Saltworks

[embx61]

@brads3

Yeps, you got it

Honestly, I did not know if the modkit would allow modular toolbars above the main toolbar so I just tried it and it works.

EDIT: Both approaches are possible. Some modders with smaller mods can go with my approach and some bigger ones with the community Icon.

Combined as you said, if I understood you right, so modders do my approach and the community approach (So technically double everything) is I think not possible as you must assign a toolbar in the NameofBuilding.rsc file and I am not sure you can assign two toolbars to one building. Need testing but I doubt it. And honestly I think players will find that even more confusing.

But choosing either one will work all together but players have to get used to it a bit.

[adelegarland]

My 2 cents:  I think since most of the modders are using the community toolbars it would be a more consistent approach for you to use it as well...  That being said, I prefer it because I download mods based upon authors and like to find my faves in their respective place on the community toolbar.   so I vote "community toolbar"   

[embx61]

@adelegarland

Yes, consistency is a valid factor to weigh in.
As I said before, us modders cannot make everyone happy unless we make several different versions and that is something I not looking forward to.
It becomes a nightmare to update several different versions and I screw quite enough stuff up already when I update some of my mods. (Forget a link to a sprite, a right place on the toolbar, and so on)
As for using mods based on authors, the community is quite split about that.

Like I said, I personally don't care which system to use.

I think in this thread the votes are 3-1 for the community toolbar so far.

I wait a couple of days more for maybe some more input from some players and then act accordingly.

[RedKetchup]

you talked about the BL forums thread about the community icon and megamod.... if you read carefully... all the people who prefer all the houses in houses.... (i dont mean OUR people who comes here everyday) they have absolutely no idea of who we are and no idea what we done for people, for this game.

oh ya there is a big jpg on one thread somewhere... with a list with our names and a bit of color that most people never ever seen because most people are not even curious to read unless they crash repetitively lol.

oh ya in the megamod toolbar there is some color , a red , orange, purple, blue, yellow rings around the icons.... most people dont even noticed them and they specially dont even have an idea of why it is there. ok now since we started to talk a bit on their poll thread about the community icon and a couple noticed us....

but mostly people even though , when they want an house they want an house , they absolutely dont care from who this house has been worked out... they just want an house.



we are not talking about some nice screenshots when we start the game saying instead of ..... " Your country has rested all their colonial ambitions...." but having a nice screenshot saying " while your map is been created... Did you know [DS] stands for Discrepancy, a prolific and a very skilled moddler that made 12 big mods with many entire themed mods which you will be using in this version of Megamod..... " ?? ??

or randomly when you start another game a nice screenshot saying : " Did you know [EB] stands for Embx61, a very skilled moddler that made 6 very nice mods and buildings that you will use in this version of Megamod...." ?? ??


while people are waiting patiently the game created (which take 16 mins on my computers with megamod ^^) that people has time to read and know and adknowledge who is Discrepancy, Embx61 or Kid1293, or who is Tom Sayer or Necora .... !!!



people have no idea who we are and how much time you guys and girls you spent all your free time, all your evenings since a year....


and most important....
also the Community Toolbar was for clearing that 2 miles long toolbars that are filled 2 space high and depending your screen resolution it goes alot further the other side of the screen and disappearing ?? !!
and which give a big headache to anyone seeing that and try to search a simple stupid vanilla stockpile or simple stupid vanilla barn !
and who is abandonning the game after 15mins because he didnt even succeed to find the vanilla gatherer  and get stuck with a big headache for the rest of the day :S

[TheOtherMicheal]

As one of the players who has been very happy to grab just about every mod you fine people have made, I'll say that at first I thought the idea of the Community Toolbar was just "okay", a good idea but one that I didn't think I'd really use.
I didn't think it would be that useful and I really hated the idea of having to swap out older versions of mods for the new ones that now made use of the Community Toolbar (CT) especially when large mods like DS Small Village or the Maritimes where going to be split into smaller parts and put onto the CT... I have a lot of mods in use and I didn't want to add even more to the load order when they had originally been just one mod.
Seriously, I have 160+ mods operating in the game, it meant a lot of work to update to the CT.

