Thoughts about open source Minecraft alternatives?

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pizzawolf14

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Jul 29, 2019
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Does it have an abandoned mineshaft and possibly a portal to a hell dimension? Also is this retired quarry polygonal?
It's a circle of about a 10 foot radius with a 40 foot cliff on one side and a steep incline down to ground level. It's always full of ~15 feet of water and it echoes a ton. Recently there's been a giant crow's nest on a tree overgrowing the hole, just adding to the effect.
 

dothrom

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Jul 29, 2019
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It's a circle of about a 10 foot radius with a 40 foot cliff on one side and a steep incline down to ground level. It's always full of ~15 feet of water and it echoes a ton. Recently there's been a giant crow's nest on a tree overgrowing the hole, just adding to the effect.
That is undeniably cool. Also a glaring hazard.
But with a handful of cash that could totally be turned into a subterranean lab, lair, bunker. :D Would have to work on the drainage problems though.[DOUBLEPOST=1410535041][/DOUBLEPOST]
What is this "Circle" you speak off? If it isn't square/cube it must be unholy/alien/evil/insert your term here. Beware!
Jimbo used to claim that he made a perfect sphere out of cobblestone. But then the endermen took him away.
 

FyberOptic

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Jul 29, 2019
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The thing is, for voxel games like Minetest and TUG which are trying to walk in Minecraft's footsteps, using Lua to implement their mod API is practically a death sentence for building a modding community. There's just no nicer way to say it.

Minecraft modding is at a level above just about any other game because of the limitless influence that the modder has over it. Mods were doing things to Minecraft before there was any kind of standardized way to accomplish those things. About the only functionality specifically implemented early on was loading mods, adding items, and adding blocks. Modders took it upon themselves to do ore gen, biomes, dimensions, mobs, enchantments, chunk loading, liquids, etc, etc. Imagine where we'd be without those things. Eventually much more of that became standardized through Forge. But the important factor is that they didn't have to wait for Forge. They just did it themselves, and then let the API catch up when other mods wanted to do it too. Because an API will never do everything that an imaginative modder might want to do.

I'm not saying that Lua is a bad language, or that there's no practical uses for it. ComputerCraft is a perfect example of just how great it can be implemented. But that's because the scripting interface that it provides is the mod. There's just nothing really provided by the mod which the programming interface doesn't let you have control over. And that's why it's great.

I won't even say that having a Lua interface to make basic mods for games like this is bad, either, because a beginner or a younger person might enjoy being able to modify the game with it, even if that's limited in scope. But like I said, for a game trying to follow Minecraft, Lua being your only interface for modding is not going to do much to pull people over when there's so much more that you can do right here in Minecraft, and with much better-performing code. We've already seen what can happen to Minecraft's performance from mods, and that's despite having direct base class access.

tl;dr version: Minecraft spoiled us, and unless your game can allow for the crazy scope of game-changing mods that Minecraft has had, then your modding community will probably never gain the same momentum.
 

Tylor

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Nov 24, 2012
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The thing is, for voxel games like Minetest and TUG which are trying to walk in Minecraft's footsteps, using Lua to implement their mod API is practically a death sentence for building a modding community. There's just no nicer way to say it.
What do you think about java-based projects such as Terasology then?
 
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Bigpak

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Jul 29, 2019
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I don't understand why we can't wait and see what happens before we start abandoning ship and panicking. I mean seriously, we don't even know what microsoft is doing yet. I am fairly sure though that they are in talks because I mean someone would have said something but I am not really worried about that. I don't know why everyone can't take a deep breath and just sit back and see what happens instead of ripping their hair out and running around in circles screaming. It's like 2012 all over again.
 
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Wagon153

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Jul 29, 2019
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The thing is, for voxel games like Minetest and TUG which are trying to walk in Minecraft's footsteps, using Lua to implement their mod API is practically a death sentence for building a modding community. There's just no nicer way to say it.

Minecraft modding is at a level above just about any other game because of the limitless influence that the modder has over it. Mods were doing things to Minecraft before there was any kind of standardized way to accomplish those things. About the only functionality specifically implemented early on was loading mods, adding items, and adding blocks. Modders took it upon themselves to do ore gen, biomes, dimensions, mobs, enchantments, chunk loading, liquids, etc, etc. Imagine where we'd be without those things. Eventually much more of that became standardized through Forge. But the important factor is that they didn't have to wait for Forge. They just did it themselves, and then let the API catch up when other mods wanted to do it too. Because an API will never do everything that an imaginative modder might want to do.

I'm not saying that Lua is a bad language, or that there's no practical uses for it. ComputerCraft is a perfect example of just how great it can be implemented. But that's because the scripting interface that it provides is the mod. There's just nothing really provided by the mod which the programming interface doesn't let you have control over. And that's why it's great.

