The problem with Age of Rebirth

[esponshadow1 46]

So I know some of you have played the Age of Rebirth modpack, like I have, and probably ran into the same feeling of being overwhelmed. It's packed with so many mods, and while that sounds awesome, I've noticed a few issues that really take away from the experience.

First off, the mod count is just too high. There are so many options that it becomes confusing and hard to keep track of everything. Instead of enhancing the gameplay, it ends up feeling more like a chore to figure out what to do next.

Then there's the lack of a clear focus. It feels like the mods were just thrown together without any cohesive plan or ulterior goal. There's no clear progression path, so you’re left wondering what you're truly supposed to be aiming for.

I've even had performance issues. The game can get pretty laggy and even crash sometimes, which kills the fun when you have to restart your game.

I think Age of Rebirth has a lot of potential, but it needs a more streamlined approach and a clearer goal to make it truly enjoyable.

[haloman30 175]

First I want to start with saying that I do appreciate the feedback, and acknowledge that yea, the modpack does need a good bit of work.

Rebirth was focused down a decent bit relative to Brink of Chaos for sure, but I can somewhat see how there's something of a lack of focus - though admittedly, this doesn't strike me as an inherent problem. At least to me, I'm of the mind that as long as the pack is mostly coherent, I don't see any real issue with having some mods that deviate from that path to a degree. I feel similarly about the high mod count - I don't see that as an inherent issue, assuming that the mods don't take away from the experience or cause performance issues.

 

There is definitely room for improvement, and there are a lot of things I'd like to do in terms of different and newer mods and such, and I'm currently leaning towards once again exploring the possibility of the next major modpack upgrade being based on a newer version of Minecraft, in order to take advantage of newer mods and such (though this could carry with it its own set of challenges and problems).

 

My own feelings on what the best approach is aside - a good chunk of your feedback is pretty clearly actionable and there are clear ways to go forward. However, there's a few pieces that I'm a bit uncertain how possible it'll be to truly address, unless there's something I'm missing (which is entirely possible - and if so, do tell me ):

• Clear progression path - At least as far as I've seen, most mods aren't going to work together super seamlessly. Short of just finding some other mod that has some arbitrary end goal of some sort, it isn't obvious to me how to properly solve the issue of having a clear progression path outside of drastically limiting the mod selection, to the point of being detrimental. I feel there's also room for the argument that there doesn't need to be an inherent goal
• Performance issues - Similarly, I don't see a clear way to for-sure solve this issue without having an extremely tight mod selection. In theory this could work, but I am wary of limiting the mod count too much - as I feel that going too far in this direction would end up with a modpack that feels underwhelming and not quite "modded enough". This issue would likely only be worsened by trying to use a newer Minecraft version - as all the tests I've done on anything past 1.10 have all resulted in worse performance as well as awful memory leaks.

 

The general direction and vision for the modpack has been a mixture of technology and immersion for the most part. Off the top of my head, I don't actually know of any mods that significantly step outside of this, save for maybe some of the mods more focused on building variety - but I'm not sure if removing those kinds of mods is something that'd be beneficial.

 

I suppose a couple points I'd like some clarification on:

• What mods are you thinking should be removed in future iterations of the modpack? Are there any mods that you feel stray too far from the "technological/immersion" approach, or that you feel are just unnecessary regardless?
• What do you feel would be an ideal mod count (approximately)? Or is the issue less to do with mod count, and instead just the sheer volume of content?

[esponshadow1 46]

First and foremost, thank you for replying and considering my feedback.

I cannot speak on behalf of the community as a whole, since I am only one person, but I will represent my own opinions here and others can jump in and reply too if they want theirs to be considered. The changes I wish to propose would most likely be controversial, as I would like an entire rehaul of the entire pack, from the ground up, on a more modern Minecraft version.

The problem doesn't necessarily lie in the numbers of mods- it can have 1,000+ mods and I would be content- just as long as the content it introduces isn't overwhelming or repetitive. When I say repetitive, I mean in terms of progression- say X mod has an item called Z, but Y mod ALSO has an item called Z. And it turns out X's Z and Y's Z aren't compatible with one another. or it is compatible but only with one side. Or X mod has an item that's crucial in  X mod's progression, but Y mod has a version that is easier to obtain or is generally better, therefore removing the sense of urgency.

As far as performance issues goes.. I'm pretty sure the mods can be looked through and unnecessary/non-utilized ones can be removed. For example, when was the last time someone used something from Galaticraft? Or what even is "CMD files"?
 

Spoiler

 

I'm sure adjustments could be made to the current version in order to make it perform better, however, an entire overhaul of the pack on a more modern version could also prove beneficial.

[haloman30 175]

I'll start with the mention of CMD Files and Galacticraft: the former isn't a mod in itself per se, but a library used by some other mod (I forget which). Galacticraft on the other hand was a relatively late addition, added a bit before people stopped playing for a while (which has tended to be how it ends up going) - though I had started with it and I know that @TheHumanMachine_YT had started on an actual space station - so there is that.

 

As for the redundant content, I also tend to agree that it's pretty inelegant to be in that boat - the challenge comes in with cases where the options are either to exclude several mods, that have content people would like and want to make and use, in order to avoid redundancy - or to just deal with the redundancy in exchange for being able to bring that content in. It's definitely frustrating running into issues where some device won't accept power, only to figure out that you have to use the other wires from this other mod instead.

 

None of that seems particularly controversial, and I actually suspect a lot of that kind of stuff could be at least somewhat managed - but perhaps not 100%, as again, I wouldn't want to leave out a genuinely fun mod that would be a good addition, for no reason beyond "it adds some stuff that already exists".

 

Realistically I'm also in the camp though of having another major overhaul modpack - as in, a successor modpack to Age of Rebirth, similar to what Rebirth was to Brink of Chaos. More recently I've become aware of a number of newer mods that I think would be good to introduce - but of course, none of them are going to work well on 1.7.10. There are going to be challenges to that approach, but I do think that ultimately going the route of another successor modpack that's been overhauled is going to end up being the way we go forward, and probably the more interesting direction.

[Windwhistle 31]

oh man, i love cheese. let me tell you about cheese.

 

cheese is a fantastic topping for just about anything you can think of. Pizza? goes great. Garlic bread? fantastic. other cheeses? yup.

 

cheese goes great alone too. you can cut it into cubes, slices, or grind it up into shreds.

 

cheese is the ultimate lubricant.

[haloman30 175]

9 minutes ago, Windwhistle said:

oh man, i love cheese. let me tell you about cheese.

 

cheese is a fantastic topping for just about anything you can think of. Pizza? goes great. Garlic bread? fantastic. other cheeses? yup.

 

cheese goes great alone too. you can cut it into cubes, slices, or grind it up into shreds.

 

cheese is the ultimate lubricant.

 

who the fuck is using cheese as lube ?????  

[Windwhistle 31]

12 hours ago, haloman30 said:

 

who the fuck is using cheese as lube ?????  

those who understand