With this mod, you can take written books, treasure, or a collection of both, hide them in a noteworthy place in your world, and allow other players running the mod to find them in their own worlds! You don’t need to be on the same server, map, or seed; the mod uses a fuzzy algorithm to tell whether a player has found roughly the same structure associated with a given hidden cache in any number of minecraft worlds

Early Access

This mod is in early access, which means things may change fundamentally and very quickly! However, because this mod should not interfere with other mods (since we only use two vanilla items), it should be very compatible with your preferred modpack of choice! Please bear with us as we bear the way forward to the official V1!

How can I use the mod to find new content?

TL;DR:

Use a feather to uncover caches by right-clicking anywhere!

A player investigating a spooky dungeon uses a feather to uncover a cache containing a mysterious book!

You can search for caches wherever you go by using feathers (right-click, or activate) on any blocks or areas that you think look suspicious or where you think another player might have hidden treasure!

How can I add my own content for others to find?

TL;DR:

Place treasure in a named item frame and rotate a few times to add to the cache! Break the frame to submit it!

After logging in with the /ww login command, a user place a named (via anvil) item frame on the ground. They add an item to it and rotate it until it disappears. Then they break the item frame. The chat confirms that their submission was successful!

Step 1: Login with "/ww login"

Type the following command:

/ww login

To begin the login flow! It will provide you with a unique key you can use in the corresponding login screen to authorize your account to submit new content. Currently we allow users to log in using their Discord or Twitch accounts, but soon we will be adding more options.

A user types "/ww login" into the chat and follows the instructions to open the login link in their browser

Currently the mod should direct you to https://dev-ajfk-6oq.us.auth0.com/activate ! This is the only website the mod should ask you to log in to! Do not submit your secret code or login details to any other website!

Step 2: Create a gateway by naming an item frame at an anvil

A player is about to name an item frame using a portal. It only costs 1 level of EXP!

(It doesn't need to have a specific name, any will do).

Step 3: Place your named frame where you want to hide your cache

This creates a new "gateway" for you to store books and items in. You will receive a notification message that you're doing it right in the chat.

Step 4: Place an item (written book or generic item) in the frame, and rotate it a few times to confirm that you want to add it to the cache.

It's worth noting that your original item will disappear! Don't do this with items that you aren't comfortable giving up!

Step 5: Break the frame to submit your cache.

You will get your frame back!

(steps 3-5, animated in minecraft, guest starring felix the cat)

Step 6: Another Minecraft player can uncover your message in their own server if they search near a similar structure!

A minecraft player uses a feather to check for caches near a stone structure very similar to the last one, and uncovers a gold block

How will other players be able to find my content?

Currently, our mod looks at the 125 closest blocks to wherever you put the frame down - that’s a 5x5x5 square centered above the block just below the item frame. It checks to see what kind of blocks are nearby, and uses that to contextualize your cache. We do the same thing when players search using a feather, and we compare both to check to see if there’s a match or not. Players have a chance to find one of the caches that matches the context they are searching with the feather.

An image illustrating the volume of blocks included when calculating whether a player has found a match or not. It shows a frame of gold blocks extending 2 blocks in each direction, north, south, east, and west, out from under the item frame. This bottom frame extends upwards another four blocks, for a final volume of 5x5x5 blocks. We may change the way these contexts are calculated in the future, and we welcome any feedback or suggestions players have in our Discord!

Guidelines for content creators:

We want to make the experience of exploring minecraft even more fun and exciting, and we’ll need support from creative players like yourselves to build an expansive world of mysteries to uncover across all of the myriad realms Minecraft has to offer. Generally, we would encourage folks to build stories and quests that they themselves would like to discover, and avoid trolling or wasting other peoples’ time.

Per Minecraft’s EULA:

“...If you are going to make something available on or through our Game, it must not be offensive to people or illegal, it must be honest, and it must be your own creation. Some examples of the types of things you must not make available using our Game include: posts that include racist or homophobic language; posts that are bullying or trolling; posts that are offensive or that damage our or another person's reputation; posts that include porn or someone else's creation or image; or posts that impersonate a moderator or try to trick or exploit people.

