Introducing Our New Name
blog.minetest.net
blog.minetest.net
Minetest is kind of a unique experiment in how modular a voxel game can be with mods. It's pretty cool. You just visit another server and it downloads and sets up all of the server's mods. You have dependencies and stuff so not every mod has to reinvent the wheel. Much better experience than minecraft modding.
Minetest should lean into this and make the core gamemode more different than minecraft. Change up the artstyle, and make the physics feel better.
That's only a problem for english. Finnish people (and I can say romance language speakers) would disagree.
“There’s this game similar to Minecraft; it’s called Minetest. You know like, mining and testing”
Vs
“There’s this game similar to Minecraft; it’s called Luanti — uhhh, l-u-a-n-t-i”
The new name isn’t hard, but it’s definitely not as easy.
It is also a long-standing precedent in Minetest that the default game is just a minimal skeleton. "Change the artstyle" is a misguided suggestion because there are very few assets that are part of Minetest and not a 3rd party minetest mod.
That's how mods work in Minecraft bedrock
You might be confusing it with a beloved viral indie PC game called Minecraft (2011) which is no longer for sale.
Also, Java and Bedrock both have Realms (the managed "server" option you referred to).
Or you can just run your own dedicated bedrock edition server, no need to pay anyone.
There's no match for the modding capabilities that Java edition gives you.
[1]: https://feedback.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/community/posts/2309...
I doubt it. Datapacks did originate in Bedrock, though Minecraft Java does have them now.
Downloading Forge/Fabric mods automatically has never been supported as far as I know - good thing tool, it would be a security nightmare.
It is also beloved by many, but i'm sure those folks count as subhuman to you.
(To any reader: Skip the rest of this comment unless you are curious to hear the answer to “Isn’t Minecraft Bedrock a crappy in-game-purchase machine pretending to be a game like the crap on mobile app stores? Why would anybody ever choose it over Java?”)
I know you said you only like the “old indie” version, but all my following comments apply to it as well since they’re about its huge omissions.
Going back to Java with its archaic menu system and weird, drifty controls was jarring. (I played back in Alpha and for a couple years after, then stopped until using Bedrock last year).
Bedrock supports simple LAN multiplayer! Java makes this possible only if you have a real computer (server) and know how. Any people playing Bedrock can play a LAN game with zero preparation, even 3 consoles, a PC, and an iPad.
It contains a listing of 5 or 6 servers, yes, which is 5-6 more than Java includes helpful links to. You can also click below that and type in an IP.
Yes, avatar costume items cost money. It’s because yes, 5-year-olds cannot use the Java skin editing mechanism of “just make a PNG file.” Of course, that’s all Java even has or had. And Bedrock has that as a free option too.
Overall the marketplace is something trivially easy to ignore (btw the actual game costs $20 so it’s not “freemium”.) It’s just another option on the main menu. But my kid has “bought” all manner of both fun and educational stuff on that marketplace for completely free so I’m glad it’s there. There’s a bunch of free stuff on there. One really cool thing I liked was the special “15 year journey” map and modpacks they put up for the occasion of the game’s 15th anniversary.
Again I know there are a ton of free mods for Java but that whole scene has become a nightmare for me with all these various weird third party programs I have to use to “apply” the mods. Again, not really a safe situation either to just have even a young teen on Google looking for downloads which may or may not be Minecraft mods. Or even non-tech-savvy adults, tbh.
You can do this with Java. After you start a new world you select "Open to LAN" in the settings menu.
> Again I know there are a ton of free mods for Java but that whole scene has > become a nightmare for me with all these various weird third party programs > I have to use to “apply” the mods. Again, not really a safe situation either to > just have even a young teen on Google looking for downloads which may or > may not be Minecraft mods. Or even non-tech-savvy adults, tbh.
Nobody is downloading mods from Google. Modrinth, CurseForge and Prism are all very straightforward apps. You download the mods within those apps and they (mostly) handle dependencies. It's 1 click to launch Minecraft after that. My 6 and 9 year old use them easily and only one of them is a genius - but I won't say which one out of fear they might read these comments after I pass.
