Tips in FTB StoneBlock 4

Tips is a small quality-of-life mod that shows useful tips on certain game screens, such as the world loading screen. Instead of staring at a blank wait, you get a bit of advice while the game loads.^[1]

The tip on screen is cycled out every five seconds, so if you're waiting on a long load you'll see several different ones.^[1]

Who it's for

It's for every player, and you don't have to do anything to use it. There are no items, machines or crafting steps to learn. It's also useful for pack makers, because the pool of tips can be expanded by resource packs, other mods and modpacks.^[1]

Where it fits in this pack

The pack ships Tips version 21.1.3 for NeoForge 1.21.1. It's a background mod, so it plays no part in progression and there's nothing to unlock or craft for it.^[2]

Unverified Whether the pack adds its own custom tips to the pool, and what any such tips say, could not be confirmed from the available sources.

Good news: there is nothing to craft for this mod. Tips has no items to make, so your first steps in the pack don't involve it at all. It works quietly in the background.^[1]

What it does is show useful tips on certain game screens, such as the world loading screen. The tip on screen is swapped for a new one every five seconds, so a long load gives you a few to read.^[1]

Where the tips come from

The pool of tips isn't fixed. Resource packs, other mods and modpacks can all add their own tips to it. That means what you see while loading can come from several places, not only from this mod.^[1]

Unverified I couldn't confirm which tips this pack adds, whether it changes any of this mod's settings, or on which screens besides world loading the tips appear. The sources I have don't cover this, so check the tips in game.

Good news: Tips has no machines, multiblocks, power, fluids or item automation to learn. It's a small quality-of-life mod that shows tips on certain game screens, such as the world loading screen. Everything it does is controlled through one config file.^[1]

How tips are shown

The tip on screen cycles out every five seconds. The pool of tips can be expanded by resource packs, other mods and modpacks, so what you see depends on what is installed and what the pack allows.^[1]

In this pack the cycle time is default_cycle_time.value, set to 5000, which is the same as the mod's listed default. The config describes this as the time a tip is displayed before it cycles to the next one.^[3]

What the pack configures

• Title style: tips use a default title, set by default_title.value.translate to the translation key tipsmod.title.default. It is bold (default_title.value.bold), underlined (default_title.value.underlined) and yellow (default_title.value.color).^[3]
• Width: tip_render_width_percentage.value is 0.35 here, the same as the listed default. It sets the percentage of the screen width that tips render over.^[3]
• Ignored namespaces: any tip from a namespace in ignored_namespaces.value is never displayed. This pack lists twilightforest.^[3]
• Ignored tip IDs: adding an ID to ignored_tip_ids.value stops that tip from showing. The pack uses this to hide a batch of the mod's own vanilla-themed tips, such as tipsmod:bed_explode, tipsmod:end_dimension, tipsmod:nether_travel and tipsmod:portal_trick.^[3]

Unverified How a pack or mod defines its own tips (the file format and where the files go) is not covered by the available sources, so it is not described here. The mod also has no in-jar guide or item recipes to document.

The quest chapter available for this section is the Mekanism chapter, which sits in the Forgotten Technology group as chapter 20 of 22 in the quest book and holds 25 quests. None of its quest tasks asks for an item from the Tips mod, so the quest book gives no tier or progression path for it here.^[4]

Because of that, there is no tier breakdown to describe for Tips in this pack. Treat it as a mod you can use without following a quest-guided order.^[4]

I checked the pack's quest book for this mod and found nothing to walk you through. The only chapter in the quest data I have is the Mekanism chapter, in the Forgotten Technology group, and none of its quest tasks ask for an item from this mod.^[4]

So there is no quest order to follow for this mod here. If the book has a quest for it elsewhere, it isn't in the data I was given.^[4]

Everything here lives in config/tipsmod.json. It controls the tips you see on loading screens, and there are only a handful of options. The ones that matter are how long a tip stays up, how wide it renders, and which tips the pack hides.^[1][3]

Timing and layout

• default_cycle_time.value is set to 5,000 in this pack. That is the time a tip is shown before it cycles to the next one, and it matches the mod's default of 5,000. It also lines up with the five-second cycle the mod describes.^[1][3]
• tip_render_width_percentage.value is set to 0.35 in this pack. It is the share of the screen width that tips render over, and it matches the mod's default of 0.35.^[3]

Both of these are left at the mod default, so the pack didn't change them.^[3]

Title styling

The default title for a tip is controlled by the default_title.value.translate entry, which points to the translation key tipsmod.title.default. The pack styles it with default_title.value.color set to yellow, default_title.value.bold set to true and default_title.value.underlined set to true.^[3]

Hiding tips

This is where the pack does its curating. ignored_namespaces.value is set to twilightforest, so tips from that namespace will not be displayed in game.^[3]

ignored_tip_ids.value blocks individual tips by ID. The pack hides a long list of tipsmod tips, mostly general vanilla survival advice such as tipsmod:bed_explode, tipsmod:bed_respawn, tipsmod:end_dimension, tipsmod:fossils, tipsmod:nether_lava, tipsmod:nether_travel, tipsmod:portal_trick and tipsmod:weather_sleep. The rest of the list covers other Overworld and Nether topics, including tipsmod:azalea_caves, tipsmod:compass_spawn and tipsmod:job_site_dimension.^[3]

Unverified The sources don't say what the mod's own defaults are for the ignored namespaces and ignored tip IDs, so it is unconfirmed whether the pack changed them. Those lists are most likely the pack's own choices.

FTB StoneBlock 4 1.21.0 ships with Tips 21.1.3. The pack has included Tips since FTB StoneBlock 4 1.0.0 or earlier, so it has been part of the pack from the start.^[2]

The only change I can confirm from the mod's own changelog is in 21.1.3, the version this pack uses: it adds a Turkish localization. That only affects the language options, so nothing changes for you in gameplay.^[2][5]

Unverified Changes in earlier Tips versions, and any pack-specific changes to Tips between pack releases, could not be confirmed from the available sources.