The ABCS of Nomad-Mode Mod: The Advanced Backpack Construction System 1.0.0

[Jobediah Timberman]

I had no idea how far I could take this, but leave it to this incredible game engine to make it possible, as well as easy to implement. You could say I've been working on this since December 18, according to the oldest recipe image I found. That only 10 days after I started playing. So this is something I quickly felt was going to be needed, but it needed to be done right. I couldn't push the gameplay too far from what the majority expects.

So imagine my surprise when someone recently suggested exactly the kind of game mode that I'm almost done developing. Now I know I haven't gone *too* far, and I made it a challenge to get there anyway. 

This mod is for those like me, and apparently there are quite a few, who wish that we could explore the surface world for a few hours to find just the perfect spot to set up base. Or, just keep on roaming the almost endless landscape, gathering resources to build yourself a spacious inventory, and then using that space to store up every bit of supplies you come across. Perhaps by way of looting out every ancient ruin you can find for miles on end. 

When you finally land in that perfectly awesome spot, where you instantly know that home sweet home belongs, you'll have all you need to set up base. Or, perhaps with this newfound taste of freedom, your spirit will never settle down, and you won't stop moving until you've climbed every mountain, and fallen off every edge of the world. 

Spoiler

I felt the Super looked a little weird with small top pockets, so instead, the bottom side pockets wrap around the taller top pockets, part of which are inside the bottom pocket. I like the sense of realism you get by saying those pockets are for longer or taller items, even though it doesn't matter which slot you put them in.

Suggestions are welcome, and compliments are very much appreciated. I'm not the most creative when it comes to modeling, as you can see from the fact that this is just a re-skinned ripoff of the standard backpack. 

There's a simple reason for such a drastic change to early game, and the new possibility to follow an entirely different style for the whole game. I don't think MineCraft has worlds this big, or with this much variation to it all. There are genuine reasons to be a life-long explorer, or to not settle down for weeks. 

And now, that will be possible, but only after a good, satisfying amount of harvesting and crafting along the way to acquire this freedom. 

Anyway, let's get to the good part, the "Map" I had to create just to help sell everybody on this idea. I wanted this to be so self-explanatory that anyone somewhat experienced with the game could grasp the concept within 2 or 3 minutes. I'm also just as curious to find out what a total noob would think of this, whether it would lure them in or push them away.

Start with Red, follow the arrows, and taste the rainbow. Some steps can't be made, as you can see from the lines at the bottom.

If you look at the "2->6" step, left of Step 1, you'll see the whole layout. The Mini Backpack has 5 positions to add Linen Sacks as Pockets, using corresponding locations on the Crafting Grid. 

Every Pocket requires either a Linen Sack and Twine, or Linen and 2 Twine, which is identical. This is the reason for each step having two recipes, if that isn't obvious enough from the color coding. 

The only way that this could possibly work is if it followed the game's requirement of manual labor to achieve something. On top of that it had to fit in with as many existing items, as well as just making logical sense. And thanks to the brilliance of this game's design and modding system, I was able to pull it off better than I first imagined.

It's amazing how the work involved to acquire something literally changes it's value. And it's surprising how a game is actually no fun at all when it just hands you everything. In this case, you're going to need 60 Reeds and 144 Flax Fibers to get a full sized backpack, and do that 3 more times for maximum inventory. 

Enough rambling already, less yacky more packy.

 

ABCS 1.0.0 Download Link:

ABCS_v1.0.0.zip

 

As you can see from the map, it took quite a long time to develop this properly. I had to fully understand how far to push the idea, and how to work it into the current system of items. Initially I had 3 stages, and I had no plans for this to expand to 6 stages, because that would have been ridiculous if I stuck with the standard of 5 slots per Linen Sack.

