I vote for IC2. just to see whats new since i didn't play IC in 1.7 version of MC.
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What do you consider as "everything in it"? Because last time I saw you commenting on botania you addressed it as a generic tech mod with flowers, which, I guess if all you do is craft the various blocks and intermingle them with other mods, then you could probably can come to that assumption. However, botania is meant to be played on its own, and really hasn't been recently. According to a poll I did recently, only under 5% of the voters fit within the target demographic: people who like to not have all of the automation handed to them and actually need to put some thought into it.
Sure, botania might have <insert list of other features in other tech mods>, but keep in mind that what matters rarely is the destination, but the journey itself, the result may be the same, or perhaps even lesser than the competition, but you'll find that, unlike most mods, the answer is there, but not in your face, you'll have to put some thought into designing the contraption you want out of the blocks botania provides, rather than plonk down a "Planter" and a "Harvester" for instant farm action. That's what I think it does best. By purposely complicating the amount of work required to make a complex build, it turns it into a challenge, making the player feel great when they complete it. Instead of it just being one more thing in the tier tree to complete with a few blocks, thought up by the programmer to work exactly as it says on the tin and replace the player's agency.
It's in a weird spot as it's a combination of the tech and design challenge, but it also features a whole bunch of magical items, so while it appeals to the people who enjoy the automation, it also appeals to the people who like the cool doodads. And the latter is cool and all, but I find that it becomes the focus, as you can't possibly expect the player to build something under constraint when the constraint is taken away by other mods who jump in with no care for it (and that isn't bad in a vacuum, but it nullifies botania's efforts to go in the other way, when put together). As a "fun random items mod" botania is alright, it doesn't do anything too spectacular, it has some neat utilities. But when I think it really shines is the fact that it works on its own as a mod with tons of implicit content for the player to explore, as they are playing Minecraft, a sandbox game.
This leads me to the point of HQM, which, given the substantial lack of progression in botania, really doesn't work too well with it. You can't make a quest to tell the player to "automate thing X with only botania", based purely on the fact that it's impossible to detect whether they've done so or not. So what you end up getting is a bunch of quests to craft X item, collect Y bear asses, so on, and when you do that, you show the player that botania is a progression based mod with a few neat items, completely overshadowing the other half, which is, arguably, the greatest fraction of (albeit implicit) gameplay it provides. And this is why I think botania would do well as a singular modpack. Even though it has been played to death on direwolf20, regrowth, agskies, etc. It's very rarely played in the way of thoughtful automation. And being in a well thought out modpack environment will show players that there's so much more you can do with it than meets the eye, if you put thought and effort into it.
Perhaps you should include Ancient Warfare 2 in the list. It has a power system compatible with Redstone Flux and works similar to Rotarycraft, a Research-Progression system, quarries and NPC's. It's in Resonant Rise 3 and it was my main tech mod except that I needed Railcraft to make powered rails that were required in researches. Perhaps AW2 and Thermal Dynamics without Thermal Expansion for RF power conduits would be awesome.
Fair point, however I can imagine that many players might be a bit lost when they're given a pack with only Botania, not sure what they should do or what their goals are. Especially when they already played it in an improper way in other modpacks.
Well, I can
Except that's the point of this whole project: focus on just one mod. If people are uncomfortable with that, they should play a different modpack.
Well I was referring to giving the player hints at what to do and accustom them a bit to vanilla Botania, i.e. with HQM
Why is there no option for a Rotarycraft pack?
What is the point of this poll? Some mods are dumb without others... AE is just useless without other mods that make problems with massive amounts of resources, also goes for many of the other mods... If you are looking for best all-around mods, it would be TE, IC and somewhat BC... I think TE is best because it covers most of your "ingame needs", providing a decent feel of power spike, but I still prefer it to have some additions like Redstone Arsenal and Nether Ores, and MineFactory Reloaded... actually I would be glad if TeamCoFH made their version of modded Minecraft with just their mods
Don't forget Botania is also a beautiful mod to use, one of only a handful of mods I feel that the looks really matter, other mods like TC fall under this heading too, but most of the tec mods like MFR, IO, TE its more the case of clean automated setups & the looks don't really matter, then there are the huge multi-block mods that most of the said finished structures look bad or some border ridiculous, just mho.
In the end its all down to personal taste & no amount of debate will sway a die hard fan or hater one way or the other...
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I think its about time that RFTools with thermal expansion gets some real attention
Well AE has changed quite a bit and I'm almost positive nobody really cared for the way the new mechanics work (seeds!) Also spoiler is rant. Don't open if you don't wanna see rant.
Everything is great and I love the new panels and even how the new cables work! The only thing at least I have a complaint about is those seeds and how they work. It's just bothersome to do, it's more like a chore than it is fun. Bad example but like Thaumcraft. Thaumcraft is long and you have to do A to get to B, C, D, etc. AE shouldn't have had a similar mechanic with seeds. It was just random and different in a really uncomfortable way. Anyways that's just my opinion why AE isnt as great as it was before.
There's a mod that makes it far easier. AE2 Stuff I believe is the name.
Yeah but it takes even longer than just setting up with some AE chargers by the time you have enough seeds. It's a strange mod. I could see if they made a moderately cheap 'storage unit' to hold the seeds and charge them in the sun only or something. That way they cannot be charged until later-game with RF/AE/whatever. Thats just my 2 cents.
The reason I have voted for Botania is because I haven't seen any long lasting modpacks created that are based around it. Also, I would like to see some of the addons people have created for Botania, as I am unable to find any. Another thing, I find that Botania is very unique in that it has zero GUIs, great explaination via Lexica Botania, and overall is just a very cool magic mod in my opinion.
Well this pack is heavily focused on Botania depending on how you go about it. So far it's been long lasting : ]
One word Regrowth..& I would be still playing it, if not for the damn retro-ish BC pipes.
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