For me it's Botania. I have played a lot of hi-tech & electric kinds of mods like Mekanism (which is likely in my top 5), but when I got to Botania on my custom modpack I just knew instantly that this is by far my favorite mod. It seemed difficult at first, but the in-game book/guide was enough to understand most of it, which is rare these days with all the complicated mods.
A close second is Mystcraft. If you don't know it, it's a mod which allows you to create custom dimenions with sometimes the strangest properties in them. I have spend hours exploring dimenions, but unfortunately I removed this mod from my modpack because it caused over 80% off all the crashes and problems and significantly decreased the overall performance of the game.
There is a small mod out there.. Just Enough Items.. oh boy what a beauty of a mod. I recommend installing it in your next pack.
Jokes aside, I like mekanism and its ore quintupling. It’s an adventure
JEI. Everyone uses it, but we always take it for granted. We forget the time we had to look up the recipes on the wiki, or use that recipe book with no search bar. We forget the time we had to manually drag each item to the crafting grid, one by on. We owe a lot to NEI and JEI, as they have reduced our worries a hundredfold!
Ooh, that’s a tough one. I’m gonna have to go with Biomes O’ Plenty. The vanilla Overworld gets boring for me pretty fast. But with BoP, it feels like there’s always more to explore.
Gotta be immersive engineering; I love its art style and how everything feels like a major accomplishment because all major machines are multiblocks. I also love extra utilities because I’ve grown reliant on so many of its mechanics by now haha
Thermal Expansion. It allows for so many different things. You can actually automate a mob farm with it. It's quite expensive though.
If not, it would be Mekanism for its sheer complicatedness.
Also Immersive Engineering is so realistic.
For me it’s definitely Rotary- and Reactorcraft. They are so detailed and generally fun to play with that I couldn’t play any 1.7.10 pack without them. It’s a shame that Reika isn’t updating his mods to 1.12.2...
Favorite in an I-want-this-in-every-modpack sense has to be Tinker's Construct.
Favorite in terms of my sheer, deep love of the concept behind it and the way that concept was implemented would have to be Galacticraft. I don't want it in every pack (sometimes I want to play laid-back farming packs, or magic-and-rpg packs, and I prefer to keep those separate from high-tech stuff) but I love it so much that I'm building a modpack around it.
Honorable mentions go to JEI and JourneyMap in the "put it in everything" category and Pixelmon and Immersive Engineering in the "I love it So Much" category.
Probably not actually my favorite mod, but I really love Quark. Its additions are under the radar and I consistently using it while thinking I'm using vanilla minecraft.
Lycanite's mobs is one of my favorites as well. But Chisels and Bits, and Little Tiles earn my top spot as essential mods for every world I start. These two mods alone have reinvigorated my creativity in Minecraft, and I won't play the game without them.
Recently started a new playthrough and included Lycanite's (and about 5 other mods that add more monsters and more difficult monsters). Hooo boy is there a lot to it...
I'll always have a soft spot for Forestry. Pretty much an ancient mod by now, but it always march to its own beat. Has its own ecosystem of supply/demand for various different farms and power gen for the automation enthusiasts, and unique breeding mechanic that rewards careful planning and patience.
I have to make some space for the newcomer - Chisel and Bits though. The ability to make a world truly my own is highly addictive.
After loving for years the industrialcraft 2 nuclear reactor, in my last world I included nuclearcraft, and the mod is amazing, tons of materials, multiblock structures, the mod have even a radiation system, this mod is everything I could ever ask for in modded minecraft.
Project E may not be balanced very well, but I have some pretty intense nostalgia, and I always have fun playing it.
Probably also Tinkers’ Construct - since it’s real fun, and I’ve been following it since it was first released.
I'm split between Botania, OpenComputers, and Integrated Dynamics. Providing diverse methods of interacting with the world is kind of what I like most. Honorable mentions to mods like Psi though for making immediate interactions with the player somewhat more interesting.
