Guidelines for Private Server Mod Packs

[Watchful11]

All guidelines are now here.

Spoiler: Old Post

Read the Outline and intentions of 3rd party mod packs to make sure you are submitting the correct kind of pack.

Private mod pack submissions should be PM'd to Watchful11
The message should briefly explain that you are submitting a private server mod pack and a link to a download of a zip file containing the following. Make sure it is a zip file rather than a rar.

• A clean MultiMC instance. This should be ONLY the "Instmods" folder and the "Minecraft" folder, which contains "Mods", "Coremods", "Config" and "libs, plus the appropriate mods, configs and libraries in said folders, unless other files are required to make the mod pack work. (Please include a short comment explaining any extra required files in the info text file) YOU SHOULD NOT INCLUDE ANY COPY OF THE MINECRAFT JAR.
• png splash image (size = 420x200 pixels)
  png icon image (size = 42x42 pixels)
• Text file containing the following information, thourough explanations of each item are included in the example download:
  Mod pack name
  Included mods and permissions(see permissions section below)
  (optional)Private Pack Code, numbers and letters only
  (optional)Mod Pack Description
  (optional)Minecraft Version (1.6 packs, see the top of the outlines post)
  (optional)Pack Version
  (optional)Pack Author
  (optional)Semicolon space separated mod list

The end result should be a zip file with 5 things in the root. The instmods folder, the minecraft folder, the two pictures and the info file. You should not include any additional files in the root of the zip. If you want to any additional files, put them inside the minecraft folder and include a note in the info file explaining them.

EDIT: please specify the forge version you want for 1.6 packs in both your initial submission as well as updates. This is temporary.

Permissions:
All private mod packs are required to have complete permissions for each and every mod included. This includes api's such as CoFH core and immibis core. Permissions that have been given to the official FTB mod packs DO NOT COUNT towards a private mod pack. Permissions found in the Central Mod Permissions page do count.

To keep submissions consistent, this is the required format for the mods and permissions section. An example text file with a number of mods is included in the example zip available at the bottom of this post. Each mod should be listed separately like so,
Mod Name - Developer (permission)

Permission can be demonstrated 3 ways.

• If the private mod pack permissions spreadsheet lists the mod as "Nothing" or "Credit", put "spreadsheet". If the license requires a link back to the mod's home page, you can place that after the parenthesis. If the mod is on the spreadsheet, you are required to credit it as such.
• You can have a direct link to a screenshot of the permission policy, screenshot of a private conversation or a forum post indicating permission. This includes the FTB Central Mod Permissions page, you should link the appropriate post.
• If you have a well built page or google spreadsheet listing all the mods and permissions, you can link that instead of listing each permission in the text file. I reserve the right to decide what constitutes "well built".

You CANNOT.

• Link directly to a general page on the mod. This includes a link to a MCForum topic about the mod that includes the modpack policy. If a mod lists an open policy on it's page, and the mod is not on the spreadsheet, you SHOULD take a screenshot of the page, upload it to an image host such as imgur, and link the picture.
• Link an external page listing permission, we no longer accept this.

After receiving the pack we will review the permissions, contact you if there are any problems. Once the pack has been approved, it will be uploaded on the upload day, which is Thursday. We will notify you when it is available.

Permission note. If a mod is a submod of another mod by the same author, you do not need to credit them separately. For examples, the separate parts of WRCBE and the bibliocraft wood addons. Their permission is implicit in the parent mod. To be clear, this does not apply to submods by different authors.

To update your mod pack:
Respond to the PM conversation with the following.

• A link to the full pack download. Not just the changes, the full pack, just like when you submitted it.
• A note of any added mods. You don't have to specify the new permissions in the message, but you should note the names of the new mods.
• A note if you changed either of the pictures.
• A note if anything in the info file has changed other than the mods.

Submissions are accepted until Wednesday night each week. They should go live at any time up to Friday night. If you submit on Thursday it may or may not go up.
After your update is live, we will respond to the pm saying so.
If you find a problem with the pack once it is on the launcher, you can submit a hotfix and we will try to get it up, but it is not guaranteed. Test your pack thoroughly before submitting. Old versions of the pack are available from the dropdown menu.
There are occasionally problems on our end. If I have not replied to the conversation saying your pack is up, we am working on fixing it. Wait at least 24 hours before asking for help. Watch this thread for status updates.

You can also request an update not be set to recommended. It will be accessable from the dropdown version list, but will not prompt users to update. This can be used to test packs before forcing users to update. Note, you can still only push once a week and should test the modpack locally with MultiMC before submitting.

Sample Mod Pack Download

 

[Watchful11]

Updated.
Added some optional Info file options.
The pack should now have the info file, pictures, instmods and minecraft folders in the root of the zip file.

 

[Watchful11]

Updated again.
I had a few submissions where every permission was a link to the mod page, which would have required me to find the perm policy for each author on two dozen different pages. Use the official spreadsheet where possible.

On a related note, all outstanding private packs have been checked and either approved or denied. If your pack was not denied, I should be contacting you sometime tomorrow to say your pack is in the launcher.

 

[Watchful11]

Updated. The images now have to be in PNG format.

I also added a brief period on Mondays after the initial round of updates for people to push bugfixes.

 

[Watchful11]

Updated: Officially moving the update day to Thursday.

 

[Watchful11]

I have added an optional field for a semicolon space seperated mod list. After checking permissions for a pack, most of my time for it was spent building this list, which the launcher needs to display a mod list. One of the reasons I wanted the main mod list to strictly follow my guidelines was that I used a macro to build this list. It needed to find the name of each mod. People were submitting very well formatted mod lists that didn't quite follow my guidelines. Rather than force them to reconfigure minor details, I have decided to no longer build this list myself. If you want the launcher to display the mods, you should provide said list. If the list is not provided the launcher will not display any mods. Current mod packs will be left with the list they currently have if they do not provide this.

I have also updated the guidelines in reference to updating pictures. If you submit updated pictures, mention it in the message.

 

[Watchful11]

Updated. Private pack codes can only be letters and numbers. Codes for packs already in the launcher that have non letter and number characters don't need to change.

Also, you must separately credit api's such as CoFH core and immibis core.

 

[Watchful11]

Guidelines updated. Mostly just general cleanup and helping to clarify things. The sample pack download was also updated.

 

[Watchful11]

Updated with clarifications on the update policy.

 

[Watchful11]

Some changes to the update policy. Each week I check all the new and updated packs, build them so they are ready to go on the repo, then upload them. By now it's pushing a gig of data each week. Getting it checked and uploaded isn't all the much of a problem. But the repo takes the files uploaded to the central server and caches them on the separate download servers. It takes awhile for it to do this. I also to download each pack through the launcher to verify it works. All that added together ends up taking longer than a day, and there are other things that can go wrong. So I'm giving myself a bit more of a buffer and extending the time before updates are up. Most of the time your pack should go up Thursday anyway, but I can't guarantee it.

 

[Watchful11]

Added this
Permission note. If a mod is a submod of another mod by the same author, you do not need to credit them separately. For examples, the separate parts of WRCBE and the bibliocraft wood addons. Their permission is implicit in the parent mod. To be clear, this does not apply to submods by different authors.

 

[Watchful11]

All guidelines moved to here.