MMD materials and progression mod

Base
Metals

Mine new metals, mix their powders into alloys, and use them to make tools, armour, weapons, and metal building blocks.

Get released buildsBrowse the modern sourceJoin the MMD Discord

Some of the metals

CopperSilverTinLeadZincNickelBronzeBrassSteelMithrilAdamantineStarsteel

22 materialsmetals and crafted alloys

Alloy makingpowders, blends, and ingots

Plenty to makeequipment and building blocks

OS4 and OS3matched to each Minecraft version

Base Metals adds the materials you would expect to find in a pre-industrial fantasy setting. Copper, tin, silver, and lead sit alongside bronze, steel, mithril, and starsteel, each with its own recipes and equipment.

Choose the right version first

Base Metals currently spans two generations of Minecraft and two generations of the MMD OreSpawn engine. The OreSpawn versions are not interchangeable. Match all three parts of your installation: Minecraft, Base Metals, and OreSpawn.

MinecraftBase MetalsWorld generationRuntime

Modern line1.18.2

Base Metals3.0.0

World generationOreSpawn 4.0.1 to 4.x

RuntimeForge 40.3.0+, Java 17

Source

Released legacy line1.12.2

Base Metals2.5.0-rc2.332

World generationOreSpawn 3.2.x

RuntimeForge, Java 8

Files

Released legacy line1.10.2

Base Metals2.5.0-beta4.238

World generationOreSpawn 3.2.x

RuntimeForge, Java 8

Files

Do not mix the engines.Base Metals 3.0.0 needs OreSpawn 4. The current 1.10.2 and 1.12.2 releases need OreSpawn 3.

What is Base Metals?

Base Metals adds 22 metals and alloys to Minecraft. The list mixes familiar materials such as copper, tin, lead, silver, nickel, and platinum with fantasy metals such as mithril, adamantine, and starsteel.

Some are found as ores. Others are made by mixing metal powders and smelting the blend. The materials have their own recipes, equipment, and blocks, so they are useful for much more than filling a storage chest with new ingots.

The mod works well in an ordinary survival pack, but it can also sit alongside larger technology mods. The modern version uses standard Forge tags so other mods can recognise its metals without needing special Base Metals code.

Ways to play

01

Find more ores

Mining turns up copper, tin, lead, silver, nickel, platinum, and several rarer materials, depending on the dimension and version you are playing.

02

Make alloys by hand

Crush metals into powders, combine the ingredients, then smelt the blend into bronze, brass, steel, electrum, invar, mithril, and other alloys.

03

Use it in a larger pack

On the modern version, standard Forge tags let recipes and machines from other mods recognise Base Metals ingots, powders, plates, rods, and gears.

04

Choose your gear

Make tools, armour, shields, scythes, Crack Hammers, bows, crossbows, arrows, bolts, and horse armour from the materials that support them.

05

Build with metal

Use metal blocks, plates, bars, doors, trapdoors, slabs, stairs, walls, buttons, levers, and pressure plates in workshops and other builds.

06

Run it with Mineralogy

On 1.18.2, OreSpawn can place Base Metals ores inside compatible Mineralogy rocks as well as vanilla stone and deepslate.

The material catalogue

The modern line has 22 Base Metals materials. Ten are natural metals, three are found in other dimensions, and nine are made as alloys.

Natural metals

Metals found as ores

AntimonyBismuthCopperLeadMercuryNickelPlatinumSilverTinZinc

Dimensional metals

Found in the Nether and End

AdamantineCold IronStarsteel

Crafted alloys

Made by mixing powders

AquariumBrassBronzeCupronickelElectrumInvarMithrilPewterSteel

Some recipes also use vanilla materials such as iron, gold, coal, diamond, emerald, lapis, redstone, quartz, obsidian, prismarine, stone, and wood.

From rock to finished material

Most alloys follow the same simple process:

1Find ore→2Crush it→3Mix powders→4Smelt a blend→5Build or equip

The Crack Hammer

The Crack Hammer is a sledgehammer used to crush supported blocks and items into powders. Those powders can be smelted directly or used in alloy recipes.

On 1.18.2, the basemetals:crushing recipe decides what can be crushed and what it produces. A Crack Hammer can:

• break a supported block and produce its configured crushing result;
• crush one dropped item by right-clicking the block beneath it; or
• crush as much of a dropped stack as its remaining durability allows while the player is sneaking.

