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[Uomoz]

Hello everyone,

I'm developing a small sideproject to test a few new things for myself and I decided to make a Mods/Package repository for Starsector, with features like bundle packaging and proper tagging in mind.

For Modders:

You can let Starsector Repo make your mod available to download/tag/etc including a small snippet of code in the main post of the mod forum thread.

The system automatically checks the forum post of each mod and finds the download link/images etc by default, but everything the crawler does can be customized by the configuration code.

By default your mod WON'T be included in the repo. You need to add the repo_crawl = true configuration to allow the repo to interact with your mod.

Here's the base configuration. The only needed part for each config are the anchor tags and their content. The only required config is repo_crawl and it must be set to true.

Just add all or some of the code below in the main post of the mod forum thread and you are done!

Code

[color=transparent][size=1pt]
[anchor=repo_crawl]true[/anchor] Choose if Starsector Repo should crawl this page or not. [Default]: false. [Optional]: NO
[anchor=repo_category]mod[/anchor] Choose one between totalconversion, mod or utility. [Default]: Mod. [Optional]: YES
[anchor=repo_tags]exampletag1,exampletag2[/anchor] Mod tags separated by a comma. for the full list of possible Tags see http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=17654.0. [Default]: N/A. [Optional]: YES
[anchor=repo_title]Title[/anchor] Overrides the title/name found in the mod_json/version files. [Default]: Parsed from version or mod_json file. [Optional]: YES
[anchor=repo_abstract]Lorem ipsum dolor sit.[/anchor] Overrides the description found in the mod_json file. [Default]: Parsed from the mod_json file. [Optional]: YES
[anchor=repo_image]https://www.example.com/image.gif[/anchor] The main mod image (I like a gif here). [Default]: Parses the page for cool images. [Optional]: YES
[anchor=repo_config]data/exampleModConfig.json[/anchor] Specify the config file location of the mod in the main mod folder so it can be edited before downloading it from the repository. [Default]: N/A. [Optional]: YES
[anchor=repo_changelog]Lorem ipsum dolor sit.[/anchor] Specifies the changelog for the latest version. [Default]: N/A. [Optional]: YES
[anchor=repo_link]https://www.example.com/link-dl.zip[/anchor] The current version download link (must be direct). [Default]: Parses the page for probable download links. [Optional]: YES
[/size][/color]

Cleaned up for final implementation:

Code

[color=transparent][size=1pt]
[anchor=repo_crawl]true[/anchor]
[anchor=repo_category]mod[/anchor]
[anchor=repo_tags]exampletag1,exampletag2[/anchor]
[anchor=repo_title]Title[/anchor]
[anchor=repo_abstract]Lorem ipsum dolor sit.[/anchor]
[anchor=repo_image]https://www.example.com/image.gif[/anchor]
[anchor=repo_config]data/exampleModConfig.json[/anchor]
[anchor=repo_changelog]Lorem ipsum dolor sit.[/anchor]
[anchor=repo_link]https://www.example.com/link-dl.zip[/anchor]
[/size][/color]

Absolute Barebone Config, but perfectly working:

Code

[color=transparent][size=1pt]
[anchor=repo_crawl]true[/anchor]
[/size][/color]

Possible Tags (WIP, just for test, they will be changed/deprecated soon)

General:

Code

graphics,configurable,humorous,vanillafriendly,missions,library,devtool

Campaign:

Code

campaignfeatures,secrets,factions,quests,industry,planets,starsystems

Combat: 

Code

combatfeatures,ships,weapons,hullmods,shipsystems

WIP interface

[Tartiflette]

I don't know if we need yet another platform now that we have the Forum, Discord and Nexus already to publish our mods on. What would be the features and benefits over these?

[Uomoz]

Hi,

well it would be easy to bookmark to mods, receive updates via email periodically if necessary, set up easy ways to have mods requirements fulfilled etc. It's not something I want to make to replace anything already existing. I wouldn't personally use Discord to download a mod, I'd love to have it properly documented on a proper website. It would be properly set up for SS, so it would have tags and categories specifically made for SS. I want to set up a way for the system to upload data for spaceships and such automatically from the mod files so you could have an online resource/DB with all the stuff of the mods you are subscribed to.

I have plenty ideas . 

[DatonKallandor]

Gonna be honest, the very last thing I'd want is yet another site that wants me to make an account and login.

[Uomoz]

Login wouldn't absolutely be necessary .

[Grievous69]

The biggest problem I see with all these non-forum websites or apps is that they lack mods that we have here. It would be nice to have a place where every single mod is available AND that it also looks nice (navigating through here to find a mod is a bit annoying). Nexus mods lacks a ton of mods the last time I've checked, Discord is cancer as an app itself, requires login and is stupidly hard to find a mod to download (even worse than here funnily). So at the end of the day the official forums still remain as the best place for mods. That said if your website even comes close to the forums I'd consider that a success. Bookmark feature also seems really convenient, wish other things had that.

