Public Service Announcement: Minecraft runs badly and stutters without copy/pasting special settings called "Java arguments" and max memory usage. This is true for all mod packs and even vanilla. Blame Mojang and Java. See Instructions below.

What is it?

It's just Skyblock with Create, but actually a real skyblock. That means No Free Resources! No Sifting! No Exploration! No Expert Recipes!

You'll get your choice of island for yourself or your team. The only other worldgen is the Dragon's island in the End. Expect to cure zombie villagers and do trading. Create will handle most of your automation. Quests involve a hint system for the main progression puzzle, but mod content is tutorialized for beginner friendliness. This pack is small and optimized to run on your toaster.

Major Mods

Create and several addon mods
Botania
Occultism
Applied Energistics (but it's automation is late game)
Sophisticated Storage and Backpacks
Silent's Gear
Farmer's Delight

Beta: This pack is "content complete" and has been playtested, but not thoroughly. I welcome your feedback and appreciate your patience.

Why?

In my opinion…

Vanilla skyblock gameplay is a puzzle full of really interesting tricks and methods to get what you need, but the grind and reliance on luck is insanely slow and punishing.
Modded skyblock is full of quality of life features, fun mods to tinker with, and is defined by progression through building automation, but (usually) resource acquisition is too simple and the late game involves bulk crafting ingredients for massive recipe chains. This is my attempt to combine the good parts of both styles to cover each other's weaknesses.

But there're a ton of skyblock packs with Create?

I just wanted to play a skyblock pack with a newer version of Create, but they all had the same 1 or 2 problems.

1. They all started with sifters, sieves, resource chickens, or some infinite randomized "oneblock" that load you with resources early on, invalidating more interesting options.
2. They generate a full nether, or many other islands, or even a mining dimension.

In my mind, a satisfying skyblock pack is defined by starting with nothing but the bare minimum, overcoming the struggle to obtain blocks and resources, and building a whole world yourself, the way you want it to be. IMO, many skyblock packs cheapen this experience with excess abundance.

DISCORD

https://discor*d.gg/YPHQKeJ

Copy/Paste the link and delete the * to get in. Sorry for the inconvenience, it's to reduce web crawling spam bots. Please don't send me a random friend request. Just join my discord or one I'm in and @ or DM me.

Phantoms

They're on by default, but disable them if you like. You can still ritual summon them for membranes.

Multiplayer

The server files can be found under the "Additional Files" tab of each pack download page. I've made the process as painless as I could, but you still have to have Java set up properly and port forward through your router.

Java Setup

An incorrect Java setup is the cause of almost all issues. This is important information even if you don't need help with the rest of installing a launcher and the pack.

Firstly, make sure you have 64 bit Java version 17 installed. If you're not 100% certain, just go ahead and download it for your OS here. For 1.18+ (this pack), Java 17 is required. For Minecraft versions before 1.17, Java 8 is required. Be aware that CurseForge's official launcher doesn't seem to support specifying different java versions per mod pack. GD Launcher and Prism do.

This pack requires at minimum 4096 MB (that's 4 GB). I recommend 6144 MB IF you have 8+ GB of RAM. You must have at least 2 GB more RAM total than what you feed to Java. If you have a lot of memory, still don't give Minecraft more than 9216 MB. More than that may actually make the game run slightly worse.

Java arguments. They're a voodoo magic set of text options you paste into your settings to "fix the game". An outdated or bad one will only make things worse, and without it the game stutters BADLY even on high-end systems. This set by cpw will help any pack including vanilla run much better.

-XX:+UseG1GC -Dsun.rmi.dgc.server.gcInterval=2147483646 -XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions -XX:G1NewSizePercent=20 -XX:G1ReservePercent=20 -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=50 -XX:G1HeapRegionSize=32M

The Launcher

If you don't already have it you'll want to get a launcher to run the pack, typically Prism, GDLauncher, or Curseforge.

