I really don't get it. My 10 year old daughter and I have recently started playing with Gregtech using the Unhinged pack. I have always built our own mod groups for us. Trying the FTB route this time. The only modification to the modback is keeping AE up to date and adding logistics pipes.
I don't understand the "power" problems people have. Running a simple boiler with a couple of Turbines gets you up and running pretty fast. Once you have that going everything else is easy to get to. It's fun early on really have to work for things to get fired up. This whole model that I'm seeing in unleashed looks really dull to me. Make ridiculously OP tools and Armor with Dartcraft(thinks that the name) and tinkers and then ignore everything around you. If that's all you want why not just play creative? I want a game that takes a little bit of effort and planning. Unhinged works well for that.
The only issues are have with it are
1. Thermal expansion is too cheap
2. Railcraft boilers / blast furnances are too cheap and make it too easy to jump up in tech
3. Quarries need to require 4 - 8x the power they do for what they give.
4. Oil -> Fuel is too cheap to generate in Buildcraft, again making power generation a joke (really easy to jump start your base on this).
5. Powersuit patterns are really easy or require work ... why is there both????
6. Gregtech needs a little more info on what some of the items are and how to use them (have to go to creative world to test things out to figure out what they are at times).
Gregtech is a great mod that actually makes you apply some forethought and planning to what you do. As you move up the tech tree the items under it become a joke. Really don't get this "it's too hard" thinking. So for me ... live without gregtech was dull ... with gregtech is a good time!!
All of this misses the point of the objection. Gregtech isn't "too hard." Gregtech does extend the middle of the game out significantly and a lot of the original content is quite clever. I miss parts of the mod too.
The objection is that the author is unstable and has shown he will break a user's install if he doesn't like how his mod is used. He won't pull himself out of loading, or register a formal complaint, or try to talk to anyone. He will just crash your client on launch. Basically you can only play Gregtech in a safe way if you do everything Greg asks of you. This means limiting your modset to the mods Greg directly says he supports. This means adding new content runs the risk of breaking if Greg decides someone else is the new mDiyo.
You won't see many modpacks use Gregtech now. Because basically any modpack that uses Gregtech will look like FTB Unhinged. Why would someone copy FTB Unhinged?
On a personal note, Gregtech isn't hard. I would rather build my own awesome projects rather than ride the progression rails that Greg has for me. Unlike some people in this forum, I do not have 8 hours a day to play, or even an hour a day to play. Anyone who tells me I am lazy will be put on ignore instantly, because I am anything but. I just want to play a modded minecraft that lets me relax and enjoy the kind of game
I want to play. This means playing with new content and not just building yet another iGrinder. It means setting new standards for compactness on builds. It means playing with building styles to improve the creative aspects of my build. It means having a fun experience caving with a genuine sense of danger and reward. Why 13 year olds with all the time in the world and 0 obligations in life want to constant lecture me on how I just need to "put in the time" when the opposite is probably true has slowly grated on me, and I confess to being a bit raw and irritable on the subject.
I am not playing Minecraft to show what a smart person or good engineer I am, I'll let my real actual work speak for that. I'm not playing Minecraft to impress anyone, which is good because they won't be impressed if they're any good. I'm playing Minecraft to have fun and give myself easy, discrete problems to solve in 1-2 hour increments so that I can briefly escape from the far more real, difficult, and perhaps insolubleproblems I face in real life as a software engineer.