This Fan-Made Minecraft RTS Is Better Than Minecraft Legends, Here’s How to Install It

Have you been craving a real-time strategy spin on Minecraft? Sure, Mojang has officially made the Minecraft Legends spinoff but the dedicated community has managed to one-up it. Created by solegendary, the Reign of Nether mod might just be what you need for a proper Minecraft RTS experience. You and your friends can compete for dominance as one of the warring factions: Humans, Monsters, and Piglins. This mod transforms the game into a tactical battle with all the bells and whistles of the sandbox classic. If you can’t wait to play it, here’s how to install Reign of Nether and dive into its strategic depth.

How to Download and Install Minecraft RTS Reign of Nether Mod

1. Install Forge 1.19.2 via the official website.
2. Download and add the Reign of Nether mod jar file from CurseForge to your Minecraft mods folder.
   • Windows: Open the Windows menu, type ‘%appdata%’ and press Enter. Open the ‘.minecraft’ folder and select the ‘mods’ folder.
   • On Mac: On the desktop press Command+Shift+G. Type ~/Library and press enter. Afterward, open ‘Application Support’ and select ‘minecraft’ for the ‘mods’ folder.
3. Launch Minecraft Launcher.
4. In the Minecraft Java option, select your installation as Forge 1.19.2.
5. Download the reign_of_nether_datapack via https://edge.forgecdn.net/files/5816/813/reign_of_nether_datapack.zip.
6. Run Minecraft Java.
7. When you’re creating a new World, add the datapack zip to it

Reducing your chunk render distance will help performance as the game won’t render wider areas. By default, the Minecraft RTS mod does not apply fog of war, the RTS staple mechanics to hide player locations. To enable or disable it, use the ‘/rts-fog [enable/disable]‘ command. For more command help, type ‘/rts-help’.

If you intend to play around the system first, use these World settings:

• Seed: 4756899154123723533
• Coordinates: X: -3000, Y: 80, Z: -1000.
• This is the location used for the tutorial map.

You can also set the map size limit using ‘/worldborder center‘ and ‘/worldborder set‘ commands. This ensures buildings and units stay within the map borders, prohibiting players from making a hidden base too far out.

The developers recommend using these server.properties settings when installing Reign of Nether on a server:

• view-distance=25
• spawn-monsters=false
• spawn-npcs=false
• spawn-protection=0
• gamemode=spectator

How to Run Minecraft RTS Tutorial and Datapack Explanation

Using the reign_of_nether_datapack mod will let you generate Worlds with these special attributes tweaked for a proper RTS experience in Minecraft:

1. No caves or underground structures. This prevents your units from falling into holes.
2. Ores are now generated on the surface, letting workers gather them.
3. Restricted biome generation as some extreme terrain will hinder gameplay.
4. 4x normal tick speed suitable for farming and tree decay.
5. No insomnia prevents phantoms from bothering RTS players.
6. No rain or snow as the developers said they look ‘really bad’ in RTS mode.

Anyone new to the RTS genre or who wants to get a taste before playing with friends can install the tutorial map:

• Download the tutorial save at https://edge.forgecdn.net/files/5816/810/reign_of_nether_tutorial.zip.
• Go to the ‘saves’ folder inside your ‘.minecraft’ folder.
• Copy the .zip file and extract it as the reign_of_nether folder.
• Run Minecraft Java and load the reign_of_nether World save.

Currently Known Issues

These are other currently known bugs and limitations to the Minecraft RTS mod installation:

• No team selection.
• No single-player missions or AI enemies.
• With Fog of War enabled, enemy bases will sometimes still show their shadows.
• Enabling Fog of War while using the Optifine visual mod will crash the game.
• The mod is not balanced to play with vanilla players in Survival.
• Playing with 4 or more players with full armies in the same match will likely cause a lot of lag.
• Mod hotkeys are currently cannot be rebind.
• Issues with the title screen and GUI resizing on Mac.

If your game crashes at launch even without OptiFine, just keep trying to relaunch Minecraft Java. By doing so, we bypassed an error code.