we are preparing the Minetest game server for the Fedora 37 release party. And you are welcome to join.
Minetest is an Open Source multiplayer block-building game, which resembles Minecraft but not exactly the same. Technically speaking Minetest is an engine, and we are going to play a Mesecraft game which uses it. See:
Note that during the early testing we might reset the world any time.
How you can help?
Install minetest client (run dnf install minetest on Fedora or see Downloads - Minetest ) and play a test run of Mesecraft game on your local machine. Get familiar with the interface and start thinking about project ideas. Join the main server as soon as it is ready.
I really want to jump into this opportunity because I think it would be fun to play Minetest with folks who are familiar with it! Thanks for this opportunity!
I guess I was just thinking ahead, if we had a lot of questions coming about the server, we might need to separate them into a tag so that people can filter it out and subscribe or put it into ignore list. But we can start with a single thread, this one, and see how it goes.
Minetest has a very basic user/password authentication. Naturally one should NOT use their FAS password as Minetest password.
Now there are several options how initial registration can look like:
we can temporarily make it open registration for all. The server will not announce itself in the main server list, so probably no one will discover it except Fedora people. Still some risk is there and we need to keep an eye on moderation.
there is a possibility in minetest to set up a global password for new users. And for example, if you write a request in Hopin session or in this thread, I’ll send the password to you in a DM. And you will be able to change it after the first login. This workflow needs to be tested on a working server.
There is also a possibility to create a text file with user/password pairs and upload it directly to the server and load the auth data from there.
there are possible some mods which can help to limit the open registration further. Needs more research.
I am currently thinking about 2). It is similar in a way to the Fedora Badges available through the dedicated link. Not 100% secure, but usually good enough for our community.
Some combination of these two make sense to me. I have some questions though, as someone who played Minecraft but not Minetest yet. Can someone who already has an account log into the server freely? Or does a moderator/admin have to put their username/login into an allow list in order to join? I’m not sure how the Minetest authentication side of things works in comparison to Minecraft, where every user has a purchased, registered account in a central authentication database somewhere.
Minetest has a single sqlite table with user/password per world. There is no external centralized user service, user database is a part of the world data, so it stays on our server together with other world files.
And I just tested the option 2:
If you are a new player:
login with your yet unregistered name and a global password => new user entry will be created for you in the database,
after your first login, go to user settings (by hitting ESC) and change password to something only you know => new password will be stored in the database
We can have a Hopin session that’s basically a landing page to point folks to the server, so we could put the password there. It’s only visible to authenticated users and it keeps you from having to be constantly replying to requests.
Btw, the water dynamics in this world is a bit scary:
I recommend to try it out in a small isolated lake first.
Basically the amount of water in the world is finite and fixed, and when you put a block of stone in a water, water doesn’t disappear, it moves around, and if it doesn’t find a place to move horizontally or down, it will move up creating a moving “wave”, which can flood the nearby areas.
And lava does the same (yes, learned it the hard way and died 5 times while trying to contain it )
Is there a Matrix room dedicated to this server or similar types of things we might do in the future? It could be helpful to have a space for that kind of quick back and forth when you need directions or guidance from folks who aren’t online.
For me, I just logged in and it was night time. I haven’t felt that spooked in a block game in a long time, and because I don’t know how things work I basically logged out as soon as I was somewhere safe. Looking forward to getting more familiar!
Good question. The organizers were discussing in #council:fedoraproject.org but we could also repurpose #flock:fedoraproject.org for in-game chatter and coordination, in addition to the in-game chat option.
For me, I just logged in and it was night time. I haven’t felt that spooked in a block game in a long time, and because I don’t know how things work I basically logged out as soon as I was somewhere safe. Looking forward to getting more familiar!
I absolutely agree, I didn’t expect minetest to become this scary. In the early days it was much simpler. I hope we get more users during the release party, so one won’t feel alone in the dark
As a tip: you can use bed in the safe house to skip the night time. In the morning most of the spooky characters will die on their own.
And I’ve just made a tweak in the configuration that you now keep your inventory when dying. It makes it easier to go exploring - in the worst case you just return to the last bed you have used.
