Mod/Mod Pack ranting thread - Rant away

[jordsta95]

Ok, ok. I see this going downhill very quickly. So before we start ranting and reading other rants, let's set down some guidelines:
1) Remember everything that someone rants about is opinion based. So don't start an argument of why they are wrong, even if they are ranting about your favourite pack.
2) Don't be insulting anyone making the mod/pack. For example, if you are ranting about Agrarian Skies, do not mention JadedCat in a bad way, seeing as that is how she balanced the pack.
3) Try to refrain from involving players of the mod/pack, unless it backs up a point. For example, if you were to be ranting about Agrarian Skies, don't be saying that other players make the pack less enjoyable. Unless it is a server argument and the server owners banned an item, for lag reasons, and that is what annoys you.


Ok... Now that's out of the way... I guess it's time to start ranting (I enjoy moaning, so expect this to seem more moany than ranty)
Spoilered if you don't want to read my rant.

Spoiler

The Direwolf20 pack. What is it good for? Seriously? The pack is one of the oldest on the FTB Launcher being around for 3 modded minecraft generations. So why is it, that it has never improved?! Every time it gets updated, there are a few new mods, any mods that didn't get updated are thrown away.
One of my main gripes with the pack is the re-adding of Factorization, especially with the 1.7 pack having JABBA there is no longer a need for Factorization at all. There are other mods that do the same things as Factorization, and have a lot more use beyond that of Factorization. Along with that Factorization has a different power system to that of every other mod in the pack, which cannot be converted to/from any of the others. Meaning you need a separate power set-up just for the mod. Whereas with IC2's EU and RF you can use the steam boilers from RailCraft to produce both.... And while we are on the point of IC2, why is that even in the pack anymore? If you are going to have furnaces and ore doubling machines, choose a mod. You don't need to have both IC2 and TE4 in a pack. They both do the same sort of things, and TE4 does a lot more. Again, IC2 requires it's own power type. Luckily, using ExtraUtils you can convert Eu to RF, so that's not really a massive issue. But it is still annoying to see "duplicates" of mods in a pack. I don't mean the exact same mod, but I mean mods that do the exact same thing.
Now I am going to be a bit naughty and say something about the community, but it is a valid point. Before the DW20 pack was released the forums was sort of OK with what was being asked "How to do <x> with <mod>" or "What does <crash> mean" etc. But as soon as the DW20 1.7 pack came out there was a massive influx of stupid questions, and people asking how to do basic things with mods that have been around for a while (a fair few which were in the last pack). To be honest, I think this could be ramified by the forums having sub-sections just for the "major" packs on the launcher. All questions there, so people like myself, who don't like the DW20 pack, don't open a thread and read another "bug" with the DW20 pack.
And as a final point with the pack. It is not hard. It is not challenging. It is just too easy. EnderIO's vanilla recipes make the game too easy. I don't like EnderIO as it is (all cables joining together makes automation too easy if you ask me) and how it interacts with other mods makes stuff like Flux-TiCon tools OP as hell. But somehow (again about the community here) people still make DW20 out to be difficult. If you don't understand a mod, then yes, I can see how you think it is difficult. But the mods in the pack do not make it hard, actually DW20, if you know how to use the mods, makes the game so easy and boring, that once you have "completed" a few of the mods, you could just leave the game to run, and have yourself infinite resources of whatever you need. You can automate almost everything, and once you have done that, there is no need to play it anymore. And seeing as there is a fair few ways to do the same thing (e.g. redstone - vanilla, redstone wire - tinkers mechworks, red alloy wire - ProjectRed, etc.) you have no need to worry. You can do it using one of the massive amounts of mods in the Direwolf20 horrible over-ladden stew of a mod pack

I look forward to reading your rants (seriously, I like to see what people have to say, rants are the best way to get a point across IMO, it's totally biased, but you say everything you don't like about something)

 

[HeilMewTwo]

jordsta... You can't complain about people making simple threads, that is what this forum is here for as well. Trying to use that as an arguement kind of shows a bias there. As for a rant:

WAY too many dupe bugs in monster, I always found them and I was always so tempted to exploit them when I ran into trouble. I didn't on servers, but I quickly lost interest in most of my singleplayer worlds as I abused them again and again.

