mc-lan-party/modpack.md

# LAN Party Modpack — "Create & Delight" (MC 1.20.1, Forge)

Target: **Minecraft 1.20.1, Forge**. This version/loader combo has the widest, most stable support across every mod below — don't mix in NeoForge/Fabric builds.

## Core

| Mod | Why it's in |
|---|---|
| [Create](https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/create) | The automation/contraptions backbone. Gives the roadmap something to *build* toward (farms, kitchens, conveyor lines) before the food payoff. |
| [Flywheel](https://modrinth.com/mod/flywheel) | Required rendering engine dependency for Create (Forge build). |
| [Just Enough Items (JEI)](https://modrinth.com/mod/jei) | Not food itself, but mandatory — with this many food-adding mods stacked, nobody will find recipes without it. |

## Cooking base

| Mod | Adds |
|---|---|
| [Farmer's Delight](https://modrinth.com/mod/farmers-delight) | The core cooking/farming mod everything else builds on: cutting board, cooking pot, skillet, stews, pies, feasts. |

## Farmer's Delight addons (the "roadmap fuel")

| Mod | Adds |
|---|---|
| [Nether's Delight](https://modrinth.com/mod/nethers-delight) | Nether-themed cooking: Hoglin loin/ham/hide, nether salad, stuffed Hoglin, nether skewers. |
| [End's Delight](https://modrinth.com/mod/ends-delight) | End-dimension culinary content (shulker/chorus-themed dishes). Item list is thin on public docs — verify in-game with JEI before committing recipes to the IRL roadmap. |
| [Delightful](https://modrinth.com/mod/delightful) | Big grab-bag of immersive new foods independent of any dimension: marshmallows/s'mores, cheeseburgers, nut butter & jelly sandwiches, goat/venison, berry pies, matcha. |
| [Delightful Creators](https://modrinth.com/mod/delightful-creators) | Bridges Create ↔ Farmer's Delight: soups/stews as Create fluids, sequenced-assembly "incomplete foods," cookie/pie recipes usable in Create contraptions. |
| [FarmersCreate](https://modrinth.com/mod/farmerscreate) | Lets Create's Mixer/Deployer automate Farmer's Delight cooking-pot and cutting-board recipes (auto-cook the feast, don't stand there clicking). |

## Questing (the actual roadmap/quest-line UI)

| Mod | Why it's in |
|---|---|
| [FTB Quests](https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/ftb-quests-forge) | The quest book itself — this is where the food roadmap actually lives in-game. Build one quest chapter per day (Overworld → Nether → End), one quest per dish from `food.md`, with the required Create/Farmer's Delight item as the completion trigger and a reward chest/item. Players get a checklist UI (default hotkey, or a quest-giver NPC/item) showing exactly what to cook/build next. |
| [FTB Library (Forge)](https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/ftb-library-forge) | Required dependency of FTB Quests. |
| [FTB Teams (Forge)](https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/ftb-teams-forge) | Required dependency of FTB Quests — also lets you decide whether quest progress is per-player or shared per-team, worth deciding before building the quest line (per-player means everyone cooks everything themselves; shared team means the group completes the roadmap together). |
| [Architectury API](https://modrinth.com/mod/architectury-api) | Required dependency (cross-loader API FTB's mods are built on). |

All four go in **both** client and server `mods/` folders — quest progress is synced through the server, so it's not optional on either side (same as Distant Horizons and the VR mods, see below).

**Install via Fjord's built-in CurseForge/Modrinth browser, not manual jars** — these four mods have had real version-mismatch bugs between each other on 1.20.1 ([example](https://github.com/FTBTeam/FTB-Mods-Issues/issues/1168)), and the in-launcher browser resolves compatible dependency versions automatically instead of you having to hand-pick a working combination.

**Building the quest line:** open the quest book in-world (default keybind, configurable), create chapters, and for each dish you picked in `food.md` add a quest with an "item" task pointing at that dish (e.g. the actual `Shepherd's Pie` item) as the completion condition — FTB Quests detects it automatically when a player crafts/holds/turns it in, no extra setup needed. Do this once on your prepped instance before exporting, same as the mods/server-list/DH-cache steps in `HOSTING.md` — the quest progress file lives inside the instance too, so it travels with the modpack zip.

