Spring RTS Engine

Cool - exactly the kind of integration I was thinking about!

0K is totally off my radar, because my gfx-card doesnt allow me to play it :(

dansan wrote:Very nice :)

Say: is the algo that calculates the page-name from the map name robust (collision-free?, versions?, non-ascii?)?
Could for example replays.adune.nl auto-link to a map on sf, by just calculating the link from the maps name?

The page-name is calculated from the title, not from the map name. So that would be impossible. It depends on which title the uploader gives to the page.

Licho wrote:Hmm I thought it has already existed in SF1 am I right?
Btw similar stuff exists on ZK site http://zero-k.info/Maps/Detail/20018 and is linked to replays too http://zero-k.info/Battles

Yes, you are right. In the previous version of SF you could view the map with a javascript overlay and JS start positions. That was very cool. However, with that version i had to extract the map info manually. Now it is done automaticly by some scripts made by Abma!
How do you do it at the ZK site?

ZK site uses "plasma" server - part of the downloader system. Its data is publically accessible through webservice and normal http files (minimaps,metalmaps etc for all known maps).
Data is filled in by Zero-K lobbies as soon as new map is encountered.

would it be possible to make the search work a bit better with regard to _ - and whitespace in filenames?

ie
both 'lava reef' and 'lavareef' do not find http://springfiles.com/spring/spring-ma ... avareef-v1

'delta siege dry' does not find the map.
etc

can we get the sort by date, size and downloads back?

I also think the website is quite a mess. I told a friend about Spring and that he needed to download maps and mods from springfiles to play but in the end I ended up making a torrent file for him because he just got so confused(and think that he is a Computer Science student).
I am sorry but what have 3000 random things have to do in a site called SPRING files? If it's for marketing then I would suggest to make the product more noob-friendly at first. There is no problem with finding people to try the game. The problem is that they need at least 8 hours to get the game started.
As for the site, what it needs is to be simple to navigate. Now it became worse than it was. You don't need to add elements in the design. Just take off elements and make the elements that are still there look prettier. That's at least what the end user wants when we are talking about navigation.

knorke wrote:would it be possible to make the search work a bit better with regard to _ - and whitespace in filenames?

ie
both 'lava reef' and 'lavareef' do not find http://springfiles.com/spring/spring-ma ... avareef-v1

'delta siege dry' does not find the map.
etc

That is a very important point. However, the site uses a 3rd party search module so i cannot fix it immediately. I've requested a change at the developers. Will let you know when i get news about it.
UPDATE: FIXED! Thank you Knorke!

Smoth wrote:can we get the sort by date, size and downloads back?

Yes, sure!

I also think the website is quite a mess....

True, it can be cleaner. I have removed the big flash game menu at the frontpage. So it will be now easier to find spring at the homepage. The suggestion to add noob-friendly things is also a very good point. I've made a small start at http://springfiles.com/spring

smoth wrote:can we get the sort by date, size and downloads back?

Are you happy with the result?

Want to see what happends when you put all the content of SpringFiles into Worldle?

A small request: it would be really nice if adding a new version of a particular file didn't wipe out its download count, as S44 enjoyed a spot in the top 5 downloaded list (yay advertising) until we released a new version, then it promptly disappeared - uploading a new version of the file reset the download count.

The current database design doesn't allow that.
The download count is linked to a actual file, not a page.

I understand it is frustrating that your file isn't anymore in the top 5.
Better don't overwrite your files, but create new ones and let the old one there. That way your file is kept in the top 5.

I also think that the current setup is the best one, otherwise you get easily a spot in the top 5 just by adding new versions all the time.
The previous SF version had that, and XTA was positioned at the top of that chart, just because they updated the page all the time with new versions.

I didn't want to upload a new one in a different spot because many places link to that particular page on Springfiles for S44, and because I'd rather have no top 5 download count than a top five link that points to an outdated version that's useless to anyone who grabs it.

Anyways, not a big deal. Just made my heart sink a bit when the awesome download count we had vanished with the new version.

Maybe most downloaded should be 'most downloaded this month' or something? The top downloaded games list is filled with random versions of BA.

clicking updated breaks the layout jj.

'Most downloaded this month' would be very nice.
What about most viewed today? That would be easy to implement (in 5 minutes).
EDIT: Is implemented now! Yes, this makes way more sense. Thank you for the great idea.

@Smoth: should be fixed by now.

Hope you like the new colors.

The previous "white" version had a tendency to scare people away. (5% of the site visitors according to Google Analytics).
(no joke).

the site keeps getting better but still do not like the non-spring stuff.
especially all the demos of commercial files, that just makes the site look very poor,
like those sites that automatically scan everything and upload whatever they find.

The descriptions are usually poor (just one sentence, no link to orignal homepage) and sometimes wrong ie on
http://springfiles.com/games/strategy/r ... -red-alert
the top picture is from Red Alert 2

With some of the free games the version is not update:
ie http://springfiles.com/games/simulation ... /rigs-rods
on sf.com: vesion 0.36.2
latest: version 0.38.51

jj wrote:Hope you like the new colors.

The previous "white" version had a tendency to scare people away. (5% of the site visitors according to Google Analytics).
(no joke).

The white version was by far much better. There are a lot of color issues with the current. In fact, I absolutely hate this new look.

Forboding Angel wrote:

jj wrote:Hope you like the new colors.

The previous "white" version had a tendency to scare people away. (5% of the site visitors according to Google Analytics).
(no joke).

The white version was by far much better. There are a lot of color issues with the current. In fact, I absolutely hate this new look.

This is my opinion, only the complete opposite.

5% alienated by white, and so changing the entire look of the site is the best answer...

White on gray is very difficult to read and while I enjoyed looking at the site before and reading the random rubbish and even checking out the weird ass flash games, I honestly can't stand it now.

Changing an entire site look for 5% of visitors is stupidity. What about the other 95% who liked it the way it was?

This:
Is a travesty.