Rethinking Ore Generation: Welcome to the World of Big Veins
Vanilla Minecraft has a certain charm with its scattered pockets of coal, iron, and diamond, but after a thousand mining trips, that charm can wear thin. You dig branch mines, you strip mine, you maybe get lucky, but the thrill of discovery fades when every ore cluster looks the same. What if the world generation threw you a curveball — massive, rare deposits that actually make you feel like a prospector? That is exactly what the Big Veins, Big Problems modpack sets out to do. It flips the script on resource gathering, turning every mining expedition into a high-stakes hunt.
What Exactly Is Big Veins, Big Problems?
This is not your average kitchen-sink pack. Big Veins, Big Problems is a carefully tuned expert-style modpack that revolves around one radical change: ore veins are now colossal but extremely rare. Instead of tiny, insignificant clusters peppered everywhere, you will search for enormous deposits that can sustain your entire factory for hours. To balance this, the pack introduces a scanner that helps you locate these hidden treasures without breaking the bank. The twist? Recipes have been overhauled into a true expert mode, forcing you to automate nearly every production line if you want to progress. The endgame even features craftable creative items — but they come with a steep price tag.
Core Gameplay Shifts That Redefine Mining
Right from the start, you will notice that surface-level caving is no longer a reliable way to gather resources. Instead, you need to think like an engineer. The scanner becomes your best friend, and you can craft specific modules to pinpoint exact ore types. This turns mining into a strategic operation rather than mindless digging. Because veins are so large, a single find can fuel your base for hours, but getting to that point requires planning, power, and patience.
The Scanner: Your Eyes Underground
The pack includes the Scannable mod, configured to be affordable early on. You can build a scanner block and upgrade it with range and filter modules. Want only iron? Slot in an iron module. Hunting for draconic ore? There is a module for that. This tool eliminates the frustration of blindly tunneling, but it does not hand you everything — you still need to travel, set up power, and sometimes fight through cave systems to reach the motherlode.
Expert Mode Recipes and Automation
As a side effect of the massive vein sizes, crafting recipes have been made significantly more complex. This is an expert pack, meaning you will not be building a simple furnace and calling it a day. Every item you produce more than once should be automated. The pack author explicitly recommends rushing Logistics Pipes as soon as possible, because manual crafting will quickly become a nightmare. From ore processing to component assembly, everything is designed to push you toward full-scale factory setups.
The Modlist That Makes It All Possible
The pack brings together a heavy-hitting roster of tech mods, with a few quality-of-life additions. Here is a breakdown of the key players:
Core Mods
- Large Ore Deposits – The heart of the pack, generating those gigantic veins.
- Scannable – The aforementioned scanner mod for locating ores.
- Extended Crafting – Enables the complex, multi-step recipes required for high-tier items.
- Immersive Engineering, Industrial Craft 2, Thermal Expansion, Mekanism, Ender IO, Actually Additions, Extra Utilities 2 – The backbone of your tech progression, each offering unique machines and power systems.
- Forestry, Industrial Foregoing – Automation for farming, resource generation, and more.
- Draconic Evolution, Avaritia, Project E – Endgame power and creative item crafting.
- Advanced Rocketry, PneumaticCraft, Tech Reborn – Some marked as “Not Yet Implemented,” but planned for future depth.
Secondary Mods That Support the Grind
- BuildCraft, Railcraft – Classic logistics and transport.
- Tinker's Construct – Customizable tools that can be repaired and upgraded.
- Logistics Pipes – Essential for on-demand autocrafting.
- Big Reactors, Advanced Generators, Flux Networks – Power generation and wireless energy transfer.
- Applied Energistics (with channels disabled) – Digital storage and autocrafting without the channel headache.
- Mystical Agriculture, Environmental Tech, Sky Orchards – Resource generation through farming and void miners.
- Compact Machines, Dark Utilities, Ender Storage – Space-saving and utility blocks.
Quality of Life
- JEI, WAILA, Journey Map, Mouse Tweaks, FTB Utilities – Standard tools that keep the interface clean and informative.
One of the best parts about diving into a complex modpack like this is how simple it can be to get started. If you are looking to jump in without wrestling with manual installations, you can easily install this modpack via the foxygame.net launcher — a convenient, flexible, and modern Minecraft launcher where you can download mods right from the menu. It handles all the dependencies and version matching, so you can focus on finding that first massive iron vein instead of troubleshooting Forge versions.
The Road to Creative Items
The pack does not just stop at complex machines; it dangles the ultimate prize: craftable creative items. Through mods like Avaritia and Project E, you can eventually craft creative-tier energy cells, tanks, or even a creative strongbox. However, these recipes require astronomical amounts of resources and often involve multi-step processes across several mods. This is where your entire automation empire pays off. The pack is still in beta, so recipes may shift, but the vision is clear — you are meant to build a self-sustaining factory that can churn out anything on demand.
Important Considerations and Future Plans
Because the pack is in beta, not all recipes are finalized, and some mods like Advanced Rocketry and Tech Reborn are marked as “Not Yet Implemented.” The creator also intends to add magic mods as a secondary progression branch, along with dimension mods like The Erebus and Twilight Forest. This means the pack will only grow more complex and rewarding over time. If you encounter bugs or sequence breaks, reporting them helps shape the final experience.
Is Big Veins, Big Problems Right for You?
If you love the idea of hunting for colossal ore veins and then engineering a sprawling factory to process them, this pack will scratch that itch perfectly. It demands patience, a love for logistics, and a willingness to automate everything. The scanner removes the guesswork, but the expert recipes ensure you never run out of challenges. The journey from a stone pickaxe to a creative-tier energy cell is long, but every massive vein you uncover feels like a genuine victory. So grab your scanner, fire up your launcher, and get ready to dig deeper than ever before.