It is a pity that the mobile version isn't more open so third party servers can support it. The family might enjoy something like this but I would never get them lugging a laptop around and driving minecraft with a mouse and keyboard.
If you are to setup an online platform for your family, it's best to setup a PC version. It's just more enjoyable for now.
P/S: I do hope that MCPE is one day aligned and compatible with PC. For sure it won't be the other way around.
The purpose is via this platform, kids can learn conciously or subconciously, so that in the future they can remember that a game with this kind of architecture exists, and build something more scalable, better in the future.
To avoid crazy costs I setup a bit of infrastructure: I managed to pipe the active / logged in user count of the minecraft server to cloudwatch: 30 mins of server in-activity and I had the server shutdown (to avoid paying for it to run 24x7). Additionally I setup a webpage that he could login to (only used basic auth to be honest) and click a "start server" button. This sent the ec2 start instance command to AWS. Granted he didn't have instant play capabilities (had to wait for server boot up) but the costs were quite low.
I personally installed any mods or plugins he wanted.
I'd highly recommend rolling your own setup like this to anyone interested :)
The reason I created this is to:
1. Tackle my challenge of scalability.
2. I love Minecraft and have seen it being non-scalable for a long time, without people doing anything about it.
3. I want to remove the hassle of you having to setup your own server, with all the installation, and plugins, etc.. Maybe you and your family can just hop in and play, and things will be kept for as long as Minecraft is alive.
4. The already setup version of Minecraftly has a disadvantage that it is limited in terms of plugins. I only choose cosmetics, fun plugins to install in this project, so actually you can't choose plugins, unless you use the open source code and host it by yourself. It's a little like Wordpress.com's add-ons vs wordpress.org self hosted version
That is how I view it. :)
Garbage p2w microtransactions. Seems like they even sell access to the nether/end, core parts of the game.
So nothing to see here, move along, another minecraft server host looking to exploit kids with access to their parents' credit cards.
In fact, I am further from a p2w model, as there are only cosmetic items and boosters in the store.
It took me years to build the first scalable architecture, after many mistakes, but at least I got a working version, and want to donate all the software and ongoing work to the public.
- Access to Nether and The End worlds.
- Higher jobs xp and income!
- Buy Lifetime VIP rank and get an extra Treasure Trove, and Dreaded Warrior crates for free! (Dreaded Warrior gives you 300 crates that drop enchanted diamond armors, weapons and tools. Gain a chance to win God armors, weapons and tools with full maximum enchantments.)
- Get 850 crates that drop enchanted diamond armors, weapons and tools.
- Get $36,000 in game money.
All seem pay 2 win to me. On top of that you're selling stupidly basic functionality that shouldn't be for sale:
- Mute, kick, and ban other players from your server (and many other admin commands) at (username).m.ly
The fact that you're open source is irrelevant. I don't care how your service is implemented, I have issue with your business model and target demographic.
Your intentions are also irrelevant, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Actions speak louder than words.
Think of Minecraftly open source as wordpress.org, and Minecraftly demo server as wordpress.com, so at least there is donor engagement from people who are interested.
The only thing I don't like about Mojang is how they design Minecraft Realms architecture. It's proprietary and too complicated. I want to build something simplier, more scalable, with better player's freedom in cross-server interaction, and is supported for years to come.
These days I'm thinking of getting into minetest (http://www.minetest.net/), but the mod scene is pretty primitive there.
As for modpacks, they add a lot of RAM usage especially to the whole thing. Minecraft 1.9 also made it possible (theoretically, that is it's possible in the code and probably used by Realms) to run multiple servers in the same Minecraft server instance, saving a lot of overhead on the block definitions, classes, JVMs, etc.
Minetest is pretty cool, but it isn't really what I'm trying to achieve.
edit: Oops, that's the second time I've glossed over a site and mistaken a company's competitive analysis for a multi-tier pricing plan.
