Poll and Feedback: Community Mod in A27

[real_tabasco_sauce]

Hi Everyone,

With a27 on the horizon, it will be decided whether or not to make a community mod for a27. @Stan` mentioned making a poll for this so I figured I would go ahead and put it out there.

Please fill out the poll and feel free to add additional comments on this below.

Edited February 19, 2023 by real_tabasco_sauce

[Player of 0AD]

Has the 26 community mod been merged into A27?

[real_tabasco_sauce]

36 minutes ago, Player of 0AD said:

Has the 26 community mod been merged into A27?

yes from around 27390 to 27400 you can see community mod features. I'm pretty sure they all made it into a27.

https://trac.wildfiregames.com/log/ps?action=stop_on_copy&mode=stop_on_copy&rev=27411&stop_rev=27390&limit=200&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=#

Edited February 19, 2023 by real_tabasco_sauce

[guerringuerrin]

In addition to thank you all for the enormous work you have done with this mod, I think it is important to note that it has energized the community a lot and has generated great enthusiasm from many players. It is true that it has also been "divided" a bit between players who have downloaded the mod and those who have deliberately decided not to do so and we could even say that the mod is not used by most of the community and, nevertheless, has been adopted by the most competitive hosts and players.

I would also like to suggest that if the community-mod will become a regular mechanism for testing and introducing possible changes towards new releases I think it would be important to achieve a better integration of it within the game and facilitate access to recent changes that are incorporated into the mod without the need for the user to enter Trac. This is not only a limitation because the user must manually enter a website, but must also learn to interpret the site, which is not the more friendly website to someone without some computer skill or interest.

A welcome screen/text box in the main menu would be enough to be able to transmit to the user in a more effective way the changes made in the community-mod, as well as any other message that the developers consider important. The content of this section could be extracted from some website controlled by the developers, which would easily allow modifications to be made. The only message of these characteristics is the motd of the lobby and it seems to me that it is not designed for this type of information that I am proposing.

If there is any difficulty in incorporating this into the main menu of the game natively perhaps it can be previously tested on the Shiny mod made by @maroder with a similar mechanism, only instead of using WFG's servers to host the content, it could be hosted on some other web server with controlled access. And beyond the fact that this does not solve the underlying issue that I am raising because it would be necessary to use the shiny mod, it can be a good way to work and improve on such an important issue wich is to communicate simply and well.

 

Best regards

[BeTe]

@real_tabasco_sauce I didn't follow the most recent changes. Are following changes that you ask whether to include in A27: https://gitlab.com/0ad/0ad-community-mod-a26/-/merge_requests?scope=all&state=merged ? Anything else?

 

Edited February 20, 2023 by BeTe

[Thorfinn the Shallow Minded]

Is there any plan to introduce hoplite mercenaries to Persia?  They were a focal piece of many battles such as the Battle of Cunaxes and ones during Alexander's campaign.

[real_tabasco_sauce]

7 hours ago, BeTe said:

@real_tabasco_sauce I didn't follow the most recent changes. Are following changes that you ask whether to include in A27: https://gitlab.com/0ad/0ad-community-mod-a26/-/merge_requests?scope=all&state=merged ? Anything else?

They are all already in a27:

On 18/02/2023 at 10:08 PM, real_tabasco_sauce said:

https://trac.wildfiregames.com/log/ps?action=stop_on_copy&mode=stop_on_copy&rev=27411&stop_rev=27390&limit=200&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=#

Here is the changelog for community mod version 4:

community_mod_changelog (1).txt

[alre]

I voted no to question 3 because I think some time should be waited after the new vanilla release, before the first mod release.

[real_tabasco_sauce]

Just now, alre said:

I voted no to question 3 because I think some time should be waited after the new vanilla release, before the first mod release.

Ah I see, well there will likely be at least 3 to 4 weeks before the first is released, just for enough branches to accumulate. Also it might take a bit to get it set up.

[Yekaterina]

I find myself quite dependent on the community mod because it fixes the bugs with the original version and allows tier 2 military technologies to be researched early. However, if the original version can fix all of the existing bugs and balance the civs like community mod does, that would be great and there would be no division in the community. There was a player who complained about "ego" users using community mod to maintain their superiority, resulting in divisions within the player base. I am not certain whether I can agree with him; I only wanted to escape from the bugs and get some early technology.

[Lion.Kanzen]

1 hour ago, Helicity said:

some early technology.

early updates, you mean?

[Yekaterina]

8 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

early updates, you mean?

Yes

[Stan`]

@Helicity In theory the “bugs” should have been fixed in an Alpha 26b version, but we decided to try to see if it was acceptable to just make a mod for it. The Alpha 27 one should not hopefully have to fix bugs. If it has to it will be later in the development cycle.

But to maximise the chances we need as many people to try the release candidates when they come out.

[sternstaub]

I do not see a problem with the community mod "dividing" the community. It is very simple to turn it on and off, and it poses a very interesting way to test content. But this might well be due to lack of experience, and maybe those who play for a long(er) time see this differently. However, i like the concept and would love to see it persist

Cheers

Edited February 21, 2023 by sternstaub

[Yekaterina]

Community mod automatically filters out cosmic nubs from joining your games, which is helpful xD

There will be less hurt feelings of newcomers being kicked from TG. Also it makes smurfs obvious - helpful for balance. Anyone with community mod on, you can safely let them play as there won't be any cosmic performance 

[guerringuerrin]

I just noticed there's a line in the lobby's subject about community mod. I would like to suggest this line being written in green or yellow color so it can be noticed easily by players.

Edited February 22, 2023 by guerringuerrin

[Gurken Khan]

Why does the site bug me to vote when I can't vote anymore?