YUNG's Better Nether Fortresses in FTB Skies 2: Aero

Same as in the All the Mods 10 2.12 guide

YUNG's Better Nether Fortresses rebuilds Minecraft's Nether fortresses from the ground up. Instead of the vanilla maze of bridges, you get fortresses that are much larger, more complex and more rewarding to explore.^[1]

The mod is purely about world generation. It changes the fortresses you find in the Nether and doesn't add a crafting chain. That makes it a good fit if you enjoy exploring and want your Nether trips to feel like a real adventure.^[1]

What a fortress looks like

Each fortress has three parts. Knowing them helps you get your bearings once you're inside:^[1]

• The bridge networks, which link the fortress together across the Nether.^[1]
• The Keep, the fortress's central structure.^[1]
• The Lava Halls, which extend deep underground.^[1]

Compatibility

The mod is designed to work alongside other worldgen mods, including Nether biome mods. It also has built-in Create compatibility: when Create is installed, some parts of a fortress have a chance to spawn using Create pieces. Create is optional and isn't required for the mod to run.^[1]

This pack ships version 3.1.3 of the mod for NeoForge on Minecraft 1.21.1.^[2]

Unverified The sources don't confirm whether Create is in this pack, so it's unverified whether you'll see Create pieces in your fortresses.

Unverified The sources don't describe where these fortresses fit in this pack's progression. The mod has no quests in this pack and isn't on the ATM Star path.

Same as in the All the Mods 10 8.1 guide

Good news: there's nothing to craft before you start with this mod. YUNG's Better Nether Fortresses is a worldgen mod that redesigns Nether fortresses from the ground up, so your first step is simply finding one in the Nether.^[1]

Compared to vanilla, these fortresses are much larger, more complex and more rewarding. Each one has three parts: the bridge networks, the Keep, and the Lava Halls that extend deep underground.^[1]

What to expect when you go exploring

• Expect a much bigger structure than a vanilla fortress. Look for the bridge networks first, then the Keep, and remember the Lava Halls go deep underground.^[1]
• If Create is installed, certain parts of the fortress have a chance of spawning with Create pieces. This is an optional feature, so you may or may not see it.^[1]
• The mod is intended to work with other worldgen mods. With Apocalyptic Fortress, that mod's fortress spawns alongside the Better Fortress. With Bygone Nether, Better Fortresses spawn instead of its enhanced vanilla fortress.^[1]

Vanilla fortresses

The mod has a config option called disableVanillaFortresses, which controls whether vanilla Nether Fortresses are disabled. I can't confirm its value in this pack, so check your config before you assume which fortress types you'll run into.^[3]

Unverified The sources I have don't show any in-pack recipes, quests or items for this mod, so there is no crafting order to follow here. If you find a recipe or quest tied to it, treat it as unconfirmed until it's verified.

Same as in the All the Mods 10 2.11 guide

This isn't a tech mod, so there are no machines, multiblocks, power, fluids or item automation to learn here. It's a world generation mod: its whole job is to replace the Nether fortresses you find while exploring with a completely redesigned version. Everything below is about how those new fortresses are put together.^[1]

How a fortress is built

Compared to vanilla, these fortresses are much larger, more complex and more rewarding to explore. Each one is made of three parts that connect together.^[1]

• The bridge networks, which link the different areas of the fortress.^[1]
• The Keep, which is one of the three main parts of every fortress.^[1]
• The Lava Halls, which extend deep underground below the rest of the structure.^[1]

Vanilla fortresses

The mod has a general option that controls whether vanilla Nether Fortresses should be disabled.^[3]

Unverified The setting this pack uses for the option that disables vanilla fortresses could not be confirmed, because the pack's config files for this mod were not available. It's unconfirmed whether you can still find vanilla fortresses alongside the redesigned ones.

