Trampled Paths

!! -- THIS MOD IS COMPLETELY WRITTEN BY CLAUDE -- !!

Walk the same route enough and you'll wear it in. Grass gives way to dirt, dirt packs down, and what started as a shortcut through the woods eventually becomes a proper road. Wild plants get cleared along the way, but bushes, crops, and saplings are left alone. Paths fade if you stop using them. Untouched blocks recover after a few in-game days by default. Heavily traveled routes stay. Jumping wears blocks faster since landing impact counts double, and on multiplayer servers more foot traffic means faster path formation.

 

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Features

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Three wear stages for soil and forest floor: trampled earth, packed dirt, and dry packed dirt

Foliage clearing for wild grass, ferns, and mushrooms

Protected list keeps berry bushes, crops, flowers, and saplings safe

Farmland is excluded automatically

Path recovery for unused routes (configurable, default 5 days)

Survival only. Creative and spectator players don't leave wear

Server-side, fully multiplayer compatible

Works on existing worlds

Configurable thresholds, recovery time, foliage lists, and block transitions

Configuration

The config file is at VintagestoryData/ModConfig/trampledpaths.json. Open it in any text editor, make your changes, save, and reload the world (or restart the server) to apply.

Block codes are case-sensitive. To find the exact code for a block, stand on it in-game and run /trampledpaths.

To change which blocks get worn: Edit BlockTransitions. Each entry has a Match field (a prefix that matches the start of a block's code, like "soil-" or "forestfloor-") and a Stages array listing the block codes the matched block progresses through, in order. Add an entry to wear a new surface, remove one to stop wearing it.

To change what counts as foliage: Edit FoliagePrefixes. Anything matching these prefixes gets removed when a path forms beneath it. Remove "fern-" if you want ferns to survive, add a prefix to clear plants from another mod.

To change what's protected: Edit ProtectedFoliage. These prefixes are never removed, and a soil block under a protected plant is left alone too, so bushes and crops won't be dislodged when paths form around them.

To exclude specific blocks from wearing entirely: Edit ExcludedMatches. Farmland variants are listed here by default. Add any other block prefix you want untouched.

Compatibility

Built for Vintage Story 1.22. The mod doesn't replace any vanilla blocks or recipes since all path stages are existing vanilla blocks. Removing the mod won't leave broken blocks behind.