ITS FINALLY HERE! After the footage got corrupted the first time, I went back and replayed it to give you all this reworked video I planned a few months ago! I hope yall enjoy it, and thanks for your continued support! See ya next time!
Vicious cycle of me trying out a modern modpack: - Cool modpack trailer on youtube - Download, launch the game. - Advertisements in main menu, manually removing annoying mods - New world generates 3 minutes - Spawn in, get 3 books from seperate mods - Cluttered HUD, configurating more annoying mods - Quest book, first quest gives starting items which I throw away immediately - Proceed with gameplay - 10 minutes in, inventory full of unknown items, loud advancements pop up every minute for every structure I enter - Mobs too powerful to explore them properly - Dig around the mobs to a chest - Diamond gear inside - Quit game - Rinse and repeat about 2 months later.
am i the only person that hates that mod that adds the loud advancement noise. every modpack i've ever played adds it and it's actually so annoying lmao
@@stalecheez-it1034 No you're not. The default sound is pretty obnoxious, especially in the beginning where you get tons of achievements in quick succession.
@@therealbottomdweller hey man just wanted to say this video and your analysis is pretty awesome and insightful! Really glad to hear your thoughts! Got yourself a new sub! God bless ya and Jesus loves ya!
Better minecraft has no thought put into it. Just perfect marketing. Like "woah better minecraft, its gotta be better". Then youre playing an unoptimized mess. packs like crucial 2 that get a ton of love put into em simply dont get the attention they deserve cuz of marketing. And honestly i really enjoy vanilla. I like thinking of modded and vanilla fundamentally differently. Modded is for my fun automation, wacky magic, and game breaking stuff. Vanilla is for reserved creativity i think.
Fair points made! I wouldnt say there was no thought but a lack of it in places where it was needed. Crucial 2 is a jam honestly, might approach it again at some point. Thanks for watchin!
All the LunaPixel packs seem to be like that honestly. Thrown together pack, heavy marketing. Really wish sites like mmcreviews would gain more traction so we had a better way to filter packs.
@therealbottomdweller someone's gotta come up with a new concept that appeals to new and seasoned players. Smth like sevtech was so cool because of its concept. You could sell that to new people and provide seasoned players a cool expert packs. Create above and beyond was also really well designed too. My current favorite idea is making a technical modpack that's short enough to where it's viable to speed run it. Maybe someone can market a pack similar to ultimate alchemy really well.
The twilight forest was designed from the ground up to bring a completely new and unique rpg expirience to minecraft, it was never meant to be seen as something that could be added to vanilla minecraft, but the author of this modpack just decided to add it just because of the extra bosses
I completely agree, lots of mod packs these days claim to be “better Minecraft” or “vanilla plus” but they just throw a bunch of popular mods together without any concern for the base games balance or theme. Meanwhile, mojang themselves are making updates smaller and smaller, throwing new features onto the pile while ignoring other issues that needed to be fixed years ago.
I think that Mojang definitely should do more reworks, but most of what Minecraft lacks is gameplay variation and challenge, so I do think the current focus works.
thats what i alwasy felt about the better nether and end mods. even then i feel theyre worse in a lot of respects, theyre both visually cluttered as hell. and better end completely misses the point of the end's aesthetic, turning it into a lush environment as though it were simply an alien planet, rather than an alternate reality defined by desolation and emptiness
@@dandyspacedandy I love the better end mod as something thats inherently not a better end. I love it as a completely separate thing that isnt trying to be the end at all. Its beautiful, but it really is not the end.
I remember a while ago, the creator of the pack removed a mod because it was "overpowered". When in reality it was an interaction between 2 separate mods that was the issue, neither was a problem on their own. Before removing it, they even submitted a report on the mod's page, and the mod author was baffled because again, there was no issue with the mod itself. The problem only arose when you stacked other mods alongside it. After that I stopped updating and playing the pack all together. Clearly no research was being put into the development, and I'm not surprised it hasn't changed since.
Wait really????? Who complains to the mod author that it makes the pack they created haphazardly unbalanced??? Thats some goofy clown business right there. Thanks for the information!
The "issue" was with Mogul trading from Comfortable Nether. You could trade Heart of the Sea for Netherite. Which would normally be balanced by the scarcity of the hearts only being found in buried treasure. But the pack had another mod that added a villager type that would trade you hearts for emeralds. So emeralds equaled netherite. Sure, a possible problem, but handled poorly.
Omg I forgot about that. Even went to check the mod's changelog. Version 4.7 "Changed Heart of the Sea trade since I didn't realize Cartographers in 1.14 sold Buried Treasure Maps" Not an issue, wasn't anything wrong on the dev's end. Thankfully it was only for a single version of the mod
Finally someone else who understands the bloating of modpacks and how the creators lack an actual vision of what they want or are trying to create and just slap on a bunch of popular mods
Another main thing that definitely makes it not a "better Minecraft" is that there are too many structures. The main focus of vanilla Minecraft is that you can build whatever you want and survival gives you extrinsic motivation to do so. But there are such an abundance of well built structures with everything you need already there that it defeats the point. Why build? Why mine? I can just walk around long enough and eventually find everything I need in a pre-built cottage.
Oh my god youre so right! They added a mod that tosses in tons of random ass structures that look player made and have no npcs or villagers. It robbed me of the personalized survival world feeling.
It feels hard to find good modpacks cause every big popular pack feels the need to dump every possible thing in there, and none of it really feels made to work together
Yeah! Its really strange just how everything gets dumped in like some kid mixed 10 lego sets together with the idea that itd make a cooler set. Turns out a lack of cohesion makes it just an unfocused jumbled mess.
@@martinpachu7125yes, but some modmakers just throw a bunch of mods into a single modpack and call it a day. These are known as kitchen sink modpacks, and generally theyre buggy unbalanced messes. However, there are some really good modpacks with lots of mods.
The point about Minecraft having "a little bit of something for everyone" is what I believe is the primary reason these modpacks rarely feel like a better Minecraft to everyone. Everyone wants a different thing out of the game, and building upon systems one person likes (let's say...exploration and combat) in a way that's naturally integrated could end up inconveniencing other people (such as people who just want to build). It's a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none game, and successful games that were inspired by Minecraft end up specializing in different ways to set themselves apart. Terraria's boss-based progression, Ark's strong but very specific theming, and Vintage Story's challenging survival mechanics should come to mind. It's also part of why Mojang is always so afraid to add new things and end up adding the most interesting and useful content during April Fools updates. They, unlike modpack organizers, are trying (and failing) to appease absolutely everyone. A lot of people never seem to directly recognize this, and only manage to talk about abstract feelings they have. That's how we end up with hundreds of video essays that take several minutes to explain relatively simple ideas.
Exactly what im thinking after all this too. Hard to make a game better for everyone when its target audience is literally everyone. Heard a lot about vintage story lately! Might need to look into it. Thanks for watching and the support!
I think something that does a relatively better job at this would be a pack similar to the Yogscast's Moonquest series. It has tons of technical features for the mechanically minded, tons of new areas and places to explore for adventurers, cool new tools and gear that make progression more interesting, and tons of new blocks and materials for building and designing! Something like that adds to every aspect of the game instead of channeling it into one genre or style of play.
The best way to play modded Minecraft in my recent experience is simply building your own pack. Adding mods you know, trust, and love. For me, that's making a Create mod +addons pack, occasionally including Cobblemon, and maybe Aether, Otherside, or Terralith, along with the basic performance/QOL mods. Most of the time, this leads to you not being bogged down with a bloated pack full of unfamiliar mods, an overly long quest book, and still feeling like Minecraft at the end of the day.
5:06 I think you can just "skip" the ender dragon fight and build a flying machine to get elytra before fighting it. But of course you can't leave the end without defeating the dragon
You can actually just bridge out on blocks. It’s 1000 blocks until the outer end islands, but it’s actually very easy - the dragon doesn’t go after you either. I’ve done it multiple times
You could leave the end if you aren't on Hardcore, bring the materials for an ender chest, or take one from an End City. I can't remember if you can put shulker boxes in them, but if you can, then there you go. Jump into that scary void 👻
The Better Adventures modpack definitely feels like a True Vanilla+ pack, it's basically entirely QoL, aesthetic things, and minor mechanical tweaks to make the experience of playing minecraft flow better.
@@therealbottomdweller Yoo looking forward to it! With all these suggestions I would love to see an update video and see if you were able to find a "true" Better Minecraft. So far I thought you had great opinions in this video, wonderful job!
me and some friends used to play this modpack together quite actively for some time and, while i do like it; the pack is overstimulating with all the stuff it adds. i'd find something new, go "woah!" then immediately find something else that's new, and i'd just discovering new stuff over and over and felt paralyzed as to what to explore with it. the pack can be fun, but it's a like a really sickly sweet candy. it's tasty, but you don't wanna have too much of it
Totally understandable! I personally like having a lot to do, but my issue was how detached everything was from one another. Made it feel sorta gross. Thanks for watching though! Glad to hear you and your pals are enjoying it!
the problem with better minecraft (and just luna pixel studio modpacks in general) is the lack of cohesion. the quality of the modpack usually is determined by its quest, cohesion, and progression. most of the great modpacks like sevtech, meatball craft, and even dawncraft are usually pretty comperhensive despite their overwhelming of content. they made some modification of the mods so that almost every mod works and interact with each others (ars working with ae2, create being able to produce FE to use for other mods, needing some drops from bosses to advance your progression/tech, etc.). they also guide their player to approach their contents in a good way like a well designed questbook and crafting recipes. Luna pixel modpacks just don't do this. despite their name and tags, a lot of them are very poorly designed kitchen sink with barely any custom recipes and interaction between mods. in my opinion, for those who wants to get into modded minecraft, i reccomend to avoid luna pixels entirely. there are many better options even for a vanilla+ pack. i reccomend trying out some of the ftb packs. they did a pretty good job at most of them. if you want to try out kitchen sink, i reccomend the all the mods series. they're not the most balanced but they're really cohesive and well designed with the quest book guiding through most of the mods, familarizing you with the world of modded minecraft. overall, great video!
Yeah I actually noticed that while playing! None of the mods really worked with eachother so it just seemed lumped together. Well put! FTB packs are pretty good, been a while since ive played one though. Last one I played was revelations. Thanks for watching btw! Glad you enjoyed the video, and hope to see ya again!
other people have probably said this already, but the thing about better minecraft is that you start to understand just how silly it is once you get deeper into the modded scene i personally think you gave the modpack a bit too much credit for what the *mods themselves* contributed. some of the mods in the pack are fantastic, but that shouldn't necessarily reflect on the quality of the pack itself the development of better minecraft, from my impression of it, can be summarized as just finding whatever has the most downloads for that version on curseforge and adding it to the pack, as long as it's vaguely "vanilla+" (so no tech, magic, etc.) it may be fun at some points, because the most popular mods tend to be pretty good, but it just isn't a cohesive experience-- rather than something that was carefully designed, it's just a bunch of random mods thrown together and shipped out with very few manual adjustments other than the quests and menu screens. it's very "quantity over quality", if that makes sense compare this to packs like crucial 2, which bend over backwards to make sure all their content is seamlessly integrated, and you'll realize just how Nothing it is considering they're profiting from the pack with their bisect partnership and have the audacity to call it BETTER than the original game, i feel like all this criticism is very justified (good video btw! you made some really good points about the series, i just wanted to chip in with my own thoughts as someone who's super hyperfixated on minecraft modding lol)
Youre totally right! I was giving credits to the pack for what the mods do! Probably shoulda worded it better. I truly did mean to actually clarify that when I was talking about disjointed additions, but I completely failed to convey that point! Thanks for catching it! Im agree with your points, and im glad you enjoyed the video! I hope to catch ya in the next one!
If I had to describe Minecraft right now it’s The Community as a whole wants like 6 different games and Minecraft is just adding things that TECHNICALLY could exist in said games but doesn’t bring anyone closer to a real IDEAL mc. Besides builders.
Yeah I agree, Honestly Im a builder but I just want more tools to shape the world with. The fact we still only have a pickaxe and shovel is a crime. Thanks for watching!
