FyberOptic

I'm probably not exactly your target audience since I have no interest in making public packs, but from my point of view, I can tell you that you haven't given people a lot of incentive to join your group.  There's no idea for a pack given other than one that the general public will like, which to me implies "kitchen sink" even if that's not what you mean.  That's not to say that a general pack can't still be good, but the popular pack groups out there these days tend to make heavily customized and themed ones, which have a tendency to overshadow the traditional kind.  You haven't said whether you own any servers or anything that the group can work from, or more importantly, to host the pack at.  You also haven't stated your own abilities and what you'll contribute to your group, or your previous experience at such things.  One of the first things that someone with skills and experience looks for when joining a group is whether the group leader is a contributor or an idea guy.
Not trying to criticize you, but you might have better luck if you give potential members more to go on.
 

I agree that EE1 was arguably more balanced.  The only thing you could produce out of thin air was glowstone and obsidian.  That in and of itself was slowwww, so you needed a lot of aggregators.  You then had to make use of other mods to actually automate production of any other resource from it, which made it feel like you were really doing something.  It was incredibly similar to UU matter in that respect.  Then they basically condensed (pun intended) that down into a single block in EE2.  Which isn't to say EE2 was bad at all, mind you, just certainly easier to abuse.
As for modpacks, they tend to follow trends, and there's this whole obsession over balance these days, so I wouldn't worry too much about what they do.  If you like Project E, throw it in whichever pack you want, or just put your own together.  It's never been easier.

