Mod Spotlight Feature

thats why i said noticable changes to single or multiplayer

I dont see a problem with using php code since only the output functions are being called outside the original page

@Roo:

@Forsaken:

Participating in the FLCN for more than two weeks would be mandatory for any mod wanting to benefit from the Spotlight feature

Im not so hot on this requirement.

Ok, so why?

I’m not picking a fight, but if we are brainstorming here, lets provide feedback on WHY we dont like ideas, or why we do.

And if we dont like something, lets provide an alternative.

Oh, I understand you arent trying to be difficult.  I was just thinking this was to promote all FL mods, and I guess I’m having problems grasping why people have to be involved in a certain network or “group” to have their mod mentioned.

Fair point. With the FLCN, I was mostly thinking along the lines of mods that were simply too small to even have a site yet - take Itano Circus for example, which budded in these forums and later in ModDB. However, these fourms technically participate in the FLCN, so I guess that would qualify.

As for a portable PHP widget, I have absolutely no idea what to suggest, as I am not very well-versed when it comes to web design. Perhaps have the widget only read/display information - to change information, the user would have to do it through Starport directly?

On a side note, Forsaken does raise an interesting point, and I’m not really sure how to comment on it. On one hand, I do not agree with forcing communities into certain actions to get recognized. On the other hand, I also do not agree with a community that refuses to support other communities getting support themselves, as that’s rather selfish. It could be argued both ways.

@Forsaken:

Oh, I understand you arent trying to be difficult.  I was just thinking this was to promote all FL mods, and I guess I’m having problems grasping why people have to be involved in a certain network or “group” to have their mod mentioned.

Yes, this is to advertise all Mods. But at the same time, the FLCN is to advertise ALL servers and communities, all we ask is the bar be placed on your site. Call it a sign of respect that you are not only supporting your own growth but the growth of the entire community.

Do you not feel that by adding this restriction into the ‘submission process’ we are in the long run improving our life line and growing our member base? There are many communities out there still seperated and not part of an overall community; whether this be SWAT, SP etc. If one of those sites caught wind of a ‘Mod Spotlight Feature’ and joined the FLCN (as suggested as a requirement) not only have we gained a new Mod but a new server as part of our community circle.

Surely this is a good thing?

I do see your point of view and appreciate where you are coming from. But I think it can only help and improve the overall community by imposing a small restriction.

@FriendlyFire:

2. What’s preventing a mod from going in the FLCN and then going in the Spotlight? If your mod can’t last for a bit more than a month, I doubt you were serious anyways. And if you don’t want to get into the FLCN, I think there’s an ideology issue. I’m fine with providing a service, but I think participating in the FLCN isn’t a worry for anyone but those who want to completely isolate themselves from the FL community, in which case I won’t help them get traffic so they can selfishly keep it for themselves.

I think FF expands quite nicely on my point of view here.

@foxUnit01:

On a side note, Forsaken does raise an interesting point, and I’m not really sure how to comment on it. On one hand, I do not agree with forcing communities into certain actions to get recognized. On the other hand, I also do not agree with a community that refuses to support other communities getting support themselves, as that’s rather selfish. It could be argued both ways.

It is a difficult decision to be made, and not one we can make lightly. I do see both sides here, and respect all opinions. Of course I will fight the corner of my opinion, but do respect yours.

I suppose in a situation like this, we need to ask the community as a whole how we should proceed? A vote maybe?

@Roo:

If one of those sites caught wind of a ‘Mod Spotlight Feature’ and joined the FLCN (as suggested as a requirement) not only have we gained a new Mod but a new server as part of our community circle.

Surely this is a good thing?

I do see your point of view and appreciate where you are coming from. But I think it can only help and improve the overall community by imposing a small restriction.

Also a fair point, and in that respect, I agree with you. Community participation is never a bad thing, in my opinion.

How should the mod selection process be executed? Should we make a thread where mods can register for spotlight and then we randomly pick which mod is featured?

