Living World 0.7.1

First public release. Minecraft 26.3 on Fabric and NeoForge. Server-side only (also works in singleplayer). Players joining a server do not need the mod; block changes sync normally. Removing the mod leaves ordinary vanilla blocks.

The world remembers

Foot traffic, building, village reputation and major events are remembered per chunk, saved with the world, and fade in real time. Only chunks that have something to remember are stored. Works on worlds that existed before the mod was added.

Paths

Walking wears natural ground (grass, dirt, coarse dirt, sand, red sand, and any surfaces listed in the config) through three stages: darkened, worn, then a packed path. Players count most, villagers less, passive animals a little; hostile mobs are off by default. Sprinting and stepping up or down count more. Creative flight and spectator mode are ignored. Slabs, carpets, player-placed paths and other non-full blocks are left alone. Unused paths recover one stage after wear stays low for a while.

Nature reclaim

Abandoned areas (low building activity, enough real time since the last visit, not a busy route) grow grass, flowers and occasional spaced saplings. Outdoor cobblestone or stone bricks may turn mossy or cracked. Lived-in chunks, busy routes, and the insides of buildings do not grow over.

Major event traces

A dragon kill, a wither kill, a significant raid outcome, or a long-term base may leave exactly one small trace nearby: a weathered sign, a small stone cairn, a short book on a lectern, or a minor scar in the ground. Traces are only placed on safe ground. Chance is configurable (18% on the default Noticeable preset). Chat notices are off by default.

Village maintenance

Now and then a vanilla village may do one small thing: mend a fence or wall gap, add a crop to an empty farm plot, place one lantern by a path or well, or clear grass off a path. Villages never build new structures, expand, or create entities. This can be turned off.

Configuration

One server-side file, config/livingworld.toml, shared by all worlds. It is written with comments and the Noticeable preset on first launch.

Presets: subtle, noticeable, strong, and custom. Presets set only how strong the effects are. Every other section applies under any preset.

Changes apply live: save the file (picked up within about 10 seconds) or run /livingworld reload (op level 2). /livingworld config shows what is in effect. /livingworld inspect shows memory at a targeted chunk or block. Nothing needs a restart.

Each system (paths, nature, villages, traces) can be turned off on its own. The Nether and the End are disabled for path, nature and village block changes by default; a major event there can still leave a trace.

Bad values are clamped or replaced by the default with a warning in the server log. A broken file never stops the server. Delete the file to regenerate it.

Protection

With respect_build_permissions = true (the default), Living World does not change blocks on protected land: a dedicated server's spawn-protection square, a Fabric claim mod that supports Patbox's Common Protection API, any hook another mod registers with LivingWorldApi.registerProtection, and — for path wear — ground the walking player could not build on. Steps on protected ground still count as foot traffic. Blocks in the #livingworld:frozen tag are never changed while that option is on.

Performance

Hard budgets cap how much work is done: 100 remembered chunks processed per second and 40 block changes per second, per dimension (configurable). An optional TPS guard can skip the mod's work when the server is lagging (off by default). A damaged save with an impossible number for activity or wear loads that one value as 0.