MINECON Earth community panel – Modded Minecraft: Playing with Power

In a world where you can do anything I said anything Is this seriously all you can do Okay, let’s take this from the top In a world where you can do anything Technology Magic And much more are at your disposal Explore new realms Shape the world And find your balance

Welcome to modded Minecraft. Hello, everyone. My name is Direwolf20 and welcome to the modded Minecraft panel here at MINECON Earth We’ve collected a bunch of misfits and modders to talk to you guys a little bit today about how modding Minecraft works

What mods are all about and what mods are available for the Java Edition of Minecraft? So without further ado, I think I’m gonna introduce these guys. So starting over here on our left we have Drullkus Hi, I’m Drullkus. I do Chisel and Twilight forest, but I’ve done other Minecraft mods.

I’ve been modding for five years, I think, four possibly. I do both textures and programming Great! Great to have you here bud. Next up! Hi. I’m Vazkii I am a modder from Portugal and I’ve been doing this for like seven years now So I’m pretty much a veteran at this point

You probably know me from the Quark mods But if you don’t. I have also made a bunch of other ones and I hope you like my stuff Awesome. Awesome Mr. KingLemming? Hey, I’m KingLemming. I make a mod called Thermal Expansion

It’s a tech mod that’s been pretty prolific in the scene for about six years now I’ve also helped a little bit on Forge and that’s basically been my experience with Minecraft Cool, glad to have you here bud. Over here to my right we start with Amadornes.

Hello ,I’m Amadornes. I make quite a few mods, I have been modding for about seven to eight years now But I’m currently focusing on making the tools that these guys need to make their mods Cool And last and certainly not least Hi, I’m Brandon James Pearce You may know me as kingbdogz.

I’m in a team called Gilded games and we are known for either one, either two and now Orbis Cool. All right. Well since the topic of this panel is modding Minecraft Let’s start off with a very simple and basic question. What are mods, what do they do for you?

And how do they work? Mods are essentially modifications to the game That allow you to expand on the already existing content to add new stuff or modify what’s already there In pretty much anyway you can think of. There are mods for tons of games

But Minecraft is especially flexible in terms of what it lets us do with our mods Yeah, I’d say there’s really not much of a limit to what you can add I mean, it’s just at least with the Java edition is very open

We’re gonna discuss that I’m sure but you know new dimensions, new blocks, new items everything across the board So so all kinds of crazy stuff basically. Kind of so You can have like all kinds of like super crazy stuff completely change the way you play the game

Or you can just be a bit more grounded and down to earth and just make some really simple stuff Just add a few little simple things you want in the game.

Like oh, I really wish I had a clear bucket because it’s more balanced. So you can just grab the mod and add that. There’s hundreds of hypercomplex mods and thousands of simple ones that just do the vanilla thing but a bit more to it

Very cool. So what kind of different mods or types of mods are there? I know there’s Forge which is the topic that we’re talking about, but there’s other types of modding available, right? Oh, yeah. So one of the kinds that most people have probably interacted with in the past

Is server-side mods, so if you’ve ever played mini games, you’ve played with server-side mods Those essentially allow you to modify how the game works, but they don’t allow you to add new content to it So they’re a bit more limited than what we’re gonna be talking about

But they are still very, very powerful and very prolific Sounds good. Then there’s also Bedrock edition. There’s an actual mod in there. There’s apparently the modding API that’s going to be coming out soon but currently on this day, there’s the add-ons which lets you change the

Mobs and like, the models, how they behave, all of that. And these can come eventually installed, But you can also get them through maps on the Marketplace. Right. I think it’s worth mentioning that already one of the Java modders – Pam, who makes Harvestcraft now has a map released

So, you know, we’re starting to see that transition. Oh, it’s kind of it’s a cool thing. Right And then the main focus of this panel is is the Java based mods or forge mods And I think Brandon here is going to talk a little. Yeah, so

A lot of the mods are done with Forge and without Forge you couldn’t have any of the mods that we’ve all worked on And shout out to Lex and CPW for that because without them none of this would be possible They’ve done amazing work

So, yeah, you can get all of that through Curse forge and twitch API and stuff So yeah. Yeah, I’ll be talking about some of that as well So the main thing here is that when you go to a server that ever has mods installed

