Is your suggestion related to a problem? Please describe.
The modded MC ecosystem has so much great content across so many different versions. While FTB understandably chases new versions, old versions and modpacks are still being played by a part of the community. I have been playing many old minecraft modpacks, and also have contributed to "retro modding" efforts such as Rewind Upsilon, a still updated and supported 1.4.7 modpack. Another famous example of continuation projects for old versions is the enormous effort that the GTNH team has done to continue the support for 1.7.10, even allowing it to be played with LWJGL3 and Java 21. Old FTB modpacks like Infinity Evolved and Skyblock hold value due to their unique gameplay mechanic and the milestones in the modded minecraft history that they are. Espacially 1.7.10 modpacks could see a great improvement in features, QoL, bugfixes or even security issues if they would recieve updates.
This is mostly due to the countless of mods that the GTNH community forked, expanded, backported or fixed. I would estimate that about 70% of mods have seen unoffical updates after the last version of FTB Infinity Evolved was released. GTNH has a handy spreadsheet that lists all mods and in what state they are in.
From what I could gether, old FTB modpacks are at least partically vulnerable to the SerializationIsBad / Bleeding Pipe / Mad Gadget exploit that was discovered last year. While Gaz vaguely said that this issue has been fixed on the FTB App in another GH Issue, the server files are still vulnerable. Sources that 3rd Party Launchers tap into, such as the still available (and up to date) links on CurseForge or the Legacy FTB Launcher are still vulernable as well. While the latter is not strictly an FTB issue, this situation is not ideal for unsuspecting players, who just want to replay this old modpack, probably not aware of this issue at all.
I do understand that FTB has become a business and can't affort to deal with legacy packs in such a detailed way that would be necessary to integrate all the newer forks from GTNH into a pack that probably doesn't get a lot of traction anymore. While community members can (and in fact do) update the old FTB packs to have all the GTNH forks, this process in cumbersome, as CraftTweaker scripts need to be adjusted, configs need changes, etc. To allow community members to organize on this matter, at least partially open sourcing the old packs would be an ideal solution in my opinion. With Infinity Evolved Reloaded (an unofficial 1.12 continuation project), the use of some parts of FTB Infinity Evolved has been granted. From talking to members of this project, I could gether that this didn't happen without issues and conflicting information on what they are actually allowed to do.
For a continuation project the MineTweaker scripts and configs of legacy FTB packs would be the most important aspects to be licensed under FOSS. While I was talking a lot about FTB Infinity Evolved and 1.7.10, the same can be applied to most other FTB legacy packs. In what way or under which conditions would FTB be able to open source at least parts of legacy modpacks? I understand that permission to use the artwork or the brand name cannot be granted, but this is also not required. In the spirit of open source and modding, it would be great to get some clarification on this matter or even see some action taken by FTB to allow the community to continue to further improve these milestones of modded Minecraft.
Modpack
FTB Infinity Evolved 1.7
Is your suggestion related to a problem? Please describe.
The modded MC ecosystem has so much great content across so many different versions. While FTB understandably chases new versions, old versions and modpacks are still being played by a part of the community. I have been playing many old minecraft modpacks, and also have contributed to "retro modding" efforts such as Rewind Upsilon, a still updated and supported 1.4.7 modpack. Another famous example of continuation projects for old versions is the enormous effort that the GTNH team has done to continue the support for 1.7.10, even allowing it to be played with LWJGL3 and Java 21. Old FTB modpacks like Infinity Evolved and Skyblock hold value due to their unique gameplay mechanic and the milestones in the modded minecraft history that they are. Espacially 1.7.10 modpacks could see a great improvement in features, QoL, bugfixes or even security issues if they would recieve updates.
This is mostly due to the countless of mods that the GTNH community forked, expanded, backported or fixed. I would estimate that about 70% of mods have seen unoffical updates after the last version of FTB Infinity Evolved was released. GTNH has a handy spreadsheet that lists all mods and in what state they are in.
From what I could gether, old FTB modpacks are at least partically vulnerable to the SerializationIsBad / Bleeding Pipe / Mad Gadget exploit that was discovered last year. While Gaz vaguely said that this issue has been fixed on the FTB App in another GH Issue, the server files are still vulnerable. Sources that 3rd Party Launchers tap into, such as the still available (and up to date) links on CurseForge or the Legacy FTB Launcher are still vulernable as well. While the latter is not strictly an FTB issue, this situation is not ideal for unsuspecting players, who just want to replay this old modpack, probably not aware of this issue at all.
I do understand that FTB has become a business and can't affort to deal with legacy packs in such a detailed way that would be necessary to integrate all the newer forks from GTNH into a pack that probably doesn't get a lot of traction anymore. While community members can (and in fact do) update the old FTB packs to have all the GTNH forks, this process in cumbersome, as CraftTweaker scripts need to be adjusted, configs need changes, etc. To allow community members to organize on this matter, at least partially open sourcing the old packs would be an ideal solution in my opinion. With Infinity Evolved Reloaded (an unofficial 1.12 continuation project), the use of some parts of FTB Infinity Evolved has been granted. From talking to members of this project, I could gether that this didn't happen without issues and conflicting information on what they are actually allowed to do.
For a continuation project the MineTweaker scripts and configs of legacy FTB packs would be the most important aspects to be licensed under FOSS. While I was talking a lot about FTB Infinity Evolved and 1.7.10, the same can be applied to most other FTB legacy packs. In what way or under which conditions would FTB be able to open source at least parts of legacy modpacks? I understand that permission to use the artwork or the brand name cannot be granted, but this is also not required. In the spirit of open source and modding, it would be great to get some clarification on this matter or even see some action taken by FTB to allow the community to continue to further improve these milestones of modded Minecraft.
Mod suggestion
No response