Minecraft Mod & Modpack Reviews

It's NOT the most accessible mod out there (think Botania or Gregtech, not ProjectE or Thermal Expansion), but if you're a nerd that likes making Rube Goldberg machines and/or war crimes, there's a good chance Crossroads will be up your alley!
Over the years it has evolved and grown so much from its initial release, yet it's retained the complex yet rewarding, nuanced but silly nature that made me love it in the first place. I'm certainly biased as one of the oldest playtesters sorry for getting so many things nerfed! but while I can't describe it in a way that does it justice, I STRONGLY encourage players to give Crossroads a try =)

I usually stay away from GregTech 5+ modpacks because they tend to be extremely tedious and boring. Not hard or complex, just boring. But in StaTech everything is just-enough. Access to MI quarry early is very nice, quest book is detailed and is enough to learn unfamiliar mods without googling. You are not forced to go deep into Create. Space exploration can be done in a few hours and never touched again.
I recommend adding ftb ultimine or similar because provided alternatives are not that good.
Also, I think machine sounds should be off by default.

Nicer trees as far as the eye can see with extensive support for different other mods adding trees.
The game becomes more realistic whilst keeping a vanilla like look.
Sometimes, the amount of wood you get from felling a single tree is a bit less than one would expect.

Storage drawers offer a neat solution for storage without having to use chests or a complex machine.

Compared to mods adding bigger chests for example, the space used for storage is relatively large when it comes to storing multiple different items. It is perfect however for big amounts of a small selection of items, like in a mobfarm in skyblock.

The textures itself look fine, but the display of the blocks at the front looks a bit out of place for a minecraft block.

The amount of work hours this pack has received from it's creator, Krutoy is out of this world.
Quests:
Quests are highly descriptive, guiding and definitely not dull. They also offer non-game breaking awards like the original E2E did.

Progression:
Feels really good. There's a lot of small increments of nice stuff drizzled in to get the dopamine flowing. Progression is non-linear as well, allowing you to complete the pack normally (doing everything), skyblock (not using any in-world materials), tech-mostly (skipping most of magic) or magic-mostly (skipping most of tech). This allows people to go for their most preferred way of playing, and the modpack feels like half of a kitchensink pack - you can choose what you do, yet you still benefit from the progression available.

Tech: Lots of nice tech-based mods in this pack. There's clear progression (both in RF/t and mods themselves). From easy to make mods at the start but cumbersome building (Immersive Engi, Immersive wires and IC2) through nuclearcraft CE (way better than normal NC) all the way up to EnderIO, thermal etc.

Magic: Mainly thaumcraft, botania (tech mod haha), astral sorcery and blood magic - the usual 1.12.2 experience - but they have a lot of "additional" custom uses for tech (as a supplement), or many buffed/nerfed aspects. Very customized by the creator, and the quests for magic are really good too.

Customized assets/progression: I think this pack is #1 or #2 in complexity of it's custom systems

• Item expire in fire
• Diverse material requirements that are not annoying like GTCE
• Custom assets, mechanics (UU-matter replication is different for example)
  Like I said before, the pack offers so many custom experiences and automation prospects that it's finally a fun challenge to automate something, instead of throwing it all into one "do-all" machine.

Storage:
AE2 is mainly used by me. There's a lot to store though - I used everything from labeled crates, storage drawers. Nothing to complain here - lot of good options, none of them are "required"

World and generation:
Ice and fire dragons provide very useful loot if you can manage to defeat them.
Twilight forest exists and is built upon, but nothing from it is required
More animals are added via certain mods - but they are not useless/fodder - they actually have a custom-build purpose to them by the creator

Optimization and performance:
Surprisingly way more performant than the original E2E - the creator of the pack spent thousands of hours optimising the pack, removing entities spamming lag. He's also a master optimizer from what i've seen - telling other devs how to optimize their mods, looking for faultlines.
I've played this pack with shaders on from start to finish with a i5 4670k and GTX1070 - never dropped below 40FPS, even at the endgame. Now that I bought a i7 12700k and RTX4080 i never drop below 144FPS and I'm pretty far so far.

Overall:
My favourite pack of all time - surpassing even Infinity Evolved, Unleashed and DEFINITELY the original E2E pack where I only had to use gas burning generators from mechanism to "win". Now I finally feel "challenged" but not in an annoying way (lookin at you, GT new horizons)

10/10 pack.

but at some point becomes a waiting simulator.
The early game mechanics are cool, however in the mid game and later it is not very fun. Basically the endgame consists of getting a lot of everything and that's it.

This recent mod is so good for modpack developers right now that its unreal. It gives so many different customization options for a smooth and personalized experience. Additionally, it raises from the dead old/no longer supported performance and tweaking mods and integrates them all into one mod whilst improving them. Each integrated mod is incompatible with the original, but it will actually tell you what exact mods need to be taken out so you wont have to go searching yourself.

If you have a 1.12 pack, use this.

Great fun with meaningful progression but a slow and arduous start that becomes very rewarding once you reach ae2. Really makes you think and innovate creating satisfying automation. Would recommend a friend or two to make it more bareable at the beginning.

The mod's idea is quite good. It can fit in a Vanilla+ pack too by removing some stuff and changing some recipes. Sadly the mod has barely got any update since a few years, only ports. I don't even like the upgrades progression, makes no sense that you need Obsidian before Iron and Gold.

Very good gregpack for beginners. May take 300-500 hrs if you know what you're doing and you automate stuff.