Technic News

Platform

Big Dig Has Been Removed From the Platform

Hello, this is your friendly reminder that Big Dig is transitioning to become an official Technic modpack.  Today, we moved along that transition by removing Big Dig from the searchable list of Platform modpacks.  Your new landing page for all things Big Dig can now be found at the following link:  http://www.technicpack.net/big-dig

For those of you who are still playing the platform version of Big Dig, I hope this will be the kick in the pants you need to transition over to the official version immediately.  All that you need to do to make that happen is copy your saves and servers.dat from your .technic\big-dig-pack folder to your .technic\bigdig folder.  A link to the Big Dig official server can be found on the official page linked above.

Platform Down Time And You: It's Your Fault (probably)

Hi.

Platform is a massive smash hit success WAY beyond what we initially anticipated. This is why when the weekend rolls around it collapses under the weight of everyone and their mom getting a sweet piece of this Platform action. Thanks to everyone for exploring the potential of Minecraft and making the entire modding community a better place, even if there are literally millions of you that always seem to want to show your appreciation at the same time on Saturday. 

To that end we have some dramatic changes about how Platform, Solder and the Forums operate. We hope this up-down-wait-its-up-welp-down-again will be crushed soon. Thank you for bearing with us.

Big Dig Updated to 1.2.2

 

A new minor version for Big Dig has been released and promoted to recommended- this latest version has the following changes:
 
 - Liquid Metals has been updated to version 0.1.18.
 - Applied Energistics has been updated to version 9.i.
 - With the help of fred4106, I've implemented a workaround that should cause Liquid Metals to interact properly with all supported metals.
 
The new server version can be downloaded here: http://mirror.technicpack.net/Technic/servers/bigdig/BigDigServer-v1.2.2.zip 
 
This should be the final Big Dig update before we move over to 1.5.1.

Updates on Platform/Launcher Optimizations

You may have noticed slowdowns in some of our systems in the past couple days. This becomes especially apparent during the weekends when there is the higest number of people visiting the Platform and using the launcher. Due to the absolute incredible response the Platform has recieved we are getting way more traffic than we ever anticipated. This post is just to let you know we are working day in and day out to resolve any issues you may experience while using the site.

Since the platforms launch there have been over 200,00custom modpack installs and over 600,000 custom modpack runs. That's insane! On top of that there is already over 50,000 users registered on the Platform and well over 20,000 custom modpacks. The amount of stress our servers are experiecing because of all of this is pretty intense. We are constantly optimizing and adjusting our code to make it as effecient as possible.

So, bear with us please! We are doing everything we can to make the site and launcher quick and snappy as it should be. Thanks!

Building Your Own Modpack

For anyone who has installed mods in the past, creating a pack for the Technic Platform takes only a few minutes.  If you're new to the modding scene there's nothing to worry about as this guide is meant to explain the process to users and modders of all skill levels.

Obviously, the first step is to decide which mods we want to use in our pack.  For this example we will be using Buildcraft by SirSengir/Krapht, Dimensional Doors by StevenRS11, Thermal Expansion by King Lemming/Team CoFH, Modular Powersuits by MachineMuse, and Minefactory Reloaded/PowerConverters/NetherOres/Flatbedrock by Power Crystals.

 

First we download the mods and any dependencies (such as Minecraft Forge) from the authors websites.

 

Make sure to remember exactly where you downloaded these files to, you'll need them for the next step.

 

Next, set aside a place specifically for building the pack.  Depending on the contents of your pack this portion can vary based on the mods used.  The general rule is to install the mod in this area exactly how the mod author describes on their site.  If a mod is listed as a core mod, create and place it in a 'coremod' folder.  Mods go in a 'mods' folder, and any config files you've created go in the 'configs' folder.  The only exception to this is if a mod has files that need to be placed inside minecraft.jar.  As you should never redistribute minecraft as per the Terms of Use, you will instead place all of these files inside a 'modpack.jar' you create yourself.  A Jar is simply a zip archive recognized by java, so creation of the jar is as simple as renaming a zip as jar.  Any archive program can be used to do this as long as the extensions saved as are .zip.  Below is a demonstration on the steps used with WinRAR.

 

Select all extracted files that are instructed to go into minecraft.jar

Add these files to an archive using the program of your preference

 

Name the archive as modpack.jar in the ZIP format

(Make sure you do not save it as modpack.jar.zip)

 

 

Take the finished modpack.jar and place it in the ‘bin’ directory of your custom modpack

 

 

Now that you have all of your content organized mimicking a standard minecraft installation including coremods, mods, configs, and your modpack.jar inside the bin directory, we can package the final zip for the platform.

 

Simply include all the files in their proper directories inside a single zip file, either by creating a new zip and placing them inside, or by using an archive program to create the zip for you.

 

 

Now that you have your completed modpack zip, you’ll need to host it somewhere.  You can host the zip on your personal website, through dropbox, or anywhere else that is directly linkable.  A site that requires you to click in order to download such as mediafire will not work.

 

With that, the actual pack creation is complete and you're ready to move on to preparing your Technic Platform page so you and your friends can start enjoying your custom Minecraft experience.

 

Visit www.technicpack.net and either login, or create an account if you don't already have one.  After logging in you will be taken to your dashboard automatically.  If you ever need to return to the dashboard you can do so by simply clicking 'Dashboard' at the top of any page.

 

On your dashboard, select 'Create a Modpack'

 

 

Fill in the unique name of your pack, the version of minecraft it is for, whether it's publicly visible, and a short description.  Now after agreeing to the submission guidelines hit Create Modpack.

 

 

You will then find yourself at the list of your modpacks.  Click on one of your packs and you'll be taken to that packs information page.  You may edit or delete your packs at any time, but right now we will edit our newly created pack.

 

 

 

Much like the initial creation page, you can edit the name, version and description of the pack from here.  Here is where you can upload your 180x110 logo and 800x510 background to be used in the launcher as well as fill out a more detailed pack description, changelog, and permission & licensing information if you desire.  The last thing we need to do here is give the platform the direct link to the modpack zip you created earlier.  Once all this is complete, click Save Modpack to save your changes.

 

That's it, you're done.  You can now use your Platform URL in any Technic Launcher to run your custom build modpack.  You can go back and edit the pack any time you choose and any time you change the version number of the pack, your users will all be prompted with an update (which will then use whatever zip you have specified for the pack at that time).