Black Raven Dragoons

[Zancarius]

I've been playing around with the Technic Launcher over the course of the last few evenings, and some of the mods are great. There's even a maintainer who has put together a pack for TerraFirmaCraft (warning: their site is occasionally offline) that brings an extreme hardcore slant to the standard Minecraft survival mode. They've even got a "cheat mode" mod pack called BigDig (that's a "g" not a "ck" on the end, you pervs) that introduces larger ore nodes, massive new dungeon generators, and some of the other builder packs (IndustryCraft, etc) available in Technic and Tekkit.

The interesting thing about the Technic launcher is that it appers to be built on Spout and can install the stock version of Minecraft or a wide variety of supported modpacks, each isolated from the other, and even appears to allow you freedom to install specific versions (if supported--currently only goes back a few release versions, no betas). The interface is a little awkward and takes some exploration to get used to, but it's otherwise quite handy.

I'd suggest trying out the various Technic packs although Tekkit is newer (supporting MC 1.5.1) and TerraFirmaCraft. Though, be aware that TFC is significantly difficult and its crafting mechanics differ slightly from stock Minecraft. Technic and Tekkit both inherit almost directly from most of the Minecraft mechanics, generally adding new blocks, wiring, and enchanting (even alchemy, I believe).

TerraFirmaCraft, while difficult, is fairly rewarding if you prefer a challenging game--or at least one that's more challenging than standard Minecraft survival mode. Basically, you should expect to die within 10-20 minutes of running TFC in each new world. After all, you have to start with rocks that you pick up (you can't mine stone until you smelt metal), knap them into shape, and gather logs to survive the night. I won't ruin the surprise, because there are plenty of guides on the wiki. (Note: These links might not work. Their site has been on the fritz for me today.)

TFC does not have a supported multiplayer server yet, however. There are servers available, but it seems they tend to be unstable and likely to crash. Sadly, you'll probably have to enjoy TFC alone. In the woods. With your stones.

Technic and Tekkit are easier but focus mostly on machinery with a degree of blowing things up. You can purportedly build working nuclear reactors (yes, they will blow up or melt down if you don't cool them correctly); large machines that can drill, mine, or harvest trees; and just about anything else you can think of that involves large industrial and processing buildings. BigDig contains a similar pack of mods, but is designed with creative mode and some manner of cheating in mind in order to help reduce the learning curve associated with the mods in Tekkit (and to a lesser extent, the older Technic Classic and Technic Lite). There are also "pocket dimensions" in BigDig that do funny things when you die in them. (Okay, I lied: It's kinda creepy.)

Highly recommended. It's worth seeing what some people have been maintaining over the last couple years with regards to near total conversions of the game we love!