Addons at ease!

[LizardX 0]

I'm against the OFPec-tag in single player mode. OK, everyone's proud of his hi-quality addons, but it's a real frustrating thing to see "LZX_MOD_BLABLA_F-105 Thunderchief with Bullpup missiles and ECM-pods" for me. But thats true, I can't suggest a better way in MP. Thanx, please don't shoot!

[CrunchyFrog 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (LizardX @ April 11 2003,17:33)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I'm against the OFPec-tag in single player mode. OK, everyone's proud of his hi-quality addons, but it's a real frustrating thing to see "LZX_MOD_BLABLA_F-105 Thunderchief with Bullpup missiles and ECM-pods" for me. But thats true, I can't suggest a better way in MP. Thanx, please don't shoot!  <span id='postcolor'>

He doesnt have to display the OFPEC Tag, just use it on the classnames...

[Gummi 0]

These are the features of the installer i want:

- One exe file

- First you can choose to see readme or install

- When installing you can choose advange (choose directory) mode or typical (addon folder)

- Then you choose some same about where to install the mission

And when it has been installed and you open the exe you should be able to read the reame or uninstall

[DracoPaladore 0]

I was wondering, will BIS also allow users to make sub-directories for addons? It is quite annoying that I have to scan through over 400 units in West/Soldiers to find the single one I want. I was thinking maybe making it easier than looking the .cpp or what it's called. While most mod teams do this now, the individual mods I would like to be seen seperated from official ones. Mostly because from the amount of addons I have, there are at least 4 different "Soldiers" in my West/Soldier or my East/Soldier directory. So most of the time I have to go...Inny...minny...miney...moe. And since I wish to make missions because I have no other skill, it's hard to find out which one is which AND I have no more room on my computer to have 2 copies of OpFlash on it at the same time.

[Guest BratZ]

I didnt read every post but I have some small concerns....

Make an option for the installer to read the read.me or whatever while installing and in the same sense I don't need a bunch of read mes in my addon folder

Maybe make an option for addon makers to specify the addon folder it will be installed? That way I could install all my addon to a WW2 addon folder and user can move wherever necessary after?

Ofpec tag is ok even tho I registered my own but work for someone else.

Making even a simple mission with the unit in the editor is ok, but I only really plan on making decent missions with a combination of addons

How about the option for the addon maker to have his new addon overwrite an old one,even if its named different?

Thats tricky as someone may make something to delete all of someones addons.

Another large concern that may affect my motivation level.

....OFP2 (lol) obviously this is incentive for future, are my addons gonna be useless after. But mainly I'd hate to keep building WW2 fighter planes and have OFP2 be WW2 with new planes. Only 23,000 forum users, can you let us know anything? How about another modmaker forum and I promise I wont say anything from there.

[gore 0]

I think there sould be a small selection of Essential addons such as bas rangers ect. Maybe people could vote as to which should be on  this list

[andersgrim 0]

you can always take the initiative to start one "essential addon list" yourself

as i have 58emails to read, i did not take the time to read every post in this thread closely, but any addonmaker can make one addon, and can publish two versions - zip or this installer. Only diffrence would be that the one with installer follows AAE, is easy to use for everyone and may (sometimes) be packed better then zip files (excuse me, but i haven't tried the installer yet, so im not sure about the compressing). the other file would be more "friendly" so you are sure of no "hidden" files to be installed, and you can be the install supervisor - place the addon whereever you want. And the zip might work with other OS'es than windows only (for Linux servers++)

[Clifford 0]

One thing that hasn´t been discussed that much yet is the endless supply of BETA addons out there. Many of them seem finished, some of them lack textures, others yet are called things like "final beta 1.1".

This is something that should be corrected. With the OFPEC TAG system and AAE, could you not add a system for defining final products?

How about letting all addons be released as they are released today, and only get the AAE "treatment" when tested by us, the part that actually bother to test EVERYTHING no matter if it looks like a vector based tank from the Amiga days.

What I mean is that it is very tiring with all the 1.1 upgrades, final "final" releases, update packs and so on. I´ll still download them, but the majority of players want to know that when they get an addon from the net, they can expect a working, fully developed addon, and not having to download it again a week later.

