Spring RTS Engine

I have a suggestion.
ATM the spring download page includes link of installer to games.
A newbie who stumbles upon the spring website from some old open source game list or some youtube video
Will not know what those games are.
He will see the games,will be confused since he has no way of knowing what those games are and how they look and play and will download the spring installer.

If he downloads the spring installer he starts the lobby and has trouble getting into a game to actually see what games on the spring engine are(might get annoyed uninstall spring and tell his friends how shit it is when someone asks him about it) as many newbies have reported.

If he actually downloads a game from the game list he will not know what to expect and will get angry if he tries to join some other game or mod.

My suggestion is:
Remove the download links to games and instead add links to the websites of these games.
A newbie will get to the download page not know what these games are,click the link,find out,use the downland link in the website of those and hopefully will not comeback to the spring website unless he wants to help dev the engine itself.

I am saying having download links to games that run on the Spring engine in the spring ENGINE download page hurts both the games that have links there and other mods by confusing newbies and risking those newbies just getting annoyed in the lobby and leaving.

The spring website should redirect newbies and regular players away for itself to the different projects and not making them comeback cause that is the place they remember using to download the game they play.

I asked around in the s44 channel and was met with some resistance,maybe cause i didn't explain myself correctly but I hope that I did a better job now.

Gota wrote:Add pics/description next to games downloads.

There, fixed it for you. Was that so hard to write?

The spring engine should not be a source of marketing for games on it especially if the games have their own websites.
The devs of these games,themselves,want their website to be the main source of everything that is related to their game and not the spring engine website.
No point in the spring website marketing games that use it.
Linking to them and exchanging links with them does make sense.

How about you look at topmost part of this website?

Also S44 links to their site.

i will reiterate what was said on #s44:
1) we cannot have a link to anything using OTA content on our download page.
2) adding pics/links to project sites is probably a good idea.
3) removing download links is a bad idea because it's a download page.
4) new players _should_not_ be pointed at the spring download page and should get a game/mod installer from the game/mod's site instead. that's hard to fix for all mods, i know.
5) do not be afraid of clutter when number of free content game installers increases; the page will need a makeover then, anyway.

It does not make sense to have links to installers of games games in the Spring ENGINE page only to the spring engine itself.

Gota wrote:It does not make sense to have links to installers of games games in the Spring ENGINE page only to the spring engine itself.

It makes sense to have links to games that use the engine as it is a direct example of the engine at work. <insert insult>

-

Gota wrote:-

good dog, now go lay in the corner.

imbaczek wrote: 1) we cannot have a link to anything using OTA content on our download page.

http://springrts.com/wiki/Download wrote:TA maps and mods installer - A package for players that want to start playing as fast as possible. This package Includes the most played TA mods and most played maps.

Wait what?

yan added that.

Gota wrote:I have a suggestion.

My suggestion is:
Remove the download links to games [..]

I am saying having download links to games that run on the Spring engine in the spring ENGINE download page hurts [..]

I have a suggestion: Ban yan, he distributes warez!

Only devs should be able to edit the download page. Virus distribution anyone?

zwzsg wrote:

Gota wrote:I have a suggestion.

My suggestion is:
Remove the download links to games [..]

I am saying having download links to games that run on the Spring engine in the spring ENGINE download page hurts [..]

I have a suggestion: Ban yan, he distributes warez!

You mean that thing that keeps the spring community alive?
If it wasn't for illegal material there would be no spring...
Kinda ridicules to brush it off.
Need to work to replace it all with ip free content but while its there no point in pretending its not the thing that fuels the spring community.
All the IP free devs should be going "oh yes give me more ta" cause if not for ta their projects would not have existed.

OTA is not a person; it has no feelings.

Am I the only one thinking that 14 different downloads on the download page is a bit to much?

Auswaschbar wrote:Am I the only one thinking that 14 different downloads on the download page is a bit to much?

On downloads should be only engine, with a link to a place with examples of engine in use (i.e games with pictures and downloads).

In fact I mean this http://springrts.com/wiki/Games

I have a different perspective, but until I can sketch out my ideal layout and contents I'll just disengage.

Posted elsewhere on this same topic:

SeanHeron wrote:Well, I guess I should consider the silence at least placid support for the changes made to Game so far ! Do I need to put in links - is it too much effort to click on the right Tab in the bar up top ;P? (Thanks for the praise AF).

For the Download page I'm thinking a stucture along following lines (Some guy dropping in randomly suggested similiar one's I think - couldn't find the post just now):

• - The whole page fits into one screen - no scrolling
  - Three main sections "Windows download" "Linux download" "Developer download". Each links to a page with any links and info we don't want to clutter up the main Download page with (ie Multithreading in the win one, the gazillion distos for Linux- as is now (I'm an Ubuntu user myself, so take it with salt!), and pretty much everything for Developer.
  - I'm unsure about how to deal with the "full installer" - "just engine download" bit within the Windows section - I really think it's a good idea to point out that the Engine is not a full game (especially as we link to "Downloads" from the frontpage with the caption "download and play"... - but from the navbar point of view, this should be where we offer specifically Spring downloads... Maybe prominently point to a page "GameInstallers / FullInstallers", (could look like the Games page, except exclusively for games with installers) ? (or that could be an own section...)

Any suggestions on Images I can use for each of the three section? We have Tux for Linux, that's covered. Someone disagreed with my fair use argument for using the windows logo - so I'm a bit stumpted there. Perhaps a wrench for Developers ?

Changes are being made to the spring wiki css, however, I have noticed something:

Springnew.php

- $s .= "<div id='article' style='width:738px; overflow: hidden;'><br />";
+ $s .= "<div id='article'><br />";

What response do I give to this and any mention of this tag in the wiki pages themselves be they a wiki page or the template assembling it?

no no no no nO NO NO NO NO NO NOOOOOO NOOOO

NEVER use <br>, especially for formatting and layout purposes. This small br will look slightly different on eveyr browser and its unsemantic and means css changes require php changes to change interfering markup.

it would be far better to simply add #article { padding-top:10px; } or something along those lines

php makes content
html marks up content
css styles and lays out the content
javascript builds functionality ontop