Mod Pros-Cons Debate Thread

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trajing

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Jul 29, 2019
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Yes, I know how it works. But the amount of power from one heat generator is small (and you can configure it to be even less if you wish). So to get a good amount of power, you need a big setup, which is a lot of power cables (steel) and playing around with lots of buckets of lava to get an optimal layout. Using Mek only to create steel requires machines and power, and early game it's slow. So to me, it kinda balances out.
Could always change the heat gen to require steel in it's crafting recipe. That pushes it back a bit in the tech tree. You might have to power your first few machines with raw redstone.

Also, the other problem I see in all packs is that ore gen is way too common, (there's actually need for any ore processing systems really). Reduce that ore gen (which I do in my personal pack), and things get a lot more tricky with managing your resources.
I don't play MC for tedium, I play it for creativity. I play it for creating setups. I don't like a block that generates a bunch of energy by itself, even if it took 1000 Iridium Blocks. Even a multiblock wouldn't be fun, because it only needs a bit more setup. No, I like being creative to generate power. The wind turbine from RoC is a great example. OK for early game, absolutely horrible in the end. ReC, or RoC solar towers, those require thinking to make optimal setups.
 

99.99%derpy

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I Prefer TE over IC2 Anyday But i do like Ic2, BC is great for automating stuff but is kinda boring and tedious, Thumacraft cant say anything bad about it either great mod, PR great mod too Redpower2 was quited because the dev wanted to have a live which i understand, TC Great mod my absolute favorite! Its great you can conserve diamonds by making materials that are better and you can tweek your tools just like encanting but with out all the Random Stuip enchants like bane of
Arthopods IV, AE great mod too gotta get used to AE2 when it comes out but AE is great the autocrafting is simple but very expensive so its late game but still is a great mod, all in all i love modding these days it has gone a VERY LONG WAY, and thats something we can be happy about.:)
 

SatanicSanta

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Witchery looks promising
Witchery is promising ;)
Yes, I know how it works. But the amount of power from one heat generator is small (and you can configure it to be even less if you wish). So to get a good amount of power, you need a big setup, which is a lot of power cables (steel) and playing around with lots of buckets of lava to get an optimal layout. Using Mek only to create steel requires machines and power, and early game it's slow. So to me, it kinda balances out.
Could always change the heat gen to require steel in it's crafting recipe. That pushes it back a bit in the tech tree. You might have to power your first few machines with raw redstone.
I'm not sure if it has changed, but when I started playing Mekanism in 1.5, getting a ton of power using Heat Gens was super easy. I made 15 of them, and they were super cheap. Then I got the lava, which was also cheap. We also only used 1 lava block per generator.
Also, the other problem I see in all packs is that ore gen is way too common, (there's actually need for any ore processing systems really). Reduce that ore gen (which I do in my personal pack), and things get a lot more tricky with managing your resources.
I agree.
I Prefer TE over IC2 Anyday
Eh, I've been playing TE for the first time since it came out and it's pretty boring, honestly.
BC is great for automating stuff but is kinda boring and tedious
How is BC tedious?
Thumacraft cant say anything bad about it either great mod
I could say several bad things about all 4 versions of Thaumcraft.
 

malicious_bloke

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Jul 28, 2013
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IC2 - do like:

Overclockers, the best way to minimise the machine delay in autocrafting setups.
Chainsaws :)
That they took out the idea of machines exploding when you feed them too high a voltage, that was lame.

Don't like:

Inconsistent wrenching. So annoying when I shift-rightclick one machine and it pops up fine, then I do the same with a more expensive machine and it gives me back a machine frame. Thanks for that ^_^

The new system for making cables and plates. It might add a touch more "realism" but in effect it's just adding unnecessary faff.

The new UU-matter system. As above, it adds a bunch of extra production stages for no net gain. Don't see the point.

