Hello, I am writing on behalf of some problems I have encountered due to the special mobs mod. While I believe it is a neat plugin and certainly makes the push-over mobs more challenging, I also must voice my opinion that SpecialMobs is NOT optimized to work with the Monster Modpack and has made several features inaccessible or several opportunities impossible.
The first problem with the mobs added by SpecialMobs is that they ignore the defensive bonuses of most non-vanilla armor. For example, a special mob pigman can hit me for about 2 hearts while I am wearing normal Iron Armor, but will hit me for 8 hearts when I am wearing a full set of Modular Powersuit Armor with energy shielding and ignore the non-vanilla enchantments on armor sets. The mobs added by SpecialMobs also ignore the effects of some armor sets such as being able to see players made invisible by the cloaking module for MPS, hitting through the defensive bonus provided by IC2's nano-suit and ignoring the blast resistance of the composite armor from IC2.
Another problem that SpecialMobs creates is that it makes it impossible to collect skin samples for certain genes in the Advanced Genetics mod. The get the gene, you must scrape the skin from a vanilla mob and then you can analyze the skin sample to possibly get a gene with an ability from the mob. While it is still possible to get genes from mobs unaffected by SpecialMobs (Cows, Sheep, Bats, Ocelots, Horses, etc.) it is IMPOSSIBLE to get the genes from Endermen, Zombies, Skeletons, Zombie Pigmen and Wither Skeletons (Also possibly creepers) because SpecialMobs makes it so these are the non-vanilla mob and therefore it is now impossible to get their special genes from their skin samples.
The next problem is encountered when using Cleavers from the Tinkers' Construct mod. The cleavers are a special weapon that increase the head-drop rate when killing mobs and players. When you upgrade the cleavers with the decapitating upgrade in Tinkers' Construct, the head-drop rate increases even higher. To put it into perspective, I killed someone with the NON-UPGRADED CLEAVER 10 times and received their head all 10 times. In single player, I killed endermen with a non-upgraded cleaver and, after 13 kills, received 7 heads. In the server.While the head drop rate remains high for mobs that are not effected by SpecialMobs, it would seem that the clever cannot decapitate mobs that are effected by special-mobs. After killed 100+ endermen in the end, 70+ skeletons at a spawner and 30+ Wither Skeletons in the nether, I can conclude that there was not a single head drop. This test was also repeated with a similar sample size using a cleaver with the decapitation enhancing upgrade. My conclusion is that special mobs is once again not effected by Tinker's Construct because it was designed for the Vanilla Mobs that drop heads.
These are some of the most serious problems that are encountered with SpecialMobs. Not having access to some of the best features added by these mods is frustrating to say the least and I feel like I will be missing out unless:
a) The SpecialMobs Mod is removed.
b) The mods are configured to be compatible with the SpecialMobs Mod.
In conclusion, While the plugin adds a pleasant level of challenge to fighting mobs in Minecraft, the benefits of this plugin are overshadowed by the incompatibility with some of the most core mods in the Monster pack. Until these incompatibilities are addressed, the SpecialMobs Mod will only be in hindrance and frustration to those who are trying to get the most out of this wonderful server and the amazing Monster modpack.
Thanks,
~Pilkie