Sorry it took me so long to reply. Life happened.
I actually read and am extremely thankful for all your replies in all my posts so far and will try to reply to all of them in due time, but I felt I should reply to this one first and even used Gimp to make a few image examples this time, as a way to thin out misunderstandings on what I suggested.
I am not very skilled at Gimp so they might not be all that perfect or perfectly exemplify what I am saying, but the images may very well help visualize what I am saying.
PyroFire wrote: ↑Sun Nov 24, 2019 8:20 am
GG Cannon wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 5:18 am
- An in-game access to this official forum which can also be accessed through the pause-game menu.
Confirmed there is no clickable link from in-game.
This may be a worthwhile suggestion.
I meant to actually have the forum accessible as part of the in-game menu's with a built in browser.
The menu would then look something like this:
While the window itself would be something like this:
PyroFire wrote: ↑Sun Nov 24, 2019 8:20 am
GG Cannon wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 5:18 am
+A new built in chat for the forum with image, video and file exchange
Possibly a social-network feed strictly for screenshots sharing with in-game image and video recording and editing, sharing blueprints with shown included programming and simulated planned behavior, in-game multiplayer community building, "guilds"*/groups, "parties"* and such.
Factorio has discord:
https://discord.gg/factorio
It was found here:
https://factorio.com/contact
Perhaps it should be linked in more places.
I meant to have a chat similar to Facebook's Messenger built into both the browser forum and the in-game forum access sugested above.
Possibly add to the forum a few of the features of the Facebook's feed, but limited to print screens of the game, strings and such.
A factorio-only social network so to speak. You would take the print with a key bound to the game settings, by pressing the key, that would automatically pause the game and open the community window on your own Factorio Profile Feed and allow you to slightly edit the image, add a comment and post it to your personal feed on the Factorio Network.
Similarly with strings, you would open your blueprints window, drag'n'drop the blueprint to a "share" section, which would open your Factorio Community window. By sharing that blueprint, it would share the ascii string and show a simulation of that blueprint running, allowing you to add resource spawning to show it working as intended.
I only made images about the Factorio Chat Messenger though, and they don't 100% reflect what I imagine, but are enough to have an idea.
PyroFire wrote: ↑Sun Nov 24, 2019 8:20 am
GG Cannon wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 5:18 am
[*] An in-game mod downloader/manager/organizer/specialized mod-only forum
+A mod editor and "testing grounds" for modders to easily test their mods and switch or make changes to files already in-game within the game's main menu, but also a specific-purpose community forum built in order to provide modders with every needed tools for people to develop their mods entirely from within the game, to assist one another to make their mods better, help when stuck with some programming issue and to make things easier for other modders to make mods compatible or even assist people with compatibility issues or volunteer to help with the art of sprites and such.
This already exists.
How do you think modders are already making their mods?
viewforum.php?f=82
That was really poorly described by me, but this image might exemplify it a little better, though also not perfectly as I made it in a rush. Maybe about 25%, 33%:
The idea is that the
"Modding Discussions Section" of the Forum would be associated inside the Mods section of the in-game client menu, as a 5th tab, instead of inside the Community section of the game menu suggested above, making 2 separate Forums and 2 separate Social Networks. One for Game discussions with an Offtopic section and a separate one entirely mod oriented.
Also, one would be able to make changes to their mods while running the game with an open save, in order to immediately see the effects of the changes they make.
By making a change the mod files, the game would make a back-up save before applying the changes and then re-loading the game with the "new version" of the mod with those changes applied. If the person doesn't like it and wishes to revert, the game will just load the back up saved with the previous version of that mod before those changes.
In case of crash, the game would automatically load the backup with the previous version but saving the work done to that mod as "work in progress".
Also, keeping every single version of the mod done inside the "changelog" so one can load a previous version's backup at any time.
PyroFire wrote: ↑Sun Nov 24, 2019 8:20 am
GG Cannon wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 5:18 am
[*] A crowd-sourcing & crowd-funding portal
Where the community can give suggestions on improvements or new mechanics and objects for the game and donate to provide the company with funds that can only be used towards accelerating the development of that content.
When a campaign is finally finished and the content is completed and already available in the game, however much funds remain are to be moved to the next campaign closest to being completed as well.
http://patreon.com/pyrofire
Many other developers have a patreon as well, it's often linked on their mods.
I mean, yeah, most do. I meant to have an official patreon-like crowd-sourcing portal for factorio modders associated to the mods download section of the game client, which would be needed if the mod community is relocated 100% inside the game client by the changes I am suggesting .-.
PyroFire wrote: ↑Sun Nov 24, 2019 8:20 am
GG Cannon wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 5:18 am
Those registered with the modding community would also be allowed to try and help with the code or art.
Those that give the approved suggestion, help with the code or the art receive a small prize money from within the crowd-funding funds as a reward as well when it is completed, to give people in the community motivation and an incentive to provide feedback, suggest improvements and help develop those very improvements.
Other rewards may be given through lottery and a point system to those that donate money, such as awarding money and entries to the lottery by donated amount with the ability to exchange those points for other things within the crowd-funding portal, the forums, the modding-only forum and also even actual physical rewards.
Important:
A crowd-sourcing agreement between modders from the built-in community and the company, with meaningful rewards to those involved.
- The company is allowed to pick any mod from its built-in mod community and oficialize it as part of the vanilla game using the crowd-funding system to further develop and adapt the content to the official game through hired contractors which may or may not be the original developer but those involved with that mod's development will each be awarded a small super-exclusive statue that can only be acquired through this method with a plaque with the name of the mod and their names, they will always be involved and consulted about changes to that content and the company will organize a one time only crowd-funding where the resulting collected money will be used 80% as their prize money and 20% directed to their mod's development and to fixing all possible bugs found.
The factorio team can't afford to do this.
Thats why i have a patreon page.
http://patreon.com/pyrofire
Also crowd-sourced material (code, assets) are never going to be of the standard of quality that the factorio team is looking for in their project.
The idea is that the Factorio crew would be allowed to pick a mod and recreate it officially, but that which is within standard quality that the factorio team is looking for, they can utilize, that which is not, they make again following the mods original concept with whatever changes they want to add.
The decision to have the original modders be a part of this officialization of their mod would hang with the factorio team according to need or if they want to, but either way, the modder would be rewarded, besides with a percentage of the "officialization crowd-sourcing", with a small statue unique to modders that had one of their mods officialized.
It is not as simple as just addind the mod to the game as an official part of it as is, but to give the factorio team the ability to pick any mod, adapt it and officialize it, which would make the game evolve a lot and quickly, raising the quality of the content with reduced costs for the team and increased rewards and recognition for the modders.
The thought of having your mod possibily officialized would also be a motivation for modders not to simply abandon their mods with no further updates, which is extremely beneficial to the community.
The community would also be more open to request the factorio team to officialize some abandoned older mods that were particularly fun or useful.
In the end, everybody wins with 0 quality loss.