Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[The_Explorer]

(since I have quickly given up on RLcraft, this thread can just be a general mod pack thread for Minecraft and thread has been renamed. Don't think a mod pack Minecraft thread exists on this forum. Keep in mind, this is for packs not individual mods. This thread also acts as a semi-guide/journal on the mod packs I've personally been playing, and maybe others have tips and stuff to for various mod packs they may play or have played).

I link to RLcraft, but there is a lot of other packs. They are easy to find, later I'll provide links.

GT New Horizons is probably the most "famous", its also probably the longest (maybe there is one that beats it now). If play singleplayer, it can take months of real time to get to the mid-game, if not longer. Its probably my personal favorite mod pack, but its a long one. Multiplayer it goes faster just because have more people working on stuff. Though, its very grindy and can be pretty complicated, especially once get to the tech stuff. Early on, getting a bed is very hard too (villages don't have beds), but if you die get a marker showing where your corpse is (which I like). Then you break your gravestone to get your items. You can set markers for home and other landmarks as well.

There is also Rustic Waters, simply put, its subnautica in minecraft. Except, its probably more complicated just cause its minecraft and has some additional stuff. Haven't messed with it too much, but watched a few videos of it. Looks interesting, completely different than minecraft. And you get pet rats that can do stuff, which is neat.

https://www.technicpack.net/modpack/shivaxi-rlcraft.1530385 (best source, I found twitch version didn't work with optifine for me, maybe it would for others but not me). If don't use optifine guess it doesn't matter

Here is the twitch version (guess its curseforge, but can install it through twitch which is easiest):
https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/modpacks/rlcraft

I contemplated just talking about the mod in the actual minecraft thread, but decided that maybe this thread could act as a guide. So, anyone else who has played (or playing) can maybe document their progress and what they learned. There is not really any guide to the mod pack (there are let's plays of the mod pack, but personally don't want to watch 100s of hours and hours of a let's play when reading a typical guide with text is easier and faster). Sadly, the only guide I can find is just the very basics to get started (up to stone tools and how to make a shield). So its pretty much truly a "discover and learn it" yourself mod pack

Also, I believe the "RL" stands for Roguelike, or at least thats the way the mod pack seems to play. Expect to die...a lot...and always respawn in a random spot (until sleep in a bed). And even when you get settled in, you'll probably die from a fire breathing dragon or an afrit or any number of things. Or maybe you'll open a trapdoor and fall in a pit of magma unable to get out.

There is also skills you need to level up to do certain stuff. Like to do farming, gotta have farming level 4 just to get started. To mine iron I believe its mining level 8. So its some grinding involved for levels to do stuff.

Here is the getting started guide:
https://rlcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Getting_Started

The way to get the first tools (and planks of wood and sticks) is very different than normal minecraft. The starting guide is pretty useful.

From there, its up to the individual to figure everything out. Though after getting stone tools, all the other tool recipes are the same as basic minecraft. But there are so much new content, and think there is something involving bees that its a lot of trial and error.

The only "mods" I added to the mod pack is optifine with sildurs shaders (medium) and Chroma Hills Resource Pack. Pretty much makes minecraft look like a completely different game, though optifine is rather resource intensive.

Seeds as a warning aren't a 100% thing. So seed sharing isn't nearly as useful. You respawn in a random location of up to (supposedly) 50 spots. So to get a certain "seed" someone found, I guess can die 50 times and eventually get it. I think I died a ton and was starting to respawn in same locations before, but I couldn't say for sure because it still seemed slightly different spots if so.

As for my current game. I managed to get really lucky and find a village. Pretty much the easiest (and best) way to start off the mod pack is finding a village, but that requires luck sadly. From there can try to get a flying mount (yes you can fly on a mount, haven't found one yet) and can explore floating landmarks (I saw a floating wizard tower for example, and a floating fire castle). And then when you start exploring, you can die to explore again. But the key thing is, finding an abandoned house (or again, village) and sleeping in a bed. Because at that point it doesn't matter how many times you die, you'll end up in the same spot. Though, you'll lose your levels (but not skills).

To finish off the opening. This mod pack supposedly will take 1000s of hours to finish and see everything, and that is if know what one is doing (and maybe played similar mods before). There is so much stuff, that I dunno if I'll even finish it tbh. People spent more time than I have spent in EU4 and skyrim combined (about 2k/3k hours) and still haven't seen everything and figured everything out. But I can say, its the hardest mod pack I played. Also expect dragons or/and afrits to burn your house down.

[The_Explorer]

Hopefully this thread helps those who read this in the future that play or may play RLcraft.

In ESC menu there is an achievement menu that acts as a tiny guide, though it doesn't really help much.