Prism

https://prismlauncher.org

Download the appropriate installer for your OS, and install the C++ prerequisite if needed. If you download the portable version, be aware that you'd have to move the files and create a shortcut yourself.
Install Prism and go through your settings.
Start with the Java tab. Use the Java instructions from above to fill out Maximum memory allocation and JVM arguments.
Click Auto-detect. A menu will pop up with the different Java versions on your computer. Click the correct 64 bit version from above.
Accounts tab. Add your Microsoft login account and set it to default or Prism will fail to install any packs until you do.
Change any other settings you need to while you're here.
Click the Add Instance button on the top left of the main window, then click "CurseForge" to download the pack.
Type ONLY the word "authentic" and scroll down to find Authentic Skies Create. The search engine is terrible and can't handle multiple word searches properly.
Click OK. You'll then get a Popup for missing "Blocked" mods. This is a Curseforge restriction. Read this popup window carefully.
Click "Open Missing". Browser tabs will open for every missing mod and attempt to download them. If the "Watched Folders" section of the popup is correct, then the bottom left will switch to "All mods found" with a green check. If not, drag and drop the downloaded mods onto the popup.
Click OK.
Play the game, and have fun. Note: You can specify a different java version for each mod pack by right clicking the pack itself and opening Edit, then Settings and setting the Java Installation differently from the default.

GDLauncher

https://gdlauncher.com

Install GDLauncher's setup file, let it automatically download and setup Java for you, and log into your Minecraft account.
Spam click the down arrow in the lower right to get past the intro and then close the "What's new" popup.
Add an instance with the + button in the lower left as instructed and click then click "Browse Modpacks" to download the pack.
Type ONLY the word "authentic" and scroll down to find Authentic Skies Create. The search engine is terrible and can't handle multiple word searches properly.
Click "Download Latest".
Rename the instance if desired and click ->.
Once the instance is added the main screen, take this time to edit your settings while it downloads files by clicking the gear icon on the right side of the title bar.
After adjusting "General" settings if desired, click the "Java" tab.
Adjust the Java Memory and paste the Java Custom Arguments from the Java instructions above. Delete the default Java Arguments before pasting the new ones in.
Play the game, and have fun.

CurseForge

https://www.curseforge.com/download/app

Install CurseForge's setup file and follow the steps until you're on the main screen.
Click Minecraft Java Edition and add it.
Click the gear icon on the bottom left. Click Minecraft. Scroll to the bottom.
Check your Java Version and adjust the Allocated Memory and paste the Additional Arguments from the Java instructions above.
Change any other settings you need to while you're at it.
At the top main menu click Minecraft, and then "+ Create" and then type ONLY the word "Authentic" in the search box.
Scroll down to and install Authentic Skies Create. The search engine is terrible and can't handle multiple word searches properly.
Play the game, and have fun.

Credits

This project was massively assisted by Minecraft Pack Development Discord, especially (but not only) the following members:

unnecessary: Mod dev & Playtester
omgimanerd: Script help & Playtester
qwerty97475: item art & Playtester
Larcek: Playtester
frog the jam UNCHAINED: Playtester
disco: script help

License

This shouldn't need clarification, but the Revised BSD license is fairly open. Roughly simplifying the clauses…

If you redistribute all/parts of this pack, the part that you used doesn't magically become closed source that you can withhold from others or claim copyright against anyone else who uses it. If you do something stupid/amazing/malicious that involves using this code don't try to pin it on me. I warranty nothing. If you running this pack kills John Wick's puppy-dog, it's not my fault and I had nothing to do with it.

Beyond that you are welcome to learn from, copy/paste or even blatantly steal any of my work from this pack in it's entirety as long as you're not in violation of copyright of the mod authors or Mojang.

On a personal note, while I respect licenses and people's work, I feel that for modders and especially pack makers like myself, claiming exclusive copyright is hypocritical and ONLY hurts the community. We build our work on the backs of the modders who build theirs on the Forge team who build theirs on the back of Mojang. Without each other there are no mods or packs. If any of my configs, scripts, or quest lines can help you make a better pack faster than you could by yourself then I'm just happy I could help.

Authentic Skies Create