Therefore, AAE could also be used as a way of saying "this ones done, finito, and I´m not upgrading it again. Ever"

[Guest BratZ]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Clifford @ April 11 2003,21:16)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">One thing that hasn´t been discussed that much yet is the endless supply of BETA addons out there.

Therefore, AAE could also be used as a way of saying "this ones done, finito, and I´m not upgrading it again. Ever"<span id='postcolor'>

So that would leave about 80% of the addons wouldnt be using the installer and doesnt help the problem they are trying to fix

[Guest ####]

KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid! Addons should be the following:

-Zipped file format

-Readme should be a .txt format not MS Word or any other garbage format.

-The readme should have listed how to install, known bugs, development history etc etc.

I absolutely refuse to use auto installers for addons, the possibility of embedded viruses is too high.

[eisa01 0]

Great inititative!!! Its really needed for those who dont come to the forums and not use addons either because they dont know about em or dont know how to install them. eg. i burned some addons on a cd and gave em to a friend. he didnt manage to install em himself (just put the zip files in the addons folder) so i had to fix it for him. with a installer even he can manage to install it without help!!! oh and please make the installer locate the addons folder and so on itself, much easaier for guys like him. And its guys like him THIS installer is meant for!

[PRiME 1]

I dunno if this has been said but it would be nice if addons could be added while your still running OFP, like OFP would check the directories for any newly added addons, this would solve allot of restarting OFP and loosing of slots etc etc in-game, it would also pave the way for addons in missions or addons being downloaded on demand from a specified source by the server.

(OGN server uses a addon autoupdater tool, something like this could be made to function within the game if the user does not have the required addons INSTED of kicking the user?)

[blackdog~ 0]

I volunteer to make missions...

If you [bIS] aren't taking this one step further and are not planning to have a website dedicated to 'addons at ease'... I would be glad to make one that servers can link to in their MOTD in order to make this as easy as possible

[toadeater 0]

I vote no installer (is there a vote?). An improperly-made .msi can destroy your registry and all .msi installs add alot of useless junk entries to your registry. Micro$oft strikes again.

A self-extracting .zip would be better. Why? Well the interesting thing about self-extracting .zips is that you can rename the .exe to .zip and use it like a standard .zip file without any risk.

I don't think people have had alot of trouble installing files, I think the trouble has been actually getting a hold of them in the first place. There is no central place to get OFP addons that are guaranteed to work ok, or large multi-meg addons that don't interfere with other addons. Such as one guy making Spec Ops units with one weapon pack and another guy making Spec Ops units with two other weapon packs and then two mission makers using the two different addons. The result? Someone who wants to play both missions has to get two unit packs and three weapon packs which duplicate the same !(*%#(%!! thing!!!!!! How many retextured AK-47 variants of the same AK-47 model do we need?

Oh yes, the other part of the equation... the mission turns out to be junk anyway, so you just wasted all that time getting all this stuff only to have to delete it.

So if we had some standards, we could know that if we download a 10meg addon, it will be used many times. We don't need an .msi installer for that.

An addon browser built around the Oxygen viewer that can open up .pbos and parse addon readme files or cpp's might be nice though?

[soul_assassin 1745]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (blackdog~ @ April 11 2003,23:41)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I volunteer to make missions...

If you [bIS] aren't taking this one step further and are not planning to have a website dedicated to 'addons at ease'... I would be glad to make one that servers can link to in their MOTD in order to make this as easy as possible<span id='postcolor'>

I think running a small dedicated website is a good idea, nothing complicated just a news page and a downloads section

[wodnerduck 0]

PLEASE STOP HAVING THE ZIPS EXTRACT TO DIRECTORY. I HATE HATE HATE THAT.

[Guest]

I like this discussion,I will chime in one thing about demo missions...

When addon makers make guns, they usually add a soldier to a side with the gun, but this is pointless (i.e. Soldier -Thompso

n) because I will never use a NATO soldier running around with a thompson or BAR...  But not including a person in the menu would make it hard for newbies to see the gun because not everyone knows the "removeallweapons this; this add..."

A demo mission will let someone "see" what the weapon is like without cluttering the soldier menu with useless soldiers.  In addition, a TEMPLATE weapon mission would let users try out different weapons IN THE SAME SITUATION, which would be an amazing tool for weapon balancing.

