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There are two goals in general with new Skylore development.

1. Make sure in the end that Skylore is as stable and performant as possible. Skylore will not be a rolling mod pack like Aof, once it's done, it's done.

2. Create a method in which story driven mod packs can be created. I have more than just Skylore up in this noggin. I really would like "after Skylore" to have an easier and faster method as well as tools to create new story driven mod packs.

Phase 1 - this basement needs to be dry

We start from the biggest changes with the least variables (least amount of configuration, most impact)

You could argue land gen would be further than this phase, but it's literally required for Skylore to work. So it's first. The rest in this phase should be base mods that are absolutely necessary and without would not make the game at all.

• land generation
• performance mods
• inventory mods
• gameplay mods (mods that affect base variables, like spawning, weather, effects, etc)
• questing/data point mods (mods that provide questing and data points, data points are data that provide story information, for example Adrian made an audio mod that can have certain triggers to play audio. This will probably be used for things like audio logs, narration, etc. more data point mods will be needed though)

Focus for testers: break the performance, try to get the lowest you can in fps and see what causes frame drops. Test every mod and try to break.

Focus for contributors: If you want to make a simple mod, data point mods would likely be easiest. There will be remnants of data and information from ships that have crashed as well as past civilizations that have lived on the Skylore planet. Tablets that contain info (think horizon zero dawn), trinkets of civilizations past, etc.

If you want to make something more "meaty" you can venture into terrain gen (probably one of the hardest things to mod) and figure out a way to have varying levels of floating islands that contain at least one major biome. It's important that all biomes are used, with purely data pack generation biomes are generated based on many factors including elevation, but if you do datapack generation, in order to not have crazy lava and mass water spawning, you have to specify elevation for generation, which in turn will make it impossible for biomes that have elevation requirements to generate. This is why I used the hexagon generation, this allows me to force every biome to be used regardless of elevation. Clever inventory mods may be great as well.

Phase 2: objects and items

This will be when we start adding single or packaged items. Items that aren't usually part of some larger mod. Things like building tools, the objects Nick made, objects Nyfaria made, etc will be introduced. This will also be where we start to develop the future mod list, figuring out what mods will be absolutely necessary (doesn't mean we are adding them at this point).

• add items in batches.
• cross check if items exist in larger mods or not.
• comb through every single config file and check everything

Focus for testers: break the items

Focus for contributors: single item mods or maybe mods with a few objects. Magic is frowned upon, the magic we will have comes from Spectrum and will have a story significance, but the story will describe it more in a star trek:deep space nine way (it's not magic, it's just aliens). Think futuristic items that serve a single or maybe dual purpose.

Phase 3: absolutely necessary big mods without massive complexity

Slowly.. I mean slowly.. add big mods. This includes mods that add items, structures, mobs, etc. much testing and the biggest thing FEEDBACK. devs are our friends, let's let them know what's going on with their mods. This is where we will probably get to the point of test server as well.

• Test server 24/7 (certain people will have admin access to ensure uptime)
• one by one add large mods
• feedback, feedback, feedback. This is where we start bug busting big mods.
• staying away from mods that have items with animation or transportation.
• staying away from mods that involve inventory/item management (pipes, wires, manipulation of items into others ie processing)

focus for testers: break the mods add input on what could/should be changed

focus for contributors: find any gaps between mods? maybe create one that bridges that gap

Phase 4: Custom mods

we have many that were made just for this modpack. we will re-introduce. This part is self-explanatory. Ideas for mods will be introduced, custom mod development will be heavy here. I owe Nyfaria a bunch of my time to help move along a mod we have been planning for quite some time, one that will probably turn out to be a highly popular mod when done. we will depend on testing, input and artwork. More on this later, but I think everyone will love it.

focus for testers: submit bug reports

focus for contributors: if you want to contribute a custom mod, this will be the time to discuss

Phase 5: Big mods

Also self-explanatory (this section needs more planning out later)

Phase 6: Terrain/Structures

We will most likely have a method of transportation. Because of this at some point traveling will be easy. Travel being boring should absolutely be part of this.. with huge swaths of nothing between. Think Zelda: wind waker. When you finally end up somewhere, it should be interesting. This phase is where builders and creatives will be needed. Also, having enough separation to prevent block bridging will be a big thing.

• evaluate the structures other mods bring in, remove if need be
• manipulate where structures generate, initially I wanted structures to generate far from the crash site and the rarer ones generate further away from crash site
• Custom structures (BIG ONE) we will most likely have a server only for building at this point.

Phase 7: Story time cracks

time to build out the story more. Anything missing that is essential to the story will be introduced. (species, certain core items, etc) that are needed to tell story.

Phase 8: big time story

This will be building the linear progression of the game. We will evaluate recipes, what methods will be needed to keep the story going and change whatever needed. Questing will be introduced.

Phase 9: story beyond

these are where we want to figure out what's beyond the skylore planet. would be nice to include custom planets and home planets of all the species, except for main asset (home to the Indrevians) , which will be the basis for the next modpack.

Phase 10: Polish

Polish everything.