I have a friend who won't play Minecraft because it looks boring. He's right, of course. He would love modded Minecraft, however, so I convinced him to join me in a game. I'm trying to select the right modpack for the introduction. Keep in mind, he's never used NEI or anything like it, he doesn't know anything about power generation, and complicated things like Blood Magic are going to just baffle him. Tinkers' Construct seems like a good starting point, but I'm looking for a pack that leaves him room to grow without destroying his enthusiasm.
What's a good starter modpack, for someone who's never played?
- Thread starter Bihlbo
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Run 1.7 with just Thaumcraft 4 and Rotarycraft.
Thaumcraft has interesting mechanics, beautiful textures, a guide book, and the nice storyline of trading sanity for power. It has believable automation (golems), handy trinkets, great armor, and a need to have handy trinkets and great armor (exploration and fighting, plus boss fights). IMO, TC4 is one of the best mods ever written, even if the research mechanic gets tedious after the second or third time through.
Rotarycraft is science and technology, as opposed to the Thaumcraft mysticism. The power system is straightforward and simple enough to learn, but challenging enough to provide ample gameplay once you get it. It has answers for most problems, while encouraging supply chain and resource management. The end goodies are enough to make you feel like it was worth the effort while the effort is challenging enough to make you feel like you earned the rewards.
Throw in Storage Drawers and maybe Ender Storage for convenience, and you have all you need. If you're worried about the boredom factor still, toss in Twilight Forest and its progressive combat challenges.
Thaumcraft has interesting mechanics, beautiful textures, a guide book, and the nice storyline of trading sanity for power. It has believable automation (golems), handy trinkets, great armor, and a need to have handy trinkets and great armor (exploration and fighting, plus boss fights). IMO, TC4 is one of the best mods ever written, even if the research mechanic gets tedious after the second or third time through.
Rotarycraft is science and technology, as opposed to the Thaumcraft mysticism. The power system is straightforward and simple enough to learn, but challenging enough to provide ample gameplay once you get it. It has answers for most problems, while encouraging supply chain and resource management. The end goodies are enough to make you feel like it was worth the effort while the effort is challenging enough to make you feel like you earned the rewards.
Throw in Storage Drawers and maybe Ender Storage for convenience, and you have all you need. If you're worried about the boredom factor still, toss in Twilight Forest and its progressive combat challenges.
N
NerpyDerpston
Guest
Does he regularly play survival/tech type games? If so, you might be able to get away with RFTools dimensions, with The One Probe of course (instead of waila) and I doubt you will NEED N/JEI to look up recipes, as those are in the manual.
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The one thing I'm sure he'll enjoy is the engineering and planning required to build automation and some other things we all know and love. Immersive Engineering is at the top of my list of mods, for that reason and because of the aesthetic. I bet he'd also really like making redstone circuits. I'm just trying to find a modpack that allows that sort of work without balls-to-the-wall wackiness of something like Draconic Evolution.
...rotarycraft, for a new player? I can think of all kinds of great arguments for why you'd suggest it, and yet when I picture myself as a brand new player, it falls apart. The thread itself on mc forum is also fairly toxic to question-askers unless they do serious homework beforehand.
To the OP: My recommendation is something like the Direwolf20 pack (pick any version.) The best way for a new player to pick up modded minecraft is to play a pack that they can easily follow on youtube.
^This.
If Direwolf20 is known for nothing else, He IS known for LPs for each version of his pack as well as mod spotlights for nearly everything
Yeah, Direwolf20 with the combination of his videos and modpack are what got me into using modpacks to begin with. I can't see my friend putting in the effort to watch his videos without first thinking the game is fun, though. Still, it's a good modpack, Bront.
Option A) Intro 2 Mods with the amusing Pack Code of Uplifting Noobs. Very, very light, and with lots of mods that are everywhere. A great pack to teach a new player.
Option B) Space Astronomy. A much deeper pack, but it has a Hardcore Questing Mod book, that is more of a guide book. It leads through the early tinkers, and then into technology. It's a guided tour, but with plenty of room to go off the beaten track.
Option C) If he likes a challenge? Future's Edge is a bit nasty to get started and the recipes are nasty hardmode, but once you get through the opening of the pack, it really does open up. Much more linear in it's questing, like SpaceA it's very much a guided tour, but some stuff you can manage to do without following the book too close.
Etho might be a better starting place than Direwolf.
Option B) Space Astronomy. A much deeper pack, but it has a Hardcore Questing Mod book, that is more of a guide book. It leads through the early tinkers, and then into technology. It's a guided tour, but with plenty of room to go off the beaten track.
Option C) If he likes a challenge? Future's Edge is a bit nasty to get started and the recipes are nasty hardmode, but once you get through the opening of the pack, it really does open up. Much more linear in it's questing, like SpaceA it's very much a guided tour, but some stuff you can manage to do without following the book too close.
Etho might be a better starting place than Direwolf.
I had never heard of Intro 2 Mods, that's a great find! I had forgotten how basic but fundamental Buildcraft is. That might be the way to start off.
Etho is a lot less intimidating than Direwolf, that's for sure. I still don't know how someone twitches around at 90 mph and still stays focused on a task.
I was thinking this myself! Of all the things I've heard about RotaryCraft, its suitability for a new player completely unused to modded (or any) minecraft is NOT one of them!
Plus the aforementioned... coolness... towards questions would be extremely offputting for a new player.IntroToMods sounds quite good, or one of the Lite packs. The original Tekkit was where I got started, and that was a nice collection of technical, magical, utility and world gen mods; so anything along those lines that doesn't have major recipe or config changes would be ideal.