Playing Vault Hunters feels the most like playing a roguelite out of any mod or pack I've played thus far (sorry trepidation), it is a true rougelite experience, running, looting, dying, starting again, and increasing your strength through loot and your skill tree.
This is a total overhaul unlike anything else out there.

It can be a very difficult game, personally, I spent most of my time playing solo using the sky block mode. But I've also played with a group of friends and I don't think there's a better co-op experience than running vaults together.

Aside from the spectacular dungeon generation, the fun skill trees, and amazing custom content, the pack still maintains respect for traditional Minecraft modpacks, with many options to use the mods you're used to while in the overworld, tho these are gated by a custom research tree.

It also improves upon many typical modded mc staples and provides QOL that I wish would become standard in other mods and modpacks, such as the morph table that lets you skin any item as another, the amazing holographic armor stands, or most of the new machines' resource slots not having a stack limit. The custom enchanting, item crafting, and reforging are seamless, while familiar to those who have played apotheosis I actually think it's a bit easier here... if it weren't for the lack of resources.

On that note, the game can admittedly feel pretty grindy in the early and mid-game, I recommend messing with the extensive list of game rules particularly if you're playing solo.

I think this is not only one of the greatest Minecraft modpacks ever made, but a phenomenal rougelite dungeon-running looting extravaganza in its own right deserving of being judged as its own game as a nearly unparalleled total overhaul.

Having finally given this a shot in ATM9 this is likely to be the only logistics mod I'll use from now on whenever I have the option.

Don't get me wrong, Xnet, Laser.io, and Modular Routers still have their place, but the level of control you have really does open up new possibilities, and the machines and infrastructure you can create are scalable beyond any other logistics system.

Most importantly, it's performant, even more performant than Xnet, and super easy to debug and optimize your system. While it's certainly not as space-efficient or pretty as laser io, arguably it's actually uglier and more difficult to hide than all other logistics systems I don't think it's controversial to say it is far better to have an easy-to-operate base that won't crash your game when you look at it or tank your server's tps then one with facades over every cable.

That said, combining it with other logistics systems (like modular routers) can make having completely invisible setups very easy.

Of course, it's not just about making your existing setups more performant and faster to build, it also allows you to do otherwise very complex things easily, including completely invisible full automation and auto-crafting setups for things like blood magic, ars nouveau, occultism, nature's aura, mystical agriculture, and of course all of the tech mods.

You can instantly transfer infinite amounts of items, fluids, and power, making it more powerful than most other logistics systems on top of its versatility.
A couple of caveats here are that many blocks in modded Minecraft will themselves have transfer limits, there are ways you can get around these in many cases, but not all. This can limit what you can do as your script will only run once per second (although in most cases this is still far faster than necessary)
Additionally, it makes some other tedious tasks, like automating massive Mechanical Crafter arrays (think the ATM star or SB3's meatballs and catalysts) so much easier in a way that no other logistics system can even compare to thanks to the way you label blocks in the world, this is something I would always dread doing with Xnet alone.

If you are any type of modded player who likes automation or has to work with any type of pipes (that's almost all of us let's be honest) I seriously encourage you to try using sfm for your next project big or small, your server owner, and/or your PC will thank you.

As for how you can actually get started, the example scripts provided on github will teach you everything you need to know, and I do not say this lightly, you really do not need any prior knowledge of scripting or code to get started. The language is so simple anyone can get started even if this is your first time even thinking about the word "scripting." A cursory knowledge of Minecraft is all you need, and if you're reading this you're more than likely already prepared.

Look at the size of this lad

Let me start by saying it is genuinely impressive how big this pack is and the fact I can even get it to run in single-player or as a server on my local machine is a miracle.
I'll point out I did this successfully and without performance issues at significantly less than the recommended ram settings, 10gb each for the client and server.
After adding a few of my own mods, 608 jars in the mods folder, this number has already gone up in the latest update. Of course, as advertised this includes both fabric and forge mainstays.

Compared to other mega-sized mod packs I've played,
It's a bit smaller (for now) than Starpack Titan and a bit less preformant.
Crashes far less than Omega Adventure Pack,
and actually runs for me, unlike Mystic's Monstrosity.

On top of that, it's a 1.20 pack with all of its hundreds of mods up to date.
The only technical issue I've encountered is a crash when using the ponder feature of ae2 and its addons (presumably this would also happen when pondering create).

Notably, while it's latest updates are all under the release channel, the modlist is frequently changing still, with mods being added and removed regularly.

