Not official Minecraft product. Not approved by or associated with Mojang.
About BetterGeo
BetterGeo is SGU’s modification (mod) for Minecraft. By introducing more realistic geology in the game, we want to increase the public knowledge and understanding of Geology and its importance. The original version of Minecraft, Vanilla, is based on geology – to find, mine and refine different resources. We have continued with the geology theme and increased the geological content and also made it look more like reality. This is a description for you as a gamer where we present the new content found in the modification BetterGeo.
We have added new blocks and resources representing rock types, minerals, metals, elements and gemstones. Some of the blocks from the original version of Minecraft are still present but have been modified and given new properties. Geological features like stratigraphy, veins and pipes are also introduced in BetterGeo.
We have created new recipes for rock types and recourses to make the areas of application relevant and interesting. E.g. there are possibilities to create new high tech products like jet packs and heart starters. Also, some of the products that were already present in Vanilla have been modified, e.g. different types of ovens.
The geology and the areas of application present in BetterGeo are similar to reality but with some simplifications.
Block hardness
The block hardness varies and the blocks are therefore mined with different difficulty. We have used Mohs scale of mineral hardness as a reference for the relative hardness of our new blocks.
Limitations
We have simplified the geology and presented the most common features in this mod. We could have introduced a lot more and made it more complex, but we think that this is a good level to start with when introducing you to geology and what it looks like in reality.
Features like fossils, faults, dinosaurs etc. have not been our main focus. Instead we have wanted to emphasize the importance of geology, minerals and metals for society and hence made relevant recipes and areas of application for a selection of rock types, metals and minerals. We have mainly based our content from Swedish geology and mineralizations.
Publisher
The mod BetterGeo is developed by the Geological Survey of Sweden (SGU) as a part of the Public Awareness Measure within Sweden’s Minerals Strategy. BetterGeo is released as a beta version 7th of May 2015.
Last reviewed 2020-09-22