collaborative [Tool] Modders Organized Development Network - M.O.D. Network

[GabrielJack]

Hello and good day to all that are reading this message.

This is a "project"/"group" I am trying to start in order to create a development network to try and provide Don't Starve and Don't Starve Together modders and players with a space to work together and keep our modding communities working with some simple objectives at hand.

As with any modding community, it is pretty normal for certain issues to appear with time, such as a few mods not being compatible with each other, modders abandoning their mods or simply not updating, incompatibilities with new updates of the game, not porting from DS to DST and so on.

At the bottom of the pinned message on the facebook group and the messages on each section of the forum for DS and DST there will be a list the steam name of each modder of the group, which games they have, which they work on and how many mods they have helped with actively.

It is not an obligation nor required to benefit from this network, but I would like to ask each and every user who benefits from this to consider providing a modder of the group with a copy of one of the game or DLC's he does not posses, to help him mod, know the games, have fun and also as a reward for helping out with this network.

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A facebook group will be used as a news feed to inform which mods are being worked on, its current state of development, its original creator and developers, who is working on it, information on the mod the link to the discussion here on the forums, and later the link to the files at both the Klei modding community and Steam workshop.

It is requested that users do not make posts at the feed over at facebook. Please make your mod requests through official mod request thread here on the forums or through the official facebook thread.

Facebook:<to be created and edited in>

Forums: <to be created and edited in>

A GitHub will be created for the mods being worked by the group. Administrators of the group will be responsible at keeping the account in order and controlling access (personally, I can't do this as I've never used GitHub before. Volunteers needed.)
 

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There are a few rules only in order to keep this efficient, clean and free of clutter and also ensure social order.
They are available at the group's description on facebook. Please do read the rules at least once whenever possible.
Link to the rules 
 

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Administrators will be required in order to keep social order and the group working effectively while taking everyone wishes and needs into consideration. 

I will keep on trying to fulfill this position as much as possible but soon I might not have all that much free time. At first, I would like to request only modders as administrators as they better understand the problems and needs of the modding community, so it would be extremely helpful if any of you could volunteer in order to help.

Currently looking for volunteers.

Job Description:

1- Access the group feed and control over it to make sure that the rules are being followed by all and keep the group updated on which mods are being worked on.

2- Run polls to select mods to be chosen and worked on.

-Some experience moderating is helpful but not required-
 

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List of mods being worked on

Name:
Links:
 

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List of mods up to date

Name:
Steam workshop link:
Klei community link:
 

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List of modders, games they own and how many mods they helped actively with.
<To be edited in>
 

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If possible, I would like to request Klei forum moderators for the creation of a subforum regarding this, later on, if the idea catches on and there is interest.

Facebook group

Discord Server

Edited December 16, 2016 by GabrielJack

[Serpens]

@rezecib@Kzisor@Maris@DarkXero and other great modders

I think this is a good idea
(although I personally won't use facebook and I think github is better for sharing code? but I don't know google docs)

In addition to the goals GabrielJack mentioned:
This way we also could create and collect API scripts to improve modding possibilites (eg. changing player damage and damage absorption to something simular like speed modding). 
You four already made several great scripts like that, but they are scattered all over the forum, so hard to find.

[GabrielJack]

There is no need to use facebook if anyone doesn't wish to. I only put it available as an option as I also already have some experience administrating another facebook group and it would be a good option for sharing information. I guess I'll end up turning the facebook group into a page for that if no one wishes for it, after a while.

The idea here is to create a community collective network effort to keep things updated, compatible and working with all versions of the game, so creating and collecting API scripts or any other innovative methods someone might find and teach others in order to do so would definitely be within the objectives 
@Serpens
I suggested Google Docs as I know with it there is a way to suggest edits to the document without actually editing it and to comment on a section of the document as well highlighting which paragraph or line you are commenting about. I have never worked with github before so I don't know if it have said capabilities, but there is also no reason why both can't be used for organization purposes, if you guys think it might be needed, and if github provides said edit suggestion capability, then Google Docs wouldn't even be required or needed.

[Silentdarkness1]

Thanks for the link, by the way.