Gimme more tools to build and terraform with. Blocks are nice, but I wanna see an addition change how building is approached for the better! Last time I saw a valuable build tool was Scaffolding imo.
since you asked for modpacks at the end i am going to list a few modpacks i'm pretty fond of -I have a bit of a soft spot for Crucial 2, it's honestly just a well put together mod pack, with tweaks to make the mods lot together well -Genesis is a pretty refreshing take on minecraft, with it even having it's own core mod that fixes up the code of the mods in the modpack. currently the creators are making custom end biomes for an upcoming modpack ubdate -While not currently out, the creator of the Windswept! mod is making a modpack of her own, that aims to re-imagine minecraft, with custom curios replacing the enchantment system, an emphasis on a tweaked version of create replacing redstone, with areas that act as tutorials for the machinery, and more! Honestly really excited for this one
Hello. I am dev of the Genesis core mod. A lot of work has gone into patches that both fix bugs with existing mods and also change their behaviors so that it fits the pack's needs. Even the current release, 1.2.8, contains patches that fix unfair damage from Alex's Mobs. You should check it out. 😃👍
I play modded minecraft since beta and still do with modern versions of the game and i will say this: Most of "BETTER" Minecraft modpack don't care about making it fun, just ton of mods slap together trying to appeal to everyone, make the game feel overwhelming and bloated without direction. It is lack of passion.
I remember beta modpacks… Tekkit and Technic are classics. I agree this was pretty lumped together. Thanks for watchin btw! Hope to catch ya next time!
Better Minecraft and all the other “””Vanilla Plus””” mods build in the same vein feel like a spit in the face. I want a mod pack that gives me a bit more optimization, vein miner, tweaks to some issues and such stuff. I do not fucking want 18 dimensions, 25 mods that require me to read an entire wiki to understand, complex completely none-Minecraft systems that break s everything and more cramped into a single mod-pack only to be tagged as “Vanilla +”
I think its funny because dying would was used for a game that is genuinely hemorrhaging player numbers, but now its like “Oh, new update? Didnt hear of it. Must be a dead game.” Thanks for watching btw!
The only true 'Vanilla+' modpack ive ever played was Crucial 2. It feels like the actual game, no random dimensions, no OP loot sources, just Minecraft, not to mention it adds stuff for everyone. New redstone machines, building blocks, crops, etc.
Funny you mention this! The original videos concept had two other packs and one of them was Crucial 2! I agree, Crucial 2 was a pretty strong pack. My only complaint is its stuck in an older version of the game, but despite this it was still really good.
Alexs mobs, the caracal mod, rotten creatures, quark, farmers delight, etcetera, carry on, Alexs caves, autumnity and regions unexplored that all you really need to make a better Minecraft lets be real edit: thank for the thereaibottomdweller for liking this comment
Originally, I was hesitant on this video's points, mostly stemming from the section where you criticize the base game's bosses for being relatively bare bones and unimportant. A commonality in a lot of Minecraft discourse is that people want a more linear progression system, which completely undermines it's sandbox philosophy, and usually shows a lack of understanding of how Minecraft is meant to experienced. So when you mentioned that, and praised this mod's combat/dungeon crawling additions, I was worried you would also fall into this trap. But, surprisingly, at the end of the video, you made the point that Better Minecraft lacks content and reworks aimed at creatives, like builders and redstone mechanics. I appreciated that, as it proved you do understand what actually makes Minecraft work. So well done! In the end, you had a solid conclusion on the modpack's faithfulness and gave an informative review on it's content as a whole. Also, your editing is excellent. Even if I disagreed with your overall thesis (I don't), I would have to give props to that. Nice work.
Oddly kind of the point! Ive been playing the game for 15 years so Im well aware minecraft is a creative sandbox. I was bringing up the bosses not so much to bring up my grievances more than to bring up the COMMON grievance with the bosses. Thanks for watching and Im glad you enjoyed! Hope to catch ya next time.
A think I find kind of interesting about these “better Minecraft” mods and mod packs is that they kind of always forget 3 key items that make Minecraft what it is. First is freedom of approach, second is simplicity, and third is obtuseness. These three things are constantly what people forget to add to their vanilla plus’s stuff, and it very clearly shows that the mod isn’t Minecraft. Ok freedom of approach is easy and straightforward, any part of Minecraft can be freely explored and enjoyed at any level of play. You can beat the end with wooden tools if you’re really dedicated, and you can get to every single function of the game without ever needing to step into a cave or mine. Minecraft over the years has allowed you to build yourself up in any way you choose. It’s fundamental that you can play how you want. If you want to do nothing but build you can, nothing but fight you can, nothing but redstone you can, etc. all while still allowing you to progress through the game however you feel (within some limitations). This is something that almost every mod breaks with due to the complexity of allowing for the needed level of freedom being too much for most single mod developers. I’d say look at twilight forest as an example since it actively makes you go through every area in an order to progress. Ok simplicity is kind of a double edged sword for mods since having a mod that adds in only one thing usually isn’t that wanted, but what I’m talking about is bloat. There really shouldn’t be a whole extra stack of armors and weapons in the game, there shouldn’t be a dozen extra dimensions to hope through, and there certainly shouldn’t be hundreds upon hundreds of random block variations for dirt. This is more what I’m getting at with Minecraft. If you are adding in things like power armor, complex alchemy, magic craft, fifty different ores, hundreds of small animal mobs that fill the area, or dozens of new structures to the world then you’re not really trying to better Minecraft. Obviously Minecraft updates can be pointed at as a counter to this, but every update doesn’t add hundreds of new blocks, or dozens of new mobs. It’s never to the scale that mods get to. Hell we need mods like Not enough items or its successors just to handle the level of bloat that comes with mods. We could also get or complexity of things like how mods will make you learn full on coding to use, but usually that’s not in mods that try to be “better Minecraft.” Finally we have obtuseness. This one is more tricky, but the best way I can talk about is through the lens of automation. Minecraft is all bout the extra layers it takes to do something. To trade with villagers you need to have work stations and the right time, to mine you need to actively carve through stone, to get food you need to either gather or farm with takes it’s own level of steps. With automation most to all of these extra layers are gone. You see this with mods that add quarries, instantly gain resources, automating certain mechanics, and so on. All of these break away from the fact that to automate in actual Minecraft is an incredibly complex thing. Sure you can make an infinite fuel auto smelter, but it is a full contraption that requires multiple different aspects of Minecraft to be added together compared to something in say create or build craft. Anytime a mod tries to lessen the level of hope one has to jump through to perform a function it is going against a key aspect of Minecraft. Now obviously all three of these things can be ignored, and an amazing mod can be made despite these. Hell every example I gave was from highly successful mods, but the problem is you can’t easily make Minecraft good without these things which is where better Minecraft, and mods like that always fail.
Id agree! Especially on freedom of approach! Its why twilight forest actually felt off. Being left without the freedom to tackle challenges in any order just felt yucky. You make solid points! Also thanks for watching, hope to catch ya again soon!
maybe you'd find raspberry flavoured interesting (modpack) its a really "controversial" pack because it does change to the game that people might not really enjoy (like removing exp or the end) but justifies itself that minecraft has become exploited with people just trying to reach the end for example and once you remove that goal the game becomes more free with people trying to find a new "purpose/goal"
NGL, most of my playthroughs(even on servers with other people) the end is never the goal. Granted I also tend to like adding lots of exploration but currently have a server setup with BM exosphere, which turns all world generation into an aether style sky islands situation, with a grappling hook. It's just fun to swing around.
@miimiiandco generally, not even elytras tend to be a good incentive. Most mod packs tend to have ars, and that also means flight is somewhat easy to get. Or otherwise no-one really cares enough about flight in the first place
it is worth mentioning that the removal of exp is only in the pre-release versions as of now but i can vouch for raspberry flavored, EXTREMELY polished modpack (although i wish it didn't have create)
I recomend you to play raspberry flavored (when devs release 2.2 or just play latest pre-release). This pack is reworks a lot of things. Idk if you can call this vanila+ because it's have create and deletes things like end and vilagers from the game. Also this pack have a bunch custom textures and even custom music (at least in 2.2)!
it's shocking to me just how many people think that minecraft's "flaws" are just... it being a sandbox?? like.. so many people make suggestions for "improvements" that are just trying to turn it into a more linear purely combat-focused RPG, and this pack seems to fall into that mindset as well
Totally! I love that its a sandbox! Im just upset that their idea of improving the sandbox experience seems almost exclusively to be new blocks instead of adding more tools and utilities.
@therealbottomdweller that as well, many of the the few people who try to play into the sandbox end up just adding more decorative blocks (without considering whether they serve a unique purpose) instead of any other creative aspect. redstone is also routinely ignored, of course
When it comes to Vanilla bosses something they really gotta add is a big-ass spider. There's this one old poster that featured an absolutely massive one, and Bane of Arthropods is so useless in the base game.
Since you asked for recommendations on modpacks: I really like Auto Terra Firma Craft. It's a smaller pack build on Terra Firma Craft and Create and I feel like these mods mesh together really well. TFC reworks world generation, farming, mining and gear progression while adding a lot of new crafting systems and forcing the player to slow down (at least in the earlygame). Create is a technical mod which allows you to build highly customisable contraptions based on mechanical power while maintaining the "one block at a time" principle and staying away from one-block solutions which plague many other tech mods. I feel like TFC gives the pack a grounded and emersive foundation, while Create challenges you to tinker with gradual automation for some of TFC's more tedious aspects and surpassing the limitations TFC sets for the lategame. The aestetics for most of Create's mechanical contraptions also fit seamlessly into TFC's world.
This pack is missing things that rework core mechanics Things like Tinker’s Construct which reworks tools and armor in a big way Sophisticated backpacks and storage drawers which rework the inventory Farmer’s delight or Pam’s harvest which redo food entirely The list goes on
Good mods! I feel like these ones would be a bit too crazy of a rework, but it definitely would have been better than nothing at all. Thanks for watchin btw! Catch ya next time!
I could speak on Sophisticated core (Storage and backpack) being the quintessential mods for ANY modpack without having to go into Refined storage for storage space. Tinkers is good, but if you're not craft-smart then it can be a bit of a headache.
@@nati0598 Whaaaat? Noooooo. All Minecraft players can totally figure out how to convert their entire base into a glorified server room and summon eldritch demons. You're crazy.
I feel like this perfectly portrays mojang’s problems of trying to please millions of people at the same time, if they put to much stuff it would feel like a different game like it’s not the same or if the put not enough stuff then they are lazy and under developing it’s a very fine line I think the reason why Minecraft did good in the beginning is because of a smaller player base and because mojang (notch) made what they wanted they made what they felt made the game better for them not for the masses. Anyways great video loved it
Yeah, I'm actually fine with how they do it. Can't do too much or too little or else there will be certain people that get upset. Minecraft is a sandbox game, a survival game, an exploration game, whatever you want to call it. But I would also say it's a game that can rely on mods, at least for Java players. Because mods exist, they don't have to worry about not adding enough because that's what mods are for. They can experiment with stuff, while the official game stays on a stable path. It would be nice if Bedrock was able to do as much as Java when it came to modding...
The issue with mojang is they keep making most updates more and more shallow while adding less and less content. Like the upcoming update with the creaking, good concept, awesome aesthetic, abysmal gameplay and execution. They had something going in 1.21 with the ominous bottles and it seems like they won't do anything with it and just keep pumping out disconnected content. This is not much different from how bad modders do it.
It's kinda funny for me to see how people discuss if the mod is "vanilla plus" or "just like minecraft". I've started playing back on 1.7, have you seen what crazy mods there are? Vanilla is just... not a game for me. It's not playable. There is nothing to do, it has no unique style or anything. If you try to "keep the vanilla feel but make it better", it's just the same empty game for me. And then i see people fighting over a mod that "doesn't feel like minecraft", and i don't even know what to feel about that.
