Weekly News Issue #2

[Captainnana]

Introduction
Hello there, we hope that you are all having or have had a good holiday and a happy new year to you all for Tuesday! Slowpoke is not currently around so it looks like you’ve got me this week, hopefully that's not too much of a disappointment for you!

General
Firstly in an effort to improve our service to you we have created a questionnaire http://www.feed-the-beast.com/satisfaction-questionnaire (NOW CLOSED) We hope that the results will highlight areas for us to improve our service to you, please take the time to think about your answers to give us the best data possible. As well as this questionnaire we will also be holding focus groups where we invite a small number of community members to come and speak to us about how we could improve.

Launcher
The server side for the launcher is still continuing, we are currently working on the method of metadata storage on the repo. After this is complete we will be able to continue with development of the client side launcher.

Modpacks
We are aware of several issues in the beta modpacks (Monster, Horizons and Direwolf20) and are working to improve them. You may have noticed that there have been several updates added to the development branch on the launcher, these will be updated to recommended builds shortly pending review.


Many of our team have been enjoying the holidays over the past couple of weeks so things have been moving at a fairly sedate pace, I would expect the pace of things to increase as we move into the new year so you can expect some more modpack updates and activity then.

Once again we hope that you have all had a good holiday and we wish you a happy new year!


EDIT: I forgot to put in the reminder that unleashed will not be updating to 1.6, this is because of changes made in the API that the mods use meaning that it is not possible for modpacks made on 1.5 to be directly updated to 1.6. The new modpacks for 1.6 will be coming out of beta shortly we hope at which point you can get going properly! I know that this was already posted all over the place but I figured I'd put it here as well so people didn't miss it

 

[Ashzification]

Thanks Nana

 

[Greevir]

Thanks for keeping us in the loop, Nana. Always good to see communications from FTB.

 

[Captainnana]

Oh I forgot to put a reminder in the OP, you should be aware that unleashed will not be updating to 1.6, this is because of changes made in the API that the mods use meaning that it is not possible for modpacks made on 1.5 to be directly updated to 1.6. The new modpacks for 1.6 will be coming out of beta shortly we hope at which point you can get going properly!

 

[Ioakim]

I know we can not update unleashed to 1.6, but is it possible to just make a whole new 1.6 unleashed pack? Like Unleased II or something and state that it wont work with the 1.5.2 and we must start new worlds/servers?

 

[Greevir]

I know we can not update unleashed to 1.6, but is it possible to just make a whole new 1.6 unleashed pack? Like Unleased II or something and state that it wont work with the 1.5.2 and we must start new worlds/servers?

The Monster modpack is the spiritual successor to Unleashed.

 

[rhn]

I know we can not update unleashed to 1.6, but is it possible to just make a whole new 1.6 unleashed pack? Like Unleased II or something and state that it wont work with the 1.5.2 and we must start new worlds/servers?

Unleashed II = Monster

 

[Ioakim]

But its missing a good handfull of mods that are in unleashed that I like to use, why would you have them in unleashed but not in its "successor"?

 

[Dikitty]

If I had to wager a guess, it would probably have to do with mod conflicts/missing updates for 1.6 minecraft. Just assuming though since I don't know which mods are your favorite.

 

[Bigdog]

Ya well one of the mods I would like is qcraft in the monster pack I was amazed it was missing mostly now with the new update that adds portals these are not like any other portal hehe one that I going to be taking full advantage of for my dedicated server.

 

[VikeStep]

But its missing a good handfull of mods that are in unleashed that I like to use, why would you have them in unleashed but not in its "successor"?

These are the mods that are no longer in the pack: Advanced Power Management, Advanced Solar Panels, Back Tools, Binnies Mods, ChargePads, CreeperCollateral, Death Timer, EE3, Enchanting Plus, Gravigun, GraviSuite, Hats, Hat Stands, MiscPeripherals, Modular Powersuits Addons, Nuclear Control, Nucleum Omnium, OmniTools, Plugins for Forestry, Power Converters, qCraft, Soul Shards, Vending Block

These are the ones out of that list that have a 1.6 version: Advanced Power Management, Advanced Solar Panels, Back Tools, Binnies Mods, Creeper Collateral, Enchanting Plus, Gravigun, Gravisuite, Hats, Hat Stands, MiscPeripherals, Nuclear Control, Plugins For Forestry, Power Converters, qCraft, Soul Shards, Vending Block

Now Binnies Mods is currently unstable, MiscPeripherals has had all its features implemented by OpenPeripherals so that leaves 15 Mods that didnt go through, keep in mind that 5 of those mods were disabled by default

 

[dudeofdur]

These are the mods that are no longer in the pack: Advanced Power Management, Advanced Solar Panels, Back Tools, Binnies Mods, ChargePads, CreeperCollateral, Death Timer, EE3, Enchanting Plus, Gravigun, GraviSuite, Hats, Hat Stands, MiscPeripherals, Modular Powersuits Addons, Nuclear Control, Nucleum Omnium, OmniTools, Plugins for Forestry, Power Converters, qCraft, Soul Shards, Vending Block

These are the ones out of that list that have a 1.6 version: Advanced Power Management, Advanced Solar Panels, Back Tools, Binnies Mods, Creeper Collateral, Enchanting Plus, Gravigun, Gravisuite, Hats, Hat Stands, MiscPeripherals, Nuclear Control, Plugins For Forestry, Power Converters, qCraft, Soul Shards, Vending Block

Now Binnies Mods is currently unstable, MiscPeripherals has had all its features implemented by OpenPeripherals so that leaves 15 Mods that didnt go through, keep in mind that 5 of those mods were disabled by default

if I can just get all the IC2 addons like gravisuite or advanced power management along with creeper collateral I would be so happy i would cry. I've been playing the 1.6 Direwolf and it just isn't the same without the endgame goal of the graviplate etc. If you guys can add it to a modpack that would be freaking awesome.

