Tech Council

[Richard]

Actually I am planning on making some DNS changes to launch a community.shrapnelgames.com to offer hosting for guys like you (and the tech council). Let me get to that.

In the mean time there's always our banner exchange program .

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Sarge is coming...

Richard Arnesen
Director of Covert Ops
Shrapnel Games
http://www.shrapnelgames.com

[Matryx]

Ok, for now I'll look to getting it hosted on SourceForge.

[mac5732]

Matryx, sounds like everyone likes your idea, in the meantime while waiting to find location, how about setting up the system for the council to use: example. breakdown into areas such as

1. Mods for those areas that are moddable for incorporation into current or new mods
a. mods with Ai's
b. mods for multiplayer only
c. text file changes/additions/deletions

2. changes to be made in the original game itself. Remember not all of us are modders or like to tinker with original games.
a. hard code
b. patchable

3. New Ideas
a. maps
b. races/traits/designs/etc
c. ships/designs/capabilities/etc

4. Make up of the council. How many, (my opinion should be odd number in order to break tie votes). Should include both Modders and non modders.

5. Guidelines to govern the council and voting so everyone knows ahead of time, to eliminate any in house problems. This way everyone would know ahead of time how the council would work.

6. guideline to submit ideas to the forum members for their vote, etc.

these are just some of my ideas as examples, please don't misenterpet what i'm saying, I'm sure everyone has their ideas as well. Take the best ideas from everyone and incorporate into the council guidelines.

just some ideas mac

[tesco samoa]

I will help where ever I am needed. Don't mind doing grunt work either.

Like the idea and where it is going



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L? GdX $ Fr C++ SdT T+ Sf* Tcp+ A M++ MpTM ROTS Pw+ Fq+ Nd Rp++ G+

[Matryx]

Mac: in response.
1. I was thinking of 3 main areas of modding
I) AI
II) Tech
III) EyeCandy
That's all the areas available to modders as far as I can see so those will be the main "departments" of the tech council

2. Covered by 1. (and 5)

3. Covered by 1. (and 5)

4. Make up of council:-
I was thinking 5 modders. ONLY
Non-Modders shouldn't really have a place on the mod council. They can make suggestions, but since it's the council who will be coding it I dont really see a need for a non-modder there. (sorry if this sounds discriminatory but there are other jobs)

5. Guidelines will be set out when the site goes up. There will be set procedures for submission of AI requests, Eyecandy ideas, and tech ideas etc.

By the way, 'Tech' consititutes everything from new components to new tech levels.
'Eyecandy' refers to planet images, black holes, system layout, and other things that dont require changes to the AI.

'AI' refers to new shipsets and the related AIs or modification of existing AIs to use new technologies.

As for guidelines to the council, I'll work that out soon.
It'll be along the lines of sorting through the requests, taking tasks you can do yourself, and marking other tasks that you think require more than one person or some sort of discussion.

For people like Tesco Samosa we can find jobs organising / writing Tutorials based on interviews with modders, or reviewing existing mods etc.

Comments / Feedback?

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The Unofficial Space Empires 4 Mod Utility V2.0
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Download as a .ZIP <HERE>
Download as a .RAR <HERE>
Download as a .ACE <HERE>
Check a Screenshot of it<HERE>

Check an Alpha Shot of my Mod Editor (Unreleased) <HERE>

[mac5732]

Matryx, Sounds good to me, the only reason I mentioned non-modder is sometimes someone from the outside looking in can see something those working with the problem would not see because they are to close to it. 5 Modders is going to be tough with all the good modders out there like SJ, Tampa_Gamer, Daynarr, Atrocities and the rest, how about maybe 7? tough call anyway you look at it.

just some ideas mac

[Matryx]

I was thinking 7 originally but I don't know how many people will want to be part of this.
Anyway, I have put in the request to SourceForge for hosting and we'll hear the result within 72 hours.
I'm not sure if they'll host us because they are very "Open Source" related *only* and mods for SE4, while being Open Source themselves, are not exactly helping the Open Source community...
anyway... with regards to non-modders, by all means they can make suggestions, but the council is really just the coders...

[Matryx]

Well as I expected, sourceforge turned it down.
We'll just have to wait for Richard to set up the ShrapnelGames community.

Richard : will the URL be http://community.shrapnelgames.com/<hostedname>
or the snazzier and better http://<hostedname>.ShrapnelGames.Com
?

[Dravis]

Then there's always USEfans if everything else fails or we need more space for downloads. I think a 11 person council will be better, so there is enough space for the non-modders. Also I think there should be 1 or 2 ameture modders because they can always come up with different ideas. just an idea...