built around them. Now mod devs have mostly moved to RF. Continuing to include things because "tradition" is silly politics and leads to stagnation. It leads to perfectly good mods getting overlooked as people cling to the "traditional" By splitting the energy systems up into seperate packs we allow for more variation. Just think: a steampunk factory pack with Steve's Carts, Steve's Factory Manager, BC and FZ, a High-tech pack with IC2, and GT,a magic pack with TT, Forbidden Magic, and many of the Thaumcraft addons, an RPG pack with Witchery and Botania, new mappacks based around different mods with tutorials and quests. (No this is not a list of the packs we are definitely creating) Once we stop trying to shove all the mods into one pack and dealing with the tech support nightmare we have more room to branch out. And we leave room for the community to make packs that aren't just the same as our packs with 1 or 2 differences.

IC2 and BC aren't going to die just because we move them out of the primary packs and into separate packs.

What you wrote is what I end up doing with mod packs that get publicly released on the launcher. I pick them apart, and do some spare time hax0rz and make smaller themed private packs like you mentioned above. On that account, the FTBLite2 is simply my go-to Swiss army knife. I will always thank all of the pack creators for that pack :) It is a brilliant starting point with most work cut out for me. That, and the direwolf pack as well. I think he does take his "modding for the masses" mantra seriously Good on him! The balance that gets added into the configs make it a pleasure to re-use in other packs.

I for one, welcome the idea behind having themed packs like you mentioned above! Look forward to play multiple packs on multiple days of the week. It retains the thrill of novelty while giving us a taste of pretty much ALL the best mods out there. (EDIT: I would like to see a forestry themed pack so we can focus just on those damned trees and bees in peace ;) )

And like you said, because of the bundling of all the "traditional" mods in every pack out there, the new and novel ones get crowded into a corner. Discovering those left out gems ends up being left as an exercise to the discerning player (*), which it shouldn't be

(*) Always use that Knuth book quote in any form I can :p

EDIT: fixed small flubs in words
 

vertagen

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Im afraid that a Rf themed pack doesnt have much late game, which was the fun stuff, since you are able to obtain pretty much everything except lategame bees and trees and TT Kami if it will be in the tech packs within some hours of playing.
 

epidemia78

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Ive considered dropping IC2 from my custom pack, but I would never, ever get rid of buildcraft. Its only because thermal expansion made everything so easy that people dont use BC power gen much anymore. BTW, who says they dont? Not that it matters to me what you do with FTB. Unless you are hosting some kind of massive public server and need everyone to get on the same page, I just dont see the point in modpacks. And if that were the case, I would always choose the everything-in pack because people are different.

Also, when putting together your own custom pack, its easy to delude yourself into thinking that if you configure things just so, pick only certain mods, that you will end up with that perfectly balanced minecraft game youve always dreamed of, and that with a little more effort you could do another one just as good with a different theme. Just save yourselves the effort and install everything you think is interesting.
 

Jadedcat

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Ive considered dropping IC2 from my custom pack, but I would never, ever get rid of buildcraft. Its only because thermal expansion made everything so easy that people dont use BC power gen much anymore. BTW, who says they dont? Not that it matters to me what you do with FTB. Unless you are hosting some kind of massive public server and need everyone to get on the same page, I just dont see the point in modpacks. And if that were the case, I would always choose the everything-in pack because people are different.

Also, when putting together your own custom pack, its easy to delude yourself into thinking that if you configure things just so, pick only certain mods, that you will end up with that perfectly balanced minecraft game youve always dreamed of, and that with a little more effort you could do another one just as good with a different theme. Just save yourselves the effort and install everything you think is interesting.

Funnily enough I and Eyamaz do make incredibly balanced themed packs. But we keep that kind of heavy fiddling to the third party packs we make not the main FTB packs.
 

