onion-mc/analysis/archive/2026-09-candidate-review/MODLIST-GROUPS.md

Onion MC — candidate mods grouped for review

Every candidate grouped by what it is for, with what it brings, what it costs in dependencies, how much it changes gameplay, the verdict, and the thing to watch. ADDED = already added on the mod-pack-additions branch. ALREADY-IN-PACK = duplicate of an installed mod.

Verdict legend: ADD (ship in the core cohort) · ADD-OPTIONAL (good; taste/library decision) · MAYBE (test or design decision first) · SKIP (don't) · ALREADY-IN-PACK · ADDED. New deps lists required libraries not already in the pack (candidate deps marked).

Shaders & render stack

Mod	What it brings	New deps	Impact	Verdict	Watch-out
Iris Shaders (iris)	Shader-pack loader compatible with existing OptiFine shader packs	—	Overhaul	ADDED	Already added on branch mod-pack-additions (see Post-review update)
Iris Veil Compat (iris-veil-compat)	Bridges the Veil rendering engine into Iris shaderpacks so Veil-rendered visuals (Aeronautics wings, glass panels, contrails) render correctly under a shaderpack; r…	Iris Shaders	None	ADDED	Already added on branch mod-pack-additions (see Post-review update)
Veil (veil)	developer tooling for advanced rendering — JSON-defined framebuffers, custom post-processing pipeline, full OpenGL shader support + shader injection, color themes/e…	—	None by itself	SKIP	rendering-engine tooling with no dependent mod in the pack, on the most fragile part of the stack
Shine (shine)	Shader-free visual effects: bloom, colored lighting, atmosphere, weather, particles, interactive details; in-game config screen	—	Client-cosmetic	MAYBE	confirmed Sodium 0.8.12 compatibility, but partial feature loss on that version, overlap with Subtle Effects, and a privileged positio…
Grassier Grass (grassier-grass)	Per-blade custom wind shader: grass leans and ripples with rolling gusts	—	Client-cosmetic	MAYBE	best-looking pick in the batch, but Sodium 0.8-alpha compatibility is unproven; gate on a crash/visual test
Fog (fog)	Complete fog revamp: start/end distance, cave fog that thickens with depth, weather- and time-based (sunset/moon-phase) fog colors, biome-tinted fog including modde…	MRU	Client-cosmetic	MAYBE	attractive but unproven next to DH/SSRD; only add after an in-game fog + DH visual test
ATMOSPHERICS (atmospherics)	Real-time per-biome customization of fog, sky, clouds, haze and stars with smooth biome transitions; day/night split, comets, star editing	—	Client-cosmetic	SKIP	visual upside not worth the risk on the Sodium+DH+SSRD stack; no shader-adjacent additions should ride on that axis per pack rules
Immersive Winds (immersive-winds)	Wind system driving particle rain/snow, rain-splash particles, and sway animation for grass, plants, lanterns, and fire	—	Client-cosmetic	SKIP	Sinytra-only NeoForge support is a red flag by pack policy, and Grassier Grass already covers sway if that's added
Puddles & Floods (puddles-floods)	Puddle blocks appearing from rain, dripping blocks, flowing water, splash potions, broken cauldrons, and melting snow; puddles combine into floods in low-lying terr…	Forgified Fabric API	Client-cosmetic	SKIP	Fabric-API-derived dependency (red flag) for a cosmetic payoff with real server tick cost; revisit only if the pack accepts Forgified…

Client ambience & visual FX

Mod	What it brings	New deps	Impact	Verdict	Watch-out
AAA Particles (aaa-particles)	Library that loads Effekseer (.efkefc) particle effects; by default replaces the vanilla lightning effect with an Effekseer one	—	Client-cosmetic	SKIP	a library with no in-pack consumer; standalone value is only a lightning visual swap
AAA Particles: World (aaa-particles-world)	In-world Effekseer effects: restored world lightning, explosion effect replacement (default on since 1.0.2), loot beams (1.0.3)	AAA Particles	Client-cosmetic	SKIP	purely cosmetic addon whose required base (AAA Particles) is itself a skip
Particle Effects (particle-effects)	Unique textured particle visuals for every vanilla status effect	—	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	pure client polish, zero server footprint
Perception (perception)	Immersive client visuals: projectile/entity trails and directional screen-shake triggered by loud sounds, explosions, fast movement (also aids threat localization)	—	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	safe client ambience; optional enough that individual players could skip it
Visuality: Reforged (visuality-forge)	cosmetic particles — crystal sparkles, mob-hit particles, custom slime blobs, environmental particles	—	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	safe client-only polish; consider whether Subtle Effects already covers the need
Inventory Particles (inventory-particles)	Data-driven particles on inventory items (dust for gunpowder/dyes, glow for luminous items, etc.), with physics/rotation customization	MossyLib	Client-cosmetic	MAYBE	pretty and unusually modded-item-friendly; fine as a client-side optional, but pure cosmetics
Fancy World Animations [FWA] (fwa)	Smooth open/close animations for doors, trapdoors, fence gates, levers, buttons, repeaters, cauldrons, composters, lecterns, campfires, chiseled bookshelves, vaults…	—	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	strong client polish with a blacklist safety valve; verify against Sable/ImmediatelyFast rendering before shipping
Cosy Critters & Creepy Crawlies (cosy-critters)	Client-side ambient fauna: bird flocks that land high and scatter from entities/projectiles; tiny spiders emerging from cobwebs; moths around sky-exposed light bloc…	—	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	cheap atmosphere for explorers; skip if the ambience budget is full
Better Animations Collection (better-animations-collection)	Re-animated vanilla mob models: wiggly ghast/squid tentacles, fluffy wagging wolf tails, flowing ocelot/cat tails, pig snout+ears, cow udder, chicken bills, etc., w…	Puzzles Lib	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	pure atmosphere polish for one new library dep
Immersive UI (immersive-ui)	Animated UI: particle trail for carried items of non-common rarity, carried-item wiggle/scaling, smooth hotbar selector animation, floating matched container items	ShatterLib	OctoLib	Client-cosmetic	SKIP
Effectual (effectual)	Atmospheric particles: breath steam in cold biomes, underwater bubbles (mouth/chests/pots), drip on exiting water, footprints + snow residue, cave dust, lava-adjace…	TLib	Client-cosmetic	MAYBE	duplicates Subtle Effects' niche and drags in a new lib; only add after an overlap audit, which the config-less pack model makes costly
Blur+ (blur-plus)	Gaussian-blur shader behind all GUI backgrounds, with fade animations, ARGB gradient/colors, per-GUI exclusions and radius config	MidnightLib	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	safe cosmetic; only bother if the pack wants GUI polish
Camera Overhaul (cameraoverhaul)	Client-side camera rotation effects: strafe/turn tilt, jump/fall pitch, explosion shake, idle sway; per-effect intensity config (0 disables)	—	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	cheap and configurable, entirely a taste/accessibility call
Cinematic Respawn (cinematic-respawn)	Replaces the death screen with a cinematic camera + fade transition into respawn; optional auto-respawn and skippable animation; fully client-side	—	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	pleasant, zero-risk client polish; taste call on auto-respawn
Smart Particles (smart-particles)	Distance-prioritized particle culling ("smart particle culling") plus camera/frustum culling of off-screen particles	—	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	targeted client-side stabilizer with no server footprint; watch mixin overlap with ImmediatelyFast

