Since I felt like playing MineCraft again, while still working on MineTest, it's one of those times when I jump from one to the other and get to notice differences more easily. Although I said a lot of things in the first post, it's becoming more clear what I think Minetest is missing, and why it doesn't make you feel compelled like MineCraft does. Here's a new list with my thoughts:
- Biomes: This is where I think MineTest fails to create a pleasant environment first and foremost! In minetest_game everything looks the same... just some hills with trees and occasionally a desert biome. You don't feel like you have what to explore, and the world looks so small and synthetic it's rather depressing. I especially realized that after I tried
this awesome mod, which adds the first breathtaking environments to Minetest. Until MT gets a game that uses Mapgen V7 with a good and large set of default biomes, little else matters.
- Mobs: minetest_game doesn't have any living beings saturating its world, which seals an obvious fate. And while PilzAdam's Simple Mobs offers a stable mob framework with a good set of creatures for starters, I found that it doesn't do much to fix the problem either. When I join a Minetest server that uses mobs, I typically find that players mind their own business while mobs simply walk around to the side feeling lonely. In MineCraft the player is compelled or constrained to interact with mobs; Each have diverse attacks and special abilities, they spawn close to your home during the night and actually attack you, and defeating them gives you items and experience (or anything of use at all). Lastly, mobs in Minetest need more details! They need to make sounds (ambient, battle, etc) and give a better feeling of awareness and reaction. Also, seeing the selection box on monsters sucks IMO.
- A good menu and HUD design: As much of a detail as it might seem, I found that this adds a lot to the quality. In minetest_game, the menus and hotbar are just gray squares on a transparent black rectangle. In MineCraft, I enjoy seeing the menu a lot more with its stone tablet design and texture. Also, I have to say that MineTest would feel better with a textured crosshair. I'm not sure why, but for me MC's crosshair feels much nicer compared to MT's little thin lines.
- Better textures: The textures in minetest_game are much better than the ones in minimal. Yet even they feel washed out and rather dead to me. I tried out other texture packages (of the same resolution) yet none or few provide a better experience. In MineCraft it's all more colorful and vivid; The days feel bright and sunny and energetic, the nights dark and magical, while underground it feels more grim and cave like. One suggestion would be increasing the saturation a bit on the default textures to make "the grass greener", and the contrast to make some sharper, although a new set might be the only way.
- Progression and purpose: This was discussed before, but I wish to list it again because I consider it so very crucial! A strong reason why MineTest doesn't compel you to do much is that there isn't a need to do something at all! Just cut a tree, mine some rock and coal from a nearby hill, and you've made a home that you can sit in without further concerns. No need to get a workbench to craft your tools, no need to farm for food so you don't starve, no need for a bed to set your home location, an anvil to improve or repair items, anything. MT needs to give the player activities... based on things to create out of items which require you to go somewhere and get! Being in Minetest will never offer anything even remotely close to "exciting" without this.