The simplest solution would to just have a specific topic where each mod creator can submit one large post about their mod. This way they can easily keep it up to date with the latest screenshots and content, ensuring that if they get spotlight, the content is up to date. From that thread, the “winner” must be randomly chosen. As has been pointed out, a voting process will always devolve into a popularity contest, and if the SP admins select themselves, they are already introducing bias.

How often should it be? Weekly, biweekly, monthly?

I would like weekly so that we can go through the mods fairly quick. Definitely no longer than biweekly.

How should coverage go? What advantages/parts should the feature have?

Name, Screenshots, Video, Text Description, Links. There were some suggestions of going all out with interviews and stuff. That’s nice if people are willing to put in the effort.

Should the modders submit the content of their spotlight? Should the SP admins pick what to cover by themselves? Should there be some predefined structure in which the modder must submit his/her content?

Modders submit and maintain their own content similar to moddb. SP admins should never pick what is to be covered. Predefined structure always makes things more organized. A structure like listed above is fine.

To what extent should the Spotlight be? Should the mod have a special ad somewhere on the layout? Should there be an independent section titled “Mod Spotlight” with all the content or should it blend with the front page news? Should all coverage be strictly enclosed in the forums?

There should be a box off to the side with a small splash image of the mod, along with the title “Featured Mod” above it. Basically like this.

Requiring FLCN status.

I am split on this. Requiring FLCN status just makes sense. The only issue I have with requiring FLCN status is that “homeless,” up and coming mods will have no representation, and in my opinion, they are the ones that deserve spotlightage the most.

The Real Issue

There is one very important thing everyone seems to be missing here. Yes its nice to hold little mod spotlight thingies, but when you think about it, you are advertising Freelancer to people that already play it. What needs to be done with the mod spotlight is post it somewhere else everytime it gets updated. Moddb is one option. I’m not exactly sure how moddb works, but if you could post the spotlight as a regular article under Freelancer, that would be terrific.

Perhaps we could also try with advertising freelancer on xfire and maybe ask them for help, usually i am boradcasting my freelancer gameplaying and i am getting quite some amount of people asking me where they can get game and stuff
So people are interested about trying freelancer but problem not many people heard about it.

I have a point id like to throw into the mix. You say that only mods that have made vast changes can get in on this. Well with MU using the autoupdater by Lancer Solurus we dont make vast changes anymore. We basically get an idea and then add it and add to the update package.

If we were to make a massive significant change making the packages for both standard screen monitors and widescreen monitors would take an absolute age.

At most we may add a whole new system with bases, npcs and missions included. But for the rest it may just be a case of add a new base make a few tweaks and add a new wep and then update.

So yeah we would get in the spotlight once but when it comes round again we may have only have tweaked a few things and added a base.

So my question is how significant a change is significant?

@Dragnite_MU:

I have a point id like to throw into the mix. You say that only mods that have made vast changes can get in on this. Well with MU using the autoupdater by Lancer Solurus we dont make vast changes anymore. We basically get an idea and then add it and add to the update package.

If we were to make a massive significant change making the packages for both standard screen monitors and widescreen monitors would take an absolute age.

At most we may add a whole new system with bases, npcs and missions included. But for the rest it may just be a case of add a new base make a few tweaks and add a new wep and then update.

So yeah we would get in the spotlight once but when it comes round again we may have only have tweaked a few things and added a base.

So my question is how significant a change is significant?

Dragnite, thats a good question.

And precisely the finer points we need to work out.

I woke this morning after thinking a while about this and thought maybe we should have 2x Spotlights. One which is a rolling cycle of ALL mods. We can always add more or remove as needed to the cycle and reshuffle. The second could be a ‘Mod Development Spotlight’.

Just another idea to throw into the mix

@crashbx:

Perhaps we could also try with advertising freelancer on xfire and maybe ask them for help, usually i am boradcasting my freelancer gameplaying and i am getting quite some amount of people asking me where they can get game and stuff
So people are interested about trying freelancer but problem not many people heard about it.