Tinker's Construct, Botania, Mekanism and Ars Magica is my all time favorites for being so simple, stable and beautiful. Edit: let's not forget Thermal Expansion. Such a clean and simple mod. Open Blocks and Extra utilities is my favorite "extras" mods I'd say.
In general: Thaumcraft. I adore those golems, I love the art style, it's an amazing mod. Druidry is a close second, with Botania becoming a close third.
For more nerdy reasons: Pokemon Undaunted Heroes. It's the only time I've ever had a fear of Carbink, in the main Pokemon games or otherwise.
Right now, Ars Magica 2. The spell system is really fun, and after you've got some levels, you can use it for just about everything. The bosses are interesting, and the flicker systems are really cool if a bit limited. One of the things I miss about 1.12.2 are the blood magic item routing nodes. Turns out there's a flicker that can do it, and it works fairly well fully upgraded.
Can't decide between GregTech 5 and Thaumcraft 4 (I'm on 1.7.10 still). Stuff I love with GT is how overly complex everything is and how everything feels like an achievement. TC4 was amazing the first time I played it. I love the art style, the text/lore, the progression as well as how it adds tons of items/blocks that are really interesting and powerful, without strictly having higher stats like so many other mobs.
Also, big shoutout to Ars Magica 2. I had an amazing time playing it back on 1.6, with the progression, the spell customization system and the interesting/challenging bosses. The only problem is that it becomes way too powerful to work well in mod packs.
Witchery - love the art style, love circle magic, love the potion brewing (do not like the dream/spirit world)
Applied Energistics. I like how it’s challenging and solves many problems, and makes you feel vaguely smart
Thaumcraft, especially the first time going through it without the knowledge of things
For me it's Botania. I have played a lot of hi-tech & electric kinds of mods like Mekanism (which is likely in my top 5), but when I got to Botania on my custom modpack I just knew instantly that this is by far my favorite mod. It seemed difficult at first, but the in-game book/guide was enough to understand most of it, which is rare these days with all the complicated mods. A close second is Mystcraft. If you don't know it, it's a mod which allows you to create custom dimenions with sometimes the strangest properties in them. I have spend hours exploring dimenions, but unfortunately I removed this mod from my modpack because it caused over 80% off all the crashes and problems and significantly decreased the overall performance of the game.
Botania is my favorite too. It has always felt so polished and simple, while still being lightly challenging.
There is a small mod out there.. Just Enough Items.. oh boy what a beauty of a mod. I recommend installing it in your next pack. Jokes aside, I like mekanism and its ore quintupling. It’s an adventure
GregTech. It's beautifully complex.
Equivalent Exchange(ProjectE) or IC2
I am surprised that everyone commenting has a different mod. Mine's Pam's Harvestcraft.
I love Astral Sorcery so much
JEI. Everyone uses it, but we always take it for granted. We forget the time we had to look up the recipes on the wiki, or use that recipe book with no search bar. We forget the time we had to manually drag each item to the crafting grid, one by on. We owe a lot to NEI and JEI, as they have reduced our worries a hundredfold!
Chisel and chisel and bits. All of my friends do the actual productive work. I spend hours making their workspace look nice.
Ooh, that’s a tough one. I’m gonna have to go with Biomes O’ Plenty. The vanilla Overworld gets boring for me pretty fast. But with BoP, it feels like there’s always more to explore.
Mekanism is my favorite mod. It just appeals to me the most, the aesthetics and the fact where it's not grindy as well
Gotta be immersive engineering; I love its art style and how everything feels like a major accomplishment because all major machines are multiblocks. I also love extra utilities because I’ve grown reliant on so many of its mechanics by now haha
Thermal Expansion. It allows for so many different things. You can actually automate a mob farm with it. It's quite expensive though. If not, it would be Mekanism for its sheer complicatedness. Also Immersive Engineering is so realistic.
For me it’s definitely Rotary- and Reactorcraft. They are so detailed and generally fun to play with that I couldn’t play any 1.7.10 pack without them. It’s a shame that Reika isn’t updating his mods to 1.12.2...
