I haven't disappeared. RL just got a little crazy. Lost my teaching position and decided it was time for a career change. Starting a new company doing home inspections and custom carpentry. (Following my dad's footprints. One of the New England Houses is based on his house. I think was build in 1730 and he has spent the last 20 years restoring it. )
I should be around more now that things are settling out. I am in the process of getting an update together for the New England mod, either still as part of <abbr title="Colonial Charter">CC</abbr> or spinning it off as a companion.
yah life does have its ups and downs. i sure hope you is happier in the end of it all though. that counts.
I am sorry if my suggestions offend you, Ketchup, or anyone else in any way. I love your work. Your Medieval mods and the others you put together are truly wonderful. I in no way meant to imply that Colonial Charter’s ideology of balance was more “correct” than any other. We agree on that point. Each mod included in MegaMod works well in its own right. These mods are truly the best of the best. That is why they are included. Right?
My point is that I think the mods included in MegaMod can be integrated in such a way the makes the experience of playing Banished more fun. I believe this can be achieved while retaining the “soul” of each of these various mods. When I think of the “soul” of a mod, I think of the look, the feel, the aesthetics, and–to an extent–the functionality. I think we all agree that each of these wonderful creations should look, feel, and function the way its creator intended. That is not to say that they are perfect and any modification to their design is bad. I believe there is always room for improvement.
When I refer to “obscure materials”, I simply mean any materials that are not included in vanilla Banished. In this way, Colonial Charter is much more “obscure” than any other mod included in MegaMod. It just so happens that Colonial Charter introduced the concept of ambiguous materials in the form of Building Supplies, Homewares, and Fancy Homewares. I prefer these materials as building requirements over requiring other more specific materials, such as Bricks and Roof Tiles, simply because of how well they can be used to integrate many other types of materials. In creating such a comprehensive mod as MegaMod (and I do realize what a monumental task this must be), I feel that there is an opportunity for a level of integration between mods that could not be achieved by installing multitudes of individual mod.
In order to achieve such a level of integration, there must be some level of agreement among mod creators as to what constitutes a balanced building; a formula of sorts that can be used as a guide when designing and balancing a building. These guidelines could be similar in form to the guidelines that Dungeons and Dragons 5e has for creating custom monsters or class features.
I outlined many concerns of balance in the original post, but there are likely flaws in those ideas or at least more things to consider. This task is not as simple as conforming to Colonial Charter; there are several suggestions in the original post that, if followed, would alter Colonial Charter as much, if not more than, other mods.
My intent here is to encourage a constructive dialog that would result in an agreed-upon formula for designing a balanced building. If such a task could be accomplished, then we can discuss applying that formula to MegaMod.
I agree that balancing does need to happen in my own individual mods, but as far as being able to balance all the mods in the MegaMod to work cohesively... whoa!
Who has time for this? It would require a huge amount of time testing and altering a lot of different files.
I don't envy Kralyerg as it is now when I send him updates to my mods that contain 1000's of files that he must sort through to update the megamod. And every update we do means the same for kralyerg.
For us as modders to all conform to the same set of standards isn't as easy as it might seem. Not all of us play with <abbr title="Colonial Charter">CC</abbr>, so introducing Building Supplies or such to our own individual mods could be counter-productive and instead we are just unnecessarily making it more complicated than it needs to be, plus we might all have different views on where our mods would like to go in the future, adopting a single approach is likely to kill creativity.
To be honest, I'd like to see more of you take up modding - it really isn't that hard, just time-consuming.
[img]<fileStore.core_Emoticons>/emoticons/wink.png[/img]/emoticons/wink@2x.png 2x" title=";)" width="20" /> if you yourself would like to try and make this mod, I can point you in the right direction on how to do it.
In terms of the happiness effect of buildings, there was a conversation and testing done regarding this on the WOB website and as far as we can tell the whole happiness code doesn't seem to have any significant effect on gameplay.
Quote:
3 hours ago, SamuraiWindu said:
I am sorry if my suggestions offend you, Ketchup, or anyone else in any way. I love your work. Your Medieval mods and the others you put together are truly wonderful. I in no way meant to imply that Colonial Charter’s ideology of balance was more “correct” than any other. We agree on that point. Each mod included in MegaMod works well in its own right. These mods are truly the best of the best. That is why they are included. Right?
My point is that I think the mods included in MegaMod can be integrated in such a way the makes the experience of playing Banished more fun. I believe this can be achieved while retaining the “soul” of each of these various mods. When I think of the “soul” of a mod, I think of the look, the feel, the aesthetics, and–to an extent–the functionality. I think we all agree that each of these wonderful creations should look, feel, and function the way its creator intended. That is not to say that they are perfect and any modification to their design is bad. I believe there is always room for improvement.
When I refer to “obscure materials”, I simply mean any materials that are not included in vanilla Banished. In this way, Colonial Charter is much more “obscure” than any other mod included in MegaMod. It just so happens that Colonial Charter introduced the concept of ambiguous materials in the form of Building Supplies, Homewares, and Fancy Homewares. I prefer these materials as building requirements over requiring other more specific materials, such as Bricks and Roof Tiles, simply because of how well they can be used to integrate many other types of materials. In creating such a comprehensive mod as MegaMod (and I do realize what a monumental task this must be), I feel that there is an opportunity for a level of integration between mods that could not be achieved by installing multitudes of individual mod.
In order to achieve such a level of integration, there must be some level of agreement among mod creators as to what constitutes a balanced building; a formula of sorts that can be used as a guide when designing and balancing a building. These guidelines could be similar in form to the guidelines that Dungeons and Dragons 5e has for creating custom monsters or class features.
