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CraftMine pack - would you play it?

Discussion in 'Community Talk' started by Paint_Ninja, Jan 11, 2016.

  1. Slind

    Slind Founder

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    ofc we can't but it is way more accurate than opinions and estimates. Especially as you can't prove it's "major" retention with any data.
     
  2. Sandstroem

    Sandstroem Patron Tier 3

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    I can agree with some of the servers on the list of possible shutdown candidates, but especially the low popularity of the MyM originals are understandable.

    Thaumic Skies e.g. is a nice pack and has even improved with latest updates, but it still needs to be presented maybe in the FTB forum to get wider recognition. Also a good questline might work.
    Hypovolemia, well, the problems are clear. Only yesterday I was talking to a staff member about this pack and heard it was not popular. Well, of course it is not, because it was an alpha version which was supposed to go into beta soon and the rest of the story is history. Interestingly, I haven't found a single player yet who has played it, who did not think that it is an awesome pack. Experienced players like @profrags @GGothicRide @SirStudMuffin and @chugga_fan keep mentioning it, just to name a few.

    BeeHappy, well, it was more or less my fault that we have it :D , but I always knew that it would not last forever. While it is a nice pack, its pure focus on bees (which is all that jtmnf intended) and not much more doesn't make it very popular in the long run. Bees are not everyones thing, but the pack was always intended as some kind of bee tutorial pack with not much more to do.

    Can't really speak of the other packs. C-Team clearly failed as the wannabe-successor to B-Team.

    When it comes to CraftMine, while it looks really good, I can understand the arguments against it. Especially the one, which says that it is a very light pack and could bore the hardcore modded players very fast. And with the low number of active admins, I can understand the argument about human resources. Good to see that some Jr Admins got promoted btw ^^
     
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  3. SirStudMuffin

    SirStudMuffin Well-Known Member

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    @Sandstroem We try and help but get denied every time, we keep on the most about it and have played Hypo exstensively but we are on that list so nothing
    Anyway back to the point at hand, The problem is MYM is stuck in a 1.7.10 if we get rid of said packs we have less, what do replace them with? Is it going to be worth it?
    And then they have players going - WE NEED MOAR PACKS
    I think personally we need one last pack on the scale of infinity but that is my opinion

    I played CraftMine and it used things that others dont and how he has made an effort to talk and supply us with data about it is very commendable
     
  4. Paint_Ninja

    Paint_Ninja New Member

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    I can't give a good response without being reasonably detailed, I apologise for the wall of text in advance. Some of what I have wrote could be remotely taken as an insult, sorry about that it's unintentional. Also, I am not the best at explaining things correctly - it has taken me hours to write and revise this, and I have rewrote a large chunk of this to help reassure me that I'm getting my point across correctly, but I may still have wrote stuff in a way that has multiple meanings. :/

    That sounds about right with a building team. I already gotta couple of prebuilt spawns if you're interested though. Obviously they won't be as good as a proper building team like yours, but they're not crappy at least. ;)

    As for CraftMine server setup, it is very easy and quick. I already supply pre-built server files in the widely compatible zip format, most plugins will "just work", and custom plugin configs included make it easier for plugins to play nice with modded stuff.

    Thermite is a fork of Thermos for CraftMine. It improves compatibility with plugins and provides pre-configured and pre-installed plugins as well as configs for non-preinstalled plugins out of the box. Stuff like Factions and MassiveCore - two plugins notable for being really difficult to get properly working on modded servers - "just works" on Thermite. All the modded chests and doors are included in Factions protection claims, too.
    Say goodbye to sorting through a modpack's client install, finding out what works and what doesn't on the server-side. I believe that it's the modpack author's responsibility to do that, not the server owner's.


    You couldn't be more right. Getting the damn server working with the latest surprise client update is a nuisance and I frequently see modpack server networks ending up just resetting their worlds every once in a while because getting the new update to work with older worlds is a nightmare to get right or buggy at best in already-generated chunks.

    The modpack author tends to randomly abandon development entirely shortly after pack creation, and provides barely anything new to the table if they do eventually update the small modpack. Most small packs out there come and go within a matter of around 1 to 3 months. I see this for myself often with competitors such as "Simply Minecraft" by Amaxster and "Vanilla+" by FTB.

    I have owned and maintained my own server for roughly half a decade now. I've had my server been busy, empty and in-between, but I've never gave up. I do not care about numbers, I care about providing enjoyment and amazement to everyone who plays on my server. I know exactly what you're talking about when you're trying to maintain a small modded server, it's not something anyone wants to do I know that, myself included.

    That's why CraftMine isn't your average small modpack. Yeah I can keep on going on about opinions, estimates and showing people what's different for players, but I clearly see that won't work here. From a server-owner's perspective, CM is incredibly easy to maintain - I do it all for you during development of the pack. When a new update for CraftMine comes out, you get prior notice. The new update does not prevent new players from joining older servers. You have no obligation to keep the server updated right away, plugins just work like they should do as if you have a Vanilla server. Plugin updates? Install your plugins once and leave them on the same version for up to a year and you will have no problems, as CM is designed with servers in mind. As I have said before in this thread, CraftMine is incredibly backwards- and forwards-compatible by design. No world resets needed, no plugin updates, no mod conflicts, nada.

