How to Log In to Eleutheria

Why So Difficult?

First of all, it's not hard at all; follow these directions and you'll be fine!

Second, the reason this takes more effort than a vanilla server--or Eleutheria a few months ago--is that the power of Forge now allows us to use far more complex mods that deeply affect much more of the gameplay than Bukkit ever could. In technical terms, Forge is an API (Application Programming Interface) that sets up "hooks" for mods to link in to core game code. This is what makes Eleutheria unique: we use both Forge for these exciting mods, as well as Bukkit for the stability of a number of world management plugins and Towny.

First Step: Installing Hardcoded Mods

This is probably the most complicated step, because you will be modifying Minecraft's internal files. This step installs the Minecraft Forge API, and, optionally, Optifine, which gives a massive performance boost and also gives full functionality to the Texture Pack.

If you don't already have it, the best way to install this is to use the WinRAR archiver . It allows you to extract and compress files, as well as to add and remove files from .jar containers (used by Minecraft to store information). The directions will assume you have the WinRAR archiver.

Finally, below is a video tutorial explaining this process. The information is still accurate, although of course the version number has changed. If you cannot watch a video or would prefer to read a written tutorial, a written version is included below the video.

Installing Forge

1. First, download the proper version of Forge, currently 6.6.0 for Minecraft 1.4.7 .
2. Extract the Forge files to a folder. These files include several dozen .class files and a few folders.
3. Navigate to your Minecraft install. You are looking for the file minecraft.jar. With MultiMC, it is in the folder where you installed MultiMC: \MultiMC\Instances\Eleutheria\bin\. With a regular vanilla install on Windows 7, it is in \Username\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\bin\.
4. Right-click on the minecraft.jar and choose "Open With..." and then "WinRAR Archiver." This opens the .jar in WinRAR. In WinRAR, you can see the "guts" of the minecraft.jar. There are several hundred files, including a number of .class and .png files, and a number of folders. Drag this window to the side and do not close it.
5. Bring up your folder that contains the extracted files from the Forge download. Select all the files (either click and drag or CTRL+A) and drag all the files into the minecraft.jar that you have open in WinRAR. Make sure you don't accidentally put them into a folder (you can tell because the folder in WinRAR will highlight when you are dragging over it). Unfortunately, WinRAR does not give much indication if it worked; the files are too small to take an overly long time copying them. We will test if we did it right at the end of this process.
6. Before closing the minecraft.jar, delete the META-INF folder. This is a folder titled "META-INF," and causes your client to crash if you forget to delete it. This instruction is bold because everyone forgets to do this! So far as we are aware, the META-INF folder contains metadata that tells Minecraft what version it is, and if you modify the game files, there is a mismatch between what the client thinks the files are and what they actually are--hence the need to delete it.
7. Now close the minecraft.jar, which saves your changes. Double-click the instance icon (MultiMC) or your usual minecraft.exe (vanilla installation) to start Minecraft. It will take slightly longer than usual to start and will probably have a dialog box talking about "FML preparing," which is the Forge Mod Loader (the official name of Minecraft Forge). If Minecraft starts, that's a good sign; it means you remembered to delete META-INF! In the bottom-left corner of the main menu screen, you should see new text that tells you the version number of Forge and the number of mods loaded. On a clean install it should say two or three mods loaded--these are the core mods of Forge itself that provide functionality. If you see this text, you did it! You are done installing Forge; move on to the next section.
8. If you do not see the text in the bottom of the screen, or if the screen turned black and the program froze, something went wrong. Most common mistake is not deleting the META-INF folder. If you did remember to do that, the best solution is to delete your "bin" folder and start over again by running Minecraft to download new files, then closing Minecraft and following these instructions again.

Installing Optifine (Optional)

The installation of Optifine follows much the same principle as installing Forge, but with one important caveat: it must be installed after Forge! If you do not, you will corrupt the .jar and have to start over again. Download the proper version of Optifine from the forum post. There are three versions to choose from: Ultra, Standard, and Light. Basically, if you own a high-end machine, use Ultra; otherwise, it is probably safer to go with Standard or Light. Other than that, follow the exact same process as with installing Forge.

Installing Forge Mods

Installing Forge mods is substantially easier than installing Forge itself; this is one of the selling points of using Forge in the first place! This section will walk through the process for installing the mods used on the Eleutheria server. Before beginning this process, make sure you have run Minecraft at least once--this generates the necessary folders for the mods.

GUI API - Download from the link, and place the .jar in the "coremods" folder located in your main "minecraft" folder, wherever it is installed.

WeaponMod - Download from the link and unzip it. Inside the unzipped folder, there is a regular folder and another zipped folder. Do not unzip this folder! Put both of these inside the "mods" folder in the "minecraft" folder.

Mo' Creatures - Download from the link provided. Put the zipped folder inside the "mods" folder of your "minecraft" folder.

SimplyHorses - Download from the link provided. Put the zipped folder inside the "mods" folder of your "minecraft" folder.

Ancient Warfare- Download from the link provided. Put the zipped folder inside the "mods" folder of your "minecraft" folder.

Elegant Punt and Whitehall - Download from the link provided. Put the zipped folder inside the "mods" folder of your "minecraft" folder.

And those are all the mods! After placing all of these in their proper places, you are ready to go.