World mechanics & hazards

Mod	What it brings	New deps	Impact	Verdict	Watch-out
Burnt (burnt-basic)	Persistent, spreading fire: lit blocks smolder → burn → leave burnt block variants (with charcoal drops), integrated wind system (read via flags), biome-aware burn…	—	Moderate	ADD-OPTIONAL	distinctive survival flavor with controls, but server-grief/tick cost means it's a taste call, not a default
Burnt + Additions (burnt)	Everything in burnt-basic plus: Flint Bow (flame arrows), Fire/Blaze Barrels (delayed blast + ignition), random structural collapse events, smoker→burnt-wood reci…	—	Moderate	MAYBE	the fuller variant is attractive but heavier; if fire flavor is wanted, choose this over basic deliberately (and still treat as option…
Tree Physics (tree-physics)	cutting a tree with Rooted Dirt beneath it assembles the trunk/canopy into a Sable physics sub-level and topples it realistically; crouch-chop opts out; building on…	—	Moderate	MAYBE	the most on-theme Sable use possible, but per-tree physics sub-levels on the Aeronautics stack demand a dev-server soak test before sh…
Sable Beyond (sable_beyond)	Create interop with Sable sublevels: mechanical arms interacting with sublevels, encased fans pushing/pulling sublevels, dynamic mass for fluid tanks/spouts/drains/…	—	Moderate	MAYBE	the most functionally attractive Aeronautics enhancement in the batch, but alpha software on the pack's most fragile stack; isolated t…
Ragdoll Reactions (ragdoll-reactions)	Players ragdoll in reaction to crashes, being run over, sharp direction changes, and explosions	Sable: Ragdolls	Minor	MAYBE	only alongside Sable: Ragdolls, and only after crash-testing with Aeronautics
Sable: Ragdolls (sable-ragdolls)	Physics-driven player ragdolls using Sable's physics system (H to tumble, Shift to get up)	—	Minor	MAYBE	fun, Sable-native, and unlocks two other candidates; test with Aeronautics before adopting
Sable: Ragdoll Corpse (sable-ragdoll-corpse)	On death, a fully simulated ragdoll corpse holding your entire inventory (items safe in an internal inventory)	Sable: Ragdolls	Minor	SKIP	Gravestone already owns this job; stacking two death-item systems on the Sable physics stack adds fragility for no new capability
Lunar (lunar)	Cycle of lunar events: Bad Omen Moon, Big/Tiny Moon (gravity changes), Blood Moon (harder mobs), Crimson Moon (nether mob spawning in Overworld), Hero/Miner Moon (b…	—	Moderate	MAYBE	fun server-wide content, but gravity/spawn events touching Aeronautics physics is an unquantified risk in this pack
Celestria (celestria)	Server-triggered, synced shooting stars at night (grant Luck; command-spawnable; client renders via a WorldRenderer mixin, with a client-only fallback mode for vani…	—	Minor	MAYBE	nice ambience, but stale build + WorldRenderer mixin on the Sodium/DH/Sable stack needs an in-pack smoke test first
Mystical Oak Tree (mystical-oak-tree)	A rare talking oak tree with 300+ written lore/joke/fact lines, trust mechanic, self-defense; "dynamically grabbed from the web" content	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	harmless flavor for a friends pack; nothing about it strains the stack

