Modded Minecraft, in plain words
Modded Minecraft has its own vocabulary, and most guides assume you already have it. Here is the short version, so the rest of the site reads the way it should.
- Modpack
- A bundle of mods, configs and recipes someone has put together and tested so they work as one game. You install the pack, not the mods, and the pack's own changes are why a recipe can differ from the mod's wiki.
- Mod loader (Forge, NeoForge, Fabric)
- The layer that lets Minecraft run mods at all. A mod is built for one loader and one Minecraft version; a Fabric mod will not load on NeoForge, which is why pack pages say both.
- KubeJS
- A mod that lets a pack rewrite recipes with scripts. It is the usual reason a pack's recipe doesn't match the mod's own: the pack has scripted a different one.
- Quest book (FTB Quests)
- An in-game book of tasks the pack author wrote, usually the intended path through the pack. Finishing quests often unlocks rewards and later chapters.
- Dump
- A machine-readable export of everything a running game knows: every recipe, tag, item and quest. ForgeBase runs each release and reads its dump, which is why the recipes here match the version you're playing.
- Recipe override
- A recipe the pack replaced, added or deleted. Overrides are what make two packs with the same mods play differently.
- Tag
- A named group of items, written like #c:ingots/steel. A recipe that asks for a tag accepts any item in the group, so "any steel ingot", whichever mod made it.
- Ore doubling (and tripling)
- Processing ore through machines to get more than one ingot per ore. Most tech mods sell their early game on it: two ingots per ore, then three, then five.
- Gating
- Deliberately putting something out of reach until you have done something else. A pack can gate a mod's machines behind a quest, a dimension or an expensive material.
- Progression
- The intended order of a pack: what you are supposed to build before what. It is the pack author's design, not the mods', and it is why a pack guide differs from a mod wiki.
- Tier
- A rung on a mod's ladder: basic, advanced, elite, ultimate. Higher tiers usually mean faster, bigger or more energy, and cost the tier below to build.
- Automation
- Getting machines to do a job without you standing there: moving items, crafting, farming. Most modpacks are really about automation once the first hour is over.
- Chunk loading
- Keeping part of the world running while you are somewhere else. Without it, your farms and machines stop the moment you walk away.
- ME system (Applied Energistics 2)
- A digital storage network: items are stored as data on drives and pulled out through terminals. "ME" is pronounced em-ee, and an ME system can also craft on demand.
- FE (Forge Energy)
- The common unit of power most tech mods share, so a generator from one mod can run a machine from another. Some mods convert it to their own unit internally.
- Chemicals and gases
- Mekanism and mods like it pipe things that aren't items or liquids: oxygen, hydrogen, sulfuric acid. They need their own pipes and tanks, not fluid ones.
- Multiblock
- A machine you build out of many blocks in a set shape, then activate: fission reactors, digital miners, blast furnaces. Get one block wrong and it won't form.
- Skyblock
- A pack that starts you on a small island in the void with almost nothing. Everything has to be made from what little you have, so its recipes are heavily rewritten.
- Kitchen sink pack
- A pack that includes a bit of everything and lets you choose your own path, rather than steering you down one. All the Mods packs are the best-known example.
- Resource pack
- Textures and sounds only. It changes how the game looks, never how it plays, and it is not the same thing as a modpack.
- Server pack
- The pack's files with the client-only mods taken out, so it can run on a server. ForgeBase builds one for every release in order to read its recipes.
- ATM Star
- The end goal of the All the Mods packs: a single item that needs a piece of nearly every mod in the pack. Reaching it is the whole game.
- NBT
- Extra data attached to an item: an enchantment, a stored fluid, a configured filter. Two items that look identical can behave differently because of it.
- Config
- A pack's settings files for each mod. Changing a config can turn features on or off, change costs, or change how much power something uses, and packs change plenty of them.