Noob Needing Assistance!!

[NikJoe]

Hi

I've been playing MC for about 3 weeks (decided to play with my 8 year old Son who wanted me to share the fun)! I've become as addicted as him! He keeps talking about Mods, something I am desperately trying to learn about and work out how to install for him.

Am I right in thinking that right now, we wouldn't be able to find many mods that work with version 1.7.4? Everywhere I read it tells me to downgrade to 1.6.4.

Any help and suggestions would be appreciated. I'm trying to sort this out for him, but will obviously be doing it on both of our accounts. Hopefully one day I can surprise him when he comes home from school!

Thank you for ANY help you can give.

 

[Dark0_0firE]

Unfortunately there will not be very many mods that have been updated for 1.7 out yet. It usually takes a good amount of time just to create a mod, and then even more time to troubleshoot and work out the bugs, and yet more time to work on the compatability with other mods. This tends to lead to vanilla Minecraft to be a version or two ahead of what most mod authors are working with. Downgrading to an earlier version of Minecraft using a modpack launcher like FTB is very simple and they try to make it as painless as possible. Watch some Youtube vids on how to install and setup and you should be well on your way to starting your Modded Minecraft life. Fair warning though... you may never go back!

 

[NikJoe]

I can't imagine a life without minecraft now and I only started playing to make my Son happy! Now I sneak on even when he's in bed! But from what I hear, the added fun of playing with mods, makes it even more addictive! Perhaps I should tell my Son I can't work out how to do it

Thank you for your reply. I'm only just learning what a 'mod' is, so I appreciate the time and effort to create and to make them compatible etc. Downgrading should be painless enough. I'm sure what we'll gain from the mods will make up for the things we'll 'lose' just by playing an earlier version (believe me I have no idea what the difference is between 1.6 and 1.7 so I hope that doesn't sound like an ignorant comment to make).

I will attempt to download and install FTB tomorrow, while he's at school....that should give me a few hours to get it up and running on both laptops.

I really don't understand a lot of the jargon, but I'm not really familiar with Java having really only ever used my pc for surfing. I will keep looking on the forums and trying to learn more, so we can improve our game.

Thanks again for you quick response.

 

[JoeDolca]

Yup, Mojang has a full team of people working in upgrading versions.

Mods usually are one to four people. Mods lag behind, always. Just go with the flow for now...

Whoa, wait, laptops? Are you sure they can handle the mods? These things usually eat ram like it's nothing.

 

[Racemol]

Good thing is, if you use the launcher from this website, you do not need any java knowledge at all. And you can even run "FTB Minecraft" together with the vanilla version, just launch the one you want to play at that time.

 

[Dark0_0firE]

Your welcome. I would recommend that you start with a simpler pack, like FTB Lite. Or I highly recommend that you and your son start watching the Direwolf20 Let's Play series Season 6. That way you can play the Direwolf20 pack and play along with Direwolf20 as he is very informative.

 

[NikJoe]

If I run the launcher from here, which version of Minecraft will it run? Just curious.

 

[SawBlade]

Concur with the memory usage. The Monster pack includes everything except the kitchen sink (Which is in horizons ) and is very ram hungry. The DW20 pack is nice and FTB lite is simple enough that it won't overwhelm you with hundreds of goodies.

The nice thing about the launcher is it will download the appropriate version of Minecraft for you, the more recent mods are running 1.6.4 while the older stable generation are typically on 1.5.2

 

[Dark0_0firE]

You will be able to select packs for several different versions of minecraft from the launcher. Mostly 1.2.5, 1.4.7, 1.5.2 and the newer ones are for 1.6.4.

 

[NikJoe]

I realise I could answer this by downloading the launcher, but if I do that, am I then given the option to choose DW20 or FTB lite? Or both? I'm so sorry to bombard you with questions. I'm excited that I've finally found someone who'll actually answer me. We'll start watching Direwolf20 and see what we can learn together.

Thank you again. You've been fantastic!

 

[SawBlade]

Not just both, there's something like a dozen different modpacks in there. Plus, you can further 'tune' them with the Edit Modpack button to enable disable specific mods within the modpack.

 

[Chaka]

I suggest you do what I did when I first wanted to play with mod's. Just pick a FTB mudpack and start playing.
Hope you guys have fun

 

[NikJoe]

Ahh so where it says Modpacks on the main site - it looks like there are 7 Mod Packs (FTB Unleashed, Unhinged etc etc) but it sounds like there are many other options. I'm reluctant to download the launcher now, he'll be home in 30 minutes and will want to jump on his laptop as soon as he walks in the door! If I start doing it now I'll get pestered by a little impatient chap who will be chomping at the bit!!

 

[Dark0_0firE]

Personally I would plop him down infront of a Direwolf20 episode while you setup the laptops. And yes the launcher has many options for modpacks and versions of modpacks. You are free to download the launcher and look around it without installing any modpack by the way. Oh and you shouldn't have any problem running your vanilla minecraft even if you do install a modpack. They are all kept completely separate.

 

[Chaka]

If you like Techy stuff try out Tech World 2. If you like more of a Adventurey Magic try Magic World 2. What is the average FPS you get in Vanilla minecraft?

 

[Wagon153]

If you're laptop is particularly good, go for the monster pack! Tons of mods to play with.

 

[NikJoe]

Me again!
When I've downloaded, I have to create profile before I click launch, presumably this is my Minecraft login information??
It just keeps saying invalid username or password and I know I've put it in correctly.

Am I putting in the wrong information?

 

[SawBlade]

Make sure you use your email addy and not nickname. But yup, your Minecraft credentials so that it can download from mojang

 

[Chaka]

@NikJoe Come join the irc with me and ill help you out http://webchat.esper.net/?nick=NikJoe&channels=FTB-Wiki%2CFTB&prompt=1

 

[SatanicSanta]

And if you aren't 100% pleased with the default packs, you can add packs made by the community by using the Private Pack feature. Every private pack has a Forum post in the Third Party Packs section.