HUD & client UI

Mod	What it brings	New deps	Impact	Verdict	Watch-out
Auto HUD (autohud)	Dynamically hides HUD elements that aren't currently interesting (keybind toggle, per-element config); hides persistent status effects and shows remaining effect ti…	Fabric API	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	Metadata Fabric-API dep is Fabric-build-only; native NeoForge build
Armor Hud (armor-hud)	HUD overlay showing each equipped armor piece with icons and color-coded durability bars (green/yellow/red/black thresholds)	—	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	tiny, dependency-free HUD addition
Immersive Armor HUD (immersive-armor-hud)	Pixel-perfect 7×7 armor icons above the vanilla armor bar showing which armor pieces are worn and per-piece durability warnings	TxniLib	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	cheap vanilla-style HUD upgrade; minor recency caveat
Health Bars (new-health-bars)	HUD health panel: mob name, health, armor, damage taken with animated bars	Puzzles Lib	Client-cosmetic (informational)	MAYBE	redundant with Jade unless the group wants damage numbers; if added, de-overlap with Jade deliberately
Neat (neat)	Minimalistic unit frames (health bars colored by HP %, armor, smite/arthropod attribute icons, stack grouping, team colors, toggle keybind) over entities	—	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	mature, zero-risk combat readability; prefer over the Damage Indicator if choosing one
JeremySeq's Damage Indicator (jeremyseqs-damage-indicator)	Client-side directional damage arrow, floating damage text, text health bars for mobs, optional blood overlay	—	Client-cosmetic	MAYBE	harmless, but functionally redundant with Neat if both are added; pick one combat-info mod
Advancement Plaques (advancement-plaques)	Replaces advancement toasts with glowing plaques for Task/Goal/Challenge; configurable position, distance, whitelist; resource-pack customizable	—	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	safe client polish on a dep already in pack; one test-instance check on the sound caveat
GUI Effect Timer (gui-effect-timer)	Countdown text (s/m/h/d abbreviations) inside status-effect HUD badges, updated per tick; color configurable; supports infinite/command-set effects	Collective	Client-cosmetic (informational)	ADD-OPTIONAL	tiny, safe, useful; effectively free once Collective is pinned for Followers Teleport Too
Keybind Atlas (keybind-atlas)	Client-side visual keyboard/mouse overlay showing every keybinding, color-coded assigned/unused/hidden, with source-mod attribution and in-overlay rebinding	—	None	ADD-OPTIONAL	genuinely useful in a pack this size, zero risk
Distinct Potions (distinct-potions)	Distinct bottle styles for greater/extended potions, distinct colors for awkward/mundane/thick base potions	Puzzles Lib	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	cheap visual QoL; only worth it if the pack accepts pulling in Puzzles Lib for a single client mod
Obscure Tooltips (obscure-tooltips)	Fully animated tooltip styling: glowing borders, particle effects, rarity-adaptive ornaments, integrated 3D gear previews inside tooltips, smooth scrolling and line…	Fragmentum	None	MAYBE	attractive but redundant with Legendary Tooltips; only add after confirming they don't fight over tooltip rendering, or as a replaceme…
Tooltip Overhaul (tooltip-overhaul)	complete vanilla tooltip replacement — scrollable/wrapping tooltips, equipment comparison, pinned tooltips, 30+ frames, 37+ effects, animations, 3D item icons/previ…	—	Client-cosmetic	SKIP	collides with Legendary Tooltips; the pack should carry one tooltip restyler, and it already does
Visual Workbench (visual-workbench)	crafting tables retain items in the grid between crafts; ingredients + result rendered on top of the table; contents drop when broken	Puzzles Lib	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	popular, polished Fuzs mod; costs one small library
Held Item Tooltips (held-item-tooltips)	Rich info plate above the hotbar on item switch: enchantments, durability, potion effects, item attributes, map IDs, firework/banner/book details	Puzzles Lib	Client-cosmetic (informational)	ADD	low-risk, high-frequency QoL; library cost shared with other Puzzles-Lib picks
GUI Compass (gui-compass)	HUD text readout of direction + coordinates ("FXYZ"), shown only with a compass in inventory (default)	Collective	Client-cosmetic	MAYBE	harmless, but marginal over F3 and redundant if Field Guide (with Immersive Overlays) is added
Better Third Person (better-third-person)	Independent free-rotating third-person camera (full 360°), 8-direction movement without camera rotation, full item use in third person, vehicle/swim/elytra support…	—	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	safe, popular camera QoL with no deps; just smoke-test it while piloting Aeronautics contraptions
Dynamic Crosshair (dynamiccrosshair)	Context-sensitive crosshair: hides/changes based on what is looked at, held item, and action; highly configurable with optional YACL config screen	Fabric API	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	pure client polish, but must be tested against ImmediatelyFast and dropped if HUD glitches appear
Emojiful (emojiful)	Emojis in chat, including animated ones, with autocomplete and an emoji picker	—	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	fun for a 10-player social server with zero gameplay footprint
Quick Skin (quick-skin)	In-game skin library GUI (import by username or drag & drop), Classic/Slim model swapping	—	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	client nicety; preferred over SkinChanger (newer, GUI, more features)
SkinChanger (skinchanger)	`/skin set	clearand/cape set	clear` commands by username or URL, working on offline-mode servers; admin variants targeting other players	—	Client-cosmetic
Akashic Tome (akashic-tome)	A single "Book of Books" item (craft: book + bookshelf) that stores all mod documentation books and transforms into any of them; right-click menu to switch, sneak-r…	—	None	ADD-OPTIONAL	cheap, low-risk QoL that scales well with a 142-mod pack
Field Guide (field-guide)	Spyglass-based scanning of entities/blocks to unlock entries in a personal in-game encyclopedia	Item Descriptions, Immersive Overlays	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	excellent fit for a 10-player exploration pack; price of admission is two extra NeoForge libs
Certain Questing Additions (certain-questing-additions)	FTB Quests UI upgrades: entity rendering in quest descriptions/backgrounds, APNG image support, per-chapter shader-based backgrounds, hover/open/zoom animations, gl…	—	None	ADD-OPTIONAL	nice polish for a quested pack; harmless if dropped
FindMe (findme)	Hover an item in JEI and press Y to mark which nearby inventories contain it (cloud particles)	—	Minor	ADD	zero-dep, low-risk, high-frequency QoL
Zume (zume)	hold-to-zoom keybind (FOV zoom) with zoom-level increase/decrease keybinds; auto-reloading JSON5 config in the global .minecraft dir	—	None (view convenience; no gamepl…	ADD	zero-dep, zero-server, fills an obvious gap next to Sodium+DH distance viewing

Audio & music

Mod	What it brings	New deps	Impact	Verdict	Watch-out
Sounds (sound)	170+ new/reworked SFX (UI, chat, item, block sounds); configurable per event and extensible via resource packs; spiritual successor to ExtraSounds/Auditory	MRU	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	high polish, zero server footprint; costs one new small library
Extreme sound muffler (extreme_sound_muffler)	Client-side selective sound muffling via an inventory-button/keybind GUI with per-sound volume sliders	—	Client-cosmetic	ADD	zero-risk, zero-server-cost QoL that is actively maintained (3.56, 2026-09-22)
Sounds Be Gone! (soundsbegone)	Mute any vanilla/modded sound event from a "recently played" list, with unmute audit trail	—	Client-cosmetic (no gameplay chan…	ADD-OPTIONAL	tiny, safe, real accessibility value for a 10-player group
Simple Music Control (simple-music-control)	Halved delay between background music tracks, next-track keybind (default M), now-playing widget	—	Client-cosmetic	ADD	zero-risk client QoL whose only dependency is already present
Now Playing (now-playing)	Toast/hotbar popup announcing the current music track (background music and jukeboxes), with placement/timing/sprite resource-pack options	—	None	ADD-OPTIONAL	trivial, safe; most valuable if music-content mods are added
More Music Discs (more-music-discs)	Custom music discs (YouTube-sourced tracks, used with permission) found as chest loot, mob drops, or creative tab; loot-table injection fully configurable/disableab…	Deimos	None-Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	cheap flavor; verify default disc-in-every-loot-pool density is wanted
Net Music: Better Experience (net-music-play-list)	Playlist items and a portable music player built on the "Net Music" mod; playlist discs for jukeboxes/CD burners	Net Music	None-Minor	SKIP	dependent on an absent streaming-music base mod with service/licensing baggage; poor fit
VinURL (vinurl)	custom music discs that download and play audio from YouTube/file-hosting URLs via jukebox; /vinurl commands; auto-downloads yt-dlp, deno, and FFmpeg binaries at…	Sinytra Connector, Forgified Fabric API, oωo (owo-lib)	Minor (custom music per player)	SKIP	Connector red flag, runtime binary downloads, and licensing minefield; not worth it for jukebox music
Immersive Melodies (immersive-melodies)	7 instruments playing 25 bundled songs; custom melodies via in-game drag-and-drop or datapacks (MIDI/ABC)	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	fun multiplayer toy at essentially zero mechanical risk
Even More Instruments! (evenmoreinstruments)	Playable instruments: trombone, violin, keyboard, guitar, saxophone, koto, shamisen, pipa; all 16 note blocks as playable instruments	Genshin Instruments	Minor	SKIP	abandoned per its own README and requires Genshin Instruments, which the pack does not have
cat_jam (cat_jam)	Client-side animation: cats bob/jam to the rhythm of music discs, with per-disc routines	—	Client-cosmetic	ADD	tiny, client-only, documented compat with a mod already in the pack
Etched (etched)	Custom music discs burned from URLs (MP3, WAV, OGG, SoundCloud) via the Etching Table with label customization	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	great social toy for a small server; settle the URL-content policy first