However... after having played around 30 hours or more of Banished now with the CT in place, I like it a lot and I'll admit to a little confusion when I loaded embx61's latest mods and found some on the CT and others in the vanilla menus, although I soon adapted.
I believe now that the CT is actually a very good idea and not just because it got rid of the "2 miles long toolbars" - this is a massive benefit because I had so many mods that the toolbar was extending to the left side of the screen and many of the road options were disappearing off screen (so obviously I wasn't able to use them). Like I said, I have 160+ mods loaded, the CT has almost entirely removed the problem with long toolbars to the point where I am now considering using Discrepancy's UI Improvement mod again (I couldn't use it before because of the "2 miles long toolbar" problem making some of the menu buttons disappear off screen).

I believe it's a very good idea because it appears that it also allows individual modders to personalize their toolbars without creating conflicts with the vanilla toolbar or with CC. It also highlights the fact that there is a community of modders making more items for the game. When you've played the game for a little while with the CT you soon remember where things are and what modder has what buildings/resources etc. etc. availalble

As someone using a hell of a lot of mods, the Community Toolbar is a truly great addition to the game in my opinion.

I have to agree with RedKetchup's comments too, I hang around both forums and a number of the people over at BL asking for changes all the time seem to be quite ignorant of the modders and don't really seem to appreciate the amount of work they put in to make additions for the game. I see some of the same people wanting MegaMod to have "everything" because they simply do not want to have to work out load orders for mods or they are obsessed with the red flag showing up on mods that share some files because they are convinced it means the mods will not work together and will cause a crash. Even when it's explained to them by smarter people, they still refuse to believe it.

These are people who do not want to think about what they are doing, they want everything easy and they don't want to have to plan anything out in the game - these are some of the same people who want all the mods to be put onto the Steam workshop so that they never have to bother with updating mods when the game gets updated. They're lazy or stupid or sometimes both and it will not matter what a mod maker does to help them, they will not be satisfied until the game has been changed to suit only them.

[grammycat]

The community toolbar does a good thing-it gives credit where credit is due.  I appreciate all the creators, the work they put into this game, and the fact they share their mods with us.  Besides, I like to be able to find my favorites quickly. 

[embx61]

Thanks folks for the constructive attributions regarding the Community Toolbar.

It looks like most votes here on WoB are for the community toolbar.
As I release my Mods only here on WoB your votes are most important to me

As I said before, personally I don't care which to use. I like both systems but consistency is a major factor too as pointed out in this thread and most importantly:
While I ofcourse mod because I like to do it, and my beloved wife started it all with her request to make a windmill for the game, I mod for you nice people, and not directly for myself

So, over the weekend I will change and then upload all my mods which will be all under the Community Toolbar, if I don't mess something up that is 

[Paeng]

they want everything easy

Yeah, because the vast majority are just casual players - they don't read up on the game, and they don't engage in conversation... It's sad...    

Besides, I like to be able to find my favorites quickly. 

That puts it nicely in a nutshell... 

We just play - but we play with a passion...

[elemental]

Yeah, because the vast majority are just casual players - they don't read up on the game, and they don't engage in conversation... It's sad...    

Not wanting to go way off topic, but that comment is accurate for a great many things. Not just Banished, not just computer games.

[TheOtherMicheal]

Yeah, because the vast majority are just casual players - they don't read up on the game, and they don't engage in conversation... It's sad...    

Not wanting to go way off topic, but that comment is accurate for a great many things. Not just Banished, not just computer games.

Sadly, that is so true. I find the same for two of my other interests, music and movies. It seems a lot people today don't want to have to think too much about anything and their discussions about movies or music are typically about trivial things and they won't get involved in any deeper, more thoughtful conversation.

[QueryEverything]

@embx61 Hi there, sorry we haven't spoken before, you came back to modding just as I had to be AFK, which is sad really as I've used your mods in the past and never got to say "thank you".  So, Thank you!

As most of the forum regulars know, I'm not shy of my own opinion   and I hope to always be around to annoy the crap out of all you fine modders, you know who you are   So, if I may have a minute (maybe 10) of your time, here it goes ...

