Minecraft Mod & Modpack Reviews

Unfortunately, the mod does not insert the actual Unicode emoji characters, but relies on its own internal rendering that just acts on the text code in chat. This means that people without the mod cannot see the emojis you type; instead they'll see things like ":sob:" or ":pleading:".

The 'Emojis' mod does this way better; unfortunately that is not available for versions 1.19 and earlier.

Finished this pack yesterday (*up to the second ending) and I think there is a lot to say here.

The pack

This is a fairly long pack with main focus on automation, exploration, and puzzle solving. Unlike most other long packs, most content in the pack is custom-made for the pack, with several dozen custom multiblocks, hundreds of custom materials, custom dimensions, custom automations, and custom structures (and crafts of course, this is kinda a given). The rest of the content is exploration of worlds from AoA and DRPG and various magical crafting mechanics which mostly have to be automated (Botania, Thaumcraft, Blood Magic, Salt Fission, Draconic Fusion, Woot, etc.)

Since most content is unique to the pack, there is little reason to fear that playing another pack will cause this pack to
feel repetitive (or the other way around), which I like. A lot of the custom automations of the pack are also quite involved and fun, unlike many packs which have "magic boxes" or "multiblock magic boxes" to do things (some examples of this are Thaumcraft taint automation for Ichor, nuke exploder for Californium-256, mob-based line for Chaos Shards, lucky block opening for Electroblobs' trinkets, some upcoming things that I did not experience due to being on a fairly old version of the pack, etc.)

Unlike other expert packs, Meatballcraft gives basically all automation tools very early, with AE2, SFM, XNet, Modular Routers, Packaged Auto, Mystical Agriculture, Void Ore Miners, Woot, etc. all being available only a few hours into the pack. The pack also unlocks EMC very early into the game, and instead of it being used to skip automations, it's only used to bootstrap them by providing them with basic resources (and some QOL things like item filters, drawers, etc.)

Outside of the automation the pack has 77 dimensions (30 of which are unique to Meatballcraft), almost all of which contain custom structures and puzzles that have to be solved to continue progressing, many also contain some bosses that have to be defeated, so not all time is spent automating things.

The pack has multiple endings, the canon one is Cosmic Balance that took me 466 hours to reach, but takes some players upwards of a thousand, after which there is a lot of new automations and RPG content, used to unlock various recipe upgrades to create TARDIS. Path from Balance to TARDIS is usually said to take around the same time as path from start to Balance. I did not go as far as it is not intended to be fun, but there's fun endings even beyond the first one.

The good

I absolutely appreciate the love the authors put into the pack, in terms of: custom buildings in dimensions, custom automations being designed, and animated or just cool-looking textures for most of the custom content in the pack. The multiblocks' visuals too (see the screenshots). Most of the content added is pretty fun to engage with, and I love quirky automation stuff. I was playing the pack on an older version, and the newer ones have updated many textures to make stuff look even cooler.

I like how the pack unlocks infinite resources and very powerful tools very early, so the grind is extremely minimal. There is never a case where a resource has to be obtained manually for more than just a few of it, or where I had to wait on a recipe with nothing else to do, and very few cases where I had to place more than one machine on a recipe, or fight the same boss more than once. I also like that you have to use many different ways to produce those infinite resources in tandem; makes things feel more rewarding than when everything is made with just EMC or seeds.

The pack is quite replayable with a bunch of different challenges that you can set up, and just different slices of content you can interact with. The previous expert pack I have beaten was Divine Journey 2, which basically only has one way to play with very minor variations on what can be played differently.

The QOL in this pack is incredible, with even things like Vajra and Infinity Booster card for AE2 are unlocked early.

The performance of this pack is also awesome early on (if you don't make serious mistakes with base composition, which I did a few times, but thankfully they were easy to fix), I never had lag from exploring. Well maybe like 1 or 2 times.

