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The AI of most wild passive animals will be changed significantly too. Wild animals will be afraid of Humans, and will run away much like the ocelots. Only the more docile ones will actually approach the player when they have the correct food type. But they will be rare. Some animals (like deer) will always run away, as they will not have a domestic type. Others, like wolves, will actually be aggressive and straight up attack the player. Again, only the docile ones (which don't attack) will be tamable.

Animals will also spawn much less frequently than in Vanilla. To compensate however, you'll receive more food an resources from animals. My plan to do this will be to actually make some mobs drop a block/container when they are killed by the player or specific traps, and will be lootable when holding a knife for animals. Hostile mobs however, like zombies will drop bodies infrequently, and only if they had decent loot worth picking up. Each will have a timer though, and will disappear when either the timer has run out or the body is empty of loot.

There will also be many hostile mobs added, most of which will be fantasy/adventure type monsters. As the player progresses in their research and their player level (not experience level) increases they will encounter stronger mobs. Once they establish a base they will also encounter hordes similar to that of villages, but aimed at their spawn point extrapolated to the surface. At some point i'd even like to add a Terraria-like hardmode after the player beats the ender dragon.

I've scrapped the whole wooden tools idea. It's complete rubbish. Instead players will have to pick up rocks from the ground and craft them into sharp rocks. I considered a knapping feature like TFC, but decided against it since players won't remain long in the stone age anyways. Then they'll need to get thatch from tall grass and other plants to form primitive fibers that they can make into basic rope which they can make simple tools with.

By making a stone axe, players can harvest trees (slowly) and craft wooden planks by using the axe in a crafting table. Naturally, This produces a small number of planks since you're chopping wood with an axe to make flat pieces of wood (better than the flat of your hand though if you know what I mean). Players will find more efficient ways to do so later (ie hand saws and eventually sawmills).

This will allow players to make the crafting table, allowing them to make a stone pick. They'll also be able to make basic stone weapons like spears and even crude bows from the rope and sharp rocks. With the stone pick they can start digging (once again slowly) into some stone to retrieve native copper ores and coal. Breaking stone will give back one of two items, depending on what the player wants to do. If sneaking, it'll give them large rocks that they can use for crafting (not stone blocks however). If not, they'll get cobblestone to build structures. This effectively differentiates from just wildly breaking rocks to look for ores, and deliberately breaking rocks to get a basic shape out of the endeavor. Metal chisels will be required to retrieve stone blocks since picks are highly imprecise.

With the new resources gained from breaking stone, the player can make a number of essential blocks and structures: Including a quern from large rocks to grind ore by hand, and cobblestone to used to make multi-block structures like the oven and a forge. The player will also make wooden molds to form clay molds that are required for casting tools, and to make a clay crucible for smelting crushed ore. Because of the demand for clay then, players will find it in nearly all biomes one way or another. Forges and ovens will also be build-able from sandstone. Completion of each of these projects will effectively lead the player to the copper age.

Upon completing each of the necessary structures (quern, oven, forge, crucible and wooden molds/clay molds) the player can start to process ores and form decent tools. Ingots smelted from the crucible will be used in tandem with the correct mold to form cast tool heads in the forge. But for heavier tool heads, players must use improved materials, so instead of sticks they will craft hafts from rope and sticks. This will naturally increase the demand for binding agents (ie rope), so to improve the amount of thatch retrieved from breaking grass a player can use a knife.

Obtaining a cast copper pick will allow players to break tin ore, which is a finer ore than native copper, and hence requires a more precise tool than just a stone pick. Also due to using an improved pick blocks will mine faster and produce more ore (in the form of items, not blocks) due to the player not obliterating the stone while trying to retrieve it.

Tin also naturally contains many impurities, as it doesn’t exist as a native ore like copper. So to purify it the tin ore must be baked in an oven to make tin sinter. This sinter can then be smelted normally in a crucible to make tin ingots. Naturally then, the pure metals can be mixed in a crucible to make bronze. This effectively leads the player into the bronze age.

With a much improved tool material, the player can now begin to mine iron ore on the surface. However, due to the significant impurities in iron ore, it requires even more processing than either tin or copper. This requires the usage of a bloomer, the next multiblock structure players will need to build.

Using the newfound bronze the player can also now make an advanced form of crafting: The Project table, which will be necessary for any projects that require multiple material types (i.e. wood, metal, and stone). To use it though, you’ll also need the right tools (hammer, chisel, etc.). Using this, you can craft the correct components to the main shaft of the bloom using bronze plates. Following assembly of the bloom, the player can begin making iron. However, it is a highly inefficient process, since the player must go through multiple steps to finally achieve workable ingots of wrought iron. It even requires manually removing the bloom from the base of the bloomery with a shovel, as well as hammering the bloom on a project table to obtain a pure product that can be smelted into ingots. To smelt them though, the player will need to do a number of things: Including upgrading the forge with a tuyre and some sort of improved material (pretty much anything but cobblestone, like bricks or stone bricks). This will allow the forge to get to a high enough temperature to smelt iron with a clay crucible. The player could also make a stone crucible though, which will have a higher capacity, and can therefore smelt more bloom.

