Better Archeology
Adds a proper archeology loop on top of vanilla’s brush-and-suspicious-sand mechanic: new Fossiliferous Dirt and Suspicious Red Sand variants to brush through, decayed Rotten Log/Planks/Stairs/Fence/Door ruin blocks, cracked/infested mud bricks, and Ancient Vases that shatter for loot when broken. The centerpiece is animal and villager fossils — Villager, Ocelot, Wolf, Sheep, Chicken, Creeper, and Guardian fossils, each collectible as a Skull or Body piece and each carrying a genuine gameplay effect when assembled/placed: Ocelot and Wolf fossils scare off Creepers and Skeletons respectively within a configurable radius (default 20 blocks), the Chicken fossil grants Slow Falling, and the Guardian fossil grants Water Breathing. There’s also an Evoker Trap block for player-built dungeons.
Beyond fossils, Better Archeology adds craftable Artifacts built from Artifact Shards, which grant custom enchantments — Penetrating Strike (ignores a third of a target’s Protection-enchant damage reduction), Tunneling, and Soaring Winds (a 0.5x flight-speed boost) — plus three placeable Totems: Radiance (periodically damages nearby hostile mobs in a 10-block radius), Torrent (gives the player an activation speed boost), and Growth (randomly bonemeals crops in a 5-block radius). All of these systems are live on the server at their shipped defaults (config/betterarcheology-common.toml, config/betterarcheologyconfig.properties) — nothing has been tuned away from stock.
Anticipated questions
Q: What do the animal fossils actually do? A: Assembled/placed fossils carry real effects — the Ocelot fossil scares off Creepers and the Wolf fossil scares off Skeletons within a configurable radius (default 20 blocks), the Chicken fossil grants Slow Falling, and the Guardian fossil grants Water Breathing.
Q: How do I get Artifacts and what do they give? A: Craft them from Artifact Shards; they grant custom enchantments like Penetrating Strike (ignores a third of a target’s Protection reduction), Tunneling, and Soaring Winds (a 0.5x flight-speed boost).
Q: What are the Totems for? A: Three placeable Totems — Radiance (periodically damages nearby hostiles in a 10-block radius), Torrent (activation speed boost), and Growth (randomly bonemeals crops in a 5-block radius).