I initially picked up ATM9 in preparation for an event, an unofficial server that was meant to go public around December that would have stayed up for a month, so in mid-November, my girlfriend and I started making plans for the type of base we'd want to build and the types of farms we'd want to make.
That specific event server never came to be, so instead we took our plans and joined Chosen Architect's supporter server, after our month-long subscription ended my girlfriend lost interest so I imported our base into a self-hosted server and continued playing solo for about a week and picking it up again late February.
All this to say I've run the entire gambit on how you can play this pack, single-player, small-group multiplayer, and on a public server, keeping (roughly) the same base throughout until I eventually fully automated the ATM star. For most of that last period I played while active in the ATM9 discord channel, talking builds and sharing progress alongside others. I've also played this pack through many updates, several things I did in the pack have been nerfed by the modpack or by individual mod updates cough sophisticated cough, while other new methods and possibilities for resource generation were introduced after I'd already established my infrastructure.
This will also explain that when picking up the pack I didn't necessarily expect to like it and expected it to be mid going in but was pleasantly surprised by the way it captivated my attention.
Progression - 8/10
Firstly, ATM is a progressive kitchen sink, a few OP items are locked behind the main progression system, and there is a trophy final item (the ATM star) you're meant to craft that will unlock some creative items.
The Gates
There are only a few items I remember being annoyed about their gating because I wanted to use them before I had the necessary materials, Mining Gadget, TIAB, Entangled Blocks, CC computers, and the structure compass. These make sense as they can all allow you to bypass progression early on. The gates are all related to the AllTheModium progression system which requires you to mine new ores, and find their related smithing templates in order to get the netherite+ pickaxes that allow you to break said ores. You'll explore the Deep Dark, Nether, and End to find them, and travel to ATMs custom dimensions.
Finding the Smithing Templates can certainly be a chore and the unobtanium template in particular IMO goes a bit too far, the amount of enemies that spawn in the dungeon you have to find them in is honestly a liability for servers, something that I think would be fine if you were only there for a few minutes but it could take you hours just to find one smithing template even if you're over geared and know where to look.
There's one other soft gate, many "progression" dimensions do not allow you to fly, (tho you can bypass this with ars spells a bit) which I think is valid and honestly the only thing that keeps Twilight Forest from being speedrun in 20 minutes, however, this can be a bit annoying if you're an industrialist hoping to utilize the Everbright's permanent daylight, rumor has it that for this reason, you may be able to re-enable flight in these dimensions once you're sufficiently powerful enough in future updates.
The ATM star
The ATM star I think is actually woven very well into the progression of the pack, the quest lines are built with it in mind, with each quest chapter having an optional branch showing you what specifically you'll need to craft the star that you may not have thought to do otherwise.
The actual construction of the star will have you interacting with a good many mods, and getting decently far in most of them, that said the ATM star itself never forced me into learning a new mod, certainly not in a meaningful way, except occultism, but I'm probably the minority there.
That said the process of automating the ATM star which is encouraged by the pack's progression did teach me some things about ae2, productive bees, modular routers, computer craft, and super factory manager.
The ATM star will force you to use specific mods for some resource generation however you are pretty open to farm things in whatever way suits your playstyle.
I primarily used Mystical Agriculture for resource gen, initially on physical farms (having invented and proven a new farm layout for better performance mind you) however after thermal was introduced switching to Phytogenic Insulators and then used Productive Bees where MA had gaps, some of these gaps very much intentional to get you to use both in order to progress.
Importantly, it IS fully automatable... if you really really want it to be, some items can be difficult to make a consistent ae2 pattern for but it is possible and overall an enjoyable challenge, however I doubt that automation in this way is a design goal for the star as achieving it can feel jank for several items.
The Grind
With that being said, the grind of the ATM star can be felt if you're not using HNN and bees to their utmost potential, as the star is very hungry for precious gems and boss drops, simply having an infinite source of some resources isn't going to be enough if you want to get to the true post game without waiting weeks for your crafts to finish.
Additionally, there are a few resources that can be pretty grindy if you're not prepared for them, the typical culprits of course being Blood Magic and Mekanism, the Hellforged Parts from blood magic can be obtained with bees once you've made it far enough to get a few, but for anyone familiar with its infamy I'm sure I don't need to explain how difficult that can be. Mekanism's antimatter on the other hand does not have a bee so you will need to set up sustainable nuclear facilities, however, I found the process to be less tedious here than in many other packs. Extreme Reactors on the other hand is a brutal grind even with help from bees, and I found it to be the most tedious part of the pack by far.
Overall if you're only going for the ATM star, or ATM star automation the grind isn't too bad, but you should be prepared for these specific areas.
