As of September 2019, Geomastery is no longer being updated or maintained. Thank you to everyone who played and gave us feedback! It was great fun to work on.
The code will remain available on GitHub, and is under an AGPL license. That means anyone is free to update, modify, or extend it, as long as you credit my original work. (I would love to hear about it if anyone does this!).
Overview
Geomastery is a mod for Minecraft survival mode which makes the early game harder and slower, while improving on the simulation of real-world ancient technology development.
Geomastery is all about survival mode. If you enjoy unlimited sandbox building, you will play in creative mode. We are making survival mode harder and more involved and our general impulse has been to slow down the rate of technological progress in the game. When you’ve been playing Minecraft for a while, you can survive, make a safe home and be mining diamonds within about twenty minutes. In Geomastery, you'll be lucky if your camp looks like this in your first week.
Changes
Geomastery changes many different aspects of the game.
Inventory. Your starting inventory is drastically limited, with far fewer slots and very small stack sizes for most items. But as you develop, you will be able to create equippable items to increase your inventory size again - although wearing them will slow you down! Some items are so heavy they can only be carried in your offhand slot and will also decrease your speed.
Food. You now have three hunger bars; protein, carbs, and fruit/veg. They are filled and drained independently, and each bar can starve or heal you depending on its fullness - although these health effects happen much more slowly than in vanilla. Many food items will also decay over time, so you’ll need a steady supply to keep you going. Sleeping overnight will cost you a chunk of hunger, but will also give you a health boost.
Temperature. This new factor affects you constantly, and if your temperature is too extreme you will take damage. Cold places, high altitudes, and water will all cool you down; while fires, hot biomes, and clothing will keep you warm. A GUI icon next to your hotbar will let you know your approximate temperature.
Technology. There are many different types of crafting and furnace devices based on realistic early technology development. You will need to use the right device for the right purpose, because recipes aren’t available everywhere. Some crafting equipment is vulnerable to weathering, and will eventually be destroyed if you leave it exposed to the elements. There are also various new tools you can craft for specific purposes.
Farming. Many new types of crops can be found, in biomes dependent on their growing conditions. Some only grow in water, some create tall vines which stay when the crop is harvested, and you can also find new trees whose leaves drip with fruit. Farming actions are also slower and harder; tilling earth requires you to break the dirt block with a hoe, and crop blocks break slowly (but quicker with a sickle!). Harvesting food from an animal is also not so easy; a killed animal now drops a heavy carcass which must be broken with a hunting knife to obtain its items.
Building. Most vanilla blocks cannot be placed in the ways you’re used to, and some are affected by gravity. There are many new blocks you can craft and use for building, although these are still subject to restrictions; you’ll need to consider the weight of the materials you’re using, and building out over air requires special consideration.
Combat. The materials used for armour and weapons have changed to fit in with other technology development. There is also a new weapon: the spear. This does moderate melee damage, but can also be thrown as a powerful but short-range reusable projectile.
Plans
We have plans to develop Geomastery much further. Our highest priorities at the moment are:
Trees. We have a major overhaul planned, which will affect the ways trees are generated, grown, harvested, and used.
Mobs. We intend to significantly change or replace many vanilla mobs; including changing the way monsters spawn and fight, and the way passive animals are farmed and hunted.
Magic. We are in the early planning stages of creating a complex magical technology tree.
Images:
Crops; including peppers, rice, pumpkins, and cotton
Armourer, mason's workshop, forge, stone furnace, woodworking bench
Geomastery is new and under active beta development. Crashes are possible, major changes in subsequent updates are likely, and bugs are pretty much guaranteed. Give us issues!
Geomastery is compatible with Just Enough Items for viewing and using recipes of all kinds.
Some people have had an issue with blocks being invisible when using Optifine - please report this to Optifine, it is a closed-source coremod and there's nothing we can do about their incompatibilities.
So far, we have not made intentional efforts to be compatible with any gameplay mods. We've thought of Geomastery more like a modpack all of its own. It changes many fundamental aspects of the game (and has plans to change many more!), so it might be hard or impossible to make compatible with other major game-changing mods, and it's not a priority for us at the moment. That said, if you do find it compatible with other mods and/or want to include it in a modpack, feel free as long as you credit us properly!
