Are you a vanilla player who thinks the game should be a bit deeper?

Maybe you are looking to play with mods but full blown tech is just not for you?

Do you think punching a tree should bloody your knuckles for a bit of bark?

Welcome to Chocolate Chip!

Chocolate chip started out as a Vanilla+ type mod pack with a decent amount of quality of life and cosmetic mods, but I felt there were plenty of those around and I decided to make something a bit different, a modded pack where knowing your Vanilla is important. The pack does not have quests, but it does have an integrated set of mods that provides a progressive experience. The start is linear only up through the beginnings of Better with Mods. From there, use Just Enough Items (JEI) as a tool to search through available blocks and their recipes. Most of the mods in this pack have manuals which are deeply helpful on understanding the specifics of each mod. You will start with a few but I encourage you to check for a manual as you proceed through later mods.

There is a tech progression here along with an optional magic one. There is no enforced path as in which mods you choose to use but each provides several benefits if you do. For example, your ability to smelt ores in the early game is limited to less than one ingot per block of ore. You will need 3 blocks to make a single ingot, getting nuggets instead. To get back to a 1 to 1, or even better a 1 block to 2 ingot processing of ores you will need to advance through either Embers or Immersive Engineering. There is also Crossroads for building elaborate processing setups. All of these mods have a definite theme to them that creates a more immersive Industrial Era environment, which then had a direct impact on what other mods are in the pack to keep that feel. Some really fun things to play with:

Immersive Railroading - Full size railroad transportation system for people and goods.
Steve's Carts Reborn - a powerful processing platform based around minecarts
For structures to help with layouts check out Platforms
For additional minecart tracks such as ender-linked tracks check out Extra Rails

Some of the more common mods used for progression in tools and gear such as Tinker's Construct have not been included, but there are several mods which can be used to progress through having better personal tools and armor. Two good examples in addition to mods mentioned earlier would be:

Silent's Gems - A great mod with deep progression through tiers of armor, weapons and items.
Advanced Combat - Find a new way to enchant and new tiers of weapons.

For those looking for magic and fantasy there are several mods for you to explore in addition to Embers for ore duplication:

Here are a few quick tips for starting out:

You can't break trees with your fists, you will need some flint tools.

Break grass for fibers or kill sheep to get string
Gather piles of gravel and craft 2 gravel blocks to get flint.
Break leaves to get saplings for sticks.
With those three ingredients you can make an axe, shovel and pickaxe

Make a chopping block

Most logs will craft into a chopping block, not planks
Place a log onto the chopping block and repeatedly left click to break it into planks
Better axes give more yield
Chopping planks gives you more sticks than simply crafting two planks into 4 sticks.
Build a sawmill which uses either renewable wind or water power through BWM or coal powered through Survivalist

Build a hemp farm

You will need a lot of hemp in the early game
Better With Engineering (BWE) unifies the two types you will find in the world so you will need to rely on the millstone
BWE also means that you can use Immersive Engineering Windmills to drive axles and create power!

Explore to satisfy early metal needs

You will start at a ratio of less than one ingot per piece of ore. In fact you need 3 blocks per ingot from a normal furnace.
Iron and Gold can be found in Astral Sorcery temples to help build early game machines such as the saw and gearboxes from Better With Mods
To increase your ore yield you will need to progress with mods like Crossroads, Embers and Immersive Engineering

The pack can be played in either hardcore or survival, but hardcore was the style the pack was designed around. There is a mod in the pack which in multiplayer allows for you to revive your teammate in a limited time window. Or you can just accept your fate and just both reroll.

Now, go take over the world.... but maybe take a torch with you, it's dark outside.

Server files now available!