Official IMC Thread

Lyconix

Greetings to the browsers of this excellent (but slightly slow moving), forum... hopefully the IMC will give this place a whole new lease of life.

Just to bring those who don't know up to speed, initial work on the IMC website has been done by me (organisation, content) and Phaxx (PHP coding, initial web design) - the current address for the site is http://imc.sleepygeek.org - keep in mind that the site is still HEAVILY under construction, and that the initial topic of this thread is in relation to this...

This site will be by the community, for the community. Obviously, the rest of the site staff with administration privileges apart from myself and Phaxx will have be decided on. However, the first concern is the website content, therefore this will have to wait until afterwards. I was about to start work on content based on my own thoughts and the suggestions of everyone on this forum up to this date, but I decided in the end that it would be better if things were organised 100% from the very start, and the whole community was in on what was happening from the beginning.

Therefore, its time to post your suggestions Suggestions, that is, as to what kind of content the website should have... this is the first step in the construction of a website I hope will be successful, but it depends on the co-operation and input of the community, and this is where all of you come in.

I already have in mind the fact that suggestions have already been posted around the Game Editing forum... however, for the purpose of organisation, I believe that the best course of action is to centralize all suggestions in relation to the IMC here. Reposting may be necessary, but it'll make things more convenient.

At present, the current status of the proposed site content is:

- Editing Tutorials - Sure, there are already other editing tutorials across the web, but why link to other peoples content when we can create our own? This would have the advantage of editing tutorials being dictated by request from the community, along with providing a stable set of tutorials for beginners.

- Forum - I agree with Ropedrink and other forum members who have suggested that the official IMC forum be this one - the Game Editing forum on boards.ie. This would:

(1) Bring new life to a dying board.
(2) Add to an already present mapping community.
(3) Remove the necessity of creating a new forum, which can be a lot of hassle.

- Links - Links to other mapping sites of interest - not just the famous ones such as valve-erc.com, but also the residences of Irish mappers and modifications - this would be the main focus.

- Mapper List - A list of every Irish mapper in the community, including a link to their website URL, email address, any short biography to care to provide, list of releases, and estimated Worldcraft skill level (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced)

- Mod List - A list of every Irish mod created in the community, along with reviews, download links, editorials, and screenshots.

How does that sound? Any comments on the current selection of content, or suggestions to make? Go right ahead... this is the place and the time to do so. Your answers will help dictate the sites path, so think carefully about your ideas before posting them.

Over to you, community

DeadBankClerk

yay! great ideas and wd on the site


<constructive critisism>
shamrocks?(!)
</constructive critisism>


i think tutorials are a very good idea, but writing them is harder (and more time consuming) then it seems. i think a good idea would be to find some goodones, and copy/paste* them locally onto our site, to pad out the tutorial section. Then you (the community) can write tutorials on demand, or if you see a need.

* With authors persmission and a link to original website / email author

Lyconix

Originally posted by DeadBankClerk
<constructive critisism>
shamrocks?(!)
</constructive critisism>

I was slighty sceptical of the shamrock as well, but Phaxx did a great job making a nice looking design at such short notice so for the moment at least, the shamrock will stay

It might be a good idea to use tutorials by other authors, DeadBankClerk, but writing our own will not only free the site from constraints such as having to clearly mark out links to the original authors site etc., but it will also give mappers the chance to make themselves known by making well-written and easy to follow tutorials, at least in my opinion. As soon as all of the sections of the website are up and running (they will be activated simultaneously), the IMC will be accepting new tutorials from the community.

I forgot to mention in my initial post here that the starting theme of the IMC will be of Half-Life and its mods (due to their incredible popularity, despite the fact that the game is now three years old) - however, of course, as soon as the initial site is stable and running nicely, more games will be added with dedicated staff for each game - therefore, Half-Life might be the initial content but it will also serve to test the water for other games to come. Personally, I can't wait to open up a Freespace mapping/modding section Freespace 1/2 are among the best games I have ever played, and yet they're also some of the least known games I have ever played. They get the Lyconix-Recommended seal all over them, especially since you can grab Freespace 1 & 2 in the same White Label box for only £12.99...

