FTB and the future

[Cptqrk]

Hello folks,

As a long time member of the forums, and player of FTB packs/maps I wanted to bring up this discussion topic.

FTB has gone through a lot over the years, starting off as a modded challenge map, moving on to it's own mod pack platform, pairing up with Curse, cutting ties with Curse, and relaunching their own platform.

What's next?

What direction would you like to see the FTB team go in? What do you hope the 'roadmap' is for the platform/launcher? What would you not like to see?

I would love some feedback on this (I am not a member of the FTB team, so I won't be doing anything with these suggestions/hopes)

I also open this up to the FTB team, (as I am sure members/users would love to know) what do you see the team striving for and or working towards? (above and beyond what you posted in the news section LOL)

Keep it civil, keep it cool..

 

[LordPINE]

I would love to see some more unique packs from the FTB team, instead of more generic kitchensink packs.

Even though FTB Interactions wasn't the greatest success, I do think it was a step in the right direction. It was different. It was interesting. It made me interested in playing an FTB pack again (though in the end I was busier with other things).

It seems we've recently gotten a lot of kitchensinks and some not exactly amazing other packs, and I'd love to see more things like the pyramid map, or maybe packs taking inspiration from, for example, SevTech. Just something new and fresh would be great.

 

[Nuclear_Creeper0]

I rarely post here anymore but I do have a few things to say about the future of FTB.
Let me start off with my view of FTB. FTB, in my personal opinion, peaked with Infinity Expert and Infinity Expert Skyblock, I don't think many people would disagree with that, and I think FTB's primary goal should be to recapture the magic of Infinity. I know that it is incredibly difficult but I believe in the FTB team.
In terms of like, the future of FTB packs. I would say, the FTB team itself should focus on making high quality, well designed, well-executed, kitchensink-expert hybrids like Infinity.

For the boundary-pushing experimental packs with new mods and mechanics, I would personally outsource that since it has never been FTB's strong suit.

For the FTB Launcher, I know this is very much a dream of mine, but getting a deal with Twitch to put Curseforge on the launcher would be nice, since that very much is the best part of the Twitch launcher. Along with that, the fact that MultiMC had problems with Forge in 1.13+ means the number of people on the Twitch and FTB Launchers will increase.

 

[Cptqrk]

LordPINE: Good points.

Nuclear_Creeper0: Agreed.

FTB's calling card (IMO) was well curated/balanced packs, until Interactions, but that was due to mostly one mod and it's time gated crafting. A return to well put together packs/maps is what I'm seeing from the both of you...

Anyone else?

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

LordPINE: Good points.

Nuclear_Creeper0: Agreed.

FTB's calling card (IMO) was well curated/balanced packs, until Interactions, but that was due to mostly one mod and it's time gated crafting. A return to well put together packs/maps is what I'm seeing from the both of you...

Anyone else?

I wouldn't exactly say FTB's calling card was well curated/balanced packs. I would rather say their calling card has always been casual kitchen-sink style packs. In every version of modded minecraft since around the 1.4 era, they've always launched one 'flagship' kitchen sink pack, with most of the more popular mods kinda thrown in, then worked on making sure it was stable, more than anything I would call 'well curated/balanced'. There might've been other packs the FTB team did, but they were secondary, at least in my mind, and generally weren't as... well received. Case in point: Continuum. Which was so grindy that even Dire gave up after a few episodes. Which is kinda impressive, considering how far he got in SevTech.

So, at least to my mind, FTB has always equated 'a casual and newbie-friendly kitchen sink style pack where you are fairly sure all your favorite mods are going to be present', more than a well balanced experience. Which, let's be clear here, isn't an insult. Casual kitchen sink packs absolutely have their place. Heck, I just built one for some friends of mine who were playing infinity and wanted something for 1.12.2. It's up on the Twitch launcher. I wouldn't call it well curated/balanced, because as a design choice, I built the pack specifically with these cross-mod interactions still in place *because* it was a casual pack. it wasn't supposed to be a challenge, it was supposed to be a place me and my friends hang out together in. So this is absolutely a niche that very few others can manage to hit right. The only other team doing casual kitchen sink packs that I can think of off hand is the ATM (All The Mods) crew, so it is a niche which has room for growth.

Having said that, if the FTB team did want to put out a more carefully curated and balanced pack, I'd love to see it. I think the team has learned a lot from past mistakes, I doubt the team is going to be resorting to time-gates as a balance mechanic going forward as an example, so it would definitely be interesting.

As far as the Launcher itself, that's a separate topic. For now, from what I've seen of it, the launcher itself is very solid, if bare-bones. However, I have no reason to actually use it since there are no packs I can currently access from the launcher that I have any real desire to play. I'm hoping there will eventually be import and export pack functionality added to the launcher, but for now, simply as a way of launching the four packs which exist on the launcher... it's quite good at what it does.

Anyway, I've rambled on for far too long as it is. So let's see if I can tl;dr this:

FTB, to me, has always been more about casual kitchen sink packs where newer players can come together and just have fun enjoying their favorite mods and discover new interactions between mods. And this is not bad. But if the FTB team wants to also do a more carefully curated and balanced pack, I'd be very interested to see what they come up with!

 

[Cptqrk]

I think what I was referring to when I said curated/well balanced packs, were things like the Pyramid Map and FTB's expert mode with that one pack.

But I see where you are coming from there ShneekyTheLost. The launcher does what it does, but I think a lot of folks got spoiled with the Twitch/Curse launcher with the ease of use and QoL additions. I'm interested to see what direction they take the launcher.