Create: Garnished adds many new foods and items, expanding on the Create mod!
After 1 year of development, what are some of the accomplishments that have been made for not only this mod, but also by the community?
Within the past year, the Modrinth page has surpassed 100,000 downloads and is currently sitting at 109,393 total downloads. I cannot thank the community enough for this, as it not only shows support for the project, but also support for this project being on Modrinth!
While the Curseforge page came much later, in October of last year, it has also gained a massive following and has achieved many milestones. One of which is that the project has not only surpassed 100,000 downloads, but also surpassed 150,000 downloads - sitting at 161,658 total downloads!
For those that don't know, a modpack that is centred around Create: Garnished is currently in the works. This modpack has been released publicly on my Ko-fi for some time now. I would like to congratulate the first person to beat the modpack in it's beta state - Ostino from the DejojoTheAwsome discord server! While the modpack has been heavily reworked since this accomplishment, it is no small feat, nonetheless!
Completion of Create: Back To The Kitchen v0.4 beta version
One of the more important features of Create: Garnished is the hatchet system. This system was initially made with not much idea of what it would turn into, and much less that it would be one of the largest compatibility-oriented features that the mod has to date. Thanks to _ascens from the Create: Garnished discord server, many mods have gained support for hatchets - AE2, Better Nether, Better End, Deeper & Darker, Create: Stuff & Additions - just to name a few.
Initial suggestion of compatibility with other mods and the hatchet system
While this one may seem a bit biased, it should still be said - DejojoTheAwsome from Youtube and other social media has the most viewed Create: Garnished video, sitting at 122k views. These videos have helped with the development of Create: Garnished a lot, believe it or not. The comments provide feedback and that feedback is taken into consideration for the next major update. Or sometimes when bugs are accidentally released, they are showcased in the video and I am able to solve the issue prior to releasing the next update.
DejojoTheAwsome - This Addon Fixes Create Mod's Biggest Issues
I would like to personally congratulate Panda from the Create: Garnished discord on 150 downloads on a project called Garnished Additions - an addon for an addon that they have been working on for the past few months! While it's not as big of a number as everything else mentioned, it's an accomplishment that is deserving of celebration!
Garnished Additions mod by Panda
I could go on and on about the accomplishments that this community has achieved, but I could honestly dedicate an entire blog post to just that. So let's move on to some of the most influential updates of the past year!
In Create: Garnished v0.2, Garnishment Templates were added. While these were later removed in the very next update - v0.2.1 - they did make for quite an interesting concept. Essentially, they were used to artificially create other kinds of nuts from wheat dough... Yeah, no wonder why this was removed almost immediately.
Garnishment Templates in v0.2
Create: Garnished v0.6 was possibly the one update that shaped the Create: Garnished of today - the introduction of Nut Trees. This change singlehandedly altered the design and functionality of tree farms, requiring you to filter out a given amount of nuts for storage and to feed back into the system once you've cracked them. Without this, the core principles and functionality that is commmonly recognized in Create: Garnished wouldn't exist and the mod itself would most likely be very different.
Nut Crops & Nut Plant from pre-v0.6
Create: Garnished v1.0 introduced Hatchets, but without any functionality. Then v1.1 came along, and changed how foods are looked at with Create: Garnished. Without the Ravaging and Salvaging enchantments, there's a good chance that many of the foods currently in the mod wouldn't exist or even be thought about. In fact, it's pretty likely that the mod would have an entirely vegetarian diet without this feature.
Wooden, Stone, Iron, Gold, Diamond, and Netherite Hatchets
Create: Garnished v1.3 not only introduced some festive delicacies, but also a plethora of building blocks - 3 stone types, new wood options, and some sugary decorations! This was also the first update that added a new stone type to the mod. This would also expand the content added in future updates, being able to easily introduce more new stone types such as Ritualistic Stone or Wyvern Stone.
Wyvern Stone from Create: Garnished v1.8
Create: Garnished v1.7 added the ability to redye large amounts of items, which opened customization options up for the playerbase. This also allowed for mastic resin items to be redyed, which removed some of the restriction on these items that were present in previous versions.
