This is like saying “why do you need a plugins for an open source software, if you can just edit it?”.
If all of the custom stuff should be included in the game, then without modding support, ALL of the stuff should be patched into the game manually. Modding allows to easily add the content and functionality into the game, without editing the game code.
Yeah, but anyone willing to implement shaders for Luanti can just contribute it to the game itself. Then you wouldn’t need to do anything to get the support.
This is not how open-source development works. All the various mod authors can just include their additions in the game if it is open-source. And most Luanti games already include vastly more features than vanilla Minecraft because of that.
Other comment pretty much already said it, but I think anyone with hundreds or thousands of mods installed in a game can tell you that literally patching the game code would be a painful endeavor.
Even if you compile your own game and want to change one simple thing, it’s better if you can do it via a mod rather than directly editing the game code - this way you don’t get merge conflicts when pulling the updated source from git!
That wasn’t my point. Mods get developed because the game itself can’t be modified otherwise. The Luanti games that are like Minecraft include already a lot of functionality that is only available with mods in Minecraft and it doesn’t make much sense to ask for mods in this context.
Mods get developed because the game itself can’t be modified otherwise
Literally not the case.
Even in a game that you can directly modify, it’s easier to organize modifications by keeping them modular.
Not everyone wants everything in their game.
Luanti games that are like Minecraft include already a lot of functionality that is only available with mods in Minecraft and it doesn’t make much sense to ask for mods in this context.
It makes sense to ask for mod support because what if you want to extend the game functionality even further, without forcing your vision of the game on everyone (merging it into the upstream project) or having to patch it manually (or via some patch utility that still kinda sucks)
Like, I get you, I don’t disagree, but you can’t put in a massive technology tree with fusion reactors or Dyson sphere stuff in the same game where you add high-fantasy stuff with magic and eldritch stuff, while at the same time having guns and cars and a post-apocalypse setting…
The whole idea is that those sort of things would be mods. Anything that could potentially be shared and useful to all players could go into the base, like back-end stuff, yes, but there’s also a lot that would be bespoke to mods and shouldn’t be in the core
That is why Luanti is a game engine where you can have many different games to cover all these different ideas. It even has a built in “store” where you can easily download and install these games and play them together.
You can just edit the game? Why would you want mods for an open-source game?
Luanti mod support is first class. The mod ecosystem is newer than Minecraft, but the mod architecture is dramatically nicer.
The whole discussion below here feels misinformative. Modding in Luanti games is great.
I think it is mostly that people have a very scewed idea what a mod means when we are not talking about a closed source single game like Minecraft.
It is probably better to compare Luanti to something like Roblox.
This is like saying “why do you need a plugins for an open source software, if you can just edit it?”.
If all of the custom stuff should be included in the game, then without modding support, ALL of the stuff should be patched into the game manually. Modding allows to easily add the content and functionality into the game, without editing the game code.
Yeah, but anyone willing to implement shaders for Luanti can just contribute it to the game itself. Then you wouldn’t need to do anything to get the support.
This is not how open-source development works. All the various mod authors can just include their additions in the game if it is open-source. And most Luanti games already include vastly more features than vanilla Minecraft because of that.
Other comment pretty much already said it, but I think anyone with hundreds or thousands of mods installed in a game can tell you that literally patching the game code would be a painful endeavor.
Even if you compile your own game and want to change one simple thing, it’s better if you can do it via a mod rather than directly editing the game code - this way you don’t get merge conflicts when pulling the updated source from git!
That wasn’t my point. Mods get developed because the game itself can’t be modified otherwise. The Luanti games that are like Minecraft include already a lot of functionality that is only available with mods in Minecraft and it doesn’t make much sense to ask for mods in this context.
Literally not the case.
Even in a game that you can directly modify, it’s easier to organize modifications by keeping them modular.
Not everyone wants everything in their game.
It makes sense to ask for mod support because what if you want to extend the game functionality even further, without forcing your vision of the game on everyone (merging it into the upstream project) or having to patch it manually (or via some patch utility that still kinda sucks)
You don’t need a mod for that, you can just fork the game.
And then you’re left with hundreds of forks that are incompatible with each other. The whole point of mods is that they’re interoperable
The whole point is to work together on the game instead of reinventing the wheel with millions of often incompatible mods.
But what is a fork for then?
Like, I get you, I don’t disagree, but you can’t put in a massive technology tree with fusion reactors or Dyson sphere stuff in the same game where you add high-fantasy stuff with magic and eldritch stuff, while at the same time having guns and cars and a post-apocalypse setting…
The whole idea is that those sort of things would be mods. Anything that could potentially be shared and useful to all players could go into the base, like back-end stuff, yes, but there’s also a lot that would be bespoke to mods and shouldn’t be in the core
That is why Luanti is a game engine where you can have many different games to cover all these different ideas. It even has a built in “store” where you can easily download and install these games and play them together.