A Pointless Rant + FTB Continuum Currently Known Mods

[Nuclear_Creeper0]

FTB Continuum is looking like its going to be a bigger disappointment than the DC Cinematic Universe.
So far here's the currently assembled mod list: This list was collected from Youtubers and a document
Journey Map
JEI
Thermal Expansion + Friends
EFab
Extreme Reactors
Immersive Engineering
Tech Reborn
Actually Additions
Forestry
Storage Drawers
Better Questing
Gendustry
Tinkers Construct
Project E
Applied Energistics
Extra Utilities 2
Environmental Tech
Advanced Rocketry
Simply Jetpacks
RFTools
RFTools Control
RFTools Dimensions - Not Confirmed but Most Likely
The One Probe
XNet
Pam's Harvestcraft
Natura
CareerBees
Vulpes Library
Industrial Foregoing
Hunger Overhaul
Translocators
Link to EFab stuff - https://docs.google.com/document/d/...DlpT-5xtwZgQnnenA/edit#heading=h.uhak5sn9tr1l
Let me know if I missed any mods.

The reason I say it's going to be a disappointment is the lack of different mods and the lack of clever mechanics.
The currently known mod list above lacks anything new, it's all the same stuff. I recently fell in love with @lucariomaster2's Factory Tech which isn't in the pack. @turbodiesel4598's Nuclear Craft isn't in there. All we get is bloody extreme reactors like in every pack since it got released. Thermal as usual, of course......

Uhhhhh where are the magic mods? I haven't seen a single youtube video, with any magic mod. No Astral Sorcery, No Roots 2, No Embers, No AbyssalCraft, No Botania, No Blood Magic, and No Thaumcraft (Thaumcraft is a bit newer for 1.12 so I'll let you off on that one).

The EFab is basically just a Forestry Carpenter that you can upgrade more. That's it. Some of the recipes are ridiculous. The current recipe on the AE2 Controller is 15 minutes at 36 million RF, 2000 RF/t. That's gonna take a ridiculously long time if you want to make the big 7 x 7 x 7 multi-block. I did rough calculations, currently, it will take 17 hours to make all of them.

 

[GamerwithnoGame]

Translocators.

 

[Pyure]

NuclearCraft isn't quite ready yet (More importantly: it wasn't ready at all when the modlist was assembled): turbo's still working on some of the key mechanics and the mod is undergoing constant changes to primary components.

Same with Thaumcraft: the mod wasn't even in Beta yet when the modlist was determined.

Regarding above: at some point a team needs to draw a line in the sand and say "any mods that come out after this point are NOT considered MVP (minimum viable product) and are not going into the pack at release." That's not to say they won't get added later, but to expect them to somehow roll them in without drastic (further) changes to the timelines is...well, stupid.

Astral Sorcery is a meh mod and the dev is hard to communicate with. Roots 2, embers and abyssal don't do anything to improve a pack for me.

I'll give you Botania and Blood Magic but they're not exactly new to FTB packs.

Career Bees is totally new to FTB packs (I actually don't know any popular packs at all that use it, not that I've looked hard. I'll bet All the Mods uses it but that's a mega-kitchen-sink pack.)

"Clever mechanics" is an empty statement because anyone can call any mechanic clever or not-clever.

I'm not at all concerned about the mods in the pack. I'm more interested in how they've integrated them via configs and crafttweaker.

 

[GamerwithnoGame]

Shocking as this is, I’m on the side of @Nuclear_Creeper0 here. As memory serves, adding recipes into the different tiers of table in Astral Sorcery is well documented, and wouldn’t have been difficult to do. I personally don’t find it meh (that’s entirely subjective and personal, I know) as I find it quite beautiful to use, and look at, with a delightful aesthetic. I also guess I’m not sure how much it matters how hard the dev is to contact, if it’s got an easy-to-use recipe system. It’s no less interesting than Actually Additions’ empowerer, that’s for sure!

Roots and Embers I agree, though Roots was used interestingly in All The Mods 3: Expert.

