The Effect of Mojang's New Update Cycle on Modders

Introduction

Modding has been an integral part of the Minecraft community since its inception. Mods can range from simple cosmetic changes to complete overhauls of the game's mechanics. They are often created by independent developers who work tirelessly to improve the game for others. However, the new update cycle recently introduced by Mojang has had a significant impact on modders, and many are now struggling to maintain their mods for new versions of the game.

In this article, we will explore the effect of those changes on modders and the Minecraft modding community. We'll also look at the problems modders face due to it and potential solutions to those problems.

Mojang's New Update Cycle

The new update cycle's goal is to push out more small updates with more focus on deeper changes to the game's code. This is helpful to vanilla players and the developers at Mojang, but the decision has gained controversy among modders.

Updates to Minecraft include bug fixes, performance improvements and sometimes new features. All of this unaviodably comes with changes to the game's code, which make some mods malfunction or break completely on new versions unless the mod's author puts their time into tweaking the mod to work with changes in the base game.

Unfortunately for modders, with the new update cycle Mojang has seriously decided to focus on the former two - bug fixes and performance improvements - which tend to need a lot of changes to code, so mods break way more often on newer versions and require more work to maintain.

The Effect of the New Update Cycle on Modders

When Mojang releases an update, modders have to update their mods to ensure they are compatible with all changes introduced in the update. Reviewing all of your code to adjust it to work with another version of the game can be a tedious process, and now, due to the increased amount of updates with an increased amount of changes, maintaining your mod is as hard as ever.

Despite all of these problems, there are also long-term benefits for modders in the new update cycle. It'll allow Mojang to sort out long-standing bugs and other issues in the game, which will allow not only them, but also modders to have an easier time adding new mechanics and content to it.

Impact on players

Players have showcased varied preferences when it comes to updates. Some prefer small, frequent updates, while others prefer larger, more significant updates. After all, Mojang's new update cycle has been well-received by the majority of vanilla players. However, the new update cycle has caused confusion and frustration among those who use mods.

As mods now need more effort to be updated to newer versions of the game, some modders end up lagging behind, unable to deliver timely updates to their mods. Players who use those mods are now forced to choose between updating their game and losing access to some of their favourite mods or sticking with an older version of Minecraft and missing out on improvements introduced in the update.

Modders' opinions

Many modders have shared their opinion on the update cycle with us.

Some modders have praised it for providing more frequent updates and bug fixes as this, in turn, creates a better experience for players. Additionally, some believe that the new update cycle can help modders by providing them with a more stable codebase to work with.

Mojang's new schedule is much more flexible in that it allows them to fix bugs and develop features in parallel. No longer will they have to work a few silent months to release a big update all at once, now they can have a more streamlined release process with smaller, more often updates where all experimental content wise changes are offloaded into the experimental datapack instead of only snapshots, which means we can use them sooner.

On the other hand, some modders have expressed concern about the new update cycle. One of the main concerns is that updates will cause mods to break more often, leading to frustration for both modders and players.

It's not really giving mods a good period to "settle" which I believe is harmful to mod pack communities and servers while beneficial to vanilla players.

Overall, much of the modding community isn't in favour of Mojang's changes, but whether they end up good for the community or not is yet to be seen.

Conclusion

It is clear that Mojang's update cycle has had a significant impact on modders. While some modders have been able to adapt, others have struggled to keep up with the increased rate of updates to the game.

Despite these challenges, Mojang's priority is the game itself. While they are aware of the problems that the new system creates for modders, they are not directly focused on facilitating modding as much as improving their own workflow - though it should be noted that they have never been against modding and have made efforts to improve modders' experience in the past.

Modders will need to continue to adapt and find ways to update their mods for new releases quicker and easier. What we can always do is wait and see how Mojang's changes impact the community in the long run.