I've kinda hit the pause button on the ol' Urban Tumbleweed project, as I focus on getting my modpack released (
I just want to actually finish something!). I'm pretty rubbish at following things through to completion without giving up halfway, but this time around, the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter and brighter... :)
So, Minecraft version 1.13 - known as the
Update Aquatic - is scheduled to be released in a few days' time (on Wednesday, so I guess Thursday for us earlybird NZ'ers). The update itself doesn't overly concern me though, my 'vanilla' server hasn't been online for months- what does affect me, though, is the playerbase's divided focus between 'vanilla' and 'modded' gameplay. For a lot of people, the reason that modded Minecraft is so entertaining is simply because there's more 'stuff'. It's a sandbox game by nature- sure, there's a bit of progression & nowadays a few 'end-game' features too, but the reason it's so popular is because of the sandbox aspect- and Mojang are particularly slow at putting out new content, and content is what it all comes down to. As a result, I feel like a large proportion of the playerbase pays less attention to the modded scene when a new update is released, especially one as massive as 1.13- because the game becomes fresh again, and there's entirely new ways to play (underwater bases will be much more viable, the trident offers both new combat & travel mechanics, not to mention the 'fluid' system has changed fairly significantly...).
On top of all that, I'm aware of at least one or two other modpacks in development that could compete with mine- with focus on polish & providing a helpful & informative gameplay experience for players of any skill level- so I'd really like to stop dragging my feet & get mine out first :P
But I digress, most of you readers probably don't care about any of this, so thanks if you're still reading ^_^' I did want to try to release my modpack before the 1.13 update released, but it's actually arriving sooner than I expected- many people have been expecting it for months now, but personally I thought that the developers still had a whole lot of polish to apply. But hey, deadlines are pretty great for getting things done quickly, right? It's pushed me to make a serious amount of progress over the last week too, and I'm pretty confident that I should be at the point now where I'm happy to put out a public release by the end of the week. I've tied up so many loose ends, and I'm noticing my todo lists gradually diminishing- it really is a great feeling!
If anyone reading actually is interested, here's some sneaky previews- first thing you'll see when you fire it up, my custom main menu:
(It feels a bit more colourful in practice than it looks, honest... I mean, each of the buttons lights up in a different colour when hovered! Amazing, right? :P)
And (aside from recipe changes & the entire custom 'tech-tree',) this is where the bulk of the effort's been spent- the highly-descriptive 'quest book' system, documenting all the stuff that, unless you're already a veteran, you'd normally have to go and research yourself to figure out how it works:
Honestly, I've never really cared whether or not this is 'succesful' in any way, or even if anyone else actually plays it (though, I know from experience that it's
way more polished than about 95% of the competition out there)- I'm just finally proud of what I've accomplished, and I feel like that's the most important thing!
Let's see if I can keep my word & finish what I want to finish by the end of the week... watch this space, and see ya next week :)
- Lig
