Alpha Centauri 2

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire => Modding => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on January 21, 2021, 04:00:13 PM

Title: Mod Showcase
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 21, 2021, 04:00:13 PM

ATTN MODDERS:

DrazharLn suggested a dedicated page showcasing and linking the active mods and the classics, too.  Such a thing ought to raise the profile of all your hard work, and help get it into more hands.

We're thinking a .html page separate from the forum, but have not decided much about the format or the look of the page or anything.  That's where your input comes in.

This is entirely within my own technical competence; please have a look at this that I made:  https://alphacentauri2.info/ResourceCenter/

Definitely, the Mod Showcase page -or whatever we decide to call it and whatever form it takes- will have a button added to the Resource Center and our forum Resources dropdown.  -And who knows what-all promoting at other places.

Now, we could just do it on the AC Wiki and/or a major addition to the Firaxis AC Site downloads page -or a sub-page- and/or a standalone showcase page/pages w/ it's/their own address in this domain.  Maybe all of the above together.

Let's kick this around.  I do all the work, you tell me what you want, and probably supply some sort of branding/title image.  I can help you with that last, if you need.  I'll want Draz participating, as the SMAC-In-SMAX guy and it was his idea.

Thoughts?

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: DrazharLn on January 21, 2021, 04:30:48 PM

I think a short page with a screenshot or icon and a couple of links (forum thread, official project page, download link) and a paragraph or two about each mod would be easy to do and a nice way to show off the work.

Matching the old firaxis theme would be nice.

The intended audience is people who don't know much about the mods and would like to pick one or two mods to play with for their next game.

I think Alpha Centauri Ultimate (https://github.com/EricBruylant/Alpha-Centauri-Ultimate) should probably be linked too. It was good work by ete to collect all those scenarios and custom factions. BUncle, if you're feeling generous, you could also write some prose for the ACU readme, which is currently quite bare, and you or I can make a change request on github and see if Ete likes it.

I think the readme could do with some explanation of how to use all these custom factions and stuff.

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 21, 2021, 04:42:31 PM

You know?  I have ete's .zip, saw it the other day and considered replacing the Network Node factions Download file with his collection - do run that past him, since you get along.  Since I'm asking for permission, he gets input on the introduction and stuff...

I'm certainly game for trying at prose for whatever.

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: DrazharLn on January 21, 2021, 06:23:54 PM

Done https://github.com/EricBruylant/Alpha-Centauri-Ultimate/issues/19

I'll let you know if they reply.

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 21, 2021, 06:29:29 PM

Coo.  You left out adding to Downloads here, though.  I'm offering in return to just take down the old file he implicitly meant to supplant.  I need ACU easy(er) for me to find when I want to share, for one thing.

Well, he'll probably look in and see that.  ete, we miss you.

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 21, 2021, 08:25:27 PM

I poked around at the GitHub, and I see he's added much other stuff, as you mentioned, scenarios and what-not.  I imagine this would call for separate Download files; the original factions-only, which is derivative of my posting and participation to begin with - and all the rest.  He don't like our (yes, crap) Downloads, I don't like his offsite hosting; let's share and crosslink anyway - a rising tide lifts all boats and everybody wins and all that that I do truly believe.

--

-Also, and somewhat related, Altera Centauri https://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?board=16.0 which is every decent-quality scenario Darsnan was able to find anywhere, spanning the 23+ year existence of SMACX, save one or two of our GotMs since, and maybe five Darsnan has made/released since and not gotten into very many hands.  I could fix all that in an hour.

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: DrazharLn on January 21, 2021, 08:37:28 PM

Doooo ittttt

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 21, 2021, 09:01:43 PM

Yessir.

I should have before now, but he keeps releasing while in in my low-energy cycle, and I'm very busy whenever we finally do another GotM while I'm manic.  I do not promise today, but if no random events trigger, and soon anyway.



We should do another GotM.

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 23, 2021, 02:16:37 AM

Quote from: DrazharLn on January 21, 2021, 08:37:28 PM

Doooo ittttt

In progress.  Had a little lot of tech trouble with --- formatting between forum softwares to make it pretty -Edge tried to paste the rich text and failed messily- and save/attach his pic and not depend on Solver keeping his dead forum up forever hosting it and --- anyway, first one's done, and the rest should be less trouble.  Absolutely everything's at WPC and the rest should happen closer to my original time estimate.  I suck at those when it's me.

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 23, 2021, 02:37:39 AM

Got the second in much better order, and fixed Darsnan's grotesque spelling in the title doing it.

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 23, 2021, 04:29:07 AM

I've moved a couple GotMs threads, too.

Thinking about organization - our GotMs are in a subforum of the Altera sub.  It has its own Downloads subcategory under Scenarios, two GotMs have individual ones sisko made, the rest seem to be just in Scenarios - I hate to bury our own stuff, but probably best to create a GotM subcategory of Altera for the benefit of lurkers who go up a level from individual scenario pages - in a collection that large and the way things display [epiphany] in Downloads, hey, that's actually featuring our stuff.  I'll do it!

I'm sure there's more Darsnan scenarios -I'm only back to 2016 searching- but I'm multi-tasking w/ forum activity and stuff, and it's past bedtime.  I don't think Downloads GotM category and moving files into it is a big job once I figure how to move, and tomorrow, for sure.

