#i may or may not be really frustrated with my one modpack lol

[transingthoseformers]

Remember that episode of TFA where Soundwave, using spiked Oilnog, convinced the Autobots that they were humans?

I could do so much with that technology. And well not every one of those uses is exactly nice but hey some of the uses are nice. You can run so many experiments with the simulations, so so many

[prismarine-blocks]

modpacks we've played

doubles as a handy list for ourselves and for our followers that want to check out modpacks

(not intended to be listed from most to least favorite but it accidentally ended up that way so uhh oops)

stoneblock / sb2

general thoughts: second one is much more polished and better. definitely good for multiple people to work on at once as a team. random rewards are actually useful and can give you good stuff early on!

thoughts on mods: thaumcraft is useless but is actually pretty cool if you choose to get into it. draconic is *chef's kiss* so fucking sexy, along with tinkers construct. resource chickens are GREAT. fluid cows need some polishing and take a stupid amount of wheat and time to get places with. anything past draconic (project E and so on) terrifies me so we haven't done much with it

thermal expansion is GREAT, the little machines make the best noises (esp. the pulverizer. ahhhh). flux networks is also great and i love the interface! ae2 is a pain but arguably fun to work with. i don't use immersive engineering for much tbh but it's good for making cloches :3

other mods are also useful but these are the ones i know off the top of my head by name

tips:

start chickens early on! they are great for getting loads of resources in the beginning of the game- most resources can be obtained through chickens. also, you can stack up to 16 chickens and breed them up to 10/10/10 in stats- if you do that, they'll give you 3 of their item about every second ago

yes, chicken boxes (nesting & breeding) are affected by the acceleration wand. NO they are NOT affected by imaginary time blocks. sorry lads

DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT CURSED EARTH UNLESS YOU ARE READY. enclose that shit in obsidian and have water buckets ready to turn it off in case something goes wrong. also, a little goes a very, very long way

have at least one cloche for wheat. you'll need both the seeds and the wheat itself (if you have too much wheat and not enough seeds, you can get one seed from 2 wheat in your crafting panel)

don't worry about the inventory crafting extension. it's cool and all but if you're anything like me you'll either forget you have it or hate it because it doesn't use the same interface as crafting tables/stations

the ME system (computer) is super time consuming to build but also extremely fucking useful. do yourself a favor and build that before any mob farms. your storage space will thank you

don't forget to add in optifine if you like to use it, and also be sure to slap this mod (not the rewritten version! that one may not work) in there so you can grow top tier inferium + nether star seeds in the cloches. note that you CAN'T grow neutronium in there, sorry :(

challenge ideas:

actually use thaumcraft lol

don't use the mining dimension. for this you'll need to do a LOT of hammering and sieving- luckily there are autohammers/sieves just for this! :)

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skyfactory 4

general thoughts: hehe skyblock

really though, fun pack! great for working on as a team. in fact i'd honestly recommend it

thoughts on mods: sky orchards is time consuming but it's a nice way to gather resources! haven't used resource hogs at all, honestly not sure if they're necessary. tinkers is here and i LOVE the porcelain smeltery. very compact, very cute. can't remember a lot of other mods right now but the pack is generally pretty nice™

tips:

you can't smelt cobble in the porcelain smeltery to get seared stone, so try to use petrified resin blocks instead

get hopping bonsais asap! also remember that they need to be on a chest to deposit their contents

slab chests aren't really worth it. slab furnaces and tables though..... Slightly more worth it. i still wouldn't really recommend them except for the achievement tbh

if you don't want a super horizontal base, build up! you have a LOT of room to build upwards, and you have the ability to climb walls (jump, shift + w, then tap shift while holding w to get to the top)

if you're in a snowy biome, put something above your smeltery. snow will break it if it starts building up layers on the inside

slime boots are your best friend! great for if you accidentally fall off. easiest way to get them is building a smeltery and then standing in it for the congealed blood

nether portals don't work, don't spend time on making one! check out the cakes instead (just make sure you aren't making xl food mod ones)

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compact claustrophobia

general thoughts: literal actual hell in a cube. fun! not the best for multiple people to work on as a team; there are certain places where the quest trees kinda bottleneck and it's difficult for people to work on the same thing. don't recommend if playing in tight spaces actually affects your claustrophobia

and yes. the fart sounds stop being funny after a while. like the second time tbh

thoughts on mods: i don't know most of the mods in here by name- or at least, ones that aren't also in sb2- so i can't give much in specifics. that said, whatever gives you the thermoelectric generators is great and really useful for power. also the autoclickers are 👌

tips:

do yourself a favor and grind for more tiny compact machines. you'll need some later and you'll also want to use them for extra space

autoclickers + vacuumulator + hopper and chest setup works Great, def recommend. also as a note, try to avoid standing in front of autoclickers that are left clicking- they DO hurt you

save your poop and work on getting a farm asap. you can use it as fuel that smelts up to 32 items if you just mix it with wheat

(i haven't played this as much as sb2 so unfortunately i don't have much to say)

challenge idea: only use one room of each size at a time. this is going to be nearly impossible given the size of a lot of machines, but trust me, it's (probably) possible

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sevtech ages

general thoughts: bullshit. not in a fun way. it's really just complex for the sake of being complex tbfh. you want a challenge that's actually just hours upon hours of suffering? congrats here you go

the only thing that makes this better than rlcraft is the fact that it has an actual quest/achievement line and doesn't absolutely hate its players

thoughts on mods: the only cool one is whatever you build the totem pole and do dances for, that's it. maybe the dark forest place too bc it looks cool even if it IS a pain in the ass as well. tombstones are kinda useful too tbh

tips:

don't play this

if you still want to play this, don't

really though: the saw is useful

the watermill is arguably better than the windmill

try to set your base somewhere close to an ocean or river biome; those are the only places with unlimited water until you get aqueducts

get an autoclicker for grinding stuff with the lever. trust me your fingers will thank you

backpacks will be your new best friends. embrace this

getting through each age takes a LOT of time. don't feel bad for taking breaks

challenge ideas: honestly the game is hard enough on its own, i can't really think of anything that would make stuff harder... outside of maybe smth like "only do things manually, don't use horsepower" or whatever, which is just plain mean at this point

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rlcraft

general thoughts: don't

thoughts on mods: just don't

tips:

love yourself

do not play this

don't even think about it

i know it's all haha fun youtube right now

but please don't do this to yourself

challenge idea: don't touch this ever

actually serious thoughts: super overrated. incredibly frustrating. another pack that isn't challenging so much as just fucking horrible. it's mean! it hates you! you'll eventually hate it too! i've sunk so much time into this and honestly? it's just not worth it. it really just isn't. nothing you do will ever please the gods of rlcraft and if you're lucky you'll build a nice sexy base that will be gone the next time you die because the game decided your bed wasn't valid :)

if you want an actual challenge, play compact claustrophobia. play packs that limit you in terms of space or resource gathering. don't play packs like this that are only hard because they spawn big fuckoff dragons that burn everything all the time constantly, or that respawn you fuck knows where bc somehow your bed unloaded or """got obstructed""", or that have mobs that will literally go through walls just to commit murder. oh and half the time you can't even sleep because it just randomly spawns a mob that can kill you!! just don't do it, man. your time and energy are worth more than that