Quote from Ovus
Anyone who's played the Aether mod knows exactly the point I'm about to make.
A handful of unpaid modders coding in their spare time produced The Aether in five months, a new completely stable and coherent game, a realm complete with an entirely new biome generation, a whole host of new mobs, new dungeons with worthwhile bounty and rewards, bosses which are interesting to fight, rideable and tameable mounts, an avalanche of new useful blocks with new special characteristics, and cool new items and weapons out the whazoo.
In five months. A coherent and full gaming experience. Five months.
Mojang, with all of their millions and millions of dollars and nothing to do but make video games, has done what of significance in the past nine months? Copied the piston mod and Better Light mods from other coders, added a realm with nothing in it, added strongholds which have nothing in them, added a couple new mobs, added some new food types, and added colored wool. Released incomplete update after incomplete update.
Took them nine months to do that. And we are nowhere near a full gaming experience.
Discuss.
Actually, this is DEEPLY incorrect.
Oh, dont get me wrong. I like the Aether well enough. But what you mention here just isnt quite right.
First of all, the Aether, when it released, was one of the buggiest damn things I've ever seen in relation to Minecraft. It was a DISASTER. No, it was worse than that. When it first released, there were bugs that would, EVERY SINGLE TIME, cause all mobs other than Aerwhales to stop spawning. You had to play for a mere 5-10 minutes to see this happen, and it happened LITERALLY every single time. Yet this EXTREMLY RIDICULOUSLY OBVIOUS bug managed to zoom right by your oh-go-great modders. That.... is sad, frankly. I like the Aether, but I'm not too sure about the actual modders.
And then there's the content itself. You DO realize that alot of what they did is using Minecraft's already-existing code as a base, right?
Let's look at the Zephyrs. Have you ever really observed them? They are, in fact.... ghasts. No, seriously. Watch them for awhile, watch the way they act. They are using the exact same code that the ghasts use. Even their hitbox proves this; you cannot strike a Zephyr DIRECTLY with an arrow; the arrow comes into contact with the thing just BELOW it... just like with ghasts. Zephyrs are ghasts with the model replaced.
But this keeps going throughout the rest of the mod, for the most part. The cockatrices and flowers look like they're using altered versions of the skeleton code; the timing of the shots and the way they arc match this, though the initial velocity is MUCH lower, lowering their range, and the flowers merely dont move. The little block dudes in the bronze dungeons are slimes that just happen to explode. The mimics are... well, zombies with a different model that appear from a special chest block. Even the world itself is just a modified version of the usual world-gen code. If I recall, it's using the Nether's code as a base. Even alot of the blocks and ores and stuff. Gravitite is a slowed down, reversed sand/gravel block, in terms of it's anti-grav. Ambrosia is just coal that has a slight healing effect added. I could go on... and on... and on. And yes, I've played the entire mod.
Oh, there's a few GENUINELY totally new, from scratch things in here, like the bosses.... but they're very few and far between. Most things in this mod are just re-implementing old code. Nearly all of it was NOT done from scratch.
Even the design is a little bit off. There's alot of redundant crap in the Aether that really doesnt add much to the game. Like nearly all of the new armor slots... most of them are compltely useless, and often have like, a whole ONE or TWO items that MAY go with it, and often arent worth actually using (like the rings).
And you say things like "Oh but Mojang keeps adding stupid crap". Uh huh. Because everything in the Aether is just SO useful. The Swet candies, for instance? That pointless fire sword, perhaps (when a sword with simply higher damage is always more effective)? The Aether guys added alot of random, fun stuff there too... JUST like Mojang.
Dont get me wrong. It is a pretty great mod. But saying "OH YEAH THESE GUYS ARE SO MUCH BETTER THAN MOJANG BECAUSE THEY CAN DO THIS" only shows your own ignorance when it comes to things of this nature.
Next time, make sure you know what you're talking about before you speak.
In THIS case, it's that you need to know what MODDING actually is: MODIFYING something that's ALREADY THERE. The Aether was not made entirely from scratch, and neither are most other mods. So no, the modders arent really any better.
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For what it's worth, i happen to think that you are both wrong and very far from constructive at this point.
To those of you who think that the new updates are terrible:
Have a little faith. When the release date rolls around, or maybe a couple weeks after it, Minecraft will be complete, things will be in working order, and make a relative amount of sense (in an odd minecraftian sort of way)
Yes, the NPCs are relatively unattractive at the moment. However seeing that people hate them so much, Mojang will probably change them. And if not, there's always texture packs.
Yes, skills are incomplete. They will be completed.
Yes, animals don't breed or regrow wool yet. They will.
Yes, endermen are obnoxious. They will probably still be obnoxious, but they won't tear our houses apart.
So stay calm, submit your bug reports, file your complaints in an orderly fashion, and don't update until you like what the updates are bringing to the game.
To the other group:
Yes this is a beta, but people are going to have expectations, and mojang needs access to what people want from their game.
Yes, the hundreds of "NPCs are ugly" threads are irritating, but raging against them will not stop them, nor will it add the kind of constructive feedback to help improve the community.
Yes, Notch and Jeb will do as they please with the game, but that doesn't mean they don't want other people to enjoy the game as well.
Yes, the grammar on this board is bad. But you have to take into account that English is many peoples second or third language, and that minecraft, while not expressly marketed to children, is still a pretty kid friendly game, and as such there will be kids on the forums.
In short, Chill out guys, file your reports, build your forts, and try to get along with each other, because we're all sharing this forum and this game with each other, and it would be awful to wreck that.
P.S. Brony here, and I will love and tolerate the crap out of you.
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i for one rarely throw anything away (except for the odd stack of dirt, but thats only when im spelunking and my inventory fills up)
one suggestion i like for dirt: grab a bucket of water, a stack of sand or gravel(or dirt, but gravity is useful) and AAAAAAALLLLL the dirt you can carry.
use the sand to elevator yourself straight up till you're at or directly below cloud level.
use the dirt to build outward, making a floating island. Do this until your inventory is dirt free.
go back to where you started the island, and dig out a couple blocks of sand, replacing one no less than 3 blocks down with dirt/stone/anything NOT affected by gravity
stand on that, and place the water in the small hole in your island, and let the water wash you to the ground.
Now, dig out all the sand from the bottom, and voila, floating island that can only be accessed by standing in a column of air and swimming up a waterfall.