They both prefer Java fwiw.
And Essential mod gives you costume editing as well as making playing with friends even easier than it already is. https://essential.gg/
Reminds me of Unreal Tournament 2004, that was pretty much the same experience.
But damn, they are not great at naming things.
I have long wished they would rename from minetest to something else, because as silly as it is, one of the biggest barriers of adoption I have run into is the name. When people hear the name, it is confusing and they think it is stupid and a joke. Hell, I even joke about it sometimes too.
Naming things is very difficult, so I do feel for them. I also will give this new name some time and see if it grows on me. I am a bit skeptical, but they have more than earned some trust.
Regardless, this is a fantastic game and a fantastic platform, and I really don't understand why so many people play Minecraft when there is an open open source alternative that is this good.
The code is genuinely very good, and is a pleasure to read. It is one of the things I love about a great open source project, where it was done for the love of the art, not just to grab a paycheck. The code is well thought out and well written, and dare I say even beautiful. Exactly my kind of project!
Doing the "use a word in some exotic language for some reason" is lazy and rarely great. Another example of that is "Forjego", they forked Gitea and went with some Esperanto word because... reasons.
If it's "Forgejo" I thing I would pronounce it like in "forget", then "jo" like in jack, not sure if that's close
In Esperanto Ĝ represents that soft G sound and the word is spelled "forĝejo", which breaks into "forĝi" (to forge) plus "ejo" (a place), i.e. a place where one forges.
Voxelibre is a fantastic standalone pack, and I'm trying out some of the others.
I haven't ventured online but will at some point
so... we decided to add the name of the programming language we use instead?
Free/Libre is a fine philosophy, but as a selling point it has had a very disappointing history.
https://bloxd.io/ is currently reaping kids who can't afford official Minecraft. (Browser based, free, ad driven)
But then again, MineTest is a bunch of volunteers playing around with a tool, so you can't exactly force anybody to do anything.
"Luanti" works. Unique, pronounceable, alludes to Lua ties.
Just scrolling through the list I found some interesting ones that really think outside the box (no pun intended), like this one that generates 3D-printable models.
My only complaint is mobile controls. Desktop is decent but the mobile version (off F-droid) leaves much to be desired.
Some subset of them does, many do not.
> And people playing Luanti play mods that replicate the original Minecraft?
Some subset of them does, many do not.
That said, some of the ecosystems (frameworks?) themselves are decent as-is. The two mineclone forks (I don't pretend to know the difference) are probably the best place to start.
Mapgen sucks if you want any kind of realism though. Even the mods that pretend to care about it (half of which are in lua and thus really slow) don't operate on a "top-down" level, so always end up with things like "water flows uphill in a circle". And the grid is very obvious, especially if you're obsessed with the dimensions of your base like I am. I also suspect poor RNG control in places. And there's definitely an idempotency option - if you quit (or crash) the game while mapgen is still running, you can end up with half-generated terrain.
Even the builtin mapgens are slow to generate new terrain if you use the "fast" cheat.
(this ended up being a bit more negative than I'd like; I don't intend to stop people from trying it)
The name of any successful entity quickly becomes synonymous with that entity. It’s a fallacy to think you can imbue the entity with meaning by picking its name very carefully.
If you think I’m underestimating the importance of a name, just imagine the reaction if you’d suggested naming a computer company ‘Apple’ in the 1970s.
“…as in, the fruit?!”
It’s very different now but “you”, as in me, was very central to my idea of what YouTube was. And the TV was a CRT. It was the tube. And as per GWB it was a series of tubes it came through (facetious).
> We decided to avoid using “free” or “libre” in the name ... Projects like ... Godot are awesome, they don’t need to convince you about their libre nature by putting it in their names.
How about voxelmod.com or something else that is a) relevant and b) the .com domain is available.
Secondly, the majority of people go to websites by googling them, not by typing a URL.