Food & farming

Mod	What it brings	New deps	Impact	Verdict	Watch-out
Chef's Delight - Farmer's Delight Villagers (chefs-delight)	Two villager professions (Cook, Chef) trading FD food, plus village structures for them (cook/chef houses)	—	Minor (if it worked)	SKIP	1.21.1 build is bound to FD Refabricated, which conflicts with the pack's existing Farmer's Delight
Expanded Delight (expanded-delight)	Farmer's Delight expansion: new crops, blocks, workstations and more, added "gradually" on top of the base mod	—	Moderate	ADD-OPTIONAL	strongly on-theme and the best-covered addon for Display Delight, but accept the author-declared beta instability or wait for stable
More Delight (for Farmer's Delight) (more-delight)	Extra Farmer's Delight meals and ingredients, bread-slice sandwiches, toast, wooden/stone knives	Delight Lib	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	safe, on-theme content; the Delight family is already large, so it's cumulative rather than filling a gap
Miner's Delight (miners-delight)	Farmer's Delight cave-food addon: cave carrots (new crop + gossypium flower), bat/silverfish snacks, copper pot and copper cup cooking utensils, cave-themed meals	Lodestone	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	strong thematic fit with the Delight family, but the author's own beta warning plus a new library dep argue for wait-and-see
Dungeon's Delight (dungeons_delight)	Monster Pot cooking station (heated by spawner-like blocks) producing Monster Foods	—	Moderate	ADD-OPTIONAL	thematically perfect next to the pack's existing Delight collection; sanity-check the new effect types against Apotheosis stacking
Barbeque's Delight [Forge/NeoForge] (barbeques-delight-forge)	Grills + skewer cooking loop (place → smoke cue → sneak-flip → collect; burning on failure), ingredients basin crafting of skewers	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	frictionless fit with the existing Delight stack
Fright's Delight (frights-delight)	56 horror-themed Farmer's Delight foods/drinks/candies crafted from hostile-mob drops (rotten flesh, spider eye, ghast tear, slime, cobweb, wither/soul berries)	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	fits the pack's Delight collection; horror theme is a taste call
Veggies Delight (veggies-delight)	7 new vegetables (bell pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, garlic, sweet potato, turnip, zucchini) + forageable dandelion leaf; temperature-based wild veggie worldgen; v…	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	low-risk content that deepens the pack's largest content family
Fruits Delight (fruits-delight)	17 fruits (peach, mango, lychee, durian, …) with unique per-fruit processed-food effects (Strength+Rage Aura, Night Vision, Healing Aura, walk-on-ice, eat-when-full…	—	Moderate	ADD	big, popular (2.2M downloads) FD expansion that plugs into two pack pillars (Create, Terralith)
Rustic Delight (rustic-delight)	New crops: bell peppers (red/yellow/green), coffee, cotton, with wild spawns (e.g., jungle wild bell peppers/coffee)	—	Minor	ADD	textbook fit: same-dependency addon for an existing content pillar
Cultural Delights (cultural-delights)	New world-cuisine crops: avocado, eggplant, cucumber, corn, beans, cinnamon	Cook's Collection	Moderate	ADD-OPTIONAL	on-theme food content, but it requires adopting Cook's Collection and the Delight shelf is already crowded
Hearth and Harvest (hearth-and-harvest)	New farmable crops, some with unique growth mechanics, plus new interactive food/resource crafting systems	—	Moderate	ADD-OPTIONAL	solid FD-family expansion; coordinate corn overlap with Haunted Harvest before adding both
Haunted Harvest (haunted-harvest)	Trick-or-treating: baby villagers wear 9 mask types, walk at night, collect candy from adult villagers (with witch interactions and egg-throwing on refusal); candy-…	Moonlight Lib	Minor	MAYBE	charming, but adds a lib, modifies villager AI, and double-buys corn with Hearth and Harvest
Overweight Farming (overweight-farming)	Rare "overweight" super-crops (beets/carrots/potatoes/beans) with boosted yields, moonlight growth bonus, straw hat (breeding twins/triplets), peeling/waxing/melon-…	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	small, self-contained farming charm
AlcoCraft+ (alcocraft)	Brewing keg with 10+ beer recipes (hops, sugar, apples, water)	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	small, self-contained fun; no flags
Fishing Real (fishing-real)	Fish hooked as items spawn as live entities instead (salmon → live salmon, etc.)	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	cheap, fun, low-risk; worth a small datapack pass to include Aquaculture species
FishingOverhaul (fishingoverhaul)	Reel-in minigame: fish circles a bar; right-click inside the catch region to land loot; crit region doubles loot	—	Minor	ADD	declared Aquaculture 2 compat makes this a natural pack fit
Fisherman's Haven (fishermans-haven)	Fishing expansion: new rods, traps and nets that catch multiple fish at once	—	Moderate	ADD-OPTIONAL	no deps, distinct fishing mechanics that complement Aquaculture 2; accept the niche overlap deliberately
Farmer's Knives (farmers-knives)	Farmer's Delight knives in many modded materials — for mods actually in this pack that means The Twilight Forest (Ironwood, Fiery, Steeleaf, Knightmetal) plus a cop…	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	cheap thematic glue whose payoff is real but limited to Twilight Forest materials since the other supported tool mods aren't in the pa…
Display Delight (display-delight)	Placeable 3D food blocks for every Farmer's Delight (+ addon) food; placed foods are neither block entities nor entities (explicitly lag-friendly)	—	Minor	ADD	direct, low-risk upgrade to the pack's food-and-decor identity
Create: Factory (create-factory)	Create-themed foods: rolls, waffles, apples and related items/recipes; optional extra recipes when Create: Confectionery or Ecologics are present	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	harmless, but the food family is already the pack's most crowded content lane; low marginal value
Delightful Creators (delightful-creators)	Farmer's Delight ↔ Create automation bridge: new fluids for soups, stews and sauces; mixer recipes to produce them; bowl filling from fluids	—	Moderate	MAYBE	pick one FD↔Create bridge; Slice & Dice is already installed and proven, so this needs a deliberate "both approaches" decision
Berry Good (berry-good)	Berry QoL: bush placement moved to "pips" so bushes aren't placed accidentally; other simple berry-use improvements (excerpt details only the placement change)	Blueprint	Minor	SKIP	an entire additional library dependency (Blueprint) for one minor placement QoL; revisit only if the pack adopts Team Abnormals mods w…
Abnormals Delight (abnormals-delight)	Farmer's Delight integration for Team Abnormals mods: FD cabinets in every Abnormals wood type, Duck/Deer meat cuts, cake slices alongside Neapolitan	Blueprint	Minor (and in this pack, near-zer…	SKIP	required Blueprint dep plus an ecosystem (Team Abnormals) the pack doesn't run; mostly dead content
ExtraDelight (extradelight)	Kitchen workstations: Oven (3×3 slow-baking), Dough Shaping Station, Mixing Bowl, Mortar & Pestle, Drying Rack, Melting Pot (solids→fluids), Chiller (fluids→solids)	—	Moderate	ADD-OPTIONAL	the meatiest Delight addon in the batch and a natural kitchen-tier progression; confirm the block-entity load on the dedicated server…