I outlined many concerns of balance in the original post, but there are likely flaws in those ideas or at least more things to consider. This task is not as simple as conforming to Colonial Charter; there are several suggestions in the original post that, if followed, would alter Colonial Charter as much, if not more than, other mods.
My intent here is to encourage a constructive dialog that would result in an agreed-upon formula for designing a balanced building. If such a task could be accomplished, then we can discuss applying that formula to MegaMod.
<a contenteditable="false" data-ipshover="" data-ipshover-target="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/14591-samuraiwindu/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="14591" href="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/14591-samuraiwindu/">@ SamuraiWindu</a> I am not a modder, I am not a coder, I am a very happy gamer, and that's where my thoughts will come from, and the tone I hope to convey in the following.
Simply put - no. Sorry, but I can't see any of the above working, or being at all healthy for the game, or the community.
I for one don't want to play in a cookie-cutter world, nor, do I want to play in a world where it becomes 'by the numbers', with balancing etc.
Many of us gamers play at different levels of intensity, some of like to build and explore, others like to starve and fight, fight, fight in the harsh hard elements, so, balance won't be suitable in this regard, or, at least a 'standardise balance', some of us pick and choose our buildings and game design because some are easier to access and build, some choose them because of their harder, less forgiving outputs.
There is often a conversation when a mod is published by the original author as to the 'numbers', the balance, the work flow, and many voices speak and are heard, and then the mod gets published. Some players are happy, some are not, some of us will get over it and adapt.
Not to mention, in some cases different mods with different criteria will work with different maps. Some maps won't have as much access to X resource, so not all buildings will be able to be built until a trader arrives, but, in other maps there will be an abundance of items.
The whole point of <abbr title="MegaMod">MM</abbr> (in my mind) is to bring together an amazing amount of mods by extremely talented modders, to work with each other, but not to be 'the same as each other'.
Here's the thing, I also don't want to be forced into using 1 set of building tools, I want to explore other building options, tiles, bricks, lighting, candles etc. I don't want to load up my map and just always have to build the 'same ole same ole'.
Sure, for some, it makes the game easier, you don't need to build 4 windmills before you find the one you need for the grain you have, but, then, where's the fun of exploration?
I use 1 mod that alters all the tailors so that all the tailors will use the same items (feathers & reeds in my water worlds), but, I certainly don't want ALL the building mods to have that "same same" value to it.
And as much as I love <abbr title="Colonial Charter">CC</abbr> and certainly won't criticise it, why should all the modders work to the <abbr title="Colonial Charter">CC</abbr> values, or the <abbr title="Colonial Charter">CC</abbr> devs work to the other modders?
A community should be diverse, and celebrated, and that's what <abbr title="MegaMod">MM</abbr> does, and as players we either learn to adapt to the differences, or, simply, just don't use it.
Whoa! How many things to read! [img]<fileStore.core_Emoticons>/emoticons/ohmy.png[/img]/emoticons/ohmy@2x.png 2x" title=":o" width="20" />
In principle, I agree with <a contenteditable="false" data-ipshover="" data-ipshover-target="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/3183-ketchup/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="3183" href="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/3183-ketchup/">@ Ketchup</a>. It doesn't seem right to change the soul of the mod in the collection.
Anyway, in the real world things can be achieved in different ways, with different procedures and different waste of resources. Then Megamod is realistic in its own way.
If I might interject ... the different variations make it interesting to me. Those inconsistencies are fun to explore and suss out.
The sooner we figure everything out, the sooner we'll get bored with the game.
Very well. It seems there is little interest in discussing this topic further. I will leave it alone.
everyone plays diferent. each individual mod has to be balanced itself for productivity,trade value,sizes,pupose,etc. and as QUERY stated not everyone's ideas are agreed upon.some mods are good for game starts and the building material idea is better for later in the game.usually the firewood needs are adjusted better for the more advanced housing.part of the problem isn't the mods but the game itself. the bannies can not use all the various items that have been created. it would be better if happiness mattered more. and i do wish the furniture,candles,and silverwares could be used. there is so many trade goods.those problems many have tried to fix.
DS,i did try modding with FS13. i still have files all over this computer. was building a super map that was a compilation of like 5 maps onto 1. it had buildings and decorations from like 10 maps or more.i never could get some of it figured out though. i had no luck at coding machinery. i was able to redesign the animal farms and add to them and added some crops. i thnk the map had like 10 animals and 12 or more crops. some day i will pick it back up and work on it more. modding gives me headahces and fits.thing is i never got to play much either,lol. it is so easy to make just a simple mistake in the coding and it can take forever to find those.
Quote:
5 hours ago, SamuraiWindu said:
It seems there is little interest in discussing this topic further.
Don't leave in a huff... [img]<fileStore.core_Emoticons>/emoticons/smile.png[/img]/emoticons/smile@2x.png 2x" title=":)" width="20" />
It's not so much that there is no interest, you do raise some valid points... but you may have underestimated the uncomfortable limitations our modders have to work with.
The ModKit is a nasty "tool" - actually there is no tool... changing one bit in a mod means riding through thousands of lines of code, then recompile the whole thing... so the tiniest tweak turns into a major chore. Innovation within Banished means breaking out of the tight modkit, bending, nay - twisting the "rules" in order to "work around" limitations.. so yeah, sometimes at the cost of "balancing".
It's rather natural that modding goes off in different directions - some want it harder, some want it more beautiful, some more efficient, some more streamlined, some want cowboys and indians, some want pyramids and sphinx... and so on - immersion takes all kinds, and modders are hard put to cater to all.
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