[TaCZ] Weapon Research & Blueprints 1.3.1

Version 1.3.1 brings together physical Scrap, tiered research and crafting stations, weapon analysis, Blueprint Fragments, and the redesigned Tech Tree. It also adds Research Designer: build and share custom Tech Trees in game, using the weapons installed on your server.

This is the first public release of the 1.3 update. Version 1.3.0 was not published, so these notes cover the combined changes in 1.3.0 and 1.3.1, including the beta changes, for players upgrading from 1.2.0.

Highlights

Create your own Tech Trees

• Research Designer: Open it from the title or pause menu, /researchdesigner, or an assigned Controls key. Operators can customize a copy of the server tree or start an empty tree with the server's weapon catalog.
• Build visually: Search the scrolling weapon catalog, add starting weapons, use Add next to extend a path, and connect existing weapons. Drag nodes to arrange them and organize them into named branches. Incomplete nodes stay visible while you repair them, and routine edits support Undo/Redo.
• Larger editing tasks: Select multiple nodes, create nested branches and empty branch templates, edit prerequisite groups, and review arrangement changes. Structural edits preserve existing research costs.
• More working space: One compact toolbar leaves room for the catalog and canvas. Weapon rows show artwork and an in-tree marker. Selection controls, Fit, zoom and Issues live inside the canvas; Project holds export and advanced tools. Cost, material, Research Bench and prerequisite controls stay nearby.
• Test progression: Try new, partially researched and fully researched player scenarios. Check routes, costs, materials, bench requirements and the player view using saved server settings. These checks do not change a real player. Offline comparisons also cover crafting, Analyzer and Research Data outcomes, with diagnostics for missing dependencies.
• Save and share: Save local projects with recovery checkpoints. Export an installable datapack and a separate editable project bundle, with dependency, settings and installation guidance. Importing creates a separate local project.
• Safer editing: Existing prerequisite alternatives survive new connections. Cycles and duplicate required links are rejected. Removed prerequisites remain visible as issues to repair. Saves detect conflicting disk edits, and changed import bundles require another review.

Research and crafting progression

• Three Research Bench tiers: Basic, Advanced, and Experimental Research Benches support progression through increasingly demanding research.
• Three crafting Workbench levels: Dedicated Workbenches open TaCZ's native crafting screen and show learned or exempt recipes available at that level. Research requirements and crafting requirements can be configured separately.
• Progression Gates: Pack authors can require vanilla advancements, Research Bench tiers, or custom server milestones for research and crafting. Hidden requirements stay hidden until the player's visibility rules reveal them. Custom milestone progress is saved per player, and advancement requirements use the player's current progress after login or reload.
• Ammo and attachment controls: Choose simple crafting strategies or set category, subgroup, and individual blueprint overrides. Rules can require a specific Workbench level, remove the level requirement, or disable crafting. Blueprint-free recipes still follow configured workstation and gate rules.
• Other TaCZ workstations: Compatible content-pack workstations can receive exact crafting levels, with a configurable fallback for unassigned stations.
• Clearer requirements: Full Blueprint Journal entries and selected Tech Tree details show the applicable crafting Workbench requirement.

Physical Scrap and Research Data

• Scrap is the default research currency. Carry it to pay for Research Bench purchases and Blueprint Analyzer actions. Currency rewards use the selected currency, with configurable loot and player-kill supply. Banked Research Points (RP) remains available as an option.
• Research Data can be analyzed one item at a time. By default, Notes target Tier 1 weapons, Reports target Tiers 1–2, and Dossiers target Tiers 1–3. Higher-tier Analyzers improve fragment quantities and blueprint chances.
• Configurable target pools: Pack authors can change Data pools, weights, costs, rewards, and whether learned or undiscovered weapons can be selected. Already-learned targets are allowed by default. When excluded, processing is blocked only if no valid target remains.
• Separate Data options: Data loot has its own switch. Fixed currency redemption remains available, and Data processing can be disabled separately from weapon analysis.
• Currency-aware information: Research screens, tooltips, and Getting Started guidance show the active currency and the appropriate carried or banked balance.