This modpack is labeled as vanilla+ by the devs, and its very much not. Its worth noting that feeling like Minecraft doesn’t necessarily mean feeling EXACTLY like Minecraft more than it is an organic evolution of the game. This pack doesnt feel organic in the slightest and thats the problem. Totally see your point though.
My portal to twilight forest straight up spawned me in the middle of the deep dark forest which is supposed to be a "locked" biome. It was incredibly annoying to scramble my way out of the dark. And since the portal is at my home, I just had to suck it up
Okay, gotta stop you right there. Vanilla+ is not about one upping the developers of Minecraft. It's not even a term exclusive or original to the Minecraft modding scene. Vanilla+ means mods that feel like they could be apart of the vanilla game. That's it. That's all it means. Despite *some* modpacks making bold claims. It's not a declaration of quality, just a declaration that it is more than the vanilla game has in it (which is objectively true), but isn't out there like the tech mods, or fantasy magic mods, ect.
Thats what it used to be anyways, but LATELY its been to one up the devs. I dont disagree with your definition of it, I wish it remained that way. It just got bastardized by the numerous packs trying to be “objectively better”. That being said I totally shouldve clarified but I wasnt even thinking about it as I was writing the script. You’re absolutely right about that being the intent though! Its just no longer being used for that from what ive noticed. Thanks for watching btw! Hope to see you again!
I still think the "Better Nether" and "Better End" mods are overrated. They don't fit the vibe of vanilla _at all,_ and especially the End is completely and thematically ruined by the mod. Its hard for the place to feel like a desolate and dead world when its filled with bright colorful alien plants.
Better nether especially sucks, it add SOO many hazardous blocks that your going to walk into by accident and it’ll become extremely annoying, not to mention the biomes that straight up start killing you because of the “atmosphere”
@@DragoTheSpider I don't understand, I thought Nether was supposed to be a pain to traverse? Especially since traversing Nether in vanilla is already a pain.
Is there a way to fix the modpack so it lives up to its name? Sure there is the obvious: we remove useless mods such as picking up mobs and bland dimensions. But what do we add to it? What mods fix the issues and provide something for everyone to play with?
Honestly I just think the issue is it pushes exclusively the adventuring experience but neglects other types of mods to keep things interesting. More tools would of been nice, or Create to be honest. Things to enhance the building experience pretty much outside of new blocks.
@@orangesoda2424 i think the issue is using mods like better nether and other "better" mods, but the name implies a better og minecraft experience. If it was called better mod pack or something, then I don't think it would be as critisized
the ui itself annoys me tbh, the balance is not balancing if you have tooo many contents in the game, there's just too much to do to the point where its not minecraft again. when there's too much to do you would have a burnout at some point and some of the many things that were added into the mod would just end up abandoned. i think that's why mojang avoided adding to much thing in every update, because it's not like they can't do it, they just don't want to overcomplicate the game in one sitting.
I think vanilla + mod packs and mods often miss what vanilla Minecraft is trying to achieve which is a sandbox creativity based experience not an adventure rpg
This isnt so much a vanilla + issue more than it is an issue with any pack trying to make minecraft “Better”. Some packs for vanilla+ actually get the category right.
I've seen this before and from its name and descriptor "Don't play vanilla, play this!" I've always had a bad feeling about it. As another commentor said the use of better in the name of a vanilla+ pack that adds in 5 dimensions makes it so hugely egotistical. It works in the case of Yung's structure mods because those structures are, factually, a great improvement over the original ones whilst still feeling vanilla. BetterEnd and BetterNether are arguable, but I don't think they really fit the theme of a desolate wasteland filled with weird plants and floating islands and a hellish wasteland populated by strange amalgamations of human-pig hybrids and strange mushrooms. That being said, I'd really like if you could cover a pack that I've been enjoying very much, titled Reminiscence. It actually succeeds where Better Minecraft fails. It's vanilla+, features a very well maintained beta aesthetic, and is overall very, very, good. The community is also really active and great!
If i were making a Better Minecraft pack, the only dimension mod i would add would be The Aether. Quark, some Create elements, world gen mods for bigger mountains and more complex terrain, and a fuckload of new blocks to build with (Twigs, Chisel, Factory Blocks, etc.) The base game is already an incredibly satisfying experience, so enhance what's there instead of adding wildly new things.
Yeah, I agree with this. That's why I made my own modpack, that I'm still working on. I've been focusing on improving what already exists, like overhauling the enchanting system, nerfing elytra and buffing other modes of transport, overhauling vanilla structures, making villagers balanced, etc. The last thing that's still in the works is the guidebook. Sorry for the shameless plug, but I put a lot of effort (over 2 years!) into it, including making a datapack to nicely tie everything together. Maaybe, if you wanted to try it, I can provide :). Anyways, great video!
@therealbottomdweller Yes, I would like to release the pack eventually. The goal now is to finish writing the guidebook, write some tips for loading screens, adjust some enchantment descriptions, and do some other small tweaks. As far as main features go, it's complete. God knows how long that will take since I'm a university student :D
About enchants, there is a mod that completly overhauls the enchant system: Enchancement. It removes boring stats increase enchants like sharpness and protection, and instead adds unique and fun enchants like a dash for your leggings, or a health consuming railcannon sniper enchant for a crossbow
@@puncrafter349 Hello! You can download Enchancement from Curseforge and Modrinth, but you should be able to find it by looking for mods made by MoriyaShiine if searching for the mod's name doesn't work. It's only for Fabric and Quilt atm, but from my experience it's been a blast to use! You can edit the config file to whitelist/blacklist certain enchantments if you would like as well. Have a great day :]
@@puncrafter349 sorry, i have just now realised that i have mispelled it, it is supposed to be enchancement, not enchangement, sorry about that. It is made by moriya
If you are looking for actually thought-out and customized Vanilla+ packs I recommend either Genesis Pack, Resurvival, Raspberry Flavoured, Bliss or Crucial 2
A lot of people are so quick to try to find ways to "fix" Minecraft but all they really do is strip it of it's identity and try to make it a completely different game
There's a mod called "Quickstack" that adds the Terraria Quickstack function. So you can automatically send items to nearby storage containers if they already have them in it. You can also favorite items to prevent them from being sent. Second there's "Enchanting Infuser" which adds two upgrades to the enchanting table. The first allows you to pick enchantments to add to your gear but doesn't work for already enchanted gear. The second allows you to freely alter enchantments (but not curses) on gear. This also includes modded enchants.
The end islands are there even before beating the dragon. You can just fly there in creative/with an elytra (counter productive)/piston flying machine and sidestep the fight. The only thing between the two parts of the end is approx. 1000 blocks of void
The way to make Minecraft better is not to just throw additions into it. Each addition must be some progression rather than an alternative. Like pointed out, the Aether's main purpose being getting trinkets is perfect. I would say that you can do even more like that: - Give the End dungeons on top of the cities which gives you the items needed to upgrade an enchanting table into something that allows you to choose enchantments! - Add something like Waystones that are VERY expansive and require resources from ALL dimensions that removes the annoying Nether Roof Rocket Spamming, which is not difficult, just tedious, for VERY long travels. Maybe make it something with Minecarts, that could be fun.
I agree, things added should serve a purpose instead of an alternative. Its why some of the dimensions and dungeons just felt disjointed, because I couldnt for the life of me determine why theres 10 different versions of effectively the same thing. Thanks for watching btw! Hope to see ya again!
4:38 There is a Twilight Forest gamerule that allows you to disable the enforced progression, making you able to beat the bosses in any order you want.
Didnt know that, as this is my first rodeo with twilight forest. But most players who havent played it before probably also dont know about that either. So as a first impression without knowing that a gamerule exists, its strange that enforced progression is a default.
Id say its still Minecraft but it really did dive off the deep end. ive seen modpacks turn Minecraft into not Minecraft, and this pack didnt even scratch the surface imo. I can totally see what you mean though!
2 Things. There are actually many different versions of Better Minecraft, about 10+ iirc, across many versions and for both Forge and Fabric, and some of them do feel closer to the Vanilla game than others, but you played the most popular version currently which is fine and makes sense. Personally I still have a soft spot for the first Better MC for 1.16.5 bc I have fond memories of it with friends, despite it being "outdated" 2. I respectfully disagree that Blue Skies is completely worthless as a mod. It definitely has problems and I agree with some of the points you made, but some of the new bosses are genuinely fun and interesting the fight. The two dimension also adds several new blocks, which can ofc be used in all 7 dimensions and is great when you are a builder. I understand disliking them in terms of progression but serious love and care was put into aspects of the mod (especially the music) so I wouldn't recommend avoiding it to any new players, especially since that section felt a little bit more like an attack on the mod itself and less about why you disagree with it being in the pack (which is understandable). These are just my two cents.
Ay! Its alright if you like the dimension! It just aint my bread and butter and zi felt it was lack luster personally. As for the multiple packs, I noticed that AFTER I made the video and realized that not bringing that up might confuse some folks. My B! Thanks for watching tho! Hope to see ya again!
Ive primarily played modded Minecraft for about as long as ive played the game, and I really like the vanilla plus angle, making simple parts of the game feel fresh. But most popular modpacks recently feel more like generic kitchen sinks rather than distinct challenges. Create arcane engineering was the only one I played in recent memory that broke that mold.
imo QOL mods are already enough to make minecraft... better that and vanilla like dungeons. i remember playing a 1.7.10 mod back in the day that had AMAZING dungeons, that not only had vanilla loot but strucutres that felt and acted vanilla. a lot of mobs had different armos and all of that, it was great. i think better minecraft has one too and they shouldve aimed for that if anything. the reason why i like minecraft is that it isnt a complex, nerdy game full of infinite quests and side quests and a lot of RPG elements. i'll never understand people's hatred for minecraft's progression. sure, there couldve been more, we definitely need more bosses with more purposes but i think people forget that minecraft is MAINLY a building game at its core, we dont need infinite quests that follows a script. the more i play modded the more i appreciate vanilla, and like i said, i'd much rather use my QOL vanilla mods than add 3 million mobs, items, bosses, mechanics that ill never have enough time to explore
Minecraft honestly just needs a big QOL update, dunno why packs keep pushing for an rpg experience. Totally fair opinions! If you find that pack lemme know, It sounds interesting! Thanks for watching, and hope to catch ya again!
This modpack does however contain the spirit of minecraft in general. Aside from the Twilight Forest progression (which can be switched to "freeform" with only 2 levels of forced peogression) it hits on most notes of the older minecraft experience. In those days, the very small Mojang team would add mostly things that "sounded cool" (as said by Jeb in an interview), and that's what the pack does. It gets a bunch of cool, relatively simple adventure mods together into a relatively sleek package.
Everbright and Everdawn are probably some of my least favorite dimension mods to be included in a pack. I'm fine with dimensions limiting certain things that are overpowered that other mods make available, like creative flight. But forcing a player into needing to go through the entire base-game progression again for a very lazy, uninteresting and unfulfilling dimension? It's not fun at all. I just kinda roll my eyes whenever I see them. The Betweenlands gets a bit of a pass on it because they let you still use things on your own, add new and fresh systems to change things up, and make actually progressing through the mod enjoyable, interesting, and actually rewarding instead of just leaving you exactly at the same spot you were without ever visiting the dimension.
@@therealbottomdweller It does the same sort of thing where they have their own sort of progression and it makes overworld stuff less effective, but the dimension/mod as a whole offers so many different things and dungeons that the process actually *does* feel somewhat rewarding enough to outweigh making the player's grind before stepping into the dimension all for nothing.
I saw Betweenlands only once in a sevtech modpack, and nowhere else. I even had trouble finding this mod on its own back in the day. I have fond memories of it, but it seems like it wasn't a popular mod. Also, Aether indroduces its own tools as well, but the extra slots work anywhere, which almost makes the tool switch unnoticeable.
Honestly while I wouldnt say that minecraft is dying, I think it is accurate to say that Vanilla minecraft is dying. And that it is heavily carried by mods, plugins, etc.