I am a very active (when able) member of here and over at BL and I am working on the BL wiki, and I often answer questions where I can on both forums for players that are new, I am finding myself more and more pointing out to players over there that bugs/issues etc with XYZ mod isn't a BL issue but a BL modder issue, and point them to the source or tag the modder.  I don't mind this, this comes standard for me, but I am relieved that at no time have any other modders claimed anothers work in MM, which is excellent.  I make the above comment so to hopefully put in context the rest of my post. 

This isn't directed just at you @embx61 this is a comment that I have made over the last couple of months, and anyone who hasn't read my thoughts, well, now you know too.

I am a very large advocate of artist recognition, I am sure when I say this, many of us wouldn't have the passion we have for the game if it's wasn't for the modders, so I can genuinely say that at least with the MM the artists are getting their recognition, but, the players need to realise what's going on.  I do however wonder about @RedKetchup newest idea about further recognition, having the load screen with artist dedications etc, having each of the artists submit (to whomever) a load screen image with their details, link to their bio page, chosen shots of some of their work etc, and that be included in the future MM release.


I understand that the current load screen that Red refers to is directly connected to Colonial Charter, and is based on the current storyline that it brings.  I can see that with work in the future, perhaps working with BL and having their Story line preference, to then also include the loading screens of the other modders involved.  I would suggest that those who want to be involved in the side project have a chat with those in the BL team and see what magic can be done.


In the interim, perhaps one of the modders can take point and create a mod override which has the load pages of the different modders, so we can download the mod and change our loading pages.  I would also love to see in this sort of mod screenshots from the community members of their villages.  We have a couple of players who regularly post updates, and I think it would be lovely to have some of their work also included.
Perhaps I should branch this part of the topic off into it's own thread  (I have since done so & it's here).  Something that can be discussed with all the modders who want to be involved.


Moving back to what was originally posted ...  I love and use the Community Toolbar, but I have often lamented that we can't also 'copy' the items into the function toolbars.  So, @kid1293 colonial houses would be in his CT, or a 'theme toolbar (aka CC "theme sets), or the "houses/theme".  I have suggested that the game dev would allow modders to utilise a change in code that allowed their mods to be listed in A or B or C (Both), toolbars.


This would solve a lot of player issues where some want by theme, by modder, by function. 


It's why I really like when MM gets updated, I can have the same mod listed twice.  Once in the MM 'function' toolbar, and then a 2nd in the CT because I installed it directly as well.


For me @embx61 I will use your mods regardless of where you place them, you need to feel comfortable with how you code, and where you place the code.


Cheers


Edit:  Added link to the new thread topic for the loading screen mod

[embx61]

@QueryEverything

Thanks and you are welcome

To be recognized as a Modder is not a big deal for me. Of course is it nice to fulfill a request from a forum member and/or get feedback (Either good or bad) after releasing something.

Just a little thank you is more then enough for me. Feedback is way more important to me. Like how can I improve the mod? Are the values right balance wise, etc?

Like I said before, I mod because I like it. I modded for the game Europa Universalis III  before (Never released just for personal use) but never did 3d stuff.

If other modders want loadscreens, I am fine with it. Me personally don't care that much about it but am not against it if my name shows up on there

[RedKetchup]

about the same building showing 2-3 different place is something faisable already in game. no need a special thing from luke....
it is on the moddler hands

[QueryEverything]

about the same building showing 2-3 different place is something faisable already in game. no need a special thing from luke....
it is on the moddler hands

Oh, that's interesting (and may explain a couple of things)
So, in theory - 1 mod (themed housing, or your Garden Walls theme could be essentially in 2 places?

1)  In CT / RK / Theme / Garden Walls
2)  As it is now, scattered in your CT / RK / Function folders
3)  (but, could be too messy???)  Also in Vanilla / Function (food, housing etc) / mods items

If that's the case, that's awesome, that means that players who like Form & Function AND artist CT, can have both?

For some reason I thought I read somewhere that the mod items could be listed only once in the toolbars, from within the same mod?!?  That there was no way to duplicate the item without a 2nd mod installed.

Well now, that does change things if you can do that @RedKetchup you get what you want (as a modder), and the players who like to use the original functions can also have that, it's just up to the code string.  Interesting .... 

[RedKetchup]

personally i dont want too ^^ my goal is totally free the vanilla toolbars from my claws