Spring needs to have a officially Infrastructure

[PicassoCT]

Meaning, it has to have clear, non subjective criterias, that a lobby, a server, or a tool has to fullfill, and if several of thoose exist, the one with the most users gets to be the official spring-lobby, server, -whatever.
Im not anti-competition here, quite to the contrary. But at some point, the Distrtrouble sets in and thas a sin.
Users want clear, decisive answers and standard stuff delivered with there downloaded first version of spring.

Criterias for a official Lobby:

• Bugfree
  Seperate Testreleases and Testers from official releases
  Autoreverts Releases that proof to be buggy none the less
  is from User perspective plattform independent
  Intuitive GUI (measurable by how many users ask for advice with this or that lobby)
  Supports official Spring Server Protocoll
  meets GPL requirements
  offers ChatBot-Support
  offers Matchmaking-Support
  offers Working AutoDownloads via rapid
  offers Information Startsite
  offers new User Guidance (Videotutorials, Step-by-Step-Instructions, whatever)
  offers SteamIntegration
  offer inlobby bug reports

Criterias for a official Server:

• minimalistic Server protocoll
  scales linear trafficwise with increasing players
  autorestarts on lossfree crash
  limp-home mode (provides still communication and gamestarts, while everything else collapses)
  uses a free database
  supports official spring protocoll
  gracefully recives/hands over games and players to other parts of infrastucture or copies of himself

Criterias for a official Map:

• has to be pretty
  has to be popular
  has to be in a reasonable Size
  has to be land and sea

Criterias for a official map-editor:

• has to work on all plattforms
  has to support landscape editing
  has to support feature placing
  has to support ssmf
  has to support mission making
  has to support a standard format for map-pre compile storage
  has to support a standard format for mission pre-game storage
  has to support automated testing of multiplayer maps

You can still create a lobby or for example like me little missions in multiplayer- but you can not claim to be a standard sollution. Hate me, hit me, but you know this would do spring good.

[gajop]

Criticism:

General: No need to have an official lobby, map (?!), or map editor. Having an official server is good, but far more important is to have an official protocol.

Specific(in bold):

Criterias for a official Lobby:

• Bugfree not possible
  Seperate Testreleases and Testers from official releases development detail
  Autoreverts Releases that proof to be buggy none the less development detail
  is from User perspective plattform independent
  Intuitive GUI (measurable by how many users ask for advice with this or that lobby) non-measurable, obvious goal
  Supports official Spring Server Protocoll
  meets GPL requirements
  offers ChatBot-Support chat bot?
  offers Matchmaking-Support
  offers Working AutoDownloads via rapid
  offers Information Startsite what?
  offers new User Guidance (Videotutorials, Step-by-Step-Instructions, whatever)
  offers SteamIntegration no way is this supposed to be a requirement
  offer inlobby bug reports

Criterias for a official Server:

• minimalistic Server protocoll we don't bloat because we WANT to, but if you make those requirements above, that's what you get
  scales linear trafficwise with increasing players obviously preferable but hardly attainable
  autorestarts on lossfree crash minor.. and possible not wanted
  limp-home mode (provides still communication and gamestarts, while everything else collapses) what?
  uses a free database
  supports official spring protocoll
  gracefully recives/hands over games and players to other parts of infrastucture or copies of himself
  shieldable from denial of service attacks untestable

Criterias for a official Map:

• has to be pretty
  has to be popular
  has to be in a reasonable Size
  has to work with all spring-compatible games not possible/wanted
  has to be land and sea

[8611]

Much text about Spring-that, Spring-this.
Seems to me technology is advancing at okay pace, sadly it is abused:

New features could improve and grow the Spring Eco system but people are too egocentric and shortsighted and greedy to cooperate on that.
Instead of makig "Spring" better everybody seems focused on getting their mod as far away as possible to greener pastures.

Would it have been possible to stop that trend?
Whatever you do in Spring, be it write a tutorial, make a map, a widget, a lobby, a bug report -Does it really make "Spring" better?
Or does it ultimately make someone more confident that soon their mod will be ready to split off from "Spring"?

[Anarchid]

Whatever you do in Spring, be it complain, complain more, tell people to do things, complain about people not doing what you tell them, crosspost complaints between threads -Does it really make "Spring" better?

Would it have been possible to stop that trend?

FTFY

User was warned for this post, felony 1. (Silentwings)

Please discuss other's actions in a respectful way, and report inappropriate posts.

[PicassoCT]

Criticism:

General: No need to have an official lobby, map (?!), or map editor. Having an official server is good, but far more important is to have an official protocol.

Distrophy must reign?

Reaction specifics follow


Criterias for a official Lobby:

Code: Select all

[list]
Bugfree [b]approachable and something the audience demands - you can not use people who are in there spare time as beta testers. And no, not even those  that stayed  voted with there feet for this. [/b]
Seperate Testreleases and Testers from official releases [b]No. Sadly not[/b]
Autoreverts Releases that proof to be buggy none the less [b]Yes. Its standard enforcing time.[/b]
is from User perspective plattform independent 
Intuitive GUI (measurable by how many users ask for advice with this or that lobby) [b]The five guys in newbies every day, that ask where to set settings, where to start singleplayer proof your wrong.[/b]
Supports official Spring Server Protocoll
meets GPL requirements
offers ChatBot-Support [b]Bot support, for FAQ etc. Yes they are needed, as often nobody replys to the help crys.[/b]
offers Matchmaking-Support
offers Working AutoDownloads via rapid
offers  Information Startsite [b]Yes, a lobby can not draw blank. It needs something to welcome people. Not Untrockloading them into main, and cya.[/b]
offers new User Guidance (Videotutorials, Step-by-Step-Instructions, whatever)
offers SteamIntegration [b]Two spring games go into steam direction. No way, open source will support windows or propriatery driver manufacturers. Noway![/b]
offer inlobby bug reports
[/list]

Criterias for a official Server:

Code: Select all

[list]minimalistic Server protocoll [b]Half of those requirements can be fullfilled without adding to the server protcoll. [/b]
scales linear trafficwise with increasing players [b]obviously preferable but hardly attainable[/b]
autorestarts on lossfree crash [b]minor.. and possible not wanted[/b]
limp-home mode (provides still communication and gamestarts, while everything else collapses) [b]even if it fails, it has to at least provide communication. Cars have to do that.[/b]
uses a free database 
supports official spring protocoll
gracefully recives/hands over games and players to other parts of infrastucture or copies of himself
[color=#FF0000]shieldable from denial of service attacks[/color] [b]you were right on this one[/b]
[/list]

Criterias for a official Map:

Code: Select all

[list]has to be pretty
has to be popular
has to be in a reasonable Size
[color=#FF0000]has to work with all spring-compatible game[/color]s [b]you were right on this one[/b]
has to be land and sea[/list]

[PicassoCT]

Oh, why not to the same for games:

Code: Select all

Official Spring Game Requirements:
No In-Game Lua Errors
Alpha or Beta- Releases only to dedicated Testgroups
No warnings in Infolog
Has to provide a web-manual
Has to provide a irc-channel with a person or bot to ask

so yeah, my game would not be a official spring game. And guess what, it is not good enough to be one yet.