In 1.18.2, the crushing recipe decides the output. Base Metals does not assume that every ore should produce two powders. A pack can add or change recipes without changing the mod.

On 1.10.2 and 1.12.2, supported ores produce two piles of powder. Those powders can be smelted directly or combined into alloy blends.

Making alloys

Alloys give you another reason to keep and process the metals you find. Bronze combines copper and tin; brass combines copper and zinc; electrum combines silver and gold; invar combines iron and nickel; steel adds carbon to iron; and mithril combines silver, cold iron, and mercury.

Making one is straightforward:

1. acquire the ingredients;
2. turn them into the required powders;
3. craft the alloy blend in the correct proportions; and
4. smelt the blend into usable ingots.

The whole process works with ordinary crafting and smelting. Technology mods can automate it where they support the same tagged materials and recipes.

More than ingots

⚒

Tools and close combat

Pickaxes, axes, shovels, hoes, swords, Crack Hammers, scythes, and shears are available for each material that supports equipment.

➶

Ranged equipment

Material bows fire Base Metals arrows, while the legacy-style crossbows use Base Metals bolts.

⬡

Armour and shields

Materials that support equipment have armour, shields, and horse armour. On 1.18.2, a shield can be upgraded at an anvil with a plate made from a harder material.

▤

Building families

Blocks, plates, bars, doors, trapdoors, buttons, levers, pressure plates, slabs, stairs, and walls give builders several ways to use each metal.

▪

Parts and processing forms

The modern line includes nuggets, powders, small powders, blends, plates, rods, gears, casings, dense plates, and several crushed or purified forms.

⌁

World rewards

The modern line also includes advancements, villager trades, structure loot, and stone, steel, and adamantine anvils.

Scythes

On 1.18.2, a scythe harvests a horizontal 3×3 area. Each block still uses Forge's normal break and protection events, so it should respect land claims and other server rules.

Materials with character

Several materials also have special effects in 1.18.2:

• Adamantine armour grants resistance as more pieces are worn.
• Cold Iron armour grants fire resistance when wearing a full set.
• Aquarium armour helps with underwater work when wearing a full set. It adds water breathing and resistance, and removes mining fatigue.
• Mithril armour removes harmful status effects when wearing a full set.
• Starsteel armour improves jumping and movement, while held Starsteel equipment repairs one point of durability every 200 server ticks.
• Lead armour slows the wearer when two or more pieces are equipped.

Some tools and weapons get material effects too. Adamantine deals extra damage to high-health targets, Aquarium to aquatic targets, Cold Iron to fire-immune creatures, and Mithril to the undead.

The equipment effects, Starsteel repair, and villager trades can be switched off in the modern config if a pack does not want them.

Modern world generation: OreSpawn 4

On Minecraft 1.18.2, MMD OreSpawn 4 places the Base Metals ores. Base Metals provides the ores and their default rules. OreSpawn loads those rules and handles world generation.

Base Metals provides

The ores and their defaults

• ore blocks, drops, tags, recipes, and textures;
• ten enabled ore rules for a fresh installation;
• dimensions, height ranges, vein sizes, and valid host blocks;
• optional Mineralogy rock-family hosts;
• stable rule IDs used by packs and migration.

+

OreSpawn 4 provides

Where the ores appear

• provider discovery and validation;
• one set of world generation settings;
• fast ore placement and retrogen;
• world creation screens and configuration help;
• pack overrides without editing the mod jar.

The Base Metals provider only describes ores. It does not replace terrain, create rock layers, or require Mineralogy. With Minecraft Mineralogy 6 installed, the same ores can also appear inside Mineralogy rocks.

What generates by default?

Ordinary dimensions

Tin, lead, zinc, silver, mercury, nickel, and platinum generate in ordinary dimensions while excluding the Nether and the End.

The Nether

Cold Iron and Adamantine generate in the Nether.

The End

Starsteel generates in the End.

Fresh installations use Minecraft's copper ore, so the separate Base Metals copper rule is disabled by default. Antimony and bismuth are available as materials but do not have default ore rules.

Each enabled rule has its own height range and vein size. Ores can replace vanilla stone and deepslate. If Mineralogy is installed, they can also replace its sedimentary, metamorphic, intrusive, and volcanic rocks.

Legacy world generation: OreSpawn 3

The current Minecraft 1.10.2 and 1.12.2 releases use OreSpawn 3.2.x and its older plugin format.