At first I only shrunk the size of Linen Sacks to 4 slots, making the stages 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, and 28. The more I played with it, the more that this seemed genuinely excessive. At first I was still reluctant to shrink it to 3 slots, and whether to go with 4 for a Sack and 3 for a Pocket, but in the end, reducing it to 3 wound up making perfect sense. 

I had to take into consideration the new concept of the Mini Backpack having 8 slots. Having only 3 items in a Linen Sack is tolerable, because it won't take too long to move up to the Mini, especially since you can use the Sack to create it. 

Anyway, I stuck with the idea that I should re-use whatever was available already, after trying to come up with a whole new item to flesh out the concept. So I knew it would involve the Stationary Basket somehow. At first I played with the idea of using a higher-tier Saw to cut Wood Boards into "Thin Wood Slats", which could be used to make compartment separators for an organized storage device. 

But eventually realized that something like this couldn't be put behind the progression wall of requiring an Anvil. Likewise, I was originally going to require Wood Boards to reinforce the bottom of the Backpack, but once I decided on Nomad Mode, that wasn't an option either. 

Finally I decided on taking a Stationary Basket and wrapping it up in a Linen Sack or Linen + Twine which is the same thing, and using another unit of Twine to assemble it with the straps. And the straps are made from 6 units of Rope arranged in 2 vertical strips of 3, resembling a backpack as best as possible. 

I love how I was able to make the process revolve around a repeating pattern. First you combine the Reeds into a Stationary Basket, then put the Basket in the center, and surround it with more parts for the Mini Backpack, and then surround the Mini Backpack with Linen Sacks to upgrade it further and further. 

Throughout the process, you can keep making Linen Sacks to fill up your extra Basket Slots, and use them as inventory immediately, and then later use them for the next Backpack you upgrade. And since you'll be needing 4 Stationary Baskets anyway, you can make those in advance to help juggle your inventory while you're assembling backpacks. 

If you take the time to save up all the resources, most of the crafting work is still there, but you can jump from the Mini to the Ultra in one step. I could also include a recipe that's just 60 Reeds + 144 Flax, but that would be stupid. Like, why not just go pluck a ripe Ultra Backpack from a Backpack Tree or something. 

Other info and more ramblings

Spoiler

I'm glad I took extra time to finish this, because I managed to find a terrible bug I almost created and released. I wanted to make Linen Sacks a stackable item, but unfortunately this allows them to be stacked on the Basket Slots. When you put an item into the stacked sacks, and then separate the sacks into separate basket slots, each sack would have a clone of the items. 

So for the time being you can't stack Linen Sacks, so you'll want to avoid creating too many of them until you're ready to use them. Also, watch out that you don't make so many Linen Sheets that you run out of Twine to do anything with them. I suppose a fix for that would be a recipe to use the Knife with Linen to get 4 Twines back, but that seems a little too unrealistic, and should result in losing some material, which also raises issues. Not sure how to handle that yet.

I've also thought of having extra Grid Recipes for cases where you have one Linen Sack made but want to add 2 Pockets, without having to turn the second Linen into a Sack first. But that would just complicate things, especially the Handbook. 

Speaking of which, we probably need an option to be able to split the Handbook Recipes instead of animating them in the same space, to showing them all individually. It works fine in cases like showing what type of knives can be used on the same recipe. When only one or two blocks changes to a similar item there's no problem.

 

The ABCS Companion: Nomad Mode Mod

In order to get the whole experience to work properly, I've created a separate mod, which is actually completely unconnected to the ABCS, that will provide more Flax to make this a reasonable endeavor. 

The "Nomad Mode Mod" only modifies Flax to give more resources, with stage 5/9 having very small chances of giving flax, seeds, and fibers. I went through the process of starting over almost a dozen times to see if I still wound up with too much Flax or Seeds, or if the Fibers were too easy to find, allowing me to assemble 4 Ultra Backpacks within too little time. 