 

[ljfa]

I have to agree on most of your points @jordsta95

[rant]

Spoiler

Big Reactors:
I know that you can adjust the configs but at least on it's defaults it produces way too much RF for way too little fuel. It doesn't make any sense that a passively cooled reactor would produce any power, it violates the 2nd law of thermodynamics. This is also a concern with things like magmatic dynamos.
Also, the steam turbine prduces way too much when supplied with steam from another source (36HP boiler producing 8k RF/t anyone?).

Botania:
I really like this mod but there's one aspect I strongly dislike: You have to either spam flowers or wait a really long time to get any meaningful amount of mana. I honestly don't know how you would go about creating Terrasteel or charging your Terra Shatterer when you're not on a server where your setup is chunk loaded 24/7.

Blood Magic:
It's way too tedious to create so many slates early game to upgrade your altar. Even for Tier 2 you're spending so much time in front of your altar to get these 16 slates going. When you have that you can make some kind of spawner but you still need to sit there and stab mobs until you get to tier 4.
Then again, once you have the well of suffering, your network will be filled basically all the time.
Also, bound armor makes you basically invincible.
And the spell system is kinda underwhelming.

Hats:
Silly and pointless. I always disable this mod, not only because I'm kinda playing on a potato.

PneuaticCraft:
I really hate the plant mechanics. Why on earth can't you just right click the seeds onto the ground like every other plant? This makes them hard to automate.
Also, I hate the pressure chamber mechanics. Why on earth doesn't it have input and output like every other machine? You have to adjust the output filter depending on what you wanna make or use more than one chamber.
Also, the mechanics on the gauge pipe and valve pipe are unnecessarily convoluted as well. Why can't I just set something like "emit a signal when above x bar"?
Also there's no good way of producing more than 5 bar of pressure than the kinetic compressor. The lightning based one seems useless to me.

[/rant]
There are probably some more mods to rant about, but this is getting too long

 

[mcalpha]

The Direwolf20 pack. What is it good for? Seriously?

I know this is supposed to be a ranting thread, but I can't help reply to this: the name gives you a pretty good clue. DW20 is hugely popular, and people want to rebuild stuff from his YT series, therefore he (and FTB) make the pack available for them.

Any more questions of "Why is mod XXX included/excluded" can be answered with "Because DW20 likes it that way."

 

[Golrith]

To add some humor (and shameless self advertising)...

RANT
WTF, it's been a few days, and I've had hardly interest shown in my brand new private pack!

**Goes sulks in corner**
/RANT

I do agree with what's been mentioned above, which is why I moved from DW20 (back in the old days) to my own pack, trying to put some challenge into the pack from config changes/mods added+removed and recently minetweaking the hell out of things. (It's been a week MC time, and I've just got an iron tinkers pickaxe and one magical crops essence plant plus about 5 deaths under my belt).
I still watch his play though, as usually the new mods he does add are to my taste, and gives me a feel of what can be done by example.

DW20 pack is a fairly stable mod setup and great for being introduced to the joys (and headaches) of a large modded environment.

 

[jordsta95]

I know this is supposed to be a ranting thread, but I can't help reply to this: the name gives you a pretty good clue. DW20 is hugely popular, and people want to rebuild stuff from his YT series, therefore he (and FTB) make the pack available for them.

Any more questions of "Why is mod XXX included/excluded" can be answered with "Because DW20 likes it that way."

But we all know DW20 cannot build (unless it's a cobble 9x9) so why add stuff like carpenters blocks and chisel? (His greenhouse makes me cringe, and I like to live in a dirt hut as long as possible)

I still watch his play though, as usually the new mods he does add are to my taste, and gives me a feel of what can be done by example.

