You're focusing on technical minutiae that are completely unimportant. This is one of the pitfalls of game dev - you need to work with what you have. "I need X technology to make a game" is one of the lies people tell themselves so they don't have to try.
Let's try a real world example:
Rising lava is a gamemode. It's kinda fun but has some problems. You would probably say that the problem is the water system isn't good enough and that Badspot needs to update the engine and make the water rise smoothly or code fluid dynamics or something. Badspot won't do that, so you just throw up your arms blame all your problems on Badspot. Why even bother working on a mod at all if Badspot won't "fix" the engine right?
What you really should be doing is refining the gameplay within the limitations of the tech you have. You're stuck with planar lava with kind of dodgy movement. Ok. What's a gameplay problem? Well everyone gets stuck in the staircase. Why? Because everyone wants to get to the roof of the skyscraper. Why are they doing that? It's the only safe spot. Hmm, maybe there should be more than one safe spot. Maybe the lava shouldn't always go to the top of the map so lower spots can be safe. Maybe lava should go up and down. Maybe announce how high it's going to go so people can plan where they're going to escape to. Maybe give people something to collect so they have a reason to come down off the buildings - coins or something (gems?). Maybe a lava proof suit powerup? Maybe a rowboat that catches on fire after a bit? Maybe a lava shark?
Do you see how changing mindsets leads to actually developing a game?
you seem to be responding to the wrong person. i never said that i wasn't making things because of limitations, that was chrono. chrono was the one who stated that he lost interest in modding due to the limitations. I'm not talking about making existing things work within the limits, i'm talking about what could be allowed if there were engine changes made to the game. I don't see how you can dismiss a working boat vehicle and technic bricks as "unimportant technical minutiae".
Rising lava is a gamemode that works the same way it does in any other game.
Moving platform/physics challenge is something that flat out isn't possible yet in this game.
There is no reason to be explaining this to me, because I do exactly what you are trying to explain. If I gave up because the game didn't allow for certain elements, I wouldn't still be playing the game. I'm talking about adding some additional elements because it would allow for new things, not just improve upon existing things. Your example of fluid dynamics is really far-fetched as well, as I don't think there is any game that supports it, compared to something like a moving platform/elevator which most modern games support.
Sure this is a good way to get away with not updating the engine, but this doesn't excuse the plethora of bugs that still exist. As I said before: loading takes too long, you have to ghost all bricks to save (even on your own dedi), and the brickcount could use a raise. I don't see how these can be dismissed as trivial.
