The Atlas Project

    The Atlas Project is a space ARPG built on Advanced Rocketry and Warpdrive. "But Tempest," you may be thinking, "why do we need yet another space pack with boring empty planets gated to the end game?" Why, funny you should ask. Because TAP is neither of those things! 
    In TAP you get access to AR almost right from the start, and access to Warpdrive about a third of the way through. You also won't find any empty planets whose only content is progressing to the next empty boring planet. Instead, you will find over 30 dimensions painstakingly handcrafted with enough content to make you want to stay for extended periods. And no two planets look alike! (Ok, maybe a couple do, but they still have unique distinctions, I promise :P). 
    I started this project because I was disappointed with the available options at the time I began development. Modpack after modpack simply either threw AR in as an afterthought, or didn't bother with custom planet design and just used the random defaults. I also wanted a pack with a processing difficulty more complicated than Mekanism, but less complicated than Gregtech. 
    On top of wanting to properly utilize AR, this modpack is inspired by my favourite shows, games, and books. So those familiar with The Expanse, Alien, Ad Astra: Lost in Space, Enders Game, Faster Than Light, Subnautica, or Endless Space will notice many similarities and references/ easter eggs.  
    So here we are. The Atlas Project. My vision of an ideal space pack. In RPG form. Because who doesn't like NPC? Say No to your friends who don't play tech, and Yes to your virtual friends instead :D

    The year is 2031. Global temperatures are slowly rising, and scientists are saying the ozone is steadily thinning. Food production is beginning to suffer from increased droughts, pollution is reaching a breaking point, and the ever growing energy crisis threatens to plunge the world into darkness. Scientists warn that if something isn't done, humanity will be in a perilous position by the end of the century.
    And so in a time of need, the arrival of the first stable fusion reactor gives humanity hope. Energy shortages become a thing of the past, and it seems clean up efforts are finally possible. Technology takes a huge leap forward; the first real progress in over a decade. The stars are suddenly within reach, with the endless knowledge they hold ready to benefit mankind and help save the planet. Six years later, NASA establishes an outpost on the Moon, followed shortly by Mars. The space age has begun. 
    Several decades pass, and the Epstein Drive is invented. The first of its kind; a compact fusion powered rocket engine capable of rapid long distance space travel. The Weyland Utanni corporation brings a proposal to the heads of several countries leading the space race: The exploration of new star systems in the search of habitable planets. They're convinced on the premise of increasing humanity's survivability by becoming a multi-planetary species, and of course the money such a venture could bring.
    Fueled by curiosity, and the fear of their fragile existence, the first intergalactic mission is planned through a joint venture: The Explorer Missions.
    Tasked with finding another habitable planet for humanity and mapping the stars, six Explorer class ships are constructed, with three crew to a craft. Each ship is to be sent to a prospective planet in a separate star system, with the round trip estimated at 20-30 years. Each crew is tasked with surveying their planet and collecting data over the period of several months, then returning to Earth. Because of the mission's long duration and dangerous nature, only volunteers without family are accepted under the condition they acknowledge they may not return.
    You are an engineer, and one of eighteen volunteers approved for the Explorer Missions. Each team is comprised of a mix of highly skilled scientists and engineers, with each required to have mastery in several fields due to the small size of each crew. As a mechanical engineer of NASA's Luna research outpost and a certified astro-pilot, you were a perfect choice. And not going was never an option. Propelling yourself into the void seems to have always been your destiny. Your team members feel the same. Joining you is Natasha Lutkin; a biologist, and the team's medic. Along with Anthony Dormer; the team's physicist and atmospheric scientist. You've agreed that you're all either the bravest people in the room, or the craziest. Maybe a little bit of both.     
    And so, along with your two crewmates, you are assigned to the spacecraft "Explorer #6," tasked with the survey of a planet in the system HD24956. The hopes of humanity propel you into the void as you fall into cryo-sleep, awaiting your arrival to the unknown...       

System requirements:
 
    (The below numbers are as a benchmark, and any equivalent hardware works. Computers running hardware below the minimum will not receive support from us. This pack is extremely resource intensive, mostly due to worldgen {not cascading, there's just a lot going on}. This pack hasn't been tested on many different systems yet, so the requirements may not be very accurate. I will update it in the future once it has).  

RAM and JVM arguments:

    This pack requires that you allocate 8-10Gb to Minecraft. 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. Unfortunately if you actually only have 8Gb installed, you will likely not be able to play this modpack with decent performance.   

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 requires Optifine_HD_U_G5. This is the only version supported. Others have shown to cause issues. Do not download it yourself. It should automatically download the first time you launch the game (see installation instructions). If it did not install properly, you can download it here: https://optifine.net/adloadx?f=OptiFine_1.12.2_HD_U_F5.jar 
If Optifine didn't install properly, odds are the other externally grabbed resources didn't either. At this point you should simply re-install the pack, or you can grab the files manually by following the steps in the "Issues & Fixes" section below (faster).


Launcher & Java:

    This modpack is not fully supported by the Curse launcher due to a Curse bug that sometimes prevents changing versions of Java. If this happens, you must use a third party launcher and at least Java version 8_371. I recommend using Prism as it can install Java versions for you. If you use a launcher that doesn't do this, you will have to install Java yourself.

Step 1:
    Install the pack through your preferred launcher. 
Step 2:
    Launch the pack, and insure you have an internet connection before you launch it for the first time. Some external mods and resources are downloaded automatically on launch, such as Optifine and mods not on Curseforge.
Step 3:
    Go into your resourcepack menu and insure all the resourcepacks are enabled, and in the following order (they must be enabled, in this specific order): 
Pending.

Step 4: 
    Configure your settings. The pack ships with a preset configured to be somewhere between "performance" and "fancy." If you don't know what the settings in Optifine actually do, refer to the footnote at the bottom of this modpack page or don't touch them. Enabling the wrong settings will cause bugs.  
Step 5:
    Launch! And don't install any shaders. This modpack is incompatible with shaders.  

 (Make sure your client and server versions match! Check the "version scheme" section at the bottom of the description for more info).
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 type into the console "defaultworldgenerator-port 1".  
Step 3: 
    TBD...    

My game doesn't launch and just crashes after the launcher closes or a few seconds of loading:
    You may be using an incorrect version of Optifine. This pack only supports Optifine version HD_U_G5. You may also be using an outdated version of Java. Please use Java version 8_371 or newer. 

Game freezing when trying to resize the window while starting or entering a world:
    The various loading screen mods can occasionally freeze the game if you attempt to resize the game window at the aforementioned times. Either resize when the client first starts loading, or resize after you have reached the main menu.

1: NormalASM prevents crashs to desktop and would normally allow you to continue playing. However trying t o re-join a world often causes an infinite load screen that requires force quitting Minecraft. Caused by BetterQuesting.

2: BetterQuesting rarely randomly crashes the game, usually while in the inventory. Not sure why this happens, still looking into a fix.