But you don’t have to install anything on your game to use them And if you go to Bedrock edition, you can grab them from the Marketplace, but right now it’s still limited. They’re gonna be working on adding more stuff

But if you want this to add all sorts of new stuff and all sorts in actual new content Then you’re gonna need to get Forge installed in your game and for Java edition

Yeah, and we’ll be talking about a little bit later in the panel how to do that because it’s really very easy and very straightforward so there’s a lot of different types of Forge mods out there. A huge variety, and what we’ve chosen to do is kind of

Break them into categories and it’s really hard to categorize these mods because so many mods exist that had so many different features to the game. so the first category that we’re gonna talk about our building enhancement mods basically Minecraft at its core is a game about building right so

When you build things in Minecraft, it’s a lot of fun everybody. Enjoys it So one of the first types of mods that came out were mods that add more building materials So I think we have a quick clip here to show you guys an example of one of the building mods that’s available

Let’s take a look Are you a builder looking for just a few more decorative blocks available in modded Minecraft? Well, look no more because now we’ve got Chisel Did I say a few I meant literally hundreds you’ve got blocks for building factories Blocks for building ancient temples Some blocks are animated

While other blocks can connect with one another And some are so large you have to place multiple locks together to get an idea of what it really is So if you like building and feel like you could use a few more blocks definitely check out Chisel Great, so the Chisel mod

I think Drullkus here on the panel had a heavy influence on making that thing so Won’t you tell us a little bit about that mod, Drullkus? A texture that’s tough. Yeah I’m so I’m the arts for the mod and so

So it’s a mod that lets you have a tool and it lets you take a block and Transfer it and do a bunch of different variations. And so there’s like so many different textures. I’ve probably done over Thousands, I would think, it’s a lot

At least 1500-ish, blocks added by Chisel some like that yeah So you get more than even vanilla Minecraft? It’s crazy. Oh, yeah And one of my favorite features of that is how those blocks can connect to each other. They can be animated there’s a lot of different ways that you

You can do and we saw also another type of building mod in the beginning intro video We saw a mob where you’re able to like take a single block and break it up into smaller pieces, right?

So I think Ama – you’re going to talk about that. Yeah, so that mod was Chisels and bits and what that mod is all about is it lets you break down a block into a 16 by 16 by 16 grid which is essentially per pixel

And it lets you combine them in the same block space with other blocks so you can make very complex Patterns you can mix and match blocks in the same space and you can do all sorts of really cool stuff with them Can it make spheres? Pixelated spheres. Blasphemous.

You’re saying we can have two slabs in one spot? Yes, totally. Sign me up. You’re done, totally. This one’s better If I remember right, actually, you just joined kind of the builders mod club, correct? I did, after years and years of reviewing mods. I finally decided to make one myself

So I worked on a mod called Building gadgets that allows you to build large structures and copy and share them with your friends So that’s a work in progress a little bit still

So that’s an example mod that allows you to build a little bit better, right it gives you more more blocks to build with However, some players decided that they wanted to advance the technological age of Minecraft and add complex machines, electricity and power systems, right Some people decided they wanted to do that.

Ears are burning Yeah, so we have a video here to demonstrate one of those types of mods Are high tech machines, gadgets and logistics more your speed? Then you should check out the thermal suite of mods

Item ducts transfer items just like hoppers do except you get to filter them either on the input or the output side And connecting multiple chests to the same ducting system is totally doable Fluid ducts work just like item ducts except they transfer liquids and liquids can be stored in tanks for use

Thermodynamics introduces its own power system sort of like electricity You can create electricity using generators Store it in energy cells for use later and then transfer it to machines that can do work for you There are dozens of machines available including, this one, that can melt down materials into liquid form

Which can be used for all kinds of interesting purposes Lots of different liquids exist and you can even throw them using floors And what tech mod wouldn’t be complete without a Futurama style transport system This is the thermal suite of mods

All right, as one of the principle developers of that mod we have KingLemming. Hey thanks – I really appreciate the video So basically is it kind of went over – it’s all about adding machines and technology to the game so that can be items

They’re usually kind of rooted in the real world a little bit things like drills and saws like Minecraft has the furnace Which is basically it’s a machine and then a lot of these tech mods are adding 16-20 new machines

So content wise, it’s a substantial amount of stuff. It’s uh, it’s are there lasers? There are lasers. I like lasers Yeah. Sign me up. Question – do flowers count? Only your flowers, actually. Yes Very cool

Yeah, so there’s a large amount of tech mods available out there and another one that comes to mind that just You know makes me think for tech mods is as you add more and more mods to your gameplay. You’re adding more items You’re adding newer blocks?

