Topic category: Mod showcase and discussion
INTRODUCTION
Since joining MCreator a bit over a week ago, I have been working on a mod loosely inspired by the Jurassic Park franchise named ArchaiCraft. The name refers to the outdated design of the mod's species, which is mostly based on 90's paleontological knowledge, since well like I mentioned, it's influenced by JP, so Velociraptors are meant to be twice the size, Herrerasaurus is classified as an early theropod, there are next to no feathers/quills on every species, Dilophosaurus is venomous, and so on and so forth. I decided to do this because one, I grew up with Jurassic Park and I still have nostalgia and love for the franchise to this day, and making realistic, modern dinosaurs would simply not be as engaging, and two, since this isn't a hardcore JP mod, I have A LOT of creative liberty, so I don't have to do everything in a specific way, I can just get a single reference (Usually the old 2.0 JurassiCraft prerelease blueprints), work on something, tweak it, end up liking the end result, and make it a part of the mod, rather than having to keep checking several references and redoing it multiple times just to get it right, which would take up days and kill the fun in developing this mod. Plus, that way it's more unique and has its own flavour.
I would write a guide here, but this mod is alpha stage, and if I were to write one now, the features I plan on implementing would make it obsolete, and I rather not have to keep constantly coming back here when that time is better spent elsewhere, especially since I am currently preparing the mod for upgrading to the Beta phase, so I'll just give a basic run-down of the mod as of 0.0.9.1, until the mod is more stable that is.
OBTAINING EXTINCT SPECIES
To obtain extinct species, you first have to find Fossilized Egg Fragment Ore for animals, and Fossilized Plant Ore for plants. You have to smelt or blast both to obtain Debris, which will either give you a Fossilized Egg Fragment of a random animal, or a Petrified version of an extinct plant, respectively.
For the latter, you simply need to right click on a filled cauldron to obtain a living specimen of the plant you chose. At the moment they are simply decorative and serve no gameplay purpose at the time of writing this.
For the former, you need 9 FEFs of the same type to craft a Fossilized Egg, which then you right click a filled cauldron, draining it and giving you a Spawn Egg of whatever species you chose. You can use them just like a regular vanilla Spawn Egg, either by hand on the ground or with dispensers. (I recommend using dispensers in pre-built enclosures for aggressive species)
Currently there are 13 fauna species:
- Albertosaurus, medium sized tyrannosaurid. Aggressive.
- Tyrannosaurus, large sized tyrannosaurid. Aggressive, can one hit kill unarmed players
- Gallimimus, medium sized ornithomimosaurid. Passive.
- Othnielia, tiny basal ornithischian. Passive, at the very bottom of the food chain
- Dilophosaurus, small sized early theropod. Aggressive, poisons targets
- Triceratops, large ceratopsian. Neutral, fights back attackers
- Velociraptor, small sized dromaeosaurid. Aggressive.
- Parasaurolophus, large sized hadrosaurid. Passive.
- Brachiosaurus, large sauropod. Passive, ignored by all predators except Tyrannosaurus
- Hypsilophodon, small ornithischian. Passive
- Herrerasaurus, early theropod. Aggressive, attacks skeleton mobs
- Stegosaurus, large sized stegosaurid. Neutral, fights back attackers
- Segisaurus, small sized coelophysid. Aggressive towards smaller dinosaurs, neutral towards other mobs and players
And currently there are only 3 flora species:
- Cycadeoidea, which despite its name, it is not a cycad but rather an unrelated extinct bennettitalean from the Jurassic and Cretaceous of North America, Europe and Asia
- Dicksonia, ancient fern from the Late Jurassic that is still alive today in real life, with about 20-25 species living throughout Latin America, Southeast Asia and Oceania.
- Williamsonia, extinct bennettitalean from the Early Cretaceous to the K-Pg extinction, once found across the Americas and Eurasia.
OTHER FEATURES
Each species is currently categorized into 3 types: Ornithischian, Sauropodomorph and Theropod. These are for determining which meat and blood types they drop, the former of which is simply for food, while the latter is a bit more complex. I'll get to that in a bit.
There is a new tool named the Scalper, made from sticks and iron, and it is used to obtain blood and scales, which are used for crafting beefy armour, with stats between that of diamond and netherite. It only has around a hundred durability and only has a quarter to 1/10th of a chance to drop either of those items, intended for making the armour hard to mass reproduce.
There are 4 types of Scale Armour, based on the 3 current animal types, and the 4th one is a combination of the three. They are crafted using Scale Plates, crafted by 9 pieces of Scale in the crafting table, and the type of regular scale armour depends on which blood type is used, Ornithischian blood granting a blue coloured variant, Sauropodomorph blood granting a green coloured variant, and Theropod blood granting a red coloured variant. When all four pieces of the same type are worn, it gives a permanent potion boost, Resistance for Ornithischian armour, Regeneration for Sauropodomorph Armour, and Strength for Theropod Armour. The Ultimate Scale Armour grants all 3 at the same time and is slightly more powerful.
Fossil Depots are 5x5x2 structures that occasionally spawn in Plains and Savannah biomes, and each one possesses 5 crates. A Crate drops between 3-5 Fossil Egg Fragment Ores when right clicked, though you may have to click a few times to open it. Don't try to use pistons on it, it will break, and if it gets destroyed in any way other than right-clicking, the loot will not drop.
There are also advancements, which are meant to be a basic guide for the mod, without needing to check the mod's page or getting stuck not knowing how to do something. The first one, which is obtained by simply joining the world, grants all recipes, since it would take up too much unnecessary time to make certain things unlock a set number of recipes, so you can just instantly use the crafting table to search recipes for everything in the mod.
LINKS
If you're interested in trying the mod, have any suggestions, and/or simply see some images, click the link below:
And if you want to contact me privately: