A Beginner's Guide to MeatyPack

---------------------- A Beginner's Guide to MeatyPack ----------------------

Starting out in MeatyPack is very simple. The pack is designed around a general feel of a kitchen sink pack but is very narrow and limited in range, scope, and size. There are many mods in the pack, but there is more than meets the eye here, most of the mods are not super advanced tech mods or extremely difficult magic mods that require extensive knowledge to learn how to use. Many of the mods are enhancement mods to the UI or addons, or even complimentary mods that add features to other mods or give a themed feel and style or fun items to mess around with. Some of the mods in the pack are found in many other modpacks and have been for some time, so they are already known by many players and the ones that are new to players are not that difficult to learn and progress in. See individual mod wiki links provided or simply watch a mod spotlight video on Youtube that has a lot of views, this will ensure that the basic information you need to learn how to start using a particular mod is readily available to you.

First and foremost, let's talk about power, machines, and storage. Power generation and storage are very simple and easy to get started with in this pack and has a slow burn progression design until mid to late game. This pack has a low-tech "back to basics" type of feel to things, steampunk designs are complimented by Steamcraft and Railcraft, tracks and a locomotive, steam is a power source and is used in 2 mods in the pack (Railcraft and Steamcraft2). Immersive Engineering is very industrial and has a rustic feel with power lines and windmill / waterwheel power generation for a themed feel and aesthetic to build designs. IE also has a massive excavator, the crusher, and also the bio diesel generator, all wonderful machines to use in your factory and mining work spaces. The staple mods such as Buildcraft and MineFactory Reloaded are there, but are there for automation and tasks that are tedious for the player to perform manually, such as quarries and farms. Immersive Engineering, Extra Utilities, Buildcraft, Minefactory Reloaded, Railcraft, Steamcraft2, a ton of mods, can all be utilized to generate RF power and be used in machines and auto-powered, self-sustained setups. JABBA, Storage Drawers, Iron Chests, CompactStorage, and also BetterChests are all installed for storage options, do not overlook them and say, "I need to get an AE setup going right away! Look at all these items!" Applied Energistics is not the only option for storage in a modpack, keep this in mind at all times. You can make a variety of chests, that's what they're for, make barrels and storage drawers, that's what they're for, don't forget to look at the mod list, the mods are there and I put them there for reasons! Extra Utilities provides pipes and sorting, so does Buildcraft pipes and teleport pipes from Additional Pipes, so you don't NEED an AE setup to sort or store items or large numbers of blocks from quarrying etc., the storage and power options are there for you, you just need to use the mods that are available. Draconic Evolution provides late game power gen and also large power storage options for players alongside Applied Energistics as later-game large inventory storage. AE is meant to use a lot of power, so you must progress to generate the power for this, you can go that route right away, it may be slow going and you will get there, but AE is more meant for later game in this pack. The focus is not so much storage of items, but usage of them. Many items and blocks not used can easily be recycled in the Loot Bag recycler or even transmuted down into elements using FullThrottle Alchemist. These power and storage options are integral parts of the modpack and are designed in such a way as to facilitate usage of any or all of these mods to generate power and provide enough power for machine processing for ores, farms, and for powering an Applied Energistics storage setup, or a massive network powered by a Draconic Evolution power sphere. The choices are all yours. My choice was to not include Thermal Expansion or Ender IO in the pack to force a sort of bottleneck, or slowdown, to the progression of the pack. Players in this particular situation will not have the option to just use Ender IO conduits for everything, or using capacitors to make a huge bank of power that powers everything right away early-game. This means you don't have 1 mod or 2 mods doing everything for you, mods like IC2 and Mekanism were not included for the same reasons, you must use multiple mods to move these items for sorting, to process this resource, to quarry the Nether or Twilight Forest, to automate this or that process, and to provide enough power for everything using low to mid-tier type tech, the massive top-tier power tech is meant for later game (such as MFR laser drills). Each mod in the pack concerning tech and storage all have their parts and places, and no singular mod does everything. This is a simplistic way to play modded Minecraft compared to other modpacks, and yet it is a slight challenge, as most players always tend to find "the easiest, or cheatiest way to do things" and just simply use that mentality thoroughout the play, which is a bit boring in my personal opinion as a player. This is why this pack is designed in such a way as to make the player think more about how to solve a particular problem, or how to properly and efficiently configure a network or setup using various mods together, or trying different solutions for a problem to see what works best for them. This playstyle is encouraged to give players an better understanding of how each mod has its place and functionality / purpose for given tasks, and still gives breathing room to the player for choice, because options are always nice to have. It's not about forced progression, it's about forced implementation and usage of multiple mods to give a better overall play experience.