Bulk Dyeing
I could probably go on and on about how influential each individual update was, but I think it's time to discuss the future of the mod.
One subject that I've been thinking about for an update is nuclear atomic bom- Toxic foods, potentially inspired by the Toxic Caves from Alex's Caves.
Most of the foods added in this update would have pros and cons (I don't think that I need to explain how consuming radioactive apples is probably bad for your health). However, with the downsides, they would provide the player with beneficial effects. Whether this be high nutrition/saturation or beneficial status effects that aids the player, I'm interested in seeing community feedback for these concepts.
A small list of some ideas can be seen below!
This "toxic theme" may take some time before development begins, as there's still some other updates lined up and higher on the priority list.
Something that has been finetuned and adjusted all throughout Create: Garnished are the nutritional and saturation values of the different foods. With over 200 food items, it's no wonder why it's such a struggle to ensure that these values are not only balanced, but also provide a reason for players to seek out creating these foods.
What's the problem with the current values? Well, there's a couple.
For starters, there are multiple foods that don't serve much of a purpose aside from just being nutrition. This, by itself, isn't too much of an issue. But, with so many foods being like this, it not only seems like inventory clutter, but also doesn't present much functionality.
The second issue being that there are a lot of foods that share nutrition and saturation values, which can get pretty repetitive at times. One prime example of foods that have repetitive values, but separate functionality are the Senile Sweets - which allow you to brew different kinds of potions while still providing the player with the same nutrition and saturation.
But, what changes am I looking to make to solve these issues?
I would like to compare each nutrition value to other nutrition values in Create: Garnished, but also to other food mods. If early-game foods are not on par with other food mods, that's fine. Early-game foods shouldn't outclass other food mods tenfold. However, mid-game to late-game foods are a different story. Foods that are dependent on the Nether and the End will be the main focus of a future update in hopes to further improve the general quality of the mod and general usage of these items.
Another content-oriented subject that I've been thinking about is to add an update focused on eating rocks... Yes, I know that half of the foods in this mod are already rock-related, but none of them are specifically obtained from mining in the caves and are near-exclusively produced in loot chests or above-ground generation.
With such a broad concept, what foods and other features would even be added?
A small list of some ideas can be seen below!
There is also the potential for more stone types, but there are currently no specific stone types in mind for this update.
Create: Back to the Kitchen v0.6 will be releasing on Ko-fi the week of June 25th, 2024!
v0.6 reworks and overhauls a lot of the progression and goals of the modpack, so previous saves will not be compatible with this version - those who have played the modpack before, you have been warned!
Basic Questbook Overview
There are two sets of quests that you can follow - Mechanisms/Machines & the main Create: Garnished questline!
The Mechanisms/Machines will guide you through how to produce certain items that will allow you to make different contraptions!
The main Create: Garnished questline will have you produce 9 different food items - 3 from each dimension (3 from the Overworld, 3 from the Nether, and 3 from the End) - in order to complete the modpack!
Retextured Ender Dragon, curtesy of crydigo's Ender Dragon Revamp on Curseforge
Machines in the modern era of Minecraft - 1.20.1
Some of you may notice how machines act very different compared to how they work in modpacks such as Create: Above & Beyond. Now that the Smithing Table has increased functionality, the functionality of machines and related features needed to be changed.
Entirely unique Smithing Templates can be made and utilized to make most contraptions - for example, a Silicon Machine can be used alongside a Silicon Smithing Template and an Item Vault (Silo) inside of a Smithing Table to create an ME Drive.
There is also an adjusted modlist, which is part of the reason why this version of Create: Back to the Kitchen is incompatible with previous versions! Mods such as Applied Energistics and Storage Drawers are added while other mods - such as Create: Dreams & Desires and Functional Storage - are unfortunately removed from the modpack.
You may also notice some entirely new mods that don't replace old mods, such as Create: Connected or Create: Colored Casings!