# Echo Protocol

Echo Protocol is a psychological horror mod for Minecraft that makes the world remember the player.

The mod records short, bounded fragments of player movement and later recreates them as unsettling Echoes. At first, they simply repeat the past. Over time, they begin to make mistakes, copy the present, move independently, and act as though the world belongs to them.

## Echo Types

### Memory Echo

Replays a previous route from the player's recorded movement history. It does not react or attack and behaves like a distant memory.

### Corrupted Echo

Begins by replaying the past, but gradually desynchronizes. It may freeze, turn toward the player, move closer while unobserved, hide, or disappear.

### Mimic Echo

Copies the player's current movement with a delay. Its imitation becomes less accurate over time, and rare hostile encounters may occur.

### The Original

A rare late-game Echo that no longer copies the player.

The Original remembers familiar locations such as beds, storage areas, crafting spaces, doors, portals, and common idle positions. It moves independently and behaves as though the player is the duplicate.

## Features

- Real player skins
- Classic and slim player model support
- Four different Echo types
- Persistent horror progression
- Familiar-location tracking
- Safe server-controlled spawning
- Configurable sounds and visual effects
- Reduced flashing and reduced visual effects options
- English and Russian localization
- Dedicated server support
- Multiplayer privacy
- Advancements and administrator testing commands

## Multiplayer Privacy

Private Echoes are server-filtered by default.

When shared Echoes are disabled, unrelated players do not receive the private Echo entity, replay information, particles, sounds, text events, or familiar-location data.

## Requirements

- Minecraft Java Edition 1.21.1
- Fabric Loader 0.16.14 or newer
- Fabric API
- Java 21

The mod must be installed on both the client and the server.

## Configuration

The configuration file is generated at:

`config/echo_protocol.json`

Event timing, Echo types, damage, visual effects, sounds, privacy, Stage 3 requirements, and accessibility options can be configured.

## Alpha Notice

Echo Protocol is currently in alpha.

The main systems are playable and manually tested, but event balance, configuration defaults, behavior, and save data may change in future versions.

## Known Limitations

- Echo movement is scripted rather than using advanced navigation.
- Recorded movement routes are not preserved across server restarts.
- Familiar-location detection uses bounded heuristics.
- The current sound design mostly uses compatible vanilla sound events.

Echo Protocol

You were never the only thing being recorded.

Echo Protocol is a psychological horror mod for Minecraft Java Edition.

It quietly remembers fragments of your movement, familiar places, habits, sounds, and interactions. Later, those memories return as translucent figures known as Echoes.

At first, they may simply repeat what you did.

Then they begin to change.

Your Memories Are No Longer Reliable

Echoes are not ordinary hostile mobs. They do not wander randomly or behave like traditional monsters.

They are created from you.

They may follow an old route, carry an item you once held, stop where you previously stopped, or repeat a familiar action. Some Echoes remain accurate. Others become corrupted, notice the player, change direction, approach, hide, or continue beyond the original memory.

The longer you play, the harder it becomes to know which memories are real.

Echo Types

Memory Echo

A translucent replay of a previous movement route. It can reproduce your direction, pose, held item, sprinting, sneaking, and hand movements.

Corrupted Echo

Begins as a normal memory before desynchronizing. It may stop, look directly at you, approach while unobserved, hide, or disappear.

Mimic Echo

Copies your current movement with a delay. Over time, its imitation may become inaccurate, independent, or hostile.

False Memory

Starts with an authentic recording and then performs something that never happened. It may follow the wrong route, hold a different item, repeat a movement, look at the player, or continue beyond the original memory.

Peripheral Echo

Appears briefly at the edge of your vision. If directly observed, it may disappear or reappear once at another nearby location.

Audio Residue

Replays sounds connected to previous doors, containers, workstations, items, and other interactions. Echo Protocol never records real audio or microphones.

The Original

A rare late-game presence connected to your familiar locations, habits, rooms, items, and previous Echo events.

The Original does not behave like a normal mob or boss. It moves deliberately, watches the player, opens spectral doors, interacts with familiar spaces, approaches, retreats, waits, and remembers places that matter to you.

The House Remembers

Version 0.5.0 introduces persistent, bounded memory.

Echo Protocol can learn approximate relationships between familiar rooms and locations without scanning your entire base or inspecting container contents.

The mod may remember:

• Frequently visited rooms
• Doors and entrances
• Beds and storage locations
• Workstations and portals
• Common movement routes
• Repeatedly held items
• Panic Imprints
• Previous Echo encounters
• Significant observed events

These memories remain limited, server-side, and automatically bounded.

Memory Threads

The world can connect separate memories into short generated sequences called Memory Threads.

A thread contains several related events involving a room, route, sound, item, False Memory, Panic Imprint, contradiction, or The Original.

Memory Threads are not traditional quests. They have no visible quest log, fixed campaign, or predictable ending.

They are personal sequences assembled from the way you play.

Contradictory Memories

Some memories can produce two incompatible versions of the same event.

Echo Protocol includes:

• Split Memory
• Repeated Ending
• Wrong Destination
• Memory Arrived First
• Conflicting Item
• Missing Segment
• Conflicting Copies

These contradictions are temporary and non-destructive, but they may make familiar events feel increasingly unreliable.

A World That Reacts

Echoes can visually react to the environment.

They may:

• Open nearby doors while passing through
• Repeat recorded hand movements
• Produce temporary spectral blocks
• Look toward familiar objects
• Stop at beds, doors, storage, and workstations
• Follow remembered local routes

Spectral doors and blocks are visual-only. They restore automatically and do not permanently modify the world.

Adaptive Horror

Echo Protocol observes limited gameplay patterns and adjusts event selection over time.

The Event Director considers:

• Recent Echo events
• Repeated encounters
• Current danger and combat
• Familiar locations
• Active Memory Threads
• Observation behavior
• Memory contamination
• Event cooldowns
• Loaded and safe positions

Quiet sessions remain possible. The mod does not constantly attack the player or rely on continuous jumpscares.

Intensity Presets

Choose how strongly Echo Protocol affects the experience:

• Subtle — slower, quieter, and less direct
• Standard — the intended balanced experience
• Intense — more active threads, contradictions, and confrontations
• Custom — preserves manually configured values

A detailed JSON configuration is available for players and server administrators.

Multiplayer and Privacy

Echo Protocol supports multiplayer and dedicated servers.

By default, personal Echoes are visible only to their target. Servers can optionally enable shared Echoes for nearby players.

Persistent memories, room graphs, Memory Threads, observation profiles, contamination, and personal metadata remain server-side.

Echo Protocol does not record:

• Microphones
• Voice chat
• IP addresses
• Private messages
• Container contents
• Complete persistent movement recordings
• Files outside the Minecraft world and configuration

Requirements

• Minecraft Java Edition 1.21.1
• Fabric Loader 0.16.14 or compatible
• Fabric API 0.116.13+1.21.1
• Java 21

The mod must be installed on both the server and connecting clients.

Installation

1. Install Fabric Loader for Minecraft 1.21.1.
2. Install Fabric API.
3. Place Echo Protocol in your mods folder.
4. Launch the game using Java 21.
5. Enter a world and keep playing normally.

The horror develops from your own movement and interactions. Give the world time to remember you.

Beta Notice

0.5.0-beta.2 — The House Remembers is a beta release.

Back up important worlds before installing or updating. The persistent memory format may continue to evolve during the beta period.

The world watched you. The house remembered you. Now something else is living inside those memories.