And you need to expand your storage capabilities. Chests just maybe don’t work after a while because there’s so many new things So are there any mods out there that expand the ability to store all this new stuff? We’re getting. Oh, yeah for sure

The two main tech mods that are focused on inventory management are planet istic sand refined storage and they both let you turn your items into essentially bits inside of a disk and You can store your items

That way you can import them into your system export them use them for all the crafting all sorts of really cool stuff All within that network system, right? So if I’m really sloppy with my chests, and I’m bad at organizing things That might be a good mod to grab. Yep

You can just throw the items into the system and Pull them out whenever you want them great and it organizes them for you and you can search for them So it’s a really pretty nifty mod So we’ve talked about tech mods some people kind of consider this the opposite of tech mods

But minecraft has a built in foundation of magic, right? So there’s enchantments and there’s some magical abilities going on in Minecraft and a lot of modders decided. Let’s expand upon that

So we have a video here to show in a moment that shows the examples of a magic mod that also happens to be An exploration style mod. So another great part of Minecraft is the ability to explore the area and check out new locations So let’s take a look at the twilight forest

Are you interested in the adventuring aspects of Minecraft then maybe the Twilight forest where you need to go? The Twilight forest realm comes with its own set of challenges and mysteries, but don’t worry There’s a map to lead you to where you need to go with dozens of different structures. Wait the wizards

Keep two new bosses to fight like the Naga And be sure to watch out for the Twilight lich. He’s a little bit tricky There’s a little something for everybody adventurer this is the Twilight forest

So Drullkus you worked on the Twilight forest as well as fizzle, so won’t you tell us a little bit about that mod That Naga was crazy. Yo It’s um, it’s a adventuring type boss where um you You’ve got this magical force and it’s got a bunch of hostile entities

So you’re just going through all these dungeons and you’re killing the bosses and you’re living and you get all sorts of crazy Treasures just doing all this right. So where the vanilla gameplay has, you know, the wither and the Enderdragon?

Twilight for us adds about 20 new bosses to the game right roughly a Little less but it’s like there’s the Hydra there’s the Nagas. There’s the Lich. There’s the Oh gasps and you’re not even done

You still gots the final castle? Yeah, kinda like Zelda almost I think yes, all those kind of style gameplay, right? And there’s other there’s other mods that add dimensions and stuff. So I think Brandon here Yes, so I’ve actually done two mods the same IP basically it’s Aether one and Aether two but

Either one focus just on adding like a sky lands and flirting whales and all that good stuff and lots of dungeons, bosses But then the cool thing about Aether two is we actually explore this idea of having a sort of a story

To a mod, which is not something you see too much in Minecraft modding Especially because it’s a very like emergent storytelling thing. Where you as a player You’re you’re the one that’s creating the story but this tried to do sort of something in between where you’re still it’s still your story

But there’s something guiding it along a little bit with dungeons and bosses and NPCs you can talk to so I found that really cool If I remember, right the aether was like one of the first major dimension mods, right? Yeah came out as a counterpoint to the nether. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah

The aether is so old I learned how to make mods by looking at the code of the aether so Recently it’s you know, well, it’s definitely one of the very first mods that came out. Yeah the first big ones

Yeah, and in addition to those exploration type mods, there’s there’s pure magic mods like thaumcraft Right, and I think a lot of people who have been familiar with modded Minecraft have probably heard of and played with Thaumcraft

Right. Yes. Well, Thaumcraft is that big elephant in the room that everybody who gets into mods That is like whoa, this is cool And you probably saw it in the intro those little fancy particle effects and stuff going on. That was Funcraft

