Minecraft Mod & Modpack Reviews

It's hard for me to give an actual detailed review of this modpack because the modpack itself seems hellbent on not letting me actually see enough to get to it.

I'm just going to make a part of my game design philosophy known immediately: unless your game is fully built from the ground up around it, like a roguelike or roguelite, permadeath is straight just a bad mechanic to have. It actively discourages the player from playing in several ways they may find fun. If you play risky in Dead Cells? You might die. And if you die, you can just start up a new run and get back into it, and the progress from that last run very likely gave you some cool stuff or improvements to use in this one.

If you play risky and die in Desolate Planet? It's just over. You lost your character. Do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars.

This modpack has hardcore set up to be default on any new created world. The dev discourages removing hardcore mode, saying that the modpack is built around the sync mod. This is mostly a lie. It is just a modpack that has hardcore set as the default and then has the sync mod in it. Which allows you to build copies of yourself to respawn at. Sync is a cool mod, but I wouldn't know that here, because I never got far enough to use it. I made about 6 different saves, died at varying levels of progression, and then promptly didn't make a 7th after a creeper dropped down a hole in the ceiling of my spacecraft made so that I could grow food in a place that wouldn't kill me from heat exhaustion and killed me instantly.

Maybe this is a cool skyblock-esque modpack. Maybe It has some neat ideas. But the permadeath looming over my head in a modpack that could potentially take hundreds of hours to beat? Absolutely not. No way. Even if I chose the "easy" route (a slap in the face to your players to name it that, you're insulting them for wanting to sideline a frankly extremely questionable design choice added for seemingly no reason?). What if the your backup body is in an unloaded chunk? Or it gets destroyed by a errant machine? Or a boss monster gets loose and breaks it? Or a mob spawncamps you and removes your body? Or you run out of power during a brown out and die twice? The answer to all of these are contingencies, but I should not have to have 7 different contingencies to alleviate one mod in a multi-hundred hour modpack, and the punishment for not doing so is to have my save deleted. That is just bad game design.

I'd love to be able to comment on the implementation: I've never played a pack that meshed Pneumaticraft and Create, but I am not going to get put hundreds of hours into a modpack where I could lose my save to pure happenstance.

What is it ?

Terrestria is a mod adding a handful of new biomes featuring new custom trees and environments to navigate;
Many of the biomes take inspiration from ExtrabiomesXL in a similar way Traverse does.

What does it offer ?

New biomes alongside new wood types/trees (and one or two ground plants), which are more realistic/vanilla+ than fantastic.
Some biomes are really nice, some are emptier, it really depends on which one we are talking about;
The mod also features a small thing which is quarter logs (only for some of this mod's trees for now), which I think is a nice addition I hope to see added to vanilla Minecraft someday.

I will here list every biome and explain what I like (or dislike) about each of them :
Caldera
A nice mountain alternative with lakey valleys; A bit weird that in the most recent versions of the mod the water isn't turquoise like stated on the biome's wiki page, but I quite like the biome otherwise (one of the many biomes to feature the hemlock tree type)
Canyon
A mountaineous desert which looks different (and in my opinion better) than the various hilly dune-like biomes found within biomes o' plenty, I find it great to navigate without being too close to the badlands/mesa biomes in terms of global generation; this one is probably one of my favorite biomes added by the mod, and looks similar to the ice maze biome added by aquamirae (I wonder if there's some inspiration in one way or another between the two mods, but honestly it could be completely unrelated)
Cypress Forest
A somewhat dense biome with trees of gray wood, perfect for a hidden vacation resort; I like this biome, the trees generate often enough for it to feel similar to a small irregular maze of leaves, which is pretty satisfying to explore
Cypress Swamp
Although the out-of-water sections of the biome feel a bit boring to me, when half submerged it is a cool biome; probably my favorite biome from the mod, but it could be due to betweenlands/biome makeover nostalgia in all honesty
Dense Woodlands
A biome concept which is better done in plenty of other mods : having a full oak forest, like in the older versions of the game before birch was introduced
Dunes
A bit of a forgettable biome, fits as a desert variant to bring more verticallity in sandy biomes (there is already a biome in this mod doing exactly that but better from my perspective)
Hemlock Rainforest
Another Hemlock-adding biome, interesting both from the treetops and from the hillier grounds in terms of travel, I really recommend building something there if you explore it in survival (and the wiki does too apparently)
Japanese Maple Forest
Probably the most iconic biome from this mod, the japanese maple forest is pretty (prettier than biome o plenty's maple forest biome(s)); I think this biome could use some ground polishing on the ground though, it feels a bit too barren
Lush Desert
Saguaro cacti and thin Yucca trees in a regular desert, basically a more lively desert while still keeping the desert's identity. I wouldn't mind this biome ending up as a full replacement of the vanilla desert
Lush Redwood Forest
Prettier than the regular Redwood Forest proposed by the same mod, I don't have much to say about this specific biome
Outback
an Australia-sponsored biome with acacia bushes and yucca trees, it is not my favorite as I am usually not much of a fan of desert biomes (exceptions can be made)
It isn't the first time I've seen this biome concept within a mod, but it's still nice to see
Rainbow Rainforest
Remember when I stated there was that one cypress-based biome which was great in wetter sections but felt a bit too empty for my taste when above ground ? well this biome being more lush it features a lot more ground decorations and a vibe which makes me hesitate to switch my preferences, as it basically 'solves' my complaints about the other one
Redwood Forest
This one is pretty from above (and when exploring from the treetops) but a bit barren from the ground, it could use more ferns or rock formations to make the terrain more interesting (just like in real life)
Snowy Hemlock Forest
Another Hemlock-adding biome, interesting both from the treetops and from the hillier grounds in terms of travel, but with added snow
Volcanic Island
Just like how real-life islands are more often than created by volcanoes in the first place, this one is too, with the volcanic rock worldgen feature pulling lava from an underground lake; I think the volcanic rock blocks look really good, especially the dark green/black mossy ones, they can make for pretty buildings

