StoneBlock 4 Was Supposed to Have a One-Million Post…

…But Something Happened.

We planned to write a celebratory post when StoneBlock 4 hit the first million plays in under two weeks. But before we could finish drafting it, SB4 blew past two million. The growth has been faster than previous releases and it’s a clear sign that the community is genuinely excited about the direction we took with this pack.

If you’re enjoying SB4 and want to support the project, feel free to check out the official StoneBlock 4 merch. And don’t worry; we heard your feedback, and more subtle, toned-down designs are coming this month.

StoneBlock has always been an experimental series, pushing on structures, worldgen, crazy loot, and late-game systems that lean into the “sealed-in-stone” theme. With StoneBlock 4, we rebuilt core assumptions around worldgen, progression loops, vault sequencing, and the World Engine to try and bring a fresh new experience to all of you.

What We Set Out To Do

SB4’s goal was simple to state and difficult to execute:  
retain the identity of StoneBlock while expanding its mechanical depth and giving progression a stronger sense of purpose.

To achieve this, we introduced the ring-based world generation, machine-driven World Engine progression, and the reimagined Vault system that ties exploration, combat, and puzzle solving throughout the game.

From the overwhelming feedback so far, the community appears to enjoy the depth, the technical foundation, and the room SB4 gives us to continue improving the experience for months ahead.

What We’ve Improved Already

The current update reflects the commitments we made after launch:

• A major stability and performance pass across KJS, worldgen, cross-mod scripting, and unification.
• Streamlined early- and mid-game pacing with improved quest clarity, better reward alignment, and tightened tutorial coverage.
• Quality-of-life changes across several systems: cable facades on every block, simplified steam conversion, improved vault death rules, refined progression blacklists, and parity adjustments for the newly added Refined Storage.
• Rebalancing of several high-impact systems: antimatter production, Oritech steam output, apotheosis upgrades, and combat interactions inside vaults.
• Significant bug resolution across automation chains, vault triggers, casting, AI behavior, quest logic, and block interactions. 

Several of these changes originated directly from community reports, server admins, and testers. SB4 benefits from having an actively engaged playerbase that spots issues early and pushes the systems harder than we ever can internally.

A huge thanks to everyone who’s been submitting reports and ideas. If you want to contribute or chat with the dev team directly, hop into the Discord. We’re active every day.

What We’re Continuing to Improve

Several of these changes originated directly from community reports, server admins, and testers. SB4 benefits from having an actively engaged playerbase that spots issues early and pushes the systems harder than we ever can internally.

- Faster iteration on vault structure logic and puzzle reliability.
- Continued refinement of World Engine tiers, heat interactions, and crafting parity.
- Ongoing cleanup of edge-case recipes, cross-mod integration mismatches, and a focus on fun.
- Further clarity in quest progression, including better gating signals, more examples, and improved quest-book searchability.
- Additional polish on cutscenes, animations, and in-game explanation of SB4’s unique systems.

Our consistent goal is to preserve the feel of StoneBlock while keeping the experience unique and exciting for both single-player and large servers.

If you haven’t jumped in yet, now is the perfect time; the latest update is live, and the modpack page has everything you need to get started.

Looking Ahead

The success of StoneBlock 4 reinforces our approach going into future projects. The team is already planning upcoming packs that build on the same principles: strong conceptual identity, meaningful progression, and technical depth supported by our internal tooling, QA process, and team workflows.

Thank you to every player who has jumped in, every streamer who has brought SB4 to new audiences, and every tester helping refine the pack day by day. Your involvement keeps shaping this project in real time.

More updates are coming. More content is coming. And more FTB modpacks; driven by strong concepts and community-informed ideas; are on the way.