Minecules — Major Progression, Magic & Combat Update

⚠️ DEVELOPMENT BUILD WARNING

Minecules is still heavily in development.

Some spells, abilities, systems, animations, visuals, sounds, items, menus, progression features, and other content in this version may be unfinished, experimental, placeholders, partially implemented, or not yet representative of their intended final version.

Some skills currently visible in menus or the Skill Tree may do very little, behave incorrectly, or not function at all yet.

Many existing systems are also still being actively redesigned. If something looks rough or incomplete, there is a good chance it is not the final version I intend for the mod.

This is by far the largest update to Minecules so far. The mod has expanded far beyond its original Magicule and Aura systems into a much larger interconnected magic, progression, combat, world, study, and exploration system.

Progression & Affinities

• Added a completely new elemental Affinity system.
• Players can now develop separate affinities across different branches of magic.
• Added Affinity ranks:
  • Beginner
  • Intermediate
  • Advanced
  • Saint
  • King
  • Emperor
  • God
• Affinity progression can be influenced by gameplay, combat, practice, environmental interaction, study, and other activities.
• Added promotion requirements between Affinity ranks.
• Added recent Affinity gain/activity tracking.
• Added Skill Points and expanded progression tracking.
• Added a much larger interconnected Skill Tree.
• Added dedicated branches for:
  • Magicule Arts
  • Neutral
  • Earth
  • Water
  • Fire
  • Ice
  • Air
  • Darkness
• Added a Profile interface for viewing progression, affinities, learned skills, rank progress, recent activity, and more.

Study & Magic Books

• Added the new Minecules study/book system.
• Books can now act as actual study material rather than simply existing as flavor items.
• Added structured chapters, pages, study progression, assessments, and completion tracking.
• Added multiple Earth Magic study books, including:
  • Earth Magic: Foundations
  • Earth Magic II: Shaping the Ground
  • Additional advanced Earth study material
• Added a dedicated animated book interface and book artwork.
• Studying can contribute toward progression and Affinity requirements.

Earth Magic Expansion

Earth Magic has received one of the largest expansions in the mod.

Earth Formation

• Added Earth Formation.
• Create and manipulate controlled formations using materials such as Dirt and Stone.
• Formations can be manipulated before being launched or placed into the environment.
• Higher progression levels expand the system's available materials and capabilities.

Terrain Manipulation

• Added Terrain Manipulation.
• Shape much larger areas of terrain through multiple formation options.
• Added persistent and temporary formation behavior.
• Temporary terrain can interact with newer impact and destruction systems.
• Added material selection and construction/resource handling.

Compressed Stone Magic

• Added Compressed Stone Shot.
• Added Compressed Stone Barrage.
• Added dedicated charging, targeting, projectile, rendering, movement, and impact behavior.

Emperor Cannon Shot

• Added the massive Emperor Cannon Shot.
• Specialized aiming and ballistic behavior.
• Terrain drilling and destruction.
• Large-scale impact behavior.
• Dedicated launch, flight, flyby, sonic boom, and detonation audio.
• New particles and impact presentation.

Earth Sculpting

• Added Earth Sculpting.
• Living entities and players can be captured in their current pose and turned into collectible Earth Statues.
• Statues can preserve visual information such as pose, appearance, equipment, and player skins.
• Added multiple statue display sizes.
• Added statue breaking effects.
• Added Statue Paints.

Scene Sculpting

• Added Scene Sculpting.
• Capture entire areas instead of only an individual subject.
• Scenes can preserve blocks, scenery, and living subjects together.
• Captured scenes can become collectible Scene Sculptures.
• Added multiple capture and display sizes.
• Added specialized rendering systems for captured scenes.

Elemental Magic Expansion

Several elemental branches received major additions and infrastructure changes.

Fire

• Fire Touch already existed in previous versions and has now been integrated into the newer progression/Skill Tree systems.
• Added Combustion, allowing a target to be marked before detonation.
• Added Inferno Pillars, creating a sequence of telegraphed flame pillars followed by a larger finale.
• Expanded the Fire branch's progression and Skill Tree integration.

