What Is "Feed The Beast"?

[PhilHibbs]

OK, so I basically know what FTB is all about - it's a collection of mods, put together by either the modders themselves or people who are on good terms with the modders, with respect and permission that may have been lacking in a certain mod collection that shall remain nameless. Lets not go there again.

But is there any more information around than that? I feel like I've missed out on something. I first heard of FTB on Monkeyfarm's "Modded Minecraft" series, and that's what inspired me to try out mods. Monkeyfarm said something about "looking forward to Feed The Beast", Direwolf makes a guest appearance at one point, and then they switch over to playing on a FTB server with a bunch of other guys.

So what have I missed in the history of FTB? Where does the name come from? Who is this Direwolf chap? Is he a modder himself? I'm going to take a look at his YouTube channel tonight, so maybe I'll find the answer to that one. But when my freinds ask me "So what's this beast thing and why are there no beasts in it, sounds more like feed the bees to me", what do I tell them?

 

[dc0110]

Well Monkeyfarm was doing his modded minecraft series with Docm77, and he's a member of the Mindcrack and maybe the Hermitcraft server (I could be very wrong with the later) so that kind of explains where the other guys came from. Docm77 and Monkeyfarm joined their server playing FTB.
I remember the episode when Direwolf joined them, and I'm saddened to say I didn't know who he was then, but have since watched a hell of a lot of his videos and found them to be a great help
As for the name and some of the history, I'm a little in the dark too, but would love to know more

 

[Poppycocks]

Feed the beast is a challenge map based on the mods which are now in the modpack. There was a giant machine in the middle of the map you could fill up with the required goal items to beat the challenge, it was called the beast.

Hence, feed the beast.

 

[Lambert2191]

lol that's where I found him too, but since then have watched all of this seasons SSP, and all of this season and last seasons SMP... sorta helps to let you know whats what.

 

[ThemsAllTook]

Well Monkeyfarm was doing his modded minecraft series with Docm77, and he's a member of the Mindcrack and maybe the Hermitcraft server (I could be very wrong with the later)

As far as I know, Monkeyfarm isn't a member of the Mindcrack server. Since he and Doc had their modded Minecraft series already going when the Mindcrack FTB server went up, Doc wanted to play with his Mindcrack friends, but didn't want to have two different video series going, so he asked Guude if Monkeyfarm could play with him on the Mindcrack FTB server. I don't think Monkeyfarm is on the vanilla Mindcrack server, unless he was added recently and I haven't heard about it yet.

 

[Evil Hamster]

I'm same as several of you here. I watched a few Docm tutorials for my vanilla world, and thought what the heck, I'll check it out when he started his modded series. I also didn't have a clue who Dire was when he made a guest appearance I downloaded tekkit for a short time, but quit when I figured out forestry was missing and I wouldn't be able to make several of the cool setups to wait for ftb!

Of course, now I'm hooked and vanilla mc seems boring..

 

[Lambert2191]

tbh I find Monkeyfarms Mindcrack video's boring :/
much prefered when he and Doc were on their own... also, intense dislike of gregtech probs doesn't help

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Feed The Beast was once a challenge map. Basically, Slowpoke saw the skyblock style challenge maps and said "Let's see if I can make a challenge map with mods and still have it challenging!". Feed The Beast was the result.

It not only wasn't trivialized by EE2, it absolutely demanded EE2 in order to progress. You couldn't get iron at all except by going to the nether, farming pigmen zombies for gold nuggets, turn it into a gold bar, then transmute that into iron bars.

It grew to be popular enough that they decided to make a mod pack for it, because lots of people wanted to play it but were very unfamiliar with modding and they wanted to let people compete against one another easier.

That evolved into 'making a mod author friendly mod pack, with permissions gained before hand', and a side-shot of 'let's make a launcher so it's even easier for the common minecrafter to play it'.

I can't wait to see what FTB map Slowpoke and crew comes out with once all the mods have updated...

 

[Watchful11]

Direwolf20 is simply a popular youtuber who is on good terms with the mod authors.
Over the last year or 2 he has come to be considered the ultimate authority on minecraft mods. (not necessarily the best player, just the one who knows what's happening)

 

[Evil Hamster]

Direwolf20 is simply a popular youtuber who is on good terms with the mod authors.
Over the last year or 2 he has come to be considered the ultimate authority on minecraft mods. (not necessarily the best player, just the one who knows what's happening)

He may not be the best at building*, but he does GREAT mod spotlights! If you want to get a good idea for the basics of a mod, check his mod spotlights section.

*- better than me though

 

[slay_mithos]

As many said, Feed the Beast was a challenge map, with a mod pack pre-configured to play with.

The name came from the fact that is is not a simple "here are the challenge, make a file and check them yourself as you go".
It was about feeding specific items to the "beast" (a RP contraption that checked the items), and gain rewards that would enable you to do the next.

For example, in the most crazy one, you had to make 9 items from iron, wood and stone. after feeding it, it would provide you redstone, that was required for the next challenge...
Along the way, you got your hands on tin, copper, rubber, and other necessities, but others had to come from your knowledge of mods (like glowstone having a hidden recipe in IC2), and a massive usage of EE2.

It was basically about getting the best EE generation possible with what you had at a given time, and some people came up with some crazy contraptions (early dark room, mob farm, flax capacitor, milking hell...).

It was really a long game, even more if you didn't plan according to what you would need later on (BC gates, UU mater...), but it was fun to see how you could use all those mods in creating crazy contraptions in a void world.