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Battlefront Mod and Scenario Depot - your opinion counts


Moon

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I came to the party late, but is battlefront going to make some of the scenarios that will be available to us? I do enjoy the quality of the scenarios that come with your games.

Most of these scenarios are from a bunch of very skilled beta testers. I would assume that at least some of them would continue making scenarios and would also be uploading them.

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In today's economy a lot of gamers are going to be left out. this has always be free, its just another way to take money out of are pockets, you pay $55.00 dollars out for the game and maybe more and 98% of the time the game does not work out of the box, Theatre of war 1 has problems and did not live up to what was said the game would be and do. I think you are going down the wrong path with this, and one download a mouth this would take someone forever to get the game looking good. You, guys just need to make the game right and we would not need all these mods.

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IMHO it is the mods that keep good games running over a longer time period. If there were no mods (and the possibility for myself to mod the games, as I did a few times) I probably left SC2 already. So IMO there should be NO restrictions (except for the registration) in downloading user created content. A lot of game sites offer this possibility FOR FREE. Why should I pay for downloads when I can get them free otherwise (like on CMMODS or via

Yahoo-groups)?, even if they're slow. Do you know Advanced Tactics (published by Matrix)?

After registration you can download as many scenarios or tools for FREE. The same is true for TOAW (slightly outdated but still alive due to the many scenarios made by users).

So far my opinion.

Sami

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It's not going to prevent 3rd party sites from hosting/supplying mods & scenarios. You get a certain download amount for FREE each month.

So, if you've used up your monthly allotment and don't want to pay for a new scenario/mod that you've seen or heard about you can either wait until the next month or go look at the various 3rd party sites to see if it's been uploaded there.

So, what will happen is that new mods/scenarios will be posted to the official 'depot' and then those will be copied and uploaded to the 3rd party sites so that those that won't/don't or can't pay can have access to them with or (now) without the permission of the original mod/scenario author.

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Actually, just to repeat, we're going to launch the Repository completely free, without any download restrictions. We're going to re-evaluate the situation a few months in, including server reliability, cost and customer satisfaction :)

At the moment we're still in testing mode for the server setup. I said earlier that we might launch this week but it will most likely not work out until next week.

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i strongly suspect it will stay free because BattleFront has stated it doesn't intent to make any profit by selling (access to) user created content.

a figure of 8000 active users was thrown earlier in this thread for a single fan site dedicated to CMx1 scens and mods.

if BFC's depot had half of those for ALL BFC games combined, they would have 4000 active users.

if active user would pay just 3 dollars / month, BFC would generate income of 3 x 4000 = 12 000 dollars per month.

that would be extremely profitable, so i think the depot will have to stay free.

on the other hand if there would be just 400 active users there would be no bandwidth issue and thus depot would be free as well.

can't see how it would not stay free.

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OK for this server, OK to pay for a subscription for a better service.

But if payable, we - I - 'd like a server with a more user friendly interface then:

- screenshots/details of the mods/maps to be downloaded

- good search engine

in order we're sure about what we're going to dowload.

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Keep the name simple. files.battlefront.com , battlefrontfiles.com , battlefront.com/files

I think it is about time you did this ;) .

You should set a limit per user based on bandwidth, not number of files you can download. Sometimes a mod is not that good and you want to try another that is the same type of mod to see if you enjoy that one.

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Hi Moon,

I think your proposal is very reasonable: a good mix/compromise in between BF business and community "desiderata" (wishes).

The only doubt, because I don't remember average size of Mod Pack, is about the 10 Mb size (quiet enough for scenarios), but you already underlined that this amount is not yet really defined (needing some firsthand experience first).

Even tough I am not an "uploader" (never uploaded a scenario or a mod), if I can give a suggestion, is to find some way to award the people that is uploading more valuable items: something like "you uploaded xxx items; these items were rated very good by the community; so you will earn some yyy extra Mb if you are not a "paying" user" (this is just the rough idea... you can find some best algorithm to perfect it).

In this way there will be some incentive for the virtuos people that shared with us "lazy" users their efforts in these years.

All the best

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Charging a fee or placing a limit on what one can d/l is anti-community for a Company that encouraged creativity (scenario editor) and has benefitted hugely through the tremendous amount of voluntary hard work and time/effort put into creating theses Scenarios/Mods.

