(This schematic was my first survival airship I made playing this modpack!)

Welcome to Aerovaria! A bit of fantasy, a bit of tech, a lot of adventure!

Do you love the mechanics of major mods such as Create, Aeronautics, and Minecolonies, but have struggled to find a modpack that gives you an interesting and well-balanced world to use your cool creations and progress in?

I certainly have. Most modpacks have let me down by mixing in too many things without considering how they work together, oftentimes invalidating the interesting mechanics of one mod with another that gives the same result for less effort and less interesting gameplay.

I make games for a living, but I'm also weird enough that I do it in my spare time as a hobby as well. I've always been a fan of Minecraft, and I've also been fortunate enough to work in the genre on as a design director on Hytale. The point I really want to get across is this - I spend stupid amounts of time thinking about adventure gameplay and how to make it interesting.

I've also spent hundreds of hours refining this specific modpack to combine my favorite parts of modded minecraft into an experience that also runs great on a typical server host (my server runs on GTXGaming hosting) - while still looking great by taking advantage of Distant Horizons, Complementary Shaders, Dynamic Lights, and lots of optimizations. This is a great experience with friends, I can vouch for it running without any noticable hit to performance while hosting for my group of players.

With nearly 200 mods, there is a lot of content here - but it was carefully selected and customized to work well together and feel like a cohesive game.

Things To Know About The World

There are many more progression tiers and you will advance through them more slowly than vanilla or other modpacks
Create is a core pillar of the mechanics of the world. Expect to:
- Use vehicles to explore and travel rather than Elytras or teleportation (distant horizons will help you spot POIs from far away)
- Transport inventory by vehicles, trains, or contraptions rather than using backpacks, shulker boxes, or ender chests
- Tech up your ability to harvest materials through contraptions or vehicles
The resources of the world are sparse, but they do sometimes appear in large amounts, especially in rare POIs you can find through exploration.
There are seasons that affect the weather and temperature across biomes
Overworld, underground, and aquatic worldgen are completely overhauled and very diverse. Besides what you find on the surface, there are many unique cave and deep ocean environments (and even deep ocean caves) to find and explore.
Enemies will get more challenging and have better drops if you travel farther from the spawn area (both across the surface and underground)
There are no naturally spawning large NPC towns (you can start your own with Minecolonies), but there are some rare POIs with villagers
You will need to eat and drink to stay alive, and you will need a lot of food diversity to thrive - hotter places will increase your thirst
Mending enchants don’t exist, but repairing on an anvil doesn’t cost XP
The more XP you are carrying, the higher your max health will be
If you get knocked out, a nearby friend can help you back up if they can get to you before your timer runs out - some hazards such as lava will cause you to die immediately.
Dying will cause extra durability loss on worn armor and any gear on your hotbar (and can break it), but you can always recover your body and XP if you can make your way back (even if you die in lava or fall in a void)
Shields can parry enemies, and even reflect damage on a perfect parry with higher tier shields
Horses can carry two players
There are a lot of minor changes and tweaks with the goal of eliminating features or gameplay strategies that shortcut or trivialize progression
The intended goal and vibe of the server is players building homes and towns that are connected via vehicle travel or rail networks while they explore the world to find rare treasures and progress

Tool Material Progression

There are a few new material tiers to progress through when it comes to tools and armor. Note that Sturdy Plate is only capable of making armor, not tools or weapons.

Wood / Stone -> Copper -> Bronze -> Iron / Brass / Sturdy Plate -> Rose Quartz / Steel / Diamond -> Netherite

Early Progression You Should Probably Do!

Get yourself a set of copper gear - it is pretty easy to come by!
You can substitute tin (more common) instead of iron (more rare) to get Andesite Alloy and an early start on Create contraptions
Charcoal is much easier to acquire than coal so aim for that for most heating applications - all forms of create heating will require fuel!
Beds are valuable - not only can they help skip nighttime (even if multiple players are on), they also heal you when you sleep, and can be placed on your vehicles to create a mobile home!

A List of Some Cool Things For You to Consider Exploring Eventually

Minecolonies (build and run your own town that looks like this, the progression on these is very deep)
Hexalia will allow you to become a witch or warlock and practice natural magicks (recall potions are very handy!).
There are advanced mechanics for cooking fancy foods, brewing teas and alcohols, fermenting wines, and other foods that will satisfy your food and hunger and also provide you with powerful ways to buff your character.
Create trains can be used to traverse long distances, travel through nether portals, and even stay active in unloaded chunks - they are great for passive transportation or long distance logistics to complement your piloted boats and airships.
Rare and powerful monsters with special treasures can be found when exploring.
Crude oil can be discovered and harvested to allow for smaller and more efficient engine setups to power your vehicles.
There are many mods that enhance block, decor, and furniture options for building towns and homes - ranging from ancient cultures, magical fantasy themes, or even steampunk. Be sure to try out the architects cutter from Domum Ornamentum to reshape your favorite blocks.

Bonus notes:

This modpack makes a decent amout of kubejs edits to enemy spawning, drop tables, and recipes
I recommend using Chunky (included) to pre-generate the world, especially for multiplayer servers
On my own server, I've added custom merchants around the spawn to sell items for the coins that enemies drop. You can do this yourself using command blocks and commands such as these to create an invulnerable villager NPC with specific trades.

Spawn them with a command like this:

Armorer Jan
/summon minecraft:villager ~ ~ ~ {VillagerData:{profession:"minecraft:armorer",level:5},CustomName:'{"color":"dark_purple","text":"Jan"}',Offers:{Recipes:[{buy:{id:"magic_coins:gold_coin",count:2},sell:{id:"create_ironworks:bronze_armor_boots",count:1},maxUses:2147483647,rewardExp:0b},{buy:{id:"magic_coins:gold_coin",count:3},sell:{id:"create_ironworks:bronze_armor_helmet",count:1},maxUses:2147483647,rewardExp:0b},{buy:{id:"magic_coins:gold_coin",count:4},sell:{id:"create_ironworks:bronze_armor_leggings",count:1},maxUses:2147483647,rewardExp:0b},{buy:{id:"magic_coins:gold_coin",count:5},sell:{id:"create_ironworks:bronze_armor_chestplate",count:1},maxUses:2147483647,rewardExp:0b},{buy:{id:"magic_coins:gold_coin",count:3},sell:{id:"create_ironworks:bronze_axe",count:1},maxUses:2147483647,rewardExp:0b}]}}

And then make them quiet and invulnerable with a command like this run from a nearby block
/data merge entity @e[type=villager,limit=1,sort=nearest] {Silent:1b,Invulnerable:1b,PersistenceRequired:1b}

Alternately, you could make crafting recipes for the coins using KubeJS, or a recipe to convert them to emeralds if you prefer normal villager economies, etc. Otherwise, the coins won't have much use.