During the recent months, the Modded Minecraft community was abuzz. Even if a player had only toyed with mods once or twice, it is without a doubt that they heard whisperings of Infinity Evolved - an upgrade to Feed The Beast Infinity, taking an already huge modpack and opening up doors never dreamed possible by others.
Infinity Evolved, also known as Infinity 2.0.0, was the first big update to hit Feed The Beast’s Infinity modpack since its release. The update landed on October 30th, available on its native FTB Launcher and on Curse Voice. The update was a huge success, seeing hundreds of streams, videos, and forum and reddit posts. I was lucky enough to get an interview with @tfox83, FTB Modpack Development Lead and the mastermind behind FTB Infinity Evolved.
A: Would you like to explain, for those who haven't heard of them yet, what FTB Infinity: Evolved (and its Expert Mode) are?
A: What brought about the development of FTB Infinity Evolved?
T: This past summer I started developing, what I would call hard modpack for FTB, but not survival hard, more progression hard. I personally have never been a fan of hard core survival modpacks, not saying I would never make one, they just aren’t my play style. However, I really love progression difficulty with a large variety of mods to play with, something I can start a world and play for a few months without hitting endgame in two weeks or less. Once I got about 6 hours into building this new pack I realized it had a mod list similar to Infinity. So I sat back and thought, Infinity is our most popular pack of all time, instead of making a pack to compete with Infinity why don’t I spend the time and resources to make Infinity better. The biggest challenge was adding to Infinity without taking away from the original play style and of course not breaking current worlds, thus “script packs” were born.
Infinity Evolved uses two all-new mods, FTB Utilities and FTB Tweaks in order to accomplish the switching between different game modes, and keep the original Infinity experience intact. The command “/ftb_mode set expert” and “/ftb_mode set normal” to allow the players to easily switch between the modes.
Expert Mode takes regular Infinity and overhauls the recipes and progression, extending the time the players will spend in-game and forcing them to come up with new, creative solutions to usually trivial problems. The changed recipes also unlock a variety of powerful end-game items that were previously unobtainable, as well as creating two unique sets of progression - the classic tech and magic. The new lines of progression introduce players to mods and mechanics they may never have seen before by taking the mods’ pre-established methods of moving forward and melding them into singular paths that the players will take as they proceed through the game.
A: What was your inspiration for the pack?
T: Honestly what kept me inspired the most was my love for the pack. I was able to throw the first playable private alpha on our large testing/play server “FTB One” and I sort of added and removed stuff as we played. So it was like 2 hours of play, 2 hours of development and that cycle repeated for close to two months.
A: Infinity Evolved spent many months in development - Starting out, did you feel it would take this long? Did it turn out like you expected? And are you happy with the end result?
T: Yes it took from start to finish about 3 months, and I am still working on it today. I had an idea it would take at least a month to develop it, but one thing I did not factor in is we all had to actually play though the pack legit to properly test it, that took longer than the script writing itself. It actually did come very close to what I expected, and I am extremely happy with the end result. And the amount of feedback and suggestions I have received from the community has been amazing.
A: What was your favorite part of developing the pack?
T: Playing it, duh. No, for real though, I really enjoyed making the road map for the progression and tweaking all the recipes.
A: Are there any future plans for Infinity Evolved that you would like to share?
T: Of course! I am toying with the idea to allow the community to be able to upload their own script packs they make using Infinity Evolved and an easy method to share and install those, very similar to maps and resource packs. Also I hope to be re-building Infinity for the 1.8.x environment early next year with even more game modes to come out during its life cycle!
Not only does Infinity Evolved change the progression, but it also has a guide that comes with the changes. Accessed by clicking the book icon in the player’s inventory, the guide will teach the player how to surpass a few of the basic obstacles facing them in Infinity Evolved, such as buckets and the infamous Pure Quartz Crystals, as well as the general direction they should take as they continue through the game.
FTB Utilities and FTB Tweaks, the mods that allow switching between modes (among other things) are also available to the public for use in other modpacks. That means the innovative technology created by the FTB Team can be used by other Third Party pack creators to do things with Modded Minecraft never even thought possible prior to Infinity Evolved. The possibilities introduced by the pack and its mods are, pun intended, Infinite.