Speaking of that, I don’t know about the remastered, but I saw a playthrough of the non-remastered Expert Mode of ATM3, and that did some much more imaginitive things with mods including magic mods - honestly, THAT felt more like IE:E to watch than Continuum does, and the presence of magic mods is a big part of that. Certainly for the expert mode, it didn’t feel kitchen sinky (and career bees wasn’t in that), it felt like the mods used were very smartly integrated.

I’m honestly a bit surprised about your perspective on AbyssalCraft. A series of dimensions, and a pretty neat (if sinister) crafting mechanic that - as SevTech has proven very clearly - can have recipes added from outside the mod, and you aren’t fussed by it? Each to their own I guess!

I just... I feel like the absence of anything magical is like a hole in the pack. And given all the things that can be done with bees, it becomes a bit like the Bee Happy modpack. The EFab mod is really cool, I just don’t know how well it’s utilised. Some of the things which do or don’t need it seem kind of illogical. But, it’s still being worked on - I’ve seen from Krakaen’s series that changes are still being made. But where it’s stands on the line between challenging and grindy? It seems more towards the latter than the former right now.

 

[Pyure]

Good arguments, GwnG. Still not my preferences but I understand where you're coming from.

 

[Nuclear_Creeper0]

I guess the real argument is what is difficult. What mods could they include to make things more challenging? For me, it's doing things I've never done before. I've learned Tinker's Construct by heart, as most of the people on this forum probably have. For me, replacing Tinkers with like Silents Gem, would automatically, without any recipe changes at all, increase the difficulty of the pack.

 

[Pyure]

I guess the real argument is what is difficult.... For me, it's doing things I've never done before.

I feel like you've hit the nail on the head here.

I feel like the issue isn't that the pack is uninteresting; its may simply not have surprises for 'leet players. Whether that should be of primary concern to them or not, who knows.

But keeping us surprised and on our toes is really hard to do, which is why (as a somewhat oldschool MC player) I look more keenly towards the usage of those pack tools such as CraftTweaker that can make drastic changes to the content of a mod, rather than obsessing over which content mods are present.

 

[turbodiesel4598]

You see, as much as any modder would like their mod to be added to a big pack such as this, it is indeed true that NuclearCraft still does not quite have the sort of solid structure that is required for a place in an FTB pack - it's inclusion in Revelation was quite a surprise to me, but given that it wasn't/isn't their main 1.12.2 pack, perhaps they decided they could 'give it a go'.

FTB, certainly to their credit I'd say, think, probably more carefully than most, about making sure their packs are watertight. Sure, the downside is that new mods crop up less often or take longer to do so, but I am almost certain that I have had far less crashes and other issues with FTB packs than with a lot of other popular amalgamations out there. Although NC is far more stable than it was a couple of years ago, as Pyure says, there have still been quite large changes to the way the mod works over the last year, and sometimes this leads to unexpected bugs and other issues. I do hope that, when I update to 1.13, that the mod will be on much more stable ground

 

[Nuclear_Creeper0]

You see, as much as any modder would like their mod to be added to a big pack such as this, it is indeed true that NuclearCraft still does not quite have the sort of solid structure that is required for a place in an FTB pack - it's inclusion in Revelation was quite a surprise to me, but given that it wasn't/isn't their main 1.12.2 pack, perhaps they decided they could 'give it a go'.

FTB, certainly to their credit I'd say, think, probably more carefully than most, about making sure their packs are watertight. Sure, the downside is that new mods crop up less often or take longer to do so, but I am almost certain that I have had far less crashes and other issues with FTB packs than with a lot of other popular amalgamations out there. Although NC is far more stable than it was a couple of years ago, as Pyure says, there have still been quite large changes to the way the mod works over the last year, and sometimes this leads to unexpected bugs and other issues. I do hope that, when I update to 1.13, that the mod will be on much more stable ground

Even if NuclearCraft is a bit unstable, there are thousands of other mods on Curse they could've used, NuclearCraft was just an example. Cough Factory Tech cough or like anything else for that matter. Why does every bloody pack need to have Thermal Expansion and Extreme Reactors?
And I know you can use CraftTweaker to edit the mod's content, but at the end of the day, making Extreme Reactor controllers more expensive doesn't change the base of the mod.

 

[lucariomaster2]

If they're trying to make a pack that appeals to the widest range of people, it would make sense for Thermal to be the main tech mod since it doesn't warp the modpack around itself in the way of forcing a certain playstyle. Same with Extreme Reactors. Compare that to NuclearCraft and Factory Tech, which are both heavily built for the "engineering/automation" group.

Not saying one playstyle is better than another, but I think it is important to keep in mind that people play modded MC for all sorts of different reasons.

 

[LordPINE]

This is entirely reasonable, but the idea of an Expert mode pack is to appeal to the engineering/automation group, seeing as you can't get enough of the resources you need otherwise. Therefore, I'd say that yes, TE and Extreme Reactors are a good choice for packs that appeal to as many people as possible, like the standard kitchen sinks. I do however think that the people that play expert packs want an interesting challenge, which is something I feel TE and Extreme Reactors don't provide. Factory Tech and Nuclearcraft give way more reason for interesting automation, or for figuring out the best setup, which is probably best in an expert pack.

 

[Nuclear_Creeper0]

Therefore, I'd say that yes, TE and Extreme Reactors are a good choice for packs that appeal to as many people as possible,

You've summed the problem up wonderfully. Expert packs should be made for some people that have the skill and dedication to play with more challenging mods and recipes. Kitchen Sink packs should be for everyone. If FTB's goal was to make a pack for players who wanted a challenge, there would be magic mods and different tech mods. Everyone shouldn't be playing a challenge pack, and everyone shouldn't be able to complete it. KingTriaxx and I had this discussion in discord. Its ok that everyone doesn't finish the pack, it's like Dark Souls or Cuphead. You need dedication and skill to finish those games. Not everyone completes them, and that's ok.

 

[Pyure]

You've summed the problem up wonderfully. Expert packs should be made for some people that have the skill and dedication to play with more challenging mods and recipes. Kitchen Sink packs should be for everyone. If FTB's goal was to make a pack for players who wanted a challenge, there would be magic mods and different tech mods. Everyone shouldn't be playing a challenge pack, and everyone shouldn't be able to complete it. KingTriaxx and I had this discussion in discord. Its ok that everyone doesn't finish the pack, it's like Dark Souls or Cuphead. You need dedication and skill to finish those games. Not everyone completes them, and that's ok.

I'll just toss a tiny addendum on this. I agree with everything above, however I'll tack on the fact that its still awesome to use overly-common mods if you do so with some extra thought.

As an example, Infitech has always been an expert-mode pack, but it includes some popular mods such as Thaumcraft that are in every-pack-ever. But everything is heavily tweaked and scripted to manage progression and balance (if casual players aren't quitting after seeing some of the requirements, we're not doing our job right)

 

[Reddis]

I do not see how Continuum could possibly add any sort of a challenge that is more unique than SevTech. IMO, SevTech is the greatest pack to come out in a very long time.

 

[Celestialphoenix]

Theres a number of mods on that list are fairly iconic to FTB packs. Not having them would feel a little weird.

Also I think the FTB expert mode is kinda set as an introduction to the hardmode packs. Its a big step up in difficulty, but its only 'hard' difficulty (rather than 'insane', 'psychotic', or '4.AAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!' difficulty) and combined with the familiarity of the iconic mods it should strike a resonance with FTBs core audience.

(if casual players aren't quitting after seeing some of the requirements, we're not doing our job right)

I need this on a shirt.

 

[speckbrot87]

I am thinkin on adding some mods to continuum when its out and make some scripts for it and add some efab recipes.(efab was actually yesterday released on curseforge, so hopefully we see continuum this weekend. I know i am a dreamer). Once i am done i will post them in this forum. I am thinkin on adding, Nuclearcraft,Opencomputers, Mekanism, PneumaticCraft, Draconic E,Thaumcraft(once done),Botania (which has efab integration), Astral Sorcery, Blood Magic ,Embers and some others.

