Addons At Ease - official initiative

[maruk]

Please see this thread at official Operation Flashpoint forums for discussion about new Bi's initiative for more accessible addons:

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard301/ikonboard.cgi?s=3e953eb32141ffff;act=ST;f=54;t=29034

[Messiah]

nice to see the OFPEC TAG system is supported by BIS  

[SFG]

Thanks for stopping by maruk

[Bremmer]

Isn't this rather like shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted  

[Messiah]

guess so... but even if this was applied before addons... it would still rely on people co-operating  

[Baphomet]

As far as establishing a standard for the compressed file format I could NOT disagree with you more. I DO NOT WANT INSTALLERS FOR MY ADDONS.

I don't mind self extracting archives but I don't want every two bit mod maker thinking he has the right to clog my damn registry up with all sorts of junk because he wants to look professional or little johnny