On a side note, I think it is really important to put the basic weapon commands in every readme or installer so any user can swap the weapons around.

[Guest ####]

To add to the above post if you are going to make a weapon addon of say a Thompson, have a resistance or civilian unit be armed with it. They are more likely to use it in a modern situation.

[Major Fubar 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (CrunchyFrog @ April 11 2003,17:36)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (LizardX @ April 11 2003,17:33)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I'm against the OFPec-tag in single player mode. OK, everyone's proud of his hi-quality addons, but it's a real frustrating thing to see "LZX_MOD_BLABLA_F-105 Thunderchief with Bullpup missiles and ECM-pods" for me. But thats true, I can't suggest a better way in MP. Thanx, please don't shoot!  <span id='postcolor'>

He doesnt have to display the OFPEC Tag, just use it on the classnames...<span id='postcolor'>

In fact, it should not be shown in the on-screen addon name. It makes the game look tacky IMHO.

I wopuld rather my soldier call "Winter Spetsnatz, 12 O'Clock" then "XYZ_Winter Spetsnatz, 12 O'Clock". Or see a weapon name as "M76 Sniper Rifle" than "YGZ M76 Sniper Rifle".

[Major Fubar 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (gore @ April 11 2003,19:42)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I think there sould be a small selection of Essential addons such as bas rangers ect. Maybe people could vote as to which should be on  this list <span id='postcolor'>

The best addons sticky thread should be a good source of inspiration.

[toadeater 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (wodnerduck @ April 12 2003,01:22)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">PLEASE STOP HAVING THE ZIPS EXTRACT TO DIRECTORY. I HATE HATE HATE THAT.<span id='postcolor'>

As I already said in this thread, rename your self-extracting zip from somefile.exe to somefile.zip and you can open it as a regular zip with whatever zip program you might happen have.

[syco 0]

What is this Rocket Science? Since WHEN did D/Ling an addon become so difficult?! Are people so stupid that they can't figure out what goes where?! Jeez Louis people WHY fix something that ISN'T broken?! D/L the addon and manually install it into whichever directory it belongs!!! NO AUTO INSTALLERS!!!

WHY would we possibly want to make it more difficult for an addon maker to distribute his creation?! Shoot, it's difficult enough to get good addon makers to make stuff!!!

PS-I agree with Major Fubar too!

[-CCCP-Stalker 0]

We forgot about on small thing - SIZE !!! IF this AAE exe will be bigger or not much smaller than normal rar or zip nobodu DL it. So make a VERY high compression rate.

[hellfish6 7]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (syco @ April 12 2003,02:14)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">What is this Rocket Science? Since WHEN did D/Ling an addon become so difficult?! Are people so stupid that they can't figure out what goes where?! Jeez Louis people WHY fix something that ISN'T broken?! D/L the addon and manually install it into whichever directory it belongs!!! NO AUTO INSTALLERS!!!  

WHY would we possibly want to make it more difficult for an addon maker to distribute his creation?! Shoot, it's difficult enough to get good addon makers to make stuff!!!

PS-I agree with Major Fubar too!<span id='postcolor'>

Some people don't want to bother with manually putting this thing there or that thing there. They may be lazy, but they're still gamers.

And remember guys, if an addon is deemed appropriate for AAE, it's still possible for the addon maker to host a regular RAR or ZIP file on one of the news sites for us old guard. AAE, I think, is primarily oriented to ease of use for the casual OFP player.

[der bastler 0]

I refuse to use installers.

It's not the addon-installation-procedure that scares away players. OFP is not a kill-everybody-pick-up-health-kit-and-carry-dozens-of-weapons-unrealistic-FPS, it's a "serious" game. You have to plan what you do, you cannot join in-game, no Rambo-gets-'em-all, no kiddies. People who are too lazy to copy one or two files and to read the manual are not the type of players who play OFP because they'd get bored waiting for other players and/or the enemy...

Bundling several addons in a single file is a good idea and I'll continue making weapon packs.

Stringtable: Perhaps we could create a small "translation"-corner in this forum? Since the M41a a stringtable is standard for my addons, but it's sometimes very time-consuming until you find the right translation for terms like "Mündungsfeuerdämpfer" ("muzzle flash suppressor", ...?). Not to mention mission translations...