A data pack doesn't actually modify the game's code, it's basically a simple API similar to the one used with command blocks. You can do a lot of interesting stuff with it, but mods can do much more.
...api? uh...from context of command blocks im thinking that somehow translates to "string of commands/code that does a cool thing" ...look all i know is blocks i don't get the magic lightningrock bullshit behind it *shrug*
datapacks are json-based, meaning you can just drop them into the appropriate world folder. no launcher, no making sure all server players are running the correct launcher and mods, just plug&go. as such they're smaller and less complex than mods, but also tend to have less issues with cross-compatibility. you can add/alter recipes, alter loot tables, and other stuff, like allowing one player to skip the night or make a chest spawn upon death that stores all your items.
it lets you add or even change a few things, but only a few specific things "Data packs can be used to override or add new advancements, functions, loot tables, structures, recipes and tags without any code modification." so you can't add new mobs or mechanics or whatever, but you can eg make stuff that does a whole bunch of command block type commands, or add a new recipe for a thing
and you can use those functions (the command block type things) to eg let you skip the night or make a chest spawn and drop your inventory into it when you die but you can't make that chest be a gravestone without making all chests be gravestones, or drop in something that improves the lighting engine, or change how worldgen works, or add new biomes
actually, there's a datapack that saves all your items in a grave, which is also inaccessible by other players. so. not technically a chest? but totally a grave. eta: also. theres one that allows you to rotate redstone and terracotta by right-clicking on it with a special tool. the tool looks like a carrot on a stick unless youre also running the resource pack it comes with (which includes the texture) because it's working via workaround.
...so what im hearing is its a good thing i decided modding minecraft myself was a bad idea because while i understand what ya'll have said its kinda the same kind of understanding as me explaining how/where email is stored to my mom like i get it just enough to know i don't know shit
also theres a locks mod that adds locks and lockpicking, botanic additions, more beautiful plates and its suggested mods, and probably a bunch of other stuff
had a weird thing happen with one of the villagers in the new update. he suddenly started squatting in my house. stole my bed. he was a farmer. i named him jeff. well, jeff settled right the fuck in.. and then refused to leave Ever. Jeff then got slutty with the trader who spawned on my roof, and then i had a baby in there, who stole my new bed, who had no job assigned. a third villager moved in as a squatter, then a fourth appeared after an orgy. they wouldn't leave. i couldn't get them the fuck out. i sandtrapped everyone who didn't have a job. it was just i and slutty farmer jeff then. then a cat as well, after i fenced off all entrances to my big home. i eventually decided it was time for jeff to be rehabilitated and join his fellow squidwards, so i managed to lure him through the fence and closed it.. and they're too stupid to open gates. he now sleeps away, but he comes by every morning to trade and stare at me outside my house, then wanders sadly away.
update: rip slutty jeff. you lasted about a week outside of my home and you died with a fellow farmer friend who you'd brought to say hello. death by zombie hiding in shade. u will be missed.
oh yeah, in 1.14 villagers claim houses and beds. jobless villagers can be given a job via one of the new blocks
:U! how do i give them jobs, they've been breeding but they're all plain villagers. i'd love for them to stop being bums. eta: der i just looked it up, its 5:30am here and im dumb and awake. but da n g i had no idea it was that involved now, how exciting.
so now they no longer ignore all the nice new cottages you build for them and cram 15 squidwards in a 3x3 shack? whee!
sooooo what is the brightest light in minecraft? i may have decided my pirate server's starting area should be a lighthouse, and then went and built it way too big. i'm cool with that if i can make the light correspondingly ridiculous. alas, the redstone lamp method is too dim. also i don't trust myself with redstone contraptions. i'm game to put a mod in just for a light, as long as it's not the engineering one where everything needs to be connected by unsightly saggy wires and wants transformers every five meters or something. i can't be bothered with that one. this is a fantasy cartoon pirate server. the light probably comes from a glowing monster.
glowstone? honestly there isn't really a super bright light in vanilla so you'd prolly have to use modded and most of that seems to be light sources that "act" brighter by having a bigger range they prevent mob spawning in but not actually looking brighter to players
alas, beacons only go vertical. but yeah, i found out there's a max light level of 15, so it's got to be distance. i'm testing out the flood lights mod, those lights are directional and light stuff in a long cone, which sounds good for a lighthouse.
hmm i hate the way immersive engineering does wiring, but i'm tempted to add it anyway for the water wheels and windmills. those would really be great in a pirate town. edit: heeey the ones i liked were actually from 'better with mods' so that's ok
I think botania has a turntable that spins things around, I don't know if it would work with the floodlight though.