## VR support (optional, per-player)

| Mod | Side | Why it's in |
|---|---|---|
| [Vivecraft](https://modrinth.com/mod/vivecraft) | **Both client and server** | Adds VR rendering/motion controls for anyone with a **PC-tethered or PC-streamed headset** (Index, Vive, or a Quest using Air Link/Virtual Desktop into a gaming PC). Correction from earlier: this needs the Vivecraft mod on the dedicated server too, not just the client — without it, other players (VR *and* flatscreen alike) only see the VR player's vanilla default swing animation instead of their actual arm/head/body movement. (The "Vivecraft Spigot Extensions" plugin that does this job on Spigot/Paper servers doesn't apply here since we're Forge — it's the same Vivecraft mod jar on both sides.) |
| [ViveCraft Compat](https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/vivecraft-compat) | **Both client and server** | Patches specific interactions between Vivecraft and other mods in this pack — notably **Create** (fixes driving trains, track hitboxes, elevator controls in VR) and HUD overlay support for Jade. Requires Vivecraft. Since those interactions (e.g. train physics) are server-authoritative, this goes server-side too. |
| Customizable Player Models | **Both client and server** | Pulled in by Fjord's dependency resolver alongside Vivecraft; lets a player's in-VR avatar/body be customized. Same pattern as Vivecraft — other players need the server to relay that data to see the custom model/movement. |

**Note on standalone Quest headsets (no PC):** this is for *PC-tethered/streamed* VR only. A standalone Meta Quest with no gaming PC involved would use **QuestCraft** instead — a separate sideloaded Android app that bundles its own Minecraft+Vivecraft runtime directly on the headset. QuestCraft does **not** go through Fjord/`install.sh`/`install.ps1` at all; it's installed on the headset itself via sideloading tools (SideQuest etc.), connects to the same server address, but has its own separate mod manager with less certain compatibility against a heavy pack like this one (Create/Flywheel especially). If anyone at the party wants to join standalone without a PC, treat that as a separate per-person setup, not something this repo's scripts handle.

Vivecraft auto-detects whether a headset is actually connected and falls back to normal flatscreen play otherwise — so it's safe to leave in the single shared `modpack.zip` for everyone rather than maintaining a separate VR-only instance; people without a headset just won't notice it's there. The server-side requirement above means these three mods need to be in the dedicated server's `mods/` folder unconditionally too, even if nobody ends up using VR that day — it's not optional/elective like Distant Horizons.

## Performance utility

| Mod | Side | Why it's in |
|---|---|---|
| [Distant Horizons](https://modrinth.com/mod/distanthorizons) | **Both client and server** | Renders a simplified level-of-detail view of terrain beyond the server's `view-distance`, so players see far-off scenery without the server having to actually load/send those chunks. Does the same job you were picturing from "Bobby" — Bobby itself is **Fabric-only** (no Forge build exists), so Distant Horizons is the Forge equivalent. Installing the same DH build on the server too lets it push accurate LOD data to clients directly — no manual exploring/flying needed, and it replaces Chunky's job (see below). |

**Chunky is not used.** It was the original plan for pregeneration, but DH-on-server + Chunky-on-server crashes the world on first chunk load — this is a confirmed, currently open DH bug ([GitLab #1329](https://gitlab.com/distant-horizons-team/distant-horizons/-/work_items/1329), exact match for the 3.3.3 build here): DH's Chunky-compat accessor binds to Chunky's provider before Chunky's own init has run, throwing `IllegalStateException: Chunky is not loaded`. No official config toggle exists to disable that integration. Instead, **Distant Horizons' own built-in "Full"/"Internal Server" distant-generation mode generates real, normal chunks itself** — the same job Chunky would have done — so Chunky is redundant once DH is installed server-side this way. Simpler *and* avoids the crash entirely.

**Setup:** same DH jar/version on both client and server `mods/` folders (mismatched builds between the two sides are the officially recommended-against configuration). On the server, set Distant Generation mode to `FULL` (or `INTERNAL_SERVER`) and a generation radius in DH's config — this pregenerates real terrain *and* builds the LOD cache in one automatic background pass, no manual flying required. See `HOSTING.md` for exact config.

