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For Minetest 5.6 and above

How do I install this?

****This game does not have any theme or goals, just for fun with diversity of minetest mods. Whynot can be played in survival (most items crafteable) and of course in creative. The crafting guide and in-game documentation are progressive. You see only known items and recipes crafteable by known items. The Awards mod give you additional goals to reach. The monster are not really danger but animate the game experience too.

Background for the game:

The Game is based on my private mods collection. I tried a lot of mods in the past, most of them I uninstalled again after some time. Based on this experience I defined the rules why a mod cannot be used for long time, called them "Why-not Rules" (Look to github readme for details).

The most important of them is: the mods should not take over the gameplay. The second one is of course the code quality.

Following the rules the game looks like the "vanilla" Minetest Game but in gameplay the player have much more to discover. See the provided mods list. If you do not like anything, just do not craft or use it!

If you know further must-have mods that follow the Whynot rules, please let me know ;-)

Note: Each mod does have own license. If nothing specified, the GPLv3 is used.

Version 2023-03-16 Release notes:

We've removed the endless apples alias. Super unlikely this effects anyone, but there's a slim chance of some unknown nodes from 2018.

Version 2022-11-10 Release notes:

Whynot's under the GPLv3 only. This means that unfortunately, the helicotper mod (which was under GPLv2-only ) had to be removed, since it isn't GPLv3 compatible. We are looking for a clean-room replacement of similar feature-set that provides an upgrade path.

Version 2022-04-01 Release notes:

I given up the "player_api_modpack" (https://forum.minetest.net/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=20682). All mods from this modpack are replaced by orginial forks and skinsdb. Fensta-skins users need to re-download the skins using skinsdb downloader. Just copying files does not work because the meta-files format is not compatible. place_your_skins_here mod does not have replacement. Users have to move own skins into skinsdb textures folder. The meta-files incompatibility (if used) applies here to.

Reviews

Review

Do you recommend this game?

  • The Usual

    Whynot is another example of "mod soup", games that collect existing mods and put them on Minetest Game in an attempt to make it fun. I don't have anything against this on principle, but I've yet to see such an effort produce a good game. Sadly, Whynot also fails in this regard.

    Whynot does add some quality of life (such as wielded lightsources producing light) and external pressures like hostile mobs and a hunger meter. But honestly, it doesn't do nearly enough--In the time I spent playing I saw exactly two monsters, and neither one did much of anything. That really just leaves hunger, which will cease to matter the moment any farm begins producing. This means the player doesn't have much driving them to actually enter the game loop.

    There are other possible avenues to drive players to play. For instance, Whynot does have awards! However, none of them are really well-designed. They mostly revolve around "dig/place x of node y", and offer no interesting goals. Another possibility is exploration, but from what I've seen there's very little to be found. The biomes are identical to MTG, and the only obvious difference I saw was a handful of floating islands. Most of these had nothing, and just checking them involves pillaring up over 100 nodes... nothing feels worse than being led to do busywork for no payoff.

    So fittingly, my answer to "Why not?" is "Why?" Why am I playing? It's not for building or decoration, thanks to the game's many clashing artstyles. It's not for action or survival, those systems are too anemic. It's not for exploration, there's little of note to be found. And it's not to achieve anything, since the game's achievements correspond more to rote grinding than to gameplay.

    Ultimately, this is a very typical story. Remember, modders--putting a large quantity of 'content' in a game does not make it good or interesting. Content exists to extend the life of something that is already good, the hook is far more important.

    2 comments
  • Great for getting into the Minetest scene

    I've been aware of Minetest for many years, but only just recently started playing. This was the game of choice for a small five-person server and we've had a blast. Even though it's a big pile of mods, and some of them we don't like, it's a great introductory experience for us to see what's out there.

    We've played for several hours and have resorted to installing two other mods: anvil and travelnet. We all hate weapon degradation and found anvil to be a good compromise. We also hated how it took many minutes to go down ladders to Minetest's 4096 resource-dense level.

    Eventually we'll probably adapt our world with other mods but this has been a great way to just play. Thanks to the maintainer(s)!

    3 comments
  • Not bad, not excellent.

    At first it feels like a whole new world but then it gets boring. No set goal, even with awards mod. Some features are good, but some are bad. I don't recommend to someone who wants more from minetest.

    Also for a mod I want added is epic_combat (modpack on my github). It makes mobs more common and adds more swords and PVP material. I want because Hugues Ross say not enough mobs.

    9 comments
  • Good but need update

    This game need updates and/or QA testing. Hope it happens soon

    8 comments
  • I can´t feed myself, I always die and generates very plain worlds

    I can´t feed myself, I always die and generates very plain worlds, I would be a great game but have these 2 big problems.

    4 comments
  • it's cool and it's communitary

    I want to make a positive review as I like WhyNot? Because:

    • it's communitary
    • it's opened to contribution and feedback (no all developers do that!)
    • it's rules are clear enough, and they are actively working on it.
    • it's fun enough

    What I'd do to improve the project:

    • license the code correctly! Just now, as-is is not Free Libre Software!
    • take a look at other games as mesecraft or hades, exploration is a must, and terraformation is a plus! portals? etc.

    good luck! I'll track your progress! :-D

    4 comments
  • MTG otra vez

    MTG con mods, aburrido

    0 comments
  • Put your risk into outdated mods

    A "mod soup" is totally useless, cause server owners can (and should have the ability to) install all the mods one-by-one. Mush more, mod soups are outdated, and may place the server to secutiry risks.

    2 comments

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