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
6/17/2015
Posts:
394
Discord:
PsychedeliCon#5929
Member Details
Seriously, this mod... is the first really good mod I've seen released on MCF in months. This looks promising. I used to be part of a modding team that was working on stretching the early game to over a week back in 2012 already (was called Minecraft Evolution) with a similar concept, but this is way better than what we had back in the day, and I really cannot wait to see what else you are going to add to this mod. I really really think you should apply some more biome changes as well... heck I'd even love to join into the development if I wasn't all busy with other stuff already... keep this up. Don't let the lack of replies drag you down. I saw this on the day you posted it but was just too tired to think of a comment at the time, so now its weekend and I got back to here. Great stuff man. Textures are very nicely done, the blocks are... hell I have so many ideas how this could become even better. I used to be the creative mind behind alot of our projects from 2012 to 2016... that was before I became a member on here tho. I was just designing the concepts on skype where the team was based. Anyways... long speech, short statement:
Awesome mod. Keep it up! It is so very refreshing to finally see a good mod be released for once. I'd recommend you to take it to 1.12 asap tho, that could get you alot more clicks as well.
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
6/17/2015
Posts:
45
Member Details
Thanks for the feedback! We don't have particularly imminent plans for biome changes, but we haven't conclusively ruled it out so you never know. 1.12 is definitely planned - there are some pretty big changes that might be tough to work out but it should get there eventually.
I am keen to see this mod progress. Reminds me of the Better than Wolves mod.
There are a few good standalone mods I would like to play at some time, ideally with my wife. Any plans or thoughts on how this would work in the future on a bukkit server?
Yo, add windmills that grind flour if u already haven't? Add a picture of it if you have it.Again this looks super dope. Ima show my wife once she gets out of the shower.
I am keen to see this mod progress. Reminds me of the Better than Wolves mod.
There are a few good standalone mods I would like to play at some time, ideally with my wife. Any plans or thoughts on how this would work in the future on a bukkit server?
Yo, add windmills that grind flour if u already haven't? Add a picture of it if you have it.Again this looks super dope. Ima show my wife once she gets out of the shower.
Bukkit is a completely different base to forge so it's not compatible - we'd need to essentially re-create the mod for the bukkit API unfortunately. No windmills yet, although that's a nice idea! Hope you enjoy trying it out.
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
6/17/2015
Posts:
394
Discord:
PsychedeliCon#5929
Member Details
If you allow monsters to break down blocks, you could make building even more of a progression by implementing an upgrade path. For example.
Wood frame, upgrade to a wood block, upgrade to a plated wood block (as in, wood block that resembles a building wall more, for example by rotating the texture 90 degrees -> upward planks on buildings are very common in alot of countries).
Or alternatively an iron frame made of an iron ingot in a type of forge -> upgrades to a scrap iron block -> upgrades to a reinforced iron block -> upgrades into a steel block.
Or a concrete frame which is essentially wooden plates strapped together with string -> upgrades to a wet concrete block -> upgrades to a dry concrete block -> upgrades to a reinforced concrete block.
So you have alot more progression in buildings as well, which will be necessary because of the monsters being able to tear down your base, so you need blocks that can pack a punch.
First mining expedition went about as could be expected - I found a
cavern, I carefully descended (using all of my ladders), I fell in, I
found lots of stuff, and I could get out. I've never missed Smart Moving more.
However, I wasn't going to let that deter me, so once I found my way
back to the shaft and determined that there was no possible way to get
out normally, I switched on Creative and flew out.
I found tin (!), and iron (!!), and salt (?!), so I can finally get my sawpit together.
The mining run took a load out of me, though. I forgot to bring my
woollies, so I was pretty hungry by the time I got out. Then it was
raining, and apparently the rain in the plains (through woollies) is
still enough to give you frostbite, so it was interesting.
I'm really, really loving the tree-collapsing mechanic. It's making
me both clean up the leaf blocks, but clean up the ground as well so
that it doesn't go all helter-skelter.
....like the time it nearly took out my rice paddy. Lucky!
Really wish there was something I could do with leaves. Sticks are
my primary fuel now, but outside of composting I don't think I've used a
single leaf.