Try TerraFirmaCraft and all of its addons. Its literally the inspitation of VS and actually has a cohesive gameplay that doesnt shoehorn in X mod since TFC is like 6 mods altogether. Although i reccomend playing it with friends since the game gets a bit stale solo 👍
You can play TerraFirmaGreg, name self explanatory. I also was playing VS, but I have the opposite issue, I can't get back to it. It feels off, and I don't know why. I think I liked the clunkiness of MC world more.
see, I think saying "better minecraft reworked" is kind of taking credit away from the authors who made the mods. Better minecraft didn't rework anything, better minecraft is very light on custom tweaks especially when compared to higher effort packs. They put a mod in their pack and the mod reworked those things, the devs of better minecraft didn't, the dev(s) of the mod did
Yeah I saw this critique on my video from someone else and I agree! I shouldve worded it better. My b! Thanks for watching and for the advice btw! Hope to see ya again!
The instant I heard there was a quest book in this pack I had my answer. Vanilla Minecraft doesn't have or need a quest book, so any pack that does is clearly going away from Vanilla+ in my eyes. That's a line not to be crossed if you want your pack to stick to the vanilla feel and design. It really doesn't matter how good of a modpack it is if what it says it is and what it actually is are two different things.
@@phantomjaden I was baffled too! I guess they wanted you to know what the pack offers, but theres more vanilla friendly ways to do that instead of a quest book imo.
@@_devotio_ I strongly disagree. Quests imply that there is a specific way in which you are required to play or to progress, often give items as completion rewards (although I don't know for sure if that is the case for this pack), and also typically must be completed in a specific order. Advancements can be completed in any order, the tree structure is entirely a suggestion. Plus advancements aren't really a game guide like quests usually are used for. Outside of the first page they're mostly just random challenges you can set for yourself if you like. If you just want to give the player some simple pointers and challenge ideas without handholding or multi-sentence descriptions of game mechanics then I think advancements are a far more elegant solution than adding a quest book.
I feel like the main problem is that the additions being tossed in often feel disconnected both in vanilla and this modpack. The severe lack of depth is usually a result of mojang not making features interconnected in some way, less so that its adding random stuff. Like aether as a dimension feels interconnected with the game by design. Where dimension like everbright/everdawn feels tossed in because its adherently disconnected by design. I can see what you mean though, I think its just people really wanting a mechanically interconnected experience.
If you want an actually good vanilla themed modpack i highly recommend Raspberry Flavored, it overhauls a ton of vanilla mechanics and rebalances the ahole experience. It doesnt add anything completely new except for the Create mod which is well integrated to the vanilla feel
This pack has gotten insanely feature-creeped over time. Just take Better Nether and Better End for your own personal modpack and go from there. I love Better End so much that it'll probably ruin any official end rework from Mojang, I just don't see anything else when I think about it.
The TerraFirmaGreg modpack is the most realistic modpack I know of. There are two versions of this pack: TerraFirmaGreg-Modern, which is for 1.20.1, and TerraFirmaGreg-Vintage, which is for 1.12.2. I don't know anything about the latter version, but here's the description for the former version: TerraFirmaGreg-Modern is a Forge modpack that makes the gameplay of Minecraft realistic and challenging, because it contains two of the hardest and coolest mods for Minecraft, these are TerraFirmaCraft and GregTech Modern. Modpack developers have carefully combined TerraFirmaCraft, which has little compatibility ability, and GregTech Modern, the best of the technical mods. Also in the modpack there are other interesting mods that will allow you to pass the time with pleasure (or not): TerraFirmaCraft GregTech Modern Applied Energistics Create Gregicality Rocketry and others, also all these mods have addons to diversify the gameplay even more! To make it easier for you to start developing in this complex world, there are quests in the modpack, with the help of them you can get used to this unfriendly world.
Funnily enough this is getting recommended to me quite a bit! I'll have to take a look into it :)! Thanks for watching, hope to catch ya again next time!
What i hate the most about blue skies is the RNG loot sacks. You don't even get the signature boss weapon unless you refight it 50 times, and you have to kill even more times to get the best stat boost charm
@@therealbottomdweller Yes. Instead of having plain drops like every other mob, they drop loot sacks of 3 rarities, epic one being like 1% or something, and that's where you most likely even get the respective weapon. For example, it took me 9 attempts to even get the tree boss's hammer drop. The mod adds a special NPC that essentially gives you the ability to revive bosses you've already killed, but i haven't figured that out until i've already explored the map for like 20 separate structures. It was by then i figured that i never want to deal with this mod again
Honestly I think a "Better Minecraft" mod could only work if it was 1 mod or a modpack composed entirely of mods by 1 person or a team of people. Otherwise you're unlikely to get any cohesion. Heck, it might be better to start from Better Than Adventure or whatever the beta reworks are and use that as a framework to update the game to modern day- though that's essentially starting from scratch.
Raspberry Flavoured is awesome please please check it out! its like if a pack actually went through the effort of making mods work together and effect the base game stuff
@@therealbottomdweller been my favorite way to play the game for a while the stuff it removes it replaces with mechanics I really vibe with recommended using the newest beta version they reworked enchantments and potions and it's really neat
I very much agree with this. It's bloating mc with random well-known mods without much care for quality. It's not better mc. It's a decent modpack, I had fun playing it (except twilight forest. Disagree or not, I think Twilight Forest is the #1 most overhyped mod) but it just isn't minecraft.
i love blue skies, but i do think they should make the weapons and tools be like, something so powerful it breaks through whatever boundaries are nerfing your tools. And in the overworld theyre just better than regular weapons. I feel like blue skies is made for you STAY there forever and never leave to the overworld, even start there maybe.
Something I would love to see in minecraft are the bossfights from rougecraft. The wildfire and ender dragon fight rework feel so cool and epic but also vanilla like.
Eyup! This was meant to be a video months ago but the footage got corrupted! Finally got around to replaying it and getting this video done. Thanks for watching btw!
10:40 good video overall, but as a builder more non traditional types of blocks are my dream, diagonal fences rock, wish more blocks were weird like that
Weird blocks are neat, I just want new tools to make certain aspects of building more approachable. Diagonal fences are a crime and get close to making circles in Minecraft. Ill die on this hill.
this video gave me the idea to turn my private mod pack I have that I made to still feel like Mc by adding small features and qol stuff, into smth public. I still need to tweek some things and add or remove mods. I mainly focused on adding new animals, getting mods to improve some biomes instead of adding new ones and getting the better combat and better nether/end mods
I think maybe there should be a separate modpack called “Better Minecraft+” for the extra unnecessary things like the extra content that doesn’t fit the main game.
Shameless plug modpack suggestion: Reimagined. It’s one I made and it’s pretty rough around the edges, and mechanics aren’t crazy different, but I’m trying hard to make it feel very cohesive. Custom music, advancements, combat, etc. as well as all the cool biome mods and create. If you get a chance I would be so grateful if you tried it out! It’s on curseforge, and it’ll say “by sherpascotty”
ITS FINALLY HERE! After the footage got corrupted the first time, I went back and replayed it to give you all this reworked video I planned a few months ago! I hope yall enjoy it, and thanks for your continued support! See ya next time!
Take everbright, everdawn and everything you said was bad off the pack and make "BETTER better minecraft"
Vicious cycle of me trying out a modern modpack:
- Cool modpack trailer on youtube
- Download, launch the game.
- Advertisements in main menu, manually removing annoying mods
- New world generates 3 minutes
- Spawn in, get 3 books from seperate mods
- Cluttered HUD, configurating more annoying mods
- Quest book, first quest gives starting items which I throw away immediately
- Proceed with gameplay
- 10 minutes in, inventory full of unknown items, loud advancements pop up every minute for every structure I enter
- Mobs too powerful to explore them properly
- Dig around the mobs to a chest
- Diamond gear inside
- Quit game
- Rinse and repeat about 2 months later.
Honestly, sounds about right.
am i the only person that hates that mod that adds the loud advancement noise. every modpack i've ever played adds it and it's actually so annoying lmao
@@stalecheez-it1034 No you're not. The default sound is pretty obnoxious, especially in the beginning where you get tons of achievements in quick succession.
@@therealbottomdweller hey man just wanted to say this video and your analysis is pretty awesome and insightful! Really glad to hear your thoughts! Got yourself a new sub! God bless ya and Jesus loves ya!
You know it's not going to be a good pack when they didn't even bother to give you a default keybind config. Happens way too often for my tastes.
Better minecraft has no thought put into it. Just perfect marketing. Like "woah better minecraft, its gotta be better". Then youre playing an unoptimized mess. packs like crucial 2 that get a ton of love put into em simply dont get the attention they deserve cuz of marketing.
And honestly i really enjoy vanilla. I like thinking of modded and vanilla fundamentally differently. Modded is for my fun automation, wacky magic, and game breaking stuff. Vanilla is for reserved creativity i think.
Fair points made! I wouldnt say there was no thought but a lack of it in places where it was needed. Crucial 2 is a jam honestly, might approach it again at some point. Thanks for watchin!
All the LunaPixel packs seem to be like that honestly. Thrown together pack, heavy marketing. Really wish sites like mmcreviews would gain more traction so we had a better way to filter packs.
Its tragic too, because they DOMINATE the front of modpack pages on Curseforge.
@therealbottomdweller someone's gotta come up with a new concept that appeals to new and seasoned players. Smth like sevtech was so cool because of its concept. You could sell that to new people and provide seasoned players a cool expert packs.
Create above and beyond was also really well designed too. My current favorite idea is making a technical modpack that's short enough to where it's viable to speed run it. Maybe someone can market a pack similar to ultimate alchemy really well.
I like to add optimization mods+World generation Overhaul and new Structures mod. It's like Vanilla but just added on and different enough.
The twilight forest was designed from the ground up to bring a completely new and unique rpg expirience to minecraft, it was never meant to be seen as something that could be added to vanilla minecraft, but the author of this modpack just decided to add it just because of the extra bosses
Totally agree, great mod too! Definitely shouldnt be part of a supposedly better Minecraft tho. Thanks for watching!
I completely agree, lots of mod packs these days claim to be “better Minecraft” or “vanilla plus” but they just throw a bunch of popular mods together without any concern for the base games balance or theme. Meanwhile, mojang themselves are making updates smaller and smaller, throwing new features onto the pile while ignoring other issues that needed to be fixed years ago.
Its a weird split of either too much or too little, aint it? Dunno why its so hard to get this right lol.
I think vanilla perfected modpack seems doesnt add too much that change Minecraft
@@GracefulBreak28yea but I've tried it and I didn't like it, there is too much stuff on screen, like in a AAA modern open world ya know?
Absolutely! A modpack I feel doesn't fall into this trap is raspberry flavored
I think that Mojang definitely should do more reworks, but most of what Minecraft lacks is gameplay variation and challenge, so I do think the current focus works.
If it wasn’t called “Better” Minecraft it would be far more accurate. Saying “better” makes it feel kinda uptight and egotistical.
@@TJ-hg6op Exactly my thoughts, its why I made a video on it lol. Put their money where their mouth is.
thats what i alwasy felt about the better nether and end mods. even then i feel theyre worse in a lot of respects, theyre both visually cluttered as hell. and better end completely misses the point of the end's aesthetic, turning it into a lush environment as though it were simply an alien planet, rather than an alternate reality defined by desolation and emptiness
@@dandyspacedandy I love the better end mod as something thats inherently not a better end. I love it as a completely separate thing that isnt trying to be the end at all. Its beautiful, but it really is not the end.
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I think the name “Minecraft” would be a good name for the mod
I remember a while ago, the creator of the pack removed a mod because it was "overpowered". When in reality it was an interaction between 2 separate mods that was the issue, neither was a problem on their own.
Before removing it, they even submitted a report on the mod's page, and the mod author was baffled because again, there was no issue with the mod itself. The problem only arose when you stacked other mods alongside it.
After that I stopped updating and playing the pack all together. Clearly no research was being put into the development, and I'm not surprised it hasn't changed since.
Wait really????? Who complains to the mod author that it makes the pack they created haphazardly unbalanced??? Thats some goofy clown business right there. Thanks for the information!
