Minecraft Mod & Modpack Reviews

It's nice to go back to the basics of a semi-kitchen sink modpack with a clear progression sequence in mind. Overall I had a really good time with the modpack and the way it integrates all the different mods, and it's nice to not have to had worried about AE2 channels for once. But there are a few small nitpicks that keep this off of a higher rating.

• Create feels tacked on, it's less efficient than any other option for automation but has a few key automations (encased fan stuff, automation for its own blocks) that can't be done in other ways, but at the same time are both not needed in high enough quantities to invest much in them, but aren't in small enough quantities to just batch craft
• The puzzles kinda suck, the portal one is just an extended sequence of references using jank adaptions of this mod's portal gun. It's kinda weird how the FTB portal gun is used with all its jank when the direwolf portal gun is... right there? The fortron maze is definitely terrible, I'm usually good at not looking up solutions but Christ, this one was just obtuse. There's like 7 different buttons that need to be picked in a specific sequence and they're all across a maze I had to draw in paint to keep track of? And there's no hints towards what that sequence could be? I don't know if the devs made it this obtuse to encourage cheesing but by god did it work.
• The antimatter grind is terrible. I didn't often have to just sit there and wait but with this I had to. Both routes to do it (occultism and mekanism) both suck really bad. Either build a multi stage apotheosis maxed mob farm optimized for maximum soul extraction or build a giant mekanism reactor prone to spontaneously detonating that produces more power than you would ever need. Both options require you to wait absurd lengths of time.
• Apotheosis feels... unnecessary? There's not enough challenge in the modpack to necessitate such insane potential and optimization, to the point where once the game forced me to engage with it to progress I was just annoyed because I knew all of this stuff had zero use case. A simple-ish fix is to communicate to the player that loot bees will have better rewards on higher gamestages.

Pretty good, has almost no lag and it's easy to adjust any setting, i use it a lot and its just nice overall

Controlling is a must-have mod that has become a staple in many modpacks. If a modpack doesn't have controlling, oftentimes I will add it manually.

This mod has more content in later versions, I will cover all illagers added until 1.18.2 the latest version of the mod currently, even if I mostly played with this mod in 1.12

What is it ?

A mod adding new illagers to the game, alongside a few structures to incorporate them. Later, after 1.14 dropped, they eventually added these mobs as raiders to encounter as well as new illagers with this vanilla mechanic in mind.

What does it offer ?

New creatures for the illager group as well as new structures to make their presence unavoidable within your Minecraft world; this mod also features some customized potions to pick up in some structures as well as a new enchantment to deal more damage to illagers (the same found in Minecraft Dungeons).
Every mob added by the mob is tied to the illagers, list below :

Here's the whole list of Illagers (SPOILERS) :

Present since 1.12

-The Archer :
A concept of an archer illager it nothing new, even in 1.12 as the hunter illager mod also featured a bow-wielding illager. This one is still a bit more interesting than just being a skeleton which can survive daylight as in 1.12 it is a ranged vindicator, which means it is significantly faster in its movement; In recent versions, the archer received its own more unique texture and is no longer as fast, firing arrows with random potion effects. Even if I don't really like its textures, the detail of him having his bow on his back while not using it is something I love. (They have their own structure which is pretty common, but might be seen often in other structures too) .
-The Enchanter :
Before Minecraft Dungeons was a thing, this mod added an enchanter : an member of the illager group all in blue playing on drums to give sudden boosts of strength to illagers nearby (while slowing you down too); He did not change from 1.12 to recent versions outside of receiving a skull mask on his face
-The Furantur :
A melee alchemist illager which will steal you potion effects if you get to close; sadly his behavior makes him interesting in situations so specific he ends up boring in many. He is not that great unfortunately
-The Hoarder :
Reminding me a bit of the behavior of the maid illager from the more recent mod Belly Button, this mob will look for items left on the ground and take them with him, dropping them on death. Main difference between his 1.12 and recent version is the fact that in 1.12 this mob didn't have any sound effects (reusing the player hit sound effects instead of illager sound effects). I feel like he is a bit too specific in his behavior to be well used in most scenarios he is put in, his main purpose I would guess is to steal the player's drops after which death within a larger structure like the illager fort, making him able to keep them from disappearing since he will carry them on himself instead
-The Necromancer :
An evoker variant which will only summon zombies and defend himself with several rows of fangs (he also tries to attack with the same defensive attack, which leads to him using a spell which cannot reach his enemies, slight oversight which could be corrected); there isn't much to add, but I find him to be one of the few good enough necromancer concepts portrayed as an illager (better ideas exist, especially within undeads, but among illager mods there's a surprising lack of decent necromancer concepts)
-The Illager King :
Just a more resilient, taller and stronger vindicator; he is used as a form of final miniboss within the rarest structure in the 1.12 version of the mod (at least), and outside of that serves little to no purpose of his own