Any content you make available on our Game must also be your creation or you must have permission or the legal right to do it. You must not and you agree that you will not make any content available, using the Game that infringes the rights of others.”

It goes without saying that this mod is no exception to the rules and we strictly enforce the guidelines above. Also, you own the rights to any content you create and share through this mod, and by sharing your content through this mod you grant us permission to use, copy, modify, adapt, distribute, and publicly display that content. This permission is irrevocable, and you also agree to let us permit others to use, copy, modify, adapt, distribute, and publicly display your content. You do not give up your ownership rights in your content, you are just allowing us and others the right to use it. If you do not want to give us these rights, do not submit new content by using this mod.

Roadmap

We have collected feedback from initial users to help guide us to make a fun and exciting mod that is applicable to all! If you are interested in a feature that is not listed here, please let us know on our Discord!

(Feature list is subject to change over time!)

[DONE] 💎Buried Treasure!💎
Treasure (in the form of generic, un-customized minecraft items) can be stored/discovered in addition to or instead of the normal written books! Just add the items to the item frame and rotate them, same as the books.
👨‍💻Open-source the mod!
This would have a ton of benefits, including allowing others to have a more direct role in guiding the future of the mod. We are planning to release the mod under a permissive license in the very near future.
🤝API & support for user-hosted cache databases (instead of just ours!)
Currently we are hosting the server that maintains all of the stories users submit and make them accessible to other players. We’d like to expose configurations for the serverside/clientside mods to allow players to point to their own or other repositories of stories if they’d like to!
⚔ Quests!
We’d like to allow players to create a series of caches to be opened in order to allow for a longer and more rewarding experience for players!
📬Dynamic Caches
Think of this more as a traditional geocache, where anyone who visits it across any server can change its contents! What surprises might you find when you visit it this time? And what will you leave for those who come by next?
🧣Fabric Mod & Support for other versions of minecraft
What mod frameworks and minecraft versions do you want to see Wayward Words come to? Let us know in our Discord!
🔎Tagging Content
We’d like content creators to be able to tag their submissions as “fun”, “serious”, “OP”, “only books”, and allow other players to control what kind of content they can discover, including subscribing to different content creators to prefer their works if possible.

Installation

Currently, we only have a forge-compatible mod ready for public consumption. Simply download the latest version of the mod and drop it into your “mods” folder of your chosen Forge minecraft installation. Please let us know in our Discord if you’d like to see a fabric-compatible version of the mod!

FAQ

Do I need to make an account to find stories and caches?
Nope! You only need to make an account if you want to submit new content for other players to find.

Why do I need to make an account to submit content?
We need some way to associate you with the stories you submit, in case you’d like to request copies of them or request that they be removed. We do not use or access any personal information from your connected accounts except to authenticate that you are who you say you are when you log in from Minecraft.

How do I provide feedback or report content I don’t want to see?
We are working on a way to report content from within minecraft itself, but for now, the best way to request content be removed is to reach out to us on our Discord and let us know directly! Additionally, we are regularly reviewing new content to make sure that

Can I submit another story to a spot someone else has already hidden something?
Yes! In this case, players searching at a similar spot will have a chance to find either story.

Will this break the balance of the game?
It might. Depending on what players create and where you search, you may stumble upon caches full of treasure that detract from your feeling of immersion. Or, perhaps it might make for a fun and interesting time! We are planning to add more granular controls over what kind of content you want to discover while you’re playing so folks can get more of the kind of creative experience they’re looking for.

My question isn’t answered here!
I knew we were missing something! Please reach out to our team on our Discord for more particular questions!

Useful Links!

Check out our blog to see what other cool things we’re up to: https://kaimerra.com/

Join our Discord to become part of our community: https://discord.gg/U3CSaBcban

Wayward Words