Yeah, it is. I think without a doubt the biggest magic mod out there in terms of popularity. Oh, yeah for sure Yeah, I mean orders fantastic its massive and it’s amazing you Just a few examples of stuff you can do you can make like these cool gauntlets that cast spells

Make like lightning bolts and stuff and you can have these, you know, like the iron golems I think every tiny ones and they just walk around and like oh, yeah I’m gonna put this one shearing sheep and it just goes like shearing sheep. And this one’s gonna transport items

They can do all sorts of stuff for you It is super interesting and it’s super well polished And if you are gonna try out modded Minecraft, that’s when you definitely need to check out

Yeah, that’s the one I actually make them like store my items like a a system. They could move stuff around Oh, yeah, they are very intelligent. Yeah, they can bring you a stir. Yeah. Yeah, dude, that’s cool. so magic mods are another type of mod that are out there and

Really modded minecraft can be used to expand any aspect of the game. So we’ve expanded Exploration, we’ve expanded the magical capabilities. We’ve expanded the ability to build and Next up. Let’s talk about Redstone because I know when I first started playing Minecraft

I thought Redstone was like the coolest thing and that’s what I got into Ya know it’s definitely cool. So let’s take a look at Super Circuit Maker Do you like playing with redstone but don’t like how much space is required to build complex

Contraptions then Super Circuit Maker might just be the mod for you Place down a blank circuit and then place tiny piles of redstone dust on your circuit You can place down lamps or torches and about a dozen other things to help with your redstone needs

Circuits can even be chained together if you need to build something really complex And don’t worry if you’re not super good with redstone It comes with a bunch of blueprints that will help out like the And gate it even comes with a built in monocle

So you can zoom in and see what’s happening with Super Circuit Maker anything is possible with redstone So Amadornes that was your contraption right there Yeah, it was so SCM has been a whole lot of fun to work on It’s it’s probably the most fun I’ve had modding in absolute years

And it essentially allows you to build regular redstone circuits, but at a much smaller scale But it also adds a bunch of other like very neat tools. You can do analog redstone you can have levers that you can toggle with a signal and

You can do lots of very very cool stuff that you cannot do with vanilla redstone You can even build on walls, right? So that is something that players have been looking for for a long time and there you go

You got it with this. You know, I think it’s really neat, but I’m an engineer. So yeah It is a really great. Yeah,it is a very good mod. Leaders are very great by the way

Speaking of you know, so so we’ve seen all these mods that add these crazy complex features to Minecraft, but you know Vazkii What’s your thought? Yeah, I’m gonna crash the party again. I’m bringing guys down to work for a second

I’m sure everyone who here who likes how Minecraft itself is structured. Are you looking at I don’t want three billion blocks? I don’t want some new dimensions. And if you do you really should it really great

Yeah, but if you don’t there’s also a bunch of mobs out there that are more down to earth and what okay I like how vanilla is what’s had just a few little things to it

I spoke a bit about it before but there’s other bigger ones that are just designed to completely enhance the way you play Minecraft itself Without modifying the way you’re playing Minecraft itself and you got I got one. I want to show it it’s called Quark

It’s really big. It’s got I want to stuff in it. That’s all around the vanilla team and Dire got a video for it If you want to show it, I guess we can I mean, yeah, I’ll just ask for it. Please do it All right, go for it. Go

The Quark mod has one binding principle and that’s to add a bunch of cool stuff to Minecraft without compromising the vanilla gameplay experience Additions include chests made from different types of wood Including buttons to help you sort those chests and transfer items in and out of them

The ender watcher which emits a redstone signal when you look at it great for making doors The ability to place chests within boats right around in the boats and access that chests inventory additions to world gen including crystal caves

Underground biomes like the brimstone biome it even has nifty emotes like the wave or the facepalm There are literally hundreds of different features each separated into different categories and all these features have an in-game configuration system Quark truly looks to extend your vanilla gameplay experience

So absolutely, I think that if you’re just getting new into modding and you’re looking to have a few tweaks and a few extension style You currently play Minecraft, Quark is definitely good one to take a look at

That was my idea there. I want it to be like the introductory thing you get into modded You grab Quark and then six hours later. You have to be on your mod without your mod back, so. Exactly That’s a lot more accessible than magical flowers. Yeah

I don’t that’s true. I’m glad you mention mod packs, too Because when I’ve encountered players who are new to mods They get a little confused between the differs between a mod and a mod pack

So, you know who wants to tell us a little bit about mods versus mod packs. I may as well talk about it So mod packs are essentially groups of mods they’re usually Tailored experiences. There are small pack makers that spend hundreds and hundreds of hours Combining mods together configuring them

Changing recipes all that sort of stuff to make a full cohesive experience And something that is completely new completely different from how the game normally plays Right. Yeah Can I crash the party again now? I’m here The party but the only thing I do in this panel, all right well

I’m going to crash the party again and say that if you, you the player Wants to put like a few mods you like together It is super simple to do that and we’re gonna talk about that in just a little bit, right.

But for now, I want to tell you that’s even though you have these crazy Experiences that you can go and easily download with one click actually. It’s actually very nice nowadays Yeah, that completely changed the way you play the game You can also get really simple stuff you can also say oh

I want to just add this and this and that and You put them together you upload them to the sites and you can very easily share them with your friends and make this Compilation of mods which you can play with your friends you send them the link make a server play with it

It’s fun and it’s easy. Yeah, you don’t have to go for the crazy stuff You can always be more down-to-earth which something that’s why I’m crashing the party so much because they’re just massive

Misconception around modding that it’s all crazy stuff that completely revamps the game. It can’t be if you want it to be It doesn’t have to be and you know, if you want that kind of experience, you know A well curated crafted mod pack those exist

You can just go download those go find them and I think it’s it’s worth mentioning There is a mod specifically called Craft tweaker made by Jared it helps all these mods kind of glue together and mesh It’s really well done

And he deserves a shout out for that because it makes some of the the crazier modding seem possible way and Massive shout-out to everyone working at the crazier modding scene because you may not even recognize the game is Minecraft anymore

That’s how still one of us you can’t get away from that. Sorry. No, I I’m trying to crash the party three times That’s enough. Okay. Yeah So so so speaking of mod packs and having custom maps built

We’ve shown a lot of mods that are useful to amplify your survival gameplay experience, but some people like playing in creative mode Right where they can just build really cool and large structures and one of the mods that’s available

Just recently came out. Actually. It’s called Orbis and really helps out with that. So let’s take a look at it Orbis is a highly advanced world editing mod that allows you to create edit and share structures

Fill mode can be used to fill in areas with blocks. You can also undo it if you make a mistake Delete mode can be used to delete large areas of blocks from the world And if you hold a certain block in your hand, it’ll only delete those types of blocks

Selection mode allows you to select an area of the world and then you can copy it and paste it again and If you make a mistake, you can easily undo it Blueprints can be made with multiple layers layer 2 is the gold while layer 1 is the stone

These blueprints can be saved and shared with your friends With about a dozen other structures that I haven’t yet shown here Orbis is a map makers dream So Brandon dude, I gotta say when I saw that mod I was blown away. I was like, this is cool. Well done

Oh, yeah, definitely. I’ve been working on it for quite a while I’ve actually been programming and modding for like nine years now And the reason why I started this is because I just wanted to make the whole process of making content easier

And so that helps you know for mod developers it helps for artists helps for mod packs, which is you know, Sort of the segue into into Orbis where you can just all the content and all the mods that you have

You can create the little bridges of content that connect it all together to make it this Cohesive experience and it’s are you able to do that without programming? It’s so good. Yeah Yeah, so I guess the next big question is I’m a player. I want to play with these mods

I’ve never played with them before. How do I get them? Like where do I go to get these mods and start playing with them? Curse Forge Or twitch or the twhitch app. Yeah, we all agree on this one, right? Yeah.

So Curse Forge has become the repository where a lot of mods have been stored And the easiest way to access them is through the twitch app, which is available at app.twitch.tv And it’s it’s basically a point-and-click interface

I want this mod click and it installs it and then you hit the game and you can start playing with it And mod packs and share them with your friends and play them together Yeah, this is this is the way to go. Absolutely very mature ecosystem at this point

So none of you guys worked for Mojang or work for Microsoft. So does that mean anybody can just make a mod like But actually it is a lot easier than Um, so do you have to be a programmer like do I have to know programming to get into making mods?

