Path Exponential

A lightweight path/road mod for NeoForge 1.21.1. Walk near a road or path and you're faster; leave and you're not.

I made this so I could build decorative paths while still having a speed boost. Instead of only boosting your speed when you're standing directly on top of a path block, the mod checks whether nearby path blocks connect to each other within a small radius. As long as there are connecting path blocks around you, you get the speed boost. Even if you're not standing on one.

What that means

You don't have to stand on the blocks. The field is a band a couple of blocks wide projected around the path, so drift and small gaps are forgiven. Sparse paths still work.
Tiers matter. Vanilla dirt paths are level 1. I may add more path/road mechanics later; making the tiers configurable for external mod support is on the TODO list.
Roads can become dangerous. Hostile mobs get the bonus too (scaled down), so a lit road is fast and an unlit one is a highway for zombies. Villagers and a few others are excluded for QoL.

Config

Key	Default	Description
`enabled`	`true`	Master switch for the field.
`speedLevel1..4`	`1.10 / 1.18 / 1.28 / 1.40`	Speed multiplier per tier.
`blocksAcross`	`2.0`	Width of the projected band, in blocks. Field Radius, increase for larger effect radius
`detectionRadius`	`6.0`	Max marker-to-marker distance that still forms a segment (phase B).
`gradientFactor`	`4.0`	Distance over which two tiers blend.
`verticalTolerance`	`2`	Max Y difference between feet and marker.
`recheckTicks`	`4`	How often the check runs per player (5×/sec).
`applyToMobs`	`true`	Whether non-player entities get the field.
`mobBonusScale`	`0.5`	Fraction of the bonus mobs receive.
`mobRecheckTicks`	`15`	Longer recheck for mobs than players.
`mountRiddenBonus`	`0.10`	Extra speed for an eligible ridden mount on the path (+10%), on top of the tier. Which mounts qualify is the `path_mountable` entity-type tag.

TODO

Field suppression (built, untested) — drop a suppressor block to kill the field in a spot on purpose.
Enchantments — armor / saddle enchantments that improve path speed. Either bundled here or as an add-on.
Configurable blocks — let modded (and vanilla) blocks be registered as path or suppressor blocks via config, for external mod support.
Manual path upgrades — right-click a base/path block with an item to convert it into a higher-tier modified path block, bumping it +1:
- wheat → trodden path
- flint or maybe gravel → gravel path~~~~