Newbie Suggestions/Help Please

[Abon Zel]

Hello, I'm new to the site and was hoping for some suggestions/help, as I have only recently gotten back into Minecraft, the last time I really played was back when it was in Beta, as I remember, so even the enchantment system is new to me and yesterday was the first time I've been in the Nether. Normally I would try to research all this on my own, but there is so many mods at this point that I'm suffering a little from brain overload and I'm kinda hoping to get things ready within a few days.

Three friends and myself (in the same house) want to play and we're not sure what mods/modpack to use. One is mostly into cosmetic building, one is more into adventure, and the other enjoys mods but is fine with vanilla Minecraft, so I'm probably the hardest to please here. I just like options, the more the better, in general, though I don't want mods to make the game easy, I like mods that give me various options to achieve goals and various goals to achieve. I'm fine with achieving ultimate power as long as I actually have to work for it.

My recent foray into Minecraft, I've been using IndustrialCraft 2, Ars Magica 2, Tinkers Construct, and Millenaire. I've only scratched the surface on most of those, though. I've enjoyed each so far, though I'm not requiring them to be part of the pack we go with, though hopefully there will be something of a replacement for them. Especially for Millenaire, which I'm sad to see is only part of one pack on here, and I'm not sure if I like the premise of the pack. If there is another mod where you can make interesting villages with NPCs like Millenaire, that would be fantastic. That would probably be my main, specific mod request.

The plan is for me to run the server on my computer, but I'm not sure how well that would work if I'm also playing Minecraft on it, so I may need to rent a server. I have the best computer in the house, two of their computers aren't much worse than mine, but the third isn't very good. My computer is currently running Windows 7, though I can upgrade to 10.

AMD Radeon HD 7700
AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 955 Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
8192MB RAM

Not sure what else would be helpful.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[malicious_bloke]

Not sure about packs with Millenaire, but in the current generation a lot of packs will have IC2 and TiCo.

Ars Magica 2 isn't being updated afaik, so you won't see it in any of the new packs. FTB Infinity has Thaumcraft (plus a bajillion addons for it), Blood Magic and Witchery included though, that's a ton of magic-based fun for you to get into.

Re: running a server, I'd recommend more than 8GB of RAM if you're running a server, servers tend to do more heavy lifting so that clients don't have to. I'd look at the entry level server specs that somewhere like Curse offer, those will give you more of an idea of what to expect.

 

[Type1Ninja]

Shameless plug:
I made a pack exactly intended for this purpose - introducing "noobs" to modded MC (obviously, you guys don't *quite* fit the bill, but you get the idea ).
It's called Intro2Mods!

Summary: Thermal Expansion, Buildcraft, Forestry, Twilight Forest, Thaumcraft, a couple addons for those, and then some QOL (quality of life) client mods like NEI and Journeymap. Since it's so small, you shouldn't have much (if any) trouble running it on your comp, even with a server. I've got instructions for setting up the server and a server download on the FTB Launcher.

Relevant to yourself:
I haven't got any of the mods you mentioned playing with, but the ones I DO have are parallel to those you've been playing with.
For cosmetic builds, you *should* be able to find some neat looking blocks between Twilight Forest and Thaumcraft, but that isn't the focus of my particular pack, so you might not be able to find everything. For exploration - well, Twilight Forest. Need I say more? As for your preferences... Well, choice is not super big in this pack; basically, the only choices are in farming and mining - use tech or use Thaumcraft. There IS an end-game in both, though; great armor and powerful weapons/tools are available, but not TiCon - you have to make either magic tools or electric tools; you can't have all the things in one tool. In terms of difficulty - it's got all default configs (except Headcrumbs), so it won't be uber-challenging, but it won't be super easy either. Because there's so few mods, there are fewer exploits and shortcuts you can take; if you want end-game armor, you can't just make a dimension made of the material. Plus, Headcrumbs actually adds a little more difficulty to the night, especially early game (although I admit that renewable Notch Apples and BC Wrenches might be a bit silly ). That's my jumble of thought relating my modpack to your need, take it or leave it.