The LORE. It is not fully written yet to my knowledge but it is awesome to see lore in a pack. Simply can't be neglected.

The bad

There have been several instances of rather grindy gameplay (the main two that come to mind: getting all the banners for Standard of Shyre Empire and wherever else they were used earlier; and leveling AoA skills - even though skill crystals are easily available through Wooting a boss this still takes a while). I genuinely did not like these because a lot of manual work is involved. My rating of the gameplay would genuinely go up if the banner section is made less annoying somehow.

Due to a lot of item bloat and recipe bloat, level maintainers/SFM are often the best way to do something, I am not a fan of this because they're far too powerful for their simplicity. But as the fastest TARDIS runs show, you do not need either, so that's a relief.

Lag management is necessary to some extent, though that is mainly relevant with the higher endings; I finished at 14 TPS, which is still playable, but makes me unable to go higher (not like I wanted to). Being on a consumer grade laptop probably contributed to it though.

The early chapters are rather forgettable due to many dimensions, which are often the same. Kind of a proof of this is that when calculating the number of dimensions for the review, I initially forgot 4 until I checked the pack's CF page. Though there's work currently being done in making them less of the same dimension, which is awesome.

There are several sections involving biome changing, while their existence overall is relatively unique, and XU2 Terraformer is quite convenient to use, they get tiring after a few times.

Chapter 9 spoiler: Most bosses after chapter 8 are crimson cultists with shields from Twilight Forest, which get old after a while.

Chapter 8 spoiler: There is a boss rush section at the end of chapter 8 which involves spawning a bunch of bosses that can explode drops from the other boss (you need drops from every boss spawned), which is extremely annoying to deal with. Some of them give nausea as well. I like the idea of a boss rush but in the current version it was quite frustrating to do.

Thaumic Augmentation (TA) is a fantastic addon for Thaumcraft 6 (TC6). TC6 was left in an unfinished state with many areas lacking content. TA adds to many of these areas, ports old content with a new touch, and finishes the mod with a fitting end game. Alongside adding quite a lot of lore (and a lot of text in the entries)

The titular system of the mod is Gauntlet Augmentation. TA adds 2 different Casters Gauntlets, and adds an ability to customize their behaviour using Augments. The augmentation system is a bit confusing, and seems a bit half baked, with them being applied in the crafting grid.

Augmentation system is also integrated to the returning Thaumostatic Harness and the new Elytra Harness. These items allow flight at the cost of Vis. The one noticable difference with the harnesses is that the are unlocked by getting to the end, which differs from previous versions where the harness could be unlocked without it. But overall by vanilla balancing standards this is fine since elytra flight is also locked behind The End.

TA also adds quite a bit of miscellaneous content. Robes of the Adept for midgame mage armor, a Seal Copier that copy-pastes a Golem Seals configuration, along with many others that i didn't mention. My favorite one is the Celestial Observer, which makes research way easier with not having to collect Notes manually. The most useless addition in my opinion is the flux seed, which is overshadowed by dumping cobblestone in a crucible. The only good use is testing in creative mode.

Spoilers for the endgame from onward:
The personal highlight for this mod is The Emptiness dimension and The Eldritch Spire. The most notable lack of TC6 compared to its predecessors is its lack of a proper end game, lacking the eldritch dimension entirely. TA fixes that, and reimagines it completely. In my opinion the Emptiness is a way better experience as an end game dungeon, having more varied layout and content. The impetus system is a bit more involved than the energized node system from TC4, since one needs to maintain the source rift(s) using redstone logic. The rewards for using the system are limited at the time of writing this review:
- fueling a powerful void laser beam weapon
- fueling a biome changer
- fueling an elytra harness booster
- creating void seeds
- fueling the impetus augment for your gauntlet.
These use cases are often quite niche, which makes one not very incentivized to use the system. But overall there is inherent coolness in harnessing a rifts power, and the automation challenge is a fun one

Overall the addon is a fantastic addition to TC6, and in my mind is the canon ending to the mod.