Yeah, it'd be great if Dawnbreak could get a port, although I don't know if the original dev is okay with this. Someone wanna ask them for me?

[GabrielJack]

If you provide me his name and possibly a way to contact him, I would be glad to ^^ Dawnbreak to me, the first I played DS was one of those mods that just look like they should have been part of the game since the beginning, so it definitely would wish for it to be one of the mods within the Network, both to see it updated for DS and ported to DST 

[GabrielJack]

@Silentdarkness1 
Seems like @Heavenfall hasn't logged in the forums since 2015 and fully abandoned development. If anyone has a contact on him, please provide and I would be glad to send a message, else, I believe he would not mind for other people to continue his work where he stopped. I guess the same about Dawnbreak could be said about RPG Items, also by Heavenfall, RPG HUD by @kiopho who declared it abandoned,and RPG Mod 2.4 by @jimmeh57 who also does not update it anymore since 2014 and doesn't log into the forums since January. All good examples of great mods or concept mod ideas that have been forsaken and forgotten =/

I really hope this Network idea catches on and we get to do something about it. It would also be a relief for modders to know that if they take a break for a few weeks or maybe months for any reason, study, marriage, children, life, they won't come back to an angry mob and their mods won't just be forsaken and forgotten as well, as the community will keep it alive and well.

[rezecib]

@GabrielJack

I agree with @Serpens that GitHub is the way to go for code. It doesn't do commenting quite as well as Google Docs, but you can pretty easily link to lines of code and put that in the Issues section, which is a built-in bug tracker. It also handles revision history much better, and having multiple files with Google Docs would be very messy, while it's very straightforward in GitHub. I already have many of my mods on GitHub.

I don't really see how this is supposed to accomplish its goals in ways the existing tools available don't; people already make requests for ports/handoffs/help/tools in the forums and comments on Steam, and all the code is freely available already (if you can get the mod, you have the code). I've certainly had people suggest changes to my mods by implementing them and then sending me the copy, and I've done the same for others too.

The idea of other modders being able to cover for you if you're away sounds nice, but given how the author is usually out of contact when that's the case, how would it actually be handled? Only the main author can publish to Steam or the forums download section.

[GabrielJack]

@rezecib Then github might just be the way to go. My idea was to use Google Docs just while the group was working on said document and only the group would have access to this files, using the suggest edit and comment mechanics to communicate on the file, highlighting what line they are commenting about or suggesting the change they thought of and then the project leader adding the permanent change to the document and later posting it to GitHub, but you guys are the ones with the experience here.
Just thought it could be a good collaborative tool for several people to work together on the same document with the most experienced one keeping things under control ^^'

On the matter of authorization and helping to cover for people who are away, another user just made a similar question on the post at the Don't Starve(solo) forum post.
The idea to cover for another modder would mostly be whenever someone request. And the publishing it to the steam would either be done by the project leader or by an account that should be created, which its login will be given only to the administrators responsible for keeping the group organized and behaving, harmonizing.
Listening to your concern, I start to believe creating an account to handle the group's posts and publishing the mods would be the way to go, but then some safety measure will have to be made such as changing the password from time to time to avoid issues such as it being stolen/taken by someone who gets its login.
After the modder comes back, if he is not a member of the group and for some reason does not wish to be, which I believe will not be the case if he asked the group to take care of his mod in the first place, I believe it would be a simple matter of providing the code back to the original modder, waiting for him to credit the group and the members that participated on his mod at the mod description and then deleting the group's mod from the steam workshop and forum, if that is possible.
Would that solve it? That way as long as the mod is in the hands of the group, every publishing would be in the name of the group itself and the name of the participating member and project leader for that mod would be cited within the mod description.

 

[GabrielJack]

@rezecib PS: I really, REALLY love Geometric Placement, Gesture Wheel, Global Positions, Combined Status and Throwable Spears. I guess I even sent you an invite through Throwable Spears as well xD
They are prime examples of "great mods" as, if you were to quit modding or abandon one of them, they'd be a HUGE loss to the whole community if there isn't a group such as this to keep them "alive and healthy" while also being able to make it compatible with other older and even new mods that might come out.

