👋 Hey there,
Great to see you. Whether you're new here or a returning friend - grab your mug and let's dive into this week's topics. ☕️
🔎 Single Bean - Deeper Depths
This week I wanna talk about a backport mod that breathes new life into 1.12.2 undergrounds. Deeper Depths by smileycorp brings Caves & Cliffs features to your beloved 1.12 setup.
Deeper Depths asks a practical question: Why should only newer versions get all the cool cave content? The mod brings back Trial Chambers, copper ore with full oxidation mechanics, and the infamous Breeze mob levitating through the Trial Chambers shooting wind charges. Bonus points for also giving you the mace in addition with all its unique enchantments.
Tl;dr: If you wanna hit your friend on the head with a Density-enchanted mace while jumping on them from the stratosphere but refuse to abandon your 1.12.2 setup, Deeper Depths lets you have both. No compromises.
📝Roaster's Notes: Meet
To keep the conversation brewing this week, I invited CalaMariGold to trade stories over a digital cup of coffee. We talked about ModDex, Trepidation, why she'd rather drink tea than coffee, and that time she played 126 Mayday Parade songs on drums without a break.
One small heads-up: this week's interview runs a bit longer than usual. I originally drafted even more questions but decided to limit myself instead of letting the whole thing stretch into a full blown espresso machine explosion. Some topics deserved the extra room, and Mari's answers are too good to rush. Grab another brew and settle in - this one's for the dedicated sitters. Don't spill the beans! 🫖
Liquid Assets
Enderman: Mari, first things first - we're talking coffee. What's your favorite kind of brew? I'm curious what keeps your energy flowing during long working sessions or streams.
CalaMariGold: I'm not a huge coffee fan, I generally prefer yerba mate or tea, but when I do drink it, I keep it simple so usually black coffee.
European Flare
Enderman: You recently traveled to Europe - I'm guessing food is always high on the agenda for anyone visiting. What stood out as the most memorable dish or meal during your trip? Anything specific that surprised you?
CalaMariGold: I'm tempted to say the pastries but honestly it was the simple cold cut sandwiches. The ingredients just felt so fresh compared to what we get here in the US, not to mention they were with Spain's really yummy jamón.
Shiny Origins
Enderman: I gotta ask - your Twitch subscribers are called shinies. That's a pretty unique name with serious ✨ sparkle ✨ potential. Where does it come from? Is there a story behind the branding?
CalaMariGold: Haha, that's a good question. It goes back to how I got my name. A character from the anime Love Live! Sunshine!!, Mari Ohara, has a catch phrase where she just yells "Shiny!" at things. She's my favorite character, and I formed a lot of my stream around her when I started 6 years ago.
Leading the 1.12 Coalition
Enderman: So you stepped into a pretty big role taking over as head of the 1.12 Coalition from Zonko. How has that workload been on top of everything else you're juggling? What's been the trickiest part of keeping the community running smoothly?Coalition
CalaMariGold: When I first took over, I had a lot of plans and there were aspects of the server that really needed updating. That, on top of community management, moderation, working on auto-mod tools, the 1.12 master document, and especially the 2025 mod jam, I was quite busy. Lately, I've had to put a lot more of my focus on ModDex so I haven't been as active in the coalition, but I still plan to host a 2026 mod jam.
The ModDex Blog
Enderman: Speaking of ModDex, you recently launched a new blog directly on the site. For readers who might only know it as the place to review projects, can you tell me why you decided to add this layer of official communication?
Our first news/blog post! Meet the creator @calamari.gold and learn about how ModDex came to be.
CalaMariGold: Well, I always knew ModDex needed some way to announce news and features outside of Discord/Reddit. I took a lot of inspiration from Modrinth and always really liked how personal and upfront their blog posts are. I want to build trust in ModDex, and a blog is a great way to do that I feel.
Dreaming Bigger
Enderman: Given the possibility - if you could add anything to ModDex, regardless of cost or effort, what would it be? Is there a feature that's been on your wishlist forever?
