Moderated Mods

[alterecco]

Fellow Space Travellers,

Lately there has been some disturbance in the force. Large swarms of mods have assailed Xelerus, and not all of them are of a high quality. Xelerus is an open community, and as long as you follow a few guidelines, you are welcome there, and that is how it should be.

However... Imagine being a new player, or one who has not travelled the path of modding. How would you find a mod that is fun to play with, and does not ruin the game for you or waste your time. At the moment Xelerus contains over 300 mods, so it can be a daunting task to try them all.

For this purpose, a new section on the wiki has been created, to be a place where veteran players can list the mods that they think other people will really enjoy. This page will not become a way to promote one's own mods, but must be as fair and balanced as possible. Anybody with a wiki account is welcome to edit the list, please just obey the rule above, and write a comment about what you have changed. Abuse will have consequences. If you do not have a wiki account, you are free to comment in this thread, and if you argue well, the list will be updated by someone with an account.

At the moment this list has just been started, so it will reflect the minds of it's creators. Please understand that. We hope very much that it can help new players into the fun world that Transcendence modding is, and encourage more cool mods to spring from peoples minds.

Looking forward for your input...

alterecco and DigDug

Reccommended Mods

[digdug]

Please note that this new page on the wiki is not a competitor to Xelerus, it's going to post mods on Xelerus itself.

We would like to give more light to mods worth of their name. Innovation, unique mods, clever scripts and contents are the keywords.

Comments and descriptions on individual mods are welcome.
Also it would be nice to see in this thread "reviews" of mods.

[Atarlost]

Hmm. Lots of problems. I'm not going to make edits right now.

G.O.D. belongs in Mods for developers, as does Sheltem's debug depot. A new player using either would ruin his or her game.

The switchable omni/non-omni weapons were never updated to use 0.99c compatable switching code and should not be on the reccomended list. Nor was bobby's switchable shield.

Someone should go through all the pre-.99c mods in the developers vault and cull anything broken from the reccomended list. We don't want new modders using someone else's broken code without knowing it's broken.

I'd also like to see a reason for everything on the list. A lot of the reccomended mods are ones I completely passed over on Xelerus because the descriptions didn't interest me and I'd like to know why they're reccomended.

[alterecco]

G.O.D. belongs in Mods for developers, as does Sheltem's debug depot. A new player using either would ruin his or her game.

Already done.

I'd also like to see a reason for everything on the list. A lot of the reccomended mods are ones I completely passed over on Xelerus because the descriptions didn't interest me and I'd like to know why they're reccomended.

I agree, reasons and descriptions would be nice. I believe it is impossible to create a 100% objective list, and it will fail to meet some peoples tastes, but i hope it will at least give a broad look at some of the good mods out there. I have added a header to the page explaining the current state, and what I hope it will be in the near future. I look forward for your edits, as I am quite certain they will be solid.

.]

[bluesaberist]

The switchable omni/non-omni weapons were never updated to use 0.99c compatable switching code and should not be on the reccomended list.

To the contrary, all of those switchable posted by me are fully compatible. I have changed the version to .99c to avoid future confusion.

[Atarlost]

So they are. Yours didn't make the original list though. For some reason the switchables that made the list are the original proof of concept switchables which don't work in .99c.

[Arisaya]

G.O.D. belongs in Mods for developers, as does Sheltem's debug depot. A new player using either would ruin his or her game.

Already done.

I'd also like to see a reason for everything on the list. A lot of the reccomended mods are ones I completely passed over on Xelerus because the descriptions didn't interest me and I'd like to know why they're reccomended.

I agree, reasons and descriptions would be nice. I believe it is impossible to create a 100% objective list, and it will fail to meet some peoples tastes, but i hope it will at least give a broad look at some of the good mods out there. I have added a header to the page explaining the current state, and what I hope it will be in the near future. I look forward for your edits, as I am quite certain they will be solid.

.]

That can be partially addressed by sorting them by category and giving a decent description for each.

[digdug]

modified the lists following the problems addressed in the posts.

Feel free to suggest new categories, or modifications of the current ones.

On IRC it has been suggested to reduce the number of mods per category to something like a maximum of 10.
Mods can be sorted by complexity, innovation, upload date, personal taste. What do you think ?

Feel free to post something like "I like this mod because...", "I believe that this mod is great because..."

[Arisaya]

Perhaps there should be some sort of indicator as to how it's balanced?
balanced to original game
changes balance
not balanced

[Prophet]

Perhaps the method of categorizing mods on Xelerus is a factor in this problem. For a veteran of the T community it is fairly easy to use but I myself was very put-off by my first few downloads. One was not compatible with the version I was using and crashed the game. I then deleted ALL the mods I had downloaded as I had no idea which was the culprit.

Is there a way we can have *Stickied* mods? Mods that have survived the test of time and have proved their worth, gained the respect of the community etc.
These should be at the top of the category they are in.

New mods should be 'quarantined' for a set period of time, until they are deemed worthy of recognition in the standard categories. During their quarantine, users are welcome to download them for testing but would not be recommended for new users. Testing for bugs, balance, compatibility quality etc. Here, the comments should be short and simple like "balanced, new content, working, Love the dialogue with Arco Vaughn's Wife! lol 4.5/5" or "godMod, superultra darkFire weapon. I already have 5 of these, bugged, grapics 3/5" The comments would be used later for placement into a permanent category.