## Optional / stretch (only if the group wants more scope)

| Mod | Adds | Caveat |
|---|---|---|
| [Aether's Delight](https://modrinth.com/mod/the-aethers-delight) | Aether-themed dishes (Holystone/Zanite knives, berry bowls, buffed meals) | Requires installing **The Aether** too — a full extra dimension mod. Only add if someone really wants to make the trip. |

## Installed list (ground truth, from the actual exported client `mods/` folder)

Confirmed by extracting `LANParty.zip` directly — 25 jars, superseding the earlier screenshot-based guess (the FTB `(NeoForge)`-labeling concern resolved itself: all three loaded as their Forge builds fine). Side column reflects what's actually in `mcserver/mods/` on the deployed server as of this writing.

| Mod | Side | Role |
|---|---|---|
| AppleSkin | Both | QoL — HUD overlay showing exact hunger/saturation/exhaustion values instead of guessing from the icon. |
| Architectury API | Both | Dependency — cross-loader API FTB's mods are built on. |
| Create | Both | Listed above — core. Bundles **Flywheel** and **Ponder** internally via Forge's JarJar mechanism — they auto-extract at runtime, no separate jar needed on either side. |
| Create Slice & Dice | Both | Create addon — automates cutting/dicing-style food prep via Create contraptions; pulled in alongside Delightful Creators for the Create↔food bridge. |
| Delightful | Both | Listed above. |
| Delightful Creators | Both | Listed above. |
| [Distant Horizons](https://modrinth.com/mod/distanthorizons) | Both | Listed above — same build both sides, server-side Full-mode pregen replaces Chunky (see Performance section). |
| End's Delight | Both | Listed above. |
| Farmer's Delight | Both | Listed above — base. |
| Farmer's Respite | Both | Farmer's Delight addon — adds tea/drinks (kettle, brewed teas) as another food category; worth adding a quest or two for this if you want a drinks stage in the roadmap. |
| Farmers Structures | Both | Adds farmhouse-style structures that generate in the world — gives the Overworld food chapter something to explore toward, not just build from scratch. |
| [FerriteCore](https://modrinth.com/mod/ferritecore) | Both | Performance — reduces RAM usage by deduplicating/compacting in-memory data structures (block states, chunk storage) that Forge normally keeps bloated. Pure upside, no gameplay effect; lowers how much of the `HOSTING.md` sizing-table RAM budget actually gets used. |
| FTB Library | Both | Listed above — FTB Quests dependency. |
| FTB Quests | Both | Listed above — the quest book. |
| FTB Teams | Both | Listed above — FTB Quests dependency. |
| Jade | Both | QoL — "look at" overlay showing block/entity info on hover (WAILA-style), handy with this many new mod blocks/crops to identify. |
| Just Enough Items (JEI) | Both | Listed above — recipe lookup. |
| Kotlin for Forge | Both | Library dependency — several newer mods (Jade and others) are written in Kotlin and need this runtime present. Note: distributed as `kotlinforforge-4.12.0-all.jar` (the "-all" / fat-jar variant), not the bare `kffmod` name. |
| MezzConfig | Both | Library dependency — shared in-game config-menu framework used by multiple mods here. |
| ModernFix | Both | Performance — reduces startup/load time and fixes various vanilla/Forge memory leaks; pure upside for a 3-day session that stays up a long time. |
| Mouse Tweaks | Both | QoL — shift-click/drag item sorting in inventories, genuinely load-bearing once Create/Farmer's Delight items start filling chests. |
| Nether's Delight | Both | Listed above. |
| Customizable Player Models | Both | Listed above (VR section) — corrected from client-only to both sides. |
| Vivecraft | Both | Listed above (VR section) — corrected from client-only to both sides. |
| ViveCraft Compat | Both | Listed above (VR section) — corrected from client-only to both sides. |

**Chunky is explicitly not in this list** — removed from the client early on (it was causing the DH crash before we understood the root cause), and never added back server-side either now that DH's own Full-mode generation replaces its job. See the Performance section above for why.

## Why this shape

- Create gives you *progression* (you have to build the farm/kitchen contraption before you "unlock" a dish) — good quest-line material.
- Farmer's Delight + addons give you the actual *food variety* across three dimensions (Overworld/Nether/End) plus a flavor-pack (Delightful) that isn't dimension-gated, so you can pace the 3-day roadmap: early-game Overworld dishes → mid-game Nether run → late-game End dish as the "final boss" meal.