A good idea. And worth some thought. I will look into this also.

The Real Issue

There is one very important thing everyone seems to be missing here. Yes its nice to hold little mod spotlight thingies, but when you think about it, you are advertising Freelancer to people that already play it. What needs to be done with the mod spotlight is post it somewhere else everytime it gets updated. Moddb is one option. I’m not exactly sure how moddb works, but if you could post the spotlight as a regular article under Freelancer, that would be terrific.

Very true, however it is projects like this that make outside viewers take notice. The problem is, we will struggle to get much outside interest if it looks like the game and community are dead.

We know it isnt, but not many people see what we see.

If we can go out there saying "Hey check out the FLCN, Save Freelancer Project, Mod Spotlight etc etc’ people will suddenly sit up and think ‘yeah, these guys are indeed working to keep an old game alive’.

It all helps to get people noticing us.

My 2 cent (might also get 3 or 4):

– I d let the mods register
– I d request a certain and partly defined amount of info 2 give
(pvp allowed or not, difficulty 1-6, short description max. 2000 words ;);
homepage, download link, last version, SP/MP, . …)

– I d be glad 2 see that info about the mods also collected
in a kind of special section (“mod database”) of The-Starport.net

And I d stay away from any restrictions.
It might use a lot work + brain 2 create a small mod
(say bringing maybe only a new intro screen or
maybe new bars or additional equipment possibilities)
and lot people might be interested in those mods.
So:
If anyone wants his mod displayed in the spotlight,
he/she should get that chance.

(PS. The only exception i d make is a rip off sold as own mod)

I see that there is much confusion about the “what it should be” and the “how to do it”. Ive seen a similar discussion the last time the big “lets save FL” thread turned into some chaos.

This time i need to say we are at least on topic (mostly) and that is very good. In december I had a long talk with worfey about the already mentioned “lets save FL” campaign and how it can be structured and coordinated in a better way. Unfortunatly due to my time trouble atm we were not able to finish this discussion but the main idea and a basic structure was clear.

Why do i mention a discussion with worfey here?
Because its actually the same situation like in december and this situation needs a structure so we dont start to do endless discussions about FLCN or thousands of other ideas and loose track of the original idea (right now i fear this might happen).

Lets organize it a bit.

The spotlight.

What purpose does it have?
Like already mentioned the spotlight wont attrackt new players which suddenly decide to buy FL simply because of one fact… the spotlight is displayed on FL community sites which are mainly visited by already existing FL players. Maybe we gain new players but this will happen more by accident than on purpose.

What is the spotlight good for if not for attracting new players?
Its a longterm measurment to prevent that already existing FL players leave the FL community.
The current situation in FL: a player has joined a server years ago, was loyal to the server community for a very long time and now gets bored. Usually players leave FL and move to other games because they dont know that there is another FL world outside their own server/mod. The spotlight can show this big FL world and maybe less FL players will leave the FL communities.
Its still a “maybe”… a chance, but its something the spotlight can do.

What might the rules of the spotlight?
Well since we dont have such a spotlight yet I would consider the rules and restrictions a not so important matter. Of course we could discuss now which kinds of mods get part of the spotlights and under which conditions but as long we dont have such a spotlight no mod will be able join it.
Right now the rules have a lower priority than the spotlight itself so I would focus on the higher priorities first.

Who is taking part in the spotlight?
If every small FL site would be part of it (talking about the sites which present the spotlight) we would very soon loose the overview. If only one site hosts it we wouldnt see any big effects.
There are some big FL dedicated community sites, Starport, Freelancercommunity.net, Digital Brilliance, EOA, SWAT. The players on the server usually visit these sites from time to time so we can reach many players without loosing the overview and minimizing the risk of abuse.
Now the question is “which of those communities want to take part”?
Starport for sure…
SWAT for sure…
the others?

