FTB News - April 10th, 2015

[Big Bad]

Got some interesting stuff for you guys this week!

PACK UPDATES

FTB Infinity received an update in the form of a beta release this week. Infinity 1.4.0 is now available as a non-recommended build. This new version contains updates to over 35 mods and 7 config file changes.

You can grab this non-recommended build from Curse Voice as well as the FTB Launcher.

Speaking of beta updates, Direwolf20 1.7.10 will also get an update of its own as well. Direwolf20 1.7.10 1.3.0 will be released early next week as a non-recommended build.​

TRIDENT & SERVERS

This week saw Trident wrapping up its closed beta tests. We’re currently making small tweaks here and there, but so far everything is looking promising. At this point, we can announce that we’re planning for a release date of April 17th.

Because Trident is a multiplayer focused pack, we’ve been looking into revamping our entire server listing section as to better accommodate players both advertising for or looking for multiplayer sessions. Some new systems have already been installed and are currently under reconfiguration before we deploy them. Stay tuned!​

RESURRECTION RESURRECTED

As many of you are aware, we had to freeze and shelve FTB Resurrection, our successor to 1.4.7’s Ultimate, earlier than expected due to the discontinuation of Gregtech 5. At this time, I can happily announce that we’re in the very initial stages of resurrecting Resurrection 1.7.10.

The pack, which is being rebuilt from the ground up, will feature Gregtech 6 as its core mod. It should be noted, however, that it will not be possible to play with worlds utilizing Gregtech 5. Therefor, saves created in Resurrection 1.0.0 and 1.0.1 will not be compatible with future updates to this pack.

Resurrection joins previously announced packs Departed, Relentless, and Horizons 2 in FTB’s release lineup. More information will be available in the coming weeks.​

FORUM UPDATE

Our forums received a small tweak this week. This update overhauled our news system, made a few new features like infinite scrolling available, and implemented a few (currently hidden) systems we’ve been working on to increase the functionality and versatility of our webspace.

If you notice any bugs or things that look a bit odd, please send a message to our Web Development team and we’ll get it sorted out.​

CONTENT CREATORS INITIATIVE

It's no surprise that there is no shortage of passionate FTB users who take the time to share their builds, record videos, create streams, and help populate the Internet with some amazing things.

As part of our efforts to show our appreciation for the staggering amount of love and effort people put into FTB and its packs, we’re going to start rolling out a new initiative aimed at content creators. Our goal is to create a system in which we can promote, share, and provide resources for user-made content.

A fair amount of the groundwork for this program, named FTB Creators, has already been completed. Look forward for more information, as well as the official launch of this system, within the next few weeks.​

POLL

ONE MORE THING! We’re collecting some data on 1.7.10 FTB packs for a little bit of market research. We’d appreciate it if you can take a quick moment to take our poll. Thanks a bunch!​

 

[buggirlexpres]

If you start a Resurrection world now, you'll just about have finished it when "Resurrection Reborn" is released.

 

[016Nojr]

Iiiintereeesting....

 

[tfox83]

So much fun stuff is happening and in the works right now, glad we are able to share bits and pieces with you all on a weekly basis! I can't wait until we can share more!

 

[tigertomd]

New Pack HYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYPE!

 

[016Nojr]

New Pack HYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYPE!

Hypey hyyyyyype

 

[d3w10n]

Awww man Lite has almost least popularity... why? Its fairly balanced and not over-encumbering

 

[Jadedcat]

but resurection was 1.7.10

Honestly I am not thrilled with the "Content Creator" thing. Its a personal issue for me, I had to fight to get my packs noticed, I had to create stable content and learn how to do things. FTB was always "we don't promote anything but our official content."

FTB has created a modpack contest that excludes 2 known pack creators from the prize/reward. We can compete but if we win a prize it goes to the next runner up. That feels like a slap in the face. Not that I would automatically win, but that I am only able to enter if I waive any chance of earning a reward for my work.

And now FTB is talking about promoting community content. Which I am cynical enough to believe is going to end up the same way as it currently works, packs that the pack team feels have enough popular mods and they feel people "should" play will be put at the top of the pack lists regardless of popularity. I never was found of popularity as a metric, but its a ton better than "our pack team thinks this is what you SHOULD play" And anything we don't feel you should play will require scrolling and searching to find. Maybe it won't. But again I am cynical.

And I don't much care for the idea of forced popularity. I started out unknown. I worked to make my packs decent, they slowly became more popular. Now FTB is going to go "Well this person is part of our creator program so we recommend their packs" putting creators like me, who have experience and don't need someone to teach them to make packs at a disadvantage. Instead of a level playing field driven by the merit of the content users get force fed whatever people are making as long as they play the game.

I prefer a merit based system, where users decide what is popular by playing the content, not based off what a single team tells me to play.

This system will probably lead to a community more concerned with "popularity" and "merchandising" than one concerned with quality. It leads to dozens of cloned packs instead of unique ideas.

Teach people how to promote their own content, teach people how to write scripts and do configs. Don't do the work for them.

But that's me.