Create & technology

Mod	What it brings	New deps	Impact	Verdict	Watch-out
Create: Bells & Whistles (bellsandwhistles)	36 decorative/utility Create blocks: station platforms, headlights, "Metro" casing/panel/window palette, andesite/brass/copper grab bars & bogie steps & door steps…	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	strong deco value for a Create pack; verify blocks behave on Aeronautics contraptions first
Create: Design n' Decor (create-design-n-decor)	Create-focused QOL decoration: block variants (multiple crushing-wheel variants), containers, and extra factory-styled deco blocks	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	safe factory decoration; nice with the pack's Chipped/Rechiseled angle
Create: Teleporters (create-teleporters)	Create-styled teleportation: TP Links with a configurable range, plus entity and item teleporters in multiple sizes	—	Moderate	ADD-OPTIONAL	clean fit for Create logistics with no flagged conflicts; decide whether the pack wants dimensional play
Create: Structures Arise (create-structures-arise)	28 new Create-themed worldgen structures scattered across the world	—	Moderate	ADD-OPTIONAL	strong fit for a Create + exploration pack, but it thickens an already structure-saturated worldgen stack with no config knobs shipped
Create Waystones Recipes (create-waystones-recipes)	Replaces all Waystones crafting recipes with Create-style (machine/mechanical) recipes and rebalances them; pairs with an optional texture/GUI resource pack	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	safe; a deliberate progression/taste decision for the questbook rather than a technical one
Create: Sophisticated Backpacks Compat (create-sophisticated-backpacks-compat)	A curated set of Create machine recipes for Sophisticated Backpacks items/components, enabling automation of key SB components inside Create factories (only "carefu…	—	Minor	MAYBE	plausible value, but check for recipe collisions with the official Create Integration already in the pack before committing
Create: Dynamic Lights (create-dynamic-lights)	Dynamic lighting for moving Create contraptions (client-side light via Sodium-family dynamic lights), plus an optional server-side "light block" mode that places re…	Sodium Dynamic Lights	Client-cosmetic	SKIP	redundant with LambDynamicLights, wrong rendering stack assumptions (Embeddium/Rubidium), and its niche is better covered (or delibera…
Create Sable Dynamic Lights (create-sable-dynamic-lights)	Dynamic-light support for Create contraptions and Sable sub-levels (moving contraptions/sub-levels actually illuminate surroundings, incl. on Aeronautics ships)	Sodium Dynamic Lights	Client-cosmetic	SKIP	requires a second dynamic-lights engine that duplicates LambDynamicLights and couples to the fragile Sodium/Sable version pin
CreateBetterFps (createbetterfps)	FPS optimization for Create scenes ("up to 50%" with a shaderpack, 7→35 fps with 512 waterwheels) via Sodium API usage and backface culling	—	None	MAYBE	Iris + Sodium now in pack, so unblocked in principle, but it patches Create's code on the Aeronautics/Sable stack - test first
Sophisticated Inventory Interactions (sophisticated-inventory-interactions)	Search field inside vanilla/modded container GUIs; sort modes (name/mod/count/tags)	—	Minor (pure inventory-management…	MAYBE	good mod, but it replaces rather than stacks with Client Sort; pick one container-sorting solution
Sophisticated Item Actions (sophisticated-item-actions)	Keybind highlights nearby storages containing the held/hovered/JEI-bookmarked item (green exact / blue type match)	—	Minor (inventory-flow QoL, Terrar…	ADD-OPTIONAL	genuinely new capability that plays well with the Sophisticated + JEI stack already in the pack
Sophisticated Sorter (sophisticated-sorter)	Sophisticated Core sort buttons on most regular container screens (name/mod/count/tags modes)	—	Minor	SKIP	redundant with Client Sort in-pack and with Sophisticated Inventory Interactions in this same batch; side metadata is also "unknown" f…
Refined Storage - JEI Integration (refined-storage-jei-integration)	JEI ↔ Refined Storage recipe transfer for Crafting Grid and Pattern Grid, incl. autocrafting tasks from JEI preview	Refined Storage	None in this pack	SKIP	dead weight without Refined Storage

Decoration & building

Mod	What it brings	New deps	Impact	Verdict	Watch-out
Beautiful Campfires (beautiful-campfires)	Wood-themed campfire variants (birch, etc.) so the crafted wood determines appearance; vanilla campfire recipe restricted to oak; includes the fire-type variants (r…	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	cheap cosmetic polish; document the oak-only recipe change in pack notes
Sooty Chimneys (sooty-chimneys)	Brick, Cobblestone, Mud Brick, Stone Brick, Iron, Copper, and Terracotta chimneys emitting smoke	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	safe, charming builder content with negligible cost
Items Displayed [NeoForge] (items-displayed-forge)	Sneak-right-click placement of items (sherds, smithing templates, ingots, etc.) as world-facing 3D models; craftable "Item Display" stand rotatable to any angle, va…	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	safe builder content that fits the pack's decoration mods
Too Many Paintings! (too-many-paintings)	50+ new paintings including famous artworks (Van Gogh, da Vinci); works in existing worlds	—	Client-cosmetic (placed paintings…	ADD-OPTIONAL	zero-dep cosmetic content, safe on both sides
Portfolio (portfolio)	100+ paintings by artist Yapetto across 10 themed catalogues (Still Life, Void Manor, Death, Rana, Far Lands, Anchor, Giant, Elemental, Cloud Cuckoo, Keeping Up)	—	Client-cosmetic	ADD	zero-dependency pure content that fills an empty decorative niche
Display Case (displaycase)	A decorative single-item display block; clicking with honeycomb stops the spin (axe unwaxes)	—	Client-cosmetic	MAYBE	fine in isolation, but choose between this and Fetzi's Displays (same batch) rather than shipping both display systems
Fetzi's Displays (fetzis-displays)	Glass cloches in 16 colors, katana stands, and wall holders with item-name plaques	—	Client-cosmetic	MAYBE	good feature set but redundant with Display Case (batch) + Handcrafted; pick one display system for the pack
Gallery (gallery)	Icon textures for all painting variants; right-click-with-painting GUI to search/select variants	Blueprint	Client-cosmetic (decorator QoL)	MAYBE	nice decorator QoL but drags in the Blueprint library for a niche feature
Spooky Doors (spooky-doors)	horror-game door behavior for all doors — drag to half-open/peek, slam by fast drag, run-into to open, creak sound set; Honeycomb/Ghast Tear toggle	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	small, charming, Balm-based and low-risk
Boatload (boatload)	Boats with chests, boats with furnaces, large boats, and boats with banners	Blueprint	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	pleasant water QoL, but chest-boat overlap with vanilla makes it low-value; needs Blueprint
Supplementaries (supplementaries)	Vanilla+ block set: jars, signposts, faucets, weather vanes, spring launchers, sconces, planters, lights, decoration + automation	Moonlight Lib	Moderate	ADD-OPTIONAL	Create conflict issues all closed; NeoForge-first. Needs Moonlight Lib; smoke-test
Accents (accents)	Dyeable cosmetic accessories (hats, back items, e.g. partial-coloring Top/Pirate Hat) with small situational stat bonuses (e.g. Sheathed Katana +5% damage worn on b…	Fragmentum	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	low-risk cosmetic+minor-stat layer; costs one new library dep

