First off I'd like to apologize being late on this episode, as they were supposed to be weekly updates, but I’ve been super busy nonetheless and I will show you some of the stuff I’ve done.

We’ll quickly do a list of major work that happened from the previous post until now, showcase all the new features I added on the BTWR: Core mod & also a recap of what’s the state of the modpack as a whole and how close it’s to being released for beta testing.

1. Recap of the past (almost) month

I could have written about things in much more detail if I put them in the changelog when I was doing the changes, but most of the time I’m just playing and fixing things on the go, so I forget to log everything I do…

Still, I managed to write down some of the major stuff, but I’ll try to be more organized in the future.

I think it will be helpful to do a short recap of things I have done once in a while. Like this you (the readers) will have an overview of the post and decide for yourselves if you want to read the whole thing and also it will be a list from which I can choose what to focus on today’s episode as a whole.

A) Started working on a new mod called “Bind”.

It will allow the player to place their tools as blocks in the world. Combines well with the Self Sustainable mod to alleviate some of that inventory clutter due to the the lack of proper storage in the early game.

B) Started to work on another mod - “Animageddon”

Yet another mod that I’ve been working since the previous post. When I decided to add some of those features initially in my previous (all-in-one) BTWR mod, I only added some barebones features, which will now get fledged out to work like in the original mod. I will do a short overview of the idea behind this mod in the next post.

C) Added extinguishing & ignition logic to Campfire, Oven & Torches (work in progress)

Added logic for all the above(without torches yet) so they will extinguish after a set amount of time and also ovens & campfires can be right click lit with torches & other firestarter items. This will be temporary until I work on proper fire starter item logic in BTW style in a later update.

D) Added Conventional tags for the BTWR Project as a whole.

With the conventional tags the different side mods can be made to work much easier together, by minimizing namespaces of mods that must be typed in front of items, blocks and recipe names.

As far as I’m aware - other mods that are compatible with BTWR can insert their own entries in those tags and add other modded items to work with my mods.

E) Rewrote Sturdy Trees mod for the upcoming v1.3 update.

I had to rewrite most of the logic for the Sturdy Trees mod as it was looking pretty convoluted with unnecessary stuff. I optimized the classes, made the code work better and added data pack comptability for the drops as they were hardcoded before. This will allow modpack makers to modify the loot table of blocks if they choose to do so.

F) New additions to Vegehenna.

Added Fertilizing logic to Farmland blocks.

Changed how the 4 main crops(beets, carrots, potatoes and wheat) grow. They have been slowed down and also made to only grow if there is sufficient light. (melons & pumpkins too)

G) Made a resource pack for my addon mod BTWR Create Utilities.

A small resource pack that modifies create to look more in the style of Better Than Wolves.

Modified the Shaft and cogwheel shaft’s textures to be wooden on the outside with an andesite core.

And many other small changes that I just couldn’t take the time to write down.. 😅

2. BTWR: Core Update v0.23

The mod has been updated. You can check it out here

Many things have been added since the initial version of the core(v0.22)

I’ve learned that nowadays mods don’t change the balance of the game too much themselves, but that usually happens in mod packs, so I will keep this philosophy for developing the core mod.

The side mods need to have their charm and in turn some functions will remain in an unconfigurable manner, but for the core mod I want to make it so that it has as less features that modify the gameplay as possible.

Here is the list of all the changes:

Added Custom Conventional tags to handle interactions between the sidemods better.

Fixed being unable to shear sheep with Diamond Shears.

Brought back Wooden & Stone sword recipes.
Restored vanilla mining speeds & durability of all tools.
Updated lang file to modify name of Stick to Shaft.

Added the following items/blocks:

Gear
Belt
Strap
Stone Brick
Hemp Crop, Hemp Fibers & Hemp Fabric
Light Block
Rope & Rope Coil
Scoured & Tanned leather
Cut Leather for all 3 variations (normal, scoured, tanned)

Added some Config options toggles through Mod Menu:

For disabling Baby Zombies spawning.
For knockback restrictions (needing a weapon item to do knockback to entities)

3. The state of the Modpack

The state of the modpack is pretty stable I would say. That meaning that less and less bugs occur when testing, and things are moving in a good direction.
I've won't be adding anything new besides what is needed to get a release of the pack.

All of the things in the first chapter of this post have been added too, but the mods themselves need either some work being done that is beyond me at the moment, or they have some bugs that need to be fixed.

Tough Environment is probably going to take a bit longer than expected, because my lack of drawing abilities and being unable to make custom textures for blocks is slowing me down... like all the new loose “granite, andesite, diorite, need new textures, so yeah...

Other than that still an alpha release of the modpack is at the same spot where we it was last time when I spoke about the state of the modpack in SotM #2

State of the Mods #3 - The long awaited update