Post 1.12 Additions

-The Berserker :
Probably designed and intended for raids at first, this mob looks like a gilded pillager with his face being taken from the raid omen potion effect. He is a melee illager which can grief certain blocks in order to reach his target
-The Illager Miner :
Having his own dedicated structure, the miner is more interesting than the excavator from Workshops of doom as he isn't just a less powerful vindicator but has abilities of his own involving explosives
-The Frostmancer :
Having his own structure, the clear parallel to the iceologer that is the frostmancer (that is, if he wasn't added beforehand); He has about three attacks with a blizzard area effect, frozen falling stalactites or summoning a stalagmite from below his target. I find him a bit too aggressive at times, but still a decent mob.
-The Illager General :
In raids, this mob generates small pillars with pillagers on top acting as proximity turrets, a concept reminding me of the Modifiger mod; I don't really like that he has no animation at all when attacking in melee though

-The Black Iron Golem :
The illager equivalent to the iron golem, this mob can also shoot explosive fireballs; I don't really like that he can deal melee damage without there being an attacking animation at the same time

The structures added (some on screens shown) are larger in 1.18 than in 1.12, and newer structures have been added, most notably the fort, but also other structures tied to newer mobs from the mod.

For the critics :
First of all there is no unique sound to discern one illager from another as they all reuse vindicator, pillager, evoker and illusioner sound effects.
All structures aren't particularly exceptional, mostly being an excuse to bundle the mod's illagers together (even more noticeable with some larger structures, such as the 1.18 illager center where hoarders and enchanters are pretty much everywhere), I usually don't take the time to really consider structures for mods like these but since some are actually larger dungeons I felt like I had to mention that.
In recent versions I noticed some structures appearing above water in oceanic biomes (the frozen castle appeared once or twice above water for some weird reason).
Most of the mobs while having received already a texture update could still benefit from another facelift as they appear pretty bland in comparison to many other modded raiders out there (aka in 1.12 it could have passed but no longer does in recent versions).

In conclusion

While a lot of mods have a similar level of quality (it being "good enough" in terms of gameplay and not that interesting in terms of aesthetics) in recent versions, it's hard to come across one with so many illagers added in 1.12 and so this mod ended up being used a lot in packs which wished to feature more illagers while sticking to that version of the game.
I would like to point out that I've seen textures packs reworking this mod's textures somewhere on modrinth, it is probably worth taking a look if you plan on using this mod seriously.

It is not an amazing illagers mod, and in comparison to some made in recent versions (Goety, Illage and Spillage, Illager Additions...) I would say it is really not that good, but it has some good ideas which could be exploited in interesting ways by other modders I'm sure.

It is extremely impressive that all of this was done using a resourcepack. It is very solid but it takes some performance too.

And it's not even remotely close; I've put a few hundred hours into the competition, and this one just blows the others out of the water in every single way.

The pack developer is very communicative and attentive to the community -- the team stays very consistent in their updates, and it's clear that this project is something they're passionate about.

Loot n Scoot is a 10/10 for players -- if you're not a tech player, you don't need to be. You can do pretty much everything you might want to just by looting.

Tech is a 10/10 -- with so many custom recipes/sequenced assembly via Create and Immersive Engineering, the integration is fantastic. I spent several hundreds of hours building and optimizing the automation in my base, I've got a full Sentry turret deployment on the perimeter of my base, as well as a moat of electrical wire. So good.

The quest book is also fantastic, with great guidance for newer players and veterans alike.

I actively administrate a server that has 5-8 regular players on it, several of whom have active automation throughout their bases, and our server consistently remains at 20 TPS.

There are plushies to collect, music discs to collect, and 80+ unique fish to catch thanks to Starcatchers being the primary fishing mod in the modpack.

This is the only modpack I've played so far where I've felt so motivated to actively participate in bug reporting and offering feedback, as well as financially supporting the development team via patreon. They do really great work and it shows.