[Uomoz]

My plan is to add most of the mods I can find myself (giving full credit and "ownership" of the page to the modmaker of course) and give off the mod edit page ownership if the mod owner wants to control the process himself.

[Tartiflette]

My plan is to add most of the mods I can find myself (giving full credit and "ownership" of the page to the modmaker of course) and give off the mod edit page ownership if the mod owner wants to control the process himself.

Ooooooh I can already see quite a few modders not liking this.

If it isn't a public repository, I can't see it taking off in any shape or form. First because it would be an insane amount of work to maintain up to date (since we now have mod updating every day) and it would create the conundrum of modders wanting to keep control over their releases, yet not willing to spend time updating their mod on yet another platform.

I mean, the base idea has many merits but it would require some more features to be worthwhile I think. Some basic mod management for example (Update all mods, Safe update mods [no save breaking update] ), one click download+unpack maybe? Basically Nexus but without the login part.

[Harmful Mechanic]

My first reaction is a big sigh at the idea of having yet another place to upload my releases to. I think Nexus works well; I don't mind the forum. I really don't want to be opted-in without being asked, either.

If it had some critical feature nothing else has, like Tartiflette says, that made people's lives easier, then I could see it being worthwhile, but as it stands, something like Nexus is going to be a lot more practical to use on our ends and players' ends.

[Nick XR]

I appreciate the effort and it looks great, but I don't really want another place to upload stuff to when I rev versions. 

What would be nice is a single place to upload stuff to that then gets posted in all other appropriate places, but I'd never trust that with my various creds so that idea is DoA too :/

[Uomoz]

Thanks for the feedback y'all!

If it isn't a public repository, I can't see it taking off in any shape or form. First because it would be an insane amount of work to maintain up to date (since we now have mod updating every day) and it would create the conundrum of modders wanting to keep control over their releases, yet not willing to spend time updating their mod on yet another platform.

I mean, the base idea has many merits but it would require some more features to be worthwhile I think. Some basic mod management for example (Update all mods, Safe update mods [no save breaking update] ), one click download+unpack maybe? Basically Nexus but without the login part.

It will definitely be public and every mod i put in myself (that will be only at the beginning ideally) will be done after asking the modder permission. I intend to make it the best place to upload the mods, even if it doesn't work in the end. Functions like "batch dl with save compatibility" are definitely planned. I plan to add a lot of functions that we usually do browsing files in remote folders in a single checkout page. For example you could have a package of mods you like the most bundled together with all the configs already set up to your preference and downloadable every time you want. Or having different packages and one could also check for mod compatibility on the go and possibly modders could inform players for mod to mod problems or suggest configurations.

[SCC]

You have set yourself quite a high bar there. We will see if you succeed.

[Nick XR]

Maybe the implementation could just be a search engine instead?  No real need to create a repo, since forums/discord are just a pointer to a repo on bitbucket/mega drive anyway.

You could scan the forums/discord/what ever, pull out the readme.md and the screen shots of posts and then format that into what you've got and modders then wouldn't have to deal with uploading it to a new place. Maybe modders that are super inclined could add a new file of some sort that specifies how to name/describe/relevant screenshot.

[Histidine]

Maybe the implementation could just be a search engine instead?  No real need to create a repo, since forums/discord are just a pointer to a repo on bitbucket/mega drive anyway.

You could scan the forums/discord/what ever, pull out the readme.md and the screen shots of posts and then format that into what you've got and modders then wouldn't have to deal with uploading it to a new place. Maybe modders that are super inclined could add a new file of some sort that specifies how to name/describe/relevant screenshot.

Was (vaguely) thinking of something along those lines myself.
Bot that scrapes forum for mod links and maintains an index on the Repo website, with update notifications and options for semiautomatic download/install. A mod is flagged as updated if the linked download in its forum thread OP changes (absolutely no manual intervention by any party should be required here).

[Tartiflette]

With a couple features that would only require minimal amount of work like a safe update I could get behind that.

Maybe the version checker file could have a line about the earliest save compatible update:

Code

{
    "masterVersionFile":"https://bitbucket.org/modder/mod/downloads/mod.version",
    "modName":"Mod",
    "modThreadId":"0000",
    "modNexusId":"00",
    "modVersion":
    {
        "major":0,
        "minor":2,
        "patch":"3"
    },
    "safeUpdateVersion":
    {
        "major":0,
        "minor":2,
        "patch":"0"
    },
}

So that if the last downloaded version was earlier than the last safe version, it displays a warning.

Then it would only be a one time setup to have a mod on that repo.