Beyond the star
I've talked about the ATM star as the final item as it is where all of the quests generally end up and it's the basis for the true post-game, most importantly tho after automating the ATM star is where I stopped playing (for now), however, it is NOT the greatest achievement in the pack. After crafting 18 of them you can create a bee that will produce more stars for you, I think this is a good number that's not too intimidating but also doesn't make auto-crafting the star before this point obsolete, as making 18 of these beasts without full automation would be an absolute pain. After this point, you're then told to master gregtech to reach the true final achievement of the pack the greg star, and the micro universe.
I have no interest in greg at this point, tho if I did ever need an intro to it this is probably where I'd choose to learn (sorry greg fans) that said Gregtech is so separate from the rest of the pack, other than bragging rights and morbid curiosity the pack hasn't really given me a reason to give it a try.
Additionally, you get access to a couple of creative items, creative power, creative mana, and a creative jetpack, these rewards are lackluster however I understand you can't go too powerful and make the gregstar "too easy". for me tho, by the time I got the star the only reason I'd want any of these rewards is just so I could turn off some of my other machines and save server resources.
Quests - 6/10
As touched on previously the grander progression of the ATM star is woven into the quest book well. The quests are the standard affair, they explain the mods decently well (with the exception of a few errors, particularly in Evilcraft) the level of advice, tips, or best practices given varies from chapter to chapter, in general, I would like to see more. Still, I understand the mindset that quests in a kitchen sink should teach you about the mod not the mod pack, but I tend to disagree so long as any major modifications to the base mod are well explained, atm9 does this decently well tho could be more proactive about it, rather than relegating major changes to an "info" section of the questbook.
The quest rewards are also pretty meaningless even by the midgame, and rarely relevant to what you're doing or your progression, with most quest rewards being a random prize from a specific tier depending on the quest's difficulty, with later quests related to progression offering trophies.
Most of the quests are broken up pretty well and are easy to follow, and the mechanism chapters in particular use features such as the "look at" criteria that many mod packs will never use to great effect.
Mod selection 6/10
Mod selection is the area I feel could use the most work, while there are plenty cream of the crop mods from the latest 1.20.2 forge selection, not every mod is going to have every addon, and in particular I found myself adding a decent handful of mods to my client, and a few other qol of life things like tiab slot and MMMmmMMM. Other exclusions like apothic additions for example make sense to leave out for the sake of balance
Integration 6/10
Integration is mixed, most recipes are cheese-proof and most ores and resources are unified well, however not every mod is going to have a quest line, and even some large mods are completely ignored by the rest of the game, like the Stargate mod and the under garden. However, as mentioned previously some of the things that work to benefit the progression and balance of the game come at the cost of cohesion and integration, aside from mods missing quest chapters, things like 5 different types of blood existing, 3 of them being a type of mana, and 2 of them having different bees can feel a bit... disappointing. One of the mods I feel was most severely damaged was Alchemistry. With Chemlib present alongside Mekanism and Gregtech one would expect Alchemistry as a viable alternative to obtaining many resources, however, in practice, I used it only once, as these three chemistry-based systems are often not interchangeable. That being said, in the areas where they are interchangeable Alchemistry is still not usually a viable option because of how slow the machines are, and that's a symptom of the default settings of the mod, however, I would love to see this system fully, and properly integrated into the rest of the pack such that Alchemistry is a viable solution to more resources by massively buffing the Alchemistry machines and unifying more recipes, perhaps gating these behind unobtanium as a trade-off.
Diversity of Play 9/10
One thing all Kitchen Sinks boast is the "something for everyone" element, and I think ATM9 does actually push this, and weave it into the progression very well.
There are bosses, custom dimensions and structures you have to explore, and many mods you'll have to learn to use in both magic and tech, I really do think this pack is the gold standard for playstyle diversity, with a decent amount of building mods however this area could definitely be improved.
Importantly, the adventure elements aren't just the inclusion of structure and terrain gen mods and calling it good, as mentioned boss fights and exploration are tied to your progression, and even early on exploration is modified with apotheosis' "spawner with a block on it and a chest under it" being cranked way up from the default, making cave exploration a genuine challenge in the early game, and a really fun way of finding loot in the mid-game.
All in all, I think this pack is a lot more interesting than I gave it credit for, while the direction is slightly different from my own idealized version of a kitchen sink, it does have a clear identity and provides a very engaging experience.
I've put in just about 500 hours playing this pack, adding everything together and cutting out the many nights I sat AFK so my farms would run in the early and mid-game, and surprisingly I feel my time was well worth it, being able to contribute in minor ways to the community on the discord has been an amazing time that's left me feeling genuinely accomplished.
Now then, it's time to watch AlfredGG's 27hr speedrun.