The Gameplay

There's not that much to comment on here, it's a kitchen sink that mostly cares about having as many mods as possible. There is a final item and a few quests related to it, and creative item recipes for the "post-game". Personally, these progression elements failed to really catch my interest, while the Ultibean is unique its recipe is not the most complicated or engaging imo, and the rewards for getting it are a bit pointless as you should already be plenty OP. While ProjectE is gated behind some quests and unique recipes, it's still projectE and once you have it it's a matter of time before you're all powerful, personally, it took me about 2 days to reach the final power flower, notably, the watch of flowing time does require you to get deep into rats which looks to be a challenge, but the vanilla recipe tiab makes it redundant for the most part anyways.
A lot of quests are re-used from other packs, and so are a good number of recipes, I want to be clear I don't think this is an inherently bad thing, rather a solid indication that the gameplay of the pack comes second to providing a massive kitchen sink, this personally doesn't quite fit into my playstyle these days but would probably be a blast with friends.
Additionally, AE2's channel mode is set to "infinite" by default, making its one gate of complexity irrelevant, now I can see where this would have a benefit to servers, for single-player play this does serve to make you even more OP even quicker with little challenge.
Where I do think it deserves points is that the quest rewards are all loot bags, and while that may lack polish or intentional design for a pack like this the prospect of opening up hundreds of completely random rewards in a pack with lord knows how many items really does add to the fun.

That being said, if you're looking for a sandbox kitchen sink, I think this is a great option for chaotically experiencing some of the latest and greatest the modded scene has to offer.

I'm not really going to be commenting on the quality of the voice acting, IMO it's perfectly serviceable, and in my time with the mod, I've only encountered one performance that we'll say pulled me out of the experience which is the only reason I'll leave it at a 4/5.

Overall, Voices of Wynn really does add a new layer to playing Wynncraft. It's immersive and if you're not a fan of reading during raids and quests, this gives you the ability to still absorb the story while playing the rest of the game.
I've encountered no issues using the mod, it syncs to the text perfectly and is easy to use alongside wynntills.
I highly recommend giving it a try next time you play Wynncraft.

I initially picked up ATM9 in preparation for an event, an unofficial server that was meant to go public around December that would have stayed up for a month, so in mid-November, my girlfriend and I started making plans for the type of base we'd want to build and the types of farms we'd want to make.
That specific event server never came to be, so instead we took our plans and joined Chosen Architect's supporter server, after our month-long subscription ended my girlfriend lost interest so I imported our base into a self-hosted server and continued playing solo for about a week and picking it up again late February.

All this to say I've run the entire gambit on how you can play this pack, single-player, small-group multiplayer, and on a public server, keeping (roughly) the same base throughout until I eventually fully automated the ATM star. For most of that last period I played while active in the ATM9 discord channel, talking builds and sharing progress alongside others. I've also played this pack through many updates, several things I did in the pack have been nerfed by the modpack or by individual mod updates cough sophisticated cough, while other new methods and possibilities for resource generation were introduced after I'd already established my infrastructure.

This will also explain that when picking up the pack I didn't necessarily expect to like it and expected it to be mid going in but was pleasantly surprised by the way it captivated my attention.

Progression - 8/10

Firstly, ATM is a progressive kitchen sink, a few OP items are locked behind the main progression system, and there is a trophy final item (the ATM star) you're meant to craft that will unlock some creative items.

The Gates

There are only a few items I remember being annoyed about their gating because I wanted to use them before I had the necessary materials, Mining Gadget, TIAB, Entangled Blocks, CC computers, and the structure compass. These make sense as they can all allow you to bypass progression early on. The gates are all related to the AllTheModium progression system which requires you to mine new ores, and find their related smithing templates in order to get the netherite+ pickaxes that allow you to break said ores. You'll explore the Deep Dark, Nether, and End to find them, and travel to ATMs custom dimensions.
Finding the Smithing Templates can certainly be a chore and the unobtanium template in particular IMO goes a bit too far, the amount of enemies that spawn in the dungeon you have to find them in is honestly a liability for servers, something that I think would be fine if you were only there for a few minutes but it could take you hours just to find one smithing template even if you're over geared and know where to look.
There's one other soft gate, many "progression" dimensions do not allow you to fly, (tho you can bypass this with ars spells a bit) which I think is valid and honestly the only thing that keeps Twilight Forest from being speedrun in 20 minutes, however, this can be a bit annoying if you're an industrialist hoping to utilize the Everbright's permanent daylight, rumor has it that for this reason, you may be able to re-enable flight in these dimensions once you're sufficiently powerful enough in future updates.