I am not saying FTB is wrong to do this. Just that I don't agree with it.

 

[Bashful Giant]

but resurection was 1.7.10

Honestly I am not thrilled with the "Content Creator" thing. Its a personal issue for me, I had to fight to get my packs noticed, I had to create stable content and learn how to do things. FTB was always "we don't promote anything but our official content."

FTB has created a modpack contest that excludes 2 known pack creators from the prize/reward. We can compete but if we win a prize it goes to the next runner up. That feels like a slap in the face. Not that I would automatically win, but that I am only able to enter if I waive any chance of earning a reward for my work.

And now FTB is talking about promoting community content. Which I am cynical enough to believe is going to end up the same way as it currently works, packs that the pack team feels have enough popular mods and they feel people "should" play will be put at the top of the pack lists regardless of popularity. I never was found of popularity as a metric, but its a ton better than "our pack team thinks this is what you SHOULD play" And anything we don't feel you should play will require scrolling and searching to find. Maybe it won't. But again I am cynical. And I don't much care for the idea of enforced popularity. I started out unknown. I worked to make my packs decent, they slowly became more popular. Now FTB is going to go "Well this person is part of our creator program so we recommend their packs" putting creators like me, who have experience and don't need someone to teach them to make packs at a disadvantage. Instead of a level playing field driven by the merit of the content users get force fed whatever people are making as long as they play the game.

I prefer a merit based system, where users decide what is popular by playing the content, not based off what a single team tells me to play.

This system will probably lead to a community more concerned with "popularity" and "merchandising" than one concerned with quality. It leads to dozens of cloned packs instead of unique ideas.

Teach people how to promote their own content, teach people how to write scripts and do configs. Don't do the work for them.

But that's me. What do I know anyway.

Personally, I read the content creator initiative as being focused on the Lets Play (and streaming) community within FTB. And whilst the current system works (I've met quite a few awesome people through it), it seems almost hidden away in the forums- kinda counter-intuitive for something focused on promotion. Any changes to that would be greatly appreciated.

However, I don't disagree with you on the modpack front. I can understand where FTB is coming from as a company, heavily promoting their product, but it would be great if there was a more visible Third Party pack presence in the news. Maybe something along the lines of a quality based "Third Party Pack of the Week" would be a start.


Sent from somewhere.

 

[Jadedcat]

Personally, I read the content creator initiative as being focused on the Lets Play (and streaming) community within FTB. And whilst the current system works (I've met quite a few awesome people through it), it seems almost hidden away in the forums- kinda counter-intuitive for something focused on promotion. Any changes to that would be greatly appreciated.

However, I don't disagree with you on the modpack front. I can understand where FTB is coming from as a company, heavily promoting their product, but it would be great if there was a more visible Third Party pack presence in the news. Maybe something along the lines of a quality based "Third Party Pack of the Week" would be a start.


Sent from somewhere.

I don't like it for streamers either. Honestly I am a rebel, I dislike things that offer to raise one group above another based on anything other than merit or majority vote of the community. And the community votes by watching/playing/using. Not by filling out polls on a forum.

FTB has analytics for packs. They know what people are playing. A vote on the forums just says what the people who talk on the forums like. Why use a poll when you have hard numbers?

 

[NJM1564]

FTB has analytics for packs. They know what people are playing. A vote on the forums just says what the people who talk on the forums like. Why use a poll when you have hard numbers?

I remember making the occasional comment that the ftb dev teams should talk to us and maybe get out votes on future developments.
It seems that's what they are trying to do. Make it seem like out opinion matters.

But I apparently should have specified talk with us, not to us, about mod dev. And include us in the dev proses.
Cause we still aren't getting much in the way of our input put into these packs.

It wouldn't take much. A number of mod devs have streamed there work. Posted early versions. And taken suggestions given to them in the forums and actually added them to the packs.

 

[Naexuiz]

but resurection was 1.7.10

It will still be 1.7.10 Greg is skipping 1.8. But honestly I still don't see a point in creating this pack at all. Gregtech was a completly different mod in 1.4.7. It's now not an lategame exting addon anymore, it's completly own mod that replaces IC2 if you play with it. Having Gregtech and TE in 1.7.10 is kind of pointless because it will lead people to never use GT. In it's current state you can only create a pack balanced around it ( like beyond reality or Infitech 2 ) or don't include it. Ressurection will always be a completly different pack than Ultimate. It will also take months now until it is in a playable state as GT6 has no machines yet. No I don't want to flame argue or anything like that, I just want to warn you that this pack will lead you nowhere.

 

[MrPC]

I'm currently playing a new world on Infinity, and I'm trying to get started woth Witchery, but for some reason I can't cook birch saplings in the witches oven to get breath of the goddess. It's a very heavy bug seeing it prevents you from crafting the alter, and I was wondering of anyone else had the same issue? Also I can still smelt everything else like normal, its just birch that is the problem.

 

[CaptPanda]

If you start a Resurrection world now, you'll just about have finished it when "Resurrection Reborn" is released.

Resurrection resurrected? Resurrection recursion by the sounds of it!

