What Are They Up To (Watut) in FTB Skies 2: Aero

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

What Are They Up To, or Watut for short, is a quality-of-life mod for multiplayer. It lets you see what other players are doing at a glance: typing, using a menu, or sitting idle. If you play this pack with friends, it makes it much easier to tell who is actually at their keyboard.^[1]

What you can see

• Typing: you can see when a player is typing, both in the world and in a GUI. The visual gets faster and wackier the faster they type.^[1]
• In a GUI: when a player has a screen open, such as an inventory, chest or crafting screen, you see their hand moving and clicking around at a screen in front of them.^[1]
• Idle: after more than 5 minutes of inactivity, the player is shown falling asleep in the world, and a Zz indicator appears in the tab player list.^[1]

Privacy and configs

If you aren't comfortable with some of the information your client sends to the server, you can turn off each feature on the client side so it isn't sent. Idle-state notifications in chat are off by default.^[1]

In this pack

This pack ships Watut version 1.21.0-1.2.7 as the NeoForge build. The mod requires CoroUtil to run.^[1][2]

Unverified The sources don't say where Watut fits into the pack's progression. It is a client-visible multiplayer feature rather than a progression item, so there is nothing to unlock or craft for it here.

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

Good news: there's nothing to craft for this one. What Are They Up To (Watut) is a quality-of-life mod that shows you what other players are doing, so you don't need any items to start using it. I couldn't confirm any recipes, items or quests for it in this pack, so there's no crafting order to follow.^[1]

What you'll see in the world

• Typing: you can see when a player is typing, both in the world and in a GUI. The visual gets faster and wackier the faster they type.^[1]
• In a GUI: when a player has a screen open, such as an inventory, chest or crafting screen, you see their hand moving and clicking around at a screen in front of them.^[1]
• Idle: after being idle for over 5 minutes, a player falls asleep in the world, and a Zz indicator shows next to them in the tab player list.^[1]

Your first step: check your privacy settings

The mod works by the client sending some information to the server. If you aren't comfortable with any of it, you can disable each feature on the client side, and it won't be sent. Take a quick look at the options before you jump into a multiplayer world.^[1]

The mod requires CoroUtil to run. I can't confirm from my sources how the pack bundles it, so if the mod doesn't load for you, that's the first thing to check.^[1]

Unverified The exact config file names and option keys for the mod's client-side toggles are not confirmed for this pack, so check the in-game config screen for the list of features you can switch off.

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

This one is a little different from the usual machine mods. The project page describes Watut as a player-status mod: it shows other players' activity in the world and in the tab list. It describes no machines, multiblocks, power, fluids or item automation, so there's nothing to build or pipe here.^[1]

What the mod tracks

• Typing: you can see when another player is typing, both in the world and while they're in a GUI. The visual gets faster and wackier the faster they type.^[1]
• Being in a GUI: when a player has a screen open, such as an inventory, chest or crafting screen, you see their hand moving and clicking around at a screen in front of them.^[1]
• Idle state: after a player has been idle for over 5 minutes, you see them fall asleep in the world. A Zz indicator also shows up next to them in the tab player list.^[1]

Privacy and client-side settings

Some of this information is sent from your client to the server. If you're not comfortable with that, you can disable each feature on the client side, and it won't be sent.^[1]

Idle-state notifications in chat are off by default.^[1]

Dependency

Watut requires CoroUtil to run.^[1]

Unverified This pack ships no config files for the mod, so I can't confirm the exact option names or any pack-specific values. The behavior above comes from the mod's project page, and I can't verify whether the pack changes any of it.

Same as in the FTB Skies 2 1.22.0 guide

Watut has client, common and server config files. The numeric values this pack sets all match the mod's listed defaults, so the pack didn't change any of them. Here are the options you're most likely to want to touch.^[3][4][5]

Idle detection

• general.ticksToMarkPlayerIdle is 6000 in this pack, which is the mod default. The config comment describes that as 5 minutes.^[4]
• general.announceIdleStatesInChat is false, so idle changes aren't announced in chat. The mod page says chat notifications are off by default, so this matches the default.^[1][4]
• general.showIdleStatesInPlayerList and general.showIdleStatesInPlayerAboveHead are both true. These control the idle visual in the tab list and above a player's head.^[3]

Privacy: what your client sends

If you're not comfortable with what your client shares, these are the client options to look at. The pack sets each of them to share by default: general.sendActiveGui, general.sendIdleState, general.sendMouseInfo and general.sendTypingSpeed are true. general.dontSendDetailedGUIInfo and general.dontSendItemInfo are false.^[3]

Setting general.dontSendDetailedGUIInfo to true makes you use the old basic GUI visual instead of a detailed view of your screen. Setting general.dontSendItemInfo to true hides the items you move between yourself and containers. The mod page also says you can turn features off on the client so they aren't sent.^[1][3]

Seeing other players' GUIs

• general.distanceRequiredToShowGUIInfo is 10, which is the mod default. It sets how close another player has to be to see your GUI, item transferring and mouse movement.^[5]
• general.dynamicGuiSizeRadiusInPixelsToShow is 112, the mod default. It sets the size of the circle that cuts off extra info beyond the main area of a GUI.^[5]
• general.dynamicGuiTickSendRateOfGUIUpdates is 10, the mod default. That is twice a second, and the config warns that more frequent updates might affect performance and network load.^[5]
• general.dynamicGuiDontSendConstantGUIUpdates is true here. With it on, only the initial image of a player's GUI is sent and it isn't constantly updated after it's opened.^[5]
• general.dynamicGuiShowClientsEntireScreen is false. The config marks this option as experimental, with a CPU and network performance impact.^[5]
• general.dynamicGuiUseOldSimpleGUIVisual is false, so the new dynamic GUI system is in use.^[5]
• general.tickReceiveAndRenderRateOfGUIUpdates is 10, the mod default. It sets how often your client accepts new GUI images from other players, and you can only increase the delay beyond what the server or other client uses.^[3]

Typing text and visuals

• general.screenTypingVisible is true, so the typing text shows on the chat screen. general.screenTypingText is " is typing".^[3]
• general.screenTypingCharacterLimit is 50, the mod default. Past that limit, general.screenTypingMultiplePlayersText ("Several people are typing") is shown instead.^[3]
• general.particleSizeScale is 1, the mod default. It scales the GUI visual that appears in front of a player.^[3]
• general.showPlayerAnimations and general.showPlayerAnimations are both true. Setting either to false disables all animations.^[3][5]

FTB Skies 2: Aero 1.10.0 ships What Are They Up To (Watut) version 1.21.0-1.2.7, using the NeoForge jar. The mod has been in the pack since Aero 1.0.3 or earlier, so it's a long-standing part of the modpack.^[6]

Version 1.21.0-1.2.7

The mod's changelog for this version lists one change: a workaround for a flickering issue that was still happening on Fabric. As part of that workaround, the default was set to not constantly update the GUI.^[7]

The changelog describes the flickering as a Fabric problem, and this pack runs the NeoForge build. The sources don't say whether you would have seen the flicker in the pack itself.^[6][7]

Unverified No pack changelog entries for Watut were available, so any changes to it between FTB Skies 2: Aero releases are unverified.