FIX: Using KubeJS to fix the broken Well recipe in Days in the Middle Ages Minecraft Mod

On my YouTube channel, I covered a cool decorative mod for Minecraft called Days in the Middle Ages that adds new blocks and furniture in a medieval style. The mod adds some great pieces to spice up your castle or medieval town builds like arrow slits, new gravestones, piles of swords, animal feeding troughs, and much more. But there’s one small problem with the mod: all of the items are craftable in Survival mode, except one — the Well block. In this article, I’ll explain why the Well recipe is broken and show you how to fix it using the KubeJS mod.

First, though, check out the mod showcase video below so you know what I’m talking about:

Why The Well Recipe From Days in the Middle Ages is Broken

The only block in the mod that can’t be crafted in the Well — specifically, the lower stone part of it. At first glance, though, this doesn’t seem to be the case. If you inspect the block’s recipe in JEI, you’ll be shown what seems to be a perfectly normal recipe using six blocks of andesite, an oak log, and two chains:

However, this recipe doesn’t work. This is because the developer of the Days in the Middle Ages mod didn’t use the vanilla Minecraft chain item in the recipe. Instead, for some reason, they added their own chain item (I’ll refer to it as Days-chain from here on to avoid confusion) to the game, then forgot to make that Days-chain craftable.

As best as I can tell, there is no functional difference between the vanilla Minecraft chain and Days-chain. They can both be placed vertically and horizontally. Days-chain might be slightly lighter grey? I honestly couldn’t tell if the color difference was just lighting, and I’m inclined to say the two items are functionally identical. There is no other item in the Days in the Middle Ages mod that uses this special Days-chain item — in fact, the Tripod Kettle Stand added by the mod even interacts with the vanilla Minecraft chain and NOT with Days-chain.

My guess is there were plans for more blocks using the Days-chain block (possible interacting with the handcrank the mod adds?) but they were never implemented.

Unfortunately, Days in the Middle Ages hasn’t been updated since November 2023, so there’s a good chance it’s abandoned and won’t be receiving future updates. That means the only way to get the Well block is to cheat it in using Creative mode… or fixing the recipe ourselves. Thankfully, that’s pretty easy to do.

Fixing The Broken Recipe

To fix the recipe, we’ll be using a separate mod called KubeJS. There’s a lot that can be done with KubeJS, but what we’re interested in is its ability to add new crafting recipes.

• Step 1: Install KubeJS in the same instance folder as Days in the Middle Ages. Make sure you grab the latest 1.20.1 version of KubeJS.
• Step 2: Run the game once so KubeJS can create its folder structure.
• Step 3: Copy the code below into a code editor like Notepad++ and save it as days_well_fix.js.
• Step 4: Put the days_well_fix.js file in kubejs/server_scripts in your instance folder.
• Step 5: You’re done! Start the game and enjoy!

The code:

// priority: 0

ServerEvents.recipes(event =>
{
  event.shaped(
    'days_in_the_middle_ages:well',
    [
      'AOA',
      'ACA',
      'ACA',
    ],
    {
      A: 'minecraft:andesite',
      O: 'minecraft:oak_log',
      C: 'minecraft:chain',
    }
  )

}) // ServerEvents.recipes()

What this script does:

All this script does is add a new shaped recipe for the Days in the Middle Ages‘ well. The recipe is the same as the default recipe added by the mod, except we replace the Days-chain items with the vanilla Minecraft chain.

This script does not replace or remove the original recipe. This is intentional in case the original developer or a new maintainer ever comes along and fixes the recipe for Days-chain.

Why not make Days-chain craftable?

You easily could using KubeJS. For my purposes, I chose not to — I didn’t see the value in adding another chain block that is functionally identically to the vanilla block.

Wrapping Up

You can download the Days in the Middle Ages Minecraft mod from the following locations:

• Curseforge: https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/minecraft-middle-ages
• Modrinth: https://modrinth.com/mod/days-in-the-middle-ages

You can download the KubeJS Minecraft mod from the following locations:

• Curseforge: https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/kubejs
• Modrinth: https://modrinth.com/mod/kubejs

Subscribe to the Wobblerocket YouTube channel for more Minecraft mod showcases and guides.

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