Despite this inefficiency, this leads to the Iron Age, which is perhaps the longest phase in the entire mod due to the introduction of mechanical devices.

Once entered, the player will breathe a sigh of relief at the number of mechanisms that can be made that will make the previous ages seem incredibly primitive. A hallmark of this age will be the introduction of automated processes that previously required manual labor. This will be accomplished primarily through the introduction of mechanical power, via the use of waterwheels and windmills. One such process will involve the use of large millstones that can grind vast quantities of ores and other materials.

The Iron Age will also introduce the use of an anvil, which will be an expensive but helpful addition. Naturally, this will be used in tandem with the forge to weld metals into interesting and useful shapes that could not be achieved with casting alone, such as large battle axes and plate armor. It will also allow the player to improve weapons and tools through the forging process, allowing them to delve deeper into the earth (since stone will be stratified in AdvanceCraft, with deeper stone requiring stronger picks).

However, to progress to the steel age, the player must create two new structures: A blast furnace and a Trip Hammer. (The player will also require stone crucibles for the smelting).

The blast furnace will largely resemble the bloom, but instead made of iron, and also largely automated since molten metal will be produced. Forming the shaft pieces will require an anvil, and surrounding the outside with iron plates will improve the speed of the furnace smelting. This can be improved even further with steel and the advanced metals. Fueling the blast furnace can also be improved significantly by a number of processes that will be explained later. But for the most part will include using bellows, pipes and air tanks to provide blasts of hot air to the base of the blast furnace. And even circulation of the expelled gases to fuel the furnace using a siphon will improve the fuel efficiency. .

If the player wishes, the pig iron can be hammered like bloom when heated in a forge to make wrought iron, which will ease the process of improving the blast furnace and the making of other structures from iron. Naturally though, this will require a good deal of hammering. For this reason the player will want to invest in a trip hammer as well, which will eliminate most of all the mundane forging tasks. This will be another multiblock structure that will require power from any mechanical source, and will interact directly with anvils to automatically work hot metals.

To finally make some steel, the player will also need to improve their forge by upgrading it further with a bellows to reach an even higher temp. Making steel will also requires a specific smelting recipe larger than 2x2, so the player must have a stone crucible at this point. By combining coke, lime and pig iron the player will receive crucible steel, which can only be purified with a trip hammer to make the final steel product. This finally leads to the steel age, which largely involves making improvements to structures and items.

Minecraft is simple in a very elegant and cute way as I’m sure most fans agree. But I quickly found after playing MC for quite a while that it’s actually a bit too simple for some people (myself included). My initial reaction was to mod the crap out of it into something I liked better. But I found out even sooner that cobbling together a bunch of various mods never really satisfied whatever it is I wanted out of MC. Nor did using complete overhaul mods (like FTB and TFC) interest me enough despite their incredible changes. Simply put, I couldn’t find the minecraft that I liked best by just using other peoples work.

After thinking about the basic premise of Minecraft itself, I realized the solution was simple. Creation: I had to make my own version of minecraft that I could add whatever I wanted to it. So that’s what I started to do, and this is what I’ve got so far: AdvanceCraft, taking every aspect of Minecraft and building upon it to make it more interesting and a bit more challenging, yet still retaining the creative fun that makes Minecraft so special.

Advanced Metallurgy – New and complex metals beyond just iron and gold.

Advanced Tool Making – Custom and interesting means of making tools.

Advanced Agriculture – Agriculture is more dynamic and challenging, new crops and methods.

Advanced Villagers – Villagers are cool, but mostly worthless, they gotta do something.

Advanced Combat – Making combat more interesting, requiring skill, timing and planning.

Advanced Nutrition – Minecraft hunger is lame, straight up. It needs to be diverse and integral.

Advanced Engineering – Large and mechanical structures add new depth to progression and equipment.

Advanced Dungeoneering – More dungeons, as well as ranging difficulties and puzzles.

Advanced Dimensions – Dimensions are necessary and more useful, but also foreign and hostile.

Advanced Alchemy – Balancing of potions, requiring more ingredients and time investment.

Advanced Steve – Making “Steve” more of a character, who develops and improves himself.

Advanced Mobs – Hunting and taming mobs improved greatly from just roaming farm animals.

Advanced Magic – Enchanting overhaul, magic tomes and utility staves. Lots of dungeon loot.

Advanced Structures – Large multi-block structures require planning and resources.

Advanced Survival – Seasons make wintertime difficult to survive in, resources require preservation.

Advanced Loot – Unique dungeon loot, randomized tools, exclusive items, all that jazz.

Advanced enemies – Swarms, difficult and unique enemies, big nasty bosses.

Some neat additions, barrels, crucibles and large ovens.

Some fancy crucible smelting

A fully animated quern for grinding, and some storage crates

Gui of the Quern with some fancy progress bars

Some metals to be utilized. Eventually...