Mobs & wildlife

Mod	What it brings	New deps	Impact	Verdict	Watch-out
Animal Garden - Porcupine (animal-garden-porcupine)	Tamable/breedable porcupines spawning in forests (JSON-configurable spawn tags); quill damage to nearby attackers; apple taming, sweet-berry breeding/healing, incre…	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	tiny, dependency-free, fits the existing tameable-mob theme
Fowl Play (fowlplay)	~13 bird species (hawks, gulls, ravens, crows, ducks, geese incl. swan/emden variants, songbirds, penguins) with realistic flight, sounds, and ecosystem behavior; s…	SmartBrainLib	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	strong ambience fit for the pack's mob roster; costs one AI lib
Companions! (companions-mod)	10 tamable companion creatures with abilities, hostile mobs with unique skills, new weapons, a boss; Small/Great Essence economy (Great Chalice, Soul Furnace, fille…	Knight Lib	Moderate	MAYBE	decent content but redundant with the existing mob roster and it drags in a new library; only if the pack wants more combat-pet content
Hybrid Aquatic (hybrid-aquatic)	Large marine mob roster: new fish species, sharks, crustaceans, critters, otters, nautiluses, and a new miniboss	Hybrid API [HAPI], Biolith	Major	ADD-OPTIONAL	biggest content win in this batch; gate on a worldgen + Aquaculture overlap test because of the two new library pins
Alex's Mobs Continued (alexs-mobs-continued)	Unofficial continuation of Alex's Mobs: the full ~116-mob roster (grizzly bears, tigers, gorillas, sharks, orcas, soul vultures...), taming/breeding/mounts/bucketin…	CodxLib	Overhaul (if it replaced the ex…	SKIP	direct duplicate of an existing pack mod; would only ever be a 1:1 swap project
Friends&Foes - Flowery Mooblooms (Forge/NeoForge) (friends-and-foes-flowery-mooblooms-forge)	One moobloom cow variant per flower (allium, sunflower, lilac, etc.)	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	cheap flavor that slots into an installed mod; skip only if moobloom density is unwanted
Pet Cemetery (pet-cemetery)	Dead pets drop Pet Collars; use a charged Respawn Anchor to revive them as Zombie pets (tankier, curable) or Skeleton pets (faster, unrecoverable) with stat tradeof…	Blueprint	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	emotionally valuable on a friends server; verify modded-pet support first
PetProtect (petprotect)	Server-side protection toggles for tamed mobs in PvP: prevent pet player-damage, pet death, pet attacks on players; owner-damage, creative, and totem-effect options…	—	Minor	ADD	tiny, dependency-free, and directly prevents grief/accident on a 10-player PvP-capable server full of tamed mods' pets
Mob Lassos (mob-lassos)	Craftable lassos to carry mobs in inventory: golden (land), aquatic, diamond (no timer), emerald (villagers via contract), hostile (target below 50% HP, bites carri…	Puzzles Lib	Minor-Moderate	ADD-OPTIONAL	useful QoL; check boss exclusion config before shipping to a pack with Apotheosis
Realm RPG: Fallen Adventurers (realm-rpg-fallen-adventurers)	50+ treasure-bearing skeleton types generating across biomes and dimensions, dropping ores, materials, food, gear, and enchanted books	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	easy exploration flavor; note the 1.21.1 build dates to 2025-01 (aging but stable, 2.3M downloads)
Spawn (spawn-mod)	Overworld wilderness overhaul: new biomes, many animal mobs with variants, ambience, mechanics	Teal Lib	Major	MAYBE	substantial content but collides with the pack's curated worldgen and mob roster; needs Teal Lib and dedicated testing before inclusion
Mermod (mermod)	Magical necklace (Curios-style accessory) that transforms the wearer into a merperson in water (per description; details on wiki, not README)	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	small, cheap, fits the pack's exploration theme; low information confidence due to thin README
Punchy! x Tiny Takeover (tiny-takeover-x-punchy)	Carry baby mobs in first person with dedicated animations (crouch + right-click; "I" key playful animation)	—	Minor	MAYBE	verify whether Punchy/Tiny Takeover base mods are actually required and that the NeoForge build is real before adding
Environmental (environmental)	New overworld biomes: Blossom Woods, Pine Barrens, Marshes	Blueprint	Moderate	MAYBE	its content substantially duplicates what Terralith + Alex's Mobs already deliver, and it requires pulling in Blueprint for a single m…
Primal (mod-primal)	Wilderness-immersion content released in "Hunters" (1.0) and "Hunt & Gather" (1.1) updates; further specifics are deferred to an external wiki that the README itsel…	—	unknown	MAYBE	sparse documentation; inspect the wiki and jar contents before committing
Pixelmon (pixelmon)	Every Pokémon Gen 1–9 (1000+) with handmade models/animations, plus battling, trading, breeding	—	Overhaul	SKIP	total-conversion-scale content that steamrolls the pack's identity, worldgen, and mob budget