(reposted from the project page)
After Action Report, Day 3 (part 2)
I've built my chicken coop. I discovered that double-thick mud brick
walls have no ledge, so I dug one block down into the dirt and put
those around it, and a ladder on it so I have a ledge. Ladders don't
seem to be attaching to log or mud brick walls, so I think that's the
best I'm getting.
On a related note, I have become the Johnny Appleseed of sheep. Now
and again I'll grab a fistful of grain and go breed wild sheep, just to
be sure I won't run out.
As an aside, I think you've really hit a sweet spot on food. There's
enough distinction between the different plants in how they grow etc
that it's not cosmetic differences, and the food groups don't really
force you too hard down one true path.
OTOH, would really love to make sandwiches. ;-)
Next step: proper construction
(reposted from the project page)
Would it be possible to get a gfycat post or something for roof construction? I've been fiddling around with it in Creative, and I haven't figured out how to extend a roof past the first block...
(reposted from the project page)
After Action Report, Day 4, part 1
After some Creative testing, I've been entirely unable to suss out how to extend pitched roofs. So, exploration!
I think I've found nearly every wild crop, but still zero luck on fruit trees. The search continues.
An interesting bit of balance. Healing seems to impact hunger very
very lightly, but once I started sprinting across distances it seemed to
become A Thing again. Really makes me want a horse!
For the record, still haven't used a bed yet. I should, just to set
my spawn. But it's been pretty unnecessary, and the food loss scared me
away early game.
OTOH, that's not something that's hard to work around. Pick a few
tomatoes, bake some bread, eat a few eggs (chicken coop is paying off!).
Means I could plan for a marathon trip and bring food supplies.
I took a substantial chunk of time and poles to make a roof for my
new sawpit, only to realize it was one of the few structures that
doesn't take rain damage. Teach me not to read the manual...
Got a wild hair, decided to do a small base tour here.
(reposted from the project page)
After Action Report, Day 4, part 2
Decided to try circling my trees in dressed stone, to avoid having
to clear grass every time I go logging. On one hand, double-stacked
pavers work very well and look nice - almost like a city park. OTOH,
finding out that I can't place stone walls on double-stacked pavers was a
bummer. I would love being able to use something other than
hard-to-break, vanishes-when-broken rubble for my floor.
Bread doesn't seem to spoil. Is that intentional?
After a few low-yield trips to the mountains and back, I made a
second mason's shop, placed it in a saddle between two peaks (just below
the line where my woollies stopped protecting me), gave it a roof and
have been using that to make pavers in the field. So, solid points for
realism there.
Rice plants seem to let underwater dirt turn into grass. Just FYI.
(reposted from the project page)
As a thematic suggestion, you may want to disallow the use of sticks in the stone furnace. I can see arguments either way, but I wanted to throw that out there.
Figured I'd start posting here instead of Curse, since Curse doesn't like long posts and MCF are chill. I just moved everything I hadn't seen a response to. Sorry for the spam, Jazzable!
Figured I'd start posting here instead of Curse, since Curse doesn't like long posts and MCF are chill. I just moved everything I hadn't seen a response to. Sorry for the spam, Jazzable!
No worries, I think it's probably better here. Thanks for the continued updates!
Here is an imgur album with screenshots and a bit of explanation on building roofs. They function pretty much identically to vanilla stairs in the way they are shaped and constructed.
Rubble shouldn't vanish when broken! If that happens it's a bug, pls report Also, rubble is a shovel-type block, so that's the quickest way to break and move it around, if you haven't found out yet. (Something else for the wiki.. you are really helping to point out our missing spots)
Yes, bread is supposed to be spoil-less! Think hardtack.
Interesting spot about rice and grass. I don't see any particular problem with that, but I'll keep an eye out in case it becomes a too-useful workaround.
And thanks for all the positive feedback. It's really nice to hear about the things you find well-balanced (as well as the things that aren't).
Currently cotton clothes have no advantage over wool - wool is easier to gather and provides better insulation.
Would it be possible for cotton to provide half the advantage against cold of wool, but also provide protection against heat? It makes thematic sense - sun on clothing instead of bare skin - and it makes them different but both useful.
