Black Horizont Awakening of the Night

BlackHorizont Awakening of the Night

began as a companion mod for the modpack of the same name. Its premise puts you in the role of a forest ranger trapped in the Appalachian Mountains, surrounded by forests, mountains, and something that doesn’t quite belong. Everything revolves around Tower 12. What happened there? Who is there?

The main inspiration is Fears to Fathom: Ironbark Lookout. I’ve always loved the forest ranger setting and nature itself. If I weren’t working in development, I would probably be living like a hermit in the mountains. That interest is where this project comes from: keeping watch among the trees, communicating by radio, and never being entirely sure who might answer.

It is designed primarily for multiplayer servers running Minecraft 1.20.1, with tools to build that experience together.

Radios and the twelve towers

Communications Panel

The radio system is built around twelve towers, each with its own designated radio. Every radio has a specific place in the network: once Tower 1’s radio has been assigned, you cannot place another one and have two active Tower 1 stations. The same applies to the other towers.

Radios establish private voice connections through Simple Voice Chat, which is required for voice communication. Both players can speak, a third player cannot join an occupied connection, and incoming calls have a 30-second answer window.

Tower 12 behaves differently. Trying to contact it can trigger interference and paranormal effects. Its role in the story is something you will have to discover.

The mod currently has no crafting recipes. Server organizers are meant to distribute the equipment and place the radios in their designated towers.

Walkie-talkies

Walkie-talkies let players call each other directly. Unlike tower radios, they are not restricted to twelve units: you can distribute as many as you need.

Their interface lets you search for players and establish private two-person calls. Either participant can hang up, and closing the menu does not end the conversation. You can keep talking with the walkie-talkie anywhere in your inventory or hotbar.

Lieutenant Salazar and the economy

Lieutenant Salazar is a trader NPC with his own buying and selling interface. He uses four currencies—bronze, silver, gold, and platinum—and lets players buy supplies, sell selected resources, and exchange coins.

Each player has an individual popularity level with Salazar. Trust builds slowly through trading and affects his prices: a poor relationship makes purchases more expensive, while a good relationship unlocks discounts and, at the highest level, gifts.

Gifts spend some of that trust. The first lowers popularity from silver to blue. If you reach silver again and claim another, it drops to red. Trading does not grant experience, and currency exchanges do not increase popularity.

The safe

The safe provides 54 storage slots protected by a numeric PIN that can be changed after successfully unlocking it. It resists explosions and takes much longer to mine than obsidian, requiring a diamond or netherite pickaxe.

A safe can also be linked to Salazar. Hitting his safe immediately drops your popularity with him to red and triggers a chat warning. Keep interfering and he may punch you; attack him and he will respond with a single powerful knife counterattack. Salazar is immortal, so picking a fight with him deserves a second thought.

What’s next: a logistics drone

For a future update, I’m considering a drone with manual controls, package transport and delivery, camera and recording features, and automatic flight across the map.

The idea is to expand this with antennas and delivery stations, allowing one or more drones to operate as a parcel service connected to in-game purchases. The drone is not included in this release; these features are planned and may change as development progresses.

Dimensions and Minecraft version

Currently, functionality is limited to the Overworld. Depending on how the project develops, I may extend support to the Nether and the End.

Development is focused on Minecraft 1.20.1. I currently have no plans to move to another version, at least until significant developments in other mods make that move worthwhile for the project.