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How It Works

Civillis suppresses hostile mob spawning near player-built structures by computing a real-time civilization score for every location in the world.

The Basics

Every time a hostile mob attempts to spawn naturally, Civillis evaluates the area around that spawn point:

  1. Scan — A 240×240×48 block area (configurable) is checked for blocks that signal human presence
  2. Score — Each recognized block contributes a weighted value to its local 16³ voxel chunk; all chunks in range are then aggregated into a final score between 0 and 1
  3. Decide — The score determines the spawn outcome

Naively that would touch a huge volume every time; see Architecture for how caching keeps spawn checks fast.

Spawn Decisions

The civilization score maps to one of three outcomes:

  • LOW (score below suppression threshold) — Spawn proceeds normally. This is wilderness.
  • MID (score between low and high thresholds) — Spawn is probabilistically blocked. The higher the score, the more likely the block. This is the frontier.
  • HIGH (score at or above suppression threshold) — Spawn is fully blocked. This is civilization.

The in-game Civilization Strength slider (1–10) adjusts both thresholds together — a higher value makes it easier to reach full protection with fewer blocks.

Max. Civilization Radius

The detection area is centered on the spawn point, not the player. Default size is 240×240×48 blocks (15×15×3 voxel chunks). This can be adjusted from 112 to 496 blocks per side via the Max. Civilization Radius setting.

A larger detection range means distant builds contribute to the score — your city's outskirts help protect the center. A smaller range makes protection more localized.

The Y-axis range is fixed at 48 blocks (3 voxel chunks), so builds above or below your location have limited influence.

What Counts as Civilization

Blocks that reflect human presence contribute to the score. The more complex or significant the block, the higher its weight:

  • Stone Age (0.2–0.3) — Crafting tables, furnaces, chests, farmland
  • Iron Age (0.4–0.5) — Lanterns, workstations (smithing, fletching, cartography, etc.)
  • Advanced (0.7–1.0) — Beds, anvils, brewing stands, sea lanterns
  • Mythic (2.0–5.0) — Respawn anchors, enchanting tables, beacons, conduits

Light-emitting and magical blocks receive a bonus multiplier. See Blocks & Scoring for the full weight table.

Voxel Chunk Score Cap

Each 16×16×16 voxel chunk has a maximum civilization score. Past the cap, more blocks in that same chunk do not add score — spread builds across chunks for more coverage.

Practical Scale

  • A small cabin with a crafting table, furnace, bed, and chest provides modest protection — mobs are less likely to spawn nearby, but not fully suppressed.
  • A well-developed village with workstations, campfires, and lanterns pushes monsters back ~40 blocks from its borders.
  • A sprawling industrial megacity — many chunks at cap — can reach on the order of ~90 blocks of spawn-free perimeter.

Beyond Scoring

Civilization scoring is the foundation, but the mod doesn't stop there:

In-game configuration

The two knobs that most change the feel of the spawn loop are on the main row of Civillis Settings → Civilization:

Setting Range Default What it does
Civilization Strength 1–10 5 Moves both spawn thresholds — higher = easier full protection.
Max. Civilization Radius 112–496 blocks (step 32) 240 blocks How far around each spawn attempt the mod looks for civilization blocks.

Sonar, decay, Podium of Spawning, Podium of Undying, flee AI, and HUD live in collapsible subcategories on the same screen. Full table in Configuration.

Advanced: civil.properties

Raw keys override the GUI for matching parameters. If tuning goes wrong, delete config/civil.properties and restart.