Factions Download Center

[Omega]

This is the big problem. We can't really follow the gradings, and even when we can, some of the best mods won't necessarily fit into these gradings...

So... scrap or revamp?

[ElimiNator]

The only problem is the rating of packs, I DIDN'T RATE ANY THING YET! the faction positions are random!

[Omega]

*Confused*

[ultifd]

Do we really need ratings anyways?  I thought we had a simple poll for that,  ...Oh well.
The problem with ratings is...people judge for themselves. The other bigger problem is that everyone has different opinions, sometimes, on a mod or so...well, that is the main problem with ratings, well related anyways. That rating system is nice though...Oops, I think that is what "overwrited" the poll. 

Faction positions? No one was talking about that...

*Confused*

[ChupaReaper]

Can you change the link for Malevolent Rising as it leads to an up to date but bad host version (zShare's a bit slow and has a waiting time).
Can you change it to here:
http://darkspectral.zxq.net/Games/MRiseReleases.html
It leads to the download area of my website which has all the links and will be kept up to date.

[wyvern]

I think that ratings are a kinda dumb idea in the first place, first of all its not necessarily based on the mods popularity so megapack for example would be somewhere around bronze instead of platinum/gold that everyone thinks it is, I think that a simple survey of how many stars you give a mod(sort of like glest guide). for example, Bob gives megapack five stars, but then Billy comes along and gives it four stars meaning that now the mod is rated at four and a half stars, I think this would be the best rating system, instead of stars people could post thumbs up or smileys and it could be a scale of 1-5 or 1-10

[-Archmage-]

I think that ratings are a kinda dumb idea in the first place, first of all its not necessarily based on the mods popularity so megapack for example would be somewhere around bronze instead of platinum/gold that everyone thinks it is, I think that a simple survey of how many stars you give a mod(sort of like glest guide). for example, Bob gives megapack five stars, but then Billy comes along and gives it four stars meaning that now the mod is rated at four and a half stars, I think this would be the best rating system, instead of stars people could post thumbs up or smileys and it could be a scale of 1-5 or 1-10

Why is it that after we debate and settle on something that everyone comes forward with the opposition?

[wyvern]

after somethings settled then the problems with the system start appearing.

[-Archmage-]

after somethings settled then the problems with the system start appearing.

When it settles is when you start thinking about it, when we actually use the system, that's when the problems present themselves.

[ElimiNator]

OK Ill change the download and re arrange the factions.

[John.d.h]

I think that ratings are a kinda dumb idea in the first place, first of all its not necessarily based on the mods popularity so megapack for example would be somewhere around bronze instead of platinum/gold that everyone thinks it is, I think that a simple survey of how many stars you give a mod(sort of like glest guide). for example, Bob gives megapack five stars, but then Billy comes along and gives it four stars meaning that now the mod is rated at four and a half stars, I think this would be the best rating system, instead of stars people could post thumbs up or smileys and it could be a scale of 1-5 or 1-10

Just because something is popular doesn't mean it's good and something unpopular can be just as good or better.  Sure, Megapack is good, but a lot of its popularity comes from its being included in MG, so going by popularity isn't a good way of rating quality.  There might be something that's great, but just not as well-known, so it would get a lower rating, and that's not right or fair.

[wyvern]

I think everything here on this forum is pretty well known at least by the active members

[ultifd]

What was that purpose of that Ratings Yes or No poll, anyways?  ...Now we have a good system or so, just "discard" it right?  Just cause the new one is totally different and "better"...
Oh well, now we will have even more problems later... 

[John.d.h]

Let's just see how it goes.  If people get all butthurt and bitchy about it, then we can drop it.

[wyvern]

Whatever

[ultifd]

OK, I'm just saying...is this really better for the community? The future one, anyways. where are the ratings. 
Oh well, we'll see. Hopefully this won't happen in the future, disregarding...stuff. Wait, no possibility for that. 

[John.d.h]

Better to try something and actually know if it works, rather than just theorizing about it.

[ultifd]

Alright, whatever. Just a pretty good prediction...
So G.I.S. is not Abandonware. They had a new version...ugh don't judge...anyways check out Mod DB...

Glest In Space | Faction Discussion
By: Coldfusionstorm
Description: In this faction you are controlling spaceships in space, It has it own models and tile-set.
Glest versions supported: MG, GAE, vanilla.

Unless Abandonware= Recent releases.
------
Winter Men. Silver. Their color yeah...well...how are they silver again? They have that nice model, but that is about it...
Time for judging the cats. categories, and revs. reviews.  

