FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

Hi everyone,
I have just started playing minetest and joined the forum to get some advice. I find sandbox games extremely attractive and fun to play (I have been playing dwarf fortress for ages before getting fed up).

1. What mods do you suggest to install? Can I install more than a mod, or are they conflicting somehow? I would like to expand the possibilities of what I can build, and have some challenge (creatures attacking me or buildings collapsing, something like that).

2. Is there a "list of challenges" somewhere to get some inspiration for the gameplay? Is it possible to watch a game running on a server, or join a world while it is running? Just to get an idea of what people are up to while playing.

3. I am a dabbling programmer. Where do I go to find some guidelines on modding?

4. One general question, more for the developers: where is the game headed to? I can see stated in many places what minetest is NOT (e.g. minecraft). But what is it? Or what do you guys want it to be? BTW, you are doing an excellent work here.

Cheers!

[Apologies for the multiple-questions thread, I did not want to start 3 separate threads]

1) You can see popular mods here; Sure

2) I haven't seen a list of challages; Yes, you can join a game. There is no "watching" mode

3) here or here

4) I heared something like Minecraft Alpha, but not 1:1 clone...

IMO the direction of the game is too vague

ebenezer wrote:4. One general question, more for the developers: where is the game headed to? I can see stated in many places what minetest is NOT (e.g. minecraft). But what is it? Or what do you guys want it to be? BTW, you are doing an excellent work here.

BlockMen wrote:IMO the direction of the game is too vague

I guess I, being the original dev, have to reply something. Yes, we have had quite little direction for the past year or two. I don't have much idea where we could get a direction that could easily be backed up by work of capable people.

More precisely we have an engine and a main game - and the main game is the largest problem here.

One thing we will try (in the next release? maybe.) is including multiple independent "games" to the main distribution to encourage more experimentation.

EDIT: Here's the original introduction page for 0.4: http://c55.me/minetest/oldsite/0.4.php. It gives a good idea of the project's history.

When I first played Minetest, I was blown away - and that was dev 01-0222 or something like that. One of the earlier dev versions, anyways. Back then, there was a basic modding interface, and generally, we just messed around, built sculptures out of leaves, and tested out various things.

Those mobs were terrifying.

Anyways, back then, Minetest was an engine and game all in one. It was all about messing around, and although it had basic Minecraft-like elements, it felt like a true sandbox.
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ebenezer wrote:4. One general question, more for the developers: where is the game headed to? I can see stated in many places what minetest is NOT (e.g. minecraft). But what is it? Or what do you guys want it to be? BTW, you are doing an excellent work here.

Since the time that i've started playing minetest I have been taught that this is a Game Engine. So minetest is only a type of game possible. I always wanted to make in this game engine, just for fun, a racing game, or a fps like CS / UrT or a dungeon&dragons/legend of grimrock/eye of beholder/ultima underwold (etc,etc)game, but im only a 3D / pixel artist :) coding is not something that i'm good

The problem with Minecraft is that it is too closed source, and it has alot of problems when trying to get it to run.
That's when i decided to find something else, so when i found minetest i really loved it, i spent ages building things like a pool and a house and i even built a huge castle in the sky, i called it Minetestia, although i didnt dare to go exploring, cuz i was to afraid that an oerkki or dm would get me.
i also love minetest cuz it has a great community and the infinite possbilities of a single minetest world.

The answer to question 4) was given by celeron55: http://c55.me/blog/?p=1491&cpage=1

Wuzzy wrote:The answer to question 4) was given by celeron55: http://c55.me/blog/?p=1491&cpage=1

Quite clear indeed.
The game engine is there, and works beautifully imho. The subgames (read "content") are missing. I think that a release preloaded with a few subgames will be extremely appreciated and make minetest way more popular, exactly because it would offer an experience radically different from minecraft.
Personally, I quite like "building stuff in a sandbox game", but I would love "building stuff in a sandbox game with a purpose". And each subgame should focus around (at least) one purpose.
I throw in a few ideas:
1. easter egg hunt: chests randomly scattered in the world, each one pointing to the next until you get the final one. Having to reach the clouds, drain a lake, drain a lava pool, dig deeeep. Beautiful both in multiplayer collaborative and competitive.
2. tower defense: you know how this works - wave of foes, build traps etc to stop them.
2b. pvp version of tower defense - each player creates and launches bots to kill the others
3. farming & gardening for the sake of it (there's a mod already out there, right?).
4. pvp capture the flag

I have the feeling that nobody likes the "survival game" so popular with minecraft, and I can see why. But I think that people NEED a purpose to enjoy a game, even if it is just keeping to hack and slash over and over.

ebenezer wrote:

Wuzzy wrote:The answer to question 4) was given by celeron55: http://c55.me/blog/?p=1491&cpage=1

Quite clear indeed.
The game engine is there, and works beautifully imho. The subgames (read "content") are missing. I think that a release preloaded with a few subgames will be extremely appreciated and make minetest way more popular, exactly because it would offer an experience radically different from minecraft.
Personally, I quite like "building stuff in a sandbox game", but I would love "building stuff in a sandbox game with a purpose". And each subgame should focus around (at least) one purpose.
I throw in a few ideas:
1. easter egg hunt: chests randomly scattered in the world, each one pointing to the next until you get the final one. Having to reach the clouds, drain a lake, drain a lava pool, dig deeeep. Beautiful both in multiplayer collaborative and competitive.
2. tower defense: you know how this works - wave of foes, build traps etc to stop them.
2b. pvp version of tower defense - each player creates and launches bots to kill the others
3. farming & gardening for the sake of it (there's a mod already out there, right?).
4. pvp capture the flag

I have the feeling that nobody likes the "survival game" so popular with minecraft, and I can see why. But I think that people NEED a purpose to enjoy a game, even if it is just keeping to hack and slash over and over.

Capture the flag !

Post in there, or here, if you want to suggest anything.

How about revamping the old sky block game. The one that has goals and gives rewards when the goals are met. There were some errors in the code but I did fix mine so that I was able to finish all of the goals and get all of the rewards. I downloaded and used the version that came with a previous minetest version and from what I heard, it likely wont work as is on the latest minetest version.