Malarik Direwolf

Yes. The base pack doesn't ship with a shader loader. Add Oculus and Embeddium to your CurseForge instance's mods folder — both are compatible with NeoForge 1.21.1 and work together as a shader/rendering pair.

Then drop a shaderpack .zip into the shaderpacks folder inside your instance directory. In-game, go to Options → Video Settings → Shaders to activate it.

Recommended shaderpacks: Complementary Reimagined (best balance), BSL Shaders (classic, performant), Sildur's Vibrant (saturated and colourful).

Shaders are GPU-heavy. On integrated graphics or older cards, stick to Sildur's Lite or skip shaders entirely.

Run /spark tps to check the current tick rate. 20 TPS is perfect. Below 15 you'll feel stuttering.

If it's low, run /spark profiler start, wait about 2 minutes, then /spark profiler stop. Spark will return a URL with a detailed breakdown of what's eating server time. Share it with Angelo.

Common causes: overly complex Create contraptions running all the time, uncapped item sorters, too many loaded chunks, or a CC:Tweaked turtle loop gone wrong. If you suspect your builds are the issue, try turning them off temporarily and watching TPS.

Yes. Use /ftbchunks to open the map. Click individual chunks to claim them, or hold Shift and drag to claim a region at once. Claimed chunks show your colour on the map.

Claimed chunks prevent other players from breaking blocks or stealing items inside them. You can also force-load claimed chunks so they stay active when you're offline — useful for automated farms and reactors.

There's a claim limit per player. Talk to Angelo if you need more.

Start with Mekanism ore processing. The basic chain: Enrichment Chamber → Purification Chamber → Crusher, fed by the ore. You'll get 3–4 ingots per ore immediately. Full 5× takes a bit more machinery but it's worth it.

Once you have a steady ore output, move to AE2 or Refined Storage for centralised item management. Refined Storage is friendlier to learn. AE2 is more powerful but has a steeper learning curve.

Create is great for early mechanical automation before you have power infrastructure. Use it for bulk crushing, pressing, and washing.

Mid-game progression: AE2 autocrafting → Extreme Reactors for power → CC:Tweaked for full scripted automation.

Everything in the pack runs on Forge Energy (FE), also called RF. It's all compatible — any generator works with any machine.

Early game: Mekanism Generators. Start with a Heat Generator (free power from lava). Add solar panels on your roof. Wind turbines in high/exposed areas. Bio generators for biomass.

Mid game: Mekanism Fission or a small Extreme Reactors setup. Scale up solar arrays with Solar Generation.

Late game: Extreme Reactors fusion reactor. A well-built setup generates 10M+ FE/t — more than enough for anything.

Buffer your power with energy cells (Mekanism or RFTools Power) so generation spikes don't cause brownouts in machines.

Dig a 2×2 pool of water (you can make it larger). Surround it with flowers, mushrooms, or any natural plants. Throw a diamond into the pool. The sky will darken and a portal will form — step in to enter the Twilight Forest.

The forest is a separate dimension with biomes, dungeons, and bosses. Go in order: Naga → Lich → Minoshroom → Hydra → Knight Phantoms → Ur-Ghast → Snow Queen → Final Castle. Each boss drops items needed to progress to the next.

Unique materials from the Twilight Forest (Fiery Ingots, Steeleaf, Knightmetal) are used in high-tier tools and armour.

First, make a Charger and use it to charge a Certus Quartz Crystal to get a Charged Certus Quartz Crystal. You'll need this for early crafting.

Find Quartz Clusters underground (they look like purplish growths on stone). Mine them for Certus Quartz. You also need Fluix Dust — throw Charged Certus, Nether Quartz, and Redstone Dust into water simultaneously.

Build an ME Controller (the multiblock centrepiece), connect it with ME Cable, then attach ME Drives (to hold storage cells), a ME Terminal or Crafting Terminal, and at least one ME Interface for item I/O.

JEI is your best friend for AE2 recipes — search "AE2" to filter. There are also good written guides on the AE2 wiki.

Craft a Computer and right-click it to open the terminal. It runs Lua 5.2. Type help to see built-in commands.

Turtles are mobile robots — craft one (requires a pickaxe to mine), right-click to open its terminal, and program it with Lua. Built-in API: turtle.forward(), turtle.dig(), turtle.place(), turtle.suck(), turtle.drop(), etc.

Turtles can interact with inventories: turtle.suck() pulls items from the chest in front, turtle.drop() puts items into it. Combine with peripheral.wrap() to read machines.

Fuel turtles with coal, charcoal, or any burnable item — use turtle.refuel(). Mining turtles have a pickaxe built in.

A good starter project: a mine program that digs a 3-wide tunnel while torching walls. Progress from there to AE2 integration and reactor monitoring.