Running All the Mods 10 with Friends: What to Expect

All the Mods 10 has 450+ mods, 18 million downloads on CurseForge, and one consistent complaint: you start the server and then stare at a console that does nothing for 12 minutes. That's not a bug — here's what the first hour actually looks like, and what you actually need to run it.

What ATM10 actually is

ATM10 is a kitchen-sink modpack. It includes progression, tech, magic, and exploration systems all in one install — not a themed experience built around a single mechanic.

The target audience is friend groups who've exhausted vanilla and want a long-term project server. If your group wants to spend 200+ hours unlocking every progression system across a dozen mods, ATM10 is designed for that.

It is not a good fit for players new to Minecraft or for groups that just want to explore and build together. For those groups, a smaller pack like Create: Above and Beyond or Vault Hunters gives a more focused experience with lower overhead.

The startup time problem — and why 10–15 minutes is normal

ATM10 has 450+ mods. Each mod runs through a registration phase at startup — blocks, items, biomes, entities, and recipes all need to be registered before the game world loads. That takes time.

The console will go quiet for 2–3 minute stretches while mod data is compiled and loaded. This is expected behavior, not a server hang. If the process never completes, that's a separate problem — but silence during startup is not one.

The first boot after a fresh install is the slowest. Subsequent boots are faster as the JVM warms up and caches what it can. Expect the 10–15 minute window on first launch; later boots typically take 5–8 minutes depending on hardware.

Java 21 vs Java 17 — why it matters for ATM10

Use Java 21, not Java 17. ATM10 supports both, but Java 21's garbage collector handles the large heap sizes and frequent allocation patterns of big modpacks measurably better.

The G1GC tuning flags recommended for ATM10 are well-documented. Use the following JVM arguments (Aikar's flags, updated for Java 21):

-Xms8G -Xmx12G
-XX:+UseG1GC
-XX:+ParallelRefProcEnabled
-XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=200
-XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions
-XX:+DisableExplicitGC
-XX:+AlwaysPreTouch
-XX:G1NewSizePercent=30
-XX:G1MaxNewSizePercent=40
-XX:G1HeapRegionSize=8M
-XX:G1ReservePercent=20
-XX:G1HeapWastePercent=5
-XX:G1MixedGCCountTarget=4
-XX:InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent=15
-XX:G1MixedGCLiveThresholdPercent=90
-XX:G1RSetUpdatingPauseTimePercent=5
-XX:SurvivorRatio=32
-XX:+PerfDisableSharedMem
-XX:MaxTenuringThreshold=1
-Dusing.aikars.flags=https://mcflags.emc.gs
-Daikars.new.flags=true

Replace -Xms8G -Xmx12G with the appropriate values for your plan. Set both -Xms and -Xmx to the same value to avoid heap resizing overhead.

How much RAM you actually need

The ATM10 wiki recommends 12GB. That figure is for a lightly loaded server. Real RAM requirements scale with player count.

Players	Minimum RAM	Recommended RAM	Noogservers tier
1–3	10 GB	12 GB	Pro
4–10	12 GB	16 GB	Elite

Server RAM and client RAM are separate. Each player's machine also needs 6–8 GB allocated to their Minecraft launcher to run ATM10 without crashes. Players who haven't increased their launcher memory allocation past the default 2–4 GB will hit client-side crashes before the server becomes a bottleneck.

The honest summary: when ATM10 is worth it

ATM10 is worth the setup cost if your group wants a long-term project server, likes deep progression systems, and is comfortable with occasional modded-Minecraft quirks — unexpected crashes, mod interactions, the occasional corrupted chunk.

Skip it if your group just wants to explore and build together, or if anyone in the group is new to Minecraft. The overhead is real: 10-minute startups, stricter RAM requirements, and client setup friction add up. Start with a smaller pack and move up to a kitchen-sink pack once the group knows what they want from modded.

If your group ends up wanting something lighter to start, Vanilla, Fabric, Forge, NeoForge: Which One Fits Your Crew? covers the options.