[Kooky]

Hi Im the creator of the Chester Family. I'm aboard for this! I love the idea, I actually went back to my old job where I schedule my own tasks on whatever day just so I can keep up wit hthe chester family mod and get more down and dirty with the code.

[GabrielJack]

Thank you sooo very very much for this, @Kooky and for all your work with the Chester Family ^-^ I have to say I haven't found them in my game yet but I already love it just for the idea of it \o/ And there is a friend of mine that fell literally in love with the very concept of it as she really loves Chester and having a whole family of it made her eyes shine xD so you can be pretty sure she is already a huge fan HAHA

[Kooky]

HAHA glad to hear it!!!

[Ultroman]

Hey guys.

I have about 9 mods, all released for both DS and DST. Some are tweaks, while some are more elaborate. Such as Long-range Research, which lets you use techtrees from all the different research machines within your range simultaneously(!) AND lets you set ranges for each type of machine. I seriously do not understand why everyone isn't using it

I don't get much development done on them these days, though. I'll follow this thread, so if you want something, you can write me here, or on any of my mods.

Edited November 30, 2016 by Ultroman

[Lumina]

On 28/11/2016 at 1:32 AM, GabrielJack said:

believe he would not mind for other people to continue his work where he stopped

This project about modder community seems great, but i think that if someone doesn't say clearly if he want or not his mod to be ported/taken back, it's better to not continue his work. I'm sure that a lot of modders will be ok and i know that the community is great (thanks a lot for all your help, modders !), but if someone can't say if he is ok or not, you shouldn't decide for him that he is.

Of course, this is only my point of view and opinion, and i will perfectly understand if you disagree. I just wanted to express this point of view since it could be important for some people.

 

But, since we are speaking about a group of modder sharing things and all, maybe you can add a way to a modder to express his will ? Like "this code is free to use, credit me please" or "you could use this mod as a base" "you could continue this mod if i'm away more than 3 months" or whatever. So this way, we will know what is the point of view of modder, instead of having to decide for them.

 

After all, the big problem we have with the mod you are listing, is that it's too late to ask the authors. But it's not too late to ask to the people here.

[GabrielJack]

@Lumina That was referring to abandoned mods, such as Dawnbreak, RPG HUD, RPG Items and RPG mods as somehow I fell into de RPG theme while searching for a few examples I could give. All really great mods and all abandoned for way over a year. 
Of course authorization and contact will always be tried to be made, but it is also an option to recreate the mod from zero following its concept as well. The thing is, abandoned mods such as these and quite a few others I really do believe their creators would not mind other people picking them up and continuing from where they stopped. I mean, it is called "abandoned" for a reason.
To avoid discussions, such as a modders coming back and complaining one of his mods was taken over, a simple rule could be made, such as only mods abandoned for over a year and any mod under that, if the project is taken and the original creator comes back, he has the right for his mod back with all its updates and upgrades no questions asked. Over a year and it becomes public community property.
Do you think something like that would be okay with the community? A year is quite a long time for a mod to be abandoned and as stated previously, any modder would also be able to request the group to temporarily take their mod over while he goes away for some time and give it back to him, no questions asked, whenever he comes back as well.

On your idea about a way to express that people can use a piece of the code or a mod freely, of course giving due credit, we can create a simple symbol or phrase (or both) for people to add to the bottom of their mod's description to mean exactly that. A sort of "creative commons" of modding.

Thank you so very much for raising up this issues and deepening the discussion ^^ I would love to hear your opinions more if you believe something like "a year" would be enough time for the community to rule a mod as fully abandoned if no contact was made or message left by its original creator. Still, contact should always be tried and the original owners credit as part of the development processes.

[Kooky]

If anyone is interested, I am working on fixing up and updating the Birds and Berries and Trees mod. The modder stated in a topic that he didn't know how to fix it and then abandoned it. I had help with updating the prefab BUT it seems for whatever reason, the animations keep bugging out, so when I fix them, the bushes then go invisible. Add me on Steam if you can help me out with this! Im kooky112

[Rosten]

May I suggest a live chat for people to hang out in like Discord? I can make, if need be.

