Tips and tricks from a Minecraft veteran.

First of all, let me introduce myself, I'm known as buggy, buggy123 where I can't use buggy, and buggy1997123 where I can't use buggy123. I have been playing Minecraft since before the beta, the nether and even before chests and inventory worked in smp.

With all this playtime, I often grew bored of Minecraft, so I have been playing with mods on and off for over a year. In this time I refined my 'tastes', and by now I think I can provide some tips of what can make or break a mod.

First though, I think I should tell you why I'm taking time to provide my critism for this mod, out of the literal thousands of others. Its because this is my dream mod, its Eve Online plus Minecraft with a sprinkle of Dark Space#the mmorts# and just a dash of Evochron. So I have dedicated my time to helping this mod however I can.

However, I have no coding experience(ok, I learned a teeny weeny bit of E2 a year ago), so I became a sort of agent for Futurecraft, I search out potentially helpful mods and willing coders(1 so far) to help development. Not to toot my own horn(and feel free to tell me if I do), but believe it or not, I was the one who got Frostbite onto the team.

Enough of my rambling, its time for my tips

First, the number 1 rule of mod-making:
[size#24]DON'T HALF ASS IT[/size]

Don't put the cap on the bottle until it's full.

Don't close the hood until the engine is fixed

Don't start painting a new room before the last one is dry

Always finish one feature before starting another, NEVER leave a feature half done. There are exceptions, like when a feature can only be developed by 1 person, or when a half complete feature requires another to be finished first.

[Continued in next post]

Don't leave a room dull, a car unpainted or a bush untrimmed

When a feature is done, don't stop! Add eye candy, add air rushing out of a hull breach, add trails to escape pods, add fancy effects to explosions and more, and always, ALWAYS, look out for visual oddities.

If you want to sell lemonade, don't use a square stand, use a round one!

Always think outside the box, because thats what people like. Don't be afraid to be radical and exotic when designing new features. IC2, Eloram's Redpower, Buildcraft, Modloader, Better than wolves, Equivelent Exchange, MCForge. All huge successes, and all of their authors thought outside the box.
[i]
Always keep your customer base informed, and you will sell more in the end.[i]

Be sure to keep people informed about development progress, or you might come across as vapor ware. It doesn't take much, just a dev blog or two, maybe twitter and perhaps a live stream every so often, and your fanbase will grow steadily.

And my final tip for now, never give up, and don't be afraid to seek help when you are stuck.

You're always proposing ideas for how we should develop this mod, or what features to add. Spelling could use a bit of work , but the ideas are typically quite good.
So I ask you this: Instead of resigning yourself to helping from the sidelines, why not learn some Java and join the team? You don't need a computer science degree to be qualified to help. What we need most from developers are these qualities:

1) A firm vision for what things need to be done, and a willingness to take the initiative; this would be your project as much as ours.
2) A willingness to learn new ideas and skills outside your comfort zone.
3) An enthusiasm for the project. Not just for the end product, but also the process that gets us there.

If you have these qualities (and I think you do), you should pick up some java tutorials, experiment with code samples, and learn how mods are put together. And when you think you are ready, submit an application and become a full fledged developer. Everyone's gotta start somewhere, and even Dr. Mackeroth is just starting out with Java programming. Also, as far as first languages go, Java is a pretty friendly one.

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The same goes for anyone else reading this. The Mojang philosophy is that you make the game that you yourself want to play, and that's precisely what we are doing here at FutureCraft, time and difficulty be damned. Suggestions and ideas are great, and we read every one of them, but if you ever feel the urge to make with your own hands that game you yourself want to play, you will not find a better opportunity than this.

fr0stbyte124 wrote:

You're always proposing ideas for how we should develop this mod, or what features to add. Spelling could use a bit of work , but the ideas are typically quite good.
So I ask you this: Instead of resigning yourself to helping from the sidelines, why not learn some Java and join the team? You don't need a computer science degree to be qualified to help. What we need most from developers are these qualities:

1) A firm vision for what things need to be done, and a willingness to take the initiative; this would be your project as much as ours.
2) A willingness to learn new ideas and skills outside your comfort zone.
3) An enthusiasm for the project. Not just for the end product, but also the process that gets us there.

If you have these qualities (and I think you do), you should pick up some java tutorials, experiment with code samples, and learn how mods are put together. And when you think you are ready, submit an application and become a full fledged developer. Everyone's gotta start somewhere, and even Dr. Mackeroth is just starting out with Java programming. Also, as far as first languages go, Java is a pretty friendly one.

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The same goes for anyone else reading this. The Mojang philosophy is that you make the game that you yourself want to play, and that's precisely what we are doing here at FutureCraft, time and difficulty be damned. Suggestions and ideas are great, and we read every one of them, but if you ever feel the urge to make with your own hands that game you yourself want to play, you will not find a better opportunity than this.

I'l look into java, but im not sure if I will be able to code as well as you guys. E2 was easy for me to start to learn, there were many examples and it isn't a game code, it was a ingame code. So when you got something wrong it told you where, and the functions it is used for are relativily simple.

I'll be sure to check the spelling, add more tips now that I can, and hopefully make it long enough that it doesn't look like I'm just talking about myself.

Edit: actually, now that I think about it, I could also do art. If i could find a program where I can easily edit a 16x16 or 32x32 grid of pixels then I'm sure i could do ores and items and such with enough practice.

Oh, and most direct ideas I suggested here were just examples, though most could be real suggestions anyway.

Buggy, plain ol' MS Paint will let you make a texture Make sure to scale your sheet to 32x32 or 16x16 and zoom in, then have at!

Shiva wrote:

Buggy, plain ol' MS Paint will let you make a texture Make sure to scale your sheet to 32x32 or 16x16 and zoom in, then have at!

TYVM!

Keep the dream alive, make this mod happen, remember this post everyone...

NNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO


On Topic- This was a good post. It is guidelines that work.

And the prize for oldest necro goes to: Hyperlite. Congratulations.

Seriously, how did you even find this topic?

I found this topic remembering before we had off topic and server stuff, we had this, and I was just digging through old posts. Anyway I knew it was a useful post because of what I read here, we need to keep clear guidelines, and a clear goal in sight, but make it fun along the way.

He found it by digging through stuff to disprove ACH's owlity.

Yes but he was not here in October.

Keon wrote:

He found it by digging through stuff to disprove ACH's owlity.

Then I will disprove his humanity!

ACH0225 wrote:

Keon wrote:

He found it by digging through stuff to disprove ACH's owlity.

Then I will disprove his humanity!

Do you want to disprove my humanity, too?
I´m the last of Mobian humans, so you better not get the Idea to call me an Overlander.

hyperlite wrote:

Keep the dream alive, make this mod happen, remember this post everyone...

Now that this is sig'd I can move on with my life.

ACHO225 wrote:

Then I will disprove his humanity!

Oh I know he's not human ACH.