Up until recently, I only ever played Minecraft on servers, so I didn't pay much attention to mods. But now that I've gotten into modding, I've been absolutely flabbergasted (I love that word!) at how many people are apparently still actively modding for Minecraft 1.7.10.
I mean no insult. I'm honestly curious. Why are so many people still playing a version of the game that's been obsolete for two years? What's the appeal, either from a modder's perspective or from that of a player?
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Mods by dburgdorf (aka Rainbeau Flambe) for Minecraft 1.10.2:
Personally I've moved on from 1.7.10 long ago. The new updates mainly brought the new combat mechanics, which have changed the way you fight quite a bit. But I think it's that which is why so many stuck with 1.7.10. They think the new combat mechanic is bad and they don't like it so they stay in the version before it was added. However, remember when the bows shooting was changed ages ago? That was an awesome change, yet nobody complains anymore. If anything, it was pretty OP before, but now it's much more balanced - and that's what the new combat mechanics bring.
I only see reason to move on from 1.7.10 - modding in the later versions is much easier and better... so I don't see why anyone would want to continue modding in that version. I'd strongly advise anyone still in that version to move up to 1.10.2.
The main reasons anybody would mod for an older version include:
1) There are many large mods that have not updated, but the modder wants both their mod and the old mod at the same time. This is especially common in large, popular modpacks, which may refuse to update until all those mods have updated... fat chance
2) The modder is just starting and thinks 1.7.10 may be easier to code for (especially if they skimmed through the many anti-JSON posts about 1.8). Saying "1.7.10 is easier" is not entirely wrong, but not entirely right either. There are pros and cons, but I don't have time to address that argument.
3) The modder thinks that Mojang's rapid-release of 1.9 and 1.10 means those versions are 'unstable' and constantly supporting the newest version would take too much work
3) Like Bright_Spark said, they simply don't like newer versions of Minecraft
That's all that came to my mind. My personal recommendation is this: if you fully plan on supporting 1.7.10, for whatever reason, start the mod in that version. Backporting is much harder than updating. However, if you are kind of thinking it'd be nice to have the mod in 1.7.10 but you want to support other versions too, start the mod in 1.9.4 or 1.10. (for anyone reading this after September 2016, those versions may be unsupported too)
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Up until recently, I only ever played Minecraft on servers, so I didn't pay much attention to mods. But now that I've gotten into modding, I've been absolutely flabbergasted (I love that word!) at how many people are apparently still actively modding for Minecraft 1.7.10.
I mean no insult. I'm honestly curious. Why are so many people still playing a version of the game that's been obsolete for two years? What's the appeal, either from a modder's perspective or from that of a player?
Personally I've moved on from 1.7.10 long ago. The new updates mainly brought the new combat mechanics, which have changed the way you fight quite a bit. But I think it's that which is why so many stuck with 1.7.10. They think the new combat mechanic is bad and they don't like it so they stay in the version before it was added. However, remember when the bows shooting was changed ages ago? That was an awesome change, yet nobody complains anymore. If anything, it was pretty OP before, but now it's much more balanced - and that's what the new combat mechanics bring.
I only see reason to move on from 1.7.10 - modding in the later versions is much easier and better... so I don't see why anyone would want to continue modding in that version. I'd strongly advise anyone still in that version to move up to 1.10.2.
The main reasons anybody would mod for an older version include:
1) There are many large mods that have not updated, but the modder wants both their mod and the old mod at the same time. This is especially common in large, popular modpacks, which may refuse to update until all those mods have updated... fat chance
2) The modder is just starting and thinks 1.7.10 may be easier to code for (especially if they skimmed through the many anti-JSON posts about 1.8). Saying "1.7.10 is easier" is not entirely wrong, but not entirely right either. There are pros and cons, but I don't have time to address that argument.
3) The modder thinks that Mojang's rapid-release of 1.9 and 1.10 means those versions are 'unstable' and constantly supporting the newest version would take too much work
3) Like Bright_Spark said, they simply don't like newer versions of Minecraft
That's all that came to my mind. My personal recommendation is this: if you fully plan on supporting 1.7.10, for whatever reason, start the mod in that version. Backporting is much harder than updating. However, if you are kind of thinking it'd be nice to have the mod in 1.7.10 but you want to support other versions too, start the mod in 1.9.4 or 1.10. (for anyone reading this after September 2016, those versions may be unsupported too)