Developer Stuff?

[gd2shoe]

I’m still new to Minetest and MeseCraft, but I like to tinker, especially when I see something broken, or when I see a quality-of-life issue.  I’m not fond of lua, but I’ve read through the modding book and API document, and have a reasonable understanding of how things are put together.

I just have a few questions.  Things that have eluded me.

• I can’t find where to go to get information about the project.  Is there a forum, or a part of this forum that would be appropriate?  Where do the devs hang out?
• I know that there are no published milestones at present, and that it’s something that will eventually be done.  I encourage the notion.  It would help.
• I’m very curious about the criteria for inclusion in the game.  There are some very popular mods that are conspicuous by their absence, and I doubt it’s a coincidence.  When do mods get included, and when are they excluded?
• Which mods are considered “core”, and which are nice to have — but may be cut or replaced in the future?  Which mods are scheduled to be forked, and which are considered downstream?
• Is there anywhere that documents the desired power curve (or difficultly curve) for MeseCraft at different points in the user experience?

And lest I forget — Thank you for all the hard work so far!

[a5810]

* The information of the game could be found in this community, especially in project page. The community is for developers as well as the users.
* The criteria hasn’t been published at this time.
* The core feature probably includes all the basic features in minetest game, but I’m not sure. There’s no coincidence. The admin said that he had considered about what to add and what not to carefully.
* Unless everything which was tested is statistically reported in a documentation, there are no reliable premises.

In short, the draft of complete specification hasn’t been published yet. Without it, everything’s hazy because of a curtain which is still covering the project. Should you play with the source code, you’ll uncover the answers of some questions. That’s what I may do while waiting for the drafts.

PS. I’m not fond of lua either, and didn’t understand how the mods could be run in minetest. But wonder why the admin didn’t put the code in his own git or svn server.

[komodo]

Thank you for the response a5810. 🙂  Great response before I could handle it and I’m really grateful we’re all able to help each other here.

@gd2shoe, I hope you can make contributions when you are comfortable doing so. Sounds like you read up pretty well on things and I appreciate more development minded people taking a look under the hood too.

>I can’t find where to go to get information about the project.  Is there a forum, or a part of this forum that would be appropriate?  Where do the devs hang out?

This is the place to go for information. Otherwise, the Minetest discord is great for Minetest related questions if you can avoid the drama that pops up sometimes there. They’re very helpful there too. We’re all a team trying to accomplish similar goals. You could also check up on the Github page because contributers have discussions there a bit too. You are very welcome to post here.

>I know that there are no published milestones at present, and that it’s something that will eventually be done.  I encourage the notion.  It would help.

Yep, I know I need to create milestones and goals if I’m going to direct help in the direction that it is most needed. I’m the one in the position to best do this since I have the most creative control and time invested in this so far. But I am also very busy with other responsibilities in life currently and am trying my best to contribute and maintain things with MeseCraft. Thank you for your suggestion, you’re correct.

> I’m very curious about the criteria for inclusion in the game.  There are some very popular mods that are conspicuous by their absence, and I doubt it’s a coincidence.  When do mods get included, and when are they excluded?

I don’t want to just do what is popular. I received some upset player feedback when I removed Technic, but it changed the game too much in an obtuse way and I felt it was too tech focused. That is an example of a line of thinking of why it is excluded. I try to vet mods and new developments and understand what effects they will have on the game before adding things. Basically, Mesecraft aims to be highly accessible to new players but also have some depth and good mechanics that enhance gameplay and make the game more interesting. That is kind of a vague explanation. You’re free to make suggestions or do forks and PR’s.

> Which mods are considered “core”, and which are nice to have — but may be cut or replaced in the future?  Which mods are scheduled to be forked, and which are considered downstream?

A bit hard for me to track all this, but I tend to do updates to mods and check for updates periodically and manually pull and merge and make adjustments to update modules.

> Is there anywhere that documents the desired power curve (or difficultly curve) for MeseCraft at different points in the user experience?

There isn’t but I tend to take player feedback seriously and use that as a guide. I think games that are easy to learn but difficult to master are the best.

> But wonder why the admin didn’t put the code in his own git or svn server.

I really don’t know how, and the free git hosting is very helpful. I’m not sure what you mean about how the mods could be run in minetest? You can always include additional mods through contentDB or by putting them in the mods/ folder manually.

> And lest I forget — Thank you for all the hard work so far!

Thank you so much. I really do appreciate feedback and it helps morale a lot 🙂

Welcome to MeseCraft!

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