The ATM star

The ATM star I think is actually woven very well into the progression of the pack, the quest lines are built with it in mind, with each quest chapter having an optional branch showing you what specifically you'll need to craft the star that you may not have thought to do otherwise.
The actual construction of the star will have you interacting with a good many mods, and getting decently far in most of them, that said the ATM star itself never forced me into learning a new mod, certainly not in a meaningful way, except occultism, but I'm probably the minority there.
That said the process of automating the ATM star which is encouraged by the pack's progression did teach me some things about ae2, productive bees, modular routers, computer craft, and super factory manager.
The ATM star will force you to use specific mods for some resource generation however you are pretty open to farm things in whatever way suits your playstyle.
I primarily used Mystical Agriculture for resource gen, initially on physical farms (having invented and proven a new farm layout for better performance mind you) however after thermal was introduced switching to Phytogenic Insulators and then used Productive Bees where MA had gaps, some of these gaps very much intentional to get you to use both in order to progress.
Importantly, it IS fully automatable... if you really really want it to be, some items can be difficult to make a consistent ae2 pattern for but it is possible and overall an enjoyable challenge, however I doubt that automation in this way is a design goal for the star as achieving it can feel jank for several items.

The Grind

With that being said, the grind of the ATM star can be felt if you're not using HNN and bees to their utmost potential, as the star is very hungry for precious gems and boss drops, simply having an infinite source of some resources isn't going to be enough if you want to get to the true post game without waiting weeks for your crafts to finish.
Additionally, there are a few resources that can be pretty grindy if you're not prepared for them, the typical culprits of course being Blood Magic and Mekanism, the Hellforged Parts from blood magic can be obtained with bees once you've made it far enough to get a few, but for anyone familiar with its infamy I'm sure I don't need to explain how difficult that can be. Mekanism's antimatter on the other hand does not have a bee so you will need to set up sustainable nuclear facilities, however, I found the process to be less tedious here than in many other packs. Extreme Reactors on the other hand is a brutal grind even with help from bees, and I found it to be the most tedious part of the pack by far.
Overall if you're only going for the ATM star, or ATM star automation the grind isn't too bad, but you should be prepared for these specific areas.

Beyond the star

I've talked about the ATM star as the final item as it is where all of the quests generally end up and it's the basis for the true post-game, most importantly tho after automating the ATM star is where I stopped playing (for now), however, it is NOT the greatest achievement in the pack. After crafting 18 of them you can create a bee that will produce more stars for you, I think this is a good number that's not too intimidating but also doesn't make auto-crafting the star before this point obsolete, as making 18 of these beasts without full automation would be an absolute pain. After this point, you're then told to master gregtech to reach the true final achievement of the pack the greg star, and the micro universe.
I have no interest in greg at this point, tho if I did ever need an intro to it this is probably where I'd choose to learn (sorry greg fans) that said Gregtech is so separate from the rest of the pack, other than bragging rights and morbid curiosity the pack hasn't really given me a reason to give it a try.
Additionally, you get access to a couple of creative items, creative power, creative mana, and a creative jetpack, these rewards are lackluster however I understand you can't go too powerful and make the gregstar "too easy". for me tho, by the time I got the star the only reason I'd want any of these rewards is just so I could turn off some of my other machines and save server resources.

Quests - 6/10

As touched on previously the grander progression of the ATM star is woven into the quest book well. The quests are the standard affair, they explain the mods decently well (with the exception of a few errors, particularly in Evilcraft) the level of advice, tips, or best practices given varies from chapter to chapter, in general, I would like to see more. Still, I understand the mindset that quests in a kitchen sink should teach you about the mod not the mod pack, but I tend to disagree so long as any major modifications to the base mod are well explained, atm9 does this decently well tho could be more proactive about it, rather than relegating major changes to an "info" section of the questbook.
The quest rewards are also pretty meaningless even by the midgame, and rarely relevant to what you're doing or your progression, with most quest rewards being a random prize from a specific tier depending on the quest's difficulty, with later quests related to progression offering trophies.
Most of the quests are broken up pretty well and are easy to follow, and the mechanism chapters in particular use features such as the "look at" criteria that many mod packs will never use to great effect.

Mod selection 6/10

Mod selection is the area I feel could use the most work, while there are plenty cream of the crop mods from the latest 1.20.2 forge selection, not every mod is going to have every addon, and in particular I found myself adding a decent handful of mods to my client, and a few other qol of life things like tiab slot and MMMmmMMM. Other exclusions like apothic additions for example make sense to leave out for the sake of balance

Integration 6/10

Integration is mixed, most recipes are cheese-proof and most ores and resources are unified well, however not every mod is going to have a quest line, and even some large mods are completely ignored by the rest of the game, like the Stargate mod and the under garden. However, as mentioned previously some of the things that work to benefit the progression and balance of the game come at the cost of cohesion and integration, aside from mods missing quest chapters, things like 5 different types of blood existing, 3 of them being a type of mana, and 2 of them having different bees can feel a bit... disappointing. One of the mods I feel was most severely damaged was Alchemistry. With Chemlib present alongside Mekanism and Gregtech one would expect Alchemistry as a viable alternative to obtaining many resources, however, in practice, I used it only once, as these three chemistry-based systems are often not interchangeable. That being said, in the areas where they are interchangeable Alchemistry is still not usually a viable option because of how slow the machines are, and that's a symptom of the default settings of the mod, however, I would love to see this system fully, and properly integrated into the rest of the pack such that Alchemistry is a viable solution to more resources by massively buffing the Alchemistry machines and unifying more recipes, perhaps gating these behind unobtanium as a trade-off.