Regardless of whether you decide to use my pack, I wish you the best of luck in getting back into modded MC.

 

[Padfoote]

So I'll start with your friend that likes to build, as that's the easiest one to handle. Toss Carpenter's Blocks and Chisel their way (at a minimum). Decocraft and Bibliocraft are also two nice mods for building, but if I had to recommend only two mods for them, it would be Carpenter's Blocks and Chisel. The friend that likes exploration would like the Twilight Forest (thanks to @Type1Ninja for posting before I could and reminding me of the mod). There are some others like Roguelike Dungeons, but I don't know a lot of them. The last friend is the easiest, as it sounds like just toss some mods in and they'll be happy, so whatever pack you decide on should be fine for them.

So you said you have used IC2, AM2, TiCo, and Millenaire. Current FTB packs (the official ones, not third party packs) don't include Millenaire or AM2 in the 1.7.10 packs. As far as I'm aware, AM2 is still being updated, but very rarely. I've always had problems with it, but I know a few people that swear the current version is stable enough for use. My suggestion is to aim for a pack like the one Type1Ninja linked is you all want to start with a smaller list and learn those mods fairly well, or if you're feeling adventurous, jump into the Direwolf20 1.7.10 pack, or Infinity. DW20 and Infinity both have around 160 mods, so there are plenty of options, (including IC2 and TiCo), but it can also be a little daunting if you don't know where to begin. DW20 has the benefit of being used by a Youtuber, so you can always follow along with his single player series if you want to see how all the mods work in there. If you want to have something similar to Millenaire, you can grab a base pack and add in either Millenaire or Ancient Warfare. Ancient Warfare is quite a bit different than Millenaire, but it does let you create your own cities with NPCs having set roles. I'm also fairly certain it adds world-gen in the form of NPC manned villages, which I've only been killed by a few dozen times trying to raid. Long story short, if you want a small mod list to learn with, go with what Type1Ninja suggested. If you want a larger pack but don't want to add anything, look at DW20 or Infinity. If you want to get everything you like, grab a pack like DW20 or Infinity and modify it with whatever mods you want.

I don't actually know the server requirements for any of the packs, so I can't help much there, but someone else who knows what they're talking about is bound to drop by at some point.

 

[Abon Zel]

Thanks for the answers so far

Does Curse do server hosting? I couldn't find it, not sure why. Maybe because I just woke up or something I did check out CreeperHost since it's linked from this site, and most of the servers aren't 8GB, the smaller ones capable of hosting 4 players were about 2GB or so, though obviously I wouldn't be playing on the same machine as the server, so that might be the issue, as would be the number of mods that I decide to go with. Do you think that server hosting is worth the money?

I will definitely keep your pack in mind, Type1Ninja, thanks

If I decide to go with a small pack, learn the contents, and want to expand later, can I install a bigger pack with no problem as long as the pack includes all the mods from the smaller pack? Are modpacks better than installing each individual mod? Should I install a smaller modpack and add mods as we go?

Just looked up Ancient Warfare, and that looks pretty awesome, looks perfect to replace Millenaire. I see the pack TolkienCraft 2 is the only one with Ancient Warfare, but it looks like it could work out pretty well for each of our requests, so I'm leaning towards that one, assuming that our computers can handle it as the mod list looks as substantial as Infinity.

 

[Padfoote]

If I decide to go with a small pack, learn the contents, and want to expand later, can I install a bigger pack with no problem as long as the pack includes all the mods from the smaller pack? Are modpacks better than installing each individual mod? Should I install a smaller modpack and add mods as we go?

If you want to change packs later, you will most likely need a new world due to world gen and how item IDs are now handled. Modpacks let you download all of the mods in a single go, and they make sure everyone on the server has the same mods and configs. It's quite a bit better than manually downloading all hundred or so mods. I also wouldn't modify a pack mid game unless you know exactly what you're doing with the world gen, assuming there is any. Otherwise, it isn't too big of a deal.