Unlike Traverse, this mod doesn't have the "lack of ground decorations" issue I mentioned, and while the soil is still pretty uniform in each area, there's more custom shrubs and cacti participating in making the global terrain more lively.
However, the biome replacement system makes it so many of the naturally-generating biomes from this mod appear in smaller spaces (which is great if you want the biomes to be better ingrained within vanilla environments, but sucks a bit when trying to explore only one for longer; I would recommend selecting large biomes for the worldgen if you want to have fun within them more).
I would also like it more if the custom trees added by the mod had more utility outside of a decorative wood set (more unique things to do with the cypress/yucca trees for example ?), but for a vanilla-style biome mod which does not aim to add thousands of things, it adds things well and I am looking forward to the mod's future, hoping it will get even more interesting content updates.
I would like to mention that some biomes (mainly the oasis , but the sakura forest too) couldn't be force-located for some reason, it could be because they aren't implemented in 26.1.2 yet ? or maybe they are just very rare; Anyways I decided not to mention them in the biome list, you can check the mod's page for more information about them anyways.

In conclusion

I quite like this mod's looks and this mod's biome style, even if many are ideas I've witnessed before already (some better than here).
This mod has its own little wiki, having pages for each biomes listing the sources of inspirations and content/intent. There isn't much in terms of config option outside the ability to enable/disable each biome (which is already quite great to avoid overlapping content with other biome mods).
To me, this mod is even better than 1.12 Traverse, as not only does it features new biomes to integrate within your world, but many of them are actually interesting to traverse.

I always prefer a mod with fewer biomes over one with more but which aren't interesting/distinct enough to observe and walk through, this mod while being smaller than many is worth using.
Just like Traverse, this mod also has a reforged version which can be interesting for forge-based modpacks.

One of my favorite modpacks I've played, super fun with friends especially those who aren't fond of super technical packs. The intrinsic material properties and enchantment rework are really well implemented and way better than vanilla enchanting.

Disclaimer:
I consider myself as a slow player, so expect you'll finish this pack faster than me.
This is the first time i played and finish expert modpack or any modpack in general so mods like AE2, Mekanism, Thermal Series, and Industrial Foregoing is unfamiliar for me.
I playing this pack with no spoilers (Figuring things out is a lot of fun for me.)

The Gameplay
The first time i join the world im so surprised with where i spawn, it's not in the Overworld. You get starter gear like leather armor and bow and arrrow so you can go directly to your first boss battle.

The questline is well explained and straight forward, i never get lost with it.
The progression itself is cool, from fighting bosses, making pentacles, to restoring the Tree of Life???

You'll be automating a lot of stuff using magic mods, i won't say much about it but I'll say Starbuncle is your best friend for this one.

The Aesthetics
The dimension you're going to build bases on is well... always nighttime. I love nighttimes ♥️, especially without those ****** Phantom.

Tree of Life designs is really beautiful especially the last stage.

The Performance
I added a few performance mods before i played the modpack, so i don't really know the real performance it gives with a clean install. But it runs really well on my side.
It can even run on 3G allocated memory really well (Don't do it).

Summary:
If you're interested in magic heavy modpack with unique automation i strongly recommend this pack.

I don't really have any complaints about this pack since this is my first time playing modpack so if something is wrong probably just because I'm bad at it.

That's it from me, see ya...

I always appreciate the opportunity for Minecraft to run better than it is, and when the rendering for entities, which is notoriously taxing in large modpacks, can be optimized, I'm on board FULLY! This mod does a fantastic job at improving performance for many aspects of Minecraft. Haven't had any compatibility issues when using it!

This mod does a great job at improving the performance of modpacks, or just Minecraft in general, through the usage of tweaks that have been proven to work well. A must have for anyone who has a slower computer or a very large modpack! Very little reason to ever depart from using this. I've been sure to install this whenever it's missing to gain the boost in performance and stability through all my playthroughs!

I might even consider this one necessary when using large biome generation mods like Terralith! This mod adds a compass that allows players to access the location of any biome that has been generated within a certain amount of blocks of the player. This makes the tedious task of finding specific biomes for quests or items trivial and much more enjoyable!

As a fast-paced player, I always enjoy the opportunity to get around quickly. I find that the Waystone mod has been one of the most immersive ways to do so. Being able to craft a Waystone, place it in your base, and access other Waystones you've encountered on your journey via teleportation is fantastic! It's popular and for good reason! It works well, it does what it says, and it has the option to cost XP as well, making it potentially challenging under the right circumstances! Works well, never had an issue with it previously with all the time I've used it.

I did read the reviews here that mention that this mod isn't a requirement, but from my experience, it works perfectly fine for what it is, even if it's unnecessary. Performance improvements are always welcome, but I can understand if other mods may do it better. Never had an issue myself though.

Just Dire Things gives players the perfect tools to tackle complex automation tasks with ease. There's a lot of cases where I find myself missing this mod when I play a modpack that doesn't include it. Having the block breaker/placer with advanced settings,. block teleporters, and the INCREDIBLE time staff really gives utility that many players may not know is missing! Perfect, 10/10.