Minecraft news » Modpack Spotlight: Davy Jones' Locker

Today, we feature a modpack spotlight by our very own sarydactl and IceFissure!

Davy Jones’ Locker (DJL) is a mod-pack created by Tedyhere in the same vein as Skyblock or Agrarian Skies—modded Minecraft with extremely limited resources asking of the player to make nearly everything out of nearly nothing. In Davy Jones Locker, you play as an undersea researcher who has outlived the rest of the world, which was destroyed by who knows what. The world as you know it has been flooded all the way to build limit, and the waters eroded the land all the way down  to bedrock. You are tasked with surviving and rebuilding, using only a few tools at your disposal: a single tree, some flint and some bone meal. It makes for a very relaxing version of Agrarian Skies that can seem, at times, lonely.

Currently, the pack does not feature any sort of quest system, or any direction at all, leaving the player to decide their own goals for themselves. While a player familiar with Agrarian Skies may know how to get started, those less versed may find themselves at a loss in creating even basic blocks or tools on their own. Bees come from artificial hives, machine parts must be crafted from bits of metal you find in synthetic dirt, and food must come from wild grass you spawn in with bone meal. As far as survival or goals go, you are given no direction and can take whatever technical path you choose. Whether you choose to drain the sea and rebuild the world or to remain indoors and become the biggest and only technological mastermind in the world is up to you.

The setting and lore can invigorate the imagination, but currently leaves much of it to the imagination. It’s an interesting and unique take on the lone survivor/Skyblock mode of telling a story, that leaves itself available in drawing from several genres of ideas—from sci-fi adventure to survival horror. Despite its limited confines, much can happen in a little, undersea base. But without a quest system or deeper lore, the player is left to come-up with their own story, as they could in any Minecraft adventure. It might be refreshing for others, but for us; we enjoy the sense of a plot in a mod pack. We don’t even care about the rewards—simply unlocking a new page of the book is enough. The closest thing you get to a hint is a sign that says 15 x 15 x 15—placed next to the ocean, with nothing outside of it.

     

However, the pack is not currently in its final form, and the pack creator has expressed interest in expanding the lore of the world, as well as possibly including, at least, a list of major goals for the player to accomplish. Tedyhere is also open to suggestions and criticism in DJL’s forum thread, allowing players to have direct input as this pack develops. The only other issue that quickly crosses my mind is the trouble in expanding your base as needed. On one hand, this could simply be a slight increase in the challenge of building your world, due to the difficulty in safely expanding very far under water. But with few materials and little space, growing more than a couple trees at a time, for example, can be difficult in the early game.

As it stands, DJL could, at least, be a new map to play with your extreme survival skills in modded Minecraft, with a few new mods added in to further enrich the experience (there are more than 50 unique mods included to make sure that the experience is set apart from Agrarian skies). The mod that we are most excited to see in the list is Xeno’s Reliquary—something that dropped out of existence for a while, but has finally returned in its golden glory. This expensive mod lets you create incredibly useful items, such as an extended torch placer or a mirror that grants you teleportation powers.

If I may say so myself, DJL has the potential to grew into a new intriguing and deep adventure of reclaiming the land claimed by the sea. Maybe next, someone can make me something like a fairy-tale mod pack called Fiddler’s Green.

STOP SAYING THINGS, HOW DO I PLAY THIS

• Download link: click here
• Pack thread: click here