Ice

• Added Glacial Lance, a chargeable piercing ice attack.
• Added Frost Prison, capable of restraining targets inside entity-bound ice.
• Expanded Ice Step and its integration with newer systems.
• Added the Chill status effect.

Air

• Added Air Step.
• Added Gale Palm, a directional close-range air attack capable of damaging and launching targets.
• Added Skyfall, allowing the caster to perform a controlled high-speed aerial plunge followed by a landing shockwave.

Water

• Added Water Propulsion.
• Expanded the Water progression branch.
• Added the Drenched status effect.

Cumulonimbus

Added the Saint-class Water spell Cumulonimbus.

Cumulonimbus introduces an extensive localized weather system rather than simply changing Minecraft's global weather.

• Multi-line chanting sequence.
• Localized storm formation.
• Heavy localized rain.
• Changing storm intensity.
• Lightning targeting.
• Lightning volleys.
• Powerful wind fields capable of interacting with entities.
• Exposure and shelter handling.
• Storm buildup and dissipation.
• Custom cloud, mist, rain, debris, and weather rendering.
• Specialized Cumulonimbus shaders.
• Extensive atmospheric sound design, including:
  • Multiple rain layers
  • Wind
  • Turbulence
  • Internal thunder
  • Distant and close lightning
  • Sheltered rain
  • Moisture buildup
  • Storm dissipation
• Added infrastructure for personalized/local chanting and voice setup.

Battle Arts

• Added the new Battle Art system, separate from conventional magic.
• Added Battle Art progression and level tracking.
• Added sword compatibility handling.

Decapitation Slice

• Added Decapitation Slice as a major Battle Art.
• Perform a committed sword lunge through targets in your path.
• The attack changes significantly as it progresses through its levels.
• Added dedicated combat sequencing and movement.
• Added mob decapitation support.
• Added head/body separation presentation.
• Added an extensive custom sound set including launch, dash, slicing, separation, impact, and deflection effects.

Kinetic Impact & Destruction

• Added a reusable Kinetic Impact system for high-force attacks and terrain interactions.
• Different block materials can react differently to impacts.
• Added support for different material categories including:
  • Soft
  • Fragile
  • Wood
  • Masonry
  • Stone
  • Dense materials
  • Reinforced materials
  • Unbreakable materials
• Added breakthrough and impact reactions.
• Added environmental impact scars and feedback.
• Added heavy impact audio, breakthrough effects, tinnitus, heartbeat, and other large-impact presentation systems.

Meditation & the Inner World

• Added Meditation.
• Players can enter a dedicated personal Inner World.
• Added transition animations and effects when entering and leaving.
• Added safe return handling.
• Added protection systems for the Inner World.
• Added dedicated Inner World generation.
• Added the Inner Self entity.
• Added an Inner Self dialogue system and interface.

Miliac

• Added the Miliac enemy/boss system.
• Added custom Miliac models and animations.
• Added specialized rendering and AI.
• Added combat behavior.
• Added Minecule siphoning/draining mechanics.
• Added health scaling and specialized targeting.
• Added Miliac formation/evolution systems.
• Added multiple forms and transformation states.
• Added a custom Miliac boss HUD.
• Added Miliac and Miliac Beast spawn eggs.

Minecule Ores, Materials & Equipment

Minecules now exist as physical resources within the world.

Added three Minecule material qualities:

• Low Quality Minecule
• Normal Quality Minecule
• High Quality Minecule

Also added:

• Regular ore variants.
• Deepslate ore variants.
• Natural Minecule ore world generation.
• Different distribution/rarity behavior between Minecule qualities.
• Smelting recipes.
• Blasting recipes.

Minecule Equipment

Each Minecule quality includes its own equipment progression:

• Sword
• Pickaxe
• Axe
• Shovel
• Hoe
• Helmet
• Chestplate
• Leggings
• Boots

Also added custom Minecule armor models and textures.