Now, since tech and storage is out of the way, "whew".... let's move onto the rest of the pack. The feel of MeatyPack is derived from playing various modpacks that Meaty has played over the years and has enjoyed. This was a part of the design process. I was inclined to make a pack that is a mixture of all of those packs, without it being too bloated, or "kitchen-sinked-out-to-the-hilt". I wanted a nice blend to the pack. Packs he has enjoyed playing and many viewers also enjoyed over the years include Hexxit, Aether2, Tale of Kingdoms, Big Dig, MadPack, various FTB packs, Tekkit, and other such packs that many of you remember watching. Mods from these packs were hand selected to fit in with the core design and flesh out the layers above it, giving the pack an overall feel of the packs he's played. The challenge of mobs was inspired by MadPack so Grimoire of Gaia adds mobs and Headcrumbs adds Meaty and Gunns to the pack for theme flair, the dungeoning, wandering, and exploring was inspired by Hexxit, so Better Dungeons (Chocolate Quest) is added with community-made addon schematics as well. ChocoCraft was added also due to Hexxit and Meaty's adventures with chocobos. Balkon's WeaponMod is there from Hexxit also. RPG elements and various little things I have done with small mods that do not do much alone but together unite for major UI changes overall were inspired by various packs that I have played over the years. RPG or adventure elements are added by mods like Twilight Forest and Aether2 as well. The magic mods are pretty much non-existant since Meaty doesn't really use magic mods in depth, and Project E and EE3 were left out due to this as well, the only magic mods are in the pack for players that enjoy having a bit to work with, such as Thaumcraft and Botania, they are there because most packs have them installed and are basically strong enough to stand on their own 2 feet without the need for addons, they are both wonderful and very fleshed out mods made by very talented authors. Reliquary is there for fun items to use. FullThrottle Alchemist is there, because, it's the spiritual successor to Dartcraft, which Meaty and I very much enjoy, I'm sure many of you do as well. I miss Dartcraft, dearly... so adding this mod was a no-brainer. I even managed to get someone to put the NEI addon they made for the mod onto CurseForge, just to get it into MeatyPack for players. This mod gives a fresh spice to the pack, as a topper, i feel. This is for the pure players that are not so into tech. Options. I said they were nice, because they are.

Funsies mods like Carnival, Power Apples, Baconators, Melon Pants, Transformers, Chance Cubes, Loot Bags, they all have their purpose but can easily be avoided and not used by any player that is not interested in them, they are simply for fun and for getting further in the pack as a wild card unbalancing. This is put in place by me to give a feel of Crazy Craft and other wild modpacks that Meaty and Gunns have enjoyed in the past, this gives a bit of flair to the pack for those that enjoy that kind of thing, and I understand that many people do not like mods like Chance Cubes, Lucky Blocks or Loot Bags for being too "cheaty", but progression in this pack is not such a focus in that respect. Progression is really only a focus with things concerning the tech and power generation in this modpack, as I described above. Progression as far as adventuring, looting, and crazy stopgaps being hurdled right over are all possible due to the extensive work I have done with the Chance Cubes and Loot Bags configs. Players that don't want them, shouldn't be bothered by them if they do not use them, heck, they can even delete the mods if they want to, they're there for the people that want the options and the loot to unbalance their gameplay. Balance is good, so is unbalance, players like options... wait, I just got deja vu for some odd reason. :P

Bibliocraft, DecoCraft2, Ye Gamol Chattels, MrCrayfish's Furniture Mod, and Carpenter's Blocks are there for the builders and for aesthetics, to compliment the look of a house, village, any build the player wishes to fancy up a bit. Natura, Biomes o Plenty, and Bibliowoods even help out with extra wood choices as well. Players are given Chisel, Ztones, as well as ChiselTones for added choices and options for aesthetics and fancy builds. Many vanilla players absolutely love these mods and use them very often in smaller modpacks that have a creative feel and theme to them, some of which are becoming quite popular lately I may add. Extra Buttons and Even More Buttons mods are there because... well..., buttons, that's why. :P

Overall this is more of a background and thought-provoking explanation of pack concept and design bullet points. It is not really a "starter's guide" as in what you do to get started or a tutorial guide, it is more of a suggestive, informative emphasis on how to go about playing the pack knowing how it was designed and meant to be experienced using the background information you just read and the mod list at your disposal. Choice is there, even progression bottlenecks and stop gaps are still in place, but are not forced so heavily onto the player as in some other modpacks. Optional quests (not forced progression quests) are even a thing that will help the player along and give them suggestive nudges in this direction and that direction to better familarize themselves with certain mods. Quests will be in the pack for 1.0 release... i'm still working on those... there's a lot of them... and i still have to test them all... i'll get them done eventually... :P

Anyways, i hope you enjoy MeatyPack, i have worked on it for over 6 months now (as of May 2016) and it is a labor of love. I have tried to make the best themed pack i have ever made for Meaty and us Meatheads, hopefully others outside of our community will enjoy it as well. The pack is somewhat a difficult pack to wrap your head around totally at first, but once you do (and you will), i know you'll enjoy it as much as i have enjoyed it during its development and testing. Thank you all for downloading it, and thank you all for playing it.