Mod Implementation: Vote on Adding to Istaria

[Silithus Zerr]

Hello!

I had an Idea I thought I'd throw by the Dev team and everyone else here on Ista. What about having the community vote on adding mods or assets that players have created as a permanent part of the Istaria file for everyone? Let's say every really likes a new Flight Animation mod (Example). Then there could be a vote by the community to include this as the new 'Mainstream' flight animation. (Another example is an expanded 'Emote' bank)

Just a thought for the Dev's and everyone else to consider, something that might help generate content for the game and relieve a little of the stress on the team. You never know what creativity might be cooked up by some of the great members of our community.

[Pharaxes]

Short answer:
I would agree with that.

Long answer:
Of course the best would be, if the mods could be switched on and off through the launcher.

Even better would be of course a kind of mod-center. One that takes care of anything that is in the resource_override folder. When my thoughts are right, any file in the resources folder that has a (modified) copy in the resources_override folder which will be used instead of the orignal one. Means no matter what the folder structure is in the resources_override the file is found and used.

Therefore a mod manager could create folders for each mod and place the files in there and also can check, if several mods change the same file and ask for something to do (disable one of the both or more for example). The manager also could backup and restore the mods. So when there is a standard system, all existing mods could easily be adapted to that.

[hallucin8]

Of course the best would be, if the mods could be switched on and off through the launcher.

And that right there would be most people's answer. Some people (most?) love the Icon pack, but not everyone wants it, same goes for the map pack.

However, I don't think we need a new mechanic to allow for voting of mods. I think it's far easier to just submit the idea via the forums for a mod you would like to see implemented as the new norm and then the community can provide feedback and go from there. The forum already has polls, so you're very welcome to use those a guide for voting. Perhaps I'm just unsure of what it is you actually want?

[Silithus Zerr]

Yes hallucin8, that's what I mean~ Using the forums would be fine. I just meant having the community give feedback before it was implemented. I also really like Pharaxes' idea. I know many players who were quite frustrated before finding the Map pack for example, and being able to figure out where locations were without having to ask a lot of questions.

But I'm also thinking of mainline Istaria assets that could possibly be improved upon - such as the number of dragon emotes available. Have such an improvement that only benefits everyone be applied game-wide. After all, who really can argue with 'More emotes'?

To sum it up I might describe it as player contributions toward the game that are deemed awesome by many but have some complaints, be listed as 'Check' able box to enable or mods. But things that are created by players and have no criticisms could be implemented server wide as content.

That way people don't have to go find these mods and install them from their various locations~ Many don't even find out about them until they have spent some time in the game. My hope is to put as little work on Dev's as possible, and make mods much more accessible / motivate people to make more mods.

[Velea]

Keep in mind that only about 10% of the population of players ever registers for a forum account, and of that 10% only a small percentage actually post regularly. So anything that we do would be far from representative of the gaming community as a whole.

Obviously those who are here and participating on this thread like this idea, but you (plural) represent a small percentage of those who play Istaria, and thus anything we implement based on your (again, plural) thoughts here that would effect everyone would not be fair to those other 90% who simply want to play the game, not participate in the forums.

Please do not misread anything I've said here... You are a very valuable part of our gaming community. Without you we would have many more bugs that go unreported, not get nearly the suggestions we do, and not have your feedback when we need it. And we do need you. But we also have to keep in mind that you are only a small percentage of the player population as a whole.

And yes, there is the argument that we could advertise that a poll was happening and go participate in it, but that would only increase participating by a small percentage. We don't want to do anything which forces players to participate in the forums simple to prevent their game from changing.

[Dracillion]

Keep in mind that only about 10% of the population of players ever registers for a forum account, and of that 10% only a small percentage actually post regularly. So anything that we do would be far from representative of the gaming community as a whole.

Obviously those who are here and participating on this thread like this idea, but you (plural) represent a small percentage of those who play Istaria, and thus anything we implement based on your (again, plural) thoughts here that would effect everyone would not be fair to those other 90% who simply want to play the game, not participate in the forums.

Please do not misread anything I've said here... You are a very valuable part of our gaming community. Without you we would have many more bugs that go unreported, not get nearly the suggestions we do, and not have your feedback when we need it. And we do need you. But we also have to keep in mind that you are only a small percentage of the player population as a whole.

And yes, there is the argument that we could advertise that a poll was happening and go participate in it, but that would only increase participating by a small percentage. We don't want to do anything which forces players to participate in the forums simple to prevent their game from changing.

*cough* removing platemail from BTLM, limiting silos on plots *cough*

A pseudo mod manager would be kind of neat. All the security issues aside, it would be a convenient way to keep tabs on the latest and greatest. On a side note, it would be interesting in seeing if this game could handle some redone HD environmental textures.

[Silithus Zerr]

Ahh yes, you make a good point Velea - thanks for checking out my suggestion! I just figured I would stir some discussion