    Oh and what about maintenance as in moderating? Chat moderation is automated server-side. If you have an anti-swear policy, we've got you covered - automatic censoring, muting, kicking and banning setup exactly as you want for those who swear. What about server and player shops? Automatically managed both server-side and client-side with protection rules and ownership permissions already done for you. No remembering item names and IDs and writing sign shops, you literally drag and drop the item you wanna sell in your shop block and the coin you accept as currency and you're done. Infact, the currency is both physical and virtual too, so the currency actually acts as a means of having something else to do whilst still working with economy plugins that allow for player-to-player payments, awards, etc...
    What about cyberbullying and abuse? You can somewhat prevent this automatically but granted you will be needing normal moderators and staff for this. Same with people asking questions about server rules and the pack. Cheating, hacking and x-raying? Automatically blocked both client- and server-side thanks to our custom Forge fork "CraftForge", that can crash players that attempt to launch the pack with known client-side cheat mods and textures, as well as prevent players with specific blacklisted mods from joining servers.

    Agreed.

    People come and go CONSTANTLY because they treat these things like your average modpack out there. In my eyes, I get people who judge a pack solely by a list of mods and they consider it fun to choose a mod or set of mods and branch off from there, aiming to complete everything as quick as possible. They see something like CraftMine and go "oh look there's over a hundred mods there must be tonnes to do!" and see there's no quest book, so instead they look up the mod list online and literally complete everything one by one, completely missing the point.

    What happened to Vanilla? It used to be great fun chopping down trees with your bare hands, building a home and then getting terrified by the monster noises on your first night (at least, that what happened to me first time I played Minecraft properly). People feel like they reached the limits of Vanilla and then look into "modpacks", where there's a million things to do and not enough time to do it in. What do you do once you've finished the quest book? Move on looking for another modpack which likely has a similar set of mods or just a different category of big mods? People will eventually at one stage get bored with doing this loop, as observed here for example. So how do pack creators solve this? Currently it's a custom adventure map with a cool interesting theme to the pack, with a quest book to add more stuff to do to existing mods, as well as some custom configs to help separate the similarity between the same mods. This is a great idea in my opinion! It adds so much more for people to do!

    ...But there will become a point where people think they've done everything. This is where CM comes in, it intentionally doesn't overwhelm people unfamiliar with modpacks, but it does give new possibilities for experienced modpack players who want a different way of playing Minecraft.
    - You make your own quests using the tools provided, rather than working through quests focused on getting the most out of your tools or the best tools, attempting to accomplish everything a mod appears to offer
    - For example, attempt to build the server's leading faction with an epic hidden base that offers faction members their own homes, occasional faction wars, a local market...
    - The new sound engine and "sense of atmosphere" isn't just to look pretty, it does infact relax people and slow them down, especially at first where some testers actually stopped in their tracks for a moment to take it in.
    - The environment is intentionally mountainous to encourage new kinds of buildings and homes, like building a mountain home with one-way glass for epic views or sculpting a factory into the terrain - this also makes people spend more time as they're not just building the usual square box.
    - Mobs are actually challenging, with an optional "hardcore" mode available in CraftMine. You can't run away from zombies, one-shot a skeleton with your super-over-powered Tinker's Construct bow and arrow, slaughter passive mobs without consequence, hide behind a door and be safe from mobs and so on. In hardcore mode, the custom MobAI engine can fully work its magic and make hostile mobs actually act like players that can bypass claims - mobs will build staircases to get over walls, they will open doors, work in teams, etc...
    - A planned feature for a future release of CM is to have an evergreen environment. This means that the terrain will naturally regenerate itself overtime - forests will gradually turn into jungles, deserts into oceans, etc... This'll make even experienced players feel a new sense of adventure and discovery in existing areas they thought they knew.
    - There are tonnes of easter eggs throughout CM, as well lots of tweaks that make gameplay more fair. An experienced player in the best gear won't be able to one-hit-kill a noob who just joined, as armour has a slight amount of unnoticeable weight that makes it possible for newer players to outrun pros.
    More stuff to go through, even if there's a similar set of mods but with a different quest book and theme? If you're looking for that, CM isn't for you.

    Judging by your comment on Hypovolemia, I believe it could've been a successful pack that would've lasted a very long time if the author didn't abandon it and kept on releasing big updates to it. I've been working on CraftMine since 2012 I think, published in 2013 (check the Technic Platform page and see for yourself). If I've been working on it for all this time and released 4 major upgrades over 5-to-6 new versions of Minecraft, you can trust me that I'm not going to suddenly abandon it anytime soon, and with the way CraftMine's specifically made, people can spend months on it before getting bored if they play it as intended. ;)


    You're right. If people try to play CraftMine without first understanding what they're supposed to do, they will finish the pack in a week or two guaranteed. It is crucial that if someone joins a CraftMine server, that they're made aware that they can't play this like they usually do with most modpacks.
     
