So what was everyone's thoughts?
In case anyone didn't see the features announced:
!Combat Trials, New hostile mob (mini wither boss looking thing), More Copper and Tuff varients, New Mob Spawner Type, An automatic crafter !<
Personally I didn't watch it, though I've looked through all that was announced. Honestly not sure how I feel about it. Part of me was really hoping for some work on inventory (like desperately) and they said nothing.
The trials thing seems interesting, though not really my play style so I don't have much to comment on. The copper and Tuff variants are cool but it feels like a feature we should have got a few updates ago. The crafter, I'm not sure how I feel about and am curious what the community thinks. Part of me thinks it's not super "vanilla" as you can automate so much now, and Mojang had expressed how they didn't want that to be an aspect of the game so I'm a bit confused. The way they implemented it and the ways players will have to engineer it to do what they want fit the vanilla feel though imo. That being said some of these features have already existed through modding for years.
I used to be much more of a "vanilla" survival player (some qol mods, similar to something like Hermitcraft) though I have recently started playing a Create focused pack I made. After playing the modded version I have a hard time seeing myself going back to "vanilla". With this latest live, I noticed I already had some features that they announced in my pack. Sort of kills the hype imo, when you have to wait so long for the update.
Everything inevitably feels that way until it's been in the game for a few years. I remember people complaining that Elytra felt "too modded," and now it feels like an integral part of the game.
Honestly this feels like one of the best and most comprehensive updates to Minecraft in a decade. Sure, it would've been nice if they had done something about inventory, but the constraints involved (any solution has to work with mouse+keyboard, touchscreen, and game controller) means that I'd much rather them spend a ton of time getting it right than overcorrecting and getting it wrong.
In some ways it feels like maybe you're looking for reasons to be upset. That has been the general reaction to Mojang's recent releases, so I get it, but frankly what was announced at Minecraft Live is an unqualified win. Now, it remains to be seen if they execute to that level; but they've shown that they're very interested in taking community feedback during development, so I think this is going to go great.
Incidentally, Mojang dev SlicedLime is on the Fediverse: @slicedlime@mastodon.gamedev.place
I definitely agree with you. This is the first time for me where I've questioned that though, and for the reason I stated directly after the quote. I even mention how I think its implementation is done in a "vanilla" way. I think the elytra is a different situation as they never stated that they don't want to add an item like that. I'm not saying the crafter shouldn't be in the game, just wondering the reasoning for them changing their stance on automation to that extent.
Personally I am not upset and quite happy with where Mojang are taking the game with this update. Im asking for a discussion and giving my opinion not trying to complain... The fact that I have mods that already have those features is a good thing, and now they are becoming part of vanilla.
The point at the bottom I was sort of getting at, is that people can look to the community mods to add the content they want to the game and not rely on Mojang to add everything they may want. Part of the beauty of Minecraft is you can truly play however you want. I'm at the point where I've played so much MC and the aspects I want to see improvement on haven't been so I look to mods to improve how I wanna play the game.
Edit: I can see how it may have come off as me being upset, especially given the context of how some of the community reacts to everything. Just wanting some discussion, I have no steak, I'm not really upset or hyped. Perhaps next time I'll add my opinion as a comment to the discussion instead of in body text, to help separate the focus of the post.
Also,
I thought I remembered that too. Something about never wanting to automate anything in the name (so, Mining and Crafting)? But I guess they've changed their minds. Honestly, that's exciting. More companies (and people) need to be willing to do that when they have a good reason.
Sorta an unfair comparison as there are hundreds/thousands of mod authors leading to a wide variety of polish. There are a good bit of mods that are very well thought out and polished. If you take for example the Create team and compare it to the polish of Mojang I would say they're comparable (they both have different intentions, more commenting on the polish and thought put into features.)
I'm decently excited for them stepping out of their comfort zones to try something different, it's what leads to interesting changes and features that can change the game forever. The big issue I see is how they fail to communicate the decision well. I think in the recent past, it seems as though Mojang have had issues communicating their decisions to remove content previously announced. I think these decisions need to be more openly communicated with the community. Crafter is a very huge addition that will likely change the game forever, I think it would be a net beneficial thing for Mojang to communicate why their design decisions have changed to add such a large feature. Changing your mind is always a good idea, but when you are a large figure in a community it's beneficial to communicate why your mind has changed.
Well, in fairness, I believe it was only ever Jens who said that he never wanted to automate mining or crafting. While he's obviously a big voice on the team, I don't think it was ever the official Mojang position.
Even if it was only jeb making passing comments, or other developers, it still put the community in a place where they didn't think something like an autocrafter would be added. (Especially since jeb was/is the lead developer of the game). In my opinion if the lead dev comments on something, it represents the game too, that's why they have the platform to begin with. There are plenty of posts throughout the community saying they never expect an autocrafter to be added. Whether intentional or not the community was led to these expectations by the developers of the game. I think that either way it's beneficial for them to communicate the thinking behind such a game changing feature.
My apologies for the misunderstanding.
Modded truly is fantastic; Skyfactory is my favorite, and a lot of the QOL stuff is really top-notch. But I am also aware that most people play on Bedrock, which means that they are waiting for Mojang (or, to a lesser extent, datapack authors) to develop features.
And, in my opinion, Mojang's vanilla features tend to be more polished than modded features when they're finally implemented.