I’m gonna narrate this one, then review it:

• I created a world, died for a pumpkin on a dessert-island, can’t make a boat. Die again from a couple of pillagers trying to steal some planks.
• Create another world, see a magic altar from a mod that I don’t know, it says for me to sleep… but I can’t because of my origin. Alright, continue exploring, see a tall tower, not a soul in sight, get chest, tower explodes? Lose all my items. Decide to try again.
• Start again, in another world, as a human (aka no origin), get lucky with starter chest and even get an apotheosis trident. At night, for some reason, can’t kill mobs because of world config, die again. Dig a hole, get silver, revenge-kill a skeleton. Doesn’t count for quest, alright; kills some zombies, get some loot, still don’t know what for, see next quest, either: nether, become a vampire hunter (idk how), twilight forest or mutant mobs… in a 2024 modpack. I mean, it CAN be fun, but for a title as “Occult”-craft, I was hoping for a darker vibe or better questing, being this last one the main reason for me to be dropping this pack.

Shortly, it’s the dissonance that bothers me; it's firstly a “kitchen-sink” and a questing modpack after. Probably abandoned, as it hasn’t been updated since 2024, according to the CurseForge page. I didn’t like it; it doesn’t have a cohesive identity, and perfomance wise beside some lags it’s ok.
Did I mention it doesn’t have any mapped keys besides “R” and “M”? Yeah, even Just Enough Items is unbounded.
I’m sorry if I’m being partial or harsh however I really didn’t enjoy this one.

Useful mod when playing with Thaumcraft. Extremely helpful when working with essentia tubes. Configurability is great.

By default, Goggles of Revealing are needed for most of the information, preserving progression. For comparison some earlier mods let you see the essentia in a cauldron without the Goggles, which in my opinion breaks progression and immersion.

You will die in RLCraft. A lot. Some of the time that may be because you took a risk you probably know you shouldn't have, and a lot of the time it will be due to some mechanic you didn't know about that you weren't prepared for. However, I found if you really take a deep breath and commit the weird mob mechanic or special effect to memory and be prepared for it next time, you can get pretty far with a lot less deaths.

Despite this, RLCraft is a very satisfying power fantasy where you go from getting one shot by most mobs, to being able to barely survive and hold your own, and then getting stronger and stronger as your armor and weapons continue to improve through expanded enchantments and better materials for weapons and armor. For example, killing your first dragon is extremely satisfying as you have no doubt died to them many times, and they also unlock some of the strongest weapons and armor in the game immediately, and dragons then become quite easy to kill.

My main issue with the pack is the villager librarian grind (though this can be somewhat avoided in newer versions with buffs to golden bookwyrms and being able to tier up enchantments). Despite that, certain enchantments are near required for getting into the mid/late game and have to be searched for through dozens and dozens of villagers.

With over 10 years of active development that continues. Do I even have to say it?

This pack was very fun, with unique progression as you learn to build better and better equipment to explore more underwater and learn more of the past as you find equipment/artifacts pushing you onward. I liked the mechanics of the underwater base as you unlock and rebuild more and more sections of it. The only part that suffers is the very end game which is just a waiting simulator and TPS nuke as you need tons of materials from crops for singularities. I ended up just not completing the very end because of this, but other than that this pack was very fun.

Worldgen stuff in Minecraft is a PITA, and this makes it substantially less so! Stuff like surface rule injections, feature/spawn injections, new feature types, and more recently biome injections are such versatile and useful tools for packdev. Granted Neo/Forge already has datadriven feature/spawn injections, this is still a must-have if you're doing anything worldgen related in a pack. If you're struggling with something, chances are that this will make your life easier.

It's one of the best mods and my main mod to go whenever i create a kitchen sink modpack. Even though it's a bit unbalanced it's actually pretty lore accurate and well thought.