Materialism
Materialism is a Minecraft modpack about building industries, trading with others, and shaping real communities. No magic, no other dimensions, no infinite machines—just realism, industry, and cooperation.
Why Materialism?
Many modpacks suffer from familiar problems:
- Players quickly lose interest in trading or interacting with others.
- Resources are either too abundant or too trivial, removing incentives to travel or build infrastructure.
- Tech trees often contain entire branches that feel unnecessary because their rewards are not worth the effort.
- Progression tends to make effort disappear — huge machines do everything for free, eliminating the need for labor.
- There is no incentive for maintaining production lines – nobody needs that many mass-produced cakes!
Materialism addresses these by introducing needs, scarcity, and interdependence.
- Ores are rarer but found in massive deposits, making mines strategic assets.
- Players must coordinate to access all resources — no single location has everything.
- Complex and realistic industrial processes require industry and technology to develop naturally.
- Xoonglin's needs (from CFT) function as sinks for products, giving rise to complex supply chains.
- The diversity of Xoonglin's needs drive production, creating incentives to specialize and trade.
Principles of Materialism
- Realism
- No fantastic elements: no other dimensions, no magical materials, no blaze burners.
- Realistic physics; mass and energy conservation matter: no cobble generators, infinite fluids, or free fuel transportation.
- Realism never outweighs playability — fun comes first.
- Immersion
- If something can be done in-world, it shouldn’t be hidden behind a GUI.
- Production chains should be interesting and complex: processes over crafting grid recipes.
- Freedom of Association
- No artificial grief protection or faction rules.
- Player organizations arise naturally — villages, alliances, empires or rivalries.
- Only behavior that seriously harms others’ experience may be moderated.
- Freedom of Design
- Balance without hard caps.
- Factories can be designed in countless ways, just following a set of simple rules. Same for Xoonglin homes.
- Abundant options for customization and decoration.
- Automation Increases Scale, Not Efficiency
- Manual labour is always more resource- and energy-efficient, but slower.
- Automation reduces tedium but never erases effort. Amount of effort remains constant with progress.
- Encourage wit, not grind. Progression rewards clever process design, not grinding for expensive machines.
- Community-Focused
- Infrastructure, transport, and communication matter.
- Players must collaborate to access all resources — no single base can be self-sufficient.
- Specialization and trade are encouraged by mechanics, fueling a genuine economy.
- Every transport method has purpose, costs, and tradeoffs.
- Meaningful Violence
- Destruction is as costly as creation.
- Weapons are powerful but expensive, and defense is always possible.
The Three Pillars
Materialism is built around three core mods:
🟢 Care For Them (CFT)
CFT introduces a living society of Xoonglins with real needs. They consume food, goods, and infrastructure, acting as the social fabric that drives industry. Without them, there is no reason to maintain farms, workshops, or supply chains. They create the demand that fuels civilization.
🟤 Terrafirmacraft (TFC)
TFC reshapes Minecraft’s survival into a hard, grounded world of geology, climate, and realistic progression. Resources are distributed in large but rare deposits, encouraging specialization and trade. Its simulation of food, seasons, and metallurgy forms the material backbone of the pack.
⚙️ Create
Create is the engine of interactive industry. Its kinetic machinery allows players to design factories that are functional, beautiful, and endlessly varied. No interface-based machines here: every process is visible, mechanical, and tangible.
Together, these pillars embody Materialism’s philosophy:
- CFT supplies the needs that make industry necessary.
- TFC supplies the resources that make industry possible.
- Create supplies the mechanics that make industry rewarding.
Everything else in the pack exists to support or extend these three.
In Short
Materialism is not about rushing to the endgame or building machines that make effort disappear.
It’s about sustaining industries, trading with others, and building a civilization — all within a realistic, grounded Minecraft world.