Well, I don't know how to start this...
Let's start in the same place I stopped the original Modding News thread. It was lost during the forum update. Too bad. Well, actually I'm not sorry because the previous thread diverted from the original idea an brought unnecessary drama to this board. If the same thing happens to this thread, I'll live with it (I guess the community likes drama) but the main goal is bringing interesting news, events, new mod features, "cool minecraft stuff" and of course the bugs to a wider audience. This is deeply connected with the other main topic here: mod authors achievements and fails. The current forum software has problems with huge posts so I hope this one will not be as big as the original Modding News but if it will I'll move the older news off-site.
I would like to thank everyone who was reading the earlier topic, the number of views was really huge. Thanks.
Ok, that wasn't bad... I think. Onto the next part.
When you see a typo, incorrect information or you read something twice and cannot understand what you just read, blame it on me, I was probably drunk or just stupid (or both) writing it that way. Don't hesitate to message me about it. Yell at me in the comments, send me a PM here, on reddit, on irc or wherever you find me.
Now for the general information about mod downloads and updates:
Information about mod updates: NotEnoughMods (NEM ModBot's twitter feed), MCF Modlist
Safe places for mod downloads: Minecraftforum, Curse, CurseForge (with email notification service)
If you want to check out my work from the original thread you can check the Modding News Archive (it's an archive so things can be outdated/deprecated/offline) [page is WIP, no ads]
So.. let's star.... hold it.. the Disclaimer:
Everything below this line needs to be taken with a grain of salt. I'm not here to offend anybody, if you feel offended send me a message and I'll post how you feel about it.
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Last update: 4 July 2015
More news in the thread below
17 May 2015
if you are scared of the huge changelog in the recent Forge versions, don't be, it's just the effect of merging FML with MinecraftForge once and for all [warning: full commit with comments, takes some time to load] 16 May 2015
LookingGlass announcement by XCompWiz are you updating your modpack and need to reset the configs but you made some changes in there? ConfigPatcher is being coded as we speak to help you with that, example here [for now it's only MinecraftForge's configs but Lunatrius is quick] 15 May 2015
possible world breaking (corruption) with Minetweaker scripts revealed [read the replies] 13 May 2015
XyCraft is being worked on? I thought it's vaporware but hey. XyCraft clone is also being worked on? We had no XyCraft at all and now there are gonna be two of them? 11 May 2015
people are so desperate to play with Immersive Engineering that they started a black market with the builds, I've already seen 3 links with the build available, one of them being Curse/CurseForge (not released by the author!) and then quickly deleted, the mod will be released soon after it's out of alpha version. Here's BluSunrize's reaction FyberOptic has nothing other than problems with the 1.6.4 -> 1.7.10 bridge mod, this time with AE1 10 May 2015
new version of BDLib (1.7.2.80) implemented an /oredistribution command, sample output of that command can be found here, this will be very "useful to some people" 9 May 2015
JourneyMap 5.1 is now a public beta. It "has many internal changes to improve CPU and memory usage". the commit of the day can be found here, if it's not self explanatory the context can be found here AOBD 2.6.1 has been released and it now has an addon that adds oreberry bushes for all ores in the game (Another One Bites the Dust: Berry Bushes) 8 May 2015
Hexxit Gear is ready for the new Hexxit modpack and it looks very nice.
There's a new tech mod around. Immersive Engineering. Only little information is given and a small portion of screenshots about the mechanics. It's tested on ForgeCraft 2 now [the power lines, they transmit RF]. There are no builds out yet but the source code is here for the people able to compile it. [you'll need a bunch of libs]
New WailaPlugins should be up right about... now. Get it while it's hot with support for Forestry 3.4 and some parts of MFR and TE support (the rest is already in Waila).
7 May 2015
This post on reddit made me wondering about the amount of time passed with the Minecraft community. As one of the forums admins said I'm "fresh". I've bought the game on 12/17/2013 and I registered on this forum 4/23/2014 starting my Tekkit adventures. It's a very short time but it feels like ages.
Usual one-liners:
Thaumic Infusion has a stable 1.7.10 release. FyberOptic is not working on 1.7.10 versions of Dartcraft and Traincraft, he's working on a 1.6.4 -> 1.7.10 bridge mod. Btw Bluedart is rewriting Dartcraft under a different name. 5 May 2015
LoveHoly invented ExAstris in the place of the missing ExAliquo 1.7 addon. Insaneau continued the work on ExAstris after she went MIA. Well, now she's back with a surprise.
4 May 2015 (May the fourth be with you!)
Some time ago I asked Hilburn about his hacky way to update Steve's Factory Manager (Vswe's mod) with Steve's Addons, two days have passed and he made up his mind (repo link here). His mods show that he cares about the community fixing various 1.7.10 bugs in vanilla and other mods, also when others fail to deliver. Wait.. ExtraFixes has a 1.2.4b version? So like the ExU 1.2.4b version? I guess the changelog can answer that.
Are you making a skyblock/ExNihilo based pack and you want to add custom composting recipes to barrels? No more Minetweaker. This option was added to ExNihilo by default not long ago, custom items and oredict items/blocks can be now added in the configs. Warning: the main dev responsible for this is Inseanau (aka MikeLydeamore) while Erasmus Crowley works on ExNihio2 (as it turns out he won't get that 10 grands he asked for on Kickstarter).
Usual one-liners:
what is FyberOptic up to now? This you'll have to see for yourself. Applied Energistics 2 RV2 went into stable, check the changelog and download it in the usual place. Wait for the AE2 addon mods to catch up. you placed modded redstone wires (like ProjectRed alloy wire or EnderIO Redstone Conduit) beside the TiCon smeltery drains and it's not working? Grab the dev builds from TiCon jenkins and you'll be fine. [thanks PlowmanPlow for the link] please keep away from MinecraftForge 1.7.10-10.13.3.1399, it breaks 80% of coremods, the cause was making Forge compatible with Sponge, the change was reverted in 1400 and 1401. problems with TiCon smeltery melting redstone into redstone.molten (from ProjectRed) instead of Destabilized Redstone (Thermal Expansion)? Get rid of PR-Compat from the mods directory. [you will loose ProjectRed compatibility with those mods, but hey] making and giving support to a custom mopdack is not something that you just do, it's a way of life 2 May 2015
Aidan Brady (the Mekanism mod author) presented yesterday the Minecraft Mod Developer Pack (an add-on for Visual Studio for developing minecraft mods, repo link here) at Microsoft Build Developer Conference 2015
video from this part of the conference can be found here (start at 2:02:00) [listen carefully to Steven Guggenheimer's words before Aidan got on the stage] GeekWire article can be found here voxcpw's reaction here LexManos's reaction here Mojang... heh.. as usual Forge fluid registry changes... If you are a modpack creator you know this stuff. MinecraftForge changed fluid handling (version 1355+) not long ago and there were problems with many mods out there so let's gather the info about which ones should work with the latest Forge. I'll list only some of them (the delayed ones).
Mekanism (since 8.1.2.229) Minechem (since 5.0.5.395) EnderStorage (since 1.4.7.32) Railcraft (since 9.6.0.0) BuildCraft (since 6.4.11) TinkersConstruct (since 1.8.4) Team CoFH released CoFHTweaks (a "minecraft accelerator" type mod) that is suppose to speed things up. The mod:
backports some 1.8 performance features into 1.7.10. has the option to disable some performance heavy graphic tasks can speed up worldgen on servers can be downloaded here (repository link) if not working correctly (or you just don't like it) can be replaced (on the client AND the server) with Fastcraft (it does the same thing and can be downloaded here) Warning: Fastcraft is known to speed up clients and servers a lot but its source code is hidden and the jar file is "obfuscated to completely paranoid levels". You can refer to it as black magic or a black box as nobody (besides the author) knows what's inside. It can pretty much be a "computer virus".
Have you downloaded the latest forge yet? There are progress bars implemented while loading the game now and a rotating logo (which when stopped can indicate a freeze). Be sure to remove other launch gui changing mods (Better Loading Screen and Minecraft Loader) when using the 1710ls branch (Forge versions 1389 and above). Remember to leave feedback.
Equivalent Exchange 3 just went into beta. Grab it here and test the Transmutation Tablet.
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I'll update this post whenever I find something worth it. If not stated otherwise the mods and news presented here are for Minecraft version 1.7.10.
This project is WIP (work in progress)
Assets by Amaxter
 

