VanillaSkills: Running a server
Everything a server owner needs to run and customize VanillaSkills.
Textures on vanilla clients
Section titled “Textures on vanilla clients”On join, the server pushes a resource pack so the custom gear and item names render even for players with no mod installed. Single player needs no download — the jar carries the same textures. The same textures are available on their own as VS - Textures. Pack pushing can be turned off in the config if you host your own.
Configuration
Section titled “Configuration”Per-world file at <world>/vanillaskills/gameplay.json. Reload it live with /skill reload. Both config files carry a built-in #option-guide block describing every option in place, kept current by the mod — the table below covers the highlights.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
experienceEnabled |
Put vanilla experience back. Off by default. |
gear |
Every tier’s armor, toughness, knockback, movement modifier and durability, plus tool durability, damage, speed and mining. |
gearRestamp |
Bring players’ existing gear onto the current tier numbers as they log in. |
toolCraftingRequirements / armorCraftingRequirements |
Gate gear crafting behind the skill lanes. Set false to ungate — which also hides that lane from the tree. |
deepslateGate |
Require a Steel-tier-or-better pickaxe for deepslate. |
fortuneBoost / fortuneBonusChance |
The Fortune IV/V bonus drops and how often they fire. |
infusingEnabled / infusingCostPerLevel / infusingCurrency |
The Infusing Table’s cost and which shard it charges. |
anvilMaterialPricing |
Price anvil work by materials consumed (on by default). Clear it to restore vanilla’s cost numbers. |
anvilRepairCostPerMaterial / anvilEnchantCostPerLevel / anvilRenameCost |
The material-based anvil rates: per repair material, per enchantment level on the sacrificed item, and the flat rename fee (default free). |
anvilBooksOnItems |
Restore putting enchanted books straight onto gear at an anvil. Off by default. |
shardAuraRadius / shardAuraDamage / shardMaxMerge |
Stable Skill Shard Block behaviour. |
taskShardChance / taskShardCooldownSeconds / taskShardLuckBonus |
The rare shard drop from mining, building and harvesting: the per-action chance (0 disables), the per-player cooldown after a payout, and how much each point of luck multiplies the odds. |
crateFishingWeight / crateReel* |
How often crates are fished up, and the opening animation. |
questsPerRotation (1–6) / questShopSlots |
Board and shop size. |
bountyRefreshHours / shopRefreshHours |
Rotation timers. |
feats / starterQuests |
Turn feats on, and whether new players get the starter board. |
guideUrl |
Where the Guide icon sends players. Blank opens the in-game book instead. |
advancementLoginGraceMs |
How long after login an advancement completing is worth nothing, so adding a mod mid-world does not pay out on sight. |
netherRoofDamage, dragonScaleDrop, dragonRepairCost, resource-pack push, and more |
Fine-tuning toggles. |
For anything larger than a number — new quests, different shop stock, a rewritten skill tree, your own crates — add a datapack under data/<namespace>/vanillaskills/. The mod ships its own content the same way, so a pack can extend or replace any of it, following the same merge rules as vanilla tags.
Commands
Section titled “Commands”Everyone
Section titled “Everyone”| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/skill |
Open your skill tree |
/quests (alias /bounty) |
Open your bounty board |
/skill toggle nightvision |
Turn permanent Night Vision on or off |
/skill toggle stepup |
Turn the Mountaineer step-up on or off |
/help |
List these commands |
Operators
Section titled “Operators”| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/skill skillshards <player> add|set|reset <n> |
Grant, set or clear Skill Shards |
/skill questshards <player> add|set|reset <n> |
Grant, set or clear Quest Shards |
/skill reset <player> |
Refund all of a player’s unlocks |
/skill recalc <player> |
Recompute earned Shards from advancements |
/skill reload |
Reload the world config and language files |
/skill give <item> [n] [player] |
Give any VanillaSkills item — /skill give list shows every id |
/skill mending on|off |
Allow or strip the Mending enchantment |
/quests board [remove|refresh] |
Place, remove or re-render a physical bounty board |
/quests reroll |
Force a fresh set of bounties now |
/quests graduate <player> |
Move a player to the main board |
/quests starter <player> |
Send a player back to the starter board |
/help admin |
List the admin commands |
Nothing VanillaSkills adds is registered to the game’s registries — that is what keeps vanilla clients working — so /give cannot name its items. /skill give is the way to get them.
Translations
Section titled “Translations”Every menu, message, item name, quest, crate and advancement is translatable per player, from the language their client reports. English and Traditional Chinese (zh_tw) ship complete (711 keys each). To add a language, start from en_us.json in the repo, translate the values only, and it can be bundled into both the mod and the pushed texture pack.