Tycoon Skills

Learn it before you can use it.

Tycoon Skills gives a modpack a skill tree that decides what players may make. Every entry costs money and experience, and every entry can unlock items - a single item, an item tag or a whole mod. Until a player has learned the entry, a locked item cannot be crafted, placed or used. Iron tools after the first mine, steel after iron, a tech mod only once you have paid for it - progression the pack controls, written as data.

This is a framework for pack makers. On its own the mod does nothing: it brings no tree. The tree comes from the pack, as a data pack.

For players

• Press K (or /skills) for the tree, drawn as a wheel: the branches around the middle, each branch's steps running outwards. A step appears once the one before it is learned; learned fields turn gold. Drag to move the wheel.
• Hover a field for what it costs and what it unlocks; click to learn it.
• The cost is money and experience. The money comes from your Money account; experience is counted in points - the tooltip also tells you about which level that is. If the money is not there, you keep your experience.
• Locked items say so. Their tooltip names the entry that frees them. The crafting table and the inventory grid show no result, placing and using are refused with a note in the action bar.
• /skills list shows the tree as text.

Creative players are never locked. Machines of other mods that craft by themselves are not stopped - whoever set them up had to learn them first.

A branch is a file

Each branch of the tree is one file, data/<namespace>/tycoonskills/branches/<branch>.json. The top level is the branch's own first entry, nodes are the steps after it. Every field except a node's id is optional:

{
  "icon": "minecraft:stone_pickaxe",
  "order": 1,
  "xp": 50,
  "price": 100,
  "unlocks": ["minecraft:blast_furnace"],
  "nodes": [
    {
      "id": "iron_tools",
      "icon": "minecraft:iron_pickaxe",
      "xp": 160,
      "price": 500,
      "unlocks": ["minecraft:iron_pickaxe", "minecraft:iron_shovel", "minecraft:iron_axe"]
    },
    {
      "id": "steel",
      "parent": "iron_tools",
      "icon": "minecraft:anvil",
      "xp": 550,
      "price": 2500,
      "unlocks": ["#c:ingots/steel", "@mekanism"],
      "grants": ["mining.steel"],
      "items": ["minecraft:anvil"],
      "commands": ["effect give %s minecraft:haste 600 0"]
    }
  ]
}

• xp - experience points (not levels: 160 points are about level 10, 550 about level 20). price - whole dollars.
• unlocks - an item id, a tag with #, or a whole mod with @. An exact item beats a tag, a tag beats a mod. Items no entry names are free.
• parent - the step that must be learned first (an id from the same file). Without it, the step hangs directly under the branch. order - the branch's place in the wheel, clockwise from the top.
• items are handed over once, commands run once at operator level (%s = the player's name), grants are ability keys other mods can ask about.
• icon and items must be items that exist - an unknown one makes the whole file fail (the log says which). unlocks may name items and mods that are not installed.
• Names come from the language file: tycoonskills.skill.<branch>, tycoonskills.skill.<branch>.<step> and ...desc for the description.

Entries are saved as <branch>/<step> - renaming one forgets who had learned it. Because the tree is a data pack, it can differ per world: with Tycoon Modes, each mode can bring its own prices.

For servers

Operators have /skills grant <player> <entry> and /skills revoke <player> <entry> - free, for testing and for putting things right.

For mod developers

SkillsAPI.locked(player, item) - a shop should not sell a locked item. SkillsAPI.unlockedBy(item) names the entry that frees it, SkillsAPI.can(player, ability) asks for a key from grants.

Requirements

• Minecraft 1.21.1, NeoForge
• Money (required) - 0.3.0 or later; entries are paid from the player's account

Works in singleplayer and multiplayer: the tree comes from the server, learned entries are kept per player.

A note on how this was made

This mod was built with substantial help from AI. The design decisions, the playtesting and the direction are mine; a large share of the code, the textures and this text was written with an AI assistant. I would rather say that plainly than have you wonder.

Discord

Questions, bug reports, ideas, or just want to show what you built? Join the Discord - that is where I answer fastest, and where the next version gets shaped.