What might the spotlight look like?
I think we can agree that a link on our menu bar which lead to the spotlight will lead to absolutly no result.
I think we also can agree that a 200 lines long presentation on the front page of our sites will be more disturbing then helpful.
Not even to mention about newsletters which are faster deleted than being watched.
We have to find a middle way in order to create a presentation which shows enough to get people interested in the mods without bothering the site visitors.

My 1st suggestion (the way i could do it on my site):
I would create something like the FLCN… a bar with the headline
“FL Mod Spotlight - this week: Modxyz”
below that bar i would place a few (lets say 4-5) thumbnails
and one line below I would write something like “Interested in this mod? Then get more information here”

It is slim, does raise attention and wont destroy the original site design.

My 2nd suggestion:
Our pages are portal sites with content part and menu bars. The structure of my first suggestion also can be used to create a vertical aligned spotlight which fits to our sites below the menu… on the left side or the right side. (usually the content part of a site is longer than the bars on the right or left sides so we actually would use wasted space)

My 3rd suggestion:
Popups… there I clearly have to say that eventhough i suggest it hereby I hate that idea. But to be fair I make a pro and contra overview.
pro :

• the original design of the sites does not get touched
• you reach many visitors since many of them have not the choice to ignore it
• you can display more information than on the previous suggestions above
  contra:
• its annoying as hell
• there are many players which have popup blockers (for a good reason ^^)

I need to point something out.
There is absolutly no need to decide which the best solution might be. All 3 suggestion could be used at the same time. The only thing we have to do (assuming we use a php based system) is to write different templates and that should not be that hard. So basically every site can decide which look they prefer.

While i already talk about technical stuff… I really suggest to use a php database solution (there are enough free database systems which can be used and re-coded to fit the needs).
And I believe it is essential to have a dynamic solution for the spotlight.
Optimal solution (in my eyes):
A mod created decides to present his/her mod and visits one of the “member sites”. There on the menu (or directly on the spotlight) would be a link that lets pop up or redirects to a registration page. There the mod creator can create an account and enter some basic information about the mod. If the info is ok the moderators of the spotlight can activate the account and give the permission to let that modder post information about the mod.
Simple and fast solution… modder creates account… gets access… and finally can start to present his mod (i dont see much problems to realize this).

How should the presentation look like?
Above I already said a bit about the front page presentation that could be used for our community sites.
Clicking on the link or the images would open the main mod presentation.
Here i would use a similar structure like it is being used on moddb. A summary with the mod presentation (the main site), news, features, images, movies.
Such a structure is neccessary in my eyes to make sure that the mods are presented in a fair way (everybody gets the same chance).

thats the line ^^
when the above stuff is done and we have a working spotlight then it makes sense to discuss and decide about rules, regulations and guidelines.

(the above said is just my oppinion about how it can be realized… of course there might be other oppinions and solutions)
and before we discuss about what we disagree we should work on the stuff that we already agree with

My comments in orange

@OPR8R:

I see that there is much confusion about the “what it should be” and the “how to do it”. Ive seen a similar discussion the last time the big “lets save FL” thread turned into some chaos.

I wouldnt say this has turned to Chaos. In fact I would say the general conversation has been extremely good. People are sharing ideas, discussing pro’s and con’s and generally making good progress.

This time i need to say we are at least on topic (mostly) and that is very good. In december I had a long talk with worfey about the already mentioned “lets save FL” campaign and how it can be structured and coordinated in a better way. Unfortunatly due to my time trouble atm we were not able to finish this discussion but the main idea and a basic structure was clear.

It would be nice to get more details on this discussion from yourself or W. Probably should have been a larger discussion to begin with if I am totally honest.

Why do i mention a discussion with worfey here?
Because its actually the same situation like in december and this situation needs a structure so we dont start to do endless discussions about FLCN or thousands of other ideas and loose track of the original idea (right now i fear this might happen).

Lets organize it a bit.

I think you are being fairly unfair here OP. I have always respected your opinions and taken on board your advice and experience. I dont think this discussion has lost any structure or direction. I have no fear this discussion will lose track. I personally intend to make sure it doesnt. Even if I have to beat you all senseless in the process…

The spotlight.

