In 2016, there was one of our first "mega servers." A group of us played through Feed the Beast's Infinity Evolved Modpack. We played on the server for months and I have many fond memories from that time
We set up many warps around the server, and all of use ended up building our own bases where we could go deeper into the mods and designs we wanted to explore
In 2020 the world was greatly changed and impacted by Covid-19. Originally, I just planned to do a single-player world to mess around in the revamped nether than came in the 1.16 snapshots and full release
One friend wanted to join, so I briefly hosted a small server locally on my own PC without worrying too much about lag or any permanent setup
After we defeated the Ender Dragon, another person wanted to join, and then another. Over about a week, the server became filled with people. The lockdown left many of my personal and mutual friends with nothing to do, so Minecraft became a great place to relax and chill
This is still probably seen as the most successful Minecraft server I hosted, as it had so many great builds and moments from a recreation of Doofenshmirtz' tower, a Wipeout course, a (janky) Murder Minigame, and a ton of small little monuments and creations that hold meaning
*disclaimer* strong language was used on the server but that doesn't reflect myself. specifically, one african-american fellow liked saying the word
Following the end of the 1.16 mega server, I personally still had an itch for Minecraft. We had many vanilla servers hosted by both myself and my friends. Not many of them lasted, but they each had special events and situations of their own
Eventually, we made our way back to modded. I personally hadn't hosted a modded server, but I did join my friend's servers to go through Sky Factory and random kitchen sink packs (including replaying the original Infinity Evolved pack, but not for any length of time)
The Revelations modpack was one I really enjoyed because of the inclusion of Thaumcraft, which I would consider to be one of my all time favorite mods. Many old favorites were included, so there was a mix between familiarity and something new
The 1.16 mega server would be when most of my friends started learning more about Minecraft mechanics, but this is the server where people wanted to start making bases and more complex farms
Previously, we tried to emulate the economy we had during the Covid server, but since this 1.18 server there has been a shift to focusing on nations or more faction-like groups. This server notably the two most active groups were America and the USSR
A small server started towards the end of 2022. This server was almost a "speedrun" of doing things in Minecraft. This has had one of the smallest player counts, but it went back to our roots of just messing around in the game
A notable difference would be that now, after all these years of playing, we are fundamentally different in our approaches. We want to make nicer things and favor automation more than manually doing tasks
Coming back to modded, this directly follow our 1.19 server when things became a tad dry and we lost some inspiration, this server is by far our smallest and shortest lived map
I personally really enjoyed playing, but not much was really accomplished. I would say this server was important because it made us want to continue with modded, but in a more fleshed out way. Our current server (as of Feb 2023) would not have been created if it were not for this server, and so far it is one of the most enjoyable ones
Infinity Evolved, the original 1.7.10 modpack from Feed the Beast. This is my friend groups most played pack. We put so many hours across many servers and many years. After a gap of a year or two, someone would host a good old Infinity Evolved server. It is of the best and most iconic kitchen-sink packs in my opinion. Great for beginners getting into modded and had the freedom to let people play the way they wanted
The only problem was the experience was kind of stale for some players, maybe things seemed too easy. Someone could realistically rush through the pack fairly quickly and do most of the "late game" activities with minimal effort, if they were used to the mods and knew what they were doing. So, Infinity Evolved had two expert versions of the modpack: a traditional world with world generation, or a tweaked version designed for Skyblock. Expert packs made gameplay more "difficult" by making players progress through more mods besides a handful that one could just stick to. Recipes were changed to integrate more mods and things could feel more connected
We never once tried an expert pack before, but I thought it would be more interesting to try out. I knew of Infinity Evolved's expert pack, but I wanted to play a more recent version than 1.7.10. By chance I stumbled upon the fan-made Infinity Evolved: Reloaded. Instead of starting Enigmatica or some other expert pack, I was drawn this one because of how much joy I have gotten from playing the original Infinity Evolved.Â
This pack was grindy, annoying and boring at times. I usually skipped mods like Industrial Craft, since I tinkered around with the mod years ago and was fine having a more simple thermal expansion setup so I could focus on building. There are a lot of "negatives" I and my friends experienced but this was one of my favorite modpacks and servers ever. This pack single-handedly got me interested in other expert-style modpacks and eventually into Gregtech, and then specifically Gregtech: New Horizons (which is a whole different monster, if you know then you really do know).
Lots I can say about this modpack. It really hit at a good time when I felt bored of modded minecraft, because most things in the modpacks I would barely touch. Progressions just felt very weird, and it was hard to feel motivated or want to do more things
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