Attack of The Johns

    "Hey, you awake yet? I've been calling for 15 minutes! It's your contractor, I've got a new job for you. The usual clean up operation. And get this; the client is paying three times the usual fee. Not sure who these guys are. They call themselves the "Foundation." They didn't tell me much so all I can give you is the basic mission details. But hey, that's the job. When people want something done no questions asked, you're the guy.

    Anyway, a helo will be by shortly to pick you up and you'll be airlifted at 0600 to the site. Some place in the middle of nowhere, I'm told a research station. Communications went dark and the Foundation wants to know what happened. If there is any resistance, dispatch of them. You know, the usual.

    We've been given full discretion as to the rules of engagement so you'll have free reign. The client is even providing us with a full armory via airdrop. Dream contract to be honest. You're supposed to meat a contact on the ground, but don't count on it because they've been dark for over 46 hours. Consider the site hostile territory. We're going in blind on this, but given the pay, it's worth it. Good luck." 

The NPC in this pack--Nutty Nick-- is essentially immortal, so you don't have to worry about him getting killed. NPC are fully interactable, and have dialogue options players can use to respond. These options are color coded as follows: 

White ( >_> ): Generic dialogue option. Opens another dialogue tree/ response.  
Green: Role. This opens the NPC role window, such as the items they sell, their recruitment window, their bank network, etc. depending on their role. 
Yellow: Lore/ story related dialogue. Not necessary for progression, and only gives story elements. For those that don't care, you can avoid these responses. Note that because they are not essential, some of these dialogues will not pop up again! Typically yellow responses loop back to the dialogue tree you are currently in, so pick these first if you want to know the response to them! 
Blue: Quest related. Selecting a blue response will cause a player to accept a quest, so don't click on these if you don't want to do the quest! There is no drawback to not completing a quest, but quests can't be deleted from your NPC quest log, so it might get a little crowded if you don't plan on finishing it.  
Purple: Faction related. NPC can be part of a faction, either their own or a larger group comprised of several NPC. This is essentially a reputation system. On top of other actions that affect reputation, certain things you say can also change your relations! Selecting a purple response will either increase or decrease your reputation with that NPC or their faction. Choose your words carefully! 

System requirements:
 
    (The below numbers are as a benchmark, and any equivalent hardware works. Computers running hardware below the minimum may still be able to run the pack, but you may notice some lag spikes during later levels. I have not tested it on weaker hardware yet, and the minimum is more of a guess).  

RAM and JVM arguments: 

    This pack requires that you allocate 5-6Gb to Minecraft. If you need you can allocate up to 8-10Gb, but do not allocate more than this. TL;DR Minecraft does not do well with too much RAM. Also make sure you leave a few gigs for your system to run. E.g if you only have 8Gb installed, don't allocate more than 6. Seriously can't stress this enough. 

JVM arguments: 
    This is the thing that helps your game run a little better. You should be using Aiker's flags, the industry standard. Below is the values you should copy into your launcher's "JVM flags" box. In the Curse launcher this is located in the 'settings > Minecraft' window at the very bottom. 

-XX:+UseG1GC -XX:+ParallelRefProcEnabled -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=200 -XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions -XX:+DisableExplicitGC -XX:+AlwaysPreTouch -XX:G1NewSizePercent=30 -XX:G1MaxNewSizePercent=40 -XX:G1HeapRegionSize=8M -XX:G1ReservePercent=20 -XX:G1HeapWastePercent=5 -XX:G1MixedGCCountTarget=4 -XX:InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent=15 -XX:G1MixedGCLiveThresholdPercent=90 -XX:G1RSetUpdatingPauseTimePercent=5 -XX:SurvivorRatio=32 -XX:+PerfDisableSharedMem -XX:MaxTenuringThreshold=1 -Dusing.aikars.flags=https://mcflags.emc.gs -Daikars.new.flags=true 

Optifine:

    This modpack supports Optifine_HD_U_F5. Since it's only used for shaders, it is not included. You can download it here: https://optifine.net/adloadx?f=OptiFine_1.12.2_HD_U_F5.jar 

Step 1:
    Install the pack through your preferred launcher. 
Step 2:
    Go into your resourcepack menu and ensure the resourcepack "Attack of The Johns" is enabled. 
Step 3: 
    Configure your settings. The pack ships with a preset configured to be somewhere between "performance" and "fancy." If using Optifine (download link in Requirements above) and you don't know what the settings in Optifine actually do, refer to the footnote at the bottom of this modpack page. Enabling the wrong settings will cause bugs.  
Step 4:
    Enable a shader if you choose. This pack includes several shaders that have been extensively tested and deemed compatible. The ones included were my personal preference, and a list of compatible shaders can be found in the footnotes at the bottom of this page. Unlike settings, the shaders ship with a maximum graphics preset. You may wish to change this for better performance. If you want to use the default settings, simply delete the configuration file inside the shaderpacks folder. I highly recommend you play with shaders to get the intended experience. Lower the settings if you need, and try using Sora's shader. It's less demanding than BSL.     

