'Safe' Minecraft Mods

[1of6Billion]

I *know* there are a lot of Minecraft-players in the KSP community, so I'll give it a go here...

My son (8) plays Minecraft a lot and wanted to have some mods installed. He asked me to help him. I tried a few websites, but all I found scared the living daylight out of me.

Chrome kept bugging about malificent software on the site. Other sites made me install software to download anything. Or to extract downloads. Being used to the way it works with KSP, I got suspicious.

So. Long story short: Are there sites where I can download and install Minecraft Mods from without opening the gates of Virus Hell?

[Feradose]

This should be the safest

[Pixel of Life]

Minecraft Mods on Curse

[Kinglet]

Minecraft Mods on Curse

Curse isn't safe. There are plenty of virus scandals there.

[TonyC]

Nearly all mods originate from www.minecraftforums.net ,so we can say it's the safest place.

[Robotengineer]

Only follow links from the mod's home page ( should be on minecraft forum.) Don't click on any links that go directly to a download if you google a mod.

[megatiger78]

technic platform installs the mods for you, and has no viruses. http://www.technicpack.net/

[[ Jeremy ]]

Personally, I use the Curse Voice Client for my mods. Most popular mods and modpacks are available here, you can even create custom sets of mods if you wish.

I've been using it for over a year now, and all the issues I've encountered are a result of mods not playing nice with each other and crashing the game [noparse][/noparse]

Edited September 24, 2015 by [ Jeremy ]

[Elthy]

You could use a launcher like AT or FTB, they come with preconfigured modpacks...

[Xacktar]

technic platform installs the mods for you, and has no viruses. http://www.technicpack.net/

I'd do this. This was by far the easiest mod pack to install back when I played it. It was also a lot of fun.

I believe the Feed The Beast modpack did the same thing, but it's been so long since I played I don't have the link for it anymore.

EDIT: Found it! FTB site.

Edited September 24, 2015 by Xacktar

[1of6Billion]

Wow. Thank a lot guys. I get to be a hero the next few days

[Woksaus]

If you wanna give your kid the best of two universes, you can try the Pixelmon Mod, which brings the Pokemon universe into Minecraft! I really enjoy it; it's like a Pokemon RPG (or MMO, if you go on a server). It is still in development though, so it is not the most stable or bug-free mod. It should be safe to use though. http://pixelmonmod.com/

[ZedNova]

http://www.skydaz.com/ has most of the popular mods from the MC forums, and repackages them into self-installing archives.

Haven't had a bad one from there yet.

[Jadedcat]

Obviously since I work for CurseForge, I recommend CurseForge and the Curse Client if you want to pick mods, install packs etc, it is the only site that checks all files that are uploaded, yes stuff has gotten past us in the past, but the files are checked. After CurseForge/Client; FTB ATLauncher and Technic are good installers. The main difference between the 4 installers is on the author end, not the end user side.

- CurseForge / CurseClient - Has a 24hr team that checks files and tries their best to catch problem files before they get to users, requires mod author cooperation/permission for hosting, requires mod author permission for packs, rewards authors for their work based on download count, has the FTB Official packs as well as a large number of moderated community made packs.

- FTB - does not host mods, only installs packs. Has a team that creates packs as well as community made packs. Community made packs are checked for mod author permission

- ATLauncher - does not host mods, does not host packs in the traditional way, some packs may require you visit multiple URLs and download the mods yourself, pack creators can use any download link source not just the official download

- Technic - does not host mods, has a team that creates packs. Has un-moderated community packs available, some of which are using mods without permission, some are using modified versions of mods, no one checks the community packs so they are a bit of a mixed bunch.

As to safety, none of the 4 listed launchers will intentionally load anything that's not safe, all of them have community teams that want people to be able to have fun while being safe. All 4 have varying risks of something slipping through, depending on how stringent their checking and moderation of files is, CurseForge has the most checking and safeguards of the major sites for Minecraft mods and packs.

The remaining websites that distribute mods, aside from Minecraft forums are mostly un-moderated and frequently host stolen or modified files. If the mod author doesn't link to the download on their website/forum post, especially on an un-moderated site be careful. In the end, this is the internet and people are constantly trying to get around guidelines, rules and safeguards just to prove they can, or to be mean to other people. The safest thing you can do is to try and make sure any files you are downloading are coming from the author, or were distributed with the authors consent and knowledge whether alone or in a pack. Then at least you know the file is exactly what the author intended and no one has meddled with it.

And make sure you know what he is downloading/installing. There are some adult rated mods out there.

[Pixel of Life]

FYI, if you do end up getting an FTB modpack, I'd recommend you only use the FTB launcher to download the pack and then move the mods to MultiMC or ATLauncher (or Technic, since it allows custom modpacks too - it's not as easy, though). The launcher seems to be causing memory leaks for some reason and you'll start getting horrible lag spikes after just a few minutes of playing. I've tested this with two packs (Direwolf20 and Infinity) and both had memory leaks on the FTB launcher but worked great on MultiMC.

Edit: As for viruses and other nasty stuff: I've been playing modded Minecraft ever since I bought it in 2010 and I've yet to see a mod that has malware in it. You'll be fine.

Edited September 25, 2015 by CaptainKorhonen

[Nuke]

if it trips your virus scanner, dont use it.  if had situations where loading common mods from 3rd party websites did, and needless to say i dont use those sites anymore. 

[JaimeFleming]

very meaningful, thank you

[Bej Kerman]

On 9/24/2015 at 12:35 PM, 1of6Billion said:

I *know* there are a lot of Minecraft-players in the KSP community, so I'll give it a go here...

My son (8) plays Minecraft a lot and wanted to have some mods installed. He asked me to help him. I tried a few websites, but all I found scared the living daylight out of me.

Chrome kept bugging about malificent software on the site. Other sites made me install software to download anything. Or to extract downloads. Being used to the way it works with KSP, I got suspicious.

So. Long story short: Are there sites where I can download and install Minecraft Mods from without opening the gates of Virus Hell?

People will suggest specific websites, but malware can pop up anywhere. It's best to just be vigilant and teach your son how to be vigilant, and keep tabs on scandals, suspicious websites or massive incidents that could pose a security thread. Same goes for any game or program.

On 9/24/2015 at 7:10 PM, ZedNova said:

http://www.skydaz.com/ has most of the popular mods from the MC forums, and repackages them into self-installing archives.

Haven't had a bad one from there yet.

I think it's a little suspicious that it creates installers despite the installation process for mods just being to drag and drop.

[AtomicTech]

On 11/13/2023 at 2:40 AM, JaimeFleming said:

very meaningful, thank you