FTB Chunks in FTB Skies 2: Aero

FTB Chunks is in the pack at version 2101.1.22, and it has been there since the pack's 1.0.3 release or earlier. In this pack's quest book you meet it inside a flying-ship chapter, where it protects your airship and keeps it loaded.^[1][2]

What it does for your ship

The pack ties FTB Chunks into its airship content through the Contraption Claim Block. Place one on a ship and the ship becomes FTB Chunks territory. Only your team can break it or open it, and you can add allies from the block. The ship also shows up on the map with its altitude and speed.^[2]

The block can also force-load the ship. Keep Anchor Loaded keeps the chunks under it awake so the ship still exists while you're away. Keep Physics Active keeps it simulating too, so a flying farm keeps farming. Both options count against your team's force-load limits.^[2]

Where it sits in the quest book

The "Aeronautics" chapter is chapter 5 of 31 in the book, in the group "Main Questline". It has 58 quests, and FTB Chunks appears through the quest "Contraption Claim Block" quest.^[2]

The path to it runs from "Taking to the Skies" quest to "Going Places" quest, which covers docking, ropes, navigation, automated routes, claiming your ship and taking it to other dimensions. Next comes "Docking Connector" quest, and the claim block quest comes directly after that one.^[2]

Most of the chapter's quest text is not reproduced in this guide, including anything that may come after the claim block quest. Open the quest book to see what follows it.^[2]

FTB Chunks is the mod that handles land claims, the map and force-loading. In this pack's quest book it shows up in the Aeronautics chapter (Main Questline), through one item: the Contraption Claim Block. Its quest is "Contraption Claim Block" quest, and it comes right after "Docking Connector" quest in the Going Places path ("Going Places" quest).^[2]

Step 1: Claim your ship

Place a Contraption Claim Block on a ship and the ship becomes FTB Chunks territory. Only your team can break it or open it, and you can add allies from the block. The ship also shows up on the map with its altitude and speed.^[2]

Unverified How the Contraption Claim Block is crafted is not confirmed in the sources for this section, so check the quest book or JEI for the recipe. This site does hold FTB Skies 2: Aero's own recipes, read from the pack itself: look the item up in the item browser.

Step 2: Decide whether to force-load it

The same block lets you force-load the ship. Keep Anchor Loaded keeps the chunks under it awake so it keeps existing while you're gone. Keep Physics Active keeps it simulating too, so a flying farm keeps farming. Both count against your team's force-load limits.^[2]

Good to know about the limits

FTB Chunks has a server setting for when force-loading works. NEVER only allows it while the owning team has an online player, ALWAYS allows it even with nobody online, and DEFAULT allows it if the team has a player with the FTB Ranks chunk_load_offline permission. Claim and force-load limits can also be raised or lowered with FTB Ranks permissions. Which mode and which limits this pack uses is unverified, so check in game before you rely on your ship staying loaded while you're offline.^[3]

Same as in the All the Mods 10 8.1 guide

FTB Chunks is a claiming and mapping mod, so its mechanics are about chunks, teams and protection rather than machines, power or fluids. The sources for this pack only cover the mod's in-game text, so this section sticks to what those tooltips explain.^[4]

Claiming and force-loading from the map

You manage chunks from the chunk claim screen, which you open with C from the large map. The in-game reference lists these controls:^[4]

• Left button and drag: claim an area.^[4]
• Right button and drag: unclaim an area.^[4]
• Shift + left button and drag: force-load an area.^[4]
• Shift + right button and drag: stop force-loading an area.^[4]
• Mouse wheel over a force-loaded chunk: adjust its auto-expiry.^[4]
• Hold Tab to hide the chunk grid, or hold Alt to show absolute claim and force-load times.^[4]

On the large map itself, left click and drag moves the view, right click opens a context menu, and the mouse wheel zooms. Space centers the view on you, S opens settings, and Ctrl + S opens the server settings, which need op. T teleports to a point, also op only. F3+G toggles the chunk grid.^[4]

Claim and force-load limits

The maximum number of claimed chunks and force-loaded chunks are server settings. Both defaults can be overridden with FTB Ranks permission nodes, ftbchunks.max_claimed and ftbchunks.max_force_loaded.^[4]

Party teams get their limits through a party limit calculation mode. LARGEST uses the member with the largest limits, SUM adds up all members' limits, OWNER uses only the party owner's limits, and AVERAGE uses the average. There is also a hard team limit for claims and another for force-loads. They apply regardless of member count or mode, and a value of 0 means no hard limit.^[4]

Claims don't last forever if a team goes quiet. If no team member logs in for the configured number of days, the team's claims are released, and force-loaded chunks stop being force-loaded. Setting either idle-days option to 0 disables that behavior.^[4]

When force-loading works

The force-load mode decides whether your chunks stay loaded while you're offline. NEVER only allows force-loading if the owning team has at least one player online. ALWAYS allows it even with nobody online. DEFAULT allows it if the team has at least one player with the FTB Ranks permission ftbchunks.chunk_load_offline.^[4]

Protection rules

Claims protect blocks from other teams. The server has a switch to disable protection entirely, which is meant for private servers where everyone is trusted and claims are only used for force-loading. When it is on, the fire, fluid and piston protection settings are ignored.^[4]