Combat, gear & magic

Mod	What it brings	New deps	Impact	Verdict	Watch-out
Too Many Bows (too-many-bows)	38 unique bows with special abilities; new attributes (Bow Draw Speed, Bow Damage, Ranged Weapon Damage)	—	Moderate	ADD-OPTIONAL	strong synergy with Better Combat and Curios already in the pack
Reliquary Reincarnations (reliquary-reincarnations)	Magical utility items: Coin of Fortune (item/XP magnet), Interdiction Torch (pushes mobs), Mob Charms (per-mob-type ignore), Sojourner's Staff (torch staff), Void T…	—	Moderate	ADD-OPTIONAL	content-rich and maintained, but demands a balance pass against Apotheosis/Artifacts
More Relics (more-relics)	25+ relics (accessory items with unique/evolved forms, e.g. Tyrant Mask, Whispering Amulet evolution chains) distributed across structure chests	ShatterLib	OctoLib, Relics	Moderate	SKIP
Relics: Arcane Abilities (arcane-abilities)	Dungeons containing three relic artifacts: Fate Beacon (structure finding + teleport marks), Shadow Lantern (darkness abilities: blinding, invisibility, time manipu…	—	Moderate	SKIP	its own README requires Relics + Hammer Lib (missing); would need both plus a balance review to reconsider
Dream Relics (dream-relics)	Curios-integrated accessories: necklaces/rings/bracelets/special items with abilities (damage scaling vs missing/target health, multi-jump boots, XP-granting grail)	—	Moderate	MAYBE	duplicate niche vs Artifacts with Apotheosis balance implications; needs a curation pass before adding
TarotCards: Remastered (tarotcards-remastered)	22 Major Arcana cards found only in loot chests (buried treasure, shipwrecks, dungeons), each granting a passive buff while carried; dedicated Curios slot; deck com…	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	clean fit for an exploration/loot pack; explicitly team-aware
Skillcloaks (skillcloaks)	Curios back-slot cloaks from villager trades (colored sacks from master-tier villagers): Agility, Attack, Construction (teleport to spawn), Cooking, Crafting (porta…	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	solid Curios content on an existing dependency; consider adding Lucent for the full feature set
Ars Elixirum (ars-elixirum)	Free-form elixir brewing: ingredients with seed-dependent alchemical properties, player-authored/saveable/shareable recipes (recipe books on lecterns)	Fragmentum	Moderate	ADD-OPTIONAL	deep alchemy content with one new library dep; confirm in testing that it doesn't hard-require anything beyond Fragmentum
Ars Ocultas (ars-ocultas)	Ars Nouveau ↔ Occultism compatibility: spirits usable from Containment Jars, 7×7 auto item-processing around jars, item-capability piping into jars (pipes/hoppers/s…	Occultism	Moderate if Occultism were presen…	SKIP	required dependency Occultism is absent from both the pack and this batch
Estrogen (estrogen)	Estrogen Pill → "Girl Power" effect enabling a dash movement ability (+ hidden abilities); Estrogen Patches worn in their own Curios-style slots	Cynosure	Moderate	SKIP	meme-toned content whose headline feature alters player movement near a fragile physics stack, and which costs two extra pieces (Cynos…
Create: Estrogen (create-estrogen)	The Create module of the Estrogen mod: a Centrifuge multiblock/machine for new fluid processing recipes, plus custom package (Create packager) shipping recipes; JEI…	Estrogen	Moderate	MAYBE	can't be evaluated in isolation (dep is a batch candidate), self-declared in-development, and tone may not fit the pack; decide togeth…
Small Ships (small-ships)	Medieval sailable ships (R to open/close sail, W/S speed), biome-temperature speed bonuses, ship inventory	—	Moderate	MAYBE	appealing content, but a beta build with old updates parked next to Aeronautics/Sable physics; needs a dedicated compat test or should…

Exploration & worldgen

Mod	What it brings	New deps	Impact	Verdict	Watch-out
Dynamic Trees (dynamictrees)	Trees as growing multiblock structures: seeds self-plant, trees grow biome/temperature/rainfall-dependently, grow around obstacles, die in darkness	—	Major	SKIP	a transformative tree overhaul whose coverage against the pack's 10+ worldgen mods is unverified and which demands config curation the…
Spawn Animations (spawn-animations)	hostile mobs dig out of the ground or poof into existence when spawning (works for zombies, skeletons, creepers, endermen, etc.); server-side, command-driven settin…	Quilted Fabric API (QFAPI)…, Fabric API	None	MAYBE	mild flourish; if wanted, use the datapack form to dodge the Fabric dep chain rather than the mod
Spawn Animations Compats (spawn-animations-compats)	datapack adding Spawn Animations support to 50+ modded mobs (Enderman Overhaul, Deeper and Darker, The Graveyard, Galosphere, etc.)	Spawn Animations	None	SKIP	only meaningful if Spawn Animations is added, and its supported mob list barely overlaps this pack
Loot Journal: Pickup Notifier (loot-journal)	Animated item/XP pickup notifications with smart stacking, rare-find highlights, nearby-player pickup tracking, themes, and in-game config	Fragmentum	Client-cosmetic	ADD-OPTIONAL	nice HUD polish; in-game config means no shipped-config maintenance
Traveler's Titles (travelers-titles)	RPG-style fade-in titles when entering biomes/dimensions; Waystone-named region titles (1.18+ Forge/NeoForge), custom sounds via resource pack, dimension/biome blac…	—	Client-cosmetic	ADD	cheap, polished, and it makes the pack's giant curated worldgen legible to players
Death Count (death-count)	A per-player death counter displayed in the tab player list	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	harmless novelty for a 10-player server, though equally achievable with a one-line vanilla scoreboard datapack
Chalk (chalk-mod)	Craftable chalk (calcite / loot) that draws arrow/dot/symbol marks on block faces; dyeable 16 colors; glowstone/glow-ink glowing marks; chalk box for storing/select…	—	Minor	ADD	cheap, self-contained, fills a real gap for cave exploration

Social, sleep & death

Mod	What it brings	New deps	Impact	Verdict	Watch-out
Comforts (comforts)	Sleeping bags (portable bed that doesn't set spawn) and hammocks (sleep day→night), 16 colors + dyeing; optional config mechanics (well-rested, sleepiness, break ch…	—	Minor–Moderate	ADD	staple adventure QoL, well-maintained, no dependency cost
Sleep Tight (sleep-tight)	Sleep overhaul: hammocks (day rest), night bags (spawn-less temporary beds), dream essence, home-bed rewards, slower early-game sleep progression	Moonlight Lib	Moderate	ADD-OPTIONAL	popular, well-scoped sleep rework; requires adding Moonlight Lib and choosing between it and Room For Two rather than stacking blindly
Room For Two (room-for-two)	Multiple players sharing one bed; >2 players stack; camera faces your sleeping direction; `/sleeppos [front	back	left	right]` preference	—
PlayerRevive (playerrevive)	A 60-second post-death window in which friends can revive you instead of a hard respawn	—	Moderate	ADD-OPTIONAL	strong social fit, but it rebalances death and needs a Gravestone interplay check
Incapacitated (incapacitated)	Downed state between life and death: crawling, bleed-out timer, 3 downs before true death (configurable); lava and similar causes bypass instantly	—	Major	MAYBE	great co-op mechanic but changes core death rules; needs owner sign-off plus a Gravestone interaction test
Death Knell (death-knell)	35+ new death messages, including circumstance-specific ones (cookie-weapon kills, axe dismemberment) and generic variants	—	Client-cosmetic	ADD	zero-risk flavor whose deps are already installed
Charta (charta)	Card-game system: 3 games (Crazy Eights, "Fun", Solitaire), card tables in 3 sizes for up to 8 players, decks found in village/dungeon loot, in-game tutorials; API…	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	charming multiplayer flavor, zero risk if unused
Mino++ (minopp)	Playable Uno-style card game: placeable table, scroll-wheel card selection, bot players (/summon minopp:mino_auto_player, bot config requires YACL), rule variants…	—	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	charming social content with no risk surface; pure taste call
Piggyback (piggyback)	Replaces the default sit-on-head player mechanic with a piggyback-style ride (right-click a crouching player with an empty hand)	Faewulf's Lib	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	harmless co-op fun, but requires adding Faewulf's Lib to the pack
What Are They Up To (Watut) (what-are-they-up-to)	in-world indicators when other players are typing (speed-animated), GUI-activity visuals (hand clicking at a screen), idle/sleeping player visuals, and Zz idle mark…	CoroUtil	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	genuinely fun on a small friend group; costs one small library
Open Parties and Claims (open-parties-and-claims)	Chunk claiming + forceload, player parties, party chat, admin controls, permission-API integration (FTB Ranks, LuckPerms), explicit FTB Teams and Xaero's map integr…	—	Overhaul of base-protection/socia…	SKIP	direct duplicate of FTB Chunks + FTB Teams; would only make sense as a wholesale replacement, which contradicts the installed FTB Ques…
Welcome Screen (welcome-screen)	one-time welcome screen on first world/server join and update-"what's new" screens, fully customizable via FancyMenu	FancyMenu, Necronomicon API	None	SKIP	2-3 new dependencies for a screen a server MOTD/pin note can replace
Early Bedtime (early-bedtime)	Server-side configurable earlier sleeping threshold (default 1000 ticks / ~50s sooner)	TxniLib	Minor	SKIP	solves a shader-specific problem this shaderless pack doesn't have, at the cost of adopting TxniLib
Horror messages (horror-messages)	A random horror chat message ("Help me", "Behind you", binary "LEAVE") broadcast to all players every 10–15 minutes	—	None	SKIP	chat-spam gimmick; only defensible if the pack deliberately becomes a horror pack