The "issue" was with Mogul trading from Comfortable Nether. You could trade Heart of the Sea for Netherite. Which would normally be balanced by the scarcity of the hearts only being found in buried treasure. But the pack had another mod that added a villager type that would trade you hearts for emeralds. So emeralds equaled netherite.
Sure, a possible problem, but handled poorly.
Thats SO Goofy. Honestly that feels like something the pack makers should be able to easily fix in a config file....
iirc the modpack author even forced the comfortable nether dev to change it just because of the pack
Omg I forgot about that. Even went to check the mod's changelog.
Version 4.7 "Changed Heart of the Sea trade since I didn't realize Cartographers in 1.14 sold Buried Treasure Maps"
Not an issue, wasn't anything wrong on the dev's end. Thankfully it was only for a single version of the mod
Finally someone else who understands the bloating of modpacks and how the creators lack an actual vision of what they want or are trying to create and just slap on a bunch of popular mods
I like seeing modpacks with interesting touches and a direction that isnt just a popular mod soup!
Another main thing that definitely makes it not a "better Minecraft" is that there are too many structures.
The main focus of vanilla Minecraft is that you can build whatever you want and survival gives you extrinsic motivation to do so. But there are such an abundance of well built structures with everything you need already there that it defeats the point. Why build? Why mine? I can just walk around long enough and eventually find everything I need in a pre-built cottage.
Oh my god youre so right! They added a mod that tosses in tons of random ass structures that look player made and have no npcs or villagers. It robbed me of the personalized survival world feeling.
Honestly, I like the part of the structures because I'm pretty bad at building...
It feels hard to find good modpacks cause every big popular pack feels the need to dump every possible thing in there, and none of it really feels made to work together
Yeah! Its really strange just how everything gets dumped in like some kid mixed 10 lego sets together with the idea that itd make a cooler set. Turns out a lack of cohesion makes it just an unfocused jumbled mess.
This is why expert packs are so awesome. Tight progression with lots of content is just what I want in a modpack
@@eligah1843 Oh expert packs are amazing! I love em so much
@@therealbottomdwelleras a newcomer thats very weird to me. isnt the purpose of a modpack to have multiple mods working together cohesively?
@@martinpachu7125yes, but some modmakers just throw a bunch of mods into a single modpack and call it a day. These are known as kitchen sink modpacks, and generally theyre buggy unbalanced messes. However, there are some really good modpacks with lots of mods.
The point about Minecraft having "a little bit of something for everyone" is what I believe is the primary reason these modpacks rarely feel like a better Minecraft to everyone. Everyone wants a different thing out of the game, and building upon systems one person likes (let's say...exploration and combat) in a way that's naturally integrated could end up inconveniencing other people (such as people who just want to build). It's a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none game, and successful games that were inspired by Minecraft end up specializing in different ways to set themselves apart. Terraria's boss-based progression, Ark's strong but very specific theming, and Vintage Story's challenging survival mechanics should come to mind. It's also part of why Mojang is always so afraid to add new things and end up adding the most interesting and useful content during April Fools updates. They, unlike modpack organizers, are trying (and failing) to appease absolutely everyone.
A lot of people never seem to directly recognize this, and only manage to talk about abstract feelings they have. That's how we end up with hundreds of video essays that take several minutes to explain relatively simple ideas.
Exactly what im thinking after all this too. Hard to make a game better for everyone when its target audience is literally everyone. Heard a lot about vintage story lately! Might need to look into it. Thanks for watching and the support!
I think something that does a relatively better job at this would be a pack similar to the Yogscast's Moonquest series. It has tons of technical features for the mechanically minded, tons of new areas and places to explore for adventurers, cool new tools and gear that make progression more interesting, and tons of new blocks and materials for building and designing! Something like that adds to every aspect of the game instead of channeling it into one genre or style of play.
The best way to play modded Minecraft in my recent experience is simply building your own pack. Adding mods you know, trust, and love. For me, that's making a Create mod +addons pack, occasionally including Cobblemon, and maybe Aether, Otherside, or Terralith, along with the basic performance/QOL mods. Most of the time, this leads to you not being bogged down with a bloated pack full of unfamiliar mods, an overly long quest book, and still feeling like Minecraft at the end of the day.
That diagonal fence bit better of been a joke because I'm the person asking for diagonal fences and I WILL throw hands
HAVE AT YOU! I SAID WHAT I SAID! Also thanks for watching lmao!
We need diagonal
5:06 I think you can just "skip" the ender dragon fight and build a flying machine to get elytra before fighting it. But of course you can't leave the end without defeating the dragon
Yknow, never really thought about that. Probably possible if the dragon doesnt swan dive into your machine before then.
You can actually just bridge out on blocks. It’s 1000 blocks until the outer end islands, but it’s actually very easy - the dragon doesn’t go after you either. I’ve done it multiple times
You could leave the end if you aren't on Hardcore, bring the materials for an ender chest, or take one from an End City. I can't remember if you can put shulker boxes in them, but if you can, then there you go.
Jump into that scary void 👻
@@xenai. you can put shulker boxes in them! Very useful, I store all my tools in one box
I had to bridge out to the outer islands in order to bring Shulkers to the Overworld.
The Better Adventures modpack definitely feels like a True Vanilla+ pack, it's basically entirely QoL, aesthetic things, and minor mechanical tweaks to make the experience of playing minecraft flow better.
Oki doki! Ill take a look into it. Thanks for watchin btw! Hope to see ya again!
@@therealbottomdweller Yoo looking forward to it! With all these suggestions I would love to see an update video and see if you were able to find a "true" Better Minecraft. So far I thought you had great opinions in this video, wonderful job!
me and some friends used to play this modpack together quite actively for some time and, while i do like it; the pack is overstimulating with all the stuff it adds. i'd find something new, go "woah!" then immediately find something else that's new, and i'd just discovering new stuff over and over and felt paralyzed as to what to explore with it. the pack can be fun, but it's a like a really sickly sweet candy. it's tasty, but you don't wanna have too much of it
Totally understandable! I personally like having a lot to do, but my issue was how detached everything was from one another. Made it feel sorta gross. Thanks for watching though! Glad to hear you and your pals are enjoying it!
the problem with better minecraft (and just luna pixel studio modpacks in general) is the lack of cohesion. the quality of the modpack usually is determined by its quest, cohesion, and progression. most of the great modpacks like sevtech, meatball craft, and even dawncraft are usually pretty comperhensive despite their overwhelming of content. they made some modification of the mods so that almost every mod works and interact with each others (ars working with ae2, create being able to produce FE to use for other mods, needing some drops from bosses to advance your progression/tech, etc.). they also guide their player to approach their contents in a good way like a well designed questbook and crafting recipes. Luna pixel modpacks just don't do this. despite their name and tags, a lot of them are very poorly designed kitchen sink with barely any custom recipes and interaction between mods. in my opinion, for those who wants to get into modded minecraft, i reccomend to avoid luna pixels entirely. there are many better options even for a vanilla+ pack. i reccomend trying out some of the ftb packs. they did a pretty good job at most of them. if you want to try out kitchen sink, i reccomend the all the mods series. they're not the most balanced but they're really cohesive and well designed with the quest book guiding through most of the mods, familarizing you with the world of modded minecraft. overall, great video!
Yeah I actually noticed that while playing! None of the mods really worked with eachother so it just seemed lumped together. Well put! FTB packs are pretty good, been a while since ive played one though. Last one I played was revelations. Thanks for watching btw! Glad you enjoyed the video, and hope to see ya again!
other people have probably said this already, but the thing about better minecraft is that you start to understand just how silly it is once you get deeper into the modded scene
i personally think you gave the modpack a bit too much credit for what the *mods themselves* contributed. some of the mods in the pack are fantastic, but that shouldn't necessarily reflect on the quality of the pack itself
the development of better minecraft, from my impression of it, can be summarized as just finding whatever has the most downloads for that version on curseforge and adding it to the pack, as long as it's vaguely "vanilla+" (so no tech, magic, etc.)
it may be fun at some points, because the most popular mods tend to be pretty good, but it just isn't a cohesive experience-- rather than something that was carefully designed, it's just a bunch of random mods thrown together and shipped out with very few manual adjustments other than the quests and menu screens. it's very "quantity over quality", if that makes sense
compare this to packs like crucial 2, which bend over backwards to make sure all their content is seamlessly integrated, and you'll realize just how Nothing it is
considering they're profiting from the pack with their bisect partnership and have the audacity to call it BETTER than the original game, i feel like all this criticism is very justified
(good video btw! you made some really good points about the series, i just wanted to chip in with my own thoughts as someone who's super hyperfixated on minecraft modding lol)
Youre totally right! I was giving credits to the pack for what the mods do! Probably shoulda worded it better. I truly did mean to actually clarify that when I was talking about disjointed additions, but I completely failed to convey that point! Thanks for catching it! Im agree with your points, and im glad you enjoyed the video! I hope to catch ya in the next one!
If I had to describe Minecraft right now it’s
The Community as a whole wants like 6 different games and Minecraft is just adding things that TECHNICALLY could exist in said games but doesn’t bring anyone closer to a real IDEAL mc.
Besides builders.
Yeah I agree, Honestly Im a builder but I just want more tools to shape the world with. The fact we still only have a pickaxe and shovel is a crime. Thanks for watching!
@@therealbottomdweller No problem great video.
@@therealbottomdweller What tools do you think would be a valuable addition to the game?
Gimme more tools to build and terraform with. Blocks are nice, but I wanna see an addition change how building is approached for the better! Last time I saw a valuable build tool was Scaffolding imo.
Oh, you will LOVE tinkers construct if you want more tools
Literally my favorite mod!
Mine too! I think you could tell by my name
since you asked for modpacks at the end i am going to list a few modpacks i'm pretty fond of
-I have a bit of a soft spot for Crucial 2, it's honestly just a well put together mod pack, with tweaks to make the mods lot together well
-Genesis is a pretty refreshing take on minecraft, with it even having it's own core mod that fixes up the code of the mods in the modpack. currently the creators are making custom end biomes for an upcoming modpack ubdate
-While not currently out, the creator of the Windswept! mod is making a modpack of her own, that aims to re-imagine minecraft, with custom curios replacing the enchantment system, an emphasis on a tweaked version of create replacing redstone, with areas that act as tutorials for the machinery, and more! Honestly really excited for this one
Appreciate the suggestions! Ill do some research!
Hello. I am dev of the Genesis core mod. A lot of work has gone into patches that both fix bugs with existing mods and also change their behaviors so that it fits the pack's needs. Even the current release, 1.2.8, contains patches that fix unfair damage from Alex's Mobs. You should check it out. 😃👍
I play modded minecraft since beta and still do with modern versions of the game and i will say this: Most of "BETTER" Minecraft modpack don't care about making it fun, just ton of mods slap together trying to appeal to everyone, make the game feel overwhelming and bloated without direction. It is lack of passion.
I remember beta modpacks… Tekkit and Technic are classics. I agree this was pretty lumped together. Thanks for watchin btw! Hope to catch ya next time!
Better Minecraft and all the other “””Vanilla Plus””” mods build in the same vein feel like a spit in the face. I want a mod pack that gives me a bit more optimization, vein miner, tweaks to some issues and such stuff. I do not fucking want 18 dimensions, 25 mods that require me to read an entire wiki to understand, complex completely none-Minecraft systems that break s everything and more cramped into a single mod-pack only to be tagged as “Vanilla +”
Yeah seems theyre being pretty lenient on the “Vanilla +” Tag.
"Dying" just means that it doesnt have as much hype behind it anymore. But hype is only inportant to people who play games because of it
I think its funny because dying would was used for a game that is genuinely hemorrhaging player numbers, but now its like “Oh, new update? Didnt hear of it. Must be a dead game.” Thanks for watching btw!
The only true 'Vanilla+' modpack ive ever played was Crucial 2. It feels like the actual game, no random dimensions, no OP loot sources, just Minecraft, not to mention it adds stuff for everyone. New redstone machines, building blocks, crops, etc.
Funny you mention this! The original videos concept had two other packs and one of them was Crucial 2! I agree, Crucial 2 was a pretty strong pack. My only complaint is its stuck in an older version of the game, but despite this it was still really good.
