December News

[Feed the Beast]

Modpack News

We were aiming to release Continuum, our 1.12 expert pack, before Christmas, but unfortunately, as we started to get into the development, we realized that we needed more time to put out a quality expert pack. So we are taking a step back and instead working on a kitchen sink pack named Revelation that should be out in the next few weeks. We will resume development of Continuum after the holidays.

If you want to follow the progress of Revelation, these people stream or upload videos from our development server, FTB One.

• Slowpoke101
• Quetzi
• Lapis_Lauri
• Krakaen
• Caio César
• Spidey1958
• TheB2
• TranslucentLucy
• JakeO
• therealtkh
• Darkphan
• ChosenArchitect
• Jester1147
• Runwyld
• Stavie131
• captainbritian
• Darkhax
• EddieRuckus
• fuzzyray
• kryllyk
• MsBellie
• Runew0lf
• GWSheridan
• cScotPlay

 

[drkravenxin]

So you need more time to work on the Expert Pack to be sure you have a quality pack so you work on a different pack entirely. I honestly don't see the logic behind that other than FTB's hair brained logic. It doesn't make sense to me to why working on a completely different pack would make the other a better quality pack. It seems the name of the partner group Curse, is an apt name. Because since Curse partnered with FTB or vice versa there has been a curse of delaying on certain types of packs. If you don't want to make the expert pack then say so and be done with it. Quit leading people on.

 

[LordPINE]

Relax. Their team is quite large, so while some people continue to work on Continuum, they can make a kitchen sink pack so we aren't left without a pack for a long time. I mean, it only has positives. It does not delay the development of Continuum, but it does give us another pack to play while waiting.

 

[drkravenxin]

Well they just point blank said they have stepped away from the development of Continuum till after the holidays so they can work on development of Revelation. Which to me and remember this is my opinion, they got bored or tired of working on it. Or, which this part is highly the case, certain functionality has reached release in certain mods and so they put the breaks on till that is added.

With that said, I've heard/read this song and dance before. And if it goes like it has in the past they are going to come back in January saying that Continuum is being ported to 1.14 or which ever version besides 1.12. Which is why I stated that if they didn't want to finish what they started then they shouldn't begin something to start with. They have promised an Expert Pack since Infinity Evolved Expert and have yet to deliver.

 

[GamerwithnoGame]

Relax. Their team is quite large, so while some people continue to work on Continuum, they can make a kitchen sink pack so we aren't left without a pack for a long time. I mean, it only has positives. It does not delay the development of Continuum, but it does give us another pack to play while waiting.

Don't even bother. He gets his news and he's still not happy. Not worth the effort.

 

[Nuclear_Creeper0]

So you need more time to work on the Expert Pack to be sure you have a quality pack so you work on a different pack entirely. I honestly don't see the logic behind that other than FTB's hair brained logic. It doesn't make sense to me to why working on a completely different pack would make the other a better quality pack. It seems the name of the partner group Curse, is an apt name. Because since Curse partnered with FTB or vice versa there has been a curse of delaying on certain types of packs. If you don't want to make the expert pack then say so and be done with it. Quit leading people on.

What's logic?

 

[Padfoote]

So you need more time to work on the Expert Pack to be sure you have a quality pack so you work on a different pack entirely. I honestly don't see the logic behind that other than FTB's hair brained logic. It doesn't make sense to me to why working on a completely different pack would make the other a better quality pack. It seems the name of the partner group Curse, is an apt name. Because since Curse partnered with FTB or vice versa there has been a curse of delaying on certain types of packs. If you don't want to make the expert pack then say so and be done with it. Quit leading people on.

Okay, so I'm gonna quote something at you, with this preface in nice big, bolded letters:

I am only a moderator, know nothing about pack development, and talk to no one on the team beyond Quetzi and Watchful, and only when it's moderation related.

That being said, here's the quote, with the relevant part bolded:

I wasn't sure I was going to say something on this current topic or not. But they only point I will agree on is a little more communication from the FTB team. But, I know they like me are working on what they can for an Expert pack. But, they are also waiting for certain key mods and support for them to come out. Specifically, at present there is no craft tweaker support for Botania. I know this because the dev team I'm part of was discussing this very issue over the past few days. So the only piece of advise I can give is be patient. It will get here when it gets here. There is a lot of things that pack devs are dependent on that are completely out of our control.

If Botania is a planned mod, I just found the reason for the delay in the pack. This is also telling me that there is probably some support lacking for other mods, so I wouldn't be surprised if the team is hitting issues with that as well.

 

[RabidHampsta]

Thanks for the update!

 

[Pyure]

So you need more time to work on the Expert Pack to be sure you have a quality pack so you work on a different pack entirely. I honestly don't see the logic behind that other than FTB's hair brained logic. It doesn't make sense to me to why working on a completely different pack would make the other a better quality pack. It seems the name of the partner group Curse, is an apt name. Because since Curse partnered with FTB or vice versa there has been a curse of delaying on certain types of packs. If you don't want to make the expert pack then say so and be done with it. Quit leading people on.

This is not how project management works.

There are many parts of a project team. If any of those parts are holding back the project (for instance, say, the guys who do crafttweaker scripting are missing an important API capability), then there's nothing stopping an experienced project manager from reassigning some or all resources on that project somewhere more sensible during the interval.

 

[Nuclear_Creeper0]

Okay, so I'm gonna quote something at you, with this preface in nice big, bolded letters:

I am only a moderator, know nothing about pack development, and talk to no one on the team beyond Quetzi and Watchful, and only when it's moderation related.