DW20 pack is a fairly stable mod setup and great for being introduced to the joys (and headaches) of a large modded environment.

I'm the same, I may hate the pack, and hate almost everything about it. But there are mods in there that I like/want to get into (such as Botania) and he does show good ways to automate/do stuff with them. But when his series are basically the same (ep1 - mining, ep2 - TiCon, etc.) and he does the same way of automation (maybe with different "conduits") it's just a bit like "How can you find this enjoyable?" I get bored with Thaumcraft (research and scanning, it is just SO annoying... I usually use a cheat sheet and then add thaumcraft add-ons I haven't messed with before) but he does the same thing every season, apart from the episodes he spends doing the new mods.... Oh, I managed to rant about DW20

jordsta... You can't complain about people making simple threads, that is what this forum is here for as well. Trying to use that as an arguement kind of shows a bias there.

All rants are biased to some degree... A rant cannot be perfectly central, it will have some bias.

 

[darkeshrine]

But we all know DW20 cannot build (unless it's a cobble 9x9) so why add stuff like carpenters blocks and chisel? (His greenhouse makes me cringe, and I like to live in a dirt hut as long as possible)

Because, like everyone else that sucks at aesthetics, he wants to learn. That, and how many people didn't add these to a few modpacks that didn't have them?

Now for my rant:

Spoiler: rant

Mystcraft. I despise mystcraft. I know that it's based around a game and made to function similarly. I don't care anymore. I don't care how convenient the link books are when they're the only good part of the mod. I've tried to make a basic void world in every minecraft version that i've played, even copying other peoples' template for one. I have never, ever been able to make a stable void world that didn't have a ton of things wrong with it. No mater how specific or how many Clear Modifiers pages I throw in, I always end up with at minimum 3 things I didn't want. Added biomes, Spheres, tendrils, Scorched earth, eternal rain, something. There's always something there to tick me off.

All i'm trying to do is make an age that I can build in that I don't have a garbage fps from generation on. I have never, once, played a modpack other than Agrarian skies from start to finish. All i'm trying to do is play the damn game and mystcraft ruins it every single time. Why does mystcraft need to be so stupidly impossible to use? I have yet to come across a mod that I hated to its core, other than mystcraft.

 

[mcalpha]

I have never, ever been able to make a stable void world that didn't have a ton of things wrong with it. No mater how specific or how many Clear Modifiers pages I throw in, I always end up with at minimum 3 things I didn't want. Added biomes, Spheres, tendrils, Scorched earth, eternal rain, something. There's always something there to tick me off.

Yeah in recent versions it's a bit silly that you have to specify modifiers like Caves for a Void world just so that Mystcraft doesn't add decide other modifiers that create ugly stuff by itself.

Should be easy to fix with a new "No alterations" page though. Other than that, I love the thrill of creating random ages and never knowing what waits there and if it's going to be a race back to the linkbook to outrun the white decay =)

 

[jordsta95]

Because, like everyone else that sucks at aesthetics, he wants to learn. That, and how many people didn't add these to a few modpacks that didn't have them?

Now for my rant:

Spoiler: rant

Mystcraft. I despise mystcraft. I know that it's based around a game and made to function similarly. I don't care anymore. I don't care how convenient the link books are when they're the only good part of the mod. I've tried to make a basic void world in every minecraft version that i've played, even copying other peoples' template for one. I have never, ever been able to make a stable void world that didn't have a ton of things wrong with it. No mater how specific or how many Clear Modifiers pages I throw in, I always end up with at minimum 3 things I didn't want. Added biomes, Spheres, tendrils, Scorched earth, eternal rain, something. There's always something there to tick me off.