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 23, 2021, 05:24:15 AM

Check this out: https://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;cat=21   ;domai; :danc: ;domai;

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 24, 2021, 04:24:46 AM

I think I've got ittttt doooone. ;nod

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 30, 2021, 02:31:44 AM

Draz, I see your comment at ete's ACU GitHub is no longer showing - do you have anything to report?

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: DrazharLn on January 30, 2021, 10:37:01 PM

Nope, the comment is still there and I've had no contact with ete.

Congrats on getting it done!

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 30, 2021, 10:39:21 PM

;nod Darnan actually found it useful, as a list, too.  There was a screenie and everything.  He answered a question of mine at CFC this morning.  ;nod

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 16, 2021, 04:45:58 PM

...On a related note, if we can get some hands recruited to the sorting and all -there's some tech work Solver thinks is over my head, too- we're talking about at least indexing all the old files and putting up a page.  He says he'll need some doodz to sort through old files w/ names like dan1.zip, and a couple guys who know markdown and git...

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: DrazharLn on April 16, 2021, 06:36:27 PM

Ere wrote to me saying that their project can be used for any purpose, btw.

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 16, 2021, 06:47:04 PM

I've been getting email notifications from that for some reason.

Speaking of which -I didn't say Apolyton Downloads in that last post, which is what I'm on about; the Gold of The Ancients is going to waste, and it can be fixed if we all pitch in- in case he doesn't see an email notification from here, indexing some old stuff is SO up his alley, not least as an organizer -we also want Blake00 and MysticWind, and you, if you like- and he needs to check 'poly for an Important PM.

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: DrazharLn on April 17, 2021, 10:04:01 AM

Well, I imagine Ete has moved on from SMAC, but I imagine it wouldn't hurt to ask.

Do you want to share details of Solver's project here? Or maybe invite them to publish the details somewhere?

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 17, 2021, 06:23:40 PM

Well, Apolyton is maybe the oldest still-alive gaming site on the webs, right?  And the database, as a consequence, is huge now.  And MarkG, one of the original owners, was quite prone to kludging up mods of the forums software.  And it's changed management several times over, of various levels of tech competence.  And vBulletin has gone through a lot of versions since 1998.

So vB doesn't get much call for handling a site that old w/ a database that large and disorganized.  The place looks great, largely thanks to me, but is a creaking, glitchy mess that we fear will break completely the next time I move a thread.

There's been a number of different downloads sections over the years, I gather for technical reasons, and there's nothing going now and for most of a decade, I think, also because the place is a tech mess.

Well, there's a goldmine of uploaded mod files still on the server, sez Solver, and we agree that that there stuff needs to be made available.  Best, he says, for tech reasons and the long term, to not even try to do it as a forum function - something about text files and Markup and Homer being way better than I knock up a straight Poly-looking .html page w/ links, maybe to do w/ uploading functionality.  I'm unclear on that last.

I don't gather making a Downloads page is much of a hurdle, though.  What is, is so many years' worth of files with names like dan1.zip that will have to be opened and looked at to describe, organize, and index/link properly.

I'm wildly overcommitted, and Solver is wildly having a job and a family, and I don't see it happening this year -or maybe ever- without some folks pitching in.  It NEEDS doing, it's WORTH a lot to the greater online Civ gaming community, and everyone wins with all that great content made available, and the community benefits from that bait being out there drawing lurkers and getting them more interested in lurking, joining, and getting involved.

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 17, 2021, 08:21:15 PM

-Also, we've gotten our hands on MarkG's backups from circa 2005 -including the sites Poly hosted- Solver says there's several things long thought lost forever.  We're definitely going to be seeing something out of THAT...

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: DrazharLn on April 17, 2021, 08:30:40 PM

Sounds like it should go in a git repo or something and just open it for people to look at what's there and propose changes and moves to order things up.

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 17, 2021, 10:06:06 PM

He mentioned git, working knowledge of.  May be thinking the same way.

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: Buster's Uncle on February 20, 2023, 03:52:16 PM

Since this is where it came up -also to bump the very good idea in the OP, that shoulda drawn some interest and cooperation, it being a good deal for everyone- an Altera Centauri scenario collection update.

Unfortunately, the GotM team's stuff in the subfolder of Altera in Dowloads was omitted from the updates elsewhere.  I have just completed remedial action at CFC, and am about to go log in at Apolyton and duplicate that hard work.

Altera Centauri Scenario Repository | CivFanatics Forums (https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/altera-centauri-scenario-repository.452400/)

That is all.


---


Draz, you being on the bus w/ the Modding Showcase project -was that YOUR idea to begin with?-  you should go first with SMAC-in SMAX.  Modding Showcase is one of those things we could promote - easy to describe, link, use a screenshot cropped/reduced when I've made the page, even if it's just the one.  For NOW - I can will include a pitch to modders who see...

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: DrazharLn on February 20, 2023, 08:31:18 PM

The best version of the SMAC-in-SMAX project is now bundled with induktio's Thinker, so any promotion of it would probably be combined with a promotion of Thinker.

I found a kinda annoying bug with the latest release of Thinker today, so we might as well wait for that to get fixed before doing anything.

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: Buster's Uncle on February 20, 2023, 08:36:15 PM

I WANT to showcase Thinker.  Persuade Induktio to play ball, willya?

Title: Re: Mod Showcase
Post by: Buster's Uncle on February 23, 2023, 01:42:16 AM

Got Altera took care of at Poly yesterday.