Diversity of Play 9/10

One thing all Kitchen Sinks boast is the "something for everyone" element, and I think ATM9 does actually push this, and weave it into the progression very well.
There are bosses, custom dimensions and structures you have to explore, and many mods you'll have to learn to use in both magic and tech, I really do think this pack is the gold standard for playstyle diversity, with a decent amount of building mods however this area could definitely be improved.
Importantly, the adventure elements aren't just the inclusion of structure and terrain gen mods and calling it good, as mentioned boss fights and exploration are tied to your progression, and even early on exploration is modified with apotheosis' "spawner with a block on it and a chest under it" being cranked way up from the default, making cave exploration a genuine challenge in the early game, and a really fun way of finding loot in the mid-game.

All in all, I think this pack is a lot more interesting than I gave it credit for, while the direction is slightly different from my own idealized version of a kitchen sink, it does have a clear identity and provides a very engaging experience.

I've put in just about 500 hours playing this pack, adding everything together and cutting out the many nights I sat AFK so my farms would run in the early and mid-game, and surprisingly I feel my time was well worth it, being able to contribute in minor ways to the community on the discord has been an amazing time that's left me feeling genuinely accomplished.

Now then, it's time to watch AlfredGG's 27hr speedrun.

The Enigmatica series have always been some of my favorite kitchen sinks, but Enigmatica 9 Expert really surprised me from the start and is, from my short playtime so far, a very tightly crafted and unique challenge.

While I'm not usually into expert packs, I'm a sucker for any pack that starts you off in a dimension that's not the overworld.
More on that:
The pack has you start in the Twilight Forest, and this is the first time I've experienced Twilight Forest without god-like abilities, much less with progression mode turned off. I now have a newfound appreciation for this, let's be honest, somewhat overused staple and I think getting you to look at old content in new ways is what expert packs are meant to do at their best.

Seriously enhances the Wynncraft experiance, if you've tried Wynncraft but didn't like it try it again with Wynntils installed.
Wyntils isn't just an amazing Wynncraft mod, it's an all around great client utility with an insane degree of customizability that's always improving in the new 1.19 (Project Artemis) iteration and features I wish could be their own universal mods, and outshines even many stand-alone clients. Hats off all around.

I've been a CIT user since 2019 and a mod like this is wat I've been waiting for! An absolute must have for anyone using a CIT pack, no more trying to guess the spelling and erasing and re-writing in the anvil gui and typing the same thing over and over, renaming your item is just a few clicks. Complete with a favoriting option and search box which is especially helpful for wearables. Unfortunately this does not completely remove the need for catalogue browsing, as you can only see the possible CITs for the item currently in the anvil, but this alone can save a lot of time

My biggest critique of the mod is in it's branding, I only discovered it by accident, and had no idea it was related to CITs or what it did from it's name alone, it wasn't until I saw an image of it in-game that I learned what it really did, So please check out the screenshots below or on it's official pages.

(screenshots taken with Overgrown Flowery GUI, Mizuno's CIT, and Little Hatpack resource packs)

Really makes your builds feel magical, the crafting recipes may not be the most intuitive at first, and there are some features like twinkling that aren't really explained, but I think the recipes make up for it by being fun and adding a lot of charm to the mod.
The mod is surprisingly versatile, it's more then just night lights, but hanging chevrons, or just the empty hanging strings can add a lot to a build and fit with a variety of aesthetics.
Super customizable and fun to use, highly recommend.

Despite this mod being a ubiquitous part of Minecraft for a while now, I never really realized just how many features this mod adds, it is surprisingly vast, while there are only a few that stand out to me and fewer that are ground breaking, the sheer amount of quality content is awe inspiring. I'll also say if the client-side features were spun off into it's own mod, it'd be a daily use mod for me.
I honestly believe Minecraft as a whole owes a great debt to the Quark mod. It set an unrealistic standard for many of the features Minecraft would end up adopting, such as stalagmites and stalagmites which look so much better in quark, a believe I hold so strongly I went and made a resource pack about it. or ofc the famous frog who is the best frog in all of Minecraft and I'll kill for him.