This post has been de-listed
It is no longer included in search results and normal feeds (front page, hot posts, subreddit posts, etc). It remains visible only via the author's post history.
Mirroring the Discord announcement
Hey @everyone, somewhat belated but it's been a year since Civtest existed in any meaningful way, and it doesn't look like it'll be revived anytime soon, so there's some explaining to do.
First we'd like to thank everyone who has been involved in the project in some way. I never thought Civtest would be good enough for people to actually play and contribute to, and it still surprises me that people post in #general (even if it's just RIPs :laughing:).
As the de-facto 'head' admin and dev of Civtest, real life has caught up to me and I don't have any free time (or headspace) to spearhead the project, and I likely never will. Game development is hard enough, let alone with administrative load on top of it. I'm sure the other devs feel this too.
Therefore this will be a "final" update, at least until we have major news:
Optimistic Points
I'll start with some optimism because Civtest is a typical open-source project, and that comes with a lot of benefits even when it isn't running:
All of the plugins are open-source, so Civtest is forkable and easily recreated.
- Anyone is free to grab a plugin and mixup some Civ-flavor into their server.
The codebase is in a good condition. I am happy to help set up Civtest forks.
I'm also happy to hand over the reins of Civtest if it means it'll continue on.
- Note: I will be very picky about who can carry the torch.
- No, you can't buy it. This is a passion project.
Where did we end up and what needs doing?
The basics of Civtest? All done. This is a fully functioning Civ server and, as the community can attest to, it's playable and fun. There's lots of organic content, PvP is somewhat balanced, and it ticks all of the boxes.
The main pain point of Civtest, and the overwhelming workload remaining, is administrative tools. There's no way around this: Minetest's administrative tooling is poor.
As of one year ago (things may have improved since), Minetest simply lacked the administrative tools required to maintain a persistent, competitive, MMO-style world. I don't know why this is, I suppose Civtest was in new-enough territory that we were the first to actually encounter these problems.
Here's my wishlist of basic necessities if you want non-dumpster-fire Civtest:
AntiCheat I started this myself, before realising writing this project is a huge commitment. CivAntiCheat is a good starting point framework, but again, this is a big project on its own.
A true packet-level admin /vanish command Minetest administration will always be a pain without this. Not being able to spy on potential cheaters is a huge issue. This is a Minetest Engine-level change. I made some proof-of-concept progress here (DM me if interested).
General battle-testing Minetest is undertested when it comes to game-breaking exploits. Cheaters have been able to do some crazy-ass things (inventory hijacking, fuckin' privilege escalation?!) and that would REALLY hurt us. Civ servers rely on having a fair game given the stakes, and MT struggles to guarantee anything here.
Accessibility Minetest lacks in the accessibility department. Even basic things like hotbar hotkeys were totally missing, and very sorely missed. People also encountered issues with rebinds and all manner of input messes and config issues. I had to hack shift-clicking in with some awful inventory hax since that was an actual dealbreaker for a lot of Minecraft players. Again, needs a looot of work.
This isn't to be super negative about Minetest. MT is a good platform and is probably still fit-for-purpose as a Civ-server platform. We're just not there yet, and given the MT project's velocity and baggage, I can't say if it ever will be. This isn't to discredit the MT devs either, as an open source project, MT is a success, and without them Civtest would have never existed!
Anyhow, hope this update was useful. Again, big thanks to the devs, players, and contributors. Let me know if you have any questions (ping me in #general or DM).
(FYI I also stopped all Patreon payments a few weeks after Civtest went offline, so don't worry if you forgot you were supporting, you won't have been charged.)
Post Details
- Posted
- 3 years ago
- Reddit URL
- View post on reddit.com
- External URL
- reddit.com/r/Civtest/com...