GuardianBlocks

Introducing Guardianblocks!

Adds a Guardian Block block to the game! Depending on what item is inside, it will do various different functions for base protection!

This mod was a crucial cornerstone of a server I used to play on as a kid back in b1.7.1 through shortly after 1.0. The server was called Minecarts.net, owned by Verrier and Megabytes. When that server closed its doors for good, it left a gaping hole in the hearts of everyone who was active on that server, including me. It's been my life passion to recreate this mod to the best of my ability ever since. I did make one change from how it was before, since before it used the "Block of [X]" directly and recorded a GBID to manage it. I feel like the way it's done now is more modernized, creating a whole new item but keeping the game balance and functionality the same. The new block is acquirable pretty early in the game, but the resources it requires to function will still increase the budget for materials to fully protect your base. The idea is that you will need multiple Guardian Blocks to fully cover your entire base, and planning your build will require careful consideration of placement and cost, while still feeling incredibly vanilla and like this block fully belongs in Minecraft.

This has been one of my life passions and life goals to accomplish, and it's finally ready! This is my first mod, so expect some bugs that were missed in testing, and I've been warned throughout the creation that it could be resource heavy. Leave a comment if you get crashes or lag and I'll assist when I can.

Items to place inside

• No item/Wrong item: Inactive, does nothing.

• Block of Iron - Protects blocks from being placed or broken by players, creepers, endermen, or TNT in a 9x5x9 cube centered around the block. Periodically checks to see if unauthorized liquids or fire have spread into area and deletes them before they do any damage every 10 ticks.

• Block of Gold - Protects blocks from being placed or broken by players, creepers, endermen, or TNT in a 17x7x17 cube centered around the block. Periodically checks to see if unauthorized liquids or fire have spread into area and deletes them before they do any damage every 10 ticks.

• Block of Diamond - Protects blocks from being placed or broken by players, creepers, endermen, or TNT in a 25x9x25 cube centered around the block. Periodically checks to see if unauthorized liquids or fire have spread into area and deletes them before they do any damage every 10 ticks.

• Block of Netherite - Protects blocks from being placed or broken by players, creepers, endermen, or TNT in a 41x13x41 cube centered around the block. Periodically checks to see if unauthorized liquids or fire have spread into area and deletes them before they do any damage every 10 ticks.

• Block of Emerald - Protects containers from being opened in a 9x9x9 cube centered around the block.

• Block of Redstone - Protects buttons, levers, and doors from being activated in a 9x9x9 cube centered around the block.

• Block of Lapis Lazuli - Protects mobs from being damaged by unauthorized players as well as prevents hostile mobs from spawning in a 9x9x9 cube centered around the block.

Crafting Recipe

8 Chiseled Stone Bricks in a circle on a crafting table, like a chest.

Commands

/gb add [PlayerName] = Adds another player to bypass the protections of the Guardian Block you are actively looking at. Player must be online.

/gb remove [PlayerName] = Removes a player from the list of allowed players from the Guardian Block you are actively looking at.

/gb list = Lists all players allowed to bypass the protections of the Guardian Block you are actively looking at.

Player Notes about liquids and fire

• Each time you place a Guardian Block, it will scan and record a snapshot of every liquid surrounding your block. If you are building an underwater base, and clearing out some water blocks after placing it, it might be a good idea to break the Guardian Block and replace it after you're done to regenerate a new snapshot for what it should be to avoid unintended water behavior.

• Other than the pre-recorded snapshot, any new water, lava, or fire has restrictions to exist within your claim:

  • Water cannot exist outside a 5x5x5 area of a Block of Lapis Lazuli. The idea is building waterfalls, water features, or infinite water sources.
  • Lava cannot exist except right on top of a Dripstone Block. The idea for intended use cases are using dripstone for lava generators. It does make building nether portals using the speedrunning lava/water buckets method difficult within your protection claim, so temporarily disarming your Guardian Block to build the nether portal using this method will be required. Otherwise, manually mining obsidian should work just fine.
  • Fire cannot exist except right on top of a Netherrack block. In theory, it could interact with lighting a nether portal if the Guardian Block triggers before the nether portal activates, but it didn't happen during testing. Just keep trying it.
  • Soul Fire cannot exist except right on top of a Soul Sand or Soul Soil block (Minecraft already handles Soul Fire exactly like this, but I thought I'd include it just to be safe).

Operator/Moderator/Staff notes

Staff bypass is attached to Creative Mode. If you need to intervene with the improper usage of Guardian Blocks, simply being in Creative Mode will automatically bypass the protections and allow you to do what you need to do.

To-Do

• Still need to protect against liquid griefing. MCreator 2026.2 doesn't make this easy, and I'm not comfortable enough with java coding to make this happen on my own. I'm uploading this to github so that hopefully anyone smart enough can help finish this mod for me. Because it's entirely possible to build a 1 wide dirt bridge over someone's base, and dump lava to spread down over top of it, and that is definitely something I want this mod to prevent with this mod.

• Same as above with fire spread/fire tick.

Does NOT protect

• Lava/Water/Using Buckets (as of 0.9.3, I hope to have this fixed ASAP with Iron, Gold, Diamond, and Netherite tiers) Solved!

• Explosions still damage entities within a Lapis tier Guardian Block's range, this is intended (also unpreventable). Take better care of your pets!

• Placing Guardian Blocks while in creative mode does NOT assign an owner tag in NBT, meaning nobody can bypass it except people in creative mode. This is intended, makes for good server spawn locations.

• Pressure Plates, Wooden Gates, and Skulk Sensors still work within a redstone Guardian Block's radius. This is intended, so that spawn areas or player-created public spaces can still feel interactive instead of completely locked down.

Want to help out with development? Check out the github for it and contribute!