Create: Astral

Fun, but overwhelming

Create: Astral

Review for

Create: Astral

3.0

Fun, but overwhelming

vnator

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Posted: April 4, 2024 at 6:38:20 PM UTC
MC 1.18
The version(s) the reviewer played
Gameplay
3.0
Aesthetics
5.0
Performance
5.0

The idea behind this modpack is that it's all about automating everything with Create. It's an idea that's been done well by Create: Above and Beyond, but there have been too few modpacks that have tried to do something similar in a way that is good. This modpack tries and gets far, but falters in a few ways.

My main gripe is that the way the tech tree/things you can automate grows much too quickly in the early game.

For example; ore automation. Mining is an absolute chore without vein miner or tools that make it much faster than base vanilla. Haephestus (aka Tinkers Construct for Fabric) is in the pack, but its pickaxes aren't particularly faster than vanilla ones in the early game. It still takes half an hour of mining to get the materials needed to build a single automation line. I just want to build the automation, not mine for so long! But good news, there's a way to automate ores! However, each ore requires a long and very complicated process to automate which is in no way beginner/early game friendly. If someone very experienced with Create were to go at it, I'm sure they'd be able to cobble together something even in the early game! However, I'm not that experienced with Create, so it's something that will require a lot of time, space, resources, and tools I haven't unlocked yet to set up. So now I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place; either spend my time doing boring tedious mining, or flounder around to set up automation for a single ore and inevitably fail because of the complexity and resources the setup requires.

I'll admit, it's only a single thing and the rest of the pack is probably wonderful. But it's also a MASSIVE pain point that I consider bad game design that robbed all the fun out of playing the pack. I know it's called MINEcraft, but modpacks don't have to stay true to the original minecraft formula/gameplay cycles. Just let me build my factories, start with a few easy challenges that SLOWLY lead up to more and harder challenges, like a narrow cone instead of a stupidly wide one. Don't overwhelm your players with too much to do so early on, and especially don't front-load the tedium. You want them invested in the modpack first before you start introducing challenges that have it.

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