 

[Type1Ninja]

I also wouldn't modify a pack mid game unless you know exactly what you're doing with the world gen, assuming there is any

If course, even if you DON'T know what you're doing, the forums are here to help.

 

[jazzadellic]

Well I've been trying out a lot of different modpacks and they seem to be divided into either of these types: everything including the kitchen sink / Tech based / magic based (and in general RPG style)/ much more difficult (like waaaaay more difficult).

FTB Inifinity & Direwolf20 packs are the everything including the kitchen sink, with Infinity slightly more hefty. They are great if you want to experiment with a ton of different mods from tech to magic to whatever. I've had the most fun playing these packs. I can't think of the tech packs off the top of my head, I've only really played with Tekkit, which is a tech type pack that also includes Galacticraft (which was the main reason I wanted to try it). But even though Tekkit is more tech focused, FTB Infinity and direwolf20 packs have much better and current tech mods than Tekkit has, from what I can tell anyways. On the other side of that is Hexxit which is all about hack and slash, swords and shields and magic, and would probably be a fun one to play with friends. It has many dungeons to explore and find loot in! The downside for me is some of the mods in it add really hard creatures and so in my SP game I've gotten almost nothing done due to constant chain dying just trying to mine for more than 2 minutes. I haven't even gotten below Y40 or so because 20 silverfish spawn every 5 Y levels and two or three of them are always boss mobs... Many of the modpacks I've tried have made the game MUCH more difficult, which can be either good or bad depending on your preferences. For example Obscurity starts you in a deep dark cavern and your surrounded by dozens of mobs and the only thing really keeping you alive is one torch that repels mobs. If you die and drop it....your screwed and may have to restart like I did like 5 times in a couple hours. I finally managed to get several of the quests done and a base set up...and then I got pushed into lava from something I didn't even see...lost the torch and then kept wiping until all my lives were gone. Several modpacks add in hunger and farming tweaks so that it becomes very difficult avoiding starvation without spending a lot of time farming. For example Magic Farm 3 does this, and it also spawns super powerful mobs and the game gets more difficult the longer you play it from the apocalypse mod. My concern with magic farm 3 is the apocalypse timer just keeps getting bigger and the bigger it is, the more difficult the mobs that spawn. So since I am already getting my butt whooped left and right, I can't imagine the game will even be playable once the apocalypse timer reaches a high number. Recently I've been playing Blightfall and Hubris which are very similar in that they both start you out in a world covered by taint...which does damage to you constantly and literally eats up everything and destroys it. On top of that there are the super powerful mob spawns and blood moons which cause huge swarms of mobs to spawn. FTB Departed seems to be an RPG style modpack with magic, lots of creatures to battle, I didn't delve too deeply into it, but it was the hardest early game of any modpack I had tried...until I played Obscurity and Hubris. Blastoff seems like an interesting concept -- your stuck on some barren planet and you have to struggle to survive on the alien world and build your way up till you can leave it via galacticraft. But it can be very difficult as you have the tweaked hunger system, and hydration and temperature also have to be managed. And the mobs seem to be on steroids. Most of the modpacks I've mentioned I've not gotten too deep into, other than Infinity which has been the most fun for me since it is focused on building cool gadgets rather than getting chain killed by silverfish while your starving to death. Agrarian skies 2 seems to be the most popular modpack. It's an interesting concept --- start on a small floating platform with nothing else but a few tools and you have to create your world. I've kind of enjoyed it but at the same time it's a very sloooooooooow paced mod....I get bored of the grind and have to take breaks from it, and after sinking 20 hours into it all I've got to show for it is an ugly wood platform floating over a void...hah.

