Nature's Compass in FTB Skies 2: Aero

Same as in the All the Mods 10: To the Sky 2.0.4 guide

Nature's Compass is an item that lets you search for a biome's location anywhere in the world and view information about it. If you're hunting for a specific biome, whether vanilla or modded, this is the tool for the job.^[1]

This pack includes version 1.21.1-3.4.0 for NeoForge.^[2]

How you use it

• Right-click with the compass to open the biome selection GUI. From there you can search for a biome or view information about it.^[1]
• Once a biome is found, information about it is displayed on the HUD.^[1]
• Shift-right-click to reset the compass's state.^[1]
• When the compass isn't pointing at a biome, it points at the world spawn.^[1]

Who it's for

It's for anyone who wants to find a particular biome without wandering aimlessly. It supports all registered biomes, so biomes added by other mods in the pack are covered too. The mod's own page says things like blacklisted biomes and the maximum search distance can be adjusted in its config file.^[1]

The compass only finds biomes. If you want to locate structures, the mod's page points to a separate mod, Explorer's Compass.^[1]

Unverified The sources I have don't show Nature's Compass in any quest or on the ATM Star path, and they don't give this pack's recipe or config values for it. I can't say where it fits in this pack's progression.

Nature's Compass from Nature's Compass lets you search for a biome's location anywhere in the world and view information about it. It supports every registered biome, vanilla and modded. In a pack with this many biomes, it's the first thing worth making.^[1]

Step 1: craft the compass

The pack changed the recipe for this item, so don't rely on what you remember from other packs. Here is the exact in-pack recipe:^[3]

Nature's CompassChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any sapling	any log	any sapling
any log	Magical Snow Globe	any log
any sapling	any log	any sapling

Recipe id: naturescompass:natures_compass

This recipe is changed by the pack, so it differs from the mod's own.

Step 2: learn the controls

• Right-click with the compass to open the biome selection screen. From there you can search for a biome or view information about it.^[1]
• Shift-right-click to reset the compass's state.^[1]
• When the compass isn't pointing at a biome, it points at the world spawn.^[1]
• Once a biome is found, information about it shows on the HUD.^[1]

How the pack sets it up

Searching is free here. General.defaultXpLevels is 0, so a search costs no XP levels, and General.perBiomeXpLevels is empty, so no biome has its own cost. General.biomeBlacklist is also empty, so no biome is blocked from searching.^[4]

General.displayCoordinates is on, so the HUD can show the precise coordinates and distance of a located biome. You don't have to rely only on the direction the needle points.^[4]

If the first result isn't the one you want, you can ask for the next instance of the same biome. General.maxNextSearches is 25, the mod default, so you get up to 25 of these per located biome.^[4]

Durability and repair

General.compassDurability is 0 in this pack, which disables durability. Your compass won't break from successful searches, so you shouldn't need to repair it. If a different setting ever makes it break, there is a shapeless repair recipe:^[4]

Nature's CompassMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Nature's Compass
• Compass

Recipe id: naturescompass:repair_natures_compass

This is the mod's own repair recipe, not changed by the pack.

Nature's Compass has no machines, multiblocks, power or fluid handling. Everything runs through one item, the Nature's Compass, so this section covers how you use it and what the pack's config does to the search.^[1][5]

Using the compass

• Right-click to open the biome selection GUI. From there you can search for a biome or just view information about it.^[1]
• Shift-right-click to reset the compass's state.^[1]
• When the compass is not pointing at a biome, it points at the world spawn.^[1]
• It supports all registered biomes, vanilla and modded.^[1]
• Information about a found biome shows on the HUD. In this pack the precise coordinates and distance can be shown there too, because General.displayCoordinates is true.^[1][4]

Getting one

The pack changed the crafting recipe for the compass, and it uses an item from Excessive Utilities.^[3]

Nature's CompassChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any sapling	any log	any sapling
any log	Magical Snow Globe	any log
any sapling	any log	any sapling

Recipe id: naturescompass:natures_compass

This recipe is changed by the pack, so it differs from the mod's own.

Durability and repair

General.compassDurability is the number of successful biome searches before the compass breaks and must be repaired. In this pack it is 0, which is also the mod default and means durability is disabled. The range is 0 to 10,000.^[4]

If you or a server owner ever raise that value, a broken compass can be repaired with this shapeless recipe, which combines a vanilla compass with the Nature's Compass.^[3][4]

Nature's CompassMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Nature's Compass
• Compass

Recipe id: naturescompass:repair_natures_compass

XP cost

General.defaultXpLevels sets how many XP levels a biome search consumes. In this pack it is 0 (the mod default), and the allowed range is 0 to 3, so searching is free unless something overrides it.^[4]

General.perBiomeXpLevels can override that for individual biomes using comma-separated "biome_id,num_levels" pairs, with a maximum of 3 levels. Wildcards are allowed. The list is empty in this pack, so no biome has its own cost.^[4]

How the search is tuned

• General.maxNextSearches is 25 in this pack (the mod default). It caps how many times you can search for the next instance of a located biome. At 0, the compass always locates the nearest biome. The range is 0 to 10,000.^[4]
• General.maxSamples is 50,000 in this pack (the mod default). It is the maximum number of samples taken when searching for a biome. The range is 0 to 1,000,000.^[4]
• General.radiusModifier is 2,500 in this pack (the mod default). The maximum search radius is biome size multiplied by this value. Raising it increases search accuracy but can make the process more demanding.^[4]
• General.sampleSpaceModifier is 16 in this pack (the mod default). The sample space is biome size multiplied by this value. Lowering it increases search accuracy but makes the process more resource intensive.^[4]

