currently on sale on steam 20% off. anyone played this? one of those rare "overwhelmingly positive" reviewed games. like factorio but apparently more inspired by stellaris and The Wandering Earth and an indie game developed in the Good China.
the lead developer is named Mao Mao which is based as fuck.
It's also another suggestion based off of your comment about playing through some technical Minecraft modpacks, but Create: Above and Beyond for 1.16.5 is a pretty solid experience if you haven't played it.
It's centered around the Create mod (and has quest-based progression to guide you through it), but it's expansive enough with its other mods that non-technical players can also really enjoy the additional building/magic paths that they can optionally go down.
I'm no expert in pack balance or anything like that (and create is the specific interest I had in the pack), but it was a great choice as it allowed my little friend group of technical, magic, and building aesthetic focused players to all live in harmony.