If you and your friends just want to have fun and build an awesome base and move up the tech tree and screw around with magic mods, go with Infinity or Direwolf20. If you guys want a much more difficult adventure filled with battles, boss monsters, magic and loot go with Hexxit, Departed or Hubris, with Hubris being much harder to start. If you want something weird and unique that will be extra challenging maybe try Obscurity or Agrarian skies. Something less weird but also very challenging maybe Magic Farm 3, or Crundeecraft another modpack I forgot to mention which also has the crazy difficult mob spawning mod that MF3, Hubris, and Hexxit has. Some of these modpacks which I have found to be crazy difficult in SP I think would actually be much more fun to play with friends.

*edit* just forgot to mention many of these modpacks use the HQM mod which gives you a quest book and quests to complete with rewards --- for example Agrarian Skies 2, Hubris, Obscurity, Blightfall all have the HQM mod.

 

[Abon Zel]

Hmm, ok. I tried TolkienCraft yesterday, didn't realize that it had a pregen map attached to it, so we're going to use something else. I tried Infinity, but I felt like I was getting too much stuttering and such, which concerns me a bit because I have the best computer between us and I've used maybe a dozen different fixes to increase performance. They have helped, but not enough, which makes me wonder a bit if it is my computer itself. Still have some fixes to go, one is upgrading my hard drive, since I've been informed that my hard drive might not be the best for gaming and I've been planning on upgrading it anyway.

Regardless, until everything is set, I'm entertaining various potential fixes, including going through the mod list and removing ones that I don't feel are necessary, which brings me to my question: Would it be better to grab a smaller pack of mods that only has mods I want and add the other mods I want to it, or would it be better to grab a large mod that has most of the mods I want, add the few others, and disable all the ones I don't care about?

 

[rhn]

They have helped, but not enough, which makes me wonder a bit if it is my computer itself.

Don't worry too much. Large packs are a huge burden to run even on the best computers. But you could have been experiencing Mystcrafts initial "cataloguing" thing. It scans worlds, including overworld to know how to generate its worlds etc. It can take several hours depending on system. But once it is over, things should settle down.

Would it be better to grab a smaller pack of mods that only has mods I want and add the other mods I want to it, or would it be better to grab a large mod that has most of the mods I want, add the few others, and disable all the ones I don't care about?

That is a good question. It rather depends on the modpack you pick. If it is just a simple "kitchen sink" pack, then adding new mods or remove existing ones will be rather seamless since there is not much balancing to begin with. However if you take a balanced and/or themed modpack and then add or remove a medium/large amount of mods to/from that, you are highly likely going to be compromising the gameplay of the pack. For example you could be removing mods that the modpack is relying on through gating of progress. Or when you add stuff(and don't config it properly) you could completely offset the balance of the existing mods.

In general I would say you are safer to go with a larger Kitchen sink pack and then removing unnecessary stuff. It wont have any special balance changes to worry about when removing things, but it will have already done all the necessary config changes to make everything run together.

 

[epidemia78]

If you are playing 1.7.10 Id recommend against removing mods after creating a world, strange things can happen.

 

[Abon Zel]

Don't worry too much. Large packs are a huge burden to run even on the best computers. But you could have been experiencing Mystcrafts initial "cataloguing" thing. It scans worlds, including overworld to know how to generate its worlds etc. It can take several hours depending on system. But once it is over, things should settle down.

Mystcraft has a cataloging thing? Does that happen just once when you start a new world? Will it happen for each player, and will it happen as we explore? How will I know when it is done so I can tell if that might have been the issue? How does it work in regards to servers? Does it get done while the server is generating the world, or does it happen when the players enter it?

If you are playing 1.7.10 Id recommend against removing mods after creating a world, strange things can happen.

Thanks, but I'm not too worried about this currently. I'm testing different mod builds, unfortunately only giving each a little bit of time, in order to see which ones seem stable and not too resource intensive, and each time I create a new world for it.

 

[rhn]

Mystcraft has a cataloging thing? Does that happen just once when you start a new world? Will it happen for each player, and will it happen as we explore? How will I know when it is done so I can tell if that might have been the issue? How does it work in regards to servers? Does it get done while the server is generating the world, or does it happen when the players enter it?

AFAIK the profiling happens only once. And it happens only for the "server" of the world. If you are in Single player your computer do it, if in multiplayer the server does it.