Hmmm... I think the number will stay at two for the moment: Hexcraft and ProjectX. Soaryn didn't show any evidence that his version is not vaporware.
Oh, there are some nice things to report, so:
ProjectX's real developer was revealed. Hexcraft's dev on the other hand doesn't want his mod to follow Xycraft's path like ProjectX does. in the meantime (of my laziness) ExNihilo2 was released. Still at alpha so expect bugs and unfinished features. Supports Minecraft 1.8 SimplyJetpacks got an update also, now working with BC liquid fuel (BC6 that is). Drullkus is still experimenting with fancy blocks in StuffsAndThings. hmm, what else.... there also was:
Decocraft 2 released The most graphically interesting thing was "Dmillerw shooting CyanideX in the head while Azanor watches and Jadedcat flies away!"
What am I talking about? It's a new mod from FyberOptic: Model Citizens.

Hi, Curunir,

You were right, we dropped the ball with the Java 8 updates. We've updated our packs to support it, and I've been buzzing modpack developers about java 8 support as their packs are reported in the Platform. At some point in the next month I'm going to set a deadline for pack authors to add Java 8 support to be considered a "working" pack, but that is going to be at least a month off, I don't want to force too many changes on them at once.

We launched ok geeze this topic is filled with old information!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
We are launching on Christmas Day
 
Hold on to your butts.
 
The new Platform is here: http://beta.technicpack.net/
The new Launcher is available from here: LauncherV3



 
This is a major design and (especially) feature shift from the current system.

For those of you that make packs you get access to a wealth of social features, update-in-launcher aspects and a very clear line of communication to your users. Your Platform page is now a very robust platform (heh) from which to show off your creation and engage with your users directly.

For those of you that just play, now you'll have many more ways to interact with pack creators and a voice of your own to highlight packs you like, read what other users are doing, etc.

Everyone will benefit from the new system, and we hope you guys like it as much as we've loved creating it for you. Please remember that this is not complete and things will be broken. If you find something that doesn't work like you think it should post it here, or come to #platformbeta on SynIRC and let us know. 
 