Now you want to thank people for all that creativity by charging them or placing a limit on what they can d/l?

I'm sorry BFC but this seems like a kick in the teeth to the loyalty of you fans.

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Charging a fee or placing a limit on what one can d/l is anti-community for a Company that encouraged creativity (scenario editor) and has benefitted hugely through the tremendous amount of voluntary hard work and time/effort put into creating theses Scenarios/Mods.

Now you want to thank people for all that creativity by charging them or placing a limit on what they can d/l?

I'm sorry BFC but this seems like a kick in the teeth to the loyalty of you fans.

Anti-community? Can you name any other game company that hosts all it's games library(not just CM series) mods/scenarios/add-ons, etc. for free? It is reasonable to charge a small fee for those who dl above average. They just need to find a fair balance which is why it's gonna be free in the beginning.

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It should be kept in mind that all web services cost the provider both time and money. That includes this forum - they have hired hundreds of little moderators to work round the clock just to remove such repulsive and offensive terms as "**** ****** *******" or "**** in your ************ you **** ***" or "I normally browse the forum while wearing only one sock, and reading this thread has made it feel tight". So, obviously, offering extra services for free is kind of poor business, especially when it comes to hosting files. You just cannot predict how much bandwidth those filthy customers are going to hog from you, can you, and just setting it up takes a sockload of work from The Shiny One. So in the end, if BFC ends up offering its customers a free monthly download quota of 2 KB and anything beyond that costs 100$/month, you shouldn't be satisfied. No, you should be eternally grateful, sacrificing the intestines of your firstborns on the altar of Great Brain Jar, name the follow-ups according to what pet names Steve has given to his Weasels, flog your bare back with salted whips and run along the main street crying "TRULY BATTLEFRONT.COM IS THE MESSIAH! LOOK, THEY LIBERATED ME FROM THE SOCK!" But if the service was any better than that, you should somehow try to demonstrate your gratitude.

Anyhow, even if it turned out to be a lemon, it's not like BFC is going to send cease & desist letters to all 'competitors'. As a matter of fact, if most of the bandwidth demand went from CMMODS to the Official Thingydotcom, it would only mean COHG might be able to reduce some costs (dunno if so) and if someone needed to download files beyond the monthly quota without paying (them cheapo-sock b'stardos!), it would be available in CMMODS or other well-equipped server near to you.

So, in the end, I fail to see how this plan from BFC would be harmful for gamers, other than that in the worst case scenario it might not really give anything extra.

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The problem isn't the cost. The cost is small enough that even a free website like CMMODs could live with donations.

The problem is that, effectively, you are in to program a social networking site.

Things like scenario depot and to a lesser extent mods are social networking. They have communities that provide things for each other, communicate, rate things, write reviews, categorize things, all that Web 2.0 jazz.

It isn't possible to just go and program such a website. These things are unpredictable, you have to develop features as they pop up as useful or required. Unless, of course, you are willing to make a sucky one.

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Thanks for the link Moon, was looking around the FAQ and saw this:

Q:I received a reminder email to vote?

A: Whenever you download a file, be it a mod, scenario or map, your download is written to a log. If you do not submit a vote for the file you have downloaded within a week, you will receive a reminder email, asking you to consider to vote and/or post a comment/review of the file(s) you have downloaded. You will receive this email only once per download.The people creating mods and scenarios for your enjoyment work hard and do deserve the satisfaction of being recognized for their efforts. Please do consider voting. It will only cost you a tiny fraction of the time that it takes mod and scenario authors to create all the cool stuff. Thank you!

Now I'm sure some will bitch and moan about this, but I think this is great. I think the email will generate a lot more feedback/ratings about the mods and scenarios. Yeah I know the SDII, TPG, and CMMODs have a rating and comments area in place, but the problem is that nobody uses it. I'm guilty of this as well, probably left feedback 3-4 times out of hundreds dled.
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I just read the whole thread, and I think the file depot idea is great.

Personally, I wouldn't mind donating a few bucks to BFC to use the service without limits, even though I don't download mods and scenarios often.

(Considering I already have downloaded hundreds of scenarios, and dozens of operations over the years)

I think a file depot is great for those people (including me) who shop around for maybe one or two mods at a time.

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