I haven't played around with 1.7 enough to actually notice it happen myself. But it can apparently take several hours after world gen, plus/minus depending on your computer/server. And I dont think there are any cues to it ending other than it starts requiring slight less resources to run the world.

 

[ChemE]

If you are all playing on a LAN, then I don't think $20/month to rent a server is worthwhile provided you have a computer that can act as the server and handle the modpack you pick. If you do decide to rent a server, I very highly recommend 8GB from shockbyte for $20/mo. It handles Infinity 1.10.1 with 3 players without breaking a sweat. If you are going to make your own server, just focus on a small SSD, 8GB of decent RAM, and prioritize single threaded performance above everything else. My personal favorite bang for buck proc is the Intel G3258 since you can clock it upwards of 4.0GHz on the stock cooler and you can buy them for $50-$80 depending on where you live. This is my server build: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/ChemE/saved/#view=kJ4V3C

Regarding modpacks I recommend DW20 mostly because it isn't horribly resource intensive to run (not as bad as infinity anyway), has aesthetic, adventure, tech, and magic mods and best of all has 100's of hours of youtube videos to help anyone who needs a little help with learning or inspiration. Toss in Ancient Warfare though, that is a great mod and ender pearls in dungeon chests greatly ease early game although you have to fight pretty hard to get to said chests so it doesn't feel cheaty.

 

[ChemE]

AFAIK the profiling happens only once. And it happens only for the "server" of the world. If you are in Single player your computer do it, if in multiplayer the server does it.

I haven't played around with 1.7 enough to actually notice it happen myself. But it can apparently take several hours after world gen, plus/minus depending on your computer/server. And I dont think there are any cues to it ending other than it starts requiring slight less resources to run the world.

Profiling does only happen once on the server immediately following starting up a new world. Anytime we start a new world on a remote server, at least the ops get an achievement from Mystcraft called "Ding! Profiling Complete!".

 

[Abon Zel]

AFAIK the profiling happens only once. And it happens only for the "server" of the world. If you are in Single player your computer do it, if in multiplayer the server does it.

I haven't played around with 1.7 enough to actually notice it happen myself. But it can apparently take several hours after world gen, plus/minus depending on your computer/server. And I dont think there are any cues to it ending other than it starts requiring slight less resources to run the world.

Profiling does only happen once on the server immediately following starting up a new world. Anytime we start a new world on a remote server, at least the ops get an achievement from Mystcraft called "Ding! Profiling Complete!".

I started a new world and played with it for a bit, and I can confirm what ChemE has said. I got the "Ding! Profiling Complete!" achievement from Mystcraft, so I'm assuming that it was done at that point. Not sure how that would work in multiplayer though. It took about an hour or so, I think.

If you are all playing on a LAN, then I don't think $20/month to rent a server is worthwhile provided you have a computer that can act as the server and handle the modpack you pick. If you do decide to rent a server, I very highly recommend 8GB from shockbyte for $20/mo. It handles Infinity 1.10.1 with 3 players without breaking a sweat.

Yeah, things are a little up in the air right now. Not entirely sure if it will just be a LAN, but that's still the idea. I'm honestly incredibly surprised about Shockbyte though. I checked out CreeperHost and one or two other services and they are all about the same price range, but Shockbyte is half the price of those, sometimes even less. Is it reliable and everything, compared to the other hosts? Also, as for hosting sites in general, would I be able to add and remove mods from the modpacks? Would I be able to add Ancient Warfare (and others) to Infinity or DireWolf20 if I paid Shockbyte to host the server?

And I doubt it, but let's say we went with one of the hosting sites, and then decided to cancel. Would we be able to keep the world and save it to one of our computers, or would it be lost forever?

We might be going with one of these host sites anyway, as the only computer that wouldn't be playing Minecraft is a laptop with only 2GB of RAM. I'm going to get it set up a bit later with the server and test it out using some of our computers while everyone is at work and see how well it runs. I'm hoping it will be ok, but not expecting much.

