No! Don't do it, Mindthemoods!

This (was) the second mod I ever made. At the time, I figured it couldn't possibly be that difficult to make fire a bit more interesting.

Oh how wrong I was.

To make a long story short, the latest version of this mod took several days longer then I expected to get working, but the main point is that it, (unlike the previous version), actually works! The list of bugfixes wound up being more than two pages, which, at the very least, implies I learned a thing or two about modding since I last worked on this.

THIS MOD DOES THE FOLLOWING:

Makes fire based on random ticks. This means fire will spread slower, but will be much less performance heavy, especially with particles disabled.
Changes how fire spreads; some blocks can be transformed into different variants by fire, and some blocks, (such as grass), can now spread fire, allowing for much larger blazes.
Adds ash and charred wood materials, which are created when flammable blocks are burnt. This unique wood set breaks easily when exposed to water, and adds more atmosphere to burnt out places.
Adds griefers, a crispy version of a creeper, which runs around making a mess and lighting things on fire in self-defense.
Improves upon the Wither fight with cool effects and an overabundance of soul sand.
Adds flowering grass, which spreads new plants in barren areas based on the biome and surroundings; this allows burnt out areas to gradually grow back without player intervention.
Makes a bunch of other miscellaneous tweaks to fire, and everything related to fire.

DISCLAIMERS

Yes, I am aware the fire spreads slower than Vanilla fire. This is an intentional gameplay mechanic, and is counterbalanced by fire spreading more aggressively if allowed to go unchecked.
This mod makes creepers explode when lit on fire. If you have a mob farm involving campfires or the like, make sure to disable or modify the farm before downloading this mod!
If you are having performance issues, it's most likely particles overloading the game. This usually won't be an issue unless you start a really big fire though.

CHANGELOG

Flowering Grass now generates naturally in all biomes- it looks identical to normal grass. However, over time, it replenishes foliage if space is available.

When ticked, Flowering grass produces a randomly selected plant above it based on the biome and surrounding foliage.
Plants only grow if space and sunlight is available- areas shouldn't get too overgrown. The more plants are nearby, the less likely it is to grow.
Some plants, (namely, grass), are more likely to generate than others.
After growing a plant, flowering grass reverts to normal grass, and spreads to a nearby grass block a ways away.
Crying Obsidian prevents flowering grass from growing things within three blocks of it.
Flowering grass can be obtained renewably from ash, and can be crafted using dirt and soul sand. You'll need Silk Touch to pick it up.

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In place of Saplings, (Which can now only be obtained by mining young trees), Each type of leaf block has a chance of dropping its corresponding Seeds. (Oak trees drop Oak Acorns, Birch trees drop Birch Fronds, Dark Oak trees drop Dark Acorns, Acacia trees drop Acacia Fronds, Cherry trees drop Cherry seeds, Spruce trees drop Pinecones, and Jungle Trees drop Seedpods, which are edible.)

Seeds can be used to plant Sprouts, small plants that eventually grow into their corresponding saplings. (Essentially, you’ll get more seeds per tree, but they’ll take longer to grow unless you’ve got a healthy supply of bonemeal.)
If you’ve also got ‘Cooking with Mindthemoods’ installed, you can use acorns, dark acorns, and seed pods to make a pair of new snacks!

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A couple other mobs and things have seen some minor tweaks to make them just a bit more interesting…