Once the quarantine is up, if the mod has merit, it is put into circulation, otherwise it goes into a mass grave for 1-3 months, and must either be fixed and re-submitted (then into quarantine again) or deleted. All comments are erased when entered into circulation unless they are informative or helpful. this would also allow more room for others to leave comments/suggestions.

A nice, simple rating system would be fantastic as well. Anonymous stars or numerical ranking, as well as comments. I think some people are hesitant to post bad comments out of kindness and so some mods linger purely due to the 'politeness' of the community. (many thanks to all of you! ) If there were a simple score, more people would be willing to rate the mod rather than write a meaningful/witty comment. The comments would then become a method of advertising rather than a tiny sub forum as some are now.

Off the top of my head, here's a sample of the changed categories
-Featured Mods
-Mods that contain balanced variations of current content in Vanilla
-Mods that add new content and are balanced for Vanilla
-Mods that make Vanilla easier/harder
-Working GodMods (face it, it's the most popular category on Xelerus)
-Adventures should probably have their own category

The following categories are for 'Advanced' users and modders
-'Proof of concept' Mods and development tools (not intended for use by beginners)
-tutorials/source files/scripts/modding tools
-Graphics

I wouldn't mind seeing some Mods on the Wiki but those should be limited to the "Featured Mods" , essentially a sampling of 2-3 from each category as an introduction to the wonderful world of Transcendence Mods, or linked to as proof-of-concept mods for a wiki topic.

I suppose that I am in favour of a redesign of Xelerus rather than an addition to the Wiki which may or may not fix the problem....
just my 2 cents.

[Arisaya]

I put in a suggestion for system/topology mods category on xelerus- if that gets added, then another setion could be added on the wiki as well.

[Atarlost]

I'm not sure it's the mods that need quarantining so much as the modders. Well, old mods should be quarantined, but any mod by eg. Betel can be expected to work. There are modders who have demonstrated they test before publishing and don't need their new mods quarantined. There are also modders who have demonstrated they don't.

On the other hand there are mods that are broken because the scripting language has moved on from where it was when they were written. Functions have been deprecated. Assumptions that were true have become false. These need to be individually reviewed and if they don't work anymore relegated to a "needs updating" category or if there's already a more current version (eg. fleets) deleted entirely. 20 facing ships should probably also be placed in the obsolete bin.

[Arisaya]

I'm not sure it's the mods that need quarantining so much as the modders. Well, old mods should be quarantined, but any mod by eg. Betel can be expected to work. There are modders who have demonstrated they test before publishing and don't need their new mods quarantined. There are also modders who have demonstrated they don't.

On the other hand there are mods that are broken because the scripting language has moved on from where it was when they were written. Functions have been deprecated. Assumptions that were true have become false. These need to be individually reviewed and if they don't work anymore relegated to a "needs updating" category or if there's already a more current version (eg. fleets) deleted entirely. 20 facing ships should probably also be placed in the obsolete bin.

20 facing playerships anyways.

[edit]---[rant]
also- if anyone has new graphics, new weapons effects, special system/station arraignments or anything else visual, they need to post a screen or a pic... It's very annoying to have to dl a bunch of mods just to check what they look like since the mod maker didn't bother to upload a pic[/rant]

[alterecco]

Perhaps the method of categorizing mods on Xelerus is a factor in this problem. For a veteran of the T community it is fairly easy to use but I myself was very put-off by my first few downloads.

[snip]

I suppose that I am in favour of a redesign of Xelerus rather than an addition to the Wiki which may or may not fix the problem....
just my 2 cents.

You have some good points, and many of them I would like to see happen, but I am afraid that they wont. I will leave it to Bimbel to confirm or reaffirm what I say, but on the occasions when a major redesign of Xelerus has come up on IRC, he has stated that he does not have the time. Small changes are usually not a problem, as long as they lie within the already existing framework of Xelerus. I totally understand Bimbel's situation, and respect the fact that he even takes time to implement small changes. I do not mean to speak for him, I just wanted to relay the resons behind making this list (and asking DigDug to sort it!!).

So... while a spiced up Xelerus would be cool, and would probably solve some of the problems, I actually think it serves it's purpose fine as it is, and can not solve all of the problems anyway. What we need is complete community control over what floats to the top (so to speak), and the wiki is the place for that. There are things we cannot do there, such as anonymous rating, and download stats etc., but what we do have is the mercilessness of non-anonymous editing, and revision control.

Perhaps the initial state of the list was wrong. I placed every mod on Xelerus there, since it made the list easier to edit, than having to plot in the data manually (bimbel gave me a db dump). Ideally the list of Recommended Mods, should be the only content on that page. Other lists can be made, on other pages, to suit other purposes. Not every new mod on xelerus will be represented on the wiki, but hopefully the good mods will prompt some player to think, "hey, this should be on the wiki!". If the list over time grows larger, I don't think that is a bad thing. It would just mean that we have more good mods in the community. A player using the list will know that others have found these good/fun, working and balanced.

I know it is a lot of work, but hey, we have lots of time. It will probably be another year or so before 0.99d comes (joking.... i hope )

Ohh, and btw.... THE IOCRYM MADE ME DO IT!!!

.]

[Arisaya]

I know it is a lot of work, but hey, we have lots of time. It will probably be another year or so before 0.99d comes (joking.... i hope )

Ohh, and btw.... THE IOCRYM MADE ME DO IT!!!

.]

Actually George stated that he won't be doing .99d, he's skipping right to 1.0
Included will be a re-done battle-arena (apparently complete)(complete with new ships, or at least I think so), as well as something else which I con't remember off hand. The thread is in the commonwealth forum: "status report"