Fantastic modpack!! Has that signature FTB charm, and I've never been so engaged with a Stoneblock modpack!! So much jam-packed content and unique mechanics for getting valuable items. The world engine introduces a crafting mechanic I hadn't realized was even missing previously.

Being able to combine the mechanisms of different mods into one machine to craft a variety of things is incredible! I never thought I'd be using Source (from Ars Nouveau) and Heat (from Mekanism) in combination to craft a component for progression! I never felt like the progression was grindy or annoying, there were always multiple paths to take if I didn't want to use a specific mod.

I had an absolute blast with this pack and I think you will too if you want a well thought out kitchen-sink pack.

The Lost Cities is a world generation mod that comes so close yet so far. While it can generate cities, the cities lack any variety and will quickly become monotonous. There are no custom loot tables, so there is not much reason to fight any of the mobs when you investigate. It has lots of customization, but adding new buildings is a very large undertaking, and support for non square multichuck buildings also sucks.

Note: I have a fork of this mod, and it still sucks.

Disclosure: I have been debugging some issues for the dev of this fork as well as making an addon for it. This mod is also very technical in its own right given that it runs a riscv64 VM for each computer. Meaning that everything in this review is very technically inclined.

The mod itself

It's basically a 1.21 port of OC2 Reimagined, and while I haven't looked at the 1.20 version to compare. The mod's textures honestly looks somewhat dated or more fitting of Minecraft's pre 1.14 art style. Though, in principle, anything sound related can be done by the user.

The VM

the VMs are a riscv64 Minux VM. They require 8MB at minimum to even boot. However, the current versions don't have internet capability even with it enabled in the config due to some issues with DHCP, meaning everything needs to be done with the file import/export card or paste injecting.

You can use systems other than the included lua engine if you can compile it and get it to fit onto the VM, such as micropython. Just keep in mind that the VM uses musl and not glibc, meaning that you need to compile anything using glibc statically. in micropython's case, I had to cross compile from x86_64 -> riscv64 with static libs on my PC, compress it via xz (as there's no zip util on the VM), use the file card to get the archive on the VM, then decompress it with the xz on the VM in order to use micropython. But even then, you'll need lua wrappers since nothing is exposed via a file on the VM. Not 100% ideal, but it's better if you're familiar with python more than lua.

There's also the fact that the file imports start the search in your game instance folder and not the home folder on Linux. Slight oversight I'm guessing...

Mod compatibility

as far as the computer itself, even though they advertise create support. It's not to where it can read create machines. It's only support so that it doesn't break when moving on create contraptions. On it's own, it's only able to interact in world with redstone and project red's bundled wires. You basically need an addon for it to interact with anything else. (I've tried with create's stress meter and some mekansim stuff)

The Potential

This can easily evolve into a teaching util for your kids if you play your cards right. Have them control other mod's machines from an actual linux VM. Just requires some setup on your part at current.

I have a lot more experience regarding this mod in 1.12 (due to using/having used it in packs in this version), but I did try again its 1.20 iteration, screenshots from there

What is it ?

This is a mod focused on adding tons of variants to existing monsters in a similar way to the 1.10 update adding the strays and the husks as undead variants.

What does it offer ?

When spawning, vanilla mobs now have to chance to get replaced by their default special mobs counterpart (which are called the "vanilla replacement" mobs -> for example a minecraft:zombie spawning has a high chance to get replaced by a "specialmobs:specialzombie ; this feature can be disabled if you have mods in your pack which only affect specifically the vanilla mobs), or less often replaced by special variants (depending on the biome, dimension, base rarity and possibly other factors which can be controlled; for example, in plains a zombie spawning has a high chance of becoming a specialmobs:specialzombie but can instead spawn as a specialmobs:zombiebrute for example).
The in-game config is very clear and these informations have been obtained there.
It is by tweaking the base chances and exceptions that you can make stuff such as variants which appear more often (or even always) than the vanilla replacement (such as plague zombies appearing more often than the vanilla replacement for zombies when appearing in swamps, but making plague zombies have a base chance of 0 to make it so they end up being swamp-specific).

Here's a list of the affected mobs (with examples of the most interesting variants; though there's a lot more which I won't talk about) :

When several vanilla mobs are set within a common category it means they share many variant concepts

Creepers :

-The dark creeper which destroys perfectly well sources of light while giving you blindness
-The Scope creeper, looks hilarious; it's a post 1.12 mob which has spyglasses on his eyes, he can detect you from much further

Zombies , Drowneds & Zombified Piglins :

-for zombies there's the mad scientist (only available in recent versions), which poison you in melee
-for drowneds there's the exclusive abyssal (which is more resilient and give you a weight effect to make you sink faster and tropical (which throws poisonous tridents at you) variants
-for zombified piglins the most special is the Vampire Piglin, which is really resilient and looks closer to a regular piglin than an undead

Skeletons & Wither Skeletons :

-There's the ninja, which hides by turning into blocks and tries to backstab you, exists for both
-There's the pirate (which is new too), he can appear at sea (can be changed) and can use boat+shoots spectral arrows

Slimes & Magma Cubes :

-The Blackberry and Volatile , are acting like creepers
-The newer Potion Slime , can give you a potion effect on melee depending on the potion color it has

Spiders & Cave Spiders :

-The Witch Spider can give you negative potion effects on melee, while giving itself positive ones for every hit she gives (behaves differently in 1.12)
-The Water Spider can walk on water (appears on the sea and rivers by default too (it's a new mob)
-The Flying Spider can jump really far to reach you quickly

Silverfish :

-There's the Fishing silverfish , acting like some other fishing type mob variants and having the ability to reel you in
-There's the "pufferfish" (new), which can poison you, looks like a pufferfish and can swim too
-There's the Albino silverfish which can shoot you with icy projectiles

