How safe (stability wise) is it to update certain mods?

[Alcheya]

I was just wondering, in general, how safe it is updating mods to the latest versions.

I know Lycanite Mobs needed an update (FTB Monster 1.0.3) because it kept crashing until I updated it. Something to do with aspids and poison cloud I believe.

I just updated portalgun because of a bug that killed portalgun sounds, but noticed Sync had been updated to be better compatible with TE, so I bit the bullet and got that as well.

I'm getting some update messages from other mods and was considering updating them as well, but I wanted to get a general idea from anyone with experience updating many mods in a current pack.

Are there some I should definitely stay away from updating? Any type of conflicts I could cause by simply adding the newer version? Any advice welcomed. Thanks.

 

[Ausyarr]

The FTB packs have configs designed so they work well with all the mods interacting with each other. So your risks are changing config files that other mods expect to to be something and now there not and the other risk is introducing new bugs. I update mods only when I find bugs stopping me from doing what I want and that the newer version reports to solve the bug. I all so save a backup of my ftb directory when I do this.

I'd say only update to fix bugs affecting you or you want a newer feature. Updating can destroy worlds if you don't backup.

 

[Alcheya]

Sounds good. All 3 updates seem to be working well. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Iskandar]

Updating is (relatively) safe. If the mod authors are adding new content you might hit ID conflicts or, more likely, when FTB catches up in a month or two ID mismatches, but beyond that if you play SSP manual updating is the way to go. FTB really does not keep their packs as updated as they should be.

Back up the mods you want to change and their config files, update, test, and you can easily revert if need be.

I dare say, if you play mostly SSP FTB packs really should only be a starting point. Figure out what mods you are truly interested in, and disable the rest. A smaller pool of mods is not only easier to keep up to date, but is much, much friendlier to older computers. SMP is different, FTB packs there make sense, as that easily keeps everyone using the exact same mods and configs.

 

[Alcheya]

If it wasn't for FTB, I'd only play MC multiplayer vanilla, but I love the massive mod list. If anything, I'd like to add more (mo' creatures, mekanism, galacticraft, etc) but don't want to make too many conflicts in the process.

 

[Bigpak]

I wouldn't update unless something is stopping you from doing something you want to do. I personally found monster to be lacking in mods as of right now that its in beta so I have added my own mods. I always run it on a separate instance than my normal ftb. I always make sure everything is working first and that there shouldn't be anything too game breaking or anything that could conflict before trying to add it. I always make backups before hand and ALWAYS read the changelogs. It's safe to update if you go about it safely while making backups etc. Just don't get your hopes up that every mod will be compatible.