All i'm trying to do is make an age that I can build in that I don't have a garbage fps from generation on. I have never, once, played a modpack other than Agrarian skies from start to finish. All i'm trying to do is play the damn game and mystcraft ruins it every single time. Why does mystcraft need to be so stupidly impossible to use? I have yet to come across a mod that I hated to its core, other than mystcraft.

I could rant a bit about Mystcraft being OP, and annoying. But my main gripe is xComp... His "permissions" for mod pack creators is BS. You need to have a "unique" pack to make it public... I couldn't do a "jordsta95 pack" (my own variant of DW20, but to my liking) and I wouldn't get permission for Mystcraft because it isn't "unique"

 

[mcalpha]

If it's a copy of DW20, but may not include Mystcraft, it's not a copy of DW20 anymore, so it should be "unique" enough to get permission to include Mystcraft

 

[jordsta95]

If it's a copy of DW20, but may not include Mystcraft, it's not a copy of DW20 anymore, so it should be "unique" enough to get permission to include Mystcraft

Nope.... Anything that is "common" (no: custom maps, HQM, major recipe tweaks, progression lines, etc.) means you wouldn't get permissions. xComp wants the pack to stand out. And anything that is just a load of mods, on a randomly generated world, is not enough.

 

[mcalpha]

Just kidding, you know. Anyway, I'd be interested in the reason for that policy.

 

[jordsta95]

Just kidding, you know. Anyway, I'd be interested in the reason for that policy.

Probably so xComp only has his mod in popular packs

 

[Golrith]

I posted ages ago a mod suggestion that is inspired by Mystcraft/AE2, but more tech orientated.
A tech version when you build a island type world (that can get really large) in a dimension and you specify which void chunks it should spawn in, so eventually this dimension fills with lots of different islands separated by void.
To make the world, you'd define it in a large interface that takes raw materials (for the cost). So in one part you'd put some dirt for it to be made of dirt, (or put in 1 dirt and 1 stone for a 50/50 random mix), put in a single sapling and get a 1/64 chance of that sapling spawning on a block (aka trees), etc, etc. With different raw materials providing other effects/settings which you'd experiment with.
The more complex the design, the smaller the island. To make it larger, it'd need additional world modules (some expensive crafted item). Different items have different complexity values (so diamond ore as a ground material is a lot more complex than a piece of dirt, resulting in a tiny island)
Chuck the final template in a "drive", enter some device, and appear on your new world.

No instability, still "random" but within the parameters you set (the blocks/items you put in the template). Would then still be useful for voids or small mining islands (athough you'd need a lot of resources to make a good mining island, it make not pay for itself depending on how complex it is).


I love mystcraft for it's random ages, not for writing my own ages. I've explored many a random age and seen many weird and wonderful things.

 

[mcalpha]

Isn't someone developing a tech-based dimensions mod right now?

 

[Pyure]

I don't really have anything to rant about today. I'm loving playing modded minecraft.

I...I derailed your thread, sorry :\

 

[ThomazM]

I don't really have anything to rant about today. I'm loving playing modded minecraft.

I...I derailed your thread, sorry :\

I'm legitimately considering creating another account to like this post again.

 

[ljfa]

Let out your inner hatreds, @Pyure and @ThomazM , I know there is some deep in your minds

 

[buggirlexpres]

Isn't someone developing a tech-based dimensions mod right now?

Yeah, RFTools. It's still in beta, but it's looking pretty sweet.

 

[SkeletonPunk]

jordsta... You can't complain about people making simple threads, that is what this forum is here for as well. Trying to use that as an arguement kind of shows a bias there. As for a rant:

WAY too many dupe bugs in monster, I always found them and I was always so tempted to exploit them when I ran into trouble. I didn't on servers, but I quickly lost interest in most of my singleplayer worlds as I abused them again and again.

Actually, he can, its more of a matter of if you think it is ok to do so. Any one can complain about anything. I could complain about the sky being blue. I personally don't care about what people complain about as far as mod packs and forums go since that doesn't exactly change my opinion on the matter. If anything it gives me more things to consider.