MissileCraft

I wanted a missile strike in Minecraft to actually feel like one instead of a big TNT block, but without breaking the look of the game. So there are no realistic textures or fancy cinematic effects here. The models are vanilla scale, the explosions use the same kind of pixel smoke you get from a campfire, and craters get scorched with regular blocks like blackstone, basalt, deepslate, tuff and gravel. A Tomahawk sitting on its pad next to your house doesn't look out of place.

What's in the mod

ATACMS Block 4A. Ballistic missile with a range of 1,000 to 5,000 blocks. It flies in an arc and comes down almost vertically at the end. Leaves a crater around 11 blocks wide, with scorched ground, cracks and fires around it.

ATACMS Block 2. The cluster version. It opens 125 blocks above the target and scatters 18 bomblets, each with its own small explosion.

Storm Shadow. Cruise missile, 1,000 to 8,000 blocks. You can only launch it from the air, with about 200 blocks of empty space below you. It flies low over the terrain and goes over buildings instead of into them, then pops up before the target and dives. It punches about 10 blocks into the ground first and goes off inside a moment later.

Tomahawk. Launches vertically from the pad, unfolds its wings and flies up to 15,000 blocks. Biggest explosion in the mod, the crater is around 22 blocks wide.

GBU-31 JDAM. A regular aerial bomb. Fly at least 12 blocks above the ground, right-click, and it drops straight down under you.

GBU-57. Bunker buster. It goes up to 60 blocks into dirt (about 36 into stone, 16 into concrete) and detonates in the first open space it finds, like a bunker or a cave, leaving a burnt-out cavity. Drop a second one down the same hole and it goes deeper.

There's also a launch base (a 2×2×7 multiblock: right-click to load, redstone to fire) and a Test Rod for creative mode. The rod detonates any munition wherever you're looking, and Shift + right-click opens a menu with a model and a short description of each weapon.

Explosions and sound

Explosions here happen over time instead of all at once. First the flash and fireball, then a white ring runs along the ground, a dust column goes up and hangs there for 20–40 seconds, a cloud of dust spreads around and debris flies out. The fire cools down into soot and smoke.

Sound travels at the speed of sound, so from far away you see the flash before you hear anything. Screen shake comes in with the sound. Distant explosions sound more muffled, and you can hear a Tomahawk from roughly 1,800 blocks away.

At night the blast lights up the ground around it, and missile engines glow in the dark. This works with no shaders and with Iris + Complementary, I tested both.

The shockwave isn't instant either. It nicks anyone it reaches, but you can hide from it behind a wall. Fires only start where there's something to burn.

How to launch

Everything is in the MissileCraft creative tab. Place the launch base, hold a missile and Shift + right-click to enter coordinates (it tells you if the target is in range). Then right-click the base with the missile and give it a redstone signal.

No crafting recipes yet, so it's creative or /give for now.

Versions

Fabric only, needs Fabric API. Install it on both client and server.

• 1.21.11, 1.21.1, 1.20.6: Java 21
• 1.20.1: Java 17, Fabric Loader 0.16.10 or newer
• 1.16.5: Java 8

Translated into 14 languages.

A few common questions

Will it wreck my world? The craters are real, so yes. Try it in a separate world first.

Forge version? Fabric only for now.

Can I put it in a modpack? Sure.