If you already have a Platform account (not the same as your Forums account) just use the same info to log in, remember to use your email instead of your username.
 
List of new features: Platform Features: All NEW social features! Ability to follow users and modpacks Ability to post statuses as a user or a modpack owner. Dashboard feed of followed users/modpack posts Community feed of fellow users modpacks Like/Comment/Report posts New search engine powered by elasticsearch Makes it easier to find modpacks on the platform :woot: New algorithm to calculate trending modpacks! DOWN WITH +1 New statistics system for calculating runs and installs Improved back-end code Redesigned Admin console (for us) AND MUCH MORE Launcher Features: ALL NEW DESIGN!!!!! Modpacks Abillity to search for modpacks! Abillity to Install modpacks! View modpack descriptions and status posts! View modpack likes/runs/installs! News View news posts in a newly organized tab Discover View trending, HOT, and new modpacks General Options New selectable language support! (Translators wanted!) Custom Java arguments

I don't think it's wholly unjustified for Skelray to fear that Microsoft could screw this up, because let's face it, they've done it before with other acquisitions.  And naturally people are concerned that something which they really enjoy could potentially be marred by all of this.  But it can't be reiterated enough that Mojang lost control of this train a long time ago, and switching out conductors doesn't really change anything when modders can just keep building new tracks in front of it.
 
This is probably the most important part of the EULA at this point in time:
 
"We may also change this EULA from time to time but those changes will only be effective to the extent that they can legally apply. For example if you only use the Game in single player mode and don‘t use the updates we make available then the old EULA applies but if you do use the updates or use parts of the game that rely on our providing ongoing online services then the new EULA will apply."
 
Basically they've said that we can mod 1.8 and prior forever, because they can't change the EULA applied to those versions, and that EULA specifically says we can mod the game.  The same goes for every version released from here on out as well until the EULA says otherwise.  And if by "ongoing online services" they mean authentication servers, then that can be disabled.  And if they mean Realms, well, I don't think that's a concern, because we run our own modded servers.
 
There is literally nothing Mojang or Microsoft can legally do to stop us from playing and modding this game.  So if that's something anyone is concerned about, then don't worry about it.  The only thing in question is what they do with future versions of the game.  And we simply don't have to play those if they're particularly shitty or have a restricted EULA.

I grew up on dos. I watched as bill gates saved apple's ass during the 90's. I laughed as microsoft took a mid powered computer during the early 2000's and passed it off as a gaming console. I cursed when they bought FASA and turned both a tried and true game line and promising FPS based on interesting lore into lackluster offerings. And I saw them take a small game studio and transform their sci-fi shooter into something so compelling it turned the frat-boy crowd from diehard anti-nerd into console freaks who camp midnight launches.
I've watched microsoft for a quarter century now. And I can tell you they do make mistakes, but a company with nearly $100billion in yearly revenue doesn't just blindly drop a couple percent of that on a property then gut it while claiming they'll make it back in a year.
They do their research with people who have written essays about the socioeconomic effects of frogger on america. They run it past people who's whole job is to gauge market trends and warn them if their plan is so bloody stupid a 5 year old could point that out. Infact I'm guessing there's a dozen MC players out there who are still under an NDA from when they were in a focus group within the last year, who could give you a general idea of what MS plans to do with MC.


tl;dr You may want to believe microsoft is staffed by retards with zero business sense, but that doesn't make it true.
No one would think it's a good idea to tell their new playerbase that they can't play the game they already paid for unless they fork over a monthly fee.

I don't believe this is entirely true.  I actually could have sworn that it said that typical modern bullshit of "you have permission to use our game" but the EULA actually has some very direct wording:
 
"You have bought the game so you can use it, yourself, on your computer."
 
"When you buy our Game, we give you permission to install the Game on your own personal computer and use and play it on that computer as set out in this EULA. "
 
"If you've bought the Game, you may play around with it and modify it."
 
In other words, by having bought the game, they're saying I have every right to strip out their login system, modify it to use local skins, and basically do whatever I want to ensure that my copy works until the end of time.
 