Endermen :

-There's the Mirage Enderman which makes you see double as it appears to clone itself
-There's the Thief Enderman which can teleport you when hitting you
-There's the Runic Enderman which can shoot a laser of its mouth and make you levitate on hit (is new)

Witches :

I will go in details about all of their variants since I find them to be the most detailled and interesting (plus there is less variants for them than for most other groups)
-Witch of Domination throws homemade levitation potions, and can use some telekinetic powers to move you around; she has a pretty stylish costume and a nice hat
-Ice Witch can turn near water into ice, allowing her to walk on it, she is also pretty resilient; she wears a blue coat (is new)
-Witch of Shadows throws potions of blindness/wither; she looks ominous- Lichthrows instant damage potions (exclusively) and sometimes throws skeletons at you too; she looks like a zombified witch- Witch of the Wildsthrows Poisonous potions exclusively, can summon little spiders and can summon a larger one to ride too- Wind Witchcan teleport like endermen, which makes her probably the hardest mob to fight### Blazes:
-There's the Joltwhich will teleport every time you hit it, summoning lightning in its place-The Armored blaze(new) has an armor, which needs to be destroyed before hitting the entity hiding behind### Ghasts:
-the Queen and King ghastsare more powerfull versions of ghasts, one summoning little ghasts while the other has more firepower-the Slab ghast(new) is much faster and aggressive than his friends-the Unholy ghastis really resilient, stalks you but attacks in melee if you get too closeMost of the mobs's models were unchanged back in 1.12 (only having texture tweaks or recolors), but the mod has since updated , adding new mob variants and readapting older ones, even changing the models of some creatures, the most notable being the witches|| in terms of aesthetic improvements.
Other tweaks were made to general undeads, which can now appear naturally wielding bows (or sometimes skeletons will appear holding and using swords), and can appear with and use shields (which will negate all projectiles before them and some melee frontal hits).

Main issue with this mod ? The performances .
As it turns out, the way this mods checks for mobs to replace by other mobs seems to make the game ever so slightly laggier every time a new concerned creature appears. it's actually because certain mobs's AI causes this, it doesn't seem to apply to all mob replacement
it's small, but noticeable in larger packs.

In conclusion

I like this mod, it does its job at adding vanilla-like mob variant similar to the husk and stray in looks and behavior.

Quite configurable as you can decide exactly in which biomes/biome types the mob replacement occurs.

Unfortunately, its impact on the performances (especially in 1.12) land this mod in a similar spot to Quality Tools in the sense that it cannot be used in serious larger packs .
Maybe the performances issues will get fixed somehow, or are already fixed in the very recent 1.20.1 update and I just haven't played enough to notice.
take it with a grain of salt as I remind you I have mostly played through the 1.12 version

Pollution of the Realms is basically a addon for tech mods. Its a great nerf to IE and furnaces, especially for large bases. If too much pollution builds up you get negative effects and it makes your base way easier to find.

It does have a pretty large performance impact and i wish the pollution would spread out faster but it works very nice.

Target Dummy (im not calling it by its true name), does what it says on the tin very well. It adds a well made dummy that shows damage numbers and has some jiggle physics thats useful for testing out weapons.

However, on every server with this mod installed (that ive played) i havent seen anyone ever use this mod. Its very good for singleplayer creative testing but i would not recommend installing this for your players to use.

this is a datapack my friend made that I uploaded for him, and I think it’s quite honestly one of the most unique experiences I’ve had with vanilla minecraft. it overhauls the game into being a sort of “eternal night” in which you have to fend off the darkness and explore the world. I REALLY like the nether overhaul (the norther) in which everything is frozen over, and I hope to see more features added to the end (the haven) when 1.5 releases!

it does what it says on the tin! a totem that prevents you from dying in the void. would rate it higher because it's such a simple concept that's done alright, but i cannot review this mod without mentioning this random test recipe that was left in. genuinely what is this??

Framed blocks are really useful when you need a slab or stair block in a block variant that doesn't have one built in, and it helps reduce the number of blockstates needed by allowing mods to not add stairs and slab blocks for every block they might add, helping launch times.

However, all the slope blocks and similar often have very strange lighting and just don't fit in with anything else present int he game, often leading to builds looking really out of place with the surrounding environment when using these blocks. Furthermore, these blocks just cut the texture out which leads to seams on blocks where no outline is present.

Similar mods such as Create's copycats do a better job of making textures fit the block by splicing parts of the texture together to reduce seams such as this, and I would advise using Create if you are fine adding the mod to your pack instead.

Overall, good mod if you just want to use the slabs, stairs and other similar blocks but I would stay away from sloped blocks to preserve the lighting and look of your builds.

Craftoria was the first Neoforge pack released by TeamAOE, and is actually why they renamed from TeamAOF. This pack is an outstanding example of how to do a kitchen sink pack, and in my opinion is by far their best pack to date.

Edit 2026: during later development of the pack, it turns out that AI was added to the quest book, unfortunately this makes the quest book look rather tacky and has caused me to reduce my review for the pack considerably.

Craftoria steps into the ring with giants like ATM and comes out on top with superior integration, performance and questing. Craftoria is a pack I enjoyed, even when I was mostly burned out with Minecraft though I do feel it suffers a bit from feature creep.

The reason for my performance score being so low compared to other metrics is due to the sheer amount of mods, although it is a kitchen sink pack there is no reason to include so many structure mods, all of macaw's building mods on top of mods like Chipped and random addons like Mekanism Weapons. This amount of mods hurts loading time and takes away from some of the handcrafted feel of the pack, cluttering the recipe viewer and bloating the pack.

All in all, this is a very good pack, it'd just be nice if the mod list was curated a little more. Anyone who likes kitchen sink packs should play this.