 

[ChemE]

I'm honestly incredibly surprised about Shockbyte though. I checked out CreeperHost and one or two other services and they are all about the same price range, but Shockbyte is half the price of those, sometimes even less. Is it reliable and everything, compared to the other hosts? Also, as for hosting sites in general, would I be able to add and remove mods from the modpacks? Would I be able to add Ancient Warfare (and others) to Infinity or DireWolf20 if I paid Shockbyte to host the server?

And I doubt it, but let's say we went with one of the hosting sites, and then decided to cancel. Would we be able to keep the world and save it to one of our computers, or would it be lost forever?

We might be going with one of these host sites anyway, as the only computer that wouldn't be playing Minecraft is a laptop with only 2GB of RAM. I'm going to get it set up a bit later with the server and test it out using some of our computers while everyone is at work and see how well it runs. I'm hoping it will be ok, but not expecting much.

I have been supremely happy with shockbyte for the last 5 months now. Rock solid, fast, cheap, and we can customize the pack however we like, restart worlds at a whim, add and pull mods just like a local instance, and do a full world download. 2GB could get the job done if the machine wasn't running Windows bloatware. Our server seldom goes above 2GB even with three of us on at once. Usually it hovers around 1.3GB of RAM but it is a linux machine too. I know from personal experience that Lubuntu 14.04 LTS boots to the desktop on 268MB of RAM. You'd have plenty enough left to run a MC server until you hit late game and bases started getting big provided you all build carefully.

 

[jazzadellic]

Hmm, ok. I tried TolkienCraft yesterday, didn't realize that it had a pregen map attached to it, so we're going to use something else. I tried Infinity, but I felt like I was getting too much stuttering and such, which concerns me a bit because I have the best computer between us and I've used maybe a dozen different fixes to increase performance. They have helped, but not enough, which makes me wonder a bit if it is my computer itself. Still have some fixes to go, one is upgrading my hard drive, since I've been informed that my hard drive might not be the best for gaming and I've been planning on upgrading it anyway.

Regardless, until everything is set, I'm entertaining various potential fixes, including going through the mod list and removing ones that I don't feel are necessary, which brings me to my question: Would it be better to grab a smaller pack of mods that only has mods I want and add the other mods I want to it, or would it be better to grab a large mod that has most of the mods I want, add the few others, and disable all the ones I don't care about?

Make sure you tell the launcher in the java settings to allocate 4gigs of Ram. By default it's set to something like 1 gig. This is absolutely necessary to change in order to play the big packs. Also, consider adding in optifine. It's supposed to work wonders for fps lag, although it does cause a bit of an annoying flicker with the Jabba barrels. But it's worth it. Be careful with removing mods because some mods are interdependent, and multiple mods affect ore gen and other world gen stuff.

 

[Azzanine]

Yeah, things are a little up in the air right now. Not entirely sure if it will just be a LAN, but that's still the idea. I'm honestly incredibly surprised about Shockbyte though. I checked out CreeperHost and one or two other services and they are all about the same price range, but Shockbyte is half the price of those, sometimes even less. Is it reliable and everything, compared to the other hosts? Also, as for hosting sites in general, would I be able to add and remove mods from the modpacks? Would I be able to add Ancient Warfare (and others) to Infinity or DireWolf20 if I paid Shockbyte to host the server?

And I doubt it, but let's say we went with one of the hosting sites, and then decided to cancel. Would we be able to keep the world and save it to one of our computers, or would it be lost forever?

One would think that if you intended on canceling you would take the appropriate steps to retrieve the files beforehand.

Then again these minecraft specific server providers do like their restrictions. In my server hosting forays I just used a VPN, or an actual server, so I had full control. Of course I had no support either.
Then again looking back and how I don't host servers now I can't be sure that I can give the best advice.
Then again I am Australian and our gubberment think FTTN is cutting edge... So my avoidance of running servers is related to the cost of reliable local hosts then lack of success.



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