I'm fascinated with how that game is almost entirely written in Lua.
The API also gives access to things like image saturation, light intensity, strength of volumetric lighting/bloom/exposure, fog distance, so you can enhance weather effects by altering them - per player; OTOH, rain/snow has to be done with particle spawners by weather mods, and figuring out if the player is inside a building, under cover, or outside in the open is difficult.
One can also hook it with external services, e.g. instant messaging.
[1] https://content.luanti.org/packages/?type=mod&page=1&tag=com... (couldn't find a more accurate category in ContentDB; it's "complex" because downloading and installing a mod or a game with Luanti is a couple of clicks).