[Kooky]

That or I do own a teamspeak server. Only problem is if I am going to upgrade it to host more than 15 people at once, I need some donations (like 50 bucks)

[Rosten]

If anyone cares to, I actually just made the server. Currently setting it up, but feel free to join.

[Kooky]

I'll look tomorrow, my problem is discord and my ISP dont like each other at all so I'll attempt it tomorrow when it's not almost 1am.

[UnderwearApp]

On Thursday, December 08, 2016 at 10:18 PM, Kooky said:

If anyone is interested, I am working on fixing up and updating the Birds and Berries and Trees mod. The modder stated in a topic that he didn't know how to fix it and then abandoned it. I had help with updating the prefab BUT it seems for whatever reason, the animations keep bugging out, so when I fix them, the bushes then go invisible. Add me on Steam if you can help me out with this! Im kooky112

I have never posted this anywhere. Why would I when I only looked at it a few days ago. The berry bushes were completely rewritten as well as names of the individual animations changed, most likely to accommodate diseases.

 

Also, heaven fall stated on these forums that anyone can pick up his mods since he is no longer working on them which is why I ported RPG Items to DST.

Edited December 10, 2016 by ProfFarnsworth

[Kooky]

11 hours ago, ProfFarnsworth said:

I have never posted this anywhere. Why would I when I only looked at it a few days ago. The berry bushes were completely rewritten as well as names of the individual animations changed, most likely to accommodate diseases.

 

Also, heaven fall stated on these forums that anyone can pick up his mods since he is no longer working on them which is why I ported RPG Items to DST.

That's just it, I've actually taken apart the new animations, and put them back together so they look the way they should but they still go invisible. And I had some help with the code being redone using the new lua file.

[justjasper]

Are there plans to make a dedicated forum for this group? Might be easier to work in different mods/projects if they could have their own threads. 

[GabrielJack]

7 hours ago, justjasper said:

Are there plans to make a dedicated forum for this group? Might be easier to work in different mods/projects if they could have their own threads. 

I was considering creating a forum just for it, as I contacted the Klei administrators and they didn't seem too inclined to create a subforum for it yet.
Sorry everyone for being away for a while. I've actually went back to modding Skyrim as well and have decided to try and start a project of my own there together, possibly, with a similar network such as this towards Skyrim, which makes the idea of a M.O.D. Network forum even more interesting, as it could be created to accomodate several games in different sections but have some kind of "Modders Manifesto" which describes the objectives of modders everywhere, for every game, a declaration to work together through an open sourced collaborative system, to help other modders even if they do not wish to be a part of the network just for being a fellow modder and to try and make moddable games reach their pinnacle of visual, gameplay  and mechanics as much as possible, always striving to get better and keeping good old modding concepts alive and updated as long as possible. 

This is a whole community project to whomever wishes to help, so whomever has some experience creating forums or managing a group such as this, please PM me as I really need help.
Besides this and Skyrim, I'm also working as a volunteer for the Asgardia project and will start studying Automation soon for a bachelors degree, so it will become harder and harder to coordinate everything on my own in order to get this started and going, so whomever is able to and wishes to do so, please help. Personal Messages also notify me by e-mail so I will reply as soon as I see it.

For the last few days I've been considering quite a few things needed to claim the M.O.D. Network as "founded". One of them is the system, structure and methodology, in a sense that for it to work and keep on going, no one should be considered "essential" for it to function and with so anyone would be allowed to quit at anytime were anything to happen or just wish to get out for personal reasons. How to choose which mods to work with, how to make decisions that might affect the whole network, be it only for one game or even for all games that might be included for the network were an official forum to be created.
Some things are kind of obvious, but most require a lot of discussion, and as I have been getting more and more busy with several projects coming one on top of the other, I will need a lot of help.
(I haven't played anything for even a few minutes for the last 5 days T-T help...)

Edited December 12, 2016 by GabrielJack

[SinisterHumanoid]

Can we suggest people to be invited? I know Cr4shmaster http://steamcommunity.com/id/cr4shmaster/myworkshopfiles/ has made a perishable LUA so mods don't conflict when editing such things. His code could help make lots of new items and such.