A NeoForge 1.21.1 add-on for Create ReAutomated that scatters small ore outcrops on the surface above buried Ore Nodes. The point is simple: give you something to spot at world level, a hint that there's a Node worth digging for underneath, the way real ore deposits leave traces on the ground.

What it does

Whenever a chunk generates with an Ore Node in it, the mod looks for a flat patch of ground above the Node and stamps a small surface outcrop, a "trace". The trace is built from the Node's host stone (matching the deepslate, stone, or whatever the Node is buried in) studded with a configurable accent block on top. Cobblestone and cobbled deepslate are smoothed back to their natural variants, so traces look like exposed deposits rather than a pile of mining drops.

Works with custom Nodes (KubeJS, datapacks, sibling mods)

The mod doesn't care who registered a Node. As long as:

The block extends createreautomated:ore_node (with its baseStone(...) set so the host material is correct).
The block carries the createreautomated:ore_nodes tag.
There's an entry in the createreautomatedtraces:trace_block_for_node data map mapping the Node block id to the surface accent block.

Biome coverage

By default traces are added to #minecraft:is_overworld and #minecraft:is_nether via the createreautomatedtraces:has_traces biome tag. To extend coverage to modded biomes (e.g. custom dimensions), add the biome or its parent tag to data/createreautomatedtraces/tags/worldgen/biome/has_traces.json in a datapack.

Notes

Detection runs only on freshly generated chunks. Existing worlds won't be retrofitted, and Nodes placed by hand or commands after worldgen won't trigger trace placement either.

⚠️Using this mod with the default Create ReAutomated Node generation settings could result in a lot of traces. We recommend reducing the tries per chunk; you can do so by downloading this datapack (or use the 0.5x version to halve the number of nodes generated). Here is an example: alt text

Create ReAutomated: Traces