That being said, here's the quote, with the relevant part bolded:


If Botania is a planned mod, I just found the reason for the delay in the pack. This is also telling me that there is probably some support lacking for other mods, so I wouldn't be surprised if the team is hitting issues with that as well.

Now I have a question? They planned a mod to be in the pack? Why not change the plans? It's not like Botania is actually a difficult mod, its just a bunch of time waiting for mana to generate to produce terrasteel but thats about it. And its been used in like every hardcore pack in the last 3 years and its fairly boring to do over and over and over again.
Why not have Astral Sorcery, Roots 2 and Embers as the core magic mods in the pack providing a real challenge of learning new mechanics rather than repetitive content of Botania, Blood Magic and Thaumcraft (soon)

 

[sunzone]

Sorry to ask, but what is a kitchen sink pack ?

 

[Magzie]

If they decided to wait and work on a new pack first then more then likely they can't move forward with development until some issues with several mods. not just one. More likely the mod dev/s are dealing with the issue/s and they decided to be more productive and work on the other pack. As stated in the other news update they were already planning on these two packs so it isn't like they are throw the Revelation pack out of no where. Also I would like to say that I think the kitchen Sink pack should come out first anyway.

Sorry to ask, but what is a kitchen sink pack ?

Kitchen sink pack is a pack with like every mod thrown in with a few balance fixes that let's players move through the pack at the own rates and interest. Expert pack will be more guided like theme packs.

 

[Padfoote]

Now I have a question? They planned a mod to be in the pack? Why not change the plans? It's not like Botania is actually a difficult mod, its just a bunch of time waiting for mana to generate to produce terrasteel but thats about it. And its been used in like every hardcore pack in the last 3 years and its fairly boring to do over and over and over again.
Why not have Astral Sorcery, Roots 2 and Embers as the core magic mods in the pack providing a real challenge of learning new mechanics rather than repetitive content of Botania, Blood Magic and Thaumcraft (soon)

They always plan which mods to add, but plans are never 100% solid from what tiny bit I know. I'm also not saying Botania is definitely planned to be in the pack, I just used it as an example of something that could delay the release of the pack. I actually know nothing about this pack other than the name.

 

[An0nymuS]

Pardon me, but, in my opinion, the decision to postpone a launch in favor of quality/completeness is a great one. I think that every pack that this team put out was excellent and I wholeheartedly support not sacrificing the intended outcome for the sake of time. Not only that, but we also get to spend some time with a new mod pack while the expert one is being worked on as the team had intended.

 

[Hambeau]

Sorry to ask, but what is a kitchen sink pack ?

Fun fact: "Kitchen Sink Pack" comes from the old expression along the lines of "It includes everything but the Kitchen sink" meaning deluxe.

 

[Magzie]

Pardon me, but, in my opinion, the decision to postpone a launch in favor of quality/completeness is a great one. I think that every pack that this team put out was excellent and I wholeheartedly support not sacrificing the intended outcome for the sake of time. Not only that, but we also get to spend some time with a new mod pack while the expert one is being worked on as the team had intended.

I'm still having loads of fun with direwolf pack.

 

[WalterWeight]

Given the pack has Quark (yay!), do we really need inventory tweaks? Quark's inventory management is far superior in my opinion. Also, I hope EnderIO is released in time for this pack being released.

 

[mti_]

I am always pro delaying release in favor of quality.
Most, if not nearly all, of us are; there is no argument to be had here.
I wish FTB would go back to their "no ETA" policy tho.
Let us not forget that they announced/hinted at an expert mode pack multiple times, over months.
They even said "it is up to us as 'the most popular pack maker' to put our foot down and declare 1.10 as the de-facto next version of modded MC for the coming months".
An expert pack was announced for mid 2017 in a townhall stream.
None of this happend.

This is not how project management works.

There are many parts of a project team. If any of those parts are holding back the project (for instance, say, the guys who do crafttweaker scripting are missing an important API capability), then there's nothing stopping an experienced project manager from reassigning some or all resources on that project somewhere more sensible during the interval.

Experienced project management aside, even an unexperienced PR team would not make promises they can not keep. Especially not multiple times over.
FTB has struggled with this in the past.
To some this might sound irrelevant and nothing other than being frustrated of not receiving what was "promised".
While this is still a very real marketing issue there are also practical implications for people like me.
As a server admin I try to keep track of currently popular and upcoming packs. This now leaves a hole in my schedule and I need to find something to put up until Continuum is out.

It is appreciated that quality control is taken seriously and the release schedule is not the primary concern.
However, this announcement can only be seen as something negative because they had to, yet again, go back on their word.
If we got a DW20 pack with a rather limited amount of mods and interest outside his fan-base, then a kitchen sink pack and then the expert mode no one would have raised any questions since this is what we had before.

Lastly let us please also accept that the narrative of "might as well play the kitchen sink pack in the meanwhile" does not hold true for a significant portion of us.
Many of us simply do not play kitchen sink packs more than once per major release or at all. For obvious reasons. Revelation is not a substitute, or even stand-in for Continuum.

And so we go back to waiting and hoping that FTB shift their informational policy to being able to announce exciting things rather than disappointments.

 

[Dreamer1986]

Revelation is like a newer version of FTB Beyond? If so, that's infinitely more exciting for me than Continuum.

 

[Magzie]

Revelation is like a newer version of FTB Beyond? If so, that's infinitely more exciting for me than Continuum.

basically. So Revalation is going to be the Infinity evolved version for 1.12 where as Continuum is The Infinity Evolved expert mode. The reason why they are 2 different packs is the newest minecraft will not allow the recipes to change like they did in the past expert mod so you would have to log out and relaunch to enter expert mode anyway so it was decided to just put it in its own pack.