For those versions:

• install the correct Minecraft/Forge build of Base Metals;
• install the matching OS3 build on client and server;
• keep OS3's legacy configuration files with the legacy world;
• do not substitute an OS4 jar or OS4 provider configuration; and
• back up a world before changing ore-generation settings.

OS3 and OS4 use different formats. Use OS4 with Base Metals 3.0.0, and OS3 with the current 1.10.2 and 1.12.2 releases.

Modpack and interoperability

On 1.18.2, Base Metals registers its materials in standard Forge tags. Other mods can look up a copper ingot, tin dust, or bronze block without adding special code for Base Metals.

Tags first

Ingots, nuggets, ores, storage blocks, dusts, plates, rods, gears, tools, and armour use the usual Forge material tags.

Conditional integrations

The modern data pack includes conditional support for Mekanism 10.2, Thermal Expansion 9, Tinkers' Construct 3.7, and Ender IO 6 alpha.

No required geology mod

Mineralogy is optional. Without it, Base Metals ores still generate in vanilla stone and deepslate.

Avoid duplicate ores

On 1.18.2, change or disable the OS4 rule instead of adding another generator for the same ore.

Mods do not always need a dedicated Base Metals integration. If they use the same Forge tags, their recipes and machines can often recognise the materials already.

Installing Base Metals

Modern Minecraft 1.18.2

Install all of the following on both the client and server:

1. Minecraft 1.18.2;
2. Forge 40.3.0 or newer in the Forge 40 line;
3. Base Metals 3.0.0; and
4. MMD OreSpawn 4.0.1 or newer, but lower than 5.0.0.

Do not copy MMDLib, Additional Loot Tables, an OS3 plugin, or a legacy Base Metals fallback generator into the modern installation. The 1.18.2 port is native Java 17 and uses OS4 as its only ore-placement engine.

Legacy Minecraft 1.12.2 or 1.10.2

Install the Base Metals release and OreSpawn 3.2.x built for the same Minecraft version. Use Java 8 and the Forge generation appropriate to that Minecraft line. The current released Base Metals files are available from the CurseForge project.

Upgrading an old world to 1.18.2

The 1.18.2 port includes migration support for Base Metals 1.10 and 1.12 worlds. It can convert saved Base Metals content and recognised OS3 worldgen settings.

Before you start

Open a copy of the world, not the original.

Keep the untouched world and its old modpack. Moving from 1.10 or 1.12 to 1.18.2 changes Minecraft's save format as well as Base Metals and OreSpawn.

The migration can preserve recognised Base Metals IDs and carry old OS3 settings, including enabled state, quantities, frequencies, dimensions, and heights, into OS4. During a direct 1.12 conversion it keeps a backup of the original region files. If it cannot identify an old numeric block ID, it stops instead of guessing.

A careful upgrade sequence is:

1. make a full external backup;
2. copy the world into a separate 1.18.2 instance;
3. install only the modern Base Metals and OS4 dependency set;
4. start the copy and read the migration report before playing;
5. verify inventories, important builds, dimensions, and worldgen settings;
6. keep the original legacy instance until the converted world is accepted.

Base Metals can only convert content and settings it knows about. Other old mods may need their own migration support, so keep the backup until the new world has been checked properly.

For pack authors and developers

The modern Base Metals jar contains its default OS4 provider at:

data/basemetals/orespawn/provider.json

The file lists each ore's rule ID, host blocks, dimensions, height range, vein size, and default enabled state. Change these through an OS4 pack override rather than editing the Base Metals jar.

For add-ons and packs, use:

• Forge item and block tags for material compatibility;
• basemetals:crushing recipes for modern Crack Hammer processing;
• OS4 provider overrides for ore placement;
• ordinary data-pack recipes and conditions for optional integrations; and
• Base Metals' common config for the four gameplay toggles.

Prefer these tags, recipes, and OS4 rules over Base Metals' internal Java classes. They are the supported ways to extend the mod.

Downloads and source

Get the released Base Metals buildsDownload the maintained 1.12.2 and 1.10.2 releases from CurseForge.Explore Base Metals 3.0.0Read the modern 1.18.2 source, migration notes, and worldgen documentation.Read about OreSpawn 4Learn how the modern worldgen provider, configuration, and retrogen work.Read about Mineralogy 6See how Base Metals ores can generate inside Mineralogy rocks.