 

[psp]

In all honesty, all of the ftb 1.7.10 packs suck. The listed ones are much much better. That's just my opinion though.

 

[Lethosos]

I'll have to poke around over at Technic, but I think they use a metric-driven system to create a "Pack of the Week" system. It's not entirely without its faults, but at least the community is the one driving it.

Sent from my SGH-T769 using Tapatalk 2

 

[NunoAgapito]

but resurection was 1.7.10

Honestly I am not thrilled with the "Content Creator" thing. Its a personal issue for me, I had to fight to get my packs noticed, I had to create stable content and learn how to do things. FTB was always "we don't promote anything but our official content."

FTB has created a modpack contest that excludes 2 known pack creators from the prize/reward. We can compete but if we win a prize it goes to the next runner up. That feels like a slap in the face. Not that I would automatically win, but that I am only able to enter if I waive any chance of earning a reward for my work.

And now FTB is talking about promoting community content. Which I am cynical enough to believe is going to end up the same way as it currently works, packs that the pack team feels have enough popular mods and they feel people "should" play will be put at the top of the pack lists regardless of popularity. I never was found of popularity as a metric, but its a ton better than "our pack team thinks this is what you SHOULD play" And anything we don't feel you should play will require scrolling and searching to find. Maybe it won't. But again I am cynical.

And I don't much care for the idea of forced popularity. I started out unknown. I worked to make my packs decent, they slowly became more popular. Now FTB is going to go "Well this person is part of our creator program so we recommend their packs" putting creators like me, who have experience and don't need someone to teach them to make packs at a disadvantage. Instead of a level playing field driven by the merit of the content users get force fed whatever people are making as long as they play the game.

I prefer a merit based system, where users decide what is popular by playing the content, not based off what a single team tells me to play.

This system will probably lead to a community more concerned with "popularity" and "merchandising" than one concerned with quality. It leads to dozens of cloned packs instead of unique ideas.

Teach people how to promote their own content, teach people how to write scripts and do configs. Don't do the work for them.

But that's me.

I am not saying FTB is wrong to do this. Just that I don't agree with it.

I understand and kinda agree with your point of view but I would like to remind you that you thought your 'wars' in the pre-1.7 era, when we had ID's and all the nightmares involved with them. This means, there was only a few couple of people what would go through the effort of building a pack and it was much easier to get recognition for a good pack since there were so few. Today, we have daily releases of new packs. So many are shitty, that sometimes the good ones get lost in the middle of the junk.
So, I understand that some good packs might get a little help to stand out from the rest of the junk. What I wont accept is a pack maker making one awesome pack and after that, all his packs are automatically listed! They might not be that great, but get listed, played, lots of downloads since its just on 'front page' but, in the end, the pack is not that great, people stop playing it after a couple of days and maybe the pack never deserved the attention it received!

 

[VapourDrive]

I know I seem like the odd one out here but I don't really see how "fighting for popularity" should be the way ftb as a community would want things done, but this may just be me trying to not be cynical

 

[HeilMewTwo]

I know I seem like the odd one out here but I don't really see how "fighting for popularity" should be the way ftb as a community would want things done, but this may just be me trying to not be cynical

Meh, we're pretty vocal if we think there are problems with a pack anyway, recommended or not.

It is invariably the packs with a lot of effort and care put into them that get really noticed here.

 

[buggirlexpres]

but resurection was 1.7.10

It is for 1.7.10, but due to changes between GregTech versions, everything has changed, and it needs to be completely rewritten due to those changes. It's unfortunate, but it's better to rewrite it than let it die.

FTB has created a modpack contest that excludes 2 known pack creators from the prize/reward. We can compete but if we win a prize it goes to the next runner up. That feels like a slap in the face. Not that I would automatically win, but that I am only able to enter if I waive any chance of earning a reward for my work.

Curse Employees can't participate because FTB is partnered with them. If FTB allowed Curse Employees to participate, it would be almost exactly akin to having FTB staff participate. Plus, you were previously FTB staff, only retiring a day before the competition. I know we'd all love to participate in Jampacked, but it would cause all sorts of legal issues if someone who was employed by FTB until a day before won, or a member of one of the groups sponsoring FTB won.

Having you or me or Eyamaz or tfox participate in Jampacked and win would be like if Pat Sajak suddenly appeared as a guest on Wheel of Fortune. You can't have someone who works for a company or works closely with the company win - it could be seen as biased, manipulating results, or any manner of things. Surely you wouldn't support Slowpoke entering this competition and winning?

I would personally love to see you enter Jampacked, as I know you'd make an absolutly brilliant pack. I'd love to see Parcel do it as well, and tfox, and Eyamaz. I'd like to do it again, maybe have a chance of getting first this time. But we can't. We're all either working for FTB or partnered with FTB, and that makes it well near impossible to have any of us participate due to legal and moral concerns.

As for everything else mentioned here, I can't say anything about that. If you have any advice for how you'd like us to do it, or more reasons why we shouldn't, feel free to contact us again. We're always open to advice, especially from someone as amazing as you.