Rubble shouldn't vanish when broken! If that happens it's a bug, pls report Also, rubble is a shovel-type block, so that's the quickest way to break and move it around, if you haven't found out yet. (Something else for the wiki.. you are really helping to point out our missing spots)
Heya!
call me Sly, Love the mod. It's been so long since I've seen a Hardcore Survival and this is well put! I used to fiddle around with textures and texture creation and really prefer the rustic medieval look. if you don't mind me asking if you have an extra spot in your texturing team? haha that aside this remains to be a really great mod I'll be keeping my eyes on
Heya!
call me Sly, Love the mod. It's been so long since I've seen a Hardcore Survival and this is well put! I used to fiddle around with textures and texture creation and really prefer the rustic medieval look. if you don't mind me asking if you have an extra spot in your texturing team? haha that aside this remains to be a really great mod I'll be keeping my eyes on
Hi! We're not looking for any more help at the moment, but thanks for asking. I'm glad you like the mod.
Since metal is comfortable and roofs aren't working well, I've continued exploring for more stuff.
Still no luck with fruit trees, much to my dismay.
Brought provisions this time, definitely helped with my range. Eggs, tomatoes and bread served me in good stead for a long bout of sprinting.
I'm probably going to have to start properly lumberjacking - putting ladders on the sides of trees so I can clear leaves in an orderly manner. My last big oak was a project.
Sheep pit is about half done, but I'm going to have some dirt left over. I've been throwing the blocks I dig out onto the drying rack to make the mud walls. Ah well, not like it's scarce.
Made a llama friend while I was out and about. Sadly, nothing to do with it - no saddles or chests makes them pretty useless for the nonce.
I found a bunny! It fled, but I didn't have any carrots or grain handy, so I didn't get to test anything out. Didn't have the heart (or weapon) to murder it, so no testing there either.
I'm probably going to take a break for a bit - between rubble and frames misbehaving and no animal interactions beyond breeding, I don't think there's much left for me to do for now. I'll keep tabs on the thread and look forward to jumping back in later!
Bukkit is a completely different base to forge so it's not compatible - we'd need to essentially re-create the mod for the bukkit API unfortunately. No windmills yet, although that's a nice idea! Hope you enjoy trying it out.
Along with wind mills, water wheels are a good idea too. but only works in rivers? Would it be too much to have this mod have realistic, flowing rivers? That would take a lot of work, but because this is a standalone mod, I think the effort would be worthwhile for this mod. Thatched roofing?
Hello! The mod is very good! I want to reprint this mod on a Chinese forum called MCBBS (mcbbs.net) to let more people enjoy the mod.I really hope you can agree. Thanks.
Announcement
As of September 2019, Geomastery is no longer being updated or maintained. Thank you to everyone who played and gave us feedback! It was great fun to work on.
The code will remain available on GitHub, and is under an AGPL license. That means anyone is free to update, modify, or extend it, as long as you credit my original work. (I would love to hear about it if anyone does this!).
Overview
Geomastery is a mod for Minecraft survival mode which makes the early game harder and slower, while improving on the simulation of real-world ancient technology development.
Geomastery is all about survival mode. If you enjoy unlimited sandbox building, you will play in creative mode. We are making survival mode harder and more involved and our general impulse has been to slow down the rate of technological progress in the game. When you’ve been playing Minecraft for a while, you can survive, make a safe home and be mining diamonds within about twenty minutes. In Geomastery, you'll be lucky if your camp looks like this in your first week.
Changes
Geomastery changes many different aspects of the game.
Inventory. Your starting inventory is drastically limited, with far fewer slots and very small stack sizes for most items. But as you develop, you will be able to create equippable items to increase your inventory size again - although wearing them will slow you down! Some items are so heavy they can only be carried in your offhand slot and will also decrease your speed.
Food. You now have three hunger bars; protein, carbs, and fruit/veg. They are filled and drained independently, and each bar can starve or heal you depending on its fullness - although these health effects happen much more slowly than in vanilla. Many food items will also decay over time, so you’ll need a steady supply to keep you going. Sleeping overnight will cost you a chunk of hunger, but will also give you a health boost.
Temperature. This new factor affects you constantly, and if your temperature is too extreme you will take damage. Cold places, high altitudes, and water will all cool you down; while fires, hot biomes, and clothing will keep you warm. A GUI icon next to your hotbar will let you know your approximate temperature.