I won't even say that having a Lua interface to make basic mods for games like this is bad, either, because a beginner or a younger person might enjoy being able to modify the game with it, even if that's limited in scope. But like I said, for a game trying to follow Minecraft, Lua being your only interface for modding is not going to do much to pull people over when there's so much more that you can do right here in Minecraft, and with much better-performing code. We've already seen what can happen to Minecraft's performance from mods, and that's despite having direct base class access.

tl;dr version: Minecraft spoiled us, and unless your game can allow for the crazy scope of game-changing mods that Minecraft has had, then your modding community will probably never gain the same momentum.
So would you say the lack of a official modding API is what made modding in MC to its current extent possible?[DOUBLEPOST=1410547785][/DOUBLEPOST]
I don't understand why we can't wait and see what happens before we start abandoning ship and panicking. I mean seriously, we don't even know what microsoft is doing yet. I am fairly sure though that they are in talks because I mean someone would have said something but I am not really worried about that. I don't know why everyone can't take a deep breath and just sit back and see what happens instead of ripping their hair out and running around in circles screaming. It's like 2012 all over again.
You misunderstood me. I'm not trying to incite a riot. I'm just asking about people's thoughts on alternatives.
 

Bigpak

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Jul 29, 2019
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So would you say the lack of a official modding API is what made modding in MC to its current extent possible?[DOUBLEPOST=1410547785][/DOUBLEPOST]
You misunderstood me. I'm not trying to incite a riot. I'm just asking about people's thoughts on alternatives.

Haha. I'm not exactly talking about you :p This is in general from multiple threads and well minecraftforums posts as well. It just seems everyone is running around like a chicken with their head cut off.
 

Golrith

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Nov 11, 2012
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I don't understand why we can't wait and see what happens before we start abandoning ship and panicking. I mean seriously, we don't even know what microsoft is doing yet. I am fairly sure though that they are in talks because I mean someone would have said something but I am not really worried about that. I don't know why everyone can't take a deep breath and just sit back and see what happens instead of ripping their hair out and running around in circles screaming. It's like 2012 all over again.
Damnit, was looking forward to 2012. Something to break up the tedium...
 

ljfa

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Jul 29, 2019
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It may be possible to mod a C++ program, but probably not without recompiling or at least relinking. I don't know how Java works, but I guess modifying existing code at runtime would be pretty much impossible compared to Java.
 

FyberOptic

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Jul 29, 2019
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What do you think about java-based projects such as Terasology then?

I think it does a nice job of trying to take Minecraft to the next level. But I think that's also what hurts it. It runs terribly compared to Minecraft. Trying to put next-gen graphics and physics into a completely dynamic voxel-based sandbox game just isn't very practical. I think that's partially what killed Yogventures, which was trying to do something similar. And people are already saying that TUG runs poorly too, even at this early stage. That's the biggest reason I stopped looking into it, because I already know that I don't have a great computer, not even for modded Minecraft.

I like that they made Terasology work based off of modules, though, which opens it up to modding right away. It basically allows for completely overhauling the game by replacing a module entirely, which would be a bit more difficult to do in Minecraft. It's a neat platform in that regard. Maybe if it's optimized better one day I'll look into it again.


So would you say the lack of a official modding API is what made modding in MC to its current extent possible?

I dunno, I think even if Mojang had provided a Bukkit-like API years ago when they first started promising it, I'm fairly confident that we would have still seen people breaking out of its confines by now, since that's possible with Java in various ways. Providing an API would have made that easier, too, since it would have given people an idea of how the game worked internally, so that they at least knew what to look for when taking it apart. Modders take it for granted these days in knowing Minecraft's internal workings in regards to blocks, recipes, GUIs, etc. But there was a time when somebody actually had to figure out what all of that stuff was for and how to use it, without any help.

It may be possible to mod a C++ program, but probably not without recompiling or at least relinking. I don't know how Java works, but I guess modifying existing code at runtime would be pretty much impossible compared to Java.

Minecraft Pocket Edition is written in C++ and is moddable, but nothing like the desktop version is. I believe it's also device-dependent, making it even less appealing to fool with. Java is more revealing by its nature compared to languages like C++, so even if you obfuscate the code it's still possible to drag it kicking and screaming back into Java source code again, albeit less readable and with potential errors here and there.

Patching EXEs is trickier because of technologies like DEP, anti-debugger code, CRC checks, etc. And that's after you actually figured out where to begin trying to patch it.
 

ljfa

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Jul 29, 2019
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Looks like Java is the best language for heavily moddable games. I guess the performance disadvantage isn't all that big because of how optimized the JVM is.

I like that they made Terasology work based off of modules, though, which opens it up to modding right away. It basically allows for completely overhauling the game by replacing a module entirely, which would be a bit more difficult to do in Minecraft.
What if multiple mods want to replace the same module?
 

FyberOptic

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Jul 29, 2019
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What if multiple mods want to replace the same module?

Then they fight to the death, and the winner gets both mods!

But na, it does come with the ASM libraries so the modules could be modified with patches, similar to how Forge and coremods work. But once you start getting into that kind of thing then the modularity becomes less relevant.