What purpose does it have?
Like already mentioned the spotlight wont attrackt new players which suddenly decide to buy FL simply because of one fact… the spotlight is displayed on FL community sites which are mainly visited by already existing FL players. Maybe we gain new players but this will happen more by accident than on purpose.

Very true. Its aim isnt to primarily attract new players. We are working here on ‘base retention’. We are attempting to retain our current player base by advertising the fact the cvommunity is alive.

Any new players we find along the way is an added bonus.

What is the spotlight good for if not for attracting new players?
Its a longterm measurment to prevent that already existing FL players leave the FL community.
The current situation in FL: a player has joined a server years ago, was loyal to the server community for a very long time and now gets bored. Usually players leave FL and move to other games because they dont know that there is another FL world outside their own server/mod. The spotlight can show this big FL world and maybe less FL players will leave the FL communities.
Its still a “maybe”…. a chance, but its something the spotlight can do.

You are right here. It is a maybe. No one single plan can save everything. However I think this plan has more potential to work because of other projects we already have running. To name one of a couple; FLCN.

What might the rules of the spotlight?
Well since we dont have such a spotlight yet I would consider the rules and restrictions a not so important matter. Of course we could discuss now which kinds of mods get part of the spotlights and under which conditions but as long we dont have such a spotlight no mod will be able join it.
Right now the rules have a lower priority than the spotlight itself so I would focus on the higher priorities first.

I disagree here. In theory we dont have a spotlight, correct. But for there to be a spotlight (after the technical planning stages) there need to be rules… maybe not rules, but Guidelines. So we should never cut out the discussion surrounding this. The more discussion the better.

Who is taking part in the spotlight?
If every small FL site would be part of it (talking about the sites which present the spotlight) we would very soon loose the overview. If only one site hosts it we wouldnt see any big effects.
There are some big FL dedicated community sites, Starport, Freelancercommunity.net, Digital Brilliance, EOA, SWAT. The players on the server usually visit these sites from time to time so we can reach many players without loosing the overview and minimizing the risk of abuse.
Now the question is “which of those communities want to take part”?
Starport for sure…
SWAT for sure…
the others?

I am sure Freelancercommunity will want to be involved. And if we are lucky Lancer will agree to help by signing Digitial Brilliance up. We all know that the big question is dont we. And thats what happens when our friends at TLR apply to become a ‘host’ of the Spotlight.

What might the spotlight look like?
I think we can agree that a link on our menu bar which lead to the spotlight will lead to absolutly no result.
I think we also can agree that a 200 lines long presentation on the front page of our sites will be more disturbing then helpful.
Not even to mention about newsletters which are faster deleted than being watched.
We have to find a middle way in order to create a presentation which shows enough to get people interested in the mods without bothering the site visitors.

My 1st suggestion (the way i could do it on my site):
I would create something like the FLCN… a bar with the headline
“FL Mod Spotlight - this week: Modxyz”
below that bar i would place a few (lets say 4-5) thumbnails
and one line below I would write something like “Interested in this mod? Then get more information here”

I like this idea. Probably more so than the 2 below. This one already gets my vote.

It is slim, does raise attention and wont destroy the original site design.

My 2nd suggestion:
Our pages are portal sites with content part and menu bars. The structure of my first suggestion also can be used to create a vertical aligned spotlight which fits to our sites below the menu… on the left side or the right side. (usually the content part of a site is longer than the bars on the right or left sides so we actually would use wasted space)

My 3rd suggestion:
Popups… there I clearly have to say that eventhough i suggest it hereby I hate that idea. But to be fair I make a pro and contra overview.
pro :

• the original design of the sites does not get touched
• you reach many visitors since many of them have not the choice to ignore it
• you can display more information than on the previous suggestions above
  contra:
• its annoying as hell
• there are many players which have popup blockers (for a good reason ^^)

Yuck. Popups. But you raise a good point with your comment: “you reach many visitors since many of them have not the choice to ignore it” Its a cheap tactic, but works.