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2016
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  5. BookerTheGeek

    BookerTheGeek Patron Tier 3

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    Hm.... your still here? ;)

    Hm.... I'll look into the pack, if your willing for an honest review? I'm a bit harsh when I judge things.
     
  6. SirStudMuffin

    SirStudMuffin Well-Known Member

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    ^ god help you
     
  7. chugga_fan

    chugga_fan ME 4M storage cell of knowledge, all the time

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    Don't you have your own pack to attend to? or is it being abandoned? ;)
     
  8. BookerTheGeek

    BookerTheGeek Patron Tier 3

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    Just because I'm working on a pack, does not mean I don't still play other people's packs.
     
  9. Paint_Ninja

    Paint_Ninja New Member

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    What were you expecting? I said right from the start that I've been working on CraftMine for years and you can see on both this forum thread and the Discuss tab of the Technic Platform page that I genuinely care about everyone's views, opinions and making the best pack I possibly can, not caring so much about numbers. From the first post:
    .
    .
    Whenever you're ready.

    That's a good sign. You can't make a good pack if you don't know what the competition offers.
     
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  10. Lawmonark

    Lawmonark Well-Known Member

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    Since Vanilla+ was removed a while back, i think this pack may fill that void.

    I believe i tested this pack back in March, but since there was already a lite pack on the network... i may have not suggested this pack.

    Edit: Of course the shaders mod will need to be disabled by default.
     
  11. SirStudMuffin

    SirStudMuffin Well-Known Member

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    Id suggest making a poll
     
  12. Paint_Ninja

    Paint_Ninja New Member

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    Already answered this before. Shaders will not be removed or disabled from default CraftMine and there is no reason to do so either. Firstly because the pack is so damn well optimised you can run shaders with the hundred-plus mods in CM and still get around 50-60fps on default settings out of the box on mid-end 2013 gaming hardware. For anyone who for some reason wants to play the latest 3D games on a crappy notebook with integrated graphics, I've got that covered as well. See the snipped quotes below for details.

    [DOUBLEPOST=1466247835,1466243257][/DOUBLEPOST]
    Good idea but wouldn't work in practice. As you can tell a lot of people have had questions about CM that can only be answered in detail, and I know for sure that not everyone who votes on the poll will be informed on what CM actually offers compared to all the other "Vanilla+" kind of packs that come and die off in a matter of a month or two.
     
    Last edited: Jun 18, 2016
  13. SirStudMuffin

    SirStudMuffin Well-Known Member

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    I understand
     
  14. Slind

    Slind Founder

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    Unfortunately Vanilla+ was a dead server from the beginning.
     
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  15. SirStudMuffin

    SirStudMuffin Well-Known Member

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    I wouldnt say dead, id just say the same level as Pixelmon atm
     
  16. chugga_fan

    chugga_fan ME 4M storage cell of knowledge, all the time

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    soooo same level as vanilla aka dead?
     
  17. SirStudMuffin

    SirStudMuffin Well-Known Member

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    ;)
    Can you dumb it down for me chugga ;) ;)
     
  18. BookerTheGeek

    BookerTheGeek Patron Tier 3

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    [​IMG]
    These items are not melting in the smeltery;
    • Underground Biome Constructs
      • Tin.
      • Aluminum.
      • Copper.
    • Simple Ores
      • Adamantium.
      • Illumenite
      • Mythril
      • Nether Fyrite
      • Nether Argonite
      • Nether Malavhite
    No NEI or WAILA is very annoying

    Beautiful Shaders
    [​IMG]

    So going into this, I really was expecting to not like it. (weird, right?) Oddly enough, I do like it. But I wont be playing it. Why? There is no challenge that I can see for me. It is a beautifully well made pack (sans a few interaction issues) and it looks amazing. I even cut down my java and it still ran fine. But their is not much to do. I will admit I am one of those players who likes a goal. Either set by the pack or myself, and I just could not find one.

    Maybe with a bit more content I would push for this to be on our launcher. But until their is more of a "hook" that will cause players to want to play long term, I agree with the founders as this pack not to be included.

    I really am missing any sort of magic style mod. I understand that their would be an issue with shaders. And not even one of the massive magic mods, a simple magic mod that not many people know about. Also, fix the smeltery. If your going to have tinkers, make sure everything works in it.
     
    Last edited: Jun 19, 2016
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  19. johnfg10

    johnfg10 Well-Known Member

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    ye i would love to see something like thaumcraft with its addons that would add so much game play
     
  20. SirStudMuffin

    SirStudMuffin Well-Known Member

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    Doesnt it make it like any of modpack then?
     

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