The way it still doesn't give a method of making more than 2x ore production. Compared to Mekanism or Rotarycraft's ore processing setups it's pitiful, but even compared to TE it's inferior. There's just no need for it in this day and age.
 
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Larmonade

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Jul 29, 2019
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I could go on and on about how I use the mods, and early-game vs. late-game and all that...but it basically boils down to this: When I play, my base is either IC2/Gregtech, or everything else. There's always a bit of room for crossover depending on what I'm trying to accomplish, but 90% of the time when I walk around my base, my ore-processing and my power production and my materials management...it's gonna be IC2 or everything else.

That being said, IC2 and Gregtech 100% have a place in my heart. In fact, it's more than that. IC2/GregTech Minecraft feels like real minecraft. Like, how it's supposed to be played. I've outlined before how the crafting recipes of a lot of mods bother me. Throw some smoothstone and some glass and some redstone together and...COMPUTER? Part of me really likes the extended production line of building parts of parts and bits and pieces - it keeps me in the narrative of "here's a dude with nothing but his wits and things he's built from raw resources." I am dubious of my own ability to do something like build a generator or an ore crusher or a solar panel, and so seeing my steve run around building knick-knacks that will eventually fit together to become a windmill feels more real to me. But also, I totally get that some folks prefer the implied/obfuscated methodology of Iron+sticks=pick. No need to build a freakin machine to turn the ingots into plates of iron and a separate freakin machine to lathe the wood into rods and whatnot. Explicitly spelling out the tedium/grind of building a machine by requiring a dozen extra steps isn't everyone's cup of tea. Sometimes, it's not mine either. I totally get it.

But in the end, I'd be sad if IC2 stopped being a thing or option or mod in the pack. I feel like especially for late-game stuff with my crazy AE system and my fusion reactors and my solar panels, having banks of machines building parts for other machines feels right. But also, these days I've got work and real-life and even other games that I'm into, and as a result, the hours and hours of added gameplay that IC2/gregtech offer no longer seems like a fun means-to-its-own-end. That's not to say that I don't appreciate what the mod devs are doing...it's a bit like when I'm trying to pick out a new book to read. I can sit down and read my way through my favorite book of all time - The Count of Monte Cristo - it's long and has a few boring parts and the language is a bit goofy in spots and it'll take me forever and a half to read even for the tenth time but damn is it satisfying. Alternatively, I can pick up something shorter, easier, and perhaps something that I haven't experienced before. Either way, I'm gonna enjoy a book. It's just a question of how much time and patience I've got, and whether I'm gonna have the stamina to see it through to the end of am I gonna cheap out halfway though and build a bunch of mekanism machines because I just wanna get to endgame already for this run.

That was longer and more rambly than anticipated, but I hope that at the very least, I could kind of give a tiny bit of insight into why I love these mods.
 

Wagon153

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Jul 29, 2019
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I have no dislike for IC2 to be honest, and it is unfair to compare it to other mods. Sure, in a modpack environment it will be surpassed, but it isn't designed for modpacks! It's designed to be played alongside vanilla.
 

Golrith

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Nov 11, 2012
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I'm not sure if it has changed, but when I started playing Mekanism in 1.5, getting a ton of power using Heat Gens was super easy. I made 15 of them, and they were super cheap. Then I got the lava, which was also cheap. We also only used 1 lava block per generator.
They are indeed super easy. 2 copper, a furnace, a piece of wood(!?!?!) and some stone (I think).
I think the main problem with them is that they are trying to be 2 different things in one block. One is a normal fuel burning generator (aka your starting power source), and the other is the heat generator (exactly the same as the RP2 thermal block thingy). I'd say that really the two functions need splitting into different blocks. Passive heat gen version maybe needing Mek "end tier" ingredients.

