Board Thread:General Mod Discussion/@comment-27506967-20170521225234/@comment-25101089-20170522013504

Hmm. Well, I understand why you think like that, but remember that this mod only exists because I decided to make it. There is no reason, a priori, why the mod should exist. And I think that far too many people take this for granted because they're used to it existing.

I'm not a work machine whose purpose in life is to implement as many [Endorsed] suggestions as he can. This is the same sort of mistake people made - though on a far smaller scale - that led to Notch leaving and deciding to sell Minecraft to Microsoft.

And of course hundreds of people dreaming up fantastic new ideas for the mod will outpace a few people implementing them. But ideas are cheap! Work is hard! It's very common to see an 'ideas guy' asking for coders, texturers, (people who will do all the work), etc. to help them with their next Great Idea. It's much rarer to see a Great Idea become a Great Thing.

Now, I don't see how anyone can interpret the recent updates as 'nothing happening'. Maybe these people have just lost interest in the mod?

'The new factions are literally copy of older factions with other textures and maybe one or two unique units.' But what else could they possibly be? Every faction has to have some basic common things. A civilian, a warrior, some kind of ranged unit, a banner, a banner bearer, a crafting table, structures, quests - and yes, if you ignore the different names, textures, and structure designs, then fundamentally these are quite similar. And guess what? That's why I've become bored of making factions and we have tried shifting our focus to innovative game mechanics instead, as I've talked about many times. The last update contained something new and innovative (Fellowships), and the next one will too (Enchanting), which is to say nothing of the Siege Mode plugin that I have been developing and testing on the Official Server.

It may seem as if the mod doesn't move as fast as it once did - although, that is largely due to the fact that things are more complex these days. Consider all the new things that were added for the Easterling faction (civilian, three warriors, archer, fire-thrower, several traders, captain, banner, banner-bearer, crafting table, weapons, armour, special helmet, fire-pots, dozens of structures, two complex village structures, new wood, new tree model, speechbanks, quest speechbanks,) versus what was originally added for, say, the Dunlendings (civilian, warrior, archer, crafting table, an armour set, two structures, one trader, one captain, speechbanks) and you will see that 'adding a new faction' in 2017 is a far larger effort than it was in 2013 or 2014. And this is true of everything. When your existing standards are higher, it takes more time to add 'one new thing' that matches those standards.

As a creator, it's very disappointing to consider the idea that - should the worst happen - people will be more upset for your creation than for you. I can't bear to think how George R.R. Martin feels. But that's just how it is.

I don't really want to continue making this mod for the rest of my life, but neither do I have any plans to stop. Although - even if I go on releasing new updates for ten years hence - we will still not scratch the surface of the depth that a project like this could encompass. We will still not manage to implement all the ideas the mod team have dreamed up, let alone all the suggestions on the lists of [Endorsed] suggestions.

Maybe you will feel better if, instead of lamenting the many features which might never exist, you appreciate those which do.