Create pieces

The mod has built-in compatibility with Create. When Create is installed, certain parts of a fortress have a chance to generate using Create pieces. This is an optional feature, and the mod doesn't need Create to run. It applies to Minecraft 1.19.2 and newer.^[1]

Unverified The available sources don't confirm whether Create is installed in this pack. They also don't say which fortress parts can use Create pieces, or how likely that is.

Working alongside other worldgen mods

The mod is intended to be fully compatible with every worldgen mod, including Nether biome mods like Infernal Expansion and Better Nether, so these fortresses should generate in whatever Nether biomes you run into.^[1]

• With Apocalyptic Fortress, that mod's fortress spawns alongside the Better Fortress, so you can find both.^[1]
• With Bygone Nether, Better Fortresses spawn instead of Bygone Nether's enhanced vanilla fortress.^[1]

Unverified It's unconfirmed which of these other worldgen mods are part of this pack.

Same as in the FTB Skies 2 1.22.0 guide

Better Nether Fortresses has a few config files worth knowing about in this pack: one that switches the fortress on, one that sets its placement values, and one that lists the item frame entries. Here's exactly how this pack sets each one.^[4][5][6]

Fortress toggle

The pack leaves the fortress structure switched on: fortress.fortress is set to true. That means the mod's redesigned fortresses are enabled.^[1][6]

Fortress placement

• fortress.spacing is set to 30.^[5]
• fortress.separation is set to 20.^[5]
• fortress.salt is set to 784827271.^[5]

Item frame contents

The itemframes file lists entries for alchemy, loot, mess hall, study and weapons. In every category the pack sets the default item to minecraft:air (alchemyItems.defaultItem, lootItems.defaultItem, messHallItems.defaultItem, studyItems.defaultItem and weaponItems.defaultItem). The values for each listed entry are below.^[4]

• Alchemy: alchemyItems.entries.minecraft:fire_charge is 0.2, while alchemyItems.entries.minecraft:magma_cream and alchemyItems.entries.minecraft:quartz are both 0.3.^[4]
• Loot: lootItems.entries.minecraft:gold_nugget is 0.2, while lootItems.entries.minecraft:gold_ingot and lootItems.entries.minecraft:nether_wart are both 0.1.^[4]
• Mess hall: messHallItems.entries.minecraft:cooked_porkchop and messHallItems.entries.minecraft:porkchop are both 0.3, and messHallItems.entries.minecraft:gold_ingot is 0.2.^[4]
• Study: studyItems.entries.minecraft:book is 0.4, and studyItems.entries.minecraft:enchanted_book, studyItems.entries.minecraft:paper and studyItems.entries.minecraft:writable_book are each 0.1.^[4]
• Weapons, gold: weaponItems.entries.minecraft:golden_axe and weaponItems.entries.minecraft:golden_sword are both 0.05.^[4]
• Weapons, iron and shield: weaponItems.entries.minecraft:iron_axe, weaponItems.entries.minecraft:iron_sword and weaponItems.entries.minecraft:shield are each 0.025.^[4]
• Weapons, stone: weaponItems.entries.minecraft:stone_axe and weaponItems.entries.minecraft:stone_sword are each 0.025.^[4]
• Weapons, netherite: weaponItems.entries.minecraft:netherite_sword is the lowest value in the file at 0.005.^[4]

FTB Skies 2: Aero 1.10.0 ships YUNG's Better Nether Fortresses at version 1.21.1-NeoForge-3.1.5. The mod has been in the pack since Aero 1.0.3 or earlier, so it has been there for a long time.^[7]

3.1.5: vanilla-style mob spawns

The one change I can confirm from the mod's changelog is in the version your pack uses. Version 3.1.5 fixed a long-standing issue where mobs spawning in Better Fortresses (Wither Skeletons, Blazes and so on) did not behave like the ones in vanilla Nether Fortresses.^[8]

The changelog says vanilla-style mob farms should now be possible. If you skipped fortress farming in older versions because the spawns were off, this version is worth another look.^[8]

Unverified No pack changelog entries for this mod were available, so I can't say whether any Aero release changed it beyond updating its version.