Anyway, back to the current topic - suggestions. Come on guys, interest is necessary for the site to activate! As much as I'd love to devote my time to starting a site for a select group of people in the single digit number, thats just not viable, so the amount of replies here will dictate interest in the site...

I'd appreciate it if everyone could try to advertise this thread as much as possible - I'm not suggesting spamming the other forums here on Boards.ie - what I'm referring to is telling your friends, who might be interested in seeing a dedicated Irish mapping and modding site coming to life, and who might have the time to come here to post their suggestions and most importantly, express interest in the project.

RopeDrink

Well basically, you should refresh your memory by taking another quick peek at the first thread...

Just do a search of the posts ranging from the last "100 Days" and find my one about re-creating the community... Things said there might help you...

Here's a list of points I remember making elsewhere:

1) Mapping Tutorials and FAQ / Q&A about mapping (Written by people within the community, or links to currently avaliable ones)

2) A list of Currently Avaliable Mods... I'm not sure restricting this list by only showing Irish Mods is a good idea, seeing as there isn't too many of them out there... I also suggest showing Upcoming Mods, and also a link to the Torc Interactive website, if they agree to it - It would be great for both parties invloved...

3) Custom Map testing... yes, it's quite easy to get custom maps thrown onto a server for a short period of time... Enough time to test them out and... (See Below)

4) Map Reviews ^^^^^^^^^^^^ Yes map /mod testing and reviewing, heck, we could do the same for new mods also. I suggest a "Log In" feature, were that person logs in, types up what he thinks of a specific map, and "Posts" it, so that it can be shown below the details of that particular map / mod. You'll need basic coding for that feature...

5) For extra content I advise you show links to other games that host mapping facilities... Basic List - HL, CS, TFC, Quake, Starcraft, Unreal, Kingpin and anything else you think yourself... Of course, this should only be added when the initial idea of the site is created, and you want to fill it out a bit, or simply make it look nicer

6) If it's a community site, then it has to have plenty of interactive feature's were community members can have their say, so maybe an Idea's & Suggestions page for people to post criticism...

7) Most importantly, there has to be a BIG link to this forum, seeing as it will be our "Base Of Operations"...

Hope that helped... I just listed my previous idea's, and will post anymore if I come across some...

phaxx

The shamrock, eh, sorry. It was the only thing that came to mind quickly. I had an idea for a worldcraft-style layout, with the grid and some brushes on the side and things like that, but that takes time. It's easy enough to change the design when we need to.

For those that don't already know, I'm the admin of the server where th IMC is hosted, so I can run any daemons I like, including a HLDS, which I already do. Currently it's just regular HLDM, but I can make it the IMC server if you like... for testing maps and things.

Something I'd like to see is a little utility for packing up maps into one simple installer, so every now and then we can release "map packs" that contain all the maps the server is running at the moment, so people can get going on it quickly with the minimum of fuss.
I've seen the Nullsoft SuperPIMP installer, that looks pretty good, works well, is free... anyone feel like playing with that and see what you can do?

Lyconix

Thanks for the suggestions, Ropedrink - I like your ideas, particularly the custom map testing service and the big link to this forum I don't intend to restrict the site just to Irish mods, however they will of course get special attention on the site - reviews, links, information and so on.

As for Phaxx's custom map server offer, that would be much appreciated - thanks! The map pack installer shouldn't be too difficult to arrange since there are many free installer-making programs out there...

Lyconix

Hmm... fifty one views, but only six replies. Is this all the interest we have?

I'd appreciate it if anyone who'd like to see an IMC going would post here and say why - even if they don't have any new ideas to contribute. Thats half the point of this board - to find out who is interested.