Restrictions and teleporting

General.biomeBlacklist lists biomes the compass cannot search for, by resource location, with wildcards allowed. It is empty in this pack, so nothing is blocked.^[4]

General.allowTeleport is true in this pack. It lets a player teleport to a located biome when in creative mode, opped, or in cheat mode. Survival players without those permissions cannot.^[4]

Nature's Compass from Nature's Compass has no tiers in this pack. It is a single item with one crafting recipe and one repair recipe, so the progression is short: you make it once, and that's it.^[3]

Getting the compass

The pack changed the crafting recipe for the compass, so don't rely on what you remember from the mod's defaults. The in-pack version pulls in an item from Excessive Utilities, which means you have to get that far before you can make it. Here is the exact recipe as it works in this pack:^[3]

Nature's CompassChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any sapling	any log	any sapling
any log	Magical Snow Globe	any log
any sapling	any log	any sapling

Recipe id: naturescompass:natures_compass

This is the pack's changed recipe for the compass.

Repairing it

The repair recipe is a shapeless mod recipe, and the pack has not changed it. It turns out another Nature's Compass.^[3]

Nature's CompassMod recipe

Crafting Shapeless

• Nature's Compass
• Compass

Recipe id: naturescompass:repair_natures_compass

A shapeless recipe from the mod itself, not changed by the pack.

The one place Nature's Compass ties into another mod in this pack is its crafting recipe. The pack changed it so that Nature's Compass is made from the Magical Snow Globe from Excessive Utilities.^[3]

Nature's CompassChanged by the pack

Crafting Shaped

Crafting Shaped

any sapling	any log	any sapling
any log	Magical Snow Globe	any log
any sapling	any log	any sapling

Recipe id: naturescompass:natures_compass

This is the pack's own version of the recipe, so check it here rather than relying on the mod's default.

Once you have it, the compass works as the mod describes: right-click to open the biome selection screen, and shift-right-click to reset it. It supports all registered biomes, both vanilla and modded.^[1]

Same as in the FTB Skies 2 1.22.0 guide

Good news: in this pack, every Nature's Compass option that lists a mod default is sitting at that default. The pack doesn't change any of those numbers, so what you read in the mod's own config descriptions applies here as is.^[6][7]

Cost and durability

• General.compassDurability is 0, which disables durability. The compass doesn't break after a set number of successful searches, so it doesn't need repairing for that reason.^[7]
• General.defaultXpLevels is 0 (allowed range 0 to 3), so searching for a biome costs no XP levels.^[7]
• General.perBiomeXpLevels is an empty list. No biome has its own XP cost, and the mod caps any per-biome cost at 3 levels.^[7]
• General.maxNextSearches is 25. That's how many times you can ask for the next instance of a located biome. Setting it to 0 would turn that off and always give you the nearest one.^[7]

Search reach and accuracy

• General.maxSamples is 50,000, the maximum number of samples taken during one biome search.^[7]
• General.radiusModifier is 2,500. The max search radius is the biome size multiplied by this value.^[7]
• General.sampleSpaceModifier is 16. The sample space is the biome size multiplied by this value, and lowering it makes searches more accurate but more demanding on your game.^[7]
• General.biomeBlacklist is empty, so the compass isn't blocked from searching for any biome.^[7]

Teleporting and HUD info

• General.allowTeleport is true. You can teleport to a located biome, but only in creative mode, when opped, or in cheat mode.^[7]
• General.displayCoordinates is true, so the HUD shows the exact coordinates and distance of what you found instead of leaving you to follow the needle.^[7]

Client options

• Client.overlaySide is set to LEFT (LEFT or RIGHT are allowed). Switch it if the info clashes with other HUD elements.^[6]
• Client.overlayLineOffset is 1 (range 0 to 50), moving the HUD lines if you need to nudge them.^[6]
• Client.displayWithChatOpen is true, so the compass info stays visible while chat is open.^[6]
• Client.fixBiomeNames is true. It adds missing spaces to biome names, so ForestHills shows as Forest Hills.^[6]

FTB Skies 2: Aero 1.10.0 ships Nature's Compass 1.21.1-3.4.0-neoforge. The mod has been in the pack since Aero 1.0.3 or earlier, so it's a long-standing part of the pack.^[8]

What's in 3.4.0

The mod's own changelog for this version is made up of backports, meaning features and fixes brought over from other versions of the mod. Here's what it lists:^[9]

• You can search for the next instance of a biome you've already located.^[9]
• New config options make the compass consume XP levels when searching for a biome.^[9]
• A config option adds durability to the compass, along with a recipe to repair a broken compass.^[9]
• A fix for biomes with the c:hidden_from_locator_selection tag not being hidden.^[9]
• Improvements to the biome selection GUI.^[9]
• Ecuadorian Spanish translations.^[9]

Unverified The changelog describes the XP cost and durability features as config options. Whether this pack turns them on, and with what values, is not confirmed, and no pack changelog entries about this mod were available, so check the in-game behavior before relying on either.