As of 10 mins ago I turned off all new users registration on the forum. This move is according to my unwillingness to continue the maintenance and updating of this site and the forum.
This should not be a surprise to anyone considering that I haven’t posted here or visited the forum for months. The development of my own game is taking much of my time and because of that, everything else has taken a backseat.
Considering the site itself, I probably will not post here anymore until the current hosting solution has run its course. If I remember correctly, it will end in August.
It is possible that a major announcement could be made through here if someone is willing to buy the domain (Only serious offer please).
By the same token I’d like to thank all visitors that has come here to read the Minecraft news, replied or commented on either the posts or in the forum.
If you’re curious about the game I’m making, please visit http://www.disenthral.com
I’m really sorry for the lack of updates since the Halloween update. Almost a month has gone by without anything coming out of here and I find it a little bit sad.
But, I’ve got a good reason.
For the last several weeks I’ve been working on a game of my own. It’s based on jMonkeyEngine3, a 3D java engine.
This game will be a space-based game akin to, for those old enough to remember, Star Control. Although the game is based on exploration, technology discovery and crafting, everything will be lead by a story. It will be non-linear. So in short, an open sandbox.
Here are some facts about the game.
Upon starting the game you generate a galaxy. Three kind of galaxy generation is possible; elliptical, spiral or barred galaxy.
Each galaxy hold up to 500,000 stars, each star with the potential to hold a solar system, different kind of planets, asteroid belts, binary suns, and of course, possibility of life. Said life could be from microbial life-forms or it could have evolved to sentient life. With that many stars, I expect a plethora of things with which you’ll be able to interact.
Of course, being an outcast and a runaway, you’ll have to find a way to get back to Earth and get rid of the menace. But given the circumstances of your sudden departure, and the state into which you arrived where you are, and humanity’s low tech, you will have to find resources, deploy ingenuity and imagination to exact your revenge. I will not say more.
For those who love to explore, there will be multiple galaxies to explore, but only once you have found the proper technology to bridge the galactic emptiness separating the void of thousands of light-years between those harbinger of stars. But it will be there.
Considering the number of stars, planets, races and factions involved, one galaxy should be plenty of space to have fun, discover new things and kick some serious alien ass.
But we’re not there yet. Far from it.
I wish I could give more information, but I can’t. Or won’t.
While you wait, I’ll link you to a little video I made showing off the flying through space part. It’s not much really. There is no fluff. No effect. Only a ship going around the vastness of space at the wrong scale and way too fast for interstellar travel. But what am I gonna do while testing? Wait for half an hour to reach the next point? I don’t think so!
Call it lack of foresight (again) or Notch being forgetful…
The update has been pushed out but, as usual, minecraft.net server has gone the way of the Dodo. It’s not loading or responding. Like this would be a surprise.
From the twitter updates most of the stuff has been implemented. I’d link to Notch’s tumblr page but it’s probably not responding either so I’ll wait until I can get my hands on the update, test it out a bit and review it before linking. That way I won’t be helping the constant rape on those servers.
PC Gamer has been one of those that received an advanced copy of the upcoming Minecraft Halloween Update. The fine folk there put lots of screenies and some videos showing off “The Slide”, the working title of the hell part of the update.
I have to admit the hell part looks interesting. Although there’s always the question in my mind of what will happen to it after Halloween. It’s obvious it is Halloween themed, so what happens to it during spring? Or summer? Will it always be available? I’m not sure I understand the logic here.
As for biomes; meh. I’d prefer seasons actually. I don’t see the relevance of having randomly generated areas with different zones. What I would love to see is an evolution of the zones. Like, let’s say, you could have a forest that would lose its trees then change to a desert or something along those lines. It could be like a living and changing world.
So, in short, the new stuff looks interesting enough, mostly The Slip, but we’re still at the same place with the game. What’s being added pertains only to that new area, not the whole world, per say.
It has been found the developers of MCAdmin for Minecraft has hidden backdoors into their software where the devs could remotely bring the server down, ban any user–even the admins, ops, etc–if the server admin hadn’t opt-OUT of the global ban list and pissed off the devs.
An inquiring admin and other users found that out the hard way. There is also a report of some dubious code lines, “fag-calling”-lines, hidden in there.
That is unacceptable. As a coder myself, I certainly don’t condone or encourage that kind of behavior. In certain instances backdoors can be useful, but a power-tripping usefulness? Definitively not.
It also have been reported that Doridian (MCAdmin’s main developer) has removed some of those problematic backdoors, but it remains to be seen if he has let go of his egomaniac streak. I would extremely be wary of using MCAdmin.
I have to point out that having a global ban list is indeed a good idea, but in this case, it’s like giving the nuclear silo codes to an unstable and vindictive person. Scary.
For all the information on that, check this Reddit thread.
Three weeks without an update. And no definitive date for a release except for the Halloween update. If that makes it. That’s where we are.
I said it during my last update, at the minimum there won’t be an update before the 24th. We’re now on the 26th and it seems I was right. There are still several days before the end-game date (Halloween) and I really hope, for Minecraft’s sake, that the humongous update will make itself real, like a ray of sunshine that will warm our heart to newfound happiness.
I’m saying this because my interest for Minecraft hasn’t really waned. It has died. Completely. No updates, no nothing. A bland, huge pile of nothingness that makes me worry about the future state of the game. Notch has been having tons and tons of problems, issues with the authenticating server, his quest to grow roots for Mojang Specification in a commercial building, the endless problems he seems to have with the biomes. On that subject he posted today:
All of the sudden, I started optimizing noise code. Biome look-up was too slow. I’m knee deep is semi working code!
“…semi-working code!” QFT here. If these updates make it for Halloween I’ll be surprised.
It’s really sad though. I was counting on Minecraft to entertain me for a while, but it fails on so many levels. Yes. It is fun. It is different. But there’s nothing to look forward to in the game except updates, and those have been few and scarce. After you’ve built yourself a huge ass house, road system, mined the hell out of lava-hell, made towers that reach the sky, what else is there? Nothing.
Unfortunately I think Minecraft will remain stagnant. A desert of good intentions that didn’t lead anywhere. For a real long-term successful game you need tangible goals. At first, it’s nice and fun. You build yourself a house, protect your investment from mobs during the first few nights but once you’ve grown, there is nothing else but the same. Which is unfortunate. This game lacks serious forethought. There is no direction. I’m all for sandbox games, but here the sand is paper-thin and the boundaries are pretty close.
With that said, I haven’t lost hope. Not yet. But if something more substantial doesn’t shine like the gleam of a diamond block soon, I foresee the end of Minecraft within a year. People will have bought it in drove, but they will forget it and move on to things with more meat on it. Like a kid’s Christmas present. It’s cool, but the Wow faction can’t hold you long enough to play it “seriously” for months and months.
It’s REVENGE time for SeaNanners. Remember not that long ago how SeaNanners was handed his own ass several times back a few episodes? Well, in this episode, SeaNanners found another spider dungeon and exact his revenge on these eight-legged fiends. With dynamite.
Then, armed with a saddle found in a chest, he goes pig riding with a new friend of his, a pig, he nicknamed Rick McLightning.