(Make sure your server and client versions match! Read the "version scheme" footnote at the bottom of the description page).
Step 1: 
    If your server host provides a one click installer and supports this modpack, simply browse the available modpacks and click install. If it does not, you will need to install an SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) application to connect to your server remotely and upload the files. I recommend using Cyberduck, but others like Filezilla etc work fine as well. Instructions for how to connect and use an SFTP client are usually included in the Docs of your server host. 
Step 2: 
    Start the server and wait for the console spam to stop. There should be a prompt asking about which profile you wish DefaultWorldGenerator to use. Simply enter "defaultworldgenerator-port 1" into the console. 
Step 3: 
    TBD... 

New worlds freezing when loading in: 
    There are several large structures that all load in at the same time, which can temporarily freeze the world when you first enter. Give it a few seconds and it should be fine.  

Unable to place or break certain blocks:
    This isn't tps lag, it's an intended feature. Certain blocks are invulnerable to the player to prevent them from accessing certain areas before they are unlocked through the progression.

1. Unable to "give up" when dead:
    Typing something into chat should fix it. 

2. An invasion not ending even though it seems like all the mobs have been killed, and the invasion bar has extended past the 100% mark:
    This is a bug with Onslaught, and a repeatable checkmark quest is included in your quest book to fix this. Before using the reset quest, make sure you look around; the monsters could just be stuck behind a tree or room. If you decide to use the reset quest, read its description! The KillAll quest is not a cheese mechanic and does not benefit the player, and could very well overwhelm you with monsters. This should only be used as a last resort for invasions that get stuck. 

3. The menu is all messed up:
    This modpack's menu only supports aspect ratios of 16:9, on large GUI scale. In any other configuration, the menu won't line up correctly and will look wonky. Doesn't really matter as it's cosmetic only. To make it line up correctly, use large GUI scale and set the game's resolution in your profile options to 1280x680 or 1920x1080 (you can enlarge the client window after joining a world. This resolution is just how the game starts up). 

4. Crashing when using an airstrike ability:
    ICBM Classic is buggy, and sometimes using an airstrike will crash the world and cause world corruption. FTB automatic backups are included for this reason and happen once every hour. Use airstrikes at your own risk. 

5. Sudden low frame rate (< 5) after having client open for more than 4 hours:
    Not sure what is causing this yet, but it's simple to fix. Just restart the client. 

6. Joining a Better Questing team causes weird quest completion issues:
    This modpack does not support BQ teams function. DO NOT use it.

This modpack can not be played like traditional modpacks. If you plan on playing this with friends on a server, read these notes:   
    This modpack only supports Co-op play. The nature of the pack makes PVP pointless. This modpack also only officially supports up to 3 players. A max of 3 invasions can be active simultaneously (technically 4, but this is to leave space for challenge levels), so while you can play with more players, it will completely mess up the balance and may cause invasions to bug out. The reason for this cap is that no server can handle more than 3 of this pack's invasions simultaneously. Honestly even 2 might be a struggle (I don't recommend more than 2 players anyway, as it affects enjoyment of gameplay imo). Your server will need very strong hardware. 
    It is also not a good idea to leave the server running when players are not online. The timings of the levels have been synced to the world time so that they all trigger properly. Leaving the server running may cause some levels to trigger multiple times, though this would require the world's time to line up perfectly. Minor issue but it's possible. 
    When playing with friends, you should also ensure that all of you are on at the same time and playing the levels together. If a player needs to go afk, they should remain in world and maybe even be opped. Each player's level timers only counts down while the player is online. So if only a few players are on at a time, their levels will end up being out of sync. This isn't a big issue and can be ignored if you want, but it will mean the players who are behind might have a harder time with encountering higher level mobs than they're prepared for from another player's level (unless said player purchases better gear for them). Either way, this will make the game easier (or even harder) than intended.