Overview
"Better Than Adventure" (BTA) is an extensive mod for Minecraft beta 1.7.3, bringing out regular updates attempting to create a more "finalized" version of beta Minecraft while also maintaining the look and feel of the game pre-adventure update. BTA works very different from other mods as it acts as more of a “fork” of Minecraft, than an addition to it. As of beta 1.7.6, As such, existing mods for beta 1.7.3 are not compatible with BTA. However, we are working hard to allow the community to make and publish their own mods for BTA specifically.
Beta 1.7.7.0 Overview Video
For easiest access to the latest updates and news - visit our new website
https://www.betterthanadventure.net/
Introduction
Minecraft has changed a lot since its initial beta period in 2011. The game has grown substantially, and new features, mechanics and systems continue to be added even to this day. While this is all well and good, there are still players out there who don't enjoy the direction the game took post-release, or simply have nostalgia for beta minecraft and wish to return to a time without hunger, experience or enchantments with a few bells and whistles on.
Better Than Adventure is designed to appeal to these players who enjoy the simpler gameplay of the old beta versions of Minecraft, yet also want to try something new and exciting. Think of it as an "alternate universe" version of minecraft that attempts to maintain the look-and-feel of beta 1.7.3, while also keeping things fresh with new features and additions such as new blocks, biomes and quality of life improvements. Despite what the name implies, this mod isn't necessarily trying to offer something inherently better than modern Minecraft, just something different. Think of it as a long-lost branch of Minecraft, what could have been if Notch and Jeb took the game in a slightly different direction.
While BTA is designed mostly to appeal to older players who grew up with beta, the aim of the mod in general is simply to offer an alterate take on the game. So if you're just looking for something new to enjoy, try this mod out too. You may like it!
Check back for more updates!
Features and Changes
Technical Changes
Under the hood, BTA is very different from vanilla beta 1.7.3. The majority of existing bugs have been ironed out and fixed, and almost the entire game has been rewritten and optimised to make the development of new additions much, much easier. For example, the game’s implementation of McRegion has been rewritten to allow for 256 block-high worlds, the game now has native support for HD texture packs, and the block ID system has been overhauled to allow for thousands of blocks, instead of beta 1.7.3’s hard-limit of 256.
New Features and Gameplay Changes
BTA offers a plethora of new features and mechanics. The biggest of which is probably the new “seasonal cycle”.
Seasons
Minecraft worlds now cycle through 4 seasons, over a span of 28 days (7 days per season). These seasons provide an interesting spin on survival gameplay; as the seasons change and winter begins to fall, the game will become progressively more challenging. Crops start to grow less often, mobs spawn more frequently, and the nights will become longer. It is important you plan around the changing seasons, stocking up on resources to survive the cold winter
Revamped Beta World Generation
The iconic beta world generation has also been given a major touch-up in BTA. First and foremost, the sea-level has been risen to 128, which means 128 blocks of underground, and 128 blocks of overworld. This also means mountains can grow to twice the size they could than before, leading to even wackier terrain than normal.
Biomes have been changed too, they now generate at around twice the size they used to, meaning no more ugly micro-deserts. Existing biomes have also been touched up to make them more unique, for example, swamplands now spawn with fields of algae and mossy trees, and seasonal forests spawn groves of cherry trees that shine a bright pink in the spring.
We also added 3 new biomes as well, the meadow, a flat plains with heaps of flowers, the boreal forest, a warm taiga
with giant spruce trees, and the outback, a scorched red desert with groves of Eucalyptus trees and spinifex bushes!
Creative Mode
One thing that beta 1.7.3 and below did lack was a functioning creative mode where you can test out contraptions and plan builds in a world with infinite blocks and health. This has been added to BTA, however its not just a simple port of beta 1.8’s creative mode. We thought we’d try and improve on it by adding better flying controls, a more readable creative inventory, and a list of single player commands.
