MegaBurn wrote:For something to happen here requires details, more brainstorming, planning down to small manageable chunks, some organizing, etc...
More ideas:
...
No, for something to happen here it requires people that have time and motivation to actually do something - this is what works. In general, ideas and discussions are a good thing to start, but you can't just discuss, present your results and say to others: do it.
Also, if you post ideas involving the moderation and devnet stuff, including moderators, parts of the administrators, translators, beta and alpha testers, volunteer developers and so on, keep in mind that these people don't get paid by Egosoft and that they have lifes outside the forum. Also time of the devs is limited.
As an example of what works, I like to mention the new MSCI Reference forum. An
idea was posted and discussed. And then in only two weeks a forum was created and users started to work on it. Although not everything could be implemented as expected - planned was a wiki, but due to limited ressources it's only a forum, as usual there are working hands missing, not everyone was confident with every decision made etc. - it works.
So, basically a working procedure should be (from my point of view): Post one (!) idea, see if people like it and discuss it. Try then to collect volunteers who have time, motivation and / or knowledge to do something. Check then, maybe with the help of moderators, admins or egosoft staff, if it's possible to realize. And then finally start doing it. And don't be upset if there goes something not the way you accepted, or the team decides something you don't like.
Earlier you wrote the following.
MegaBurn wrote:Failing that I could take the initiative...but I'm just a lurker here, I watch and instigate change, no one knows me, and I would rather not be known...
And that's imho exactly the wrong attitude. You've said that you have knowledge in creating sites / forums or the like, if I understood you correctly. And you want a better presentation of scripts and mods. So, why not creating such a site? With the features that are important from your point of view. Present it to others, ask for their oppinions, change something on your site. Finalize it and see if you can encourage people to actually use it. Same for most other things.
MegaBurn wrote:Even still, there must be more to it than balance or technical issues, there are a lot of mature stable scripts without a meaningful impact on balance. What is the root of the problem? Authors not submitting scripts due to a disregard for or lack of awareness about having their scripts signed? Egosoft policy? Some mix thereof? What can be done about it?
I think the bonus pack is pretty much dead for X3:TC. Reasons for that are different. One of the most important ones is that most of the users don't understood and still don't understand the community aspect of the bp. Some people still think it's a wish list for scripts, so post an idea and Egosoft will write a script for it. Others do believe that suggesting an already made script is enough. While doing something, like testing the available scripts, posting feedback about it and so on, are things that only rarely were done.
But the bonus pack was and is or should be a community project. So, we users (that include vanilla and modified players) work together to get the bonus pack. So, basically a scripter provides a script, Egosoft employees or team members of the signing team help to bring the script to stable state (so, it can be finally signed) and all other users who want the bonus pack help testing.
Another reason is probably the alienation between vanilla and modified players. At least I noticed that in the german forum. For many vanilla players each modified player is a *cheater*, while modified players can't accept that someone might have fun with the game without scripts and mods, as well.
apricotslice wrote:Ok, most of those are my own scripts, which will never be signed, because they are "unbalanced" in some way. But the people who use them dont care because they make the game less frustrating and more automated.
And the bottom line is, a happy player.
I think Egosoft should be signing any stable script that people want in the vanilla game, and the only criteria for rejection is being unstable, still in development or constantly tweaked.
No changing of the signing rules is needed for that, just teach those players common sense. The player has to accept that there will always be some glitches in the game or rather that he always has to decide between things he could have or not. So, if he thinks a script is useful but still wants to have certain vanilla things, he has to decide what he want more. It's that simple.
Edit: typos.
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