Originally in WorldGen, the Chance variable for Flax spawning is 0.05. I started by trying 0.5, which was just stupid amounts, so immediately quit that attempt and dropped it to 0.25. I can't recall what I tried next, 0.12 or 0.15, but after trying 0.10, it was still too much. I settled on 0.08, which might still be just a tad too much for those wanting a longer challenge. Or it might work fine, we'll see.

I separated these mods so that there can be more than one version of this. The 1.0.5 version is for adding Nomad Mode to an existing world, by way of making all the existing Flax give of more resources, especially Fibers. 

The 1.0.8 version adds WorldGen to increase Chance to 0.08 as well as expand the regions that Flax can be found. Let me know if this is still too much or too little, and what kind of difficulty you're expecting. I've tested it several times, starting over on new maps. I also wanted to play with very large world heights, which works pretty good for the most part, aside from occasional flickering. 

Nomad Mode Mod 1.0.5 + 1.0.8 Download Links:

Existing Worlds (WorldGen at 0.05 Chance, Flax drops boosted)

NomadModeMod1.0.5.zip

New Worlds (Flax WorldGen at 0.08 Chance, Flax drops slightly boosted)

NomadModeMod1.0.8.zip

 

Disclaimers and very mild warnings about savegame size:

Spoiler

The only downside to this mod I know of now is that the more of the world you explore, the larger the savegame database becomes. You'll want to make sure you have several gigabytes free before exploring the entire 1,000,000 x 1,000,000 block map. Otherwise you'll reach the "end of the world" much sooner than the physical edge. 

For the sake of testing this mod properly, I recommend starting a new map, and seeing how Nomad Mode Mod and ABCS feel. I see no reason it should be a problem to install this into an existing world, but as with any new mods, you should do a backup first just for safety sake. If you're not aware, the Edit button on the right of the Savegame list has options like renaming, deleting, and creating a backup.

The only issue I can think of is that if the community decided we should adjust the inventory slots, such as dropping them all by 1 or 2, any savegames won't be updated to reflect that. Of course if we adjust the background colors of the slots, or update the backpack models, such changes will be updated no problem. 

Once an item is created in a world, it keeps the properties of it that it can, even if the mod is disabled. This is why existing savegames will still have 5 inventory slots for a Linen Sack, unless you have never created one before. I can't change that in an existing savegame. In any case, once the storage item exists in the world, it's quantity can't change, and disabling the mod will not cause you to lose your items. It will just be a question block instead of a backpack. 

I'm just clearing things up for anyone who's new to adding mods, worried about the possible glitches, and can't resist the temptation of this one. 

Anyway, comments and suggestions are welcome.

And some "Happy Birthdays" to my mother would be nice. It's hard to buy gifts for someone who's always had more than she enough. I feel that all I can do is show people the person she created and give her something to brag about. She won't brag about herself, after all. Neither will my father, but, it's her birthday, and ladies first. 

I will gladly accept a Cookie Time or other such reaction. I "Won the Day" on the forum when I started posting all my mods 2 days ago, I'd like to see it happen again on her B-day. This is the only time I'll be asking for Likes, because it's not for me anyway. 

Enough chit chat, time for you Nomads to strap up your new backpacks, and set off for that wild blocky yonder. Check out my other mods later when you get tired of all that new freedom. 

[ThePionier]

A wonderful mod!
Exactly what you need as a lonely nomad!

And of course Happy Birthday to your mother!

[Avos Cast]

very cool. Happy birthday to your mom

[exile1st]

I saw the comments of the nomad lifestyle discussion post and that people think that your backpack is too expensive and I think I have a solution that should help, instead of using linen sacks you could use the hunter backpacks and rope as an alternate recipe to make it easier for people to make early. I say this mainly because if you want to use that much linen you basically have to build a farm to get enough fibers. This mod is amazing though and I hope you continue tweaking things!

[Lisabet]

ABCs 1.0.0 works in 1.16rc4

I don't know about the nomad mode though; and the weavers weed mod hasn't worked since before 1.15