I also recomend you raspberry flavored modpack.
Alexs mobs, the caracal mod, rotten creatures, quark, farmers delight, etcetera, carry on, Alexs caves, autumnity and regions unexplored
that all you really need to make a better Minecraft lets be real
edit: thank for the thereaibottomdweller for liking this comment
ETCETERA MENTIONED
@@TerraKnight27 it very cool mod
Originally, I was hesitant on this video's points, mostly stemming from the section where you criticize the base game's bosses for being relatively bare bones and unimportant. A commonality in a lot of Minecraft discourse is that people want a more linear progression system, which completely undermines it's sandbox philosophy, and usually shows a lack of understanding of how Minecraft is meant to experienced. So when you mentioned that, and praised this mod's combat/dungeon crawling additions, I was worried you would also fall into this trap.
But, surprisingly, at the end of the video, you made the point that Better Minecraft lacks content and reworks aimed at creatives, like builders and redstone mechanics. I appreciated that, as it proved you do understand what actually makes Minecraft work. So well done! In the end, you had a solid conclusion on the modpack's faithfulness and gave an informative review on it's content as a whole.
Also, your editing is excellent. Even if I disagreed with your overall thesis (I don't), I would have to give props to that. Nice work.
Oddly kind of the point! Ive been playing the game for 15 years so Im well aware minecraft is a creative sandbox. I was bringing up the bosses not so much to bring up my grievances more than to bring up the COMMON grievance with the bosses. Thanks for watching and Im glad you enjoyed! Hope to catch ya next time.
This pack has a pretty negative reputation in some modded mc spaces, for both the pack itself and the older packdev's behavior.
Oh? Not familiar with the tea surrounding this pack. All I knew is it was kinda meh.
A think I find kind of interesting about these “better Minecraft” mods and mod packs is that they kind of always forget 3 key items that make Minecraft what it is. First is freedom of approach, second is simplicity, and third is obtuseness. These three things are constantly what people forget to add to their vanilla plus’s stuff, and it very clearly shows that the mod isn’t Minecraft.
Ok freedom of approach is easy and straightforward, any part of Minecraft can be freely explored and enjoyed at any level of play. You can beat the end with wooden tools if you’re really dedicated, and you can get to every single function of the game without ever needing to step into a cave or mine. Minecraft over the years has allowed you to build yourself up in any way you choose. It’s fundamental that you can play how you want. If you want to do nothing but build you can, nothing but fight you can, nothing but redstone you can, etc. all while still allowing you to progress through the game however you feel (within some limitations). This is something that almost every mod breaks with due to the complexity of allowing for the needed level of freedom being too much for most single mod developers. I’d say look at twilight forest as an example since it actively makes you go through every area in an order to progress.
Ok simplicity is kind of a double edged sword for mods since having a mod that adds in only one thing usually isn’t that wanted, but what I’m talking about is bloat. There really shouldn’t be a whole extra stack of armors and weapons in the game, there shouldn’t be a dozen extra dimensions to hope through, and there certainly shouldn’t be hundreds upon hundreds of random block variations for dirt. This is more what I’m getting at with Minecraft. If you are adding in things like power armor, complex alchemy, magic craft, fifty different ores, hundreds of small animal mobs that fill the area, or dozens of new structures to the world then you’re not really trying to better Minecraft. Obviously Minecraft updates can be pointed at as a counter to this, but every update doesn’t add hundreds of new blocks, or dozens of new mobs. It’s never to the scale that mods get to. Hell we need mods like Not enough items or its successors just to handle the level of bloat that comes with mods. We could also get or complexity of things like how mods will make you learn full on coding to use, but usually that’s not in mods that try to be “better Minecraft.”
Finally we have obtuseness. This one is more tricky, but the best way I can talk about is through the lens of automation. Minecraft is all bout the extra layers it takes to do something. To trade with villagers you need to have work stations and the right time, to mine you need to actively carve through stone, to get food you need to either gather or farm with takes it’s own level of steps. With automation most to all of these extra layers are gone. You see this with mods that add quarries, instantly gain resources, automating certain mechanics, and so on. All of these break away from the fact that to automate in actual Minecraft is an incredibly complex thing. Sure you can make an infinite fuel auto smelter, but it is a full contraption that requires multiple different aspects of Minecraft to be added together compared to something in say create or build craft. Anytime a mod tries to lessen the level of hope one has to jump through to perform a function it is going against a key aspect of Minecraft.
Now obviously all three of these things can be ignored, and an amazing mod can be made despite these. Hell every example I gave was from highly successful mods, but the problem is you can’t easily make Minecraft good without these things which is where better Minecraft, and mods like that always fail.
Id agree! Especially on freedom of approach! Its why twilight forest actually felt off. Being left without the freedom to tackle challenges in any order just felt yucky. You make solid points! Also thanks for watching, hope to catch ya again soon!
maybe you'd find raspberry flavoured interesting (modpack) its a really "controversial" pack because it does change to the game that people might not really enjoy (like removing exp or the end) but justifies itself that minecraft has become exploited with people just trying to reach the end for example and once you remove that goal the game becomes more free with people trying to find a new "purpose/goal"
Another person mentioned this pack! Guess I gotta investigate it for real!
NGL, most of my playthroughs(even on servers with other people) the end is never the goal. Granted I also tend to like adding lots of exploration but currently have a server setup with BM exosphere, which turns all world generation into an aether style sky islands situation, with a grappling hook. It's just fun to swing around.
@justpassingby298 For us, the End is sorta something we do when we've done a good amount in Survival, and think "okay, let's get Elytras now".
@miimiiandco generally, not even elytras tend to be a good incentive. Most mod packs tend to have ars, and that also means flight is somewhat easy to get. Or otherwise no-one really cares enough about flight in the first place
it is worth mentioning that the removal of exp is only in the pre-release versions as of now
but i can vouch for raspberry flavored, EXTREMELY polished modpack (although i wish it didn't have create)
10:40 Diagonal fences slap.
@@ReceptiveRaptor yeah, they slapped my mom! Ill never forgive em!
I recomend you to play raspberry flavored (when devs release 2.2 or just play latest pre-release). This pack is reworks a lot of things. Idk if you can call this vanila+ because it's have create and deletes things like end and vilagers from the game. Also this pack have a bunch custom textures and even custom music (at least in 2.2)!
Damn this is getting recommended pretty often! Alrighty note taken! Thanks for your suggestion and for watchin!
it's shocking to me just how many people think that minecraft's "flaws" are just... it being a sandbox??
like.. so many people make suggestions for "improvements" that are just trying to turn it into a more linear purely combat-focused RPG, and this pack seems to fall into that mindset as well
Totally! I love that its a sandbox! Im just upset that their idea of improving the sandbox experience seems almost exclusively to be new blocks instead of adding more tools and utilities.
@therealbottomdweller that as well, many of the the few people who try to play into the sandbox end up just adding more decorative blocks (without considering whether they serve a unique purpose) instead of any other creative aspect. redstone is also routinely ignored, of course
When it comes to Vanilla bosses something they really gotta add is a big-ass spider. There's this one old poster that featured an absolutely massive one, and Bane of Arthropods is so useless in the base game.
As a guy with Arachnophobia, I will kindly reject this idea. Lmao
Since you asked for recommendations on modpacks:
I really like Auto Terra Firma Craft.
It's a smaller pack build on Terra Firma Craft and Create and I feel like these mods mesh together really well.
TFC reworks world generation, farming, mining and gear progression while adding a lot of new crafting systems and forcing the player to slow down (at least in the earlygame).
Create is a technical mod which allows you to build highly customisable contraptions based on mechanical power while maintaining the "one block at a time" principle and staying away from one-block solutions which plague many other tech mods.
I feel like TFC gives the pack a grounded and emersive foundation, while Create challenges you to tinker with gradual automation for some of TFC's more tedious aspects and surpassing the limitations TFC sets for the lategame. The aestetics for most of Create's mechanical contraptions also fit seamlessly into TFC's world.
Lots of TFC packs being recommended to me recently! Let me take a gander. Also thanks for watchin!
This pack is missing things that rework core mechanics
Things like Tinker’s Construct which reworks tools and armor in a big way
Sophisticated backpacks and storage drawers which rework the inventory
Farmer’s delight or Pam’s harvest which redo food entirely
The list goes on
Good mods! I feel like these ones would be a bit too crazy of a rework, but it definitely would have been better than nothing at all. Thanks for watchin btw! Catch ya next time!
I could speak on Sophisticated core (Storage and backpack) being the quintessential mods for ANY modpack without having to go into Refined storage for storage space.
Tinkers is good, but if you're not craft-smart then it can be a bit of a headache.
No Vanilla+ pack is complete without Applied Energistics or Thaumcraft
@@notme8232 These mods are too techy, and I say that as a diehard Thaum fan.
@@nati0598 Whaaaat? Noooooo. All Minecraft players can totally figure out how to convert their entire base into a glorified server room and summon eldritch demons. You're crazy.
I feel like this perfectly portrays mojang’s problems of trying to please millions of people at the same time, if they put to much stuff it would feel like a different game like it’s not the same or if the put not enough stuff then they are lazy and under developing it’s a very fine line I think the reason why Minecraft did good in the beginning is because of a smaller player base and because mojang (notch) made what they wanted they made what they felt made the game better for them not for the masses.
Anyways great video loved it
Fair point! Minecraft does indeed teeter a line so it doesnt alienate its own playerbase. Thank ya for watchin and for the support, Zino!
Yeah, I'm actually fine with how they do it. Can't do too much or too little or else there will be certain people that get upset.
Minecraft is a sandbox game, a survival game, an exploration game, whatever you want to call it. But I would also say it's a game that can rely on mods, at least for Java players. Because mods exist, they don't have to worry about not adding enough because that's what mods are for. They can experiment with stuff, while the official game stays on a stable path.
It would be nice if Bedrock was able to do as much as Java when it came to modding...
The issue with mojang is they keep making most updates more and more shallow while adding less and less content. Like the upcoming update with the creaking, good concept, awesome aesthetic, abysmal gameplay and execution.
They had something going in 1.21 with the ominous bottles and it seems like they won't do anything with it and just keep pumping out disconnected content.
This is not much different from how bad modders do it.
@ This is actually a fantastic way of putting it. It does feel disconnected and like none of it correlates with one another!
@antynomity But, hey! White wood. I like White wood. It's finally a third pale wood colour (if you don't count Bamboo)
It's kinda funny for me to see how people discuss if the mod is "vanilla plus" or "just like minecraft". I've started playing back on 1.7, have you seen what crazy mods there are? Vanilla is just... not a game for me. It's not playable. There is nothing to do, it has no unique style or anything. If you try to "keep the vanilla feel but make it better", it's just the same empty game for me.
And then i see people fighting over a mod that "doesn't feel like minecraft", and i don't even know what to feel about that.
This modpack is labeled as vanilla+ by the devs, and its very much not. Its worth noting that feeling like Minecraft doesn’t necessarily mean feeling EXACTLY like Minecraft more than it is an organic evolution of the game. This pack doesnt feel organic in the slightest and thats the problem. Totally see your point though.
My portal to twilight forest straight up spawned me in the middle of the deep dark forest which is supposed to be a "locked" biome. It was incredibly annoying to scramble my way out of the dark. And since the portal is at my home, I just had to suck it up
That can happen??!?! Thats awful!
@therealbottomdweller Had to navigate through the annoying square particles for locked biomes to get out of the forest
Okay, gotta stop you right there. Vanilla+ is not about one upping the developers of Minecraft. It's not even a term exclusive or original to the Minecraft modding scene.
Vanilla+ means mods that feel like they could be apart of the vanilla game. That's it. That's all it means.
Despite *some* modpacks making bold claims. It's not a declaration of quality, just a declaration that it is more than the vanilla game has in it (which is objectively true), but isn't out there like the tech mods, or fantasy magic mods, ect.