Technology. There are many different types of crafting and furnace devices based on realistic early technology development. You will need to use the right device for the right purpose, because recipes aren’t available everywhere. Some crafting equipment is vulnerable to weathering, and will eventually be destroyed if you leave it exposed to the elements. There are also various new tools you can craft for specific purposes.
Farming. Many new types of crops can be found, in biomes dependent on their growing conditions. Some only grow in water, some create tall vines which stay when the crop is harvested, and you can also find new trees whose leaves drip with fruit. Farming actions are also slower and harder; tilling earth requires you to break the dirt block with a hoe, and crop blocks break slowly (but quicker with a sickle!). Harvesting food from an animal is also not so easy; a killed animal now drops a heavy carcass which must be broken with a hunting knife to obtain its items.
Building. Most vanilla blocks cannot be placed in the ways you’re used to, and some are affected by gravity. There are many new blocks you can craft and use for building, although these are still subject to restrictions; you’ll need to consider the weight of the materials you’re using, and building out over air requires special consideration.
Combat. The materials used for armour and weapons have changed to fit in with other technology development. There is also a new weapon: the spear. This does moderate melee damage, but can also be thrown as a powerful but short-range reusable projectile.
Plans
We have plans to develop Geomastery much further. Our highest priorities at the moment are:
Images:
Crops; including peppers, rice, pumpkins, and cotton
Armourer, mason's workshop, forge, stone furnace, woodworking bench
Early-game shelter
Realistic bridge building
Metal and mineral ores
Advanced building
Frame vaults supporting clay pitched roof
Pear tree
Variable-size inventory
Multiple food bars and temperature icon
Combat equipment
Wool clothing
Queueing furnace GUI
More links
Compatibility
So far, we have not made intentional efforts to be compatible with any gameplay mods. We've thought of Geomastery more like a modpack all of its own. It changes many fundamental aspects of the game (and has plans to change many more!), so it might be hard or impossible to make compatible with other major game-changing mods, and it's not a priority for us at the moment. That said, if you do find it compatible with other mods and/or want to include it in a modpack, feel free as long as you credit us properly!
Nice !
Seriously, this mod... is the first really good mod I've seen released on MCF in months. This looks promising. I used to be part of a modding team that was working on stretching the early game to over a week back in 2012 already (was called Minecraft Evolution) with a similar concept, but this is way better than what we had back in the day, and I really cannot wait to see what else you are going to add to this mod. I really really think you should apply some more biome changes as well... heck I'd even love to join into the development if I wasn't all busy with other stuff already... keep this up. Don't let the lack of replies drag you down. I saw this on the day you posted it but was just too tired to think of a comment at the time, so now its weekend and I got back to here. Great stuff man. Textures are very nicely done, the blocks are... hell I have so many ideas how this could become even better. I used to be the creative mind behind alot of our projects from 2012 to 2016... that was before I became a member on here tho. I was just designing the concepts on skype where the team was based. Anyways... long speech, short statement:
Awesome mod. Keep it up! It is so very refreshing to finally see a good mod be released for once. I'd recommend you to take it to 1.12 asap tho, that could get you alot more clicks as well.
Thanks for the feedback! We don't have particularly imminent plans for biome changes, but we haven't conclusively ruled it out so you never know. 1.12 is definitely planned - there are some pretty big changes that might be tough to work out but it should get there eventually.
I am keen to see this mod progress. Reminds me of the Better than Wolves mod.
There are a few good standalone mods I would like to play at some time, ideally with my wife. Any plans or thoughts on how this would work in the future on a bukkit server?
Yo, add windmills that grind flour if u already haven't? Add a picture of it if you have it.Again this looks super dope. Ima show my wife once she gets out of the shower.
Bukkit is a completely different base to forge so it's not compatible - we'd need to essentially re-create the mod for the bukkit API unfortunately. No windmills yet, although that's a nice idea! Hope you enjoy trying it out.
Update: version 1.1.0 adds Just Enough Items support!
If you allow monsters to break down blocks, you could make building even more of a progression by implementing an upgrade path. For example.
Wood frame, upgrade to a wood block, upgrade to a plated wood block (as in, wood block that resembles a building wall more, for example by rotating the texture 90 degrees -> upward planks on buildings are very common in alot of countries).