Blueprint Analyzer and fragments

• Three Blueprint Analyzer tiers: Added Advanced and Experimental Analyzers. Weapon analysis uses both the weapon tier and Analyzer tier to determine full-blueprint, fragment, and no-reward chances.
• Tier-based default rewards: Same-tier and lower-tier weapons always give a blueprint or fragments. Attempts above the Analyzer's tier can produce nothing. Higher-tier Analyzers improve the outcome for lower-tier weapons. Datapacks can override every tier pair, cost, reward weight, fragment amount, and reconstruction requirement. A guaranteed-analysis legacy preset remains available.
• Analysis fragment reconstruction: Fragments from weapon and Data analysis contribute to matching saved progress. Complete a set to reconstruct a protected blueprint, including for a target you have already learned. Shared reconstruction also works with legacy weapon analysis.
• Ordinary loot fragments: A configurable share of blueprint loot can become target-specific Blueprint Fragments. Archive these in the Analyzer for a matching research discount, protected blueprint reconstruction, or configured currency returns for learned targets. These fragments have separate settings and progress from analysis fragments. Player-generated fragment loot favors unlearned weapons without completely excluding learned ones.
• Fragment-aware research: Research previews and whole-path purchases account for applicable ordinary fragment discounts and set consumption.
• Automatic ammo recovery: Loaded weapons can be analyzed or recycled. Successful actions return their ammo to your inventory and drop overflow at your feet. The preview shows the ammo that will be returned.
• Redesigned Analyzer screen: A horizontal Input/results/Output layout uses dark metal panels, clearer outcome icons, and one main action button. It shows weapon and station tiers, outcome odds, saved progress, and the selected action's costs. Longer explanations live in Details, repeated ready messages are removed, and results distinguish archived fragments from items left in the input slot.

Tech Tree and workstation improvements

• Rebuilt the Tech Tree around named compact tiles, distinct branch regions, proportional zoom, and a scrolling requirements inspector. Research actions remain accessible while viewing long requirement lists.
• The inspect panel hides when no research is selected, giving the graph more space. Weapon artwork stays visible farther out, with an icon-focused middle zoom level and larger weapon previews on hover.
• Inspection, keyboard focus, search matches, and tracked routes have distinct visual marks. Updated scrollable help explains the controls.
• Reduced opening and rendering work for large trees, including while panning, zooming, and choosing automatically generated prerequisite routes.
• Pack authors can name and nest branches, separate weapon specialties, and control when branch labels become visible. Existing packs retain automatic layouts when they do not provide branch metadata.
• Added custom models and textures for all Research Bench, crafting Workbench, and Blueprint Analyzer tiers. Inventory icons now show the stations' fronts. Blueprint Analyzers occupy two blocks side by side; either half opens the station, and breaking either half removes it. The basic Analyzer can be harvested with a pickaxe.
• Every station tier has a direct crafting recipe. Research Bench and crafting Workbench upgrade kits have been removed.

Settings, server tools, and modpack support

• Reorganized settings into clearer research, currency, Data, Analyzer, tier, crafting, and fragment sections. Advanced controls start collapsed.
• Percentage inputs show percentages, hold times use seconds, and large counts use number boxes. Choices have readable names, and disabled controls explain their prerequisites. Existing saved configuration formats remain compatible.
• Moved legacy layout controls out of the main appearance settings. Restore Tree Appearance now also resets camera motion and the background grid.
• Expanded operator inspection, status, and catalog exports to cover separate research and crafting rules, station tiers, gates, fragment progress, Analyzer odds, and Data outcomes. Fragment archives and custom gate criteria have separate reset options.
• Added currency inspection and grants, an explicit banked/legacy economy preset, and previewed one-way withdrawals of saved RP into physical currency.
• Added server APIs for custom progression criteria, analysis fragments, reconstruction, and active-currency awards. Currency events report delivered items and units; banked-only compatibility APIs reject physical mode. Custom milestone integrations can grant, increment or clear progress, observe changes, and cancel a proposed change. Operator commands support testing them.
• Added datapack examples for tiered and legacy analysis, individual weapon and tag overrides, and authored branches. Policy validation and balance reports help pack authors compare supply, prices, expected attempts, reconstruction costs, and multiplayer fragment pooling.