Thats what it used to be anyways, but LATELY its been to one up the devs. I dont disagree with your definition of it, I wish it remained that way. It just got bastardized by the numerous packs trying to be “objectively better”. That being said I totally shouldve clarified but I wasnt even thinking about it as I was writing the script. You’re absolutely right about that being the intent though! Its just no longer being used for that from what ive noticed. Thanks for watching btw! Hope to see you again!
I still think the "Better Nether" and "Better End" mods are overrated. They don't fit the vibe of vanilla _at all,_ and especially the End is completely and thematically ruined by the mod. Its hard for the place to feel like a desolate and dead world when its filled with bright colorful alien plants.
Fair point! I just thought it was incredibly busy and some of the new nether mobs were really good.
Not to mention how despite there being so many biomes added, there's almost no mobs and zero dungeons
Better nether especially sucks, it add SOO many hazardous blocks that your going to walk into by accident and it’ll become extremely annoying, not to mention the biomes that straight up start killing you because of the “atmosphere”
@@DragoTheSpider TRUE, its such a pain to navigate its like every step there's magma geysers or poison eggplants!
@@DragoTheSpider I don't understand, I thought Nether was supposed to be a pain to traverse? Especially since traversing Nether in vanilla is already a pain.
Is there a way to fix the modpack so it lives up to its name? Sure there is the obvious: we remove useless mods such as picking up mobs and bland dimensions. But what do we add to it? What mods fix the issues and provide something for everyone to play with?
Honestly I just think the issue is it pushes exclusively the adventuring experience but neglects other types of mods to keep things interesting. More tools would of been nice, or Create to be honest. Things to enhance the building experience pretty much outside of new blocks.
Eh, the title is misleading from the start, since it seems to morph Minecraft into solely an adventuring game.
@@miimiiandcoHow is the title misleading? That's the name of the modpack lol
@@orangesoda2424 i think the issue is using mods like better nether and other "better" mods, but the name implies a better og minecraft experience. If it was called better mod pack or something, then I don't think it would be as critisized
In my own pack i try to update old disregarded features like pets and horses.
the ui itself annoys me tbh, the balance is not balancing if you have tooo many contents in the game, there's just too much to do to the point where its not minecraft again.
when there's too much to do you would have a burnout at some point and some of the many things that were added into the mod would just end up abandoned. i think that's why mojang avoided adding to much thing in every update, because it's not like they can't do it, they just don't want to overcomplicate the game in one sitting.
I personally think theres ways to add stuff that feels vanilla friendly, but this pack sure as hell didnt do that right.
I think vanilla + mod packs and mods often miss what vanilla Minecraft is trying to achieve which is a sandbox creativity based experience not an adventure rpg
This isnt so much a vanilla + issue more than it is an issue with any pack trying to make minecraft “Better”. Some packs for vanilla+ actually get the category right.
i really want you to make a modpack, it sounds like you know your stuff and the critiscm of the modpack is basically exactly what i thought
Not a bad idea! Maybe ill approach that concept at some point
@@therealbottomdweller play truly modular.
everything from lunapixel is ultimate slop
Oddly that seems to be the general consensus ive seen in the comment section.
@@therealbottomdweller such a shame this sentiment aint projected over to the wider community... years ago when it mattered most
I've seen this before and from its name and descriptor "Don't play vanilla, play this!" I've always had a bad feeling about it. As another commentor said the use of better in the name of a vanilla+ pack that adds in 5 dimensions makes it so hugely egotistical. It works in the case of Yung's structure mods because those structures are, factually, a great improvement over the original ones whilst still feeling vanilla. BetterEnd and BetterNether are arguable, but I don't think they really fit the theme of a desolate wasteland filled with weird plants and floating islands and a hellish wasteland populated by strange amalgamations of human-pig hybrids and strange mushrooms.
That being said, I'd really like if you could cover a pack that I've been enjoying very much, titled Reminiscence. It actually succeeds where Better Minecraft fails. It's vanilla+, features a very well maintained beta aesthetic, and is overall very, very, good. The community is also really active and great!
Well put! Reminiscence is a pack Ive heard of actually. Ill consider taking a deeper look! Thanks for watchin!
@@therealbottomdweller No problem! Definitely subscribing.
If i were making a Better Minecraft pack, the only dimension mod i would add would be The Aether. Quark, some Create elements, world gen mods for bigger mountains and more complex terrain, and a fuckload of new blocks to build with (Twigs, Chisel, Factory Blocks, etc.) The base game is already an incredibly satisfying experience, so enhance what's there instead of adding wildly new things.
Yeah, I agree with this. That's why I made my own modpack, that I'm still working on. I've been focusing on improving what already exists, like overhauling the enchanting system, nerfing elytra and buffing other modes of transport, overhauling vanilla structures, making villagers balanced, etc. The last thing that's still in the works is the guidebook. Sorry for the shameless plug, but I put a lot of effort (over 2 years!) into it, including making a datapack to nicely tie everything together. Maaybe, if you wanted to try it, I can provide :). Anyways, great video!
2 years of dev time is certainly a big commitment! Any ideas on a public release at some point?
@therealbottomdweller Yes, I would like to release the pack eventually. The goal now is to finish writing the guidebook, write some tips for loading screens, adjust some enchantment descriptions, and do some other small tweaks. As far as main features go, it's complete. God knows how long that will take since I'm a university student :D
About enchants, there is a mod that completly overhauls the enchant system: Enchancement. It removes boring stats increase enchants like sharpness and protection, and instead adds unique and fun enchants like a dash for your leggings, or a health consuming railcannon sniper enchant for a crossbow
I’ll have to take a look into this mod! Thanks for the suggestion!
I've wanted a mod like this for ages, but when I went looking for it I couldn't find it, where is it?
@@puncrafter349 Hello! You can download Enchancement from Curseforge and Modrinth, but you should be able to find it by looking for mods made by MoriyaShiine if searching for the mod's name doesn't work. It's only for Fabric and Quilt atm, but from my experience it's been a blast to use! You can edit the config file to whitelist/blacklist certain enchantments if you would like as well.
Have a great day :]
@@puncrafter349 sorry, i have just now realised that i have mispelled it, it is supposed to be enchancement, not enchangement, sorry about that. It is made by moriya
@@makker1236 remember to edit the original comment as well
If you are looking for actually thought-out and customized Vanilla+ packs I recommend either Genesis Pack, Resurvival, Raspberry Flavoured, Bliss or Crucial 2
Good picks! I’ll take a look! Thanks for watchin btw, hope to see ya again soon!
A lot of people are so quick to try to find ways to "fix" Minecraft but all they really do is strip it of it's identity and try to make it a completely different game
There's a mod called "Quickstack" that adds the Terraria Quickstack function. So you can automatically send items to nearby storage containers if they already have them in it. You can also favorite items to prevent them from being sent.
Second there's "Enchanting Infuser" which adds two upgrades to the enchanting table. The first allows you to pick enchantments to add to your gear but doesn't work for already enchanted gear. The second allows you to freely alter enchantments (but not curses) on gear. This also includes modded enchants.
I think this pack actually has quick stack, but enchanting infuser is definitely new and was not part of the table. I'll have to look at that one.
The end islands are there even before beating the dragon. You can just fly there in creative/with an elytra (counter productive)/piston flying machine and sidestep the fight. The only thing between the two parts of the end is approx. 1000 blocks of void
The way to make Minecraft better is not to just throw additions into it. Each addition must be some progression rather than an alternative. Like pointed out, the Aether's main purpose being getting trinkets is perfect. I would say that you can do even more like that:
- Give the End dungeons on top of the cities which gives you the items needed to upgrade an enchanting table into something that allows you to choose enchantments!
- Add something like Waystones that are VERY expansive and require resources from ALL dimensions that removes the annoying Nether Roof Rocket Spamming, which is not difficult, just tedious, for VERY long travels. Maybe make it something with Minecarts, that could be fun.
I agree, things added should serve a purpose instead of an alternative. Its why some of the dimensions and dungeons just felt disjointed, because I couldnt for the life of me determine why theres 10 different versions of effectively the same thing. Thanks for watching btw! Hope to see ya again!
4:38
There is a Twilight Forest gamerule that allows you to disable the enforced progression, making you able to beat the bosses in any order you want.
Didnt know that, as this is my first rodeo with twilight forest. But most players who havent played it before probably also dont know about that either. So as a first impression without knowing that a gamerule exists, its strange that enforced progression is a default.
@@therealbottomdwellerAlso, sorry for reposting the comment, there was a typo 😅
@@rifter4478was wonderin why google didnt let me respond the first time! All good, homie! Thanks for watchin and for the support!
True, but it's the modpack duty to preconfigure the mods inside.
Better Minecraft fails at being a better version of Minecraft. At this point, it barely even is Minecraft.
Id say its still Minecraft but it really did dive off the deep end. ive seen modpacks turn Minecraft into not Minecraft, and this pack didnt even scratch the surface imo. I can totally see what you mean though!
10:42 lmao that was in my modpack too
Angular fences are evil. Its the gateway to circles in Minecraft! LMAO
@@therealbottomdweller can u check out my modpack too its called "blockit" for some reason all my comments got deleted🙏🏼🫶
2 Things.
There are actually many different versions of Better Minecraft, about 10+ iirc, across many versions and for both Forge and Fabric, and some of them do feel closer to the Vanilla game than others, but you played the most popular version currently which is fine and makes sense. Personally I still have a soft spot for the first Better MC for 1.16.5 bc I have fond memories of it with friends, despite it being "outdated"
2. I respectfully disagree that Blue Skies is completely worthless as a mod. It definitely has problems and I agree with some of the points you made, but some of the new bosses are genuinely fun and interesting the fight. The two dimension also adds several new blocks, which can ofc be used in all 7 dimensions and is great when you are a builder. I understand disliking them in terms of progression but serious love and care was put into aspects of the mod (especially the music) so I wouldn't recommend avoiding it to any new players, especially since that section felt a little bit more like an attack on the mod itself and less about why you disagree with it being in the pack (which is understandable). These are just my two cents.
Ay! Its alright if you like the dimension! It just aint my bread and butter and zi felt it was lack luster personally. As for the multiple packs, I noticed that AFTER I made the video and realized that not bringing that up might confuse some folks. My B! Thanks for watching tho! Hope to see ya again!
Thanks
Ive primarily played modded Minecraft for about as long as ive played the game, and I really like the vanilla plus angle, making simple parts of the game feel fresh. But most popular modpacks recently feel more like generic kitchen sinks rather than distinct challenges. Create arcane engineering was the only one I played in recent memory that broke that mold.
Theres some wild packs that push the boundaries of a modpack, but yeah the lumped together kitchen sinks seem to run rampant. Couldnt agree more!
imo QOL mods are already enough to make minecraft... better
that and vanilla like dungeons. i remember playing a 1.7.10 mod back in the day that had AMAZING dungeons, that not only had vanilla loot but strucutres that felt and acted vanilla. a lot of mobs had different armos and all of that, it was great. i think better minecraft has one too and they shouldve aimed for that if anything. the reason why i like minecraft is that it isnt a complex, nerdy game full of infinite quests and side quests and a lot of RPG elements. i'll never understand people's hatred for minecraft's progression. sure, there couldve been more, we definitely need more bosses with more purposes but i think people forget that minecraft is MAINLY a building game at its core, we dont need infinite quests that follows a script.
the more i play modded the more i appreciate vanilla, and like i said, i'd much rather use my QOL vanilla mods than add 3 million mobs, items, bosses, mechanics that ill never have enough time to explore
Minecraft honestly just needs a big QOL update, dunno why packs keep pushing for an rpg experience. Totally fair opinions! If you find that pack lemme know, It sounds interesting! Thanks for watching, and hope to catch ya again!
This modpack does however contain the spirit of minecraft in general. Aside from the Twilight Forest progression (which can be switched to "freeform" with only 2 levels of forced peogression) it hits on most notes of the older minecraft experience. In those days, the very small Mojang team would add mostly things that "sounded cool" (as said by Jeb in an interview), and that's what the pack does. It gets a bunch of cool, relatively simple adventure mods together into a relatively sleek package.