New Blocks
3 new types of stone with brick and cobbled variants (Basalt, Granite and Limestone), painted wooden planks in 16 different dye colours, dirt paths, fence gates, new slab and stair variants for existing blocks, coloured Redstone lamps and many, many more blocks to expand your building capabilities with. As well as that, BTA also adds new blocks for Redstone contraptions, such as retractable ‘spike traps’ that damage mobs when stepped on, ‘motion sensors’ that activate when mobs move past them, and ‘mesh blocks’ that allow items to pass through them, yet block off mobs and players.
Steel
Exploring the nether now has a purpose with the addition of steel, a refined form of iron, made from smelting iron bars in a blast furnace with a new nether-exclusive ore called “nether coal” that offers extremely high durability tools at the cost of being slightly slower at mining than diamond. It can also be used to make a rocket launcher???!!
The Guidebook
Because we understand that sometimes recipes can be difficult to discover, especially in modded games, we decided to add a “guidebook” accessed by pressing R in-game that tells you each of the recipes found in the game. However, this book works a little differently to how you’d expect…
The book starts with all the items blacked out, filling out each item once obtained by the player to maintain the sense of discovery for those who enjoy finding things out for themselves. It also offers as a completion objective for players who wish to fill out the book completely and “craft ‘em all”. (But alternatively if you just want to see the new recipes for yourself, try opening the book in creative)
Changelogs available on our Discord in the #changelogs channel.
Download
Auto-Updating
Download MultiMC Update Utility (Recommended!)
Latest - BTA! v7.1
Download links on betterthanadventure.net
Mirror:
MultiMC Update Utility (Recommended!)
Older:
1.7.7.0_02
Download: MultiMC Instance
Download: Server jar
1.7.7.0_01
Download: Client Jar
Download: Server jar
1.7.7.0
Download: Client Jar
Download: Server jar
1.7.6.2_02
Download: Client Jar
Download: Server jar
1.7.6.2_01
Download: MultiMC Instance (Recommended!)
1.7.6.2
1.7.6.1
1.7.6_01
1.7.6
1.7.5_01
1.7.5
1.7.4_02_3
1.7.4_02
1.7.4_01_1
1.7.4_01
Installation
Installation: MultiMC/Prism Update Utility
The MultiMC update utility will allow you to automatically update/load the latest release of BTA without having to install a brand new instance from the forum page!
- To install the utility, simply drag and drop that link onto your MultiMC instance list, then run it. It'll generate a managed instance of BTA, which you can then run to launch the mod.
- Whenever the mod releases a new update you can just run the update utility again and it'll automatically upgrade your managed instance to the latest version! No more messing around with jar files, and all your saves, screenshots and settings will be in exactly the same place
Installation: MultiMC/Prism Instance
- Download MultiMC and load it up
- Simply drag and drop the 'MultiMC instance' zip file into your MultiMC and it should appear on your instances screen. Alternatively, click "add instance" and "import from zip" then locate the file and click "OK"
- Load your newly created instance and play!
How to run the server jar
- Simply run it like you would an exe. Warning, it will use the server.jar's host directory as a local directory meaning all the files it creates will be placed in whatever folder your jar is in! So try to put it in its own folder somewhere!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What's Better than Adventure?
Q: How can I get Better than Adventure?
A: The recommended method of playing BTA is via our handy MultiMC update utility, which you can find here!
To install the utility, simply drag and drop that link onto your MultiMC instance list, then run it. It'll generate a managed instance of BTA, which you can then run to launch the mod. The neat part is, whenever the mod releases a new update you can just run the update utility again and it'll automatically upgrade your managed instance to the latest version! No more messing around with jar files, and all your saves, screenshots and settings will be in exactly the same place
Q: What does this mod do?
A: Lots of things! We've added so much new stuff to this mod that it's honestly impossible to keep track of it all. A good place to start if you want to know everything is our update changelogs.
However, an experience we find a lot of people seem to enjoy is just going in blind and discovering new stuff as you play. We're always happy to answer any questions you might have on our Discord server, so feel free to join and ask!
There's also a recipe book called the Guidebook built into the game, which is bound to R by default. Recipes start blacked out, but progressively reveal themselves as you discover the items that comprise them. Don't be afraid to experiment!
