Some people here may vaguely remember me, as I used to play on the server a long time ago. I tried to be online when I could, but between work, school, and other games, I wasn’t able to be online as often as I’d like. What always drew me back to the server though was the sense of community and the whole concept of nations and politics and the like. To this day I haven’t found a comparable community experience.

Then one day I discovered modded Minecraft. Not modded as in cheating programs, but rather new custom-content mods. You may have heard of mods such as Mo’creatures, Tinker’s construct, etc.  I discovered that it reasonably straightforward to create a profile and download custom made modpacks that greatly expanded upon Minecraft’s gameplay by adding new features. In particular, modpacks by “Feed the Beast” got me hooked; it was as if I was completely re-learning Minecraft again, and I loved it.

The capabilities of some of these mods drastically enriched the Minecraft experience for me. But like I said, I never could find a server that had the same sort of community dynamic that Piratecraft has. Multiplayer servers are difficult enough to find as it is for modded Minecraft, and the few that exist are generally singleplayer oriented. To this day, this is the only Minecraft server I have ever made a donation to, and I have played on many.

While I haven’t been on the server in a while, I do check this website every now and again. I know that the server uses many different plugins to allow custom features within vanilla Minecraft (Such as ship sailing or grog brewing). My humble question is this: Have the developers of the server ever considered making a modded version of Piratecraft? As in, a custom Piratecraft-themed modpack assembled from pre-existing mods to add more features to the Piratecraft experience.

Of course, modded Minecraft isn’t perfect. Generally, updates are at the discretion of the creator of the mod, it requires more RAM to run, people need to actively download the modpack in order to play on the server, and some mods can cause crashes, etc. These are similar concerns with plugins too, but of course, plugins are compatible with vanilla Minecraft and users don’t need to install the plugins on their own end before they join the server. It’s a trade off for sure, and a complicated decision to make.

I didn’t write this post to make demands, and I don’t want to create the impression that I think modded Minecraft is superior or that Piratecraft <i>needs</i> mods. Clearly, the server is very successful and does extremely well as it is. Rather, I just wanted to share that I had a positive experience with modded Minecraft and I believe that, if the developers were interested, this would be something that others might enjoy too. Ultimately, it’s their decision, and I respect the rationale and their autonomy in how they wish to run their server.

I appreciate everyone taking the time to read my little opinion blurb, and I hope everyone is doing well 🙂