Core Ecosystem (Infection Mod)

A meteor lands somewhere near you. Inside it is the Core, a seed from another world, and all it wants to do is grow.

Left alone, it roots into the ground, grows its own creatures, builds a living shell around itself and runs veins out across the land. Give it enough time and you won't be able to stop it.

Currently only in Neoforge 1.21.1, but I’m planning to update it to 26.1 soon.

Now lets talk about the actual mod.

The Core grows through 8 phases, and each one changes the world around it.

1. Development. The meteor hits, the Core takes root, and its first creatures dig their way out of the ground.

2. Incubation. A shell of black bark and veins grows over it.

3. Awakening. The Core gets hungry, and its creatures start hauling food back from the land around it.

4. Revelation. Its roots dig deep, and arms of Infested Ground spread across the surface.

5. Hatching. The shell cracks open and the heart comes out.

6. Spreading. SubCore Trees get carried off and planted far away. Mites drift off to infect animals.

7. Seeding. The infected dead turn into Ascended Trees that breathe out the Miasma. The land starts getting sick.

8. Guardians. The colony grows its defenders, the Wrapping Vines and the Guardian, a giant spider.

The names are a work in progress, so if you guys have any suggestions, i’d love to hear them. On top of that, I am still working on Phase 8 completely, it is about a third of the way done, and Guardians are currently broken. Not game crashing, but they act with behaviors I’ve never thought possible so for now they're broken.

It comes to you

You don't have to go looking for the infection anymore, it will arrive right on your door step. Good Luck!

• Sick animals wander toward you, and infected mobs and thralls go after the nearest player.

• Every infected death grows a tree. Kill an infected mob too early and it still turns into an Ascended Tree.

• Far trees reconnect. An Ascended Tree hundreds of blocks away slowly grows a vein back to the colony. Find it and cut it.

• Worms chew through the land around the Core and its trees, turning it into Infested Ground.

• The Miasma is a cloud of tiny Mites the trees breathe out. Breathe it too long and you go mad, and then you become a tree.

What lives there

• Gardeners. Walking stumps that gather, build, mine, hunt and feed the Core.

• Brute Guards and Scout Guards. The colony's fighters. They defend it, drag mobs back to the Core, and go after anyone who cuts its veins.

• Seedpod Launchers. Rotting flowers that shoot exploding seeds.

• Worms. Knotted roots that crawl through the ground. Hurt one and it runs home to heal.

• Mites. Tiny drifting seeds that carry the infection.

• Thralls. The infected dead, hostile to everything still alive.

• Wrapping Vines. They whip you toward them, grab you and squeeze. They also race along the veins to guard the border.

• The Guardian. A huge spider whose legs step right over the terrain. It hides on its web and waits. *Currently being reworked, with more Guardian levels on the way.*

Fighting back

• Cut the veins. Trees cut off from the colony go grey and stop putting out Miasma.

• Go for the Core. Break the shell, kill the heart, destroy the SubCores. Be quick, though. The colony rebuilds what you break, and a dead heart can come back.

• Watch how it reacts. Its creatures rush in to defend it, put out fires, and send squads after whoever cut the cords.

You've got two tools for the job:

• Core Detector (Phasometer) shows the direction, phase and biomass of the nearest Core.

• Gas Mask protects you from every infection cloud.

Also in the mod

• Advancements and lore books for the whole life cycle. The lore starts at a ruin in the Deep Dark.

• Its own biome, the Miasma: sickly fog, a brown sky and murky water. It spreads with the infection and fades once the colony is beaten.

• Creatures that work, build, hunt, fight, avoid fire and lava, and find their own way around.

• Biomass, the colony's food. It builds up over time and gets spent on new creatures, upgrades and growth.

• A big config split into sections (Esc → Mods → Core Colony → Config).

• Commands for testing and creative play.

Compatibility

• Fungal Infection: Spore. The two infections are enemies and fight over territory. The colony avoids Spore's traps, and Core Colony's Gas Mask counts as Spore's.

• Create. Create's diving gear lets you breathe in the Miasma.

CURRENT BUGS IM FIXING:

• A big colony runs a lot of creatures at once. If things slow down late game, set your simulation distance to 10-12.

• If you have Create installed, don't change Core Colony's settings through Create's config screen for now. Use NeoForge's (Esc → Mods → Core Colony → Config) or edit config/core_colony-server.toml.

Still in development

More phases, Guardians and creatures are on the way, including Phase 9. Bug reports and feedback are always welcome.