 

[Cptqrk]

I am thinkin on adding some mods to continuum when its out and make some scripts for it and add some efab recipes.(efab was actually yesterday released on curseforge, so hopefully we see continuum this weekend. I know i am a dreamer). Once i am done i will post them in this forum. I am thinkin on adding, Nuclearcraft,Opencomputers, Mekanism, PneumaticCraft, Draconic E,Thaumcraft(once done),Botania (which has efab integration), Astral Sorcery, Blood Magic ,Embers and some others.

While this may be a good idea to add these mods yourself, they will most certainly cause issues with expert mode in some way shape or form, as the pack makers will not have factored for them (especially Mekanism as FTB doesn't have the permissions to add it to any of their official packs).
This will break the "progression" of the pack.

 

[KingTriaxx]

By necessity we'll have to disagree on Sev Tech. Quite apart from being the sort of pack that I don't find myself really enjoying, it's a pack designed for one person, with a particular individual mindset on how they want it made.

And that's fine. My custom 1.7.10 pack was made by me, for me. Designed to be focused around trains and train based automation, and that's because it's what I wanted from a pack. And it's not a pack that a lot of other people would want to play, and that's fine.

Maybe you like SevTech because you enjoy the slow, difficult progression, or whatever. It appeals to you. While I feel as though I'm trying to go through a brick wall using my head. I might get through eventually but I'm not going to enjoy doing so. So I don't.

And that's ultimately the answer. If you don't think you're going to enjoy a pack? Don't play it. Simple as that. There are a LOT of packs out there. Not every pack is made by FTB, but you never know until you go out and find one.

Personally the 'Hardcore' pack I enjoyed the most is Automaton. It starts with a set of mods I really enjoy, the Immersive Suite, and then progressed into Applied Energistics and then into Mekanism. But the machines from Immersive were necessary to make components you required to make the AE controller, and you needed AE components to go to Mekanism. Well put together, each piece flowed forward so you never felt you wasted progress going through the quests.

 

[Reddis]

By necessity we'll have to disagree on Sev Tech. Quite apart from being the sort of pack that I don't find myself really enjoying, it's a pack designed for one person, with a particular individual mindset on how they want it made.

And that's fine. My custom 1.7.10 pack was made by me, for me. Designed to be focused around trains and train based automation, and that's because it's what I wanted from a pack. And it's not a pack that a lot of other people would want to play, and that's fine.

Maybe you like SevTech because you enjoy the slow, difficult progression, or whatever. It appeals to you. While I feel as though I'm trying to go through a brick wall using my head. I might get through eventually but I'm not going to enjoy doing so. So I don't.

And that's ultimately the answer. If you don't think you're going to enjoy a pack? Don't play it. Simple as that. There are a LOT of packs out there. Not every pack is made by FTB, but you never know until you go out and find one.

Personally the 'Hardcore' pack I enjoyed the most is Automaton. It starts with a set of mods I really enjoy, the Immersive Suite, and then progressed into Applied Energistics and then into Mekanism. But the machines from Immersive were necessary to make components you required to make the AE controller, and you needed AE components to go to Mekanism. Well put together, each piece flowed forward so you never felt you wasted progress going through the quests.

Minecraft could not have been described better. There is no right or wrong way to play it. Vanilla, modded lite, kitchen sink, ultra heavy packs, HQM, or any combination thereof. Even within these choices, do I enjoy automation through tech or magic? Do I only like to build amazing structures in creative mode? Heck, whenever I play single player offline, I always set custom terrain generation to include lots of lava lakes and streams for no reason other than I think its fun.

 

[Pyure]

And that's fine. My custom 1.7.10 pack was made by me, for me. Designed to be focused around trains and train based automation, and that's because it's what I wanted from a pack. And it's not a pack that a lot of other people would want to play, and that's fine.

If appropriate train/transportation mods make their way to 1.12 are you going to do a 2.0?