Suggested rules for mod titles

Modding
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Right, first off, Hi! First post from a LONG time lurker on these forums. I’ve seen an issue that I have yet to see anyone address in this modding category, that few if any mods actually say which version of the game they are for. They almost all note their own version but that means nothing to someone trying to find up to date mods that currently work.

I propose a rule which I hope modders will follow in future (and even better go back and adjust older mods, even outdated ones). That alongside the [WIP] and [MOD] tags currently used by many (brilliant that those are at least used), mod authors place a second tag noting the version of the game the mod is designed for. So something like this:

[MOD] [A13] Better Tags v1.0

It’d be such a small thing to have to do but help oh so much finding mods that are actually up to date and functional. Sorry if it’s been brought up before or if this is the wrong place to put it (I’m assuming the suggestions category is for actual game suggestions). But I thought it was worth bringing up for the sake of user sanity.

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I am laughing at myself still because I saw this post and thought “mod titles” was referring to “moderator titles” :laughing:…

…anyway, I do like this idea. We started using tags for topics in the support and suggestion categories, but they are only available for TL4 users, so that doesn’t help much here. In the absence of the ability for mod authors to tag their posts like we do in the other categories, I think standardizing the square bracket system wouldn’t be a bad idea.

As you suggested, I think the first tag should be [MOD] or [WIP]. This would help distinguish topics that contain a mod from other topics about modding (like this one!). As to the second tag, I would be in favor of listing a range of versions, like [A12-A13] so it is clear if it works on older versions of the game. This isn’t that important, but when we have two different versions (like Alpha 13 on the main branch, and Alpha 14 on the latest branch) it could be helpful.

Before we go any further, I want to know what @brad and the @moderators think about enforcing this in the mod category.

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i’m all in for the idea! i actually thought i had replied saying that earlier… i think i’m going insane :laughing:

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I think it’s both good practice and in some respects necessary for mod creators to update their title with the most recent working version of the game that their mod works with.

All for it.

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well, if @Geoffers747 is in favor, I have no choice (as in, I’m legally obligated) but to agree as well…

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Praise has this.

Though i agree there needs to be consistancy.

I’ll be looking at adding statuses too for mods that are WIP or Released though its easy to confuse Released with Final.

The way the client app will work is that anything that is Released will appear when browsing mods but WIP/Unreleased will only be discoverable on the website.

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Yeah I had noticed Praise has that already, and only mods that are supposed to work with the version you have installed show up in the client don’t they?

From experience on other modding communities though, not everyone will use Praise, some just like doing it manually despite it being much simpler to use a manager.

Might be good to have an option in the client to allow WIP/Unreleased mods show up too? So like a tick box in the settings?

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Thanks for recognising Praise \o/

It doesn’t at the moment, it was a planned feature to only list ones that are compatible with the build of Stonehearth installed (i was actually working on it last night)

Yea i understand, its not intended to 1 fit for everyone either but just something to help and something for the close community we have, if it helps great!

Thanks for the suggestion, yea its good ideally i want released/unreleased and then stable/unstable etc, the default will be released and stable etc.

If possible lets discuss in the Praise topic instead, i don’t want to divert the train of thought of this topic :slight_smile: raising awareness of some consistency by mod authors is a challenge i’ve been trying to solve by providing options to choose from but can’t be done for everything and this particular topic addresses another feature i want to add of scanning the mod folder and identifying mods to check for updates etc…maybe we need to form the SMC Stoneheath Modding Consortium :stuck_out_tongue: and lay out some guidelines :smiley: but as mods almost change with each release it could be arbitrary or obsolete when we get to beta or if not before.

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