Mod Compats

May contain extra swords, magical machinery, or a giant boss that no one asked for!

Mod compats or mod 'addons' (not to be confused with MCBE's 'Addons') are extra mods that 'add onto' other mods' existing content, or enable special features the original mod has that can only work with another mods' content, or just change a few textures or something simple too. Addons are mods that register like any other mod, but usually require dependencies to work at all.

For example, if you had a mod like Thaumcraft back in MC 1.7.10 or below, or mods like Macaw's Mods today in MC 1.18-1.20+ or something similar, you'd see an 'addon' tagged mod called 'Such-and-such: insert-mod-name-here compat' or for mods like Thaumcraft, 'Thaumic Tinkerer', or something similar. They will usually have the "base mod" in the name then the "addon feature" as the surname or suffix.

This is seemingly good practice as it's been done for years and tends to help with confusion... mostly.

Thingamajigs has some passive 'addon' technology, along with a bit of real 'addon' technology.

Passive addon technology is a way in which a mod addon doesn't add stuff to Thingamajigs directly nor enables functionality not normally in the mod already, but instead is waiting for a signal to become active (in Thingamajigs case, we wait for a mod to be detected, and if it is, enable whatever we want it to enable, but without editing registries or adding things to the load process).

Real addon technology is a way in which mods either directly edit the mod itself or adds content to it using it's methods or other things (such as in Thingamajigs 2, where addons rely on Thingamajigs as the base mod for starter content to make other items and blocks from base ones in the base mod, or references that only exist in Thingamajigs 2, for use in recipes and the like in the addon).

Mixins are part of this real addon technology as they can edit MC's code directly, along with other mods' code if setup properly, but may also break compatibility with other not-coded-right mods.

Thingamajigs' mods and addons tend to stay away from Mixins to remain as compatible as possible, at the cost of being unable to manipulate some fancy things.

If done right, many addons can work with each other and make one mod very big and expansive.

Hopefully this helps clear up some confusion as to what an 'addon' is in Java MC vs Bedrock MC for Thingamajigs context.

If you add Create to your modpack with Thingamajigs, special recipes involving the Converter will unlock and function, otherwise, they are skipped by default.

If you add Patchouli to the game, a book will be given to you (or obtained in creative mode) that will give you insight and information into Thingamajigs' mechanics and decorations, and a little bit of humor and fun too (version 1.7.3+ only). Note the book may not update from time to time, but most of the important stuff will be in it (jokes and humor aren't that important).

If certain 'dark mode' mods are installed, Thingamajigs will automatically change the creative mode tab title text color to a more suitable one to match the aesthetic of 'dark mode' (if it does nothing to help with contrast then oh well it doesn't really break anything except the look of the tab; 10 minutes of work well wasted then).

If you add Athena to your modpack, some normally bland blocks will suddenly spring to life with connected textures! This includes animated as well as some static blocks. CTM used to do this, but this and another mod are the 2 best choices for today's world of mods.

If you add Apotheosis to your modpack (In Thingamajigs 1.7.4+ only), some bookshelves that are normally decorative will become functional, and effect the 'enchanting' aspect of Apotheosis. Each bookshelf has been given a specific set of properties that enhance each type of enchanting value (thanks to the built-in mod's JSON-based values format). Blank Bookshelves are completely useless for enchanting, so their values don't even exist. Purifying Bookshelves are the best for getting rare enchants, and brick and bone bookshelves are good for reducing all enchantment values (if you need a lower tier enchantment). Note that Apotheosis does all the work, and Thingamajigs just has a defined set of params for the mod to use. Datapacks can override these values if they seem too op (they shouldn't as they were based off of similar bookshelves in testing).

Note that in the future, more addons may be added for more compatibility with Thingamajigs! If not, well then, I guess there weren't any to add. Such a shame.