CalaMariGold: I've always wanted a sort of per-project community Q&A section, essentially to replace Reddit for the majority of questions. Personally I'm really tired of Reddit being the only place to ask questions about modded MC. I even made the pack finder to replace those What modpack should I play? posts. I think there's a lot of potential.
Future of Trepidation
Enderman: Mari, readers may already be familiar with Trepidation, your modpack that transforms Minecraft into a speedrunning roguelike horror experience. Are there any plans for an upcoming major update to it?
CalaMariGold: Unfortunately no, ModDex and Twitch streaming really have taken up the majority of my time.
The Drum Marathon
Enderman: I saw a post on the Atmosphere were you went through something intense on stream - a Mayday Parade marathon where you played all 126 of their songs on drums without stopping? At what point did exhaustion hit you? Was it somewhere in the middle, or when you pushed through until the very last song?
I played EVERY single song Mayday Parade has EVER released on drums... in one sitting. 8 hours, 126 songs, NO PAUSES, from their EP Tales Told By Dead Friends to their newest single Weekend Music. Easily the hardest thing I've ever done on drums, but it was so worth it. This band changed my life.
CalaMariGold: Oh goodness, yeah that was a thing I did. Around mid-way was the toughest, but my viewers kept cheering me on and I got a second wind. By the end, I had a lot of people cheer me through the finish line, the adrenaline was real!
What else?
Enderman: Mari, before I let you go - anything else you want to mention or plug? And for readers who want to follow your stream or check out your projects, where can they find you?
CalaMariGold: Firstly, thanks for having me part of this! Please check out ModDex if you haven't already and share it around! You can find me on Twitch doing my favorite thing in the world on Thurs/Fri/Sat at 4pm EST. You can find all my links at:
💬 Counter Talk
Alright what are the things discussed in various places?
👓 Competition for The One Probe
Tian_mi posted screenshots of a WIP Jade backport with built-in compatibility for The One Probe (or any of its forks) users.
For readers unfamiliar: The One Probe (TOP) shows block and entity info on hover - essential for most modpacks. Jade is its modern successor with cleaner visuals and deeper customization.
What makes this exciting? The backport isn't just a feature copy. Tian_mi notes the visuals and localization support outpaces the original TOP.1 The "shim" means mods with existing TOP integrations automatically redirect to Jade, so no manual reconfiguration is required.2
Recap: The Second Cup
It's been exactly one month, four weeks, and four issues since I started as the Atmosphere Field Reporter. Time flies when you're frantically chasing deadlines at 2 am.
Announcing a great slate of *Field Reporters* — publications on community activity from art to movies, soccer analytics to Black media, local & regional scenes & more! Excited to see how these can not only capture interesting Atmospheric activity, but help catalyze it. Check em out & subscribe!
To be honest? I've struggled with time management from day one. Too often I found myself racing to finish interviews or polishing Single Bean spotlights just hours before launch. Some sections could have used another pass - the rush showed. If you noticed anything rough around the edges, especially in the first issue, thank you for bearing with me.
One thing I'm facing head-on: I'm running low on guests for my Roaster's Note section. The 1.12 dev scene on the Atmosphere isn't massive (yet), and I've tapped most of my contacts already. If you know any 1.12 creators who deserve the spotlight - especially folks working on interesting projects or quietly building in the background - send them my way. Your recommendations matter.3
Finally, a huge shout-out to the team for consistently sharing my posts. That extra visibility means everything in these early weeks.
Four down. Who knows how many more to go? I'll keep showing up, keep refining the format, and keep hunting for stories worth telling. Here's to week five.
🧽 Cleaning the Tables
Alright folks, that's the brew for this week. Thanks for sipping along. ☕️
Got a mod you think should get the Single Bean spotlight?
Hit reply or DM me on the Atmosphere.
Stay caffeinated,
~ Enderman