I need to point something out.
There is absolutly no need to decide which the best solution might be. All 3 suggestion could be used at the same time. The only thing we have to do (assuming we use a php based system) is to write different templates and that should not be that hard. So basically every site can decide which look they prefer.

I like this. Everysite can pick the ‘module’ if you like that they want to roll with. Then they can adapt the ‘theme’ to match thier sites. The content is controlled centrally, but the look is controllable on a site by site basis.

While i already talk about technical stuff… I really suggest to use a php database solution (there are enough free database systems which can be used and re-coded to fit the needs).
And I believe it is essential to have a dynamic solution for the spotlight.
Optimal solution (in my eyes):
A mod created decides to present his/her mod and visits one of the “member sites”. There on the menu (or directly on the spotlight) would be a link that lets pop up or redirects to a registration page. There the mod creator can create an account and enter some basic information about the mod. If the info is ok the moderators of the spotlight can activate the account and give the permission to let that modder post information about the mod.
Simple and fast solution… modder creates account… gets access… and finally can start to present his mod (i dont see much problems to realize this).

How should the presentation look like?
Above I already said a bit about the front page presentation that could be used for our community sites.
Clicking on the link or the images would open the main mod presentation.
Here i would use a similar structure like it is being used on moddb. A summary with the mod presentation (the main site), news, features, images, movies.
Such a structure is neccessary in my eyes to make sure that the mods are presented in a fair way (everybody gets the same chance).

Agreed. Submissions need to follow guidelines that require certain info to be submitted ensuring a ‘unified’ and ‘fair’ feel to every advertised Mods submitted.

---

thats the line ^^
when the above stuff is done and we have a working spotlight then it makes sense to discuss and decide about rules, regulations and guidelines.

(the above said is just my oppinion about how it can be realized… of course there might be other oppinions and solutions)
and before we discuss about what we disagree we should work on the stuff that we already agree with

dont get me wrong… it was not my intention to attack the discussions or how they were done
Its just the priority that i would set in a different way and I made the experience in the almost 9 years that im already in the lancer community that much gets discussed but the neccessary measurements wont be done just because of the running discussions (everybody is waiting for the “final plan” before work does start).

Its just what ive observed over the years.

@tai:

You could create it comeletly in Flash(I know that people won’t like that but you really can design better and make it more interactive) whitch can communicate with php scripts on your server that send out the data. Would be simple and cool looking.

Just had to quote myself this time.

If you would do it in flash or atleast some parts you could show images videos and all other types of media, to get it like that you could take a combination of flash and php but thats just a silly sugestion from an flash programmer xD

flash might be a bit complicated

@OPR8R:

flash might be a bit complicated

Why? Just connect to a webserver get variables(e.g. from php) and Display them, it’s as easy as writing any other script language, just like php.
Many people think Flash is very complicated but in fact it isn’t that much. Display a picture or a Video is very easy, just about 10 lines of code that are written in a minute if you know how. But it was just an sugestion.

that might be true but not every player has a fast internet connection or the swf plugin installed

Perhaps TSP could have an account on a solid video stream site (unless you guys do streaming / hosting, but I think it might take up a bit 'o space after while). With that, you could have a page here displaying thumbs of each with the mod title, linking to that streaming account. This way users have access to all the accumulated videos submitted and can see how each has historically progressed and changed.

To go with this, perhaps a forum section here for requesting help -for those without a vid cap program or means to editing it.

A standard submission guideline would be good, with one last area for items not covered in the standard. Something like:

• Storyline

• gameplay

• Physics changes

• Graphics engine changes

• • Effects additions and changes

  • Universe layout changes

  • New or updated models list

  • New or updated textures list

• Trade changes

• PVP features / changes

As for determining order, first come first serve initially. After those have been cycled through, then random order. New submissions should take priority -if they are a version update- so random would resume with previously scheduled mod spotlight after.

Just some idears to get the thought train started I doubt my list is comprehensive enough, so how 'bout some additions or refinement?