You mean the servers which were given a clear list of officially sanctioned ways that they were allowed to make money with Mojang's property?  Which still made people mad, and still got Notch yelled at?
 
I don't have a lot of sympathy for failed business models designed around someone else's work.

From the game developer's point of view, using Lua is smart.  It abstracts the game in a way that they have full control over what functionality they choose to expose, they can easily release more functionality into the API as time goes on, and mods are sandboxed and can be limited to any degree, which both reduces the possibility of malware and instability to virtually nonexistent.  
 
From the modder's point of view, though, this is like wanting to write a book, but most of it is already written by someone else, and you're given a template from where you can only add or change certain words and paragraphs.  For some people that might be fine.  But other people want to be able to add or change entire chapters because they have a different story to tell.  The template is only a hindrance for them, possibly enough so to not even bother, or to at least end up with something far less good than they planned.
 
I personally feel that going from modding Minecraft down to its core to being restricted into a scripting language is just not an acceptable alternative.  Lua is good for a lot of things, with ComputerCraft being a perfect example of it being used to its potential.  But using it as a game's sole API is just not very enticing for an existing Minecraft modder in my opinion.  That's why TUG gets marked off of my list immediately.  Minetest still has potential because it's open-source and the API can at least be expanded by others, or mods could be written in native code, despite the cross-platform issues that introduces.  Meanwhile, Terasology is not only already in Java, but is designed to be modded fairly directly, the way we're already used to with Minecraft.  It even comes with the ASM library, which is the basis for low-level class transformation like the way coremods work in Forge.  Whoever the dev is seems to know what modders are looking for.
 
But I still end up coming short of promoting any of these as alternatives due to the performance, unfortunately.  But I have a feeling there's other clones out there that I just haven't heard of.

I really thought I would have more dislike towards Notch if the rumor proved true, based on everything he's ever claimed to stand for.  But after reading his post I mostly just shrug.  We've all seen how people react to him over every stupid little thing, and the amount of restraint he's shown is commendable.  I can't blame him for leaving it all behind at this point.  I don't know if we can fairly assume that he didn't leave anything for Mojang's employees as Kaker suggests, since we know that he gave them all a tidy sum of money in the past.  But I would agree though that it would be a bit of a dick move if he didn't.  Other than that, yeah, I just kind of shrug to it.
 
There's obviously things to be concerned about regarding things like the game potentially getting paid DLC rather than the free updates we're used to, and of course the whole modding aspect.  I've never assumed that Mojang's API will be a replacement for Forge, but them finally putting one out (if that's even a possibility anymore) could be their justification to go after the unauthorized modding.  Not that that's going to stop me, but it would hurt the community that's grown from Mojang's relaxed stance on it.
 
cpw quitting isn't a big deal.  Neither is mDiyo.  It's all open-source in both cases, and both have hinted at leaving before.  And there's more than enough talented people in the community to fill the roles and/or make alternatives.  Even in the worst-case scenario where MCP is shut down, there are even people who can still deobfuscate the game.  I've been doing it myself, even, and I don't pretend to be an expert.
 
It's a disappointing day, certainly, but I think there's just a lot of overreaction.  They can't take Minecraft away.  Certainly not the existing versions which are still plenty fun and plenty moddable.  The worst they can do is fuck up future versions to the point that we have to unfuck it for them, for as long as that's viable.  Modders have already been fixing Mojang's bugs for years, after all, so it's just another challenge.  And that's if it ever even comes to that.

I really thought I would have more dislike towards Notch if the rumor proved true, based on everything he's ever claimed to stand for.  But after reading his post I mostly just shrug.  We've all seen how people react to him over every stupid little thing, and the amount of restraint he's shown is commendable.  I can't blame him for leaving it all behind at this point.  I don't know if we can fairly assume that he didn't leave anything for Mojang's employees as Kaker suggests, since we know that he gave them all a tidy sum of money in the past.  But I would agree though that it would be a bit of a dick move if he didn't.  Other than that, yeah, I just kind of shrug to it.
 
