Path Exponential

Path Exponential

A lightweight path/road mod for NeoForge 1.21.1. Walk near a road or path and you’re faster; leave and you’re not.

I made this so I could build decorative paths while still having a speed boost. Instead of only boosting your speed when
you’re standing directly on top of a path block, the mod checks whether nearby path blocks connect to each other within
a small radius. As long as there are connecting path blocks around you, you get the speed boost. Even if you’re not
standing on one.

What that means

• You don’t have to stand on the blocks. The field is a band a couple of blocks wide projected around the path, so drift and small gaps are forgiven. Sparse paths still work.
• Leaving is forgiving too. The speed holds for half a second after you step off, so brushing the edge of the field doesn’t flicker the boost on and off.
• It takes more than one block. A single path block on its own is inert. Put a second one within the detection radius and a field forms. They don’t have to touch, so scattered stepping stones count.
• Tiers matter. Vanilla dirt paths are level 1. Four tiers ship, and you climb them by upgrading a path in place rather than by crafting a different block.
• Upgrade a path by right-clicking it. Wheat takes a dirt path to level 2, brick takes that to level 3, concrete powder takes it to 4. A shovel puts it back. Which item does what is config.
• An upgrade never changes how the block looks. A path is a path. What counts as a path is the modpack’s decision, not this mod’s, so point the config at whatever blocks you like.
• Everything is configurable. How many tiers there are, what each grants, which blocks count as paths, which blocks kill the field, and which items upgrade what.
• Roads can become dangerous. Hostile mobs get the bonus too (scaled down), so a lit road is fast and an unlit one is a highway for zombies. Villagers and a few others are excluded for QoL.

Upgrading a path

Right-click any path block with a configured upgrade item and it becomes one level higher. Defaults:

| Item | Takes a path from | To |
| — | — | — |
| Wheat | 1 (vanilla dirt path) | 2 |
| Brick | 2 | 3 |
| Any concrete powder | 3 | 4 |

An upgrade item only works on the level it is configured for, so wheat does nothing to a brick road.
Set upgradeItemAlwaysWorks = true and any upgrade item raises any path by one.

Config

| Key | Default | Description |
| — | — | — |
| enabled | true | Master switch for the field. |
| pathLevels | ["1\|1.10", "2\|1.18", "3\|1.28", "4\|1.40"] | The tier ladder, one level\|speedMultiplier entry each. Add entries for more tiers, up to 16. |
| blocksAcross | 2.0 | Width of the projected band, in blocks. Increase for a larger effect radius. |
| detectionRadius | 6.0 | Max marker-to-marker distance that still forms a segment. |
| markerRadius | 0 (auto) | How far a single path block reaches on its own, separate from the band between two blocks. 0 follows blocksAcross/2. Takes fractions. Raise to 1.8 if standing diagonally beside a path feels like it drops out — that covers a whole block diagonally. Costs more block reads. |
| blocksInRadiusToBePath | 2 | How many path blocks have to be within detectionRadius before a field forms at all. A count inside the radius, not an adjacency test. Set to 1 and a single block is a path. |
| gradientFactor | 4.0 | Distance over which two tiers blend. 0 = hard boundary. |
| verticalTolerance | 2 | Max Y difference between feet and marker. |
| fieldGraceTicks | 10 | How long the speed is kept after stepping off the path, in ticks (20 = 1 second). Stops the boost stuttering on and off when you clip the edge of the field. 0 drops it the instant you leave, which is how 1.0 behaved. |
| recheckTicks | 4 | How often the check runs per player (5×/sec). |
| applyToMobs | true | Whether non-player entities get the field. |
| mobBonusScale | 0.5 | Fraction of the bonus mobs receive. |
| mobRecheckTicks | 15 | Longer recheck for mobs than players. |
| mountRiddenBonus | 0.10 | Extra speed for an eligible ridden mount on the path (+10%), on top of the tier. Which mounts qualify is the path_mountable entity-type tag. |
| blocks.extraPathBlocks | [] | Extra path markers. "blockId\|level", or "#tag\|level" for a whole block tag. |
| blocks.extraNegateBlocks | [] | Extra blocks that suppress the field. "blockId" or "#tag". |
| upgrades.pathUpgrades | ["minecraft:wheat\|1", "minecraft:brick\|2", "#c:concrete_powders\|3"] | "itemId\|fromLevel", or "#tag\|fromLevel". |
| upgrades.upgradeItemAlwaysWorks | false | true lets any upgrade item raise any path by one level. |
| upgrades.consumeUpgradeItem | true | Whether upgrading uses up one of the item. |
| upgrades.shovelResetsPath | true | Right-click one of the mod’s paths with a shovel to put it back to dirt path. |