Technic

Technic is a launcher, community and large group of modpacks created by the Technic Team. Technic was originally created as a small, personal modpack by KakerMix on a website named Something Awful. It only had a few downloads until it was reviewed by a member of The Yogscast, where it was placed into the spotlight of their many fans. The Technic Launcher was created to automatically install of the Technic modpacks, including over 10,000 third-party modpacks.

Although Technic was once hegemonic in the modded community, the Technic Team has not released one of their own modpacks in years, nor have they modified their launcher beyond basic maintenance. As such, Technic is no longer a large part of the modded community. However, the Technic modpacks and launcher still have a cult following within its own community, and Technic still has a large legacy, paving the way for future modpacks and modpack distribution platforms.

History
Technic originated as a small modpack named Technic released in Beta 1.7 by KakerMix on Something Awful. It only had a few downloads until it was reviewed by a member of The Yogscast where it was brought to the forefront of their fans. With his newfound popularity, KakerMix assembled a team to create the Technic Launcher and further modpacks.

Technic released one of their most popular modpacks for 1.2.5, named Tekkit. It's predecessor was Technic SMP and it is essentially the multiplayer version of Technic SSP. It functioned for both clients and servers, and included support for Bukkit. Tekkit revolutionized the world of modded Minecraft with its large but well-fitting and very compatible selection of mods.

Tekkit Lite was released for 1.4.7 as a remastering of Tekkit. Voltz was released for the same version, and later upgraded to 1.5.2 and 1.6.4. It highlighted a group of mods based around the Universal Electricity API. Big Dig was released for 1.5.2 as a kitchensink modpack with easy progression to allow for the ease of experimentation and building.

Avoiding the industrial theme of many of their earlier modpacks, Technic released Hexxit for 1.5.2. Hexxit heavily encouraged adventure, similar to Technic's older modpacks Hack Slash Mine and Yogbox. For 1.6.4, Tekkit was remastered once again as Tekkit, with a galactic theme using Galacticraft.

The original Tekkit modpack was remastered in Tekkit Legends, a 1.7.10 remake. Technic also partnered with the modpack authors of Test Pack Please Ignore and Blightfall to make their modpacks official Technic modpacks. They also worked with the YouTube duo known as the "B-Team"- Generikb and BdoubleO- to create the modpack Attack of the B-Team and raise money for charity.

The Technic Launcher
The Technic Launcher has gone through several stages. The current version includes a page with featured modpacks and content, a page allowing for the download, playing and management of modpacks and a news page.

In the "Modpacks" page, modpacks can be searched, downloaded and played. Each modpack can include a description, a panel showing the latest updates, the number of likes, installs, and runs (although not for official packs) and a link to the modpack's Discord.

Third-party modpacks are not hosted by Technic itself. The launcher acts as a proxy, meaning some modpacks may go offline and unavailable for download.

The Technic website
The Technic website is located at https://www.technicpack.net/. The Technic Launcher can be downloaded there, and all of the modpacks Technic has available can be browsed. They can be sorted by official status, popularity, trending, recently updated or new modpacks. The website also includes news about Technic and links to Technic's forums, as well as other points of interest.



Technic Scraps
Technic Scraps is a program by Technic designed to highlight high-quality unofficial Technic modpacks. The Technic Team eventually plans to cease development of official modpacks in favor of modpacks created by the community. The modpacks are selected by a group of "curators" that go through a large amount of modpacks to search for modpacks that they think deserve the attention. Currently, there is only one "Volume", which features GT New Horizons, Modern Harmony and LoTRCircles.



Controversy

 * KakerMix, the modpack author, did not originally ask the mod authors permission to distribute their mods. This later became an issue when SirSengir introduced malicious code to make the Vindictive Bee destroy blocks around it when the mod was inside a "technic" folder. This was done in order to force the Technic Team to remove the mod, which they did. The offending code was later removed so users could individually add Forestry to the Tekkit modpack if they desired.

"Hello, Gregorius Techneticies here, I see you most likely use Tekkit, but this Mod won't load, until Kakermix asks me PERSONALLY for the inclusion of my Mod. So bug HIM for it. PS. I could have exploded your Worlds, but i didn't for Publicityreasons [sic]. PPS. This Addon is Part of the FTB-Pack. It's even easier to use than Tekkit PPPS. There has been already so many Discoussions [sic] about me detecting Tekkit more or less precicely [sic] or even ACCIDENTLY on non-Tekkit Users, and NO YOU WON'T GET ME TO 'JUST' REMOVE THIS, GO LIVE WITH IT OR FIX IT YOURSELF!"
 * GregoriusT also introduced malicious code into his mod to prevent GregTech 2 from functioning if in a folder named "Technic", "technic" (uncapitalized), "Tekkit" or "tekkit". In GregTech 3, it would not function if named "voltz", "technic", or "tekkit", and it would display the following message and not load the mod.

- GregoriusT


 * That functionality was removed in GregTech 4 and future versions, however.


 * Iskandar, the modpack author of Crash Landing, joined the Technic Team in early 2015 to update Hexxit . However, he left in late February after the Technic Team refused to remove a post advertising a server that was selling in-game items, and because of the Technic Team's attitude towards the situation.


 * After talking with DarkCow, one of the original creators of Voltz, the Technic Team refused to allow him to renew the modpack, or use the copyrighted name "Voltz" . The Universal Electricity Team ended renewing it anyway using the name Volts 2.0, deciding to use CurseForge instead of the Technic Launcher.


 * Upon request to add Technic Launcher to Flathub, the Technic team refused to negotiate permission to redistribute the launcher. Stating "Anyone that is not the Technic team isn't authorized." in reference to redistributing the launcher. This is in direct violation of their claim in the launcher about which states it is licensed under GPLV3 & "Which means that you can redistribute it to whoever you like and even modify it yourself""