A: Was there anyone else who greatly contributed to the creation of the pack that you would like to thank?
T: Wow, yes so many people helped make this a reality. First of all I want to thank Slowpoke101 for letting me take this huge risk with the development of Infinity Evolved. I will say he thought it was a strange idea when I first told him about the idea. Next I definitely want to thank Curse for being partners with FTB, as they pay me to develop content for FTB, I know crazy right? But yea, I wouldn’t of been able to do this in 3 months if I had to work a full time job somewhere else. Big shout out to Jared and LatvianModder for developing FTBTweaks and FTBLib which are mods that allow script packs and changing between the different game modes. Also I want to thank SnowShock35 for pretty much doing the magic side of things; yes I am a magic noob. And Watchul1 for helping with the Draconic Evolution changes, Rajecent and Moxiegrrl for writing the in-game guide. And finally I want to thank everyone that played on FTB One during the testing stages and suggesting all the changes and things that were broken at the time. This project was truly a group effort on behalf of FTB and even the community. When streamers were broadcasting from FTB One during the private alpha stages the amount of feedback and suggestions from the viewers really helped me a lot in the end.
A: Is there anything you would like to say to people who are considering trying Infinity Evolved and its expert mode?
T: Yes, I highly suggest you give it one honest go, and just remember that if at any time you find it too difficult just run the command to switch back to “normal” mode! Most people that have tried it have seem to stick with playing in “expert” mode, I was surprised by the amount of positive activity on forums/reddit/twitter about Infinity Evolved: Expert Mode once FTB released it.
Many thanks to tfox83 for taking part in this interview. He can be found on Twitter, Twitch, and of course, the FTB Forums.
Feed the Beast Infinity Evolved can be downloaded from Curse Voice or the FTB Launcher, and you can read more about it here.
FTB Utilities and Tweaks can be downloaded from Curse.
Last but not least, I’m Aegaea. You can follow me on Twitter for updates on any future interviews and articles that I’ll be involved in.
Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to check out the latest evolution of FTB Infinity.
Infinity Evolved, also known as Infinity 2.0.0, was the first big update to hit Feed The Beast’s Infinity modpack since its release. The update landed on October 30th, available on its native FTB Launcher and on Curse Voice. The update was a huge success, seeing hundreds of streams, videos, and forum and reddit posts. I was lucky enough to get an interview with @tfox83, FTB Modpack Development Lead and the mastermind behind FTB Infinity Evolved.
A: Would you like to explain, for those who haven't heard of them yet, what FTB Infinity: Evolved (and its Expert Mode) are?
T: Sure, FTB Infinity Evolved is a pack that was spun off of FTB Infinity that adds custom script packs allowing the user to play in different game modes. As of this time there is two game modes shipped with Infinity Evolved, “normal” and “expert”. “Normal” mode is Infinity as it was day one, a default kitchen sink style modpack with minimal changes. “Expert” mode contains thousands of recipe changes which greatly change the way players’ progress through the pack. At any time users can switch between modes when playing single player in their world. When playing on a server the client will switch to the mode the server is in during login.
A: What brought about the development of FTB Infinity Evolved?
T: This past summer I started developing, what I would call hard modpack for FTB, but not survival hard, more progression hard. I personally have never been a fan of hard core survival modpacks, not saying I would never make one, they just aren’t my play style. However, I really love progression difficulty with a large variety of mods to play with, something I can start a world and play for a few months without hitting endgame in two weeks or less. Once I got about 6 hours into building this new pack I realized it had a mod list similar to Infinity. So I sat back and thought, Infinity is our most popular pack of all time, instead of making a pack to compete with Infinity why don’t I spend the time and resources to make Infinity better. The biggest challenge was adding to Infinity without taking away from the original play style and of course not breaking current worlds, thus “script packs” were born.
Infinity Evolved uses two all-new mods, FTB Utilities and FTB Tweaks in order to accomplish the switching between different game modes, and keep the original Infinity experience intact. The command “/ftb_mode set expert” and “/ftb_mode set normal” to allow the players to easily switch between the modes.
