Why is there no ebuild for minecraft forge?

[Lemon-Lime]

Hello gentoo!
I have been reading, both on the forums and on the discord server, that a lot of gentoo users are fond of minecraft.
Luckily, there exists a minecraft launcher ebuild (dating all the way back to 2003 Thank you Chewi https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-857083-start-0-postdays-0-postorder-asc-highlight-minecraft%2Bforge.html) that has worked flawlessly in my machine.

Not only that, there also exists a minecraft server ebuild. I haven't tried it (yet), but I am excited to do so.

However, I have not found an ebuild for "minecraft forge" the famous mod client. I have googled around and it seems to be as simple as downloading a file and "compiling" it with java (https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-1108144-start-0-postdays-0-postorder-asc-highlight-.html).
Has there been an attempt to write such ebuild? Is there an overlay I am not aware of?
Is there a disadvantage in using portage for this?

PS: As an added bonus, something like a "minecraft mod overlay" could be made. Where users could download minecraft mods using portage!

Thanks in advance

[Kresni]

If you have Oracle's Java in your system, handling mods and forge is quite straightforward. More often than not, you would need different versions of forge for compatibility with mods, and you would install it for a specific Minecraft install. It does not make much sense to have a system level forge in your system as you would need to specify different versions for some different Minecraft installs anyway. At that point, you could manually manage it as well.

There are modpack launchers, FTB , ATLauncer or MultiMC to handle stuff like this, which work on Linux as well. I feel like managing it with emerge (because of it being the global system installation tool) would be harder, but I like the idea =)
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[Lemon-Lime]

Maybe having like an eselect module, where you get to pick minecraft version and forge version.
I do not know how complicated that would be however.

@Kresni do you have any experience with modded minecraft on Linux/Gentoo?
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Crazy frog is the artist, not the song

[Kresni]

Gaming on Linux has come a long way especially on the last couple of years. Minecraft and modded content has always been rock solid in my experience though. I guess that's mainly because Java code runs inside its own environment, and it does not really depend on the operating system.

A good percentage of Mod developers also tend to use Linux, as Linux makes a lot of things easier compared to something like windows. Therefore, it is pretty good I would say.

I did not have any problems on Gentoo either. I haven't been fully up to date with modpacks, the ones above 1.16, mainly because many modpacks take way too much time to reach a satisfactory point. So, maybe there are problems there, but I doubt it.

Do you like technic modpacks by any chance ? =)
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[Lemon-Lime]

I haven't played minecraft (or any games really) for a while now. Only recently did I try some steam games and they have worked wonders for the most part.

I was thinking of configuring a server using Gentoo; and minecraft seemed like a good idea. Adding mods could only add to the experience.

I have not tried "technic" modpacks. What are they about? Any other recommendations?

Just to finish elaborating on the server thing, I could maybe try to make a sort of "minecraft-forge mods overlay". Mainly to simplify/automate the process of installing mods (which is already effortless tbh hahah)
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Crazy frog is the artist, not the song

[Kresni]

Technic modpacks kind of resemble the industrial revolution, in a way. You start with bare hands, obtain resources, and as you progress, you try to build better automated system & machines. Very crafting focused, I would say. It's like an engineer's dream came true in a video game.

It's been around for quite a while know, so there are many flavors of it. It's the kind of rabbit hole you get in once, and never get out. There is just way too many stuff to explore, but you could look at the good old classic Tekkit series. FTB Direwolf packs can also be a good choice, you may look at some videos online to get a taste of it. It takes a while to progress in game though, you better have some spare time
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[Lemon-Lime]

Thanks for the tips! I'll try them out.
And if I manage to do something relatively functional with the minecraft mod overlay thing, I'll update this post!
Could be a fun, useless project
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Crazy frog is the artist, not the song