Q: Who works on this mod?
A: The lead developer, founder, and benevolent dictator of BTA is me, aka @Mak#7981 over on Discord.
There's also, @jonkadelic;4422 - My handy co-developer.
Our overall organisation structure is pretty informal. We also have a few contributors who chip in with help and technical expertise and are very much appreciated.
Q: How can I help with this mod?
A: Thanks for the interest! There's a few ways you can help with BTA: firstly, if you're a programmer, feel free to ask us about becoming a contributor on our Discord, as we're always eager to get new people with different abilities and skillsets involved with development. Just be aware that the standards expected are pretty high, so we'll need to see some evidence of your ability before giving you access.
Secondly, if you're a texture artist, stick around! We pretty frequently ask the community for new textures, since there's a lot of talented people out there who can make far better art than we can. Thirdly, post suggestions in suggestion-discussion! We're always looking for new ideas to make the mod better.
If none of those things apply, spread the word! Tell your friends, partners, coworkers, or even strangers on the street about BTA. After all, the more the merrier!
Q: Is BTA compatible with other mods
A: Yes and no - BTA is only compatible with mods specifically made for it. Most mods you can think of will not work, as a lot of our optimizations means we have had to change/rewrite way too much of the codebase for anything else to be compatible. This means that until someone miraculously ports it over, you won't be able to play BTA with Aether, or BTA with Moon Mod, so on and so forth.
Q: Why can't I craft a Bed?
A: You can! The recipe is just a little different. In BTA, zombies drop cloth rather than feathers. The bed recipe requires 2 cloth and 1 wool, rather than 3 wool, like below:
Q: Can you backport <feature> from modern Minecraft?
Yes, we could if we wanted to, but that's not really our philosophy. If there's a feature from a later version we'd like to include in BTA, we ask ourselves how we can reinvent that feature in a way that still gets us there while also giving players a new experience.
For example, modern Minecraft features multiple different varieties of wooden planks, and so does BTA. However, in BTA ours come from giving the player the ability to dye oak planks, which gives them a fun new pastel color palette to play with.
Q: When's the next update coming out?
A: When it's ready. We used to give release dates for updates, but frankly it led to a lot of stress for us and a lot of disappointment for everyone else because we'd almost invariably miss those dates.
So now we just publish updates when we feel they're in a good enough place to go out, no matter how long it takes.
Contact
For any other assistance feel free to leave a comment below.
Please visit our official website for update changelogs, downloads and guides.
Please submit bug reports or suggestions to our Github issues page.
Alternatively join our Discord server for more frequent updates on the project, as well as access to exclusive snapshots and development builds.
Notes
Special thanks to Jonkadelic for being a very helpful co-developer.
Special thanks to the members of our Discord server for their help bug-testing releases, providing textures and suggestions.
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Fantastic work. It's really great to see that people are still giving love to older versions of the game, because really, it deserves it. The additions you've already brought in are really neat, and I can't wait to see where it goes next.
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Oh my god, you're an absolute hero, seriously. I did what you suggested and it completely solved the issue.
No mipmapping issues whatsoever!
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I find it ironic when people flame noobs for not reading the stickies then don't read the post they're replying to.
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Frankly, fanboying over a piece of bloody software is ridiculous. I'll try to outline what each do:
MCPatcher: Tries to improve the appearance of the game by adding new and useful features for texture artists to use.
Optifine: Tries to improve the performance of the game by making its settings highly configurable. Texture customisation is a byproduct.
These are two different pieces of software that do different things. Comparing them is nonsensical and irrelevant.
If I could use both MCPatcher and Optifine simultaneously, I would. They are both great mods. I have a good computer so I use MCPatcher because it has more texture-related features. If I didn't have a good computer, I would use Optifine because it'd make Minecraft run better. Got it?
Frankly, if you're going to have a temper tantrum about how so and so mod is better than another mod, no offence meant but you can **** off right out of these forums.
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I like Doku's RPG a lot and I'm kinda wondering why this hasn't been done yet.