Is there any minecraft clone that uses non-blocky character models? Or how would one go to mod Luanti to use different meshes for some of the characters?
I believe, you could in principle use any Blender model, although I’m guessing, they’d need to match in terms of animations. I’m not deep into either Luanti modding or Blender, so not sure how it works together, but here’s some documentation describing it: docs.luanti.org/models/using-blender/
Because I want people to be interested, but that requires knowing what a thing is.
From FAQ:
Is Luanti a clone of Minecraft? # No. Luanti has very different goals from Minecraft, and doesn’t aim to compete with or replace Minecraft. Luanti is an engine and a platform for many different voxel games, rather than one cohesive gaming experience.
When Luanti was initially created in 2010 it intended to replicate what Minecraft Alpha had been shown to do at the time, but it has later diverged into becoming more akin to a game engine.
So… Roblox, but with Minecraft’s graphical style and general mechanics, an open source project, and not a greedy corporation? Cool. I think I’m bookmarking this.
I’ve tried luanti several times and I’m trying to dial in the graphics settings for best performance with the lack of in game settings menu was always a such a pain I’d give up. I’m super excited about his change.
Some options you could consider include […] making your game free to play with optional upgrades sold via Microtransactions or Downloadable Content (DLC).
I am not sure this is better. I hate microtransactions usually more than ads.
Ads don’t cost you money, just time, and sometimes some screen space. They are annyoing and that sucks. But leveraging dark patterns as stuff like FOMO and other psychological tricks to nudge people towards microtransactions can cost you a lot. A business model, which relies on techniques from the gambling industry – also by catching some whales – is imo way worse than ads.
Such games aren’t made for all players, just for some who don’t have control over their expenses (or can really afford it).
I can live with DLCs as long as there aren’t so many that it becomes increasingly indistinguishable to microtransactions. But in the end I don’t want to buy a fucking lego set, where I have to constantly buy new stuff.
That’s why I prefer single purchase games. I am also ok with paying more for them if that means the devs get the proftis to keep the development of games I like going. Buy once – have it all. Keeping games at a comparably equal price over decades is imo not meaningful anyways due to factors like inflation. But the gaming community can be really unforgiving in this regard. That’s why ad-based or microtransaction-based games are taking off. A majority of gamers are uncritical enough that this works. And then they are surprised when it bites them in the ass…
I think what matters more, or perhaps at least in Valve’s perspective, is that microtransactions are inherently binding between the game’s developer/publisher and the player, so the game’s developer/publisher is the sole party held accountable here (by Valve), while ads inherently involve and invite a 3rd party advertiser, muddying the situation for everybody. While on the other hand, microtransactions can only be done for content already a part of the game, while ads serve content outside the scope of the game.
So this is much much more enforceable for Valve, while DLC and microtransactions marketing is already subject to the established rules on Steam.
Valve applying a bit of regulation (the right way) and still making piles of money, weird how that works.
I’ve been saying for years that if we want healthy economies, compare to human health. When the factors keeping growth at a controlled rate are disrupted, you end up with cancer.
Rant is related although covering hardware manufacturing rather than software:
Commodore manufactured in the USA and Europe some of the best-selling personal computers ever under lack of regulation. When the market became dominated by IBM-compatibles and Macintoshes, Commodore folded and left Superfund sites all over. (Superfund is basically EPA disaster declaration allowing for taxpayer funds release for large-scale cleanup operations.) Privatize the profits and socialize the losses. (lack of regulation led to the wrong way)
I strongly recommend going to this government website and checking out the superfund sites located in your area. If you live anywhere east of the Mississippi, your chances of living near or not far from an illegal dumping site are really high.
I almost wish I hadn’t looked; knew my area had paper mills and wood processing, they’ve been dredging the waterways for PCBs (chlorinated organics) for decades.
I work with electronics and have heard from multiple older gentleman that when they were young, they saw old high-voltage transformers from power poles being replaced which would be leaking off the backs of the trucks until empty or even purposely tipped into the storm drains. Why is healthcare so expensive? 🤔
No apologies for being politics-adjacent in the Gaming community, billionaires aren’t keeping their hands out of anything either. Keep rewarding Valve and the good companies and shitting on the bad ones!
I read that games with ads were already banned from Steam a long time ago. That explains why we don’t have more junk in the Steam store. Judging by how many never completed early access asset flip games there are, it would be a complete cesspool with ad-supported games. Good decision by Valve.
I just deny most mobile games the network permission, though obviously this doesn’t work if you actually need any internet access (and I don’t think all devices give you control over that permission)
I’ve had a hard time finding quality games in there. Outside of Shattered Pixel Dungeon they are few and far between. I still agree with your take though, because fuuuuck mainstream mobile games.
I made a rare dip into the play store recently and tried to just get the hill climb racing game or a similar one. I played them as web games years ago and liked them and wanted to play them again. All of them are so riddled with ad garbage they are unplayable. Even the lego one was stuffed with “buy gems or your progress is nonexistent” and other garbage tactics.
