Attention Economy

Attention Economy is a Minecraft mod that introduces an "attention" system where game systems gradually degrade if the player ignores them for too long. The mod encourages players to rotate activities instead of tunnel-visioning one task forever.

The goal is immersive survival gameplay where variety matters. Neglect your armor and it wears faster. Ignore your farms and crops grow slower. Overuse your tools without switching and they become less efficient. The mod provides no popups, no quests, and no forced objectives—just natural consequences that reward engaged, attentive gameplay.

Key Features

• Seven attention systems - Armor, tools, crops, furnaces, animals, beacons, and shields all require periodic attention.
• Gradual penalties - Effects scale smoothly from 0% to maximum over time—no sudden punishments.
• Fast recovery - Systems recover 2x faster than they decay when attended to.
• Grace periods - No penalties apply immediately after attending to a system.
• AFK protection - Decay pauses automatically when you're not moving.
• Per-player tracking - Multiplayer-safe with independent attention levels per player.
• No permanent damage - All effects are temporary and fully reversible.
• Mode protection - No penalties in Creative or Spectator mode.
• Natural gameplay - "Attending" to systems is just playing normally—no special actions required.
• Fully configurable - All decay rates, penalties, and behaviors can be customized via JSON.

How It Works

Attention Levels

Every 20 ticks (1 second), the mod updates your attention levels for each system:

What Counts as "Attention"

Normal, natural gameplay actions restore attention:

Attention Systems

Armor System

When you neglect your armor (don't open inventory or interact with your gear), it starts wearing out faster.

How to restore: Open your inventory, equip/unequip armor, repair items.

Tools System

Constantly using the same tool without switching causes temporary efficiency loss.

How to restore: Switch tools, change held items, put tools away temporarily.

Crops System

Farms you don't visit slow down their growth rate.

How to restore: Walk near your crops (within 16 blocks), interact with farmland.

Furnaces System

Furnaces you ignore will smelt items more slowly.

How to restore: Open the furnace UI, stay nearby (within 8 blocks).

Animals System

Neglected animals have longer breeding cooldowns.

How to restore: Spend time near your animals (within 16 blocks), feed or interact with them.

Beacons System

Beacons you don't visit have reduced effect duration.

At severe neglect (below 40% attention), beacon effects also lose 1 amplifier level.

How to restore: Stay near your beacon (within 32 blocks), open the beacon UI.

Shields System

Overusing your shield without breaks increases the recovery delay after blocking.

How to restore: Put your shield away, switch to other items, stop blocking.

Decay and Recovery Rates

Each system has different timing for how quickly attention decays and recovers:

Grace Period: After attending to any system, no decay occurs for 5 minutes (configurable).

Safeguards

The mod is designed to be fair and non-punishing:

Configuration

Config file location: .minecraft/config/attentioneconomy.json

The config file is created automatically on first launch. All options:

{
  "globalEnabled": true,
  "armorEnabled": true,
  "toolsEnabled": true,
  "cropsEnabled": true,
  "furnacesEnabled": true,
  "animalsEnabled": true,
  "beaconsEnabled": true,
  "shieldsEnabled": true,
  "gracePeriodTicks": 6000,
  "decayRate": 1.0,
  "recoveryRate": 2.0,
  "hardcoreMultiplier": 1.5,
  "afkThresholdTicks": 1200,
  "maxArmorPenalty": 0.5,
  "maxToolPenalty": 0.4,
  "maxCropPenalty": 0.6,
  "maxFurnacePenalty": 0.5,
  "maxAnimalPenalty": 0.5,
  "maxBeaconPenalty": 0.3,
  "maxShieldPenalty": 0.4,
  "armorAttentionRadius": 0,
  "toolAttentionRadius": 0,
  "cropAttentionRadius": 16,
  "furnaceAttentionRadius": 8,
  "animalAttentionRadius": 16,
  "beaconAttentionRadius": 32,
  "shieldAttentionRadius": 0,
  "armorDecayTime": 12000,
  "toolDecayTime": 6000,
  "cropDecayTime": 24000,
  "furnaceDecayTime": 12000,
  "animalDecayTime": 24000,
  "beaconDecayTime": 18000,
  "shieldDecayTime": 6000
}

Config Options Explained

Multiplayer Compatibility

This mod works on both client and server. For full functionality:

Multiplayer Features

• All attention calculations are done server-side
• Per-player attention data stored in concurrent hash maps
• Data persists in world save directory
• No client-server desync issues

Installation

1. Install Fabric Loader (0.15.6 or newer) for Minecraft 1.20.1.
2. Install Fabric API (0.92.0+1.20.1 or newer).
3. Download the mod JAR file.
4. Place the JAR into your .minecraft/mods folder.
5. Launch Minecraft with the Fabric profile.

Building from Source

Clone the repository and run the Gradle build:

git clone https://github.com/AaravVishal1/attention-economy
cd attention-economy
./gradlew build

The compiled JAR will be in build/libs/.

For development, you can run the client directly:

./gradlew runClient

Requirements

Troubleshooting

Penalties aren't being applied

1. Check that the mod is enabled (globalEnabled: true in config).
2. Verify you're not in Creative or Spectator mode.
3. Make sure you're not AFK (haven't moved for over 1 minute).
4. Check that the specific system is enabled in config.

Penalties seem too harsh

• Increase the *DecayTime values to make decay slower.
• Decrease the max*Penalty values to reduce maximum penalties.
• Increase gracePeriodTicks for longer buffers after attending.
• Increase recoveryRate for faster recovery.

Penalties seem too lenient

• Decrease the *DecayTime values to make decay faster.
• Increase the max*Penalty values for harsher penalties.
• Decrease gracePeriodTicks for shorter grace periods.
• Enable hardcoreMultiplier for 1.5x faster decay.

Crops/furnaces/animals not being tracked

• Make sure you've interacted with them at least once to register ownership.
• Check that you're within the attention radius (default 16/8/16 blocks).
• The mod tracks which player "owns" each block/entity based on interaction.

Data not persisting

• Attention data is saved when the server stops and when players disconnect.
• Check for errors in the server log during save/load.
• Data is stored in <world>/attentioneconomy/attention_data.json.

Technical Details

Performance

• Attention updated every 20 ticks (1 second) per player
• Chunk/entity tracking uses concurrent hash maps for thread safety
• Minimal overhead during normal gameplay
• Block entity tracking cleaned up periodically

Mixins Used

Data Storage

• Per-player attention data stored in <world>/attentioneconomy/
• JSON format for easy inspection and backup
• Automatic cleanup of stale chunk/entity ownership data

Compatibility

• Compatible with most Fabric mods
• Uses standard Fabric events and mixins
• Does not modify vanilla items or add new content
• Works alongside other balance/survival mods

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.