Path Exponential

A lightweight path/road mod for NeoForge 1.21.1. Walk near a road or path and you're faster; leave and you're not.

I made this so I could build decorative paths while still having a speed boost. Instead of only boosting your speed when you're standing directly on top of a path block, the mod checks whether nearby path blocks connect to each other within a small radius. As long as there are connecting path blocks around you, you get the speed boost. Even if you're not standing on one.

What that means

• You don't have to stand on the blocks. The field is a band a couple of blocks wide projected around the path, so drift and small gaps are forgiven. Sparse paths still work.
• Leaving is forgiving too. The speed holds for half a second after you step off, so brushing the edge of the field doesn't flicker the boost on and off.
• It takes more than one block. A single path block on its own is inert. Put a second one within the detection radius and a field forms. They don't have to touch, so scattered stepping stones count.
• Tiers matter. Vanilla dirt paths are level 1. Four tiers ship, and you climb them by upgrading a path in place rather than by crafting a different block.
• Upgrade a path by right-clicking it. Wheat takes a dirt path to level 2, brick takes that to level 3, concrete powder takes it to 4. A shovel puts it back. Which item does what is config.
• An upgrade never changes how the block looks. A path is a path. What counts as a path is the modpack's decision, not this mod's, so point the config at whatever blocks you like.
• Everything is configurable. How many tiers there are, what each grants, which blocks count as paths, which blocks kill the field, and which items upgrade what.
• Roads can become dangerous. Hostile mobs get the bonus too (scaled down), so a lit road is fast and an unlit one is a highway for zombies. Villagers and a few others are excluded for QoL.

Upgrading a path

Right-click any path block with a configured upgrade item and it becomes one level higher. Defaults:

Item	Takes a path from	To
Wheat	1 (vanilla dirt path)	2
Brick	2	3
Any concrete powder	3	4

An upgrade item only works on the level it is configured for, so wheat does nothing to a brick road. Set upgradeItemAlwaysWorks = true and any upgrade item raises any path by one.

Config

Key	Default	Description
enabled	true	Master switch for the field.
pathLevels	["1|1.10", "2|1.18", "3|1.28", "4|1.40"]	The tier ladder, one level|speedMultiplier entry each. Add entries for more tiers, up to 16.
blocksAcross	2.0	Width of the projected band, in blocks. Increase for a larger effect radius.
detectionRadius	6.0	Max marker-to-marker distance that still forms a segment.
markerRadius	0 (auto)	How far a single path block reaches on its own, separate from the band between two blocks. 0 follows blocksAcross/2. Takes fractions. Raise to 1.8 if standing diagonally beside a path feels like it drops out — that covers a whole block diagonally. Costs more block reads.
blocksInRadiusToBePath	2	How many path blocks have to be within detectionRadius before a field forms at all. A count inside the radius, not an adjacency test. Set to 1 and a single block is a path.
gradientFactor	4.0	Distance over which two tiers blend. 0 = hard boundary.
verticalTolerance	2	Max Y difference between feet and marker.
fieldGraceTicks	10	How long the speed is kept after stepping off the path, in ticks (20 = 1 second). Stops the boost stuttering on and off when you clip the edge of the field. 0 drops it the instant you leave, which is how 1.0 behaved.
recheckTicks	4	How often the check runs per player (5×/sec).
applyToMobs	true	Whether non-player entities get the field.
mobBonusScale	0.5	Fraction of the bonus mobs receive.
mobRecheckTicks	15	Longer recheck for mobs than players.
mountRiddenBonus	0.10	Extra speed for an eligible ridden mount on the path (+10%), on top of the tier. Which mounts qualify is the path_mountable entity-type tag.
blocks.extraPathBlocks	[]	Extra path markers. "blockId|level", or "#tag|level" for a whole block tag.
blocks.extraNegateBlocks	[]	Extra blocks that suppress the field. "blockId" or "#tag".
upgrades.pathUpgrades	["minecraft:wheat|1", "minecraft:brick|2", "#c:concrete_powders|3"]	"itemId|fromLevel", or "#tag|fromLevel".
upgrades.upgradeItemAlwaysWorks	false	true lets any upgrade item raise any path by one level.
upgrades.consumeUpgradeItem	true	Whether upgrading uses up one of the item.
upgrades.shovelResetsPath	true	Right-click one of the mod's paths with a shovel to put it back to dirt path.