Or alternatively an iron frame made of an iron ingot in a type of forge -> upgrades to a scrap iron block -> upgrades to a reinforced iron block -> upgrades into a steel block.
Or a concrete frame which is essentially wooden plates strapped together with string -> upgrades to a wet concrete block -> upgrades to a dry concrete block -> upgrades to a reinforced concrete block.
So you have alot more progression in buildings as well, which will be necessary because of the monsters being able to tear down your base, so you need blocks that can pack a punch.
(reposted from the project page)
After Action Report, Day 3 (part 1)
found lots of stuff, and I could get out. I've never missed Smart Moving more.
out normally, I switched on Creative and flew out.
raining, and apparently the rain in the plains (through woollies) is
still enough to give you frostbite, so it was interesting.
that it doesn't go all helter-skelter.
single leaf.
(reposted from the project page)
After Action Report, Day 3 (part 2)
those around it, and a ladder on it so I have a ledge. Ladders don't
seem to be attaching to log or mud brick walls, so I think that's the
best I'm getting.
be sure I won't run out.
that it's not cosmetic differences, and the food groups don't really
force you too hard down one true path.
Next step: proper construction
(reposted from the project page)
Would it be possible to get a gfycat post or something for roof construction? I've been fiddling around with it in Creative, and I haven't figured out how to extend a roof past the first block...
(reposted from the project page)After Action Report, Day 4, part 1
become A Thing again. Really makes me want a horse!
away early game.
Means I could plan for a marathon trip and bring food supplies.
doesn't take rain damage. Teach me not to read the manual...
After Action Report, Day 4, part 2
pavers work very well and look nice - almost like a city park. OTOH,
finding out that I can't place stone walls on double-stacked pavers was a
bummer. I would love being able to use something other than
hard-to-break, vanishes-when-broken rubble for my floor.
the line where my woollies stopped protecting me), gave it a roof and
have been using that to make pavers in the field. So, solid points for
realism there.
(reposted from the project page)
As a thematic suggestion, you may want to disallow the use of sticks in the stone furnace. I can see arguments either way, but I wanted to throw that out there.
Figured I'd start posting here instead of Curse, since Curse doesn't like long posts and MCF are chill. I just moved everything I hadn't seen a response to. Sorry for the spam, Jazzable!
No worries, I think it's probably better here. Thanks for the continued updates!
And thanks for all the positive feedback. It's really nice to hear about the things you find well-balanced (as well as the things that aren't).
Hmmm, that may have been the problem. I'll do a bit of creative testing on rubble, to see what works out.
Though, with how handsome pavers are, I wish I could get a recipe to make a block out of them to build on instead...
You can place another paver on top to turn it into a double block, like a vanilla slab. But you still can't build anything heavy on top of them.
I have a suggestion re: clothing.
Currently cotton clothes have no advantage over wool - wool is easier to gather and provides better insulation.
Would it be possible for cotton to provide half the advantage against cold of wool, but also provide protection against heat? It makes thematic sense - sun on clothing instead of bare skin - and it makes them different but both useful.
Looks like rubble returns a block when broken by a shovel, but otherwise breaks without return an item. I made a ticket.
Heya!
call me Sly, Love the mod. It's been so long since I've seen a Hardcore Survival and this is well put! I used to fiddle around with textures and texture creation and really prefer the rustic medieval look. if you don't mind me asking if you have an extra spot in your texturing team? haha that aside this remains to be a really great mod I'll be keeping my eyes on
Hi! We're not looking for any more help at the moment, but thanks for asking. I'm glad you like the mod.
After Action Report, Day 5
I'm probably going to take a break for a bit - between rubble and frames misbehaving and no animal interactions beyond breeding, I don't think there's much left for me to do for now. I'll keep tabs on the thread and look forward to jumping back in later!
Along with wind mills, water wheels are a good idea too. but only works in rivers? Would it be too much to have this mod have realistic, flowing rivers? That would take a lot of work, but because this is a standalone mod, I think the effort would be worthwhile for this mod. Thatched roofing?
Hello! The mod is very good! I want to reprint this mod on a Chinese forum called MCBBS (mcbbs.net) to let more people enjoy the mod.I really hope you can agree. Thanks.