CalaMariGold

As a modpack dev, having mods be as configurable as possible is a massive help, if not a necessity for many mods. Quark really goes a step beyond and adds pretty much every single configuration possible, even adding a custom in-game menu for it.

The features Quark adds are comparable or just straight up better than other mods' implementations. The backpack is a favorite of mine. It's such a clean way to extend the player inventory, not just add a completely separate inventory (good for immersive packs, maybe not for tech or kitchen sink packs). Also love the totem of holding in place of other grave mods. It's simple, intuitive, and configurable. Quark really helps keep the mod list down and all it's features feel very balanced.

If you're on 1.12.2, highly recommend Quark RotN Edition for even more config features.

Absolutely beautiful trees with a lot of compatibility mods. This single mod will make your world a lot more pretty and enjoyable to be in. Lots of attention to detail and config options. I haven't tried it yet but I imagine Better Foliage would be a great combo. Can definitely do a number to performance, especially on servers, so keep that in mind. I recommend disabling the forest expanding feature as I've seen that cause performance issues.

Heightens immersion considerably! I love seeing the seasons go by, really adds a sense of time to your modpack. Pairs well with other snow and winter mods like Snow Real Magic. Bonus points if you increase the length of day and night.

It's very difficult for me to play modded MC without this mod, it feels integral now. I have lots of memories of basing with friends early game only to move our base quite far, and all of us would grab a chest and run to the new base spot. Something about that feels so immersive and fits right into MC.

Unfortunately for some reason this mod has had so many issues over the years in multiple MC versions. Something always happens to break with it or a mod is incompatible. Many of these issues have been fixed overtime but I'm always on edge when including this in a modpack. Make sure to do some testing.

Finally, a music mod for 1.12 that does everything and is very stable! The GUI is super clean and easy to use, setup is a little bit of a learning curve but honestly not bad! Does everything you need it to and more, even looping tracks at certain stages. If you're still using any other music mod for 1.12, definitely switch to Music Triggers.

[self-review!]

I've been developing TREPIDATION since 2021, and what a ride it's been! I'm really proud of my work so far but also think this pack has a long way to go. Honestly, I had no idea trepidation would be this fun when I first started working on it. Hell, I had no idea minecraft could be this fun, especially the combat! Yes yes yes, of course I'm biased, but if I wasn't having fun in my own pack, I wouldn't give a **** about developing it anymore. Everything from the combat and movement just feels so fluid and satisfying. If you've played doom eternal, you'll know what I'm talking about. I want to continue to build on that.

A massive focus on the pack has also been horror. A lot of people have gave feedback and debated if a pack or game can really combine speedrunning and horror, I'm still of the camp that yes, it can. Let me talk about my reasoning.

I don't believe that just because this is categorized as a "horror modpack" means that the entire playthrough of the pack must be always invoke the feeling of horror. Good horror has a mix and explores other avenues. While I understand the main point is that much of the horror is mitigated by the ability to just i-frame and dash away, I don't actually think that detracts from the overall scary experience.
Look up the meaning of trepidation: "tremulous fear, alarm, or agitation; perturbation." That is exactly the kind of feeling I want to invoke in the pack. It's the feeling of going up to fight a Blazing Juggernaut but then quickly realizing they are avoiding all your attacks and do massive damage. It's the feeling of walking around the Erebus in the darkness and hearing a crawly noise get louder and louder. Yes, you dash away from these situations, but what makes it so much scarier is that you have control. Outlast and Resident Evil isn't scary only because of the gruesome scenes or the setting, it's scary because of the chase scenes and it's easy to get lost or mess up mechanically. It's all in your control and your fear can easily put you in a bad situation. In TREPIDATION, giving the player so many options to escape makes your brain fire off many thoughts as once, making you panic and be more prone to mistakes as you decide where to dash away to or if you should hide in a hole or what ability to use. The amount of times I've ended up in worse situations because of my panic...

I feel like that's the key word, panic. That's the feeling I like to provoke in every dimension. Just pushing "w" to run away in a game like Minecraft doesn't really put you in a panic state as much doing parkour moves while dodging and keeping track of 18 things all at once does. Dashing away quickly puts you in situations you'd rather not be in sometimes because of your panic state, and so you have to dash away more until eventually you've panicked so much that you're out of dashes. That's when the horror sets in, the feeling that all this power you had is suddenly gone, and you feel helpless and desperate. It's only going to get better as more mobs get custom abilities and as the dimensions get more content and become polished. The feeling of terror (as in suspense and dread) is there, but not nearly as much as I'd like it to be, so I have ideas for that as well.

But anyway, I just wanted to talk about that. Go play TREPIDATION and **** your pants like I have so many times during development and testing 😭

I love this pack so much. I haven't gotten very far in terms of progression and questing but honestly? I don't even need to. This pack is a simply a joy live inside of. The aesthetics are incredible and with all the resource packs, shaders and magical mods, it's **** beautiful, might I say even majestic (seriously, look at the screenshots I provided).

This pack is perfect to play with your significant other or a couple friends and to just chill. There is plenty of content in the quests (and all of them are very well written!) but you can spend HOURS just decorating your cottage with all sorts of witchy things from crystals, sage, hanging herbs, antique style furniture, to magical pedestals and light industrial tech such as Create, which I was confused about at first, but actually fits pretty well and is entirely optional. There's even a well written tutorial in the quests.

So, bust out the sage sticks and incense, lay out your crystals, spark up a blunt (if that's your thing, this pack is great to play while high) and load up Cottage Witch! Even if you're not a witch (or a lesbian), give this pack a try 🔮

I love this mod. Foreck and the other developers have done a wonderful job making an immersive cooking mod with lots of features and beautiful aesthetics. It's honestly the best cooking mod I've seen and doesn't sacrifice fun mechanics for realism, but rather blends the two nicely. Highly recommend adding to survival/rpg packs that focus heavily on needing food.

I haven't played through all the ages, only the first couple, so take this rather short review with a grain of salt.

There is nothing that I love more than modpacks that seamlessly integrates mods into the experience. The pacing throughout the first couple ages is fantastic and it all feels very immersive. Love the idea of hiding waila at first and not just throwing a ton of books at the player right when they spawn.

I will say this is quite a lengthy modpack so just keep that in mind. I played on a server with 4+ people and we never had any issues with performance or bugs.

This is a 1.12 gem so please give it a try if you haven't already! So much effort and passion has clearly gone into this pack and I love to see it.

This mod is a blessing to 1.12. It fits perfectly in many heavily adventure and combat focused packs. Plenty of ability variety, really awesome looking visuals, lots of customization, mix and matching builds, and more. You can tell a lot of love went into this mod. The mod has a couple bugs so that's why I gave stability 4 stars.