Eh, I've been playing TE for the first time since it came out and it's pretty boring, honestly.
Well, TE is still strongly focused as the "BC addon", providing functionality lacking to BC/MJ scene, even though it's now an independent mod. As it's core you have resource processing, item transport and energy generation/transport. No much beyond that really outside of other mods using the RF API. I think TE suffers a little from the strict design goals of optimal performance. I'd like to see a config option to turn on "fancy" mode, so you get animated versions of blocks, etc. It's a good core mod, but one you quickly move away from once up and running.


@Larmonade Agree with you on some mod recipes, luckily we have minetweaker so that recipes can be "balanced" to an individuals expectations and a mod packs theme. All mods though have to have recipes that "balance" to vanilla. Hence some crazy stuff.
I don't mind short chains to craft items, but when they get really long, that turns me off. One example from 1.2.5 days was the electric circuit from IC2. You need a lot of those, and annoyed me no end. I made a system using just BC pipes and auto crafting tables that would eventually spit out circuits. I had no real control over the system, as a % of my incoming resources was diverted to the crafting, but it was real nice seeing all the items travelling around and eventually getting the end product at a level of output I needed. That sort of thing is missing nowadays thanks to AE.
Recipes that drive me nuts are like the Steves Carts stuff. Sooo many steps, total overkill. If you can make a chest out of 8 planks in vanilla, why do you then need to make different size panels, combine them together, throw in a lock, to get a chest that goes on a cart? The two are poles apart.
 

Azzanine

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Jul 29, 2019
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I could go on and on about how I use the mods, and early-game vs. late-game and all that...but it basically boils down to this: When I play, my base is either IC2/Gregtech, or everything else. There's always a bit of room for crossover depending on what I'm trying to accomplish, but 90% of the time when I walk around my base, my ore-processing and my power production and my materials management...it's gonna be IC2 or everything else.

That being said, IC2 and Gregtech 100% have a place in my heart. In fact, it's more than that. IC2/GregTech Minecraft feels like real minecraft. Like, how it's supposed to be played. I've outlined before how the crafting recipes of a lot of mods bother me. Throw some smoothstone and some glass and some redstone together and...COMPUTER? Part of me really likes the extended production line of building parts of parts and bits and pieces - it keeps me in the narrative of "here's a dude with nothing but his wits and things he's built from raw resources." I am dubious of my own ability to do something like build a generator or an ore crusher or a solar panel, and so seeing my steve run around building knick-knacks that will eventually fit together to become a windmill feels more real to me. But also, I totally get that some folks prefer the implied/obfuscated methodology of Iron+sticks=pick. No need to build a freakin machine to turn the ingots into plates of iron and a separate freakin machine to lathe the wood into rods and whatnot. Explicitly spelling out the tedium/grind of building a machine by requiring a dozen extra steps isn't everyone's cup of tea. Sometimes, it's not mine either. I totally get it.

But in the end, I'd be sad if IC2 stopped being a thing or option or mod in the pack. I feel like especially for late-game stuff with my crazy AE system and my fusion reactors and my solar panels, having banks of machines building parts for other machines feels right. But also, these days I've got work and real-life and even other games that I'm into, and as a result, the hours and hours of added gameplay that IC2/gregtech offer no longer seems like a fun means-to-its-own-end. That's not to say that I don't appreciate what the mod devs are doing...it's a bit like when I'm trying to pick out a new book to read. I can sit down and read my way through my favorite book of all time - The Count of Monte Cristo - it's long and has a few boring parts and the language is a bit goofy in spots and it'll take me forever and a half to read even for the tenth time but damn is it satisfying. Alternatively, I can pick up something shorter, easier, and perhaps something that I haven't experienced before. Either way, I'm gonna enjoy a book. It's just a question of how much time and patience I've got, and whether I'm gonna have the stamina to see it through to the end of am I gonna cheap out halfway though and build a bunch of mekanism machines because I just wanna get to endgame already for this run.

That was longer and more rambly than anticipated, but I hope that at the very least, I could kind of give a tiny bit of insight into why I love these mods.
To be fair your COULD make a computer out of stone, well maybe not just stone but it's housing could be made of stone, I don't know if it would be an optimal material though.
 