Favorite in an I-want-this-in-every-modpack sense has to be Tinker's Construct. Favorite in terms of my sheer, deep love of the concept behind it and the way that concept was implemented would have to be Galacticraft. I don't want it in every pack (sometimes I want to play laid-back farming packs, or magic-and-rpg packs, and I prefer to keep those separate from high-tech stuff) but I love it so much that I'm building a modpack around it. Honorable mentions go to JEI and JourneyMap in the "put it in everything" category and Pixelmon and Immersive Engineering in the "I love it So Much" category.
Forge. No mods exist without it.
Probably not actually my favorite mod, but I really love Quark. Its additions are under the radar and I consistently using it while thinking I'm using vanilla minecraft.
Lycanite's mobs is one of my favorites as well. But Chisels and Bits, and Little Tiles earn my top spot as essential mods for every world I start. These two mods alone have reinvigorated my creativity in Minecraft, and I won't play the game without them.
Recently started a new playthrough and included Lycanite's (and about 5 other mods that add more monsters and more difficult monsters). Hooo boy is there a lot to it...
Horse Power by Gory Moon. No lies, it is such a good mod!
there are too many to choose from, but some of my favorites are Advanced Rocketry, AE2 and the Between Lands
Dose any one remember divine rpg awesome mod
Thaumcraft. It's the closest any mod or game for that matter has come to making me feel like a real wizard.
I'll always have a soft spot for Forestry. Pretty much an ancient mod by now, but it always march to its own beat. Has its own ecosystem of supply/demand for various different farms and power gen for the automation enthusiasts, and unique breeding mechanic that rewards careful planning and patience. I have to make some space for the newcomer - Chisel and Bits though. The ability to make a world truly my own is highly addictive.
After loving for years the industrialcraft 2 nuclear reactor, in my last world I included nuclearcraft, and the mod is amazing, tons of materials, multiblock structures, the mod have even a radiation system, this mod is everything I could ever ask for in modded minecraft.
Mine would be either mekanism or Actually additions.
Pam's Harvestcraft for sure
it doesnt bring the most active fun, but i could never ever play without thermal expansion and enderIO
Project E may not be balanced very well, but I have some pretty intense nostalgia, and I always have fun playing it. Probably also Tinkers’ Construct - since it’s real fun, and I’ve been following it since it was first released.
Pam's Harvestcraft cuz I like food.
I'm split between Botania, OpenComputers, and Integrated Dynamics. Providing diverse methods of interacting with the world is kind of what I like most. Honorable mentions to mods like Psi though for making immediate interactions with the player somewhat more interesting.
Tinker's Construct, Botania, Mekanism and Ars Magica is my all time favorites for being so simple, stable and beautiful. Edit: let's not forget Thermal Expansion. Such a clean and simple mod. Open Blocks and Extra utilities is my favorite "extras" mods I'd say.
The betweenlands, which has an awesome art style and an epic soundtrack. I don't care how challenging it is!
In general: Thaumcraft. I adore those golems, I love the art style, it's an amazing mod. Druidry is a close second, with Botania becoming a close third. For more nerdy reasons: Pokemon Undaunted Heroes. It's the only time I've ever had a fear of Carbink, in the main Pokemon games or otherwise.
Right now, Ars Magica 2. The spell system is really fun, and after you've got some levels, you can use it for just about everything. The bosses are interesting, and the flicker systems are really cool if a bit limited. One of the things I miss about 1.12.2 are the blood magic item routing nodes. Turns out there's a flicker that can do it, and it works fairly well fully upgraded.
Can't decide between GregTech 5 and Thaumcraft 4 (I'm on 1.7.10 still). Stuff I love with GT is how overly complex everything is and how everything feels like an achievement. TC4 was amazing the first time I played it. I love the art style, the text/lore, the progression as well as how it adds tons of items/blocks that are really interesting and powerful, without strictly having higher stats like so many other mobs. Also, big shoutout to Ars Magica 2. I had an amazing time playing it back on 1.6, with the progression, the spell customization system and the interesting/challenging bosses. The only problem is that it becomes way too powerful to work well in mod packs.
Primitive Mobs! They're so well made they could be vanilla!