Anarchy's Vanity Blocks: Decorative and Storage Blocks for Minecraft
Every seasoned Minecraft player knows the struggle. You have spent dozens of hours in a modpack filled with technical giants like IndustrialCraft 2, Thermal Expansion, or BuildCraft. Your chests are overflowing, but not with neatly organized stacks. Instead, you find a chaotic mess of copper ingots, tin ingots, and various other resources that refuse to stack into compact blocks. The creator of Anarchy's Vanity Blocks faced this exact problem and decided to do something about it. The result is a thoughtful add-on that introduces a wide array of missing storage blocks, a treasure trove of decorative materials, and a few clever mechanical blocks. This mod does not aim to reinvent the wheel, but it masterfully patches up numerous small inconveniences and gives builders a fresh palette of textures to work with.
Core Features: A Trio of Enhancements
The foundation of this mod rests on three main pillars: compact resource storage, decorative building materials, and a handful of useful mechanical blocks. Everything is highly configurable, ensuring that your single-player world or multiplayer server does not become bloated with unnecessary entities or features. You have the power to tailor the mod to fit your specific needs perfectly.
Compact Storage for Vanilla and Modded Materials
The mod introduces the familiar "block of ingots" concept to a vast range of items that previously could not be packed. This is a game-changer for inventory management. Here is a glimpse of what you can now store more efficiently:
- Coal and Charcoal Blocks: A block of coal can be used as fuel for 72 operations, making it a highly efficient and space-saving fuel source. Charcoal blocks work in a similar fashion.
- Resource Blocks: You can now create blocks from bones, leather, sugar cane, and even Ender Pearls, keeping your storage rooms tidy and organized.
- Blaze Rod Blocks: These blocks emit light and burn indefinitely, much like Netherrack, making them a fantastic decorative and functional light source for nether-themed builds.
- Arrow Blocks: A compact way to store a massive amount of arrows, perfect for archers and defenders of a base.
For those who delve into the world of tech mods, the mod provides storage blocks for a host of common metals and alloys, including copper, tin, bronze, nickel, invar, electrum, platinum, and osmium. Additionally, forestry enthusiasts will appreciate the new blocks for apatite, honey, honeydew, and peat. The peat block is particularly noteworthy, as it can smelt 100 items, offering a great alternative to coal for your furnaces.
Marble and Construction Materials
Two distinct types of marble generate in the world: pristine white marble and the striking Ashford black marble. Each type comes in a variety of forms, including brick, chiseled, tile, and pillar variants, as well as slabs, walls, and stairs. This allows you to construct monumental and elegant structures without needing to install a separate, dedicated marble mod. Beyond marble, you can also craft a clay brick block, a lapis lazuli brick, and even a block of white soul sand. This soul sand block has a unique and dangerous property: it causes players and mobs to sink and drown if they stand on it for too long. The drowning effect is fully configurable, allowing you to adjust the danger level or disable it entirely.
Curtains and Hidden Trapdoors
One of the most intriguing features of this mod is the fabric curtain. These curtains occupy two blocks in height and cleverly adopt the texture of almost any adjacent block, be it stone, wood planks, or a modded metal. The only exceptions are blocks with a user interface, such as furnaces, chests, and pistons. Curtains come in two orientations, north-south and east-west, and can be toggled with a simple crafting recipe. This makes them perfect for creating hidden entrances, false walls, or simply adding a unique decorative flair to a room.
A similar principle applies to the hidden trapdoor. It copies the texture of the block it is placed on, rendering it nearly invisible. This is an ideal solution for creating secret passages and hidden rooms on multiplayer servers, allowing you to keep your valuables safe from prying eyes.
Lighting and Lava Lamps
The mod expands the family of redstone lamps with a variety of colored versions. Simply combine a standard lamp with a dye to create a custom-colored light source. Additionally, a full-size lava lamp block is added, featuring an animated texture and a stone border, bringing a touch of retro-cool aesthetics to your builds. A glowing block made of Netherrack surrounded by cobblestone is also available, providing a unique and rustic light source.
Installation and Compatibility
Anarchy's Vanity Blocks operates on the Forge loader and supports Minecraft versions 1.6.4 and newer. For versions 1.6.4 and above, the mod uses a continuous integration system via Jenkins, and build numbers are formatted as VanityBlocks., making it easier to track changes and updates. If you prefer a more streamlined approach, you can use a third-party launcher to manage your mods. This is especially helpful when you need to quickly test a fresh build or assemble a modpack for a server, as it can automatically select compatible versions. To get started, you can easily download Anarchy's Vanity Blocks: Decorative and Storage Blocks for Minecraft from a trusted source and place it in your mods folder.
Additional Mechanics and Utilities
Beyond decoration and storage, the mod introduces several utility items that add a layer of convenience and fun:
- Smelting Core: This block will completely and utterly destroy any items, blocks, or liquids fed into it via transport pipes. It is an excellent tool for automated trash disposal in your complex machinery setups.
- Mugs of Milk and Water: These consumable items provide beneficial effects such as regeneration, speed, or the removal of poison. They offer a simple and effective way to heal yourself while on an adventure.
- Rupees: A currency in the style of the Legend of Zelda, which server administrators can issue to players as a reward for completing achievements or participating in events.
World Generation and Configuration
Marble veins generate naturally in the Overworld, and occasionally, underwater ruins with dungeon loot can be found. The chance of these ruins appearing is configurable, for example, you can set it to a 1 in 100 chance per chunk. The configuration file also allows you to disable any blocks you do not want, alter recipes, or even bypass certain "nerfing" recipes from other mods. This level of flexibility ensures that the mod can be finely tuned to fit seamlessly into any specific modpack.
Conclusion
Anarchy's Vanity Blocks: Decorative and Storage Blocks for Minecraft is not a massive, overwhelming mod with hundreds of pages of guides. It is a neat, focused collection of solutions for everyday needs. It clears the visual clutter of identical ingots, provides builders with beautiful marble and clever camouflage blocks, and adds a few pleasant extras like a currency system and healing mugs. While development may be paused, the open-source code and Jenkins server mean the community can always pick up the idea or simply continue to use the existing builds. If you appreciate concise improvements that do not bloat your modpack, this mod is definitely worth a try. For a quick start, many players search for how to install Anarchy's Vanity Blocks: Decorative and Storage Blocks for Minecraft for Minecraft, and the process is straightforward for any Forge user. The mod's ability to enhance both functionality and aesthetics makes it a valuable addition to any modded playthrough.