Mods to Be Made Available in the Spring Installer

LordMatt · Post by **LordMatt** » 01 Dec 2007, 18:30

Tobi has put me in charge of maintaining the spring installer, and we have made a number of changes:
1) OTA content is no-longer automatically installed, but is downloaded if you select a mod that depends on OTA content.
2) Mods will not be included in the installer, but will be downloaded during the install process.
3) Mods installed by the installer will have generic names, e.g. BA_Installer_Version, which will allow them to be updated without having to recompile the installer. The version information is read from inside the file anyways, and I found no problem playing with the same mod if two people had different file names. If you want old versions of a mod get them from UF, it would be too much trouble to recompile the installer every time there is a new version of a mod.

Because mods will be selected and downloaded by the user during install, and because they will have generic names, we should be able to list any number of playable mods for users to download, and when they install they will always get the most up to date version, so long as the mod author uploads a new file when they make a release.

I would like community input on what mods to include. So far I have included:

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*Balanced Annihilation (BA) - Balanced Annihilation is a mod of Total Annihilation, and is currently the most popular game.  It is a 10.4MB Download.
*XTA - XTA is a mod of Total Annihilation, with a small but devoted following.  It is a 9.0MB Download.

To be included, mods should be in a nearly finished form, in my opinion, and not still be under heavy development. It is most important that the mods are in a playable condition. Please post your thoughts on what mod should be included. In particular authors please post a couple of sentences description for your mod if you want it included. Offtopic crap or flaming will not be tolerated in this thread, so don't do it.

Edit: Requested Mods:

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*FunTA - (Needs Description)
*KernelPanic - (Needs Description)
*CA Tournament - (Needs Description)
*War Evolution - (Needs Description)
*Gundam - (Needs Description)
*Expand and Exterminate - (Needs Description)
*Spring: 1944 (S44) - 1944 is a reproduction of the Second World War which balances the demands of realism, historical accuracy and gameplay to produce a fast-paced, aggressive game of strategy. The download is about X.X MB
*Final Frontier - (Needs Description)
*Star Wars Spring - (Needs Description)
*Legions - (Needs Description)
*NanoBlobs - (Needs Description)

Everyone please keep in mind that I don't play any of these mods so you will need to provide the description of them for new users in the installer.

Edit2: Also I will retain discretion as to which mods I include in the installer, the above list is simply for reference of what has been requested thus far, and not a list of what I definitely plan to include.

Smiff · Post by **Smiff** » 01 Dec 2007, 18:42

FunTA - finished and a good newb game?
CA - no good 'cos of the development unfortunately, unless you install the updater and set it to auto start with windows..

+ something to show the flexibility of spring e.g. Commander Shooter and Kernel Panic.

which reminds me, can you (or rather whoever does lobby) make it so mods can filter subdirs of maps e.g. for Kernel Panic

edit: i think referring to "mods" as "games" (and Spring as "engine" or something) would make Spring more user friendly. is not obvious to some how important a "mod" is (!)

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 01 Dec 2007, 18:44

All this time the idea has been, for some reason, no TA-based mods besides XTA. For some reason. No idea. So why is this changing now?

quantum · Post by **quantum** » 01 Dec 2007, 18:49

We will be soon releasing CA: Tournament v1. It would be nice if it was included with the installer. It's the stable version of CA.

tombom · Post by **tombom** » 01 Dec 2007, 18:51

Caydr wrote:All this time the idea has been, for some reason, no TA-based mods besides XTA. For some reason. No idea. So why is this changing now?

...

Because Tobi decided "hey the current installer kind of sucks in the way mods work maybe somebody should change it so new people can download mods easier".

Why shouldn't it change now?

LordMatt · Post by **LordMatt** » 01 Dec 2007, 18:53

Because it is now possible to give users a choice in mods without having an enormously large installer.

See edits to the first post.

Satirik · Post by **Satirik** » 01 Dec 2007, 19:14

kernel panic is cool, different gameplay, quick games and it doesn't need the TA content :) and if XTA wasn't in the spring installer ... nobody would play it IMO

AF · Post by AF » 01 Dec 2007, 19:17

If you're going todo that you might aswell do the same thing for the lobby.

And if you do go ahead with the mod downloader thing, it would be very easy to make a mockery of the whole thing by only providing TA options. At the very least kernel panic as an option.

Tobi · Post by **Tobi** » 01 Dec 2007, 19:17

Caydr wrote:All this time the idea has been, for some reason, no TA-based mods besides XTA. For some reason. No idea. So why is this changing now?

The major reason for changing that is the fact that these mods are downloaded now, and hence not included in the installer.

In other words, the installer now will be OTA content free (which is a major improvement), but you just need to own a copy of OTA to be legally allowed to check the XTA or BA checkboxes in the installer.

Just ripping all (TA) content out of the installer was considered too nub unfriendly, and would effectively just shift the OTA problem to someone else. (because then someone else would make a nub friendly package with OTA stuff included)

LordMatt · Post by **LordMatt** » 01 Dec 2007, 19:31

AF wrote: And if you do go ahead with the mod downloader thing, it would be very easy to make a mockery of the whole thing by only providing TA options. At the very least kernel panic as an option.

That's why I'm asking for input on what to include, obviously I'm not just going to include TA content.

MightySheep · Post by **MightySheep** » 01 Dec 2007, 19:35

dont bother including mods that update all the time like CA

rattle · Post by **rattle** » 01 Dec 2007, 19:42

Don't bother including the CA updater either.

LordMatt · Post by **LordMatt** » 01 Dec 2007, 19:48

When the content updater that Licho and Det are writing has been made for general use, it will be included.

Teutooni · Post by **Teutooni** » 01 Dec 2007, 19:50

quantum wrote:We will be soon releasing CA: Tournament v1. It would be nice if it was included with the installer. It's the stable version of CA.

Don't bother reading previous posts either, eh?

Cabbage · Post by **Cabbage** » 01 Dec 2007, 19:55

War Evolution is fun, and it isnt hard to find people willing to play it (when its hosted).

Guessmyname · Post by **Guessmyname** » 01 Dec 2007, 20:21

Gundam? EE? 'Legions?

Neddie · Post by **Neddie** » 01 Dec 2007, 20:23

S44? SWS? Final Frontier? Fibre?

Neddie · Post by **Neddie** » 01 Dec 2007, 20:40

I shouldn't speak for S44, but I think the team can get a release out by the time this is complete, so...

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*Spring: 1944 (S44) - 1944 is a reproduction of the Second World War which balances the demands of realism, historical accuracy and gameplay to produce a fast-paced, aggressive game of strategy. The download is about X.X MB.

lurker · Post by **lurker** » 01 Dec 2007, 20:49

neddiedrow wrote:X.X

:D

Needs moar simbase. Hmm, this could perhaps even serve as motivation for peet to finally finish a26...

+1 for EE and Gundam, don't know enough about the state of many others

LordMatt · Post by **LordMatt** » 01 Dec 2007, 20:52

I have never heard of fibre, what is that? Is it finished? Also is simbase finished? I also never heard of Legions, what is that?

Spring RTS Engine

Mods to Be Made Available in the Spring Installer

Mods to Be Made Available in the Spring Installer