There's obviously things to be concerned about regarding things like the game potentially getting paid DLC rather than the free updates we're used to, and of course the whole modding aspect.  I've never assumed that Mojang's API will be a replacement for Forge, but them finally putting one out (if that's even a possibility anymore) could be their justification to go after the unauthorized modding.  Not that that's going to stop me, but it would hurt the community that's grown from Mojang's relaxed stance on it.
 
cpw quitting isn't a big deal.  Neither is mDiyo.  It's all open-source in both cases, and both have hinted at leaving before.  And there's more than enough talented people in the community to fill the roles and/or make alternatives.  Even in the worst-case scenario where MCP is shut down, there are even people who can still deobfuscate the game.  I've been doing it myself, even, and I don't pretend to be an expert.
 
It's a disappointing day, certainly, but I think there's just a lot of overreaction.  They can't take Minecraft away.  Certainly not the existing versions which are still plenty fun and plenty moddable.  The worst they can do is fuck up future versions to the point that we have to unfuck it for them, for as long as that's viable.  Modders have already been fixing Mojang's bugs for years, after all, so it's just another challenge.  And that's if it ever even comes to that.

Honestly the only real problem I have with the current Technic launcher is that there's no way to set stuff like the Java version or JVM options to use when launching Minecraft.  This is important for me to be able to run the game smoothly.  Are there any plans to add such a thing to this new launcher?  

We did the livestream and it was fun. Watch the recording here:
http://www.twitch.tv/sctx/c/3976807
 
 
 
 

 
Saturday March 29th @ 9:00 PM Eastern Standard Time
Where: http://www.twitch.tv/sctx
 
Are you ready to see what is waiting for you with the new Technic? Are you pumped to see just how gosh-darn pretty it will all look? Then you should make some space on Saturday, March 29th where sct, CanVox and I we will be livestreaming the new Technic Platform, Launcher, designs and features for both, and general chit chattery. We'll be answering questions, swerving wildly off-topic and probably just being idiots.
 
Topics to be Talked About:
New Platform and how rad max it is!  Tired of upvotes being the only way to sort packs? Us too! New Launcher and how max rad it is!  Looks great, performs better. Platform integration means doing more within the launcher itself from the comfort of your desktop (Linux, Mac and PC's are all invited) How great both of them work together in wonderful ways!  I'd say 'synergize' but I'm pretty sure you have to be a giant company to use that word. Why sct constantly says things like "omg you guys elastic search" while he's all sweaty and breathing heavy!  This happens more often than you'd think! Where Technic could go in the future!  We want to move into new directions, new games. Making things easy for every gaming community to enjoy itself is a pretty rad goal we think. New art!!  It's so fresh and so clean, we'd like to have some posters and shirts someday! Real world costs and how we plan to pay for all of this!  We're down 3 kidneys and two mortgages!  
Joking aside, costs for operating Technic have grown dramatically in the last year, and spiked hard when we launched Attack of the B-Team. Because the new Platform and Launcher include so many new features that are going to blow your minds, we've got some decisions to make on how to pay for all this. Right now we have a significant hosting bill across two services, we have three full-time people who "do" Technic exclusively, and we have a few other various people that do incredible work for the community. Like most websites Technic's lifeblood is ads on our site, but with the new features and services we're going to provide and costs being what they are *right now*, we have to do something else. Rather than curse  ourselves to sell out to a much larger company we are determined to do this ourselves. Since the new Launcher integrates with the new Platform in such a way to allow lots of things to be done within the Launcher (as opposed to having to go to the website) we're looking at having a single small ad (300x250) within the launcher itself. Nothing is set in stone and we certainly don't want to upset the community, but the reality is things cost money and they have to be paid for somehow. 
 
We don't have a time set for when the stream ends, but typically when we hang out privately we do it for an hour or two, so plan on that if you'd like to stay for the whole thing.
Any questions or concerns about anything I've said above or about the stream in general post em' here or tweet with the hashtag #newtechnic!  On the stream, we'll be answering questions posted to twitter and in the stream chat.
 
See you guys at Saturday March 29th @ 9:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.