My Thoughts On: Minecolony

Dungeons and Colonies is basically made up of 2 mods to Minecraft.  Better Dungeons and Minecolony.

It is an absolute shame that Minecolony ceased updates after 2.5.  I debated on how much "history of Minecraft" needed to be here.  I think some people do not realized that after update 2.5 the whole of Minecraft changed.  No longer was there separate versions for Multiplayer and Single, there is only one version of Minecraft.  This is why you see so many innovative and home made projects cease after 2.5.  Minecolony is one of those tragedies.

Now, I am not a fan of Anno 1602 or whatever it is that Minecolony was trying to be based on.  I am a fan, however, of being able to create your own villages.  If my Minecraft world does not have a couple of near by villages, I will not play in that world.  I need something more than myself to at least give myself a narrative.  I would have liked to seen someone take this "make your own village" part out of Minecolony and leave the rest of the more complex stuff out.  Tale of Kingdoms was another "build your own" thing that stopped development after 2.5 and so there are few that still do it.  There are village enhancement mods, but few that let you build your own functioning town yourself.

That said, Minecolony has some problems that leave me scratching my head.  I set my goal of 30 posts after I found out I can not effectively run a farm in Minecolony.  Till then I was just going to keep playing till I got bored with it.  It is ridiculous that the wives run around killing all my cows, sheep and pigs if they are fenced in.  Double fence it with no door, and your hunter runs in murdering them.  This was the biggest flaw and disappointment of the entire mod.

Aside from that, I loved having my own villagers that I met day after day while making my colony.  I became quite attached to my builder and my farmer.  Whenever I would go adventure, the thought of "ignoring" them always made me come back and check up on things.  The buildings were adequate in design, and if you didn't plan on upgrading any time soon, you could always make adjustments after they were done.  Some might think that the material requirements were a bit steep for things, but it did turn harvesting into a game.  My only problem, again, was the lack of ability to farm sheep for wool.  So much wool is needed beyond the 2nd tier of any building, that I largely gave up on upgrading things early because I could not farm sheep.

Having automated farming and baking was pretty cool too.  I never had to worry about where to grab a stack of food.  I didn't get a storehouse attendant to way later, but it really was not needed, because the baker(even at his slowed rate) keep a huge stock of bread at all times.  I would have liked to have blacksmiths and miners that worked together like the builder and lumberjack.  Minecraft is a game about giving yourself a story, and the village is pretty much a drain of resources with little benefit inside the game, but outside the game, in your own mind, it can be a great boon for crafting your story.

Wishing for changes is moot at this point unfortunately, because this mod is over with, and seems to have been eclipsed by more popular mods.  It is unlikely that it will be picked up by anyone and completed to a further extent.  Which is a real shame.

If you had a hand in making this mod, I would like to send a thanks.  Generally my posts have too much negativity compared to positive feedback, so hopefully my last message here will remedy that.  I had fun.  I had a great experience, and most of all I'd like to say that all your hardwork, at least for my part, is very much appreciated.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.