 

[UniZero]

if I can just get all the IC2 addons like gravisuite or advanced power management along with creeper collateral I would be so happy i would cry. I've been playing the 1.6 Direwolf and it just isn't the same without the endgame goal of the graviplate etc. If you guys can add it to a modpack that would be freaking awesome.

You could always try adding them yourself.

 

[Ioakim]

You could always try adding them yourself.

But then everyone on a server would have to add them, that's to much work for most people, would it have been so much work to add them but keep them as disabled? and let the players decide if they wanted them or not?

 

[UniZero]

But then everyone on a server would have to add them, that's to much work for most people, would it have been so much work to add them but keep them as disabled? and let the players decide if they wanted them or not?

I could understand if you were say adding 20 additional mods but when it is only one or two. If the players really want the extra mods on the server then just add them.

 

[rhn]

Leaving Gravisuite out was a bit weird to me, since its something that pretty much everyone I know have made use of in previous modpacks. It was a great goal to save up for. It is an amazing test of your AE skills to set it up to automate it. It was just perfect for Unleashed. So why its not in by default baffles me quite a bit. If I had to compile a top 10 of mods I use in game, Gravisuite would have to be 1 due to Advanced Jetpack/Advanced Nano chestplate, Gravitool, Gravichest, Advanced diamond drill/chainsaw, Vajra... (wow that list was longer than I thought).

But with the universal configs(that I believe is already shipped with all the packs) I believe its just a matter of downloading the mod and dropping it in.

 

[QueWhat]

Thanks for keep us in the loop Captain, glad to see the communication being taken seriously! I R HAPPY

Spoiler

 

[Jadedcat]

But then everyone on a server would have to add them, that's to much work for most people, would it have been so much work to add them but keep them as disabled? and let the players decide if they wanted them or not?

Under this argument we should add every mod to every pack but disabled by default. Except people already have bandwidth issues with the current size of the packs. So no, we will not be making the pack sizes even larger.

 

[Jadedcat]

Also for those wondering. Unleashed Ultimate and Monster have never been inteded as "general play" packs. They were created as the "flagship" packs in those versions. The flagship FTB pack has always been and will always be the map pack. Its about which mods Slowpoke wants to use to create the FTB map. In the last 2 versions he was unable to create the map for various reasons. However the only intention behind those packs is "Does Slow plan to use it on the map?" If not then the mod doesn't go in. The other packs are the "play" packs. Yes you can play Monster etc but thats not the driving force behind the pack.

What's behind the decisions for the different packs:

DW20 : Direwolf20 - the mods he wants to play
Mindcrack : Mindcrack Crew - What they want to play
Horizons: New mods or rewritten mods that people are less familiar with than the "classic" mods. Basically options and alternatives
FTB Lite 2: The mods that performed the best on average in testing for optimization and use on lower end systems. Geared towards older weaker computers or people wanting a base pack to customize. In other words lightweight mods.
Magic Farm 2: My take on changing the game.How I like to play.
Tech World 2: Most of the tech mods from Horizons, Magic Farm 2 and Lite 2 with some mods left out because of cross mod interactions or overwhelming duplication or processes. You don't need 9 ways to double ores.
Magic World 2: Most of the magic mods from Horizons , Magic Farm 2 and Lite 2.
Monster: Does Slow want to use the mod to make the map?

 

[Mevansuto]

Also for those wondering. Unleashed Ultimate and Monster have never been inteded as "general play" packs. They were created as the "flagship" packs in those versions. The flagship FTB pack has always been and will always be the map pack. Its about which mods Slowpoke wants to use to create the FTB map. In the last 2 versions he was unable to create the map for various reasons. However the only intention behind those packs is "Does Slow plan to use it on the map?" If not then the mod doesn't go in. The other packs are the "play" packs. Yes you can play Monster etc but thats not the driving force behind the pack.

What's behind the decisions for the different packs:

DW20 : Direwolf20 - the mods he wants to play
Mindcrack : Mindcrack Crew - What they want to play
Horizons: New mods or rewritten mods that people are less familiar with than the "classic" mods. Basically options and alternatives
FTB Lite 2: The mods that performed the best on average in testing for optimization and use on lower end systems. Geared towards older weaker computers or people wanting a base pack to customize. In other words lightweight mods.
Magic Farm 2: My take on changing the game.How I like to play.
Tech World 2: Most of the tech mods from Horizons, Magic Farm 2 and Lite 2 with some mods left out because of cross mod interactions or overwhelming duplication or processes. You don't need 9 ways to double ores.
Magic World 2: Most of the magic mods from Horizons , Magic Farm 2 and Lite 2.
Monster: Does Slow want to use the mod to make the map?

Does this make the Pax East Modpack the 1.4 flagship pack?