There is also a no-wilderness option: if true, chunks must be claimed before anyone can build on them. A separate list lets you require claims only in certain dimensions, such as the Nether, and wildcards like a mod namespace followed by * are allowed. Claiming itself can be restricted with a dimension blacklist and a whitelist. If the whitelist is not empty, a dimension must be on it and must not be on the blacklist.^[4]

• Fire spread protection stops fire spreading between claims of different teams. The tooltip says it is false by default and warns it can cause server performance issues when many blocks are on fire.^[4]
• Flowing fluid protection stops fluids flowing horizontally across claims of different teams. It is also false by default per the tooltip, and the warning is that fluid flow ticks are checked very frequently.^[4]
• Piston protection stops pistons pushing or pulling blocks across claims of different teams, unless the block is entering or leaving a claim whose block edit mode is Public.^[4]
• Unknown explosions, such as those from Ghasts, can't be traced in code. If the protect-unknown-explosions setting is true, damage from them is prevented in protected chunks.^[4]
• PvP mode can be ALWAYS, NEVER or PER_TEAM. With PER_TEAM, each team decides through its own team property.^[4]

Allies and fake players

Ally mode decides who counts as an ally. DEFAULT checks FTB Teams ally status, FORCED_ALL treats everyone as allied, and FORCED_NONE treats nobody as allied.^[4]

Fake players, which automation often uses, have their own server mode. CHECK treats them like any real player, DENY never allows them, and ALLOW always allows them. The tooltip notes that logging of prevented fake player access is not fully implemented yet.^[4]

Team-level settings

Each team also has its own claim settings. You can choose whether explosions can damage blocks in claimed areas, and whether mobs can grief blocks. Right now the mob option only covers Endermen, and Creeper explosions fall under the explosions setting. Team PvP only works if the server PvP mode is set to per_team, and it isn't guaranteed to stop every indirect attack.^[4]

Map and visibility

If the server requires the ftbchunks_mapping game stage, players need it to open the map or see the minimap. This needs KubeJS and/or Gamestages. Teams also have a Location Visibility setting, but a server option can override it so everyone sees each other anywhere on the map.^[4]

The server can send long-range player tracking data at an interval measured in ticks. Lower values mean more updates but more server load and network traffic, and 0 disables long-range tracking.^[4]

On the client, map data is handled in 512x512 regions. A timeout releases regions that haven't been accessed recently, and another setting releases region data down to a set number when you close the large map. Smaller values use less memory but cause more disk access, and 0 disables releasing. You can also turn off the zoom-out limit, which is tied to explored regions and available memory, if it bothers you.^[4]

Unverified No FTB Chunks config files for this pack were available, so the actual values (claim limits, force-load mode, protection toggles and so on) are unconfirmed. The "by default" notes above come from the mod's tooltips and may not match what this pack sets.

FTB Chunks doesn't have tiers in this pack. What the quest book gives you is a single step: one quest, "Contraption Claim Block" quest, in the Aeronautics chapter. That chapter is chapter 5 of 31 in the book, in the Main Questline group. The quest asks you to obtain the Contraption Claim Block.^[2]

Where it sits in the quest book

The path starts at "Taking to the Skies" quest, the opening quest of the chapter. From there you move on to "Going Places" quest, which covers docking, ropes, navigation, automated routes, claiming your ship so it keeps ticking while you're away, and taking it into other dimensions.^[2]

Inside that path, "Docking Connector" quest comes first, and the claim quest follows it. So the order is: Taking to the Skies, Going Places, Docking Connector, then Contraption Claim Block. No other quest in this chapter lists the claim block as its prerequisite.^[2]

What the claim block does

• Place it on a ship and the ship becomes FTB Chunks territory. Only your team can break it or open it, and you can add allies from the block.^[2]
• The ship shows up on the map with its altitude and speed.^[2]
• It lets you force-load the ship. Keep Anchor Loaded keeps the chunks under it awake so the ship keeps existing while you're gone.^[2]
• Keep Physics Active keeps the ship simulating too, so a flying farm keeps farming.^[2]

Unverified The actual claim and force-load limit numbers for your team are not confirmed in the material for this section, so check them in game before you plan a fleet.

Only one quest in this pack's book is about FTB Chunks: "Contraption Claim Block" quest. It sits in the Aeronautics chapter, which is chapter 5 of 31 in the book, in the Main Questline group. The chapter has 58 quests.^[2]

Where it sits in the chapter

The claim block quest is at the end of the Going Places branch, so you reach it in this order:^[2]

1. "Taking to the Skies" quest opens the chapter. It is a checkmark quest that introduces the quest paths for building and flying a ship.^[2]
2. "Going Places" quest comes after it. It is a checkmark quest, and its text covers docking, ropes, navigation, automated routes, claiming your ship so it keeps ticking while you are away, and taking it into other dimensions.^[2]
3. "Docking Connector" quest comes after Going Places and asks you to hand in Docking Connector.^[2]
4. "Contraption Claim Block" quest comes after the Docking Connector quest and asks you to hand in Contraption Claim Block.^[2]

What the claim block does

Place a Contraption Claim Block on a ship and the ship becomes FTB Chunks territory. Only your team can break it or open it, and you can add allies from the block. The ship also shows up on the map with its altitude and speed.^[2]

The block lets you force-load the ship too. Keep Anchor Loaded keeps the chunks under it awake, so the ship keeps existing while you are gone. Keep Physics Active keeps it simulating as well, so a flying farm keeps farming. Both count against your team's force-load limits.^[2]