Every game I get in there is a disappointment. The Netflix games started out solid but I feel like they are going to change to more standard mobile junk eventually.
I’ve had a hard time finding quality games in there. Outside of Shattered Pixel Dungeon they are few and far between.
You’re not wrong. F-Droid would benefit greatly from having some sort of curated “best of” list, especially for games.
That said, here are some I think are reasonably quality:
Mindustry
Frozen Bubble
Burger Party
Endless Sky
Vector Pinball
Surge Engine
SuperTuxKart
Xeonjia Ice Adventure
tried to just get the hill climb racing game or a similar one.
F-Droid has Lato, which seems to be in the same genre. It’s pretty polished in terms of having a nice graphical style and music, but IMO doesn’t quite make the list above because the gameplay seems a little simplistic compared to e.g. Hill Climb Racing. Still, worth a shot if you’re looking for that sort of game.
That’s an excellent list, thanks for sharing all that. I’ll be sure to check them out. I wish FDroid at least allowed some kind of user rating system to make this a little easier but I can understand some reasons to not include that function. If there’s no rating system there’s no raring abuse lol.
Lootboxes are at least a conscious action you must take. They definitely have the same problems as gambling (because that’s what they are), but you can also choose not to engage with them. Ads however, are forced upon you, and do things that you cannot see (track you) and cannot turn off.
There two big differences to me are scale and value. A ccg has rare cards, but they aren’t actually that rare compared to loot boxes. Loot boxes tend to have both lower drop rates and pollute their drops with lots of garbage, even for rare drops. Secondly, physical cards have value, you can sell or trade them, you can buy singles of cards you want. You can use them for things other than the game as well.
Aside from drop rates everything you said applies to Valve too. Counter Strike skins can be traded or sold for real cash (tied to steam wallet, but still), and you can purchase singles of what you want.
I know other games loot boxes dont follow this, but its interesting for the sake of comparison.
Well apart from anything else rare cards actually are worth real money. But there’s no legitimate way to sell loop boxes if you decide you want to get out of it.
Rare cards are only worth real money because there is a secondary market for them.
As I understand it, the same is true for lootbox drops. The only difference is in how rare an item actually is, but that is also reflected in price, since the resale is entirely market driven.
You could say that Valve rigs the drop rate, but you could say the same thing for Magic. It’s all manufactured shortage.
You could say that Magic items are tangible…but honestly I don’t see how that’s an argument in the modern digital-first era.
I’m not trying to defend lootboxes…not directly, at least. Just trying to understand the hypocrisy in the gaming community comparing these two.
But trading cards are real physical things that you can sell loot boxes and virtual goods that will disappear if the game developers ever decide that they’ll go and you also can’t sell them.
The problem with the CS go gambling site was that that was an extra thing on top of the skins. The gambling was added by a third party.
From my POV, there isn’t a difference, other than a CCG gives you physical objects so wotc can’t just up and decide that they don’t want to run magic anymore and make all of that loot disappear.
But from the gambling perspective, it’s exactly the same. Oh, actually one other difference, electronic gambling can fuck with the odds in real time while physical cards need to be determined when the pack is assembled. But it’s still based on false scarcity.
valve so far took tremendous care of the people using their product. They have outclassed afaik every other billion dollar company in the world in terms of listening to their customers and not exploiting them to hell (as others do).
billionaire companies are cancer. If gabe ever gives up valve (through death or whatever), we are at the mercy of a monopolist that can extract as much as they want.
My conclusion: force companies to behave like valve does now, but forever. Let them make money without exploiting people. And in case if valve: break any monopoly.
There’s a very good bill for achieving this result by a senator from my state, which requires companies to elect their board members through employees.
That would be a great solution. Another would be to put quotas of employees, customers, owners and the community (people living around a plant for example) in there. Just an idea though.
There’s an alternative, to make it popular with the American people. Republicans look bad to their constituents each time they vote against policies that would relieve the American people as a whole, such as net neutrality and healthcare for all.
Make some noise about it! Make it known that Democrats fight for everyone, and that a certain sect is very vocally rejecting that fight.
If the “win for everyone” includes shipping a game as microtransaction-based instead of ad-based, I doubt it’s really a win. Microtransactions usually come with dark patterns and rely on techniques from the gambling industry.
Haven’t seen a game that uses ads like this, but very good that it’s strictly prohibited now. That shit should never have taken off on mobile, but alas. At least we can prevent it on PC.
If you see Google launch a “free game only” store for PC, get worried.
I would be astonished if there was anything good on it though. If you are going to make a microtransaction game you probably don’t want to put a lot of effort into it because people won’t play it for more than about a week. This stuff’s only profitable if you can shovel new games out of the door on a regular basis.
Oh there wouldn’t need to be anything actually good on it.
You just need Superbowl advert money and suddenly you’ve got millions of users with no money.
I suspect the only reason this hasn’t happened already is that those millions of users are already on mobile, being flashed with garish noisy adverts every two minutes of gameplay, and moving them to PC some of the time wouldn’t really increase ad revenue…
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