Oh, I didn’t and I’m here. So yeah Drullkus does other stuff yeah, so don’t really have to be a programmer to get into modding. ’cause as you saw with the Chisel mod

I’ve been just doing textuing for that for maybe a year or so before I really got into helping out with the codes and I mean the other people on the team have done a fantastic job

But it’s awesome to being able to help out and it was like wow. It’s a lot of textures. Yeah Yeah, so no programming required just artistic skill on your part, right? Yeah, and I don’t think hardly any of us were programmers before we started playing with mod

So we used that as a segue to get into programming I knew programming but no Java, and that’s how I learned it. Okay. Yeah, it’s it’s actually really easy to get into coding

Programming and modding like all in a package because you are playing the game when you’re like, okay. I want to make this thing So you start looking at the resources required to make that thing you start looking at the Java tutorials and the modding tutorials Which are all very well laid out

So if you want to get into programming at all, don’t even just for modding. I highly recommend you do that I highly recommend you grab an idea you want to make and then you look at modding and how to get into it

That’s how I got started. And yeah, I’m here. I think your passion will actually drive you to learn Oh, yeah, just just knowing that like wow, I can do all this stuff if I just you know, learn a few skills It really drives you. I really think so. Sure

And do you think the skills you guys learned in making mods are helping you now? Absolutely. I mean I’ve learned management skills I’ve learned Marketing skills just time management You know It’s like you there are so many skills that are actually valuable in just day-to-day life and it’s just just from making mods

Yeah crazy I’ve learned game design from it Which is a very, very difficult thing to do if you as a viewer, know what game design is You know, it’s really, really complex but making something that is fun. That is entertaining that is cohesive as a whole

Is really, really difficult and I think a lot of mod developers have learned that through modding, right? Yeah It’s it’s never just like oh, it’s it’s a game or something How you you know, how hard could it be actually kind of hard? Yeah little effort goes into it

But yeah, you know, I personally I learned how to use git because even though I’ve coded for years I never really picked it up. So yeah workflows rules, things like that. So it’s been helpful You gotta want a very basic experience on all sorts of

Stuff you want to do because in a way the work you do for modding is somewhat similar to work for an actual job. Because you’re getting tickets coming in with bugs and doing all sorts of stuff and you’re doing texturing or maybe having someone else texturing

Yeah, it’s the art pinata right here. Yeah But I for example got into computer science I’m studying computer science right now and I got into it because I got into coding first into modding and I’m like Oh, this is cool

I want to do this and here I am so if you’re interested in the field of computer science Which actually has a lot of requests and job opportunities? Give modding a shot You might actually enjoy it and you might find something you want to seek as a career and if you don’t well

It’s a lot fun I guess hopefully and at the end of the day like it’s just easy to learn skills when you’re doing something you’re passionate about and it’s something that you Think as a hobby. That’s the best way to learn

So do you guys feel like you’ve had some career opportunities come out of of what happened when you got into modding? I mean, you know, we’re all here right now, which has been really cool and a lot of fun

Yeah, you know it’s but I’ve had a couple of friends that have worked with me on the mod they have actually had great career opportunities from this so one of them is doing texturing now professionally now one actually works at twitch and it’s been Excellent for their careers and I regret nothing

I mean This is an awesome And I think we can even say that like a few of the new recent hires at Mojang have come out of the modding Oh, yeah. Cojo, Fry Saarge who got hired like a few years ago already. Professor Mobius.

It’s a lot of people. Originally on the Bukkit team? Right. Yeah, Dinnerbone. So long story short guys. That’s a lot of what you should know about Forge modding It’s a lot of fun to play with it’s very easy to access

It’s very easy to find and download these mods nowadays. Back in the day it was a little bit of a barrier to entry But it’s pretty cool. And if you’re interested in making your own mods I highly recommend you take a shot at it This is Direwolf20 and the group of misfits

Here on the modding minecraft panel. Hope you guys enjoyed it and enjoy the rest of MINECONEarth. Take it easy guys Bye!