As for my game. I was getting annoyed by the huge forest outside the village I have a base in. Dinosaurs (yes dinosaurs) started showing up and other nasty monsters. Then any time I tried exploring, it was hard to find the village again and kept getting lost. So I burnt the entire forest all to the ground. Currently 6 days in the game and the fires are still going. I also noticed fire spreads a lot better than normal Minecraft. Spreads fast, and lasts longer.

The downside to starting a massive wildfire? Well...you see...

Now there are tons of fire elementals and cinder elementals floating around. They are super angry too. So starting a wildfire woke up angry elementals.

Near a village made mostly of wood xD

[MCreeper]

Spawned in a birch forest, found a wooden fort with bunch of neutral aegises, two villagers and a pixen inside. There were also beds, chests, furnaces and workbenches. Waited for night and slept. Got killed by crazy fast zombie that spawned outside, aegises killed him, he dropped hallloween treat. On usage it spawned wicked treant that killed me again. Treats dropped by treant and some other mob gave me 3 iron blocks and 2 emeralds. Then game nearly ran out of memory. Even if i wanted to play this, it's a hard pass.  Also 125 mods is hardly biggest minecraft modpack i have ever seen by mod count, that would be around 300.  May be biggest coherent for all i know.

[The_Explorer]

Spawned in a birch forest, found a wooden fort with bunch of neutral aegises, two villagers and a pixen inside. There were also beds, chests, furnaces and workbenches. Waited for night and slept. Got killed by crazy fast zombie that spawned outside, aegises killed him, he dropped hallloween treat. On usage it spawned wicked treant that killed me again. Treats dropped by treant and some other mod gave me 3 iron blocks and 2 emeralds. Then game nearly ran out of memory. Even if i wanted to play this, it's a hard pass.  Also 125 mods is hardly biggest minecraft modpack i have ever seen by mod count, that would be around 300.  May be biggest coherent for all i know.

Hmm, I'll edit the title then to something more appropriate. I just went by what was advertised when I first saw it "biggest", but it is the hardest. I think there is a mod pack that is actually bigger, and has a vastly better guidance system (WITHIN the game itself). Think its called Gregtech new horizons is the one I'm thinking. It adds tons of new biomes, and there is a (in-game) book that is a guide.

And yeah, those halloween treats are 100% trick 0% treat lol. maybe its 99% trick 1% treat, but always summon stuff from them.

Its a pretty niche mod pack though, as in...the vast majority of people probably won't like it tbh.

And I'm gonna be honest...despite making this thread...

the mod pack is starting to get on my nerves. I can't do anything or progress, and can't figure anything out. I did discover how to grow apple trees. Iron bucket filled with dirt+uneaten apple=seed

But I'm getting pretty frustrated with it.

[Cyroth]

The modpack is great at first, but it gets annoying really fast. My brother used to run a server a year or so ago, but he shut it down after a month or so.

The new progression is fun and the added survival elements are great, but getting one-shot every 5 minutes by random skeleton (because I swear those damn skeletons have a 90% headshot rate and you need dragonbone to survive that more then once) and rebuilding your entire base every 2 days because some asshole dragon decided to glass the entire square kilometer you've lived in gets old reeeeeeally fast.

[slowdraw]

The individual body part health bars make the mod nearly unplayable and extremely tedious. Even with pretty high end armor 2-3 shots from a skeleton will drop your head HP to nothing, which kills you. This is extremely annoying because, as Cyroth mentioned, they seem to have a +90% headshot rate. This is entirely based on a group of streamers play the mod several months ago, but I'm pretty sure I would have thought the same if I had been the one playing it.

[The_Explorer]

Reading more into it, RLcraft is I guess considered a "meme" pack whatever that means. And stuff is done to purposely troll players (like skeletons 1-2 headshotting and sometimes rapid fire skeletons). I was looking at other mod packs, and there is actually a harder one than RLcraft called Dungeons, Dragons and and space shuttles. In that pack its a bit similar, but even harder and more BS mechanics (like every skeleton having rapid fire, and some skeletons wear something that also shoots arrows out of the helmet thing) and that pack, the creepers move super fast so its impossible to run from them. Its even more grindy and hard to progress than RLcraft (besides an actual quest system to act as a guidance).

GT Horizons I started up, and it plays a lot better. I played it years ago, so I forgot pretty much everything. Also my old PC couldn't play it, so I think I only played an hour or two, maybe three before the mod wasn't playable (it never really was on my old PC, got less than 10 fps lol, but then it started crashing).  The mobs I've encountered aren't troll mobs that one hit you, but its considered the grindiest/longest pack (though maybe there are grindier/longer ones now). Though it has a good quest guidance system and achievements that act like a guide.

There is another one called Rustic Waters. I haven't really started it, but its subnautica but minecraft. Very subnautica like with a lot of the same stuff from subnautica, put into the mod.

