Finding Structures and Biomes

From the Fear Nightfall wiki · Fear Nightfall

Finding Structures and Biomes covers the tools and commands that locate places in Fear Nightfall. The pack has more than 400 structure sets and a very large number of biomes, many of them rare and generated in small areas, so a player who cannot find a site by walking will usually need one of the items or commands below. The items come from several mods: Nature's Compass for biomes, the Sanctum Compass from Jaden's Nether Expansion, Furled Maps from Iron's Spells 'n Spellbooks, the Wayward Compass from the same mod, the Crystal Ball and Dowsing Rod from Hexerei, and the map and navigation items from Supplementaries. The vanilla Eye of Ender and the /locate command also find structures.

Most locators search for a specific structure or biome by its id, and a search is limited in range. A search that finds nothing is common for rare sites, so a player may need to move to a different region and try again. The horror weighting described below means that searches in forests, taigas and swamps are the most likely to succeed.

Contents

Locator items

Item Finds How it is obtained Page
Nature's Compass Biomes Crafted Nature's Compass
Wayward Compass Catacombs Crafted Iron's Spells 'n Spellbooks
Furled Maps One structure type per map Chests, trades, crafting Furled Maps
Sanctum Compass Sanctums Chapel chests only Sanctum Compass
Dowsing Rod Swamp and jungle biomes Crafted Crystal Ball and Dowsing Rod
Eye of Ender Strongholds Vanilla item Better Stronghold
Explorer and adventurer maps Ocean monuments, fortresses and other targets Trades and loot See the explorer map section below

The Wayward Compass is crafted from arcane essence in the corners, iron ingots on the edges and a soul lantern in the centre. Its only target is the Catacombs, which its locator tag irons_spellbooks:wayward_compass_locator lists. Its tooltip reads "No catacombs loaded" when none are available to find.

Biomes

Nature's Compass is the biome finder. It opens a searchable list of every biome in the world, including biomes from datapacks, and points to the nearest match. Its recipe uses diamonds in the corners instead of saplings. Searches cost no experience in this pack, and the compass never breaks. The compass is the practical tool for the rarest biomes, such as Floodplain and Hot Springs. The biome list and the horror biomes are described on Biomes.

The Crystal Ball and Dowsing Rod is a simpler biome finder. It points to the nearest swamp or jungle biome, and it is useful for reaching Covens and Witch Huts because those structures generate in swamps. The rod searches biomes only, so it does not point to a hut.

The /locate biome command performs the same search from the server side. For rare biomes the search is slow. The pack disables the server watchdog (max-tick-time=-1) because a rare-biome search once exceeded the 60-second limit and stopped the server. The search now takes about 14 seconds. See Multiplayer and Server Setup.

Structures

Strongholds and Eyes of Ender

Strongholds are the one structure that the vanilla Eye of Ender finds. In this pack every stronghold is a Better Stronghold from YUNG's Better Structures, and vanilla strongholds never generate. A thrown Eye of Ender leads to the nearest Better Stronghold. Because the first placement band starts about 1,280 blocks from the world origin, a throw near spawn is unlikely to succeed. The command /locate structure betterstrongholds:stronghold is the reliable alternative, and /locate structure minecraft:stronghold returns an error.

Each end portal frame in a stronghold has a 10 percent chance of holding an Eye of Ender, so a player can collect eyes from inside a stronghold before crafting more.

Furled Maps and the Wayward Compass

A Furled Map stores one destination structure. Using it starts a search within 100 chunks, and it replaces the item with a filled map that marks the nearest instance. Maps can be found in chests, bought from spellcasting mobs, or crafted. Some maps work only in one dimension. The Citadel and Legion Outpost maps work only in the Nether, and the Ice Spider Den map works only in the Overworld. The full list of destinations and restrictions is on Furled Maps.

The Wayward Compass is the same kind of tool for the Catacombs. It points to the nearest Catacombs.

Sanctums

The Sanctum Compass points to the nearest Sanctum. It has no recipe and is found only in Chapel chests. It works only after one Wraithing Flesh is spent to activate it. Once bound to a Sanctum, it keeps that position. An active compass lasts 240 seconds.

Explorer and adventurer maps

Explorer maps are maps that point to a destination structure. Three sources matter in this pack:

  • Ocean explorer maps point to the Better Ocean Monument, because the vanilla ocean monument is disabled.
  • Fortress explorer maps from the Morevillagers mod can point to the Better Nether Fortress.
  • Adventurer maps from Supplementaries are a second kind of destination map. The cartographer trade that sells them is gated by the mod's random_adventurer_maps option, which is off by default. The cartography table works with these maps, as it does with the quill. Supplementaries also draws block and structure markers on maps.

The Altimeter and Slice Map do not locate anything. They help a player read the layout of caves, mines and bases at one height. The Altimeter shows the holder's Y coordinate, and the Slice Map is a map of one horizontal layer. They are useful once a player has reached a cave system, and are described on their own page.

Commands for server admins

The /locate command takes a structure id or a biome id. Each structure page lists its id. Vanilla ids are often disabled or replaced by modded structures, and the error from a disabled vanilla id names the replacement.

Vanilla id Result in this pack Use instead
minecraft:stronghold Error betterstrongholds:stronghold
minecraft:fortress Error betterfortresses:fortress
minecraft:monument Error betteroceanmonuments:ocean_monument
minecraft:desert_pyramid Error betterdeserttemples:desert_temple
minecraft:jungle_pyramid Error betterjungletemples:jungle_temple
mineshaft Blocked #bettermineshafts:better_mineshafts
swamp_hut Finds nothing betterwitchhuts:witch_hut

Villages from the overhaul mods are located with their own ids, such as ctov:large/village_mushroom or terralith:fortified_village. Villages lists the village sets. The full list of commands and gamerules is on Gamerules and Commands.

Horror and searching

Fear Nightfall weights its horror biomes at 6 times the normal weight in forests, taigas and swamps, so these are the regions where most horror biomes and structures appear. The pack also places horror structures about 30 percent closer together. Searches for horror biomes, such as Ominous Woods, Spider Nest and Sleepy Hollows, are therefore likely to succeed in the same temperate, humid areas where the rest of the horror content lies. These areas are dangerous at night. For the creatures in these areas, see Horror and Spooky Content and Mobs. Some destinations are hostile by design. The Ice Spider Den is home to Ice Spiders, which also patrol snowy biomes in rain.

Tips

  • Use Nature's Compass for the rarest biomes and the Dowsing Rod for swamps and jungles.
  • A Furled Map that finds nothing is lost, so check the dimension restriction first.
  • Each Sanctum Compass activation costs one Wraithing Flesh. Keep the bound compass and reactivate it instead of searching again.
  • On a server, use the mod id for any structure that a replacement mod provides, because the vanilla id may be blocked.
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