Minecraft Mod & Modpack Reviews

wayyy back in 2018, this was my first ever magic mod. it stands the test of time even today.

Electroblob's Wizardry is a classic RPG spellcasting mod with wands, armors, rings, curios, scrolls, spell books, ore, structures, new entities (some evil, some not), and a wide plethora of spells across multiple schools. it also features a line of progression that is gated mostly behind the loot you find and how much you've used a particular wand. much of the loot can also be traded with wizard NPCs albeit for a high price. while at times I found it annoying that I couldn't use all the master-level spell books I had gathered until I could upgrade my wands, I appreciate the safeguards against becoming immediately overpowered.

I don't wanna spoil much, but if you're looking for an RPG spellcasting mod with some great structures, awesome spells, many many addons, fun with friends, or playing alone, Electroblob's pretty much has it all.

(P.S. I like sorcery for the variety of spell applications, but lightning is really good in combat imo)

It is a truly revolutionary pack despite the fact its a literal datapack. 3 years of work, and wow, this dp has been really popular. It has stuff like custom weapons, custom animals, custom biomes, even nullscape compat with an external compat pack

This mineshaft module for Dungeons and Taverns is, in my opinion, of higher quality than the base mod. Most of the loot is suitable for the stage in which these mineshafts can be found. The structures added by this mod are very similar but are different enough to be a welcome change from vanilla.

Compared to similar mods like YUNG's mineshaft overhaul, these mineshafts definitely feel more vanilla but with less intrigue, and would certainly be more suitable for vanilla+ packs. These mineshafts also come with early game tools meaning they are suitable for exploration potentially without any tools, compared with YUNG's mineshafts which have higher tier loot but also threats.

Surface mineshaft entrances are easier to find than normal and with them being added to new biomes, they certainly feel more common in this mod than they do in vanilla. Along with slightly improved loot in certain places, this can make mineshafts even more worthwhile than they normally are.

Overall, not a bad mod, I recommend people give it a shot if they like exploration mods, though if you want more of a vast overhaul you should look elsewhere.

Dungeons and Taverns is a datapack packaged as a mod which adds structures and enchantments. Most of these structures are quite aesthetically pleasing, however they litter the landscape and make finding an area devoid of large structures difficult, especially within certain biomes.

These structures are designed to fit within a modded world, rather than a vanilla one and are normally far more grandiose and with far different loot distribution to vanilla structures, which may suit some packs but not others. They also seem to cause a significant slow down of world generation due to their size and frequency, though this is only anecdotal.

Loot in these structures is very hit and miss with structures such as the ruined town having very minimal loot that serves mainly as inventory clutter, structures like the Witch Villa having tens of chests with near identical loot meaning you can come out with 5 of the same cursed book, or structures like the badlands miner outpost with actually decent loot.

Structures like the Stray Fort are so expansive it is possible that geared with only a shield, you could take iron and enchanted gear from exterior chests and fully armour and tool up, before looting the centre and finish with enough gear for a group of players. This could potentially affect the balance of the game, but in packs with more endgame content it is less of an issue.

Another issue I had that does slightly hamper the performance of the mod is the fact some of the structure maps you can find in loot will point you to structures 10s of thousands of blocks away, even if the world is dense with structures, making them annoying in survival, especially when these can be found relatively easily before any mode of transport except boats and horses would be available.

Overall this mod does add more structures to your game, though it is quite a large overbearing mod, so I would not add it to any packs that aren't explicitly exploration focused and would recommend pairing it with optimisation mods.

The best of the best. My favorite mod in the whole wide world. If you hate sorting chests like I do, and don't mind poking around with a little bit of technology, this is the perfect mod for you. The progression is genuinely fun and rewarding. It runs well alongside any survival modpack and there are very few mods that can even come close to it. It is capable of so many wonderful logistical marvels and can automate almost ANY machine.

I docked the performance slightly because the buses can lag the server pretty severely during heavy usage. This doesn't change the fact that I think this is a 5 STAR MOD overall!

Don't let the complexity of the mod keep you away! Once you learn it once, it will serve you for the rest of your time playing Minecraft!

It's interesting how I never felt overwhelmed by this modpack, despite the inherent nature of the genre. The FTB team managed to make a modpack that feels very well interconnected, with a purpose, that introduces everything in a fair, non-obtrusive way. The gameplay is genuinely fun, and the quests give you space to explore lots of different mods in-depth, without punishing the player for wanting to focus on a single play style.

Another highlight is the aesthetics. I'm very glad that the FTB team decided to add some small visual touches to the modpack to make it feel a tiny bit more immersive and unique. It really added to the experience in the long run.

I'd say my biggest complain with this pack is performance. I do not have a high-end PC, so usually kitchen-sink packs won't run great in my system, but this particular pack felt very laggy at random times, especially in the Overworld when doing technology mods. I highly suggest adjusting the settings to decrease lag and FPS drops. It's not unplayable at all, especially if you have a decent PC, but it can be a bit of a pain at first to deal with.

The modpack itself doesn't feel much more special than most other kitchen-sink packs. I think what makes it stand out is how they managed to make most mods a part of the main progression, even if it tends to lean more on technology towards the end game. The aesthetics aren't anything special, as the pack simply keeps the vanilla visuals of the game, but the GUIs generally work pretty cool, and I do not recall any major bugs so far. Performance-wise, I'd say ATM10 runs better than 99% of kitchen-sink modpacks, I'm not sure how, but the game never felt at all unplayable, even with a lot of things going on on-screen.

I'd say that if you're not a big fan of kitchen-sink modpacks overall, this definitely isn't for you, as it can be very overwhelming at the beginning. I also wouldn't suggest it for players who are just being introduced to modded Minecraft. I think this modpack works best for a community server or to have fun with friends.

One major criticism, compared to the previous instalment, is the lack of the GregStar, which I understand is because the developers decided to switch mods, but I'd like to see something akin to the GregStar that incorporates more in-depth technology that also feels extra rewarding.

The modpack developer completely nailed the feeling of vanilla Minecraft gameplay, whilst also completely revamping a lot of the core aspects of the game. The aesthetics are fantastic, and it all runs at a constant 144 fps for me. The biggest highlight for me is that, despite looking like yet another cozy vanilla+ modpack, it can still be very challenging even for experienced players. The mixture of difficulty and soothing aesthetics makes for a completely immersive experience that I'm sure most players will enjoy.

This mods is practically what the 1st industrial revolution was to a considerable extent, but in a Minecraft style. Though at the same time the mod itself is almost not pushy enough on upgrading SU generation beyond its water wheels. The only exception would be with any mod adding a motor that uses FE. Otherwise, the water wheels win out among practically anything else from most addons. There's also the fact that while there's a SU floor for rotation, it's e-300 something digits and at the same time the machines have a speed floor significantly much higher than that and yet still function off that small amount of SU.

In all practicality, as much fun as the mod is, from what I've recently gathered, it's somewhat easily cheesed with that speed floor instead of machines just not functioning if they don't get enough SU to them.

One of the only mods that adds plants, but its pretty overrated. It just adds plants, nothing fancy.

Note that when the description says: "Built-in integration with Fluidlogged API." that actually means it requires Fluidlogged API, and will still attempt to generate plants underwater. I cannot use this mod because Fluidlogged API is pretty incompatible with stuff.