Dano6655

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It seems like a inevitable case of "inflation" if you will. A power system with a few transformers and macerators was standard long ago. But mods continue to make things easier and easier, the pulverized is what, 4 times faster than the macerator? And gives extra free stuff? Count me in! Railcraft tanks used to be the only way to go. Just slab down some obsidian and glass and you've got a near infinite, cool, dynamic tank. Things just keep getting simpler and simpler, and o/c we have all those cool realistic mods but they are just outclassed by the easiness and simplicity of others like rf. why make kinesis pipes that could potentially explode if not used right, when I can make a cheaper, easier, "energy" conduit that never explodes, hooks up to handy 8mj/t engines which outclasses nearly all bc engines, and are completely safe?
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Your problem is you're valuing simplicity above utility. On it's own thermal expansion is very early game in terms of effectiveness. Yea the pulverizer works faster than a macerator and provides additional output, but once you get a good power source lined up ic2s overclockers make their machines waaaaay better than TE ones in terms of use. IC2 may be slow starting but offer a lot of content that matters across all stages be it early or late. I for one like packs that contain all of theses mods because they all have their uses. Yea the power systems can be annoying but it's been definitely worth it in my experience. I do list factorization as an exception to this, just never seemed worth the effort, but it still adds numerous things I like. I feel rather disappointed when playing without buildcraft because of the power things like gates bring to the game and how useful things like the filler, quarry, and oil are. Railcraft is also a mod where I pretty much don't ever use it for it's primary purpose. I'd tank an iron tank over those open blocks tanks any day for non xp use, especially since they have a bit of a lag problem. It also adds a ton of creative blocks that I like. Thankfully direwolf feels the same way I do and I will always have his pack to play. I do feel that ftb's decision in this case is very sound though and have no problems with it.
 
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epidemia78

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Funnily enough I and Eyamaz do make incredibly balanced themed packs. But we keep that kind of heavy fiddling to the third party packs we make not the main FTB packs.

The problem with themed packs is that you have to leave a lot of stuff out and have multiple worlds to experience all the mods. I like sticking with a single world for months.
 
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JusticeOF666

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I like the new way of doing things,I probably won't play that much with the RF modpack because I like the more advanced / complicated IC2 and BC power systems. Also I really hope there will be a RC pack , a pack that's worth the mod ~amazing. Keep up the good work!
 

AlCapella

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** snip**

All very good points. I have no qualms with them. My personal view is that the two words "balance" and "overpowered" are bandied about in the MC community a little too much. What about the simple and oft neglected fact that mods simply extend the game in a way you hadn't thought of before. John Carmack tweeted about this. Notch has acknowledged this simple but powerful point. Even Paul soares Jr. has started playing with mods finally. :)
Most people who play mods, are subliminally feeding that one thought. "Ooh, what a totally new way to use XXXXXXXX from vaniall MC" ;)

And the idea of themed packs is simply a linear progression of this idea - game extension. All humans form mental narratives, and a themed mod pack helps this narrative along. While your idea of "add all packs and pick your mood favourite from the game on any given day" is an admirable thought, underpowered hardware and overstretched budgets are people's everyday reality (me included). :)

Themed packs break this problem down for us (cf., FTBLite2 vs. TPPI). And mod pack creators (everyone invovled in it) deserve some thanks because they do the grunt work for us in this regard.
 
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epidemia78

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Theres only one mod that I know of that does what is necessary to make minecraft with mods provide a sense of true progression and that is gregtech. You have to change the vanilla recipes to make things like the TE sawmill actually worth having.

And I didnt mean to sound disrespectful towards the FTB team. I will be the first to admit that making custom packs can be quite frustrating.
 
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bhblacky

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i fully support this idea.

i personally didn't like anymore the fact, that every mod included his own energy source.
Really like using ThermalExpansion and RF since a long time and actually i didn't even build any IC2 machines the last few server resets.
 

SatanicSanta

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Theres only one mod that I know of that does what is necessary to make minecraft with mods provide a sense of true progression and that is gregtech. You have to change the vanilla recipes to make things like the TE sawmill actually worth having.

And I didnt mean to sound disrespectful towards the FTB team. I will be the first to admit that making custom packs can be quite frustrating.
Better Than Wolves certainly adds it's own progression ;)
 
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