Server, admin & performance

Mod	What it brings	New deps	Impact	Verdict	Watch-out
BlueMap (bluemap)	Reads world files and generates 3D maps of the whole surface, viewable in a browser via its own built-in web app	—	None	ADD-OPTIONAL	genuinely useful for a small dedicated server, but it's ops overhead (webserver, ports, configs) rather than content
Better Compatibility Checker (better-compatibility-checker)	Replaces the default loader server-list compatibility check with modpack project-ID/version comparison, showing tick/X for players adding the pack's server	—	None	MAYBE	only earns its slot if the build pipeline commits to updating its config each release
Let Me Despawn (lmd)	Lets mobs that picked up/equipped items despawn naturally (dropping the items first), with configurable exclusion list and live `/letmedespawn add	remove` commands;…	Almanac	Minor	ADD
More Culling (moreculling)	Client-side culling changes for multiple render categories (per description/wiki: e.g. leaves, block-entity type cases) to cut rendered geometry	—	None	MAYBE	plausible FPS gain, but redundant-adjacent to Entity Culling and unvetted against the pack's fragile rendering core; test in isolation…
BadOptimizations (badoptimizations)	Client micro-optimizations: skip lightmap texture re-uploads when nothing affecting brightness changed; gate debug renderers (bees/game events/gametest/villager AI)…	—	None	SKIP	marginal, hard-to-measure gains on a stack that already covers these areas (constraint 6); not worth extra mixin surface for a ~4% syn…
AsyncParticles (asyncparticles)	Client particle optimizations: GPU-accelerated particle vertex rendering, async particle ticking, particle culling, async light cache	—	None (pure client optimization)	SKIP	a named crash interaction with in-pack C2ME that the pack cannot pre-configure, plus beta render-layer mixins against the fragile Sabl…
Followers Teleport Too (followers-teleport-too)	Non-sitting pets (wolves/cats) near the player teleport along with them on any teleport	Collective	Minor	ADD-OPTIONAL	clear QoL win with Waystones for ~10 players; costs one shared lib
Waystones Teleport Pets (waystones-teleport-pets)	pets teleport alongside players using Waystones without needing a lead attached	—	Minor QoL for pet owners	ADD	tiny, targeted, and fixes a real annoyance for a 10-player server full of tamed pets
Carry On + Create Aeronautics Compat (carryon-aeronautics-compat)	Patches Carry On so blocks can be picked up from Aeronautics/Sable simulated contraptions	Carry On	Moderate (when it applied); effec…	SKIP	self-declared obsolete (fix upstreamed to Carry On 2.2.6+), base mod absent, documented server-hang known issue
Carry On Extend (carry-on-extend)	Shift+Q to throw the entity/block you are currently carrying (Carry On add-on)	Carry On	Minor	SKIP	dead on arrival without Carry On; revisit only if the pack adopts Carry On itself

Already in pack (duplicates)

Mod	What it brings	New deps	Impact	Verdict	Watch-out
Aquaculture 2 (aquaculture)	(duplicate entry) — 30+ biome-specific fish, neptunium gear, hooks/bait/line rods, tackle box, fish fillets and fishing loot	—	Moderate (as installed)	ALREADY-IN-PACK	exact duplicate of the existing Aquaculture 2 entry
Aquaculture Delight (aquaculture-delight)	(duplicate entry) — Farmer's Delight × Aquaculture 2 compatibility: fish dishes, Neptunium knife, knife cross-compat, cooking pot/cutting board recipes	—	Minor (as installed)	ALREADY-IN-PACK	exact duplicate of the existing Aquaculture Delight entry
Apothic Combat (apothic-combat)	(duplicate entry) — Compatibility between Apotheosis and Better Combat: registers two-handed Better Combat weapons as HEAVY_WEAPON; removes the Entity Reach attribu…	—	Major (as installed)	ALREADY-IN-PACK	duplicates the pack's existing Apothic Combat entry
Ars Creo (ars-creo)	(duplicate entry) — Ars Nouveau × Create addon: Starbuncle Wheel (SU generation), spell/timer turrets on contraptions, Source Jars as contraption parts	—	Moderate (as installed)	ALREADY-IN-PACK	duplicate of the existing Ars Creo entry; the "missing dep" line is a dead-ID artifact, not a real gap
Create Aeronautics: Compatibility (create-aeronautics-compatability)	(per README) Fixes for mods that break on Sable sub-levels/physics ships: Etched, WATERFrAMES, Alex's Mobs + Alex's Caves (pathfinding RAM/OOM fix), Another Furnitu…	—	Moderate	ALREADY-IN-PACK	duplicates the existing "Create Aeronautics: Compatibility" entry in the pack list; do not add a second copy
Nature's Compass (natures-compass)	(Duplicate entry) Biome-locating compass with searchable GUI, HUD info, config blacklists	—	N/A	ALREADY-IN-PACK	byte-for-byte duplicate of the existing Nature's Compass entry; drop from the candidate list
Separate Sable Render Distance (ssrd)	(duplicate) — Sable physics objects rendering beyond view distance with Distant Horizons/Voxy; Sodium-menu sub-level render distance slider; server-friendly `/ssrd…	—	None	ALREADY-IN-PACK	duplicate of the pack's existing SSRD entry; exclude from the candidate list
Sophisticated Backpacks Create Integration (sophisticated-backpacks-create-integration)	Lets Sophisticated Backpacks sit on Create contraptions with all upgrades (Pickup, Magnet, Filter, Void) functional while in motion	—	Minor (already shipped; storage a…	ALREADY-IN-PACK	exact duplicate of the pack's own Sophisticated Backpacks Create Integration entry
Sophisticated Storage Create Integration (sophisticated-storage-create-integration)	Sophisticated Storage barrels/chests/shulker boxes usable on Create contraptions (trains, gantries, flywheels) with upgrades, tier upgrades, and Storage Tool functi…	—	Minor (already shipped)	ALREADY-IN-PACK	exact duplicate of the pack's own Sophisticated Storage Create Integration entry