[-Archmage-]

Remember to state what version of a mod you're judging, k.

[ElimiNator]

What ever the download is, is the version I am jugging. Can Jhon D. H., Omega, Archmage, Ultifd, or Titi rate my factions and packs?

Criteria for ratings:

0-10% Models
0-10% Textures
0-10% Animations
0-10% Sounds
0-10% Music
0-10% Icons
0-10% AI
0-10% Particles
0-10% Balance
0-10% Misc
=0-100% overall rating

Gold:      90 pt
Silver:     60 pt
Bronze:    30 pt
Stone:     10 pt
Wip:    Unfinished
Abandonware:    Mods that have a download but have been abandoned.

[Omega]

Couldn't there be a break down of HOW the factions were rated? After all, that way we can see what needs to be improved.

ie: here's a personal rating of the megapack (as in MG):

9 Models
9 Textures
9 Animations
9 Sounds
10 Music
8.5 Icons
8 AI
10 Particles
7.5 Balance
10 Personal feel toward any aspects of the mod...
=90 overall rating

As we can see, the lowest area is balance, thus that can be worked on.

If I were to grade military (probably biased, made it myself. NOTE: This is for the newest version, which has updated models, particles, and sounds, and unfortunately, has no been released yet ):

8 Models
9 Textures
7 Animations
8.5 Sounds
10 Music
8 Icons
9 AI
9 Particles
10 Balance (well, it DOES play against itself Perhaps balance shouldn't be graded for single faction mods? An alternative marking system for them?)
10 Personal feel toward any aspects of the mod... (this is biased. I made it, so it's tailored to me)
=88.5 overall rating (bearing in mind the biased nature (see my notes) and the fact this is based for the newest WIP version)

EDIT// Note: Two replies were posted while I was typing. I don't take into aspect them

[John.d.h]

Should a do a review real quick to establish a baseline and possible format for future reviews?  And by the way, are we posting the reviews in this thread?

[-Archmage-]

Should a do a review real quick to establish a baseline and possible format for future reviews?  And by the way, are we posting the reviews in this thread?

Apparently. I think we should submit them in the topic I posted.
This is the download center not the review center.


Guys this is the latest version of the criteria that was agreed upon:

Code: [Select]

Criteria for ratings:

0-10% Models
0-10% Textures
0-10% Animations
0-10% Sounds
0-10% Music
0-10% Icons
0-10% AI
0-10% Particles
0-10% Balance
0-10% Miscellaneous
=0-100% overall rating

Platinum: 95%+
Gold:      85-95 %
Silver:     60-84 %
Bronze:    30-59 %
Stone:     10-29 %
Lead:      0-9 %
Wip:    Unfinished
Abandonware:    Mods that have been abandoned at any stage of development.

[ChupaReaper]

You can actually rate a single faction mod on balance:

• Subfactions
• Unit balance: Are some units useless compared to other units, if so why bother having them units?
• Playing style: Some people might use lots of weaker units vs someone who spends a lot of time on a few strong units, are the two balanced well?

Basically are different aspects of the same faction balanced against itself.

Also, what about replayability? That's important, a small 2 second mod might be fun at first but could get boring for players who like long detailed agains, also the opposite, logn detailed boring mods would be boring for people who like action straight away, I guess this could come under misc as it is kind of the whole overall feel of it that makes it replayable or not.

[Omega]

I say we just post them here... Easier that way, and besides, why do we need to post them in a separate topic? 

I don't think we need an abandonware catigory. For me, abandonware is a mod that was NEVER COMPLETED and hasn't been actively worked on. A completed mod doesn't get worked on, yet that doesn't make it abandonware. Abandonware is totally useless, and we should *not* have a catigory for them. I also don't think we should have a WIP catigory. I mean, this is supposed to be a FACTION DOWNLOAD CENTER. Its a WIP, there is *no* download! If there's a beta, we can rank it. If there is no beta, it doesn't belong here. And since mods CAN change catigories, we can put them into catigories until their next version, where they may possibly change catigories based on what is new.

ie: If a mod WIP is released as a beta, but it sucks, and isn't done, it may be bronze, lead, stone, whatever... But if the next beta fixes all of those, its possible for the mod to move up some ranks, such as to silver. The description of the mod can state if one can expect more updates. For example, a beta release's description might carry a note of "This is just a beta release and is subject to change in the future".

After all, aren't most mods technically WIP's if they still get future improvements? Military is completely playable, but it still gets updates. For example, the next update improves sound, voices, a few models, and all the particle effects.

For those reasons, I propose the scrapping of the WIP and abandonware catigories.