====== State of the Pack ======

**EDIT:** In case anyone cares, here's the link to the [[http://mc.shinonome.ch/doku.php?id=wiki:blog|full blog]]. I plan to use it from time to time.

After reading [[http://jadedcatftb.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/minecraft-ramblings.html|Jaded’s view]] on the Minecraft modding community and modpacks, I decided to write some of my own thoughts I’ve had.

**Documentation**. There is no good, non-outdated documentation for many mods outside of YouTube videos and changelogs (note: not everyone likes YouTube videos, contrary to popular belief. I prefer a good book or a nice wiki, that's why I try to spend some time to maintain a wiki for my mods). The problem is so severe that many people did not touch 1.7.2 until Not Enough Items was updated. This is not good. I don't like how Not Enough Items just lists every recipe in the game without any fun commentary (RWTema, hats off to you there) or tinkering. A proper wiki system could really help that, but most wikis are either outdated or non-existant, especially outside of FTB packs.

A solution used by a few mods is tooltips with modifier keys, like SHIFT + hover. Another solution that has been used by TrainCraft and Tinker's Construct, as well as later adopted by OpenBlocks, is books. Sure, those are far better solutions - in addition to recipes, it actually //explains things// (and doesn't reveal everything with spoilers), but it's not ideal.

  * For tooltips, they usually need you to craft the item beforehand. To do that, you need to be aware of it. It's a chicken-and-egg problem.
  * What happens if all mods start including their own books? Do we create Book Bags? Suddenly BiblioCraft will become a **lot** more useful.
  * What happens if the book implementation is botched? See TrainCraft - there are about sixty pages and there is no easy way to browse through them short of jamming the mouse button, and until the latest versions there was no NEI compatibility so you kept switching between the book and the train crafting station. That's horrible and means it takes ages for a player to actually craft anything.

My personal proposal is to create a mod that adds, in essence, a Hitchhiker's Guide to the (Modding) Galaxy. A e-reader-like device that can accept pages of content from modders (could also autogenerate recipe lists if the modder requests so) and put them in once place. That also solves a few other things:

  * Server admins can add their own documentation to the device by just writing, let's say, Markdown files. This would be very easy to help newcomers and whatnot.
  * Players themselves could distribute their own documentation - imagine if such an e-reader was a computer peripheral via a dock... so many possibilities!

**Centralization**. The community is really becoming overly set on a few specific //closed-source// mods, which is dangerous. Remember RedPower 2? It was a mod that almost every server depended on... and suddenly poof! Eloraam disappeared after Minecraft 1.4.7, bringing no more releases. It's still an issue - a lot of Forge copies for 1.4.7 are still being downloaded after all these months, and it's not just for nostalgia. There are even [[http://www.curse.com/mc-mods/minecraft/tuntes|mods still made for 1.4.7]].

Let's see... Thermal Expansion 3 is the new weakpoint, in my opinion. It has the same exact issue of being the central mod for almost every Minecraft server, although it can be argued that the author is a bit more stable. For other servers, such a weakpoint is IndustrialCraft 2, Thaumcraft, Ars Magica, GregTech... They're all closed-source mods, barred by terms, conditions and licenses, meaning that if the author disappears, you're screwed. (Of course, you can make an unofficial port - like IC2 Classic or the floating around [[https://github.com/alekso56/XyCraft|port of XyCraft's worldgen to 1.6.4]] (the original repo by ga2mer was removed, but here remains a fork) - but that's technically illegal) If the author decides to rewrite the mod and remove backwards compatibility (like AE1 -> AE2), you're screwed.

(Note: To those of you who claim the Mojang EULA is some magical deity who revokes all permissions and brings money to the poor, that's... stupid. It only gives Mojang the right to do anything they want with mods; it does **NOT** give **YOU** the right to do the same without at least their permission.)

This is actually the main reasoning of people who are against modding and prefer vanilla - **the modding community cannot keep backwards compatibility properly**. Updating between Minecraft versions remains a nightmare. This is scary and I felt the issues myself, as a server admin.

1.4.7 -> 1.5.2 was a terrible move, for instance, with the removal of RedPower 2. Thankfully, Tekkify devs wrote a plugin to convert RP2 microblocks to Immibis' Microblocks. But hey, then came 1.6.2 and suddenly everyone moved to Forge MultiPart... and there was no conversion route. There still isn't, from either RP2 or Immibis's mod. Same for 1.2.5 -> 1.4.7, but that was mainly due to the huge delay in RedPower's update. Same for 1.6.4 -> 1.7.2, when that happens, for servers using Applied Energistics and mods whose block/item names changed due to potential collisions.

**Some comments on Jaded's post, now.**

  * //In minecraft I see mod devs get hurt because their mod doesn't get used in a popular pack, devs hurt that they aren't invited to join servers, devs upset because someone made something similar to theirs but changed it slightly.//

Popular packs? Who gets butthurt about popular packs? People who complain about that should just make their own pack like I did. Making something similar to theirs? Yes, of course, there's usually a reason for someone making something similar to theirs but changed slightly... for instance, //the original mod being closed-source so they can't just change it slightly//? And "invited to join servers" really just means ForgeCraft. My real problem with ForgeCraft is that to many people it feels like a group of the cool modders. It is one of the main reasons for modders wanting to be popular: playing on ForgeCraft with the "cool guys" ([[http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/2455855-wipforge164futurecraft/page__hl__%2Bforgecraft|hold an example!]]). It also means that the modders playing on there will balance specifically for the ForgeCraft pack - and if they have all the major mod authors, that becomes a bit of a problem.

  * //They //[the most peaceful modders]// are the ones that make things they want to play with and if other people want to use them that's great.//

Absolutely. Sadly, so many people forgot about the fun aspect of modding and focus on licensing, permissions, porting hell (please, can't we just stay on 1.6.4 for a moment? 1.7.2 is a buggy mess anyway, 1.7.9 fixed some of the bugs but 1.8 will break everything AGAIN) and internal drama.

  * //Instead of all of us just being gamers who love minecraft and mods the community wants us to be split into IC2 cs TE3, Forestry vs MFR, GregTech vs Everyone, small devs vs larger devs, open source vs closed, startup business vs Curse, goons vs ?. It incredibly childish and immature.//

It's not. People have the right to have their own opinions and to work towards making their own opinions happen. It only becomes childish when they force everyone else to have the same opinions, but most of them want peaceful debate, not flamewars.

  * //And its that popularity where a youtuber can change the success or failure of a mod//

JUST. RECORD. YOUR. OWN. LET'S. PLAYS. It's not about the YouTubers, it's just that most mods lack a video to advertise the mod itself! And the community loves videos.

  * //The few devs still against it haven't even tried the site.//

I've been in Minecraft since 2009. I saw what happened to the forums, to the wiki, as they got filled with ads, Premium accounts and insanely laggy code to faciliate all the advertising and tracking. I saw the WoW Curse client. I saw the recent drama on Reddit.

Get over it, jadedcat. Curse is a **CORPORATION**. What is their business model? How do they expect to pay the developers who will now be coding the launcher? FTB merch won't really cover it. Tell me how they will profit off it and I will leave you alone if you can prove that they have no evil or nefarious intentions.

Okay, enough ranting. Have a nice day, everybody.

PS. If you want a free laugh, [[http://chrischurchwell.com/products/jukeit/|there are a few Spout mods for Minecraft which actually //were// sold]], abusing the fact that Spout mods did not include any Mojang code at all, only using Bukkit/Spout APIs.

~ asie