A good modpack for people that just want to quickly jump in and kill some pillagers, with enemies that get progressively harder as time goes on and weapon drops that comes along it. Took me 3 runs to beat, with the 3rd one having become practically invisible once I grasped all the mechanics, alot of fun that sadly did turn into frustration once I didnt find where to progress, but once I found it gave me a marker for structures that were 10k blocks away with enemies quickly becoming repetitive once I embarked in the journey to those structures. Nice starting pace that gets ruined by structure generation

If you are looking to just fight cool bosses with flashy visuals and attacks while doing flashy attacks of your own with a wide selection of weapons with their own moveset, you will like what this modpack has to offer, thought despite being called a a souls like it is a surprisingly easy one to go throught, only taking me 12 hours to complete the main story line thought I did skip most side bosses as I didnt feel the need to upgrade my gear that much. Mining or building isnt really required to progress throught the questlines so if you just want to jump in and kill a couple bosses this is perfect for you.
Positives:
-The gameplay is definitely the hightlight of this, the combination of the parry and dodging system makes every fight extremely satisfying with every boss having bigger movesets to test your parry skills.
-The main questline is very easy to follow with everything you need to do pointed with quest markers to the specifics structures for each boss.
-Alot of weapons and armors to choose from, you will probably find one that suits your style.
-The bosses of the main questline feel very well integrated.
-The main hub is very easy to come back to so you can work on your gear at any moment
Negatives:
-Once reaching the Nether and upgrading to the corresponding gear the pack becomes extremely easy, with most bosses dying in seconds and having the ability to just tank their attacks.
-This would benefit from having a custom world for exploration. Currently you get your quest with a marker to the dungeon 4k blocks away and fly for 15mins as you just wait for chunks to load.
-The hub is pretty big and empty with alot of blocked spots so running around it gets boring pretty quickly
-The story feels a bit incomplete with random stuff brought up out of nowhere without prior mention.

For a relatively simple solution to having automated mob farms in a modpack, it lives up to the name of being an easy mob farm. The recipes for each of the different mob farms are generally balanced for what they're used for. A lot of the recipes use different materials from the biomes they're based around or require items you typically wouldn't consider getting otherwise, like glow lichen or sea grass. That's also not to mention that it's pretty easy to upgrade a mob farm since it's just surrounding a mob farm with the next upgrade material. The mob farms themselves are definitely a "place and forget" with them working on their own with little to no need for intervention. While it might not be as efficient as manually farming the mobs you want or creating more traditional mob farm setups, the fact that it only takes up one block of space and works on its own makes them extremely convenient, even if they generate drops slowly.
One of my biggest gripes with this mod, however, is the capture card system. The concept and general execution of it is fantastic, with them even working with modded mobs and bosses as they'd drop more generic-looking capture cards that can generate loot. However, you get so many of them that they become rather annoying inventory clutter. This isn't helped by the fact that you only need one capture card of a mob for each mob farm, meaning that once you get a few capture cards of the mob you want, the rest become redundant. Capture cards aren't that rare of a drop either, so I ended up running into multiple situations where my inventory would be cluttered by a bunch of capture cards I didn't want, with a lot of them not even stacking with each other even if they're the same mob (likely because of certain gear they were wearing that the capture card retains). The card binder fixes this somewhat by letting you store your capture cards in it, but it doesn't help the fact that a lot of the time you'll likely be collecting a bunch of capture cards you probably don't want.
One more thing to keep in mind is that the mob farm that's specifically for rare drops gets extremely cluttered if you have a lot of mods. From what it looks like, this specific mob farm more so generates similar loot to items you'd find in random chests rather than pure mob drops. I really like the idea of that, but it just feels weird to have something specifically meant for rare drops from mobs that basically just generates regular chest loot along with standard mob drops. Not an issue I have against the mod as a whole, but something that could use better wording or implementation.

I had a fun time with this pack. I had never used pretty pipes before this pack so it was big tricky at first, but I got the hang of it. I loved the use of tinker's construct as well as aesthetic and concept of the modpack. It's always nice to have a little backstory to the pack. I even built my base out of mud to go along with it. I wasn't too big of a fan of the bonus chapters as they felt really slow and I'm not a big fan of pneumatic craft, but I could have progressed a bit more in the main quests to avoid some annoying parts of fluix crafting such as quartz. However, it was worth it to unlock AE2. Honestly not sure how the endgame of the pack could be completed with ae2 autocrafting especially when it came to the powah mod. AE2 didn't work with extended crafting tables and flux crafters though, so that I had to do all by hand. I think there is an integration mod between the two that would be helpful, but it's not necessary. It was super satisfying using everything to craft the Hammer of Hammers and the Stormbreaker at the end of the pack and using it to clear the skies after knowing nothing but rain for 80 hours.

While I do enjoy kitchen sink skyblocks like FTB Skies or ATM10 TTS, the more structured questline and custom recipes were super interesting to figure out in this pack as well. Awesome pack, great job.