One thing which captured my attention was this statement:
but going into too much detail was avoided from the start because we did not want to put off readers.
So, is this to mean that you held back some relative information in order to attract the attention of potential contributors? If so,
when would it feel appropriate to make that information clear to them? This seems a rather misleading way to start things off. But that is just my opinion.
It also sounds as if you actually don't have a very clear plan/outline as to what you even truly want to do, even though you state that you do, but also state that you don't. This is confusing.
Basically it seems the plan was to "Make a big announcement", then plan it all out after, on the fly, as we go.
You have no C++ devs..., well, they are extremely hard to come by so this is no surprise.
And now, after this announcement, it is stated that you are not even sure "if" you will use Minetest as the engine anyway.
I'm sorry..., I am all for open source projects, and have been involved with a few over the years. One of which involved more than half of a core dev team splitting off to start a new project.
Do you know, we gathered, thought, planned, etc. for at least 6 - 8 mos before we even felt comfortable enough to make any announcements.
We held that off until we had a very clear understanding of what we wanted to do, and to be..., and that it was unanimous among the entire dev team.
I just have to say that to me, this is turning out to seem like a hasty jump, head first, without a net. And statements which seem to state one thing, only to be changed in the very next sentence.
Along with possibly some relative information withheld, out of concern it may put people off? It comes off as two things, deceitful, and disorganized..., and with no real, solid idea of "what you want to do, or what you want to be".
But you off that "dream" of..., "everyone is a developer", as the shiny wrapper.
You state goals, which are and have been the very same goals of Minetest and Minetest Game development from the start, and still hold true, as if they are different.
So, if you are trying to attract C++ developers from outside MT, when you could have tried to attract them "TO" MT this sort of hurts the MT community. Because C++ devs are always in need.
I have to be honest, the way this is all laid out, it may be difficult to attract C++ devs. They are normally a specific and precise group who like to know "what" they are looking at/getting into.
They will typically breeze through potential "looking for" ads, and literally skip over the ones which seem poorly thrown together, as they do not like to have their time wasted. This is just an honest statement.
I am not trying to crush any dreams or knock people's ideas (even though it definitely seems to be exactly what I am doing...) but these are thoughts I feel I want to express on this, and from what I have read so far...
I see a lot of excitement, with very little planning.
I have seen no really noticeable amount of added code (if any) which deserves the title of a new engine. What I see is, Minetest.
I see, so far, basically a quickly thrown together, "subgame", without very much difference either.
So I sit back trying to figure out, what the hell is even going on here?
All of this may upset you, and that is understandable but, it's true. And if you're upset, you also have to take the other side's view into consideration...
Basically, you have already taken the creation of one person, along with the work of countless others, forked it, changed a few textures, made some changes to the lighting code, slapped a new name on it, and shipped it out with an advertisement of "A new engine".
There is just so much wrong with that.
At this point, after reading countless statements which completely contradict one another, I really cannot put my support behind this venture at all.
That is my final thought on this whole matter