Overview
Primitive is a WIP mod that adds a range of building materials, ranging from neolithic to early medieval, as well as immersive processes for their creation. Many of these materials are accessible without the use of stone or metal. These materials and mechanics are design to fill the content gap of very early game, and to assist modpack developers to want to introduce a stone-age tier of progression to their packs. This tier may initially seem dull, but I believe there is engaging gameplay to be found there.
Features
There are currently only a few materials in the mod:
- Wattle - a simple fence made of sticks and thick grasses, can also be used to build walls
- Thatch - a covering made from grasses and leaves, generally used as roofing material
- Adobe - earthen bricks, made from clay, sand, and fibrous plant matter.
- Daub - an earthen material made of clay, dirt, and fibrous plant material. It's used to cover wattle and create sturdier structures. It can also be framed for both aesthetics and structural support
Future Plans
- More materials
- Primitive tools to allow easy access to tall grass and leaves as crafting components
- Primitive utilities, such as wicker/wattle baskets for item storage, ceramic jugs/buckets for transporting water, and earthen ovens for baking clay
- Campfires and firepits, because I hate the way every other mod handles them.
- Configuration option to disable aspects of vanilla progression (no punching trees, no wooden pickaxes, etc.)
- TFC-style rocks in the world, to allow (laborious) creation of cobblestone without mining, as well as various other applications like roads, pathways, and more.
- Alternative ways to craft certain vanilla materials, such as charcoal mounds for producing charcoal.
What I won't add
- Machinery. It's outside the scope of the mod. While I might make some simple mechanical machinery at some point, it would be in a separate mod.
- Mobs.
- Food.
- Anything else outside the scope of the mod, e.g. not about primitive materials and their creation.
Walk-through
There are a few processes in the mod that aren't immediately apparent, particularly in the production of daub and adobe.
To create daub, you should start by building some walls out of wattle. After that, you'll make the daub itself by crafting clay, dirt, and either grass or leaves. The resulting material will be dry, so we'll need to moisten it before it's usable. You can either craft 8 daub with 1 water bucket to get 8 wet daub. However, the recommended method is to take your daub and simply right click it on some water, which will soak the entire stack at once. Once you have wet daub, simply apply it to the wattle by right clicking. The resulting block will be wet, and will take some time to dry. After it's dry, you can apply frames to the daub by right clicking on the block with a frame in hand.
To create adobe, you first need bricks. Craft some adobe with clay, sand, and either grass or leaves. As with daub, you'll have to moisten the adobe to make it usable. Once you have wet adobe, craft a brick mold out of some sticks, and craft the mold with the adobe to create wet adobe bricks (the mold is not consumed). Now that you have wet adobe bricks, they must be left to dry. Simple place the wet bricks on the ground by right clicking somewhere sunny. Up to 6 bricks can be placed in a single block. Leave these to dry. Once they dried (which will take several minutes), you can pick them up by right clicking on them. You can now craft brick blocks in various styles, using the bricks and wet adobe as mortar. To create smooth adobe, first craft adobe bricks, and place them in the world. Then, right click on the blocks with wet adobe to plaster the bricks, covering them in a smooth layer of adobe.
Issues
This mod is WIP and has a few existing issues:
- No way to easily acquire grass and leaves for crafting
- No way to craft frames
- No way to remove frames from framed daub without breaking the entire block
- Broken framed daub blocks don't drop frames
- Slight rendering issues on framed daub
- Drying adobe bricks have broken particle effects