🌿 Gaia’s Breath

A Fabric mod that makes the natural world evolve on its own.

Grass spreads, flowers sprout, trees regenerate, metal weathers, wood ages — Minecraft’s ecology becomes alive, gradual, and configurable.

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🧭 Overview

The world breathes, grows, and heals over time.
Without player input, nature reclaims barren land and balances overgrowth,
creating a living landscape that changes as you explore.

Main Features

• Vegetation propagation: short grass spreads, may become tall grass, and wild flowers can appear.
• Tree renewal: saplings can pop near trees, letting forests naturally expand.
• Natural path formation: player footsteps gradually wear down grass into coarse dirt and dirt paths, which can slowly recover over time.
• Charcoal from burned wood: when wood blocks are burned by fire, they can drop charcoal instead of disappearing completely.
• Fully configurable via an in-game screen (tick budgets, growth chances, moss spread, path erosion, and more).
• Server-friendly: all updates are tick-limited and distributed across chunks to prevent lag spikes.

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🌱 Natural Growth

Vegetation Propagation

• Grass blocks may receive short grass over time.
• Short grass can convert to tall grass based on probability.
• Flowers occasionally generate in suitable spots (low density, natural feel).

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⚙️ Configuration (ModMenu)

Open the Gaia’s Breath configuration screen from ModMenu to fine-tune every natural mechanic.
All values are stored in config/gaiasbreath.json and can be safely edited in-game or manually.

Click to expand

🌾 World Growth

Control how vegetation spreads and evolves each tick.

Setting	Default	Description
GROWTH_MAX_CHUNK_PER_TICK	20	Maximum number of chunks processed per tick.
GROWTH_BLOCKS_PER_CHUNK	100	Maximum number of block updates per chunk.
SHORT_GRASS_GROWTH_CHANCE	0.005	Chance for grass blocks to spawn short grass.
SHORT_TO_TALL_CHANCE	0.005	Chance for short grass to grow into tall grass.
FLOWER_SPREAD_CHANCE	0.005	Chance for flowers to appear nearby.
SAPLING_SPREAD_CHANCE	0.002	Chance for saplings to sprout near trees.
MUSHROOM_SPREAD_CHANCE	0.01	Chance for mushrooms to spread underground or in dark areas.
BUSH_SPREAD_CHANCE	0.01	Chance for berry bushes or similar foliage to propagate.
RAIN_GROWTH_CHANCE	0.25	Global growth multiplier during rain (boosts propagation speed).

🪨 Moss Generation

Regulates how mossy blocks appear and spread on stone.

Setting	Default	Description
STONE_TO_MOSSY_CHANCE	0.02	Chance for stone to become mossy.
MOSSY_SPREAD_CHANCE	0.01	Chance for mossy blocks to spread their texture.
MOSSY_TO_MOSS_CHANCE	0.01	Chance for mossy blocks to fully convert into moss blocks.
MOSS_MAX_CHUNK_PER_TICK	10	Maximum chunks processed for moss generation each tick.
MOSS_BLOCKS_PER_CHUNK	10	Maximum moss updates per chunk.
Y_RANGE	20	Vertical search range for nearby stone/moss blocks.

🪵 Path & Erosion System

Tracks player movement and generates paths over time.

Setting	Default	Description
STEP_TO_COARSE	30	Steps needed to turn grass into coarse dirt.
STEP_TO_PATH	80	Steps needed to form a dirt path.
RECOVERY_RATE	1	Rate at which paths regrow into grass per tick.
DECAY_INTERVAL	1200 (1 minute)	Time between path decay checks (in ticks).

🔥 Miscellaneous

Setting	Default	Description
CHARCOAL_DROP_CHANCE	0.5	Chance for burned wood to drop charcoal instead of ash.

🧩 All settings can be changed live through the config screen or by editing the JSON file.
Gaia’s Breath is designed to remain stable even with extreme or custom values — tweak it freely!

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🚀 Performance

• Tick budgeted: hard caps per tick and per chunk to keep servers smooth.
• Distributed work: processing spreads across the world to avoid spikes.
• Compatible with existing worlds: no world reset required.

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🧩 Compatibility

• Fabric (MC 1.21.9).
• Works in single-player and servers.
• Plays nicely with biome/terrain mods — Gaia’s Breath only performs light, probabilistic edits over time.

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🗺️ Design Goals

• Keep the world feeling alive, not chaotic.
• Prioritize readability: changes should be noticeable when you return, not jarring the moment you arrive.
• Offer control to players and server owners via clear settings.

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Got feedback or want different defaults?

• Email: matibi.mods@gmail.com