The Fixed by Design wiki
Fixed by Design is an opinionated Fabric modpack that redesigns Minecraft Survival. It is not a kitchen-sink pack and it does not add a tech tree. The world you load looks like Minecraft and plays like Minecraft, and then behaves differently in specific, deliberate places.
This wiki documents those places.
What the project is trying to do
Minecraft Survival has excellent foundations. Over fifteen years, several of its systems accumulated problems that have nothing to do with the ideas underneath them: dominant strategies that crowd out every alternative, progressions that one item trivialises, rules written for one player and then applied to twenty, whole mechanics nobody has a reason to touch, and features that quietly delete other features.
Every change here starts from the same four questions.
- What was this system trying to achieve?
- What behaviour does it actually reward?
- Where does it become tedious, dominant, irrelevant or broken?
- Can it be improved without making Minecraft feel like a different game?
The answer is never "add more". It is usually "give this system back its decision".
What lives where
This wiki answers how do I use this mechanic. It is the reference you open while playing.
Features answers what changed and why. Each feature page states the vanilla behaviour, the design problem, and the fix.
Design decisions answers why we chose this over the alternatives. Problem, evidence, constraints, considered solutions, decision, consequences.
Roadmap is what is coming next. Changelog is what already shipped.
The four mods
The pack is built on four first-party mods. You do not need to know their names to play, and nothing in this wiki is organised by them, but they are what the Features section maps back to.
| Mod | What it rebuilds |
|---|---|
| Enchantment Overhaul | Enchanting, smithing, repairs, armor materials |
| Exploration Reloaded | Elytra flight, maps, fishing, mounts, world spacing |
| Fairlands | Death, bonus hearts, spawn rules, PvP, ore progression |
| Minecarts Overhaul | Rails, locomotives, trains |
Everything else in the pack is third-party. See the modpack for the full list and a clear line between the two.
If you are new
Read Getting Started. It covers the five things that will surprise you first, which is most of what you need for your first evening.
If something feels wrong
Tell us. Send feedback from here, or run /feedback <message> in game on a server running Fairlands. Playtesting is how this project makes decisions, and every message is read.
Everything in this wiki
Start here
- Getting Started
What Fixed by Design changes, what to expect in your first hour, and where to look when something surprises you.
- Installation
Installing the Fixed SMP modpack, updating between versions, and what to do when a world will not load.
Equipment
- Enchanting
Using the Catalogue, stocking chiseled bookshelves, paying reagents, and spending your enchantment slots well.
- Smithing Upgrades
Applying Honing, Warding, Tempering and Grinding, and where to find the templates.
Exploration
- Map Book
Crafting, filling, reading and sharing the Map Book atlas.
- Elytra Flight
Building hearths, launching, banking Smokestack charges and flying updraft corridors.
Survival
- Death
What you keep, what you lose, bonus hearts, and how to get them back.
- Multiplayer
Spawn protection, PvP rules, combat logging, ore progression and the feedback command.
Transport
- Trains
Building rail lines with copper tiers, driving furnace locomotives, and coupling trains.