Fixes

• Fixed research progress being lost on player respawn.
• Fixed dedicated-server startup when common settings attempted to load client-only controls. Server startup now uses the loaded research profile, RP cap, and other saved policy settings correctly.
• Multiplayer settings now display the server's values when joining. Live setting changes refresh tier and gate rules, and crafting access recovers from a missed settings update.
• Kept research and crafting rule selection independent, so a more specific rule for one cannot hide settings for the other. Crafting can work without a Tech Tree assignment, and crafting and fragment settings remain configurable when Research Bench learning is disabled.
• Fixed crafting Workbench tabs becoming permanently empty during initial synchronization. Large recipe lists stay within network limits, incomplete replies can be retried, and stale replies cannot affect a newly opened station.
• Prevented large profile/catalog combinations from exhausting server memory during reloads, and reduced unnecessary crafting-access recalculation.
• Prevented completed fragment sets from becoming unreachable because of a retention cap, including custom thresholds and returns for learned targets.
• Improved restoration of items, currency, outputs, discoveries, and progress after failed actions, including failures involving other integrations.
• Analyzer actions reject duplicate or stale requests and removed or replaced stations. Delayed result messages no longer attach to replacement inputs. Changes to the input, inventory, player progress or rules invalidate an outdated preview before an action consumes resources.
• Corrected previews for unavailable analysis, currency recovery, unmet requirements, disabled blueprint learning, and single-fragment rewards. Rejected actions show the correct active-currency balance.
• Currency awards now recheck changes to the active currency before proceeding. Reward messages describe the currency actually awarded if settings change afterward. Invalid currency item settings retain the previous valid item or use Scrap during initial loading.
• Corrected zoom-button limits and camera-transition handling. Tree updates and resource reloads refresh research details and remove withdrawn content.
• Corrected operator diagnostics and exports to show current compatibility information and the rules that actually supply each setting.
• Fixed Research Designer save retries after a partial disk-write failure, unchanged ingredient and simulation quantities being altered, and fallback research costs in empty projects. Replaced previews are cancelled, and Issues provides Cancel/Retry controls for preview work.

Updating

Back up your world and configuration before updating. Replace the old mod JAR and install version 1.3.1 on the server and every client. Keep only one version of this mod in each mods folder.

If you are upgrading from 1.3.1-beta.1, update every client and server together; Research Designer adds network messages that require matching builds. The migration guidance below also applies when upgrading from older releases.

Research Designer capture requires operator permission level 2. Local editing and project import remain available without that permission. Export does not install or activate a datapack: the server operator chooses when to install it, its pack priority, and its active research profile. Test exported trees against the destination server's settings before activation. Existing blueprint knowledge and fragment archives remain associated with their blueprint IDs.

Existing player data migrates automatically. Learned blueprints, discoveries, saved RP, and supported existing progress are preserved. New analysis progress starts empty for older saves.

Scrap and Data analysis are the defaults when the new economy selectors are missing. Explicit choices remain in effect, and saved RP is never automatically converted into items. Server operators who want the old economy can select banked RP and legacy Data redemption. See the currency migration guide for settings, commands, and optional withdrawals.

Older version-2 server settings retain Classic progression with ordinary loot fragments disabled until an operator opts in. Version-3 settings retain their profile-based crafting behavior. Review the new settings when enabling tiered progression on an existing server.

The ordinary crafting recipe for TaCZ's legacy Gun Smith Table is disabled. Existing tables and Creative access remain available, and a datapack can restore the recipe. Allow two adjacent blocks of space when placing a Blueprint Analyzer.

Existing supported datapacks remain readable and can override the bundled rules. Profiles without an Analyzer extension retain their deterministic analysis behavior. For pack authors, this release uses profile/rule format 5 for Analyzer extensions, tree/placement format 3 for authored branches, and format 1 for Data and shared reconstruction. Catalog exports use format 22. See the release validation reference for the current network and saved-data compatibility details.

Requirements

• Minecraft 1.20.1 with Forge 47.x; built with Forge 47.3.0.
• Timeless and Classics Zero (TaCZ) 1.1.8 or later in the 1.1 series; development testing uses 1.1.8-hotfix.
• Fzzy Config 0.7.6 or later in the 0.7 series, with its required dependencies.
• Java 17. JEI and EMI are optional.