SatanicSanta

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Jul 29, 2019
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Well, TE is still strongly focused as the "BC addon", providing functionality lacking to BC/MJ scene, even though it's now an independent mod. As it's core you have resource processing, item transport and energy generation/transport. No much beyond that really outside of other mods using the RF API. I think TE suffers a little from the strict design goals of optimal performance. I'd like to see a config option to turn on "fancy" mode, so you get animated versions of blocks, etc. It's a good core mod, but one you quickly move away from once up and running.
Animations would not make it less boring.
 
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Azzanine

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Jul 29, 2019
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Quick note:
The thing about MC is that it's YOUR game. You choose what to do. There is no "right" or "wrong" way to play it.

Unless you are playing one someone elses server, even then you are still sort of right.
 

trajing

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Apparently some servers bam resource packs. My friends told me about an amazing server, it was vanilla, I was going to go on it, then they got to that and I told my friends that the owner of the server and whoever the hell made that plugin could go f*** themselves.
No, when I said that I did not censor it.
 

Golrith

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Nov 11, 2012
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Animations would not make it less boring.
Well, would make it look more visually interesting, all depends on what exactly it is you find boring in the mod. End of all the day, it's all subjective to the player. I personally find TE3 interesting, but many magic mods bore me to death.

@Wagon153 That logic kinda fails when it's a themed pack/server that is designed around a specific gameplay method/style :D Arg Skies anyone? But usually those types of servers would be rare/short lived due to the more "directed" gameplay.

@trajing Ban Resource Packs? Err, Wut! I just can't play with default textures, they are hideous (especially at high res screens). I have to play with a more neutral 64x texturepack (based on Misa excellent work) to save my eyes and sanity (might be a bit late on that one...)
 

trajing

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The conversation looked something like this: (Laguage!)
f=Friend, m=Me
f-I found this neat server, it's a recreation of Disney world with all the rides..
m-Sounds neat. What's the IP?
f-Oh, you wouldn't like it. It's vanilla.
m-So what?
f-And they ban texture pack users.
m-WHAT THE FUCK!?
f-Yeah, yesterday they banned two people using Faithful.
m-I'm going to join it, and tell any OPs on to tell the owner to kindly go fuck himself.
 

SatanicSanta

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Well, would make it look more visually interesting, all depends on what exactly it is you find boring in the mod. End of all the day, it's all subjective to the player. I personally find TE3 interesting, but many magic mods bore me to death.
It's basically the magic blocks that bore. Place block -> does a bunch of crap automagically

It's funny; tech mods are more magical than magic mods, in the use of the blocks.
 

McJty

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I think a mod is made interesting by the interactions and things you can do with it. With interactions I mean like setting up automated pipelines to automatically pulverize and smelt stuff (for example). With TE (and also with similar mods like EnderIO) you can do such things and come up with all kinds of nice designs. That's what I like about these relatively 'small-scale' mods that let it up to the player to come up with interesting setups. That's also why I like to use RotaryCraft in combination with TE/EIO and make all kinds of nifty processing operations.

I don't mind fancy animations or so but that's not really what makes a mod interesting to me.
 

SatanicSanta

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I think a mod is made interesting by the interactions and things you can do with it. With interactions I mean like setting up automated pipelines to automatically pulverize and smelt stuff (for example). With TE (and also with similar mods like EnderIO) you can do such things and come up with all kinds of nice designs. That's what I like about these relatively 'small-scale' mods that let it up to the player to come up with interesting setups. That's also why I like to use RotaryCraft in combination with TE/EIO and make all kinds of nifty processing operations.

I don't mind fancy animations or so but that's not really what makes a mod interesting to me.
I feel like this is the opposite of what TE has done. Intentional or not, most vocal people on these forums seem to rather use TE for everything than come up with fancy and complex systems (see "best early game storage method" thread)