TerraFirmaCraft was a mod originally aimed at realism, and followed Notch's original footsteps to make a 3D version of Dwarf Fortress. TFC has now gone in its own direction, with the devs aiming more for believability rather than realism. The mod adds greater difficulty to the survival aspect on Minecraft, making it a lot harder to survive and progress in the game. The game mainly progresses according to the path of humanity from stone age to iron age. This page aims to give a quick overview of fundamental changes in TFC.
Hunger & Thirst[]
HUD of a newly started character.
When spawning in a new world, the first things you'll notice are two bars where Minecraft has the hunger bar. The green bar represents hunger, and the blue bar represents thirst. Keeping hydrated is an important aspect of survival, ensuring you are fit to explore the world. The most basic way to drink is to hold right-click on fresh water, whilst not holding any item. Eating food items will reduce hunger and provide healing, and eating a balanced diet will maximize your max health. Cooking food will reduce the decay rate of the food item.
Rocks & Minerals[]
Like in Dwarf Fortress, the world generator in TFC uses almost 2 dozen stone types to create the rocks beneath the soil level. Each stone type can contain certain types of ores, so it's important to mine in the right area if you're looking for something particular. Another difference is that there is a lot more rock beneath you in TFC than in Minecraft. In TFC the ground level is around y:130, whereas in Minecraft ground level is around y:64.
Tools[]
In the aim for realism, TFC doesn't allow you to chop down trees using your fists, you require an axe for this job. Many tasks in TFC require the specific tool to be accomplished. Knives are required for cutting straw, saws are required to make lumber etc. Wooden tools do not exist, and your first tier of tools will be made through knapping what stones you can find on the surface. Thankfully, surface stones are plentiful.
Experience and Skills[]
Experience in TFC is collected by killing mobs. Gaining levels increases your max Health, thirst and hunger. This allows you to survive without food and water for longer time, and take more damage before dying. Skills can be viewed from the inventory-screen. They are gained by performing the actions of the skill, and in turn allow you to yield better results while performing them.
Gravity[]
Within TFC many more of the blocks are affected by gravity. Cobblestone and dirt drop like sand does in vanilla Minecraft. Additionally, dirt, sand, and cobblestone will not only drop down but will also slide down slopes. This makes construction using dirt, sand, and cobblestone difficult and limited. In the early game, the only available construction materials, not affected by gravity, are logs, log piles, and thatch. Gravity also affects mining, where mining out a large area (especially upwards) will cause cave-ins. Use support beams to prevent cave-ins.
Fauna[]
TFC adds several new mobs; pheasant, deer and bears. When hunting animals, you now get hide, meat, and bones from all animals. Sheep will also yield sheep skin when killed, which can be cut to receive wool. The amount of meat depends on the size of the animal and your butchering skill. However, hunting animals is a sure way to deplete the local wildlife, as some animals do not respawn in TFC. To get more animals, you must mate a male animal with a female animal. You can check whether it is male or female either by looking at their appearence, or by right-clicking the animal. But before you can mate them, you must first familiarize them.
Metallurgy[]
Working metal is also a lot more complicated in TFC. Instead of simply heating ore in an oven, you must now heat ore to sufficient temperature and shape it in ceramic molds, to make ingots. Once an ingot is ready, it can then be processed into different tools and objects at an anvil, using a hammer. The first useful ore you will collect is copper ore (native copper, malachite or tetrahedrite) as rocks on the surface. This usually takes a whole lot of exploring before you find enough to make your first tool. The ore must be processed by heating it up in a ceramic vessel, and then poured into a ceramic mold to make the tool you want.
Pottery[]
A goldenrod flower, growing on top of a clay deposit.
Pots and molds are made from clay, and then burned into ceramics. This is mainly done in pit kilns, dug holes in the ground, filled with straw and logs. Pit kilns are also the basic way of heating up metals to liquid state, or smelting ores. Clay is found more abundantly in TFC, with yellow flowers, called goldenrod, growing on grass covered clay soil.