01-13-2015, 06:14 PM
Right now I think the biggest limitation is that there are a zillion requests for plugins and only a handful of people who actually do write plugins. Anyone helping out on the programming front is a big help.
If you have some feedback from people, the best thing to do about it is try to collect it and refine it. Ask for details, what exactly it is that they don't like, try to find out the core of the problem. Only then we will know what to do to improve. They say they don't enjoy vanilla - ask them why, what's better about non-vanilla, what they need to enjoy a server. Try to make them answer questions like "if vanilla had this one feature added to it, would it be what is missing in it for you?" Make them pick one single feature that is the dealbreaker, then we can focus on that.
I'm not sure if dissecting existing mods is the right way to go. For me, programming has always been a slightly different process - first find out what exactly you want to do, try to think about all the possible interactions, what could go wrong, what could go right. Consult others about their ideas, you'd be surprised how often this takes you far away from your original idea to something even more awesome. Then, when you have this vision, start coding. Do small increments, don't try to code everything at once. Implement one small feature at a time, test it, let people test it and give you feedback. Quite often you will find out that things behave slightly different than you anticipated, and you will make changes to your grand plan. But this way you will move forward, and most importantly, if you ever feel tired, someone else can take over because things will be in a reasonably consistent state.
Dissecting existing stuff is only good for example for finding out some fine details, such as, say, exact sizes of mobs, or exact physics constants used, or maximum message length etc.
If you want to start coding, have a look at the plugin request subforum, there are a million ideas there that need refining and then implementing
If you have some feedback from people, the best thing to do about it is try to collect it and refine it. Ask for details, what exactly it is that they don't like, try to find out the core of the problem. Only then we will know what to do to improve. They say they don't enjoy vanilla - ask them why, what's better about non-vanilla, what they need to enjoy a server. Try to make them answer questions like "if vanilla had this one feature added to it, would it be what is missing in it for you?" Make them pick one single feature that is the dealbreaker, then we can focus on that.
I'm not sure if dissecting existing mods is the right way to go. For me, programming has always been a slightly different process - first find out what exactly you want to do, try to think about all the possible interactions, what could go wrong, what could go right. Consult others about their ideas, you'd be surprised how often this takes you far away from your original idea to something even more awesome. Then, when you have this vision, start coding. Do small increments, don't try to code everything at once. Implement one small feature at a time, test it, let people test it and give you feedback. Quite often you will find out that things behave slightly different than you anticipated, and you will make changes to your grand plan. But this way you will move forward, and most importantly, if you ever feel tired, someone else can take over because things will be in a reasonably consistent state.
Dissecting existing stuff is only good for example for finding out some fine details, such as, say, exact sizes of mobs, or exact physics constants used, or maximum message length etc.
If you want to start coding, have a look at the plugin request subforum, there are a million ideas there that need refining and then implementing