A Watched Pot
by aeonic-dev
A Watched Pot restricts which blocks keep ticking by checking whether a player is looking at them, and runs on the server alone.
What it does
With the default settings, a block stops ticking unless a player is looking at it, so a watched pot never boils and a watched furnace never smelts while no one is near. Two options, use whitelist and invert behavior, switch the mod between a whitelist and a blacklist and between the normal and the inverted behavior. Blocks listed in the watchedpot:whitelist tag are the only ones affected when the whitelist is on, and blocks listed in watchedpot:blacklist are exempt when it is off. All other blocks keep their normal behavior.
On Forge and NeoForge the options live in the normal server configuration. On Fabric and Quilt the same settings are exposed as gamerules named watchedpot useWhitelist and watchedpot invertBehavior, so a modpack can set them without a config file. Fabric API is required on Fabric, and Quilt needs it as well. The mod is open source under the CC0 1.0 Universal license and is published for Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt across 7 release versions, 1.18.2 – 1.21.4.
Key features
Looked-at ticking
Blocks tick only while a player looks at them, which stops idle machines from running in the background.
Whitelist and blacklist
The use whitelist option chooses between limiting the mod to tagged blocks and exempting tagged blocks from it.
Inverted behavior
The invert behavior option reverses the rule, so the mod stops blocks from ticking when they are looked at instead.
Tag-based selection
The watchedpot:whitelist and watchedpot:blacklist block tags decide which blocks are affected.
Gamerule control
On Fabric and Quilt, the same two options are set through gamerules, so a datapack can switch them with a command.
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
Use cases
Modpack tuning
Pack authors can set the defaults for both options, or add a KubeJS server script, to shape how machines behave for everyone on a server.
Datapack control
A datapack can use a function that runs a gamerule command to change the mod's behavior without a config file.
Who it’s for: Server owners and modpack authors who want machines to pause when no one is nearby can use the mod. The default options set both switches to false, so the mod needs a configuration change to take effect.
Questions
Does A Watched Pot need to be installed on the client?
Which loader does A Watched Pot need Fabric API for?
How are the options set on Fabric?
In the catalog
A Watched Pot is one of 3,545 Optimization mods on ModsFinder, and one of 2,575 Optimization mods for Fabric. 17,979 mods support Minecraft 1.21.4.
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What the author says
A watched pot never boils. A watched furnace never... ticks? A Watched Pot is a fully configurable mod for both Neoforge/Forge and Fabric/Quilt that either stops blocks from ticking when they're looked at or restricts them to only tick when they are looked at, based on a block tag.
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/watched-pot
- Owner
- aeonic-dev
- Published
- 2022-06-01
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2024-12-16
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15