Magisteel

Added:

• Crude Magisteel Ingots
• Magisteel Ingots
• Refined Magisteel Ingots

Along with associated crafting/progression infrastructure.

Zangetsu / Bankai

• Added Shikai Zangetsu.
• Added Bankai Tensa Zangetsu.
• Added custom 3D weapon models and rendering.
• Added Bankai activation handling.
• Added Bankai player animations.
• Added Bankai release VFX.
• Added infrastructure for optional Bankai voice activation/setup.

Skill Menu & UI Overhaul

The skill interface has been massively expanded.

• Added a full visual Skill Tree.
• Added pan and zoom controls.
• Added branch-specific artwork.
• Added individual skill icons.
• Added separate Magic and Battle Arts sections.
• Added a Profile page.
• Added detailed elemental progression inspection.
• Added Affinity progress displays.
• Added promotion requirement displays.
• Added recent Affinity activity.
• Added current study information.
• Added Skill Point information.
• Added customizable World Info widgets.
• Added menu settings.
• Added ambient Skill Tree music.
• Added significantly more contextual information throughout the menus and HUD.

HUD Improvements

• Added a newer adaptive Skill HUD framework.
• Added additional HUD layouts and presentation systems.
• Expanded displays for:
  • Active skills
  • Charges
  • Resources
  • Cooldowns
  • Temporary states
• Updated multiple existing Magicule and Aura HUD systems.
• Added better support for larger and more complicated abilities.

Aura Visual Improvements

• Added new volumetric Aura rendering infrastructure.
• Expanded Aura visual synchronization.
• Expanded Aura particle presentation.
• Updated Aggressive Aura rendering and screen effects.
• Improved support for much larger or more intense Aura states.

Existing Systems Reworked & Integrated

A large amount of development has also gone into integrating older abilities with the newer progression, networking, HUD, rendering, and combat architecture.

This includes work involving systems such as:

• Magicule Blast
• Magicule Beam
• Magicule Slice
• Fire Touch
• Aura Guard
• Aura Release
• Amplification
• Dark Shroud
• Ice Step
• Aura Pressure
• Aura Intensification
• Skill slots
• Skill cooldowns
• Magicule synchronization
• Player progression and persistence

These should not all be interpreted as entirely new abilities. Many existed previously and have instead received additional integration, supporting systems, fixes, visual work, or backend changes.

Visuals, Animation & Audio

This update contains a huge amount of new presentation work:

• New spell textures.
• New models.
• New equipment artwork.
• New particles.
• New shaders.
• Volumetric visual effects.
• New player casting and ability animations.
• New entity animations.
• New environmental effects.
• More than 50 additional sound files.
• Dedicated sound work for systems including:
  • Earth Magic
  • Emperor Cannon Shot
  • Cumulonimbus
  • Decapitation Slice
  • Kinetic impacts
  • Dialogue
  • Menus
  • Large spell effects

New Required Dependencies

Minecules now requires:

• GeckoLib 4.8.4+
• Player Animator 1.0.2-rc1+

Alongside the required Minecraft 1.20.1 Forge environment.

Important Note About Current Content

Minecules is not finished.

The existence of a spell, skill, animation, item, mechanic, menu entry, or other feature in this build does not necessarily mean that feature is complete.

Some content may currently:

• Do nothing.
• Only partially function.
• Use placeholder behavior.
• Use placeholder visuals or sounds.
• Be missing intended effects.
• Be missing animations.
• Be missing progression requirements.
• Behave differently from its planned final design.
• Exist mainly as development scaffolding for a future system.
• Be undergoing a complete redesign in a future update.

Even functional abilities may still be prototypes rather than the true final version I have planned for them.

Minecules is being developed as a much larger magic and combat system, and many of the systems introduced in this update are foundations that will continue to be expanded, replaced, polished, and connected together over time.

There is a lot more to come.