Minecraft Forums

Hello community!

I am a very very n00b at MC! I mean... Really n00b. I bought the game 20 days ago and I am messing up with my local server on my PC, trying to understand how redstone contraptions work and how MODs and res packs works!

I have came across a wonderful MOD! I am fond (and I also work with) of Physics, Math and these awesome topics and when I saw I started to drool in awe!

Too bad, no matter how I tried, I haven't been able to figure out how to install it.

I have 3 Spigot servers installed (1.12.2 + 1.14.2 + .1.14.4), some shaders (that was pretty easy to install) and....

There I stopped.

I messed up so many times and so far I got nothing working.

I've figured out the difference between a MOD and a RES PACK but any help, at this point, is highly appreciated!

I am following the videos of Mumbo Jumbo, Grian, McMakistein but none of them are "n00b friendly" and so I am making messes upon messes without really getting anything useful out of it.

So... Anyone can rescue me from my horrid labyrinth of nothingness?

Any help will be absolutely appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Mods are fan created files that either tweak things or add lots of new content like TNT, machines, weapons/armour, dimensions, biomes and more. You need a modloader typically to install and load them. Watch tutorials by people that know how to install them properly, as some do try to scam, (I found many that did this before Forge 1.13 was a thing and I found it annoying as I see through their nonsense when Rift was the only modloader available at the time, the view scammers), also get cores/libraries or APIs that are required for the mods too (check mods changelogs to see what is required and if the Forge recommended version is stated get that one to run the mod to it's requirements).

Forge is the biggest and well known that has been around since the Beta days and 90% of the mods support it and has lots of the things mod devs need, Liteloader is a more tweak focused mod support Modloader for things like minimaps, chunk borders and other small things but it's been around in the last few years but doesn't have all the content mods people look for like Forge does, Rift is a 'dead' Modloader for 1.13/1.13.2 that only has a few people play with but it has a few unique mods just nothing anyone talks about in large groups for a good reason since it's dead but if Forge 1.13.2 doesn't offer it Rift might. And finally Fabric the other 1.14 modding choice compared to Forge, Fabric has a fair amount of devs on bored compared to Forge's unstable state at the moment, a lot of good mods and stable on Forge sure but for a better or lightweight for devs and players I'd suggest Fabric. I focus on a lot of Fabric stuff and have all you need to know pretty much as well as daily mod posts besides tutorials in that thread, check my signature below if you want help with it.

Most of the TNT mods or cool ones your likely after is Forge and the 2 biggest versions with mods that people talk about is 1.7.10 and 1.12.2, if you know how to install Forge from here http://files.minecraftforge.net/ and can follow a tutorial (all Forge installs are basically the same so it's not hard to work out) then you can add mods. Or use Twitch Launcher to make it 3 steps easier and auto-download mods and have Forge setup itself.

All mods follow a version, so 1.7.10 and 1.12.2 are compatible, same with 1.14, 1.13 and so on. So keep in mind what you download and want to use.

Datapacks are Vanilla mods that don't do the same as mods but have ideas like mods, if you want to stay Vanilla but not add Mod levels of installing stuff you don't understand then go with Datapacks, they only support 1.13 and 1.14 at the moment since 1.13 was the update that made them possible.

Adventure maps are either story, adventure, puzzle, parkour, arena, minigame and more focused, want to go through a world that is serving one of these purposes, or just want to download a cool castle build then yeah put these into your .minecraft/saves folder correctly and you can visit these community creations.

Resourcepacks/Texturepacks are just asset swaps of the main games textures, just put them into your .minecraft/resourcepacks folder than enable it in the options, resourcepacks menu to load it, let it swap the textures/overlay them and it will have those textures visible, they can be either cartoony, realistic, rustic or anything.

Shaders I find are cool but not worth it unless you really have a powerful PC to run them and really want fancy clouds, sky, water, physics and so on. They aren't always as accessible (PC power or downloading) and are usually behind ad site walls, go get them if you want but I'm not a fan or user of these. They are cool but not my thing really as I like the unrealistic nature of the game compared to what these offer.

In short explore Youtube or Forums and a try to get an idea of what these do, if you are curious about a mod but don't know how it works or how to install Forge then find a tutorial, many big or small Youtubers (myself a small one that is part of the 1.13/1.14 datapack and modding community while the big Youtubers cover modpacks or other Vanilla stuff) can assist you just need to know the right key words to search for such things and how these things work to get mods working, to not download from Mod Repost sites (only download from curseforge the rest are dangerous). Stuff like that.

So, to answer to you all:

Yes, I have installed Forge, forge-1.14.4-28.0.45.

Now, what I would like to do, just for starting, are the following things:

1) have more biomes to explore. I have seen some videos that made my jaw drop on the floor!

2) install those TNT MODs since I am really longing to use that black hole thing!

3) possibly, customize my avatar

4) find some MODs or datapack to make more sense out of MC (for istance, the leaves that stand still after the wood of a tree has totally chopped away)

5) possibly have some more resources to mine (more metals, more ores and such)

That's for starting.

Yeah, I've found out some scam sites but my web browser is quite well protected as well as my pc and, apart that, I think I am quite seasoned as web surfer. I am fallible, of course, but I am in the WWW since '95

As far as I have seen, the most used version is the 1.12.2, am I getting this right? Most of the MODs have been developed for this (datapacks apart) so I guess I have to install that version at least, both for the client and for Forge.

@SuntannedDuck2, your answer is really complete and exhaustive so thank you very much! I think I have to make even more mess around and pick up the good stuff out of the mess in order to reach the goals I have in mind!