Expert Mode takes regular Infinity and overhauls the recipes and progression, extending the time the players will spend in-game and forcing them to come up with new, creative solutions to usually trivial problems. The changed recipes also unlock a variety of powerful end-game items that were previously unobtainable, as well as creating two unique sets of progression - the classic tech and magic. The new lines of progression introduce players to mods and mechanics they may never have seen before by taking the mods’ pre-established methods of moving forward and melding them into singular paths that the players will take as they proceed through the game.
A: What was your inspiration for the pack?
T: Honestly what kept me inspired the most was my love for the pack. I was able to throw the first playable private alpha on our large testing/play server “FTB One” and I sort of added and removed stuff as we played. So it was like 2 hours of play, 2 hours of development and that cycle repeated for close to two months.
A: Infinity Evolved spent many months in development - Starting out, did you feel it would take this long? Did it turn out like you expected? And are you happy with the end result?
T: Yes it took from start to finish about 3 months, and I am still working on it today. I had an idea it would take at least a month to develop it, but one thing I did not factor in is we all had to actually play though the pack legit to properly test it, that took longer than the script writing itself. It actually did come very close to what I expected, and I am extremely happy with the end result. And the amount of feedback and suggestions I have received from the community has been amazing.
T: Playing it, duh. No, for real though, I really enjoyed making the road map for the progression and tweaking all the recipes.
A: Are there any future plans for Infinity Evolved that you would like to share?
T: Of course! I am toying with the idea to allow the community to be able to upload their own script packs they make using Infinity Evolved and an easy method to share and install those, very similar to maps and resource packs. Also I hope to be re-building Infinity for the 1.8.x environment early next year with even more game modes to come out during its life cycle!
Not only does Infinity Evolved change the progression, but it also has a guide that comes with the changes. Accessed by clicking the book icon in the player’s inventory, the guide will teach the player how to surpass a few of the basic obstacles facing them in Infinity Evolved, such as buckets and the infamous Pure Quartz Crystals, as well as the general direction they should take as they continue through the game.
FTB Utilities and FTB Tweaks, the mods that allow switching between modes (among other things) are also available to the public for use in other modpacks. That means the innovative technology created by the FTB Team can be used by other Third Party pack creators to do things with Modded Minecraft never even thought possible prior to Infinity Evolved. The possibilities introduced by the pack and its mods are, pun intended, Infinite.
A: Was there anyone else who greatly contributed to the creation of the pack that you would like to thank?
T: Wow, yes so many people helped make this a reality. First of all I want to thank Slowpoke101 for letting me take this huge risk with the development of Infinity Evolved. I will say he thought it was a strange idea when I first told him about the idea. Next I definitely want to thank Curse for being partners with FTB, as they pay me to develop content for FTB, I know crazy right? But yea, I wouldn’t of been able to do this in 3 months if I had to work a full time job somewhere else. Big shout out to Jared and LatvianModder for developing FTBTweaks and FTBLib which are mods that allow script packs and changing between the different game modes. Also I want to thank SnowShock35 for pretty much doing the magic side of things; yes I am a magic noob. And Watchul1 for helping with the Draconic Evolution changes, Rajecent and Moxiegrrl for writing the in-game guide. And finally I want to thank everyone that played on FTB One during the testing stages and suggesting all the changes and things that were broken at the time. This project was truly a group effort on behalf of FTB and even the community. When streamers were broadcasting from FTB One during the private alpha stages the amount of feedback and suggestions from the viewers really helped me a lot in the end.
A: Is there anything you would like to say to people who are considering trying Infinity Evolved and its expert mode?
T: Yes, I highly suggest you give it one honest go, and just remember that if at any time you find it too difficult just run the command to switch back to “normal” mode! Most people that have tried it have seem to stick with playing in “expert” mode, I was surprised by the amount of positive activity on forums/reddit/twitter about Infinity Evolved: Expert Mode once FTB released it.
Feed the Beast Infinity Evolved can be downloaded from Curse Voice or the FTB Launcher, and you can read more about it here.
FTB Utilities and Tweaks can be downloaded from Curse.
Last but not least, I’m Aegaea. You can follow me on Twitter for updates on any future interviews and articles that I’ll be involved in.
Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to check out the latest evolution of FTB Infinity.
