A Quiet Machine - You're Still Here
A Quiet Machine: You're Still Here
Keep the machine alive.
Minecraft 1.20.1 Forge survival modpack focused on existential survival, industrial progression, environmental hardship, and psychological tension.
The world is not malicious. It is simply indifferent.
There is no chosen one, no prescribed victory, and no guarantee that preparation will be enough. You are a fragile body in a world that continues regardless of whether you survive.
Build shelter. Find water. Secure food. Manage temperature. Treat your wounds. Explore carefully. Fight when necessary. Build machines when survival demands it.
The machine only moves if you keep it running.
You're still here.
Experience
A Fragile Body
First Aid replaces conventional health with localized damage.
Your head, chest, arms, and legs are separate vulnerabilities. A fight can leave you injured without killing you outright, but surviving an encounter does not mean walking away unharmed.
Bandages buy time.
Armor buys protection.
Neither makes you invincible.
A single bad hit in the wrong place can end an expedition—or your life.
Material Survival
Temperature, thirst, hunger, weather, exhaustion, and sleep are persistent parts of survival.
The environment does not exist to challenge you. It simply exists.
Cold is cold.
Water is necessary.
Food eventually runs out.
The night eventually arrives.
Your body has limits, and the world does not care about them.
Dangerous World
Improved AI, hostile structures, dangerous encounters, firearms, traps, and a wide variety of hostile creatures make exploration unpredictable.
Not every danger needs to be extraordinary.
A cave is dangerous because it is dark.
A structure is dangerous because you do not know what is inside.
A skeleton is dangerous because one arrow can hit the wrong part of your body.
Think before entering.
Know when to leave.
Survival is often decided before the fight begins.
Measured Violence
Firearms provide powerful options, but they are not solutions to every problem.
Weapons require materials.
Ammunition requires resources.
Reloading takes time.
Noise can create problems.
A cheaper weapon may be useful simply because you can afford to lose it.
A stronger weapon may require an industrial supply chain before it becomes practical.
Melee weapons remain relevant because ammunition is never truly free.
The goal is not to make the player powerful.
The goal is to give a fragile player more ways to survive.
Industrial Endurance
Create and its addons represent humanity's answer to physical limitations.
Automation can provide food, materials, ammunition, power, transportation, and infrastructure.
But machines require space, resources, construction, maintenance, and time.
Industrialization does not remove fragility.
It allows a fragile human to build systems larger than themselves.
A factory can produce ammunition.
It cannot stop a bullet.
A defensive system can protect a base.
It cannot feed you if you forgot to prepare food.
A machine can run forever.
Only if you keep it running.
Progression Without Obsolescence
Materials do not simply become obsolete as technology advances.
Copper remains useful.
Iron remains useful.
Advanced materials open new applications rather than erasing the old ones.
A primitive firearm may remain valuable because it is cheap.
A more advanced firearm may be stronger, but require significantly more resources and infrastructure.
Technology changes what you can do.
It does not change what you are.
The World
The world is open-ended and deliberately uncertain.
You may encounter abandoned structures, neutral settlements, allied communities, hostile MineColonies settlements, traps, valuable resources, or nothing at all.
Exploration is not a checklist.
There is no guarantee that the next structure will reward you.
There is no guarantee that the safest-looking place is actually safe.
There is no guarantee that returning home will be easier than leaving it.
The world simply continues.
Starting a World
New players receive the Survival Guide:
aquietmachine:survival_guide
The guide is deliberately incomplete.
It is written as a collection of notes left behind by someone who did not necessarily survive. It does not attempt to explain every mechanic or provide a complete progression path.
The rest is learned through experience.
The world does not give you a quest.
It gives you consequences.
System Requirements
A Quiet Machine is designed around a large number of gameplay, world-generation, survival, AI, and industrial systems. RAM is currently the most important factor in overall performance.
Minimum
- RAM allocated: 6 GB
- CPU: Intel Core i3-9100 / i5-9400 or AMD Ryzen 3 3200G / Ryzen 5 3600
- GPU: Any GPU capable of running Minecraft 1.20.1
- Java: Java 17
- Storage: SSD strongly recommended
Integrated graphics on processors such as the Ryzen 3 3200G can run the pack, although visual settings may need to be reduced.
Recommended
- RAM allocated: 8 GB
- CPU: Intel Core i5-12400 or AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
- GPU: NVIDIA GT 1030 or equivalent
- Java: Java 17, preferably GraalVM
- Storage: SSD
Maximum Recommended Allocation
10 GB RAM
Allocating more than 10 GB is not recommended unless you have a specific reason to do so. More allocated RAM does not automatically mean better performance.
Graphics
A dedicated GPU is recommended for a smoother experience, but a dedicated graphics card is not strictly required.
Vanilla / No Shaders
A GPU around the level of a GT 1030 or equivalent is recommended for a smooth experience.
Integrated graphics may work on compatible CPUs, especially with reduced render distance and visual settings.
Shaders
For shader use, an RX 580 or GTX 1650 / equivalent is recommended.
Shader performance will depend heavily on the shader pack, resolution, render distance, and other graphical settings.
Java 17
Java 17 is required.
GraalVM is recommended because it has performed well during testing with this pack.
The launcher must point to the Java 17 executable rather than relying on an older or incompatible Java installation.
Installing Java 17 manually
- Download a Java 17 distribution. GraalVM is recommended.
- If it is provided as a
.zip, extract it somewhere permanent. - Open your CurseForge Minecraft settings.
- Find the Java installation / Java 17 executable selection.
- Select the Java executable manually.
- Browse through the extracted Java folder.
- Select:
bin/javaw.exe
- Save the configuration and launch the pack.
The important part is that CurseForge is using the Java 17 javaw.exe from the installation you selected.
Performance
The pack has been tested during extended gameplay sessions involving exploration, combat, construction, Creative testing, structures, and extended world activity.
Performance remained stable during these tests without progressive degradation.
The main performance limitation identified during testing was RAM usage, rather than CPU or GPU load alone.
The current global JVM argument is:
-Dembeddium.renderer=vanillaAdditional JVM arguments are intentionally kept to a minimum.
Performance should be evaluated using the actual current configuration rather than relying on large collections of generic JVM arguments.
Rendering
A Quiet Machine uses an optimized rendering stack based around Embeddium and its compatible rendering configuration.
Shader support is available through the appropriate shader/rendering setup.
Shader performance is not considered part of the minimum hardware requirement.
Main Menu
SimpleMenu supplies the custom title screen.
Relevant files are located under:
config/simplemenu/background/
config/simplemenu/logo/
config/simplemenu/icon/Custom button text is supplied through the KubeJS resource-pack overrides:
kubejs/assets/minecraft/lang/When exporting the modpack, make sure the complete kubejs/ directory is included.
This includes both:
kubejs/data/
kubejs/assets/Missing KubeJS resources can result in missing custom content, including the Survival Guide.
Project Layout
| Path | Purpose |
|---|---|
config/ |
Mod balance, performance, and gameplay configuration |
kubejs/server_scripts/ |
Player-login logic and custom recipes |
kubejs/data/aquietmachine/patchouli_books/survival_guide/ |
Source of truth for the Survival Guide |
kubejs/assets/minecraft/lang/ |
Custom menu button text |
data/aquietmachine/ |
Standalone datapack resources |
docs/guides/ |
KubeJS and CraftTweaker reference material |
For maintainer-facing information, configuration history, balance decisions, and unresolved design questions, consult PROJECT_CONTEXT.md.
Design Philosophy
A Quiet Machine is built around a simple contradiction:
Human beings can build extraordinary systems while remaining physically fragile.
The player begins with almost nothing.
They must find shelter, water, food, warmth, and safety.
Eventually they can build machines capable of processing resources, producing ammunition, automating agriculture, transporting materials, and maintaining entire industrial systems.
But technological progress never removes the basic vulnerability of the human body.
The machine is an extension of the player.
A second heart.
A prosthesis against the world.
Not a replacement for the player.
The World Is Indifferent
The cold does not hate you.
Hunger does not want you dead.
The darkness does not know you exist.
A machine does not care whether you are tired.
A hostile creature does not need a reason to attack.
The world simply follows its rules.
Existential Survival
There is no predetermined meaning to the player's existence.
The player creates meaning through action.
Building a shelter matters because someone decided it mattered.
Keeping a machine running matters because someone chose to keep working.
Exploring matters because someone decided to see what was beyond the horizon.
There is no promise that any of it will last.
Do it anyway.
The Central Rule
Stopping is the only death that matters.
The world can destroy your shelter.
A creature can kill you.
A machine can break.
A storm can force you inside.
A mistake can erase hours of preparation.
None of those things have intention.
What matters is whether you continue.
Keep the machine alive.
You're still here.
Current Development Philosophy
A Quiet Machine is not intended to become an endless collection of increasingly powerful mods.
New additions should serve the existing experience.
When evaluating a mod, ask:
- Does it create meaningful decisions?
- Does it reinforce survival or exploration?
- Does it interact naturally with existing systems?
- Does it provide a new tool rather than simply increasing power?
- Does it preserve the world's indifference?
- Does it create tension without relying on constant jumpscares?
- Does it remain useful without making previous technology obsolete?
If a mod adds content but does not contribute to the experience, it does not necessarily belong in the machine.
The goal is not to make the pack larger.
The goal is to make it coherent.
The A Quiet Machine - You're Still Here Team