[The_Explorer]

I renamed the thread title to something more general. RLcraft was too annoying. And I don't even want to check out dungeons, dragons and space shuttles if its like RLcraft but times 10 lol. I guess RLcraft may have used to be the hardest, but now there is an even harder one. So the previous thread title wasn't really accurate anymore. In any case, there is a lot of good mod packs out there. Some pretty unique ones, like one I mentioned above that turns Minecraft to Subnautica (Rustic Waters). I'm not sure how hard it is, but its not like GT New Horizons or RLcraft, and the quest system is actually good from what I've seen.

Plus you get pet rats in rustic waters that can do stuff for you.

[The_Explorer]

Found a walled in city in GT Horizon. Actually, the area I got is amazing. Oil INSIDE the city. Oil right outside the walls. River+lake outside (a good source of water is supposedly super important). A walled city to the north in a desert (which is important for sand, which I guess is important), and random villages around.

City made my home at, the house has two Apiaries (which are the best kind) in the backyard. Got a marshy hive going, and their requirements are a bit weird. They make honey from mushrooms, not flowers. I had to look it up, cause I had tons of flowers around but they are unique. I probably got super lucky as far as this goes, because bees aren't really until a good part into the stone age if not past it lol.

[Lidku]

Does anyone feel the modding scene for Minecraft is pretty dead? Almost all the major mods are still at 1.12.2, barely any new mods come out, and the interest for mods are at an all time low. It feels like the peak was 2009-2014.

[The_Explorer]

Does anyone feel the modding scene for Minecraft is pretty dead? Almost all the major mods are still at 1.12.2, barely any new mods come out, and the interest for mods are at an all time low. It feels like the peak was 2009-2014.

Yeah, I noticed a lot are on 1.12. GT horizons is in 1.17. But there isn't much in the way of new stuff.

The older mod packs can't really update though. Like GT Horizons would need to re-do their whole mod pack to work with the newest version. And a lot of mods might not work on the newer version or just not up to date. Its a bit messy. Reminds me a bit of Skyrim, where every update broke a ton of mods, and a lot of mods never were updated to work on newer versions. Happens to a lot of games, but for minecraft it seems most mod packs are on older versions. Not aware of any decent/huge mod packs for newer versions of minecraft. On the plus side, at least when minecraft updates you can go to an older version and still play mods.

I dunno how the playerbase is though. Besides the mod packs using older versions of minecraft, are the packs and mods themselves still decently active?

[Lidku]

I'm not an expert, but it seems the playerbase usage of mods are pretty low- because if the demand was higher, more new mods would come about or the old ones would work harder to update. It seems to correlate with the shift of Minecraft Youtubers not doing videos of mods much anymore (whether or not this correlates with the lack of new mods on being made in the first place on the flip side is up for debate), the focus of the Minecraft community as of now seems to be mini-games or speedrun videos. Its really sad because my favorite mods such as Tales of Kingdoms, Millenaire, Mo'Creeps N' Weirdos, Goblins, Clay Soldiers, etc. seem to be way of the Dodo.

[The_Explorer]

Got a bed finally in GT Horizons. I had to "steal" the fence behind the house I'm in to make it (I guess to be the bed "frame). But I don't understand how to actually make fences. I think the recipe that shows up on how to make it is wrong and it must be different than how it normally is.

[slowdraw]

IIRC the biggest reason that many mods never updated to versions past 1.12 was because Mojang had to completely change how individual blocks were stored in the coding of the game. They were around the point where (I think) they could add one to two more types before they reached a hard cap of block types. This meant that most modders would have been forced to do a bunch of tedious work just to update to 1.13+ versions. That probably chased away a good number of mod makers.
Another thing that probably lead to a shift away from modpack type servers and such was Minecraft has become pretty easy to 'mod' using datapacks and command blocks. I believe datapacks can only use in game assets, but once you have installed the pack for the server and set up the command blocks properly anybody who joins is good to go. Meanwhile, using a mod pack seems like it requires quite a bit of behind the scenes work to get running, and from what I have seen it is a huge pain to update any of the mods once the server is up. It's kind of sad that mods seem to be less popular, because the in game achievement system, crafting recipes, and scripting would make it possible for mods to feel more integrated into the base game than they do in older versions of the game.

[delphonso]

Note also that most of the player-base today are on mobile - which doesn't support modding, or at least not well and that Roblox sort of took some of the thunder away from the modded experience. All my students only play Minecraft as a free (I'm in China) MOBA thanks to servers and command-blocks as slowdraw said.

Anyway, anybody got a light/laptop pack which they recommend? I'm not particularly in it for the slow tech-crawl up the chain. I more just want a different experience than vanilla to mill about in and build a nice house.