A few weeks ago I found out about Minecraft’s data pack feature which was supposedly added a long time ago. The way I see it is basically just a more integrated version of older Minecraft mods that you can use on the regular client. I’ve played around with a few for a while, so this week I’ll be writing about some of the data packs that I use.
First, the data packs you can find are a lot more limited compared to other mods you might have used in the past that operate on seperate clients. Most of them are usually just pretty simple game modifications that are like automated command blocks for certain functions. There are also some more impressive ones that add new items, crafting recipes, and enchantments, but I found most of them to be a bit clunky and don’t always work properly.
One data pack that I find really useful is a timber data pack. There are a lot of different ones out there, but most of them do the same thing. When you destroy the bottom block of a tree, the rest of it also breaks. The one that I use right now also destroys all the leaves on the tree while giving you the drops like sticks, saplings, and apples. Personally, I don’t find this one too gamebreaking especially if you’re just playing on a single player world since your axe will still take the total durability damage for the amount of blocks destroyed. For me, it’s just a time saver since you need wood, but cutting down trees is pretty boring.
Another data pack I use is a veinminer data pack. This is another one that has a lot of different versions, but basically it allows you to mine a lot of ore at once. The one I’m using takes durability and applies any enchantments you might have on your pickaxe like fortune. I think this one is a pretty agreeable data pack that isn’t that special. It’s just another quality of life datapack that just makes things a bit easier.
The last datapack that I use is a gravestone data pack. Using this datapack is kind of like using the gamerul keepInventory, except it’s not as extreme. When you die, instead of all of your items dropping on the floor, a gravestone is placed down that stores all of your items until you come back to pick the up. I know part of the Minecraft experience is the risk of losing all of your items whenever you die, but most of the times now I don’t want to deal with that kind of issue. At the same time the gamerule keepInventory is a bit too cheating in my opinion since you keep all of your items even after you respawn. Just knowing that I’ll be able to go back to where I died and still find all of my items is good enough for me.
You can probably tell that most of the datapacks that I use are more quality of life things that aren’t too gamechanging. You could probably find all of them in most modded clients, but for me I just like having everything in default one. I did end up trying some other ones though like the custom enchantments and a gun datapack, but they added a lot of new and strange mechanics that weren’t really for me.
Overall, the option for data packs in Minecraft is really cool in my opinion. It’s a tool that players can use to modify their game experience without needing to download too many new things. The options are quite open so players can choose different things they want to add, and other people can try making their own unique data packs if they’d like. For now, I’ll probably continue using a few data packs in most of my singleplayer worlds. When I play multiplayer though, it’d probably be best to agree on whether we play completely standard, or add a few extra things.