Creepers now generate moss when they explode, if there are mossable blocks nearby. They can also mossify stone bricks and other blocks with moss variants in the explosion radius.On average, (due to moss’s low blast resistance), this slightly increases the size of creeper craters. Usually, moss and lush-cave type foliage accumulates around the edge of the explosion crater.
Regular Creepers have a chance of exploding whenever they take fire damage.
Trees grown from saplings can generate rooted dirt beneath them. (This is mostly to make them fit better with the trees in Mindthemood's Pile of Rocks, but is also just kind of a nice feature. In my opinion.)
Ghast Explosions can now convert netherack and grass-type blocks to soul sand or soul soil.
Blazes ignite nearby blocks when injured.
Flint and steel no longer lights Nether Portals; players must instead obtain a fire charge by killing a griefer, or in a ruined portal supply chest. (This mechanic can be disabled with the easy

~~~

Fire has been completely overhauled. (As such it may be best to simply start from scratch, and go over each mechanic in turn.) While many aspects are similar, there’s also been some major modifications to how it works.

Flint and steel now only produces fire on flammable blocks, and does not function if a surface is dampened by rain. Use flint and steel again on an existing fire to increase its spread speed.
Fire generally spreads more slowly at first, but can quickly pick up speed when it's allowed to spread unchecked.
Alternatively, you can use Fire Charges- they can start fires much more consistently, and fires started by charges do not spread. However, doing so consumes the item.
Some blocks, (Wooden materials, wool, leaves, moss, etc.), are Flammable, and allow fire to spread to and destroy them. Other blocks, (Such as mossy stone materials, grass, rooted dirt, coal ores, etc.), are Semi-Flammable- fire can spread to them, but will only alter rather than destroy. (Grass becomes dirt, mossy bricks become plain, regular bricks become cracked, etc.) Finally, some blocks are Ignored by fire, and are immedieately destroyed when it spreads. (Carpets, candles, torches, and other partial blocks.) A handful are Extremely Flammable, (This includes hay, coal, and bamboo wood), and are guaranteed to have fire spread to them when it's nearby.
Water, Water Bottles, Rain, Nearby Spore Blossoms, and Biomes with high humidity all slow or stop fire. (The particles are pretty, but now you can also use them as reasonably proficient fire extinguishers.)
Lava no longer lights things on fire- however, if flammable blocks are placed nearby, they will immediately ignite.
Items made from obsidian, netherrak, etc, (including Nether Stars), are immune to burning up from regular fire.
Punching anything that’s on fire without a tool or water item in your hand deals damage to players without fire resistance. (And damages the tool otherwise.)
Mobs that are on fire can start additional fires below them. (This behavior is less likely to occur for players, but is still something to watch out for. If you continue running around on flammable blocks, you can continuously get lit on fire, so watch out.)
Flaming arrows start fires. This was surprisingly difficult to get working.
Fire stops spreading when it starts raining, or when it reaches its maximum spread distance. This is controlled by the maximumFireDistance gamerule, and defautls to about 50 meters.(But functions just fine if set much higher...)

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Fire can generate Ash when it burns things- ash is similar to powdered snow, and just about as unpleasant.

Blocks of Ash can be picked up with a bucket and placed elsewhere, or mined with a shovel to drop Ash balls, which are heavier than snowballs, and have a chance of inflicting blindness on their target. Ashballs can be crafted back into an Ash Bucket, which can be shot from a dispenser to drop ash layers.
Ash slows movement and jump height based on how much of it has accumulated- if it’s higher than one block, it also inflicts darkness on anything in it.
Entities without fire protection, fire immunity, or fire resistance randomly take small amounts of damage while walking through ash- if you’re wearing armor without fire resistance, your armor will take damage instead.
Ash is further generated when a non-undead mob dies while on fire.
If fire, lava, or magma stone is nearby, ash can become Flaming Ash, which is more or less the same thing- save in that it deals more damage to anything inside it, as well as their armor. Fire Resistance negates this property. (And, to a lesser degree, Fire Protection.) Flaming Ash can start additional fires on nearby blocks.
Ash falls when unsupported, thus allowing fires to spread downwards. However, it also prevents fire from spreading to surfaces it covers, forcing fire to spread outwards.
Ash gradually dissipates in rain, and, when dissipated this way, has a chance of generating grass or flowering grass beneath it.

~~~

The Wither has seen some thematic (and gameplay oriented) tweaks, including the following:

Activated Soul Sand/Soil is produced when the Wither Altar is created, more for dramatic effect than anything else. It makes strange noises, and pulses with an unholy light… the stuff can also be generated by Wither explosions, and occasionally spawns wither skeletons when the Wither or the player is nearby.

