OresReduced

OresReduced makes mining matter again. It lowers ore world generation so that resources are scarcer and more valuable — fewer veins, smaller veins, and rarer large veins — across the Overworld and the Nether. Perfect for survival servers, hardcore worlds, and any pack that wants a slower, more rewarding progression.

It is lightweight (a few KB), server-friendly, requires no dependencies (no Fabric API needed), and is fully configurable.

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✨ What it does

By default (matching a classic 0.5 / 0.5 setup):

• Vein size ×0.5 — each ore cluster contains about half as many blocks.
• Vein count ×0.5 — about half as many veins generate per chunk.
• Large veins ×2 rarer — big rare veins (e.g. large diamond veins) appear half as often.

Both reductions stack, so by default you get roughly a quarter of the ore of vanilla (~75% less) — without breaking world generation in any way.

🪨 Affected ores

Every valuable ore, in the Overworld and the Nether — vanilla and modded:

Coal · Iron · Copper · Gold · Redstone · Lapis Lazuli · Diamond · Emerald · Nether Gold · Nether Quartz · Ancient Debris (Netherite)

Purely decorative/building blobs are left at vanilla by default (andesite, diorite, granite, tuff, gravel, dirt, clay, infested stone, magma, soul sand, blackstone) — but you can include them with one config edit.

📉 Examples (vanilla → default config)

Ore	Veins per chunk	Vein size
Diamond (small)	7 → 4	4 → 2
Diamond (large, rare)	1 in 9 chunks → 1 in 18	12 → 6
Iron (mountains)	90 → 45	9 → 5
Gold	4 → 2	9 → 5
Redstone	4 (+8 deep) → 2 (+4)	8 → 4
Coal	30 + 20 → 15 + 10	17 → 9
Emerald	100 → 50	3 → 2
Nether Quartz	16 → 8	14 → 7
Ancient Debris	unchanged frequency	2 → 1 / 3 → 2

⚙️ Configuration

A config file is generated on first launch at config/oresreduced.json:

{
  "enabled": true,
  "sizeMultiplier": 0.5,
  "generationChance": 0.5,
  "affectModdedOres": true,
  "excludedOres": [
    "andesite", "diorite", "granite", "tuff", "gravel",
    "dirt", "clay", "infested", "magma", "soul_sand", "blackstone"
  ]
}

Option	Description
enabled	Master switch. false = vanilla generation.
sizeMultiplier	Multiplies ore vein size (0.01–1.0; 1.0 = vanilla).
generationChance	Multiplies ore vein count per chunk and rarity (0.01–1.0; 1.0 = vanilla).
affectModdedOres	Also reduce ores added by other mods.
excludedOres	Ore families left untouched (matched by feature name, e.g. andesite, gravel, or gold).

Examples

• Hardcore (~1/16 of vanilla ore): sizeMultiplier: 0.25, generationChance: 0.25.
• Gentle (~half of vanilla ore): 0.75 / 0.75.
• Smaller veins, same amount: sizeMultiplier: 0.5, generationChance: 1.0.
• Also thin out gravel/dirt: remove them from excludedOres.
• Don't touch gold: add "gold" to excludedOres.

Changes apply on the next server/world restart and affect newly generated chunks only. Already-generated terrain keeps its ore.

❓ What happens where an ore was removed?

Nothing strange — that spot is simply normal stone / deepslate / netherrack. Ore generation only ever replaces stone with ore, so reducing it just leaves more plain stone. Terrain shape, caves, lava, water, structures and other ores are completely unchanged. No holes, no gaps, no corruption.

🔧 Compatibility

• Minecraft: 1.21.4
• Loader: Fabric (Fabric Loader ≥ 0.16.0)
• Dependencies: none — Fabric API is not required
• Side: server-side (works in singleplayer too via the integrated server)
• Works alongside other mods; modded ores are reduced too (toggle with affectModdedOres).

🛠️ How it works (technical)

OresReduced does not permanently overwrite any files. While the world's worldgen data is loading, it intercepts the ore configured_feature / placed_feature JSON and rescales size, count and rarity according to your config (via a mixin on RegistryDataLoader). This keeps it compatible with other mods' ores and never corrupts game data.

📦 Installation

1. Install Fabric for Minecraft 1.21.4.
2. Drop oresreduced-fabric-1.21.4-1.0.0.jar into your mods/ folder (server side).
3. Start once, then tweak config/oresreduced.json if you like and restart.

Enjoy mining that actually feels rewarding again! ⛏️