Everbright and Everdawn are probably some of my least favorite dimension mods to be included in a pack. I'm fine with dimensions limiting certain things that are overpowered that other mods make available, like creative flight. But forcing a player into needing to go through the entire base-game progression again for a very lazy, uninteresting and unfulfilling dimension? It's not fun at all. I just kinda roll my eyes whenever I see them.
The Betweenlands gets a bit of a pass on it because they let you still use things on your own, add new and fresh systems to change things up, and make actually progressing through the mod enjoyable, interesting, and actually rewarding instead of just leaving you exactly at the same spot you were without ever visiting the dimension.
Ill have to look into betweenlands, but I was legit bored with the everbright and dawn dimensions. So minimal and bog standard.
@@therealbottomdweller It does the same sort of thing where they have their own sort of progression and it makes overworld stuff less effective, but the dimension/mod as a whole offers so many different things and dungeons that the process actually *does* feel somewhat rewarding enough to outweigh making the player's grind before stepping into the dimension all for nothing.
I saw Betweenlands only once in a sevtech modpack, and nowhere else. I even had trouble finding this mod on its own back in the day. I have fond memories of it, but it seems like it wasn't a popular mod.
Also, Aether indroduces its own tools as well, but the extra slots work anywhere, which almost makes the tool switch unnoticeable.
Honestly while I wouldnt say that minecraft is dying, I think it is accurate to say that Vanilla minecraft is dying. And that it is heavily carried by mods, plugins, etc.
Flowstate's "Better Adventures" mod pack is the only true vanilla tweaks pack in my eyes.
At this point, I completely abandoned Minecraft for Vintage Story. I tried going back to MC, even modded, after trying VS and I just can't.
Vintage story is pretty good, but also insanely brutal. Theres a lot that game has goin for it tho!
Try TerraFirmaCraft and all of its addons. Its literally the inspitation of VS and actually has a cohesive gameplay that doesnt shoehorn in X mod since TFC is like 6 mods altogether. Although i reccomend playing it with friends since the game gets a bit stale solo 👍
You can play TerraFirmaGreg, name self explanatory.
I also was playing VS, but I have the opposite issue, I can't get back to it. It feels off, and I don't know why. I think I liked the clunkiness of MC world more.
I love VS, but I love Mc just as much. They cater to completely different things.
vintage story looks cool but idk if super difficult survival games are really for me tbh
see, I think saying "better minecraft reworked" is kind of taking credit away from the authors who made the mods. Better minecraft didn't rework anything, better minecraft is very light on custom tweaks especially when compared to higher effort packs. They put a mod in their pack and the mod reworked those things, the devs of better minecraft didn't, the dev(s) of the mod did
Yeah I saw this critique on my video from someone else and I agree! I shouldve worded it better. My b! Thanks for watching and for the advice btw! Hope to see ya again!
Spoiler for the video: The fourth category is the mod's lethalness towards the elderly
Real!
The instant I heard there was a quest book in this pack I had my answer. Vanilla Minecraft doesn't have or need a quest book, so any pack that does is clearly going away from Vanilla+ in my eyes. That's a line not to be crossed if you want your pack to stick to the vanilla feel and design. It really doesn't matter how good of a modpack it is if what it says it is and what it actually is are two different things.
@@phantomjaden I was baffled too! I guess they wanted you to know what the pack offers, but theres more vanilla friendly ways to do that instead of a quest book imo.
It has advancements and those are just quests with a shittier UI
@@_devotio_ I strongly disagree.
Quests imply that there is a specific way in which you are required to play or to progress, often give items as completion rewards (although I don't know for sure if that is the case for this pack), and also typically must be completed in a specific order.
Advancements can be completed in any order, the tree structure is entirely a suggestion. Plus advancements aren't really a game guide like quests usually are used for. Outside of the first page they're mostly just random challenges you can set for yourself if you like. If you just want to give the player some simple pointers and challenge ideas without handholding or multi-sentence descriptions of game mechanics then I think advancements are a far more elegant solution than adding a quest book.
this exemplifies how people complain about mojand adding random stuff that "bloats" the game, but then they want new dimensions filled with new stuff.
I feel like the main problem is that the additions being tossed in often feel disconnected both in vanilla and this modpack. The severe lack of depth is usually a result of mojang not making features interconnected in some way, less so that its adding random stuff. Like aether as a dimension feels interconnected with the game by design. Where dimension like everbright/everdawn feels tossed in because its adherently disconnected by design. I can see what you mean though, I think its just people really wanting a mechanically interconnected experience.
If you want an actually good vanilla themed modpack i highly recommend Raspberry Flavored, it overhauls a ton of vanilla mechanics and rebalances the ahole experience. It doesnt add anything completely new except for the Create mod which is well integrated to the vanilla feel
Roger Roger! Ill take a look!
Don't you dare to touch diagonal fences, it's a gift from the heavens
In the trash bin! Where it shall remain! Angles are the precursor to circles! Circles are forbidden in Minecraft!
literally just the fact that theres an ad on the title screen makes it worse than vanilla minecraft lol
Yeah gettin kinda sick of the modpack ad placements
This pack has gotten insanely feature-creeped over time. Just take Better Nether and Better End for your own personal modpack and go from there.
I love Better End so much that it'll probably ruin any official end rework from Mojang, I just don't see anything else when I think about it.
Its honestly so gorgeous! Nothing could compare at this point.
The TerraFirmaGreg modpack is the most realistic modpack I know of. There are two versions of this pack: TerraFirmaGreg-Modern, which is for 1.20.1, and TerraFirmaGreg-Vintage, which is for 1.12.2. I don't know anything about the latter version, but here's the description for the former version:
TerraFirmaGreg-Modern is a Forge modpack that makes the gameplay of Minecraft realistic and challenging, because it contains two of the hardest and coolest mods for Minecraft, these are TerraFirmaCraft and GregTech Modern.
Modpack developers have carefully combined TerraFirmaCraft, which has little compatibility ability, and GregTech Modern, the best of the technical mods.
Also in the modpack there are other interesting mods that will allow you to pass the time with pleasure (or not):
TerraFirmaCraft
GregTech Modern
Applied Energistics
Create
Gregicality Rocketry
and others, also all these mods have addons to diversify the gameplay even more! To make it easier for you to start developing in this complex world, there are quests in the modpack, with the help of them you can get used to this unfriendly world.
Funnily enough this is getting recommended to me quite a bit! I'll have to take a look into it :)! Thanks for watching, hope to catch ya again next time!
1:17 Is that a MICKEY REFRENCE
My god FINALLY somebody spoke truth about Blue Skies. I ""DREAD"" having to progress that mod, it is a literal barren wasteland.
Got bored in the first hour with it. Its genuinely a slog for No reward.
What i hate the most about blue skies is the RNG loot sacks. You don't even get the signature boss weapon unless you refight it 50 times, and you have to kill even more times to get the best stat boost charm
Thats actually vile, wth???
@@therealbottomdweller Yes. Instead of having plain drops like every other mob, they drop loot sacks of 3 rarities, epic one being like 1% or something, and that's where you most likely even get the respective weapon. For example, it took me 9 attempts to even get the tree boss's hammer drop.
The mod adds a special NPC that essentially gives you the ability to revive bosses you've already killed, but i haven't figured that out until i've already explored the map for like 20 separate structures. It was by then i figured that i never want to deal with this mod again
It's more like 'New Minecraft' than 'Better Minecraft'
Better minecraft is known to be unoptimized and not very good...
it's so hard to balance a game with millions of players
Absolutely! Especially when the playerbase is split between wanting an RPG and wanting a sandbox experience
For me, the only true vanilla + modded experience for me is playing with only and ONLY the Rechiseled mod to give me more building options.
More building options is really nice, but personally I just desperately need new tools to wipe out terrain faster.
Honestly I think a "Better Minecraft" mod could only work if it was 1 mod or a modpack composed entirely of mods by 1 person or a team of people. Otherwise you're unlikely to get any cohesion. Heck, it might be better to start from Better Than Adventure or whatever the beta reworks are and use that as a framework to update the game to modern day- though that's essentially starting from scratch.
BTA might actually be one of my most played modpacks for this reason funnily enough!
Raspberry Flavoured is awesome please please check it out!
its like if a pack actually went through the effort of making mods work together and effect the base game stuff
Ill take a look into it, read it removed a lot of stuff but does other things. So this might be interesting.
@@therealbottomdweller been my favorite way to play the game for a while
the stuff it removes it replaces with mechanics I really vibe with
recommended using the newest beta version
they reworked enchantments and potions and it's really neat
I very much agree with this. It's bloating mc with random well-known mods without much care for quality. It's not better mc. It's a decent modpack, I had fun playing it (except twilight forest. Disagree or not, I think Twilight Forest is the #1 most overhyped mod) but it just isn't minecraft.
To be fair twilight forest is pretty good, but yeah Id agree with that. Also glad you enjoyed the video, and I hope to catch ya next time!
i love blue skies, but i do think they should make the weapons and tools be like, something so powerful it breaks through whatever boundaries are nerfing your tools. And in the overworld theyre just better than regular weapons. I feel like blue skies is made for you STAY there forever and never leave to the overworld, even start there maybe.
Yeah it feels weird that the tools are over world equivalent. Youd think itd grant something atleast moderately stronger.
I really enjoyed this video, I'd love to see more like it talking about other big modpacks
Considering it! Yall really liked this one!
Something I would love to see in minecraft are the bossfights from rougecraft. The wildfire and ender dragon fight rework feel so cool and epic but also vanilla like.
I think I remember you playing this on twitch I think it was like two months ago and you built a house white it was quite cool, actually.
Eyup! This was meant to be a video months ago but the footage got corrupted! Finally got around to replaying it and getting this video done. Thanks for watching btw!
Loved the vid! I definitely agree with all of your points especially when it comes to the dimensions.
Glad you enjoyed it! The dimensions was definitely the head scratcher for me personally. Dunno why they went so overboard with it.
Soldier TF2 Cube
Soldier TF2 Cube
Soldier TF2 Cube
Soldier Cube is peak blender work
10:40 good video overall, but as a builder more non traditional types of blocks are my dream, diagonal fences rock, wish more blocks were weird like that
Weird blocks are neat, I just want new tools to make certain aspects of building more approachable.
Diagonal fences are a crime and get close to making circles in Minecraft. Ill die on this hill.
this video gave me the idea to turn my private mod pack I have that I made to still feel like Mc by adding small features and qol stuff, into smth public. I still need to tweek some things and add or remove mods. I mainly focused on adding new animals, getting mods to improve some biomes instead of adding new ones and getting the better combat and better nether/end mods
I had a world I LOVED on the most recent version of better minecraft, then i updated it and it started crashing..
wonderful.
Ah damn! Thats not a vibe :(. Im sorry for your progress loss.
Mojang has the players but not active players that’s the thing. Those are just numbers.
Hoping that the algorithm will give you a well-deserved boost. This is great! I couldn't agree more with everything that was said
Maybe it will, maybe it wont! Either way, more than happy to bring ya something you enjoyed! Thanks for the kind words, and thank ya for watchin!
I think maybe there should be a separate modpack called “Better Minecraft+” for the extra unnecessary things like the extra content that doesn’t fit the main game.
do all the mods 8 or 9 next
Already hot on the trail of a different pack, but this aint a bad suggestion! Ill keep it in mind for the next one!
this beign recommended to me is crazy ive been google searching for similar modpacks all day bc i felt the exact same way about it good video guy
Ay glad you enjoyed the video! I dont know of anyother packs off the top of my head but if I find one that gains my attention then maybe ill cover it!
I recenty played this pack and I agree with you so much.
Glad you could find my points relatable! Thanks for watchin and I hope to catch ya next time!
Shameless plug modpack suggestion: Reimagined.
It’s one I made and it’s pretty rough around the edges, and mechanics aren’t crazy different, but I’m trying hard to make it feel very cohesive. Custom music, advancements, combat, etc. as well as all the cool biome mods and create. If you get a chance I would be so grateful if you tried it out! It’s on curseforge, and it’ll say “by sherpascotty”