Wither explosions now generate soul soil, soul sand, and soul flames.
Upon death, the Wither extinguishes nearby soul fires to try to avoid lighting the Nether Star on fire.

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Griefers are a new, less threatening, but arguably more annoying version of the creeper. They avoid players, randomly accumulate ash, can set things on fire when injured, and are generally a nuisance.

Griefers only spawn when a creeper gets stuck in ash.
Griefers inflict blindness if attacked at close proximity, and panic when attacked. Upon death, they generate a pile of ash and flames.
Griefers take continuous damage in rain, and can be killed especially quickly using water.
Griefers drop Fire Charges, Gunpowder, and Ashballs when killed- as well as slightly more experience than regular creepers.

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Finally, You can now obtain Charred Wood, (A new wood set), exclusively from lighting things on fire. (Not that I, of course, would dream of incentivizing arson.)

Charred Wood is fireproof, and more durable than regular wood- so long as it doesn’t get wet. It produces ash and charcoal if mined without Silk Touch.
All wooden materials have a small chance of becoming charred instead of turning to ash when burnt.
Charred wood can be crafted into charcoal, slightly more efficiently than in a furnace.
Charred Wood has a variety of variants, all of which can only be obtained by lighting normal wooden materials on fire. Charred doors, fences, planks, slabs, etc; cannot be crafted through regular means, and are only obtainable through fires. (They’re a hot commodity, in a sense.)

ACHIVEMENTS

Abandon All Hope ~ Obtain a Fire Charge from a Griefer or a Ruined Portal

Asking for Trouble ~ Bring a Blaze into any especially flammable biome.

STRATEGY

Fire prioritizes spreading upwards, (like before), but can also easily spread downwards through flaming ash- which can ignite adjacent sides. However, ash only remains flaming if there is fire nearby. If there isn’t much fire, focus on extinguishing the flames, and the ash will stop igniting more fires. Otherwise, in a larger fire, prioritize getting the ash first. (If you’re trying to start a fire, start from the bottom and work your way up.)

Both Fire Protection Armor and Fire Resistance Potions can mitigate the damaging, (but not the blinding) effects of ash. Keep in mind that if you’re using Potions, any non-netherite armor without fire protection will still be damaged by ash, even if you won’t be. Fire Resistance is a better option if you can get it.

Generally speaking, the modified fire spreads slower than Vanilla fire- however, it’s also substantially more annoying to extinguish once it gets going. If you catch a fire early, you’ll probably be able to get rid of it with relative ease- water buckets are the quickest method of extinguishing things, with a good shovel being a close second, and a spore blossom being the best if you've got one handy. Otherwise, you may just have to wait for rain. If things get really out of hand, keeping the flames in unloaded chunks obviously prevents them from spreading.

If you’re really concerned about something flammable, use spore blossoms to prevent fire spread in an area. Any fires within five blocks in any direction of a spore blossom are immediately put out instead of spreading when ticked.

Trenches and walls can also be fairly effective, as fire requires orthagonally adjacent flammable blocks to spread. Again, just watch out for flaming ash, which can spread downwards and slightly sideways in some cases. A two block wide trench will prevent fire from spreading.

Be careful with Fire Aspect and Flame- both flaming arrows and flaming mobs can spread fire now- the odds of it happening are low, and you can usually extinguish it easily if you’re looking out for it, but make sure to stay on guard! (This behavior doesn’t affect the undead, so you should be fine with skeletons, zombies, and the like.)

In the event that a forest burns down, (possibly at your hands), you might be better off just leaving it be. Both ash and charred blocks degrade when exposed to rain, and can generate flowering grass- which can slowly reforest an area. (If you’re patient.) Traces of charred stuff might remain, but in my humble opinion, they merely add character. It's certainly going to be less work than cleaning it up yourself.

When dealing with Griefers, water is the best option. They won’t actually fight back, but will try to both ignite things on fire, and avoid your attacks. Try to stay out of range of their blindness effect, and ideally dispatch them in a single shot, before they can panic and light stuff on fire.

TECHNICAL

IMPORTANTLY, this mod replaces existing fire with its own custom blocks- and disables regular fire tick when loaded. Normal fire still exists in the game, on blocks that burn indefinitely, and from non-spreading fire summoned by bed explosions and fire charges. If you don’t want modded fire to spread, use the ‘doFireSpread’ gamerule.

If you don’t want flowering grass to grow and spread, use the ‘doPlantGrowth’ gamerule.

Flowering Grass does the following with a 70% chance when it receives a random tick:

Attempts to grow something on top of it as long as there is not crying obsidian nearby. Each plant within a five block radius decreases the check chance by 6%, eventually canceling it if an area has a sufficent amount of plants.
If successful, spreads an additional flowering grass block to a random grass block 2-6 blocks away on the X and Z axis, and anywhere on the Y axis at world surface height. The target location cannot have any plants or flowering grass blocks directly adjacent to it, and must have air above it.
Becomes normal grass.

Flaming Ash does the following when it receives a random tick, in the following order:

Converts to regular ash if it cannot detect a fire block within three blocks in any direction.
If it is not raining, attempts to light an adjacent block on fire- either on a block directly adjacent, below, or two below.
Sets Bottom Fire on the block directly above or two above if it is flammable.
Converts the block below it with a 25% chance; otherwise:
Removes the block below it if the block below it is flammable, with a 75% chance.

Regular Fire does the following when it receives a random tick, in the following order:

Extinguishes if it's in rain and has clear access to the sky/is only covered with non-solid blocks; or if there is a spore blossom within five blocks.
Causes a transformation on its current block, either converting it to a charred variant or ash for wooden materials; or causing a different transformation for semi_flammable blocks. (Such as converting bricks to cracked bricks, mossy bricks to bricks, rooted dirt to dirt, etc.)
Attempts to spread upwards, up to five blocks up and one block to either side, with increased likelihood in less humid biomes. Extremely flammable blocks and unsupported flammable blocks are guaranteed to ignite if targeted.
Attempts to spread horizontally up to two blocks up and two blocks to either side, as long as there are less than fourteenfires in a five block radius.
Spreads immediately upwards if possible.
Vanishes if the connected block is no longer adjacent.

The Mod uses the following tags to make things work:

The Minecraft ‘Fire’ Tag is used to make mobs treat modded fire as a danger source, and to extinguish fires using splash bottles. (As well as for compatibility with future mods.)
The Forge ‘Flammable’ Tag determines which materials can both spread and be burnt up by fire. It includes wool, wooden materials, and leaves.
The Forge ‘Semi_Flammable’ Tag determines which materials can spread fire, but undergo unique transformation processes. (Used to convert mossy materials, coal, and grass type blocks.)
Blocks tagged with Forge ‘Fire_Ignore’ are destroyed by falling ash, and by adjacent fires- they can be converted to ash in the process. This includes candles, crops, and most plants.
Blocks tagged with Forge ‘Semi_Fire_Ignore’ are not directly flammable, and are converted instead of destroyed by nearby fire. (Exclusively includes wooden doors, fences, trapdoors, and fence gates; as well as mossy walls and slabs.)
The ‘Ashblocks’ tag is exclusively used for the ash accumulation process, and does not include the full block variants of ash and flaming ash.
Entities tagged as ‘Ash_Immune’ are immune to damaging effects from ash and flaming ash. (Includes Blazes, Wither Skeletons, and Griefers.)
Items tagged as ‘Ash_Destroyable’ are destroyed shortly after colliding with blocks tagged with Ashblocks. (Includes seeds and sticks- prevents burning forests from lagging due to item entities.)
Blocks tagged as ‘Ghast_Destroyable’ can be converted to soul materials by ghasts and withers.
Items tagged as ‘Fire_Resist’ are not ignited by modded fire.
Blocks tagged 'Ash_Permeable' allow ash to fall through them. This includes air, leaves, and most non-solid blocks.
Blocks tagged as 'Saplings' prevent flowering grass from growing additional saplings nearby even if there is available space/sky access.

The source code for this project is now available on Github. Use it as you wish.

Fire & Growth (Mindthemood's Ashen Remains)