Enderman

You would need CraftTweaker and a billion add-ons to mimic all the features groovyscript ships by default. Only thing missing for now are mixins. Hope these will become a feature in the near future. It also comes with its own resource loader so no need for another one, when making a modpack.

Also as a developer myself adding support for groovyscript is much easier in comparison to CraftTweaker.

I have no idea about any of the modern versions, nor the interest to test any of them, but there is a reason why I rewrote Neat as part of Ender's Modpack Tools to be more performant as you can notice the slow down, when there are larger groups of entities on the screen.

While at it I also added more option about the look of the overlay, which is why it only gets a 2.5 as it lacks options besides changing the colors.

Shipping an empty jar as mod is stupid. At this point just make it another config option. But great 36 million downloads.

Is is weird reviewing my own project? Maybe. Do I care? Don't think so.

Gameplay

This is another modpack creator mod. Imagine it as a much more powerful chisel GUI - instead of changing a block 1:1 you can craft items on the fly using resources in your inventory, offhand etc. Each crafting window can be opened by either an item or by a block in a world - turn any block into a crafting table. Each recipe category can have multiple trigger items and blocks, each with their own recipe modifiers, crafting time, consumption chance, you name it.

Performance

Has practically no impact on the game at all, especially without any recipes configured. Only reason to not give 5/5 is the lack of caching, which would slightly improve performance, while having a Crafting GUI open - still don't know if this would even be noticeable.

Aesthetics

Designs are up to the modpack author, but I provide multiple options for backgroud, borders, corners while also supporting custom textures. Furthermore I provide hooks to play sounds and spawn particles. So feel free to make your recipes visual appealing.

Note on playtime: The overall time is influenced by developing, play testing and experimenting with CraftTweaker and Groovyscript support.

Is is weird reviewing my own project? Maybe. Do I care? Don't think so.

Though maybe I should say that I didn't create the pack initially. I started maintaining it after the original author left the Minecraft community and did so for the past few years. I also rewrote large parts behind the scenes, so I know this pack inside out.

Gameplay

I mean the whole flatmap-skyblock map isn't new as the pack took heavy inspiration from Anti-Material Energy, which used the old MineChem mod to supply the player with elements. This pack uses Alchemistry - a spiritual successor of MineChem for 1.12 and the core gameplay loop contains collecting all types of antimatter (renamed concrete) to get access to the whole periodic table. To achieve this the player has to experiment with different mods to get access.

The first 2 questbook chapters are pretty straight forward. The mid-game is weird as the pack uses the Atum 2 mod and having a random generation in the progression of a sky block-esque pack just feels off. Once that part is finished the rest of the pack is more cohesive.

Performace

Skyblock packs have great performance, we have a tiny mod list with around 120 mods and we've stress tested multiple servers together with the Antimatter Chemistry Community. Still no cleanroom launcher - yet.

Aesthetics

If you like the dytopian and very bright flat map awesome. I hated it. Though the pack offers enough options to setup a pretty base only a few hours into the pack.

Note on the playtime: I lost count how many times I beat the pack. There was a time where I began to speedrun the first chapters and I crafted the Extreme Crafting table in under 24 hours playtime. If you don't include the grind in the end needed for all the infinity stuff, this is quite a short pack.

Is is weird reviewing my own project? Maybe. Do I care? Don't think so.

Gameplay

Depending on the packmode you choose to play this, you experience will differ greatly. I know that, it is intended.
The pack originated back in 1.10.2 as a small project for a good friend of mine to play during his stream. After having a server with almost 20 active players it was the first time I got recognized for something I made. What a great feeling.
A few years passed and I started to rebuild the experience for 1.12.2 - so the so called "legacy" mode is exactly this - a recreation of the adventures we used to play back in 1.10, but I always preferred modpacks that challenge the player with interesting automation mechanics. So over roughly 3 years and many, many hours I handcrafted a complete new path through almost all mods in the pack, featuring all crafting method, mob drop etc.
Overall the resonance, especially for the overhauled early and mid-game was mostly positive, but as in most "expert" (I hate this term) packs the end-game can get quite boring as you wait for resources and progress slows down even more. So I guess give it a try and just stop when you killed your first chaos guardian. :3

Performance

For roughly 300 mods it runs surprisingly good and yes this is without cleanroom-loader. This would probably improve things, but I simply don't have the time right now to publish an update for it. Also yes it runs on 4GB RAM, but users had issues on older laptops.

Aesthetics

The pack installs the unity resource pack by default and uses a bunch of addons to further build a cohesive experience. I mean it by no means can be compared to something like RotN, but it was enough to get it to a state that doesn't feel weird, when you fly through your base.

Note about the playtime: I finished the legacy mode like 5 times with roughly 200 hours each and beat the nightmare mode on my third attempt after roughly 700 hours according to FTB Teams, the first two attempts died around the 200 and 300 hour mark. This also doesn't include the time spend to actually develop the pack, that would easily add another 1k-2k hours.

Is is weird reviewing my own mod? Maybe. Do I care? Don't think so.

Gameplay

I mean it's basically the most important feature of the mod connecting mods together where it is needed. The mod chooses an "off-by-default" approach so the modpack creator can only enable the features they are interested in. This may seem like a weird choice, but this mod isn't made to be thrown in an instance and to "just play" it.
I'm quite fond of a few features, but according to the bugtracker there are a LOT of features that still need to make it into the mod.

Performance

Highest priority goal at all times. best example is my implementation of the old Neat mod, which has almost 3x less impact on the game and also comes with a bunch of new config options.

Aesthetics

I'm a programmer not a great one, but I am an even worse artist. Luckily this mod doesn't contain a lot of textures, but I hesitate give it more than 2 stars.