Most stable Minecraft version for a modpack?

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Drbretto

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It's about that time again, my people are clamoring to get a new minecraft pack up. I want to put together a a quick pack for it, but I'm not sure where exactly to start. What version of Minecraft is the best to work with right now? Primary concern is stability, but mod selection is a factor as well.

Here's what I think off-hand, let me know if I'm wrong on any of these:

1.7.10 probably has the lowest requirements, right? Potentially the most stable.. but, it's also old and won't have any up to date apps. Is there anything from 1.7.10 specifically that's hard coded into the game? Besides the inability to break blocks into bits?

1.11.2 has the annoying bed bug, right? Or is there a fix for that?

1.12 seemed pretty stable and was the last one I had used, but how is the mod selection coming?

Bonus question: Any cool, preferably standalone mods worth looking into adding to a basic pack?
 
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ShneekeyTheLost

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The three versions I consider the most stable for Modded Minecraft are: 1.7.10, 1.10.2, and 1.12.2

1.7.10 has the lowest resource requirements. In theory, a lite pack could be run on 512 MB (I know mine could). It was out for long enough that by the time the version became depreciated, most of the major bugs were already ironed out for most of the major mods.

1.10.2 was the next stable plateau. It didn't exist for as long as 1.7.10 did, though, so some of the EOL versions were still rough around the edges or still in beta.

1.12.2 is the current version with active development still ongoing, so any problems you do encounter can be addressed by the mod authors.

As far as your bonus question, depends on what sort of experience you want from the mod. Are you looking for significant mechanical changes or are you looking for something more subtle?
 

GamerwithnoGame

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I'd also add to this that the mod selection available for 1.12 is pretty wide, and growing increasingly so - and there are examples of mods which are more stable in 1.12 than 1.10 as devs stopped work on the 1.10 versions and rewrote things for 1.12.
 

Drbretto

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I almost forgot about this, lol

Yeah, the more I'm thinking about it, the more it looks like 1.12 is the way to go. Especially now that some of the staples have all caught up. I would imagine most of the best new mods should be available for it.
 
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Drbretto

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As far as your bonus question, depends on what sort of experience you want from the mod. Are you looking for significant mechanical changes or are you looking for something more subtle?

Subtle. So, this pack here is really meant to be a distraction for a friend of mine that is taking the weekend to quit smoking. So, I want familiar, but new enough to keep it interesting. I think if I popped her into one of the more advanced packs out there would just frustrate her into going out and buying a pack.

I think I'm just going to take the last 1.12 pack I had with all the basics in it, cut some extra fat and try to get closer to my original vision of a low-rent low-tech modded pack (maybe cutting out the more imbalanced quarries and whatnot)

But, since balance really isn't that big of a deal here since we've dismissed any notion of this one being "long term" like I always try to build for, I would still love to hear about any neat new toys that I could add. I am going to browse through curse in a bit, but I have been out of the game for a while so I don't know if anyone has any recommendations. Anything that doesn't need to be heavily configured, I'm really going for low maintenance here.
 
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KingTriaxx

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I'd definitely suggest Automaton if you can't do something yourself. It's a fairly chilled out pack, there are recipe changes but nothing requiring you hang upside down from a 30 tall jungle wood tree to harvest the rare sacred alpaca fur. You need IE Circuit boards to get AE2 controllers, but by the time you've gotten there in the pack, you'll have been led through to that point. It's quite possibly the chillest pack I've ever played. It has a quest book, but it's not necessarily you must do X to progress, but Hey, you've gotten that done, here's the next step you'll want.
 
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Drbretto

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I'd definitely suggest Automaton if you can't do something yourself. It's a fairly chilled out pack, there are recipe changes but nothing requiring you hang upside down from a 30 tall jungle wood tree to harvest the rare sacred alpaca fur. You need IE Circuit boards to get AE2 controllers, but by the time you've gotten there in the pack, you'll have been led through to that point. It's quite possibly the chillest pack I've ever played. It has a quest book, but it's not necessarily you must do X to progress, but Hey, you've gotten that done, here's the next step you'll want.

Dude.

I think this pack looks absolutely perfect. I might have to add a couple of things to get my friend to play it (like a hang glider and a drill like AA, and funky locomotion if it's not in there already.

Aaand, there it is. The fire has been lit!
 
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Drbretto

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I'm going to try to play the modpack straight. I had to add AA for my friend. She made it clear her only conditions were a hang glider (there's a standalone) and the AA drill (doesn't appear to be a standalone option, but would love to be corrected). Im gonna try to avoid using AA, but I'll definitely be using the hang glider.

Anyway, I found my seed and everything. I want to pre load these exact chunks and upload it to the server this time, rather than regenerate this one and lose stuff. Is there a mod out there that will load a radius of chunks automatically? If not, I can just fly around for a bit in creative then force survival when I upload it.
 

KingTriaxx

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Cool. The pack was designed around not having flight, but at the same time, the glider isn't really flight. Though you can use balloons and decorative rope to make sky lines to glider off of.
 

Drbretto

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So, I went down some rabbit holes and now I really want use some custom built world that someone made just for the scenery. The problem is, I'm pretty sure every block is what it is, so there's no way to spawn modded ores and whatnot. Is there any way around this?

Any mod that could inject ores into areas under the surface? Do I even have it right, that every block is known? Or is a block not a block until it's revealed?

Otherwise, I need to design a vanilla plus like modpack that only uses vanilla mats

Edit: wait! We can just use a mining dimension, right? That should cover most things...
 

LordPINE

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Retrogen should help a bunch for stuff like that. I know CoFH world can do it, so as long as you use thermal ores, you're guaranteed to be able to progress. And yes, every block in a custom world is known, unless you go out of the premade area.
 

MacAisling

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OpenBlocks is back if you want the easy elevator to go with the hang glider, although there's also a stand alone elevator clone. I've been trying out a mod called Chunk-Pregenerator, possibly more user friendly than command blocks and lets you look at the map before you decide to keep it.
 

Drbretto

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I tried a bunch of things. Every option has a downside and almost anything I do breaks the world I'm trying to fix up, or breaks chunks just from importing abd exporting. So, yup, mining dimension it is.

I deliberately chose a smaller map and disabled things like quantum quarries and whatnot. Disabled angel rings and the like as well. Smaller map to promote carts, for real this time(tm), and having to build stairs and walkways and tunnels through mountains and islands, etc. With all the tools to dress it up.

This should be a fun pack.
 

KingTriaxx

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Got Railcraft? And Transport?

You and I have different approaches. I'd have gone larger map to promote carts. But then Teleportation is a temptation I can resist, and I know others can't necessarily.
 

Drbretto

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I had railcraft on there but I wasn't sure if it would be compatible with a different mod I wanted to try first, signals. That and railcraft wasn't available for 1.12 last time I played so I wasn't sure if I wasn't getting a buggy alpha or something. I can add it back in if you're vouching for it.

Over all, though, this pack is working out! The mining dimension has been for specific ores, but for the most part, I'm enjoying the mining in the custom world. I've had to actually hunt for the ores. For example, I was barely breaking even on iron pickaxes and iron when mining closer to bedrock, but i climbed the mountains and flew into some cave openings and it turns out at y=90+, iron comes in huge veins and is all over the place. This is much more interesting.
 

Drbretto

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EnderIO definitely needs to go. I allow for things like extra utils as long as the angel ring is disabled, but EnderIO basically makes everything else I do completely obsolete. I'll never make a multiblock crusher if I can just make a basic SAG mill and have enough sand to encase the entire earth in glass.

Can anyone think of any other things in the staple mods that I should probably disable? Really going for a more grounded pack. Now I'm stuck at work, so I have all day to think about tweaks.
 

GamerwithnoGame

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Unless you customise the EnderIO recipes to require more advanced materials... perhaps electrical steel is needed for all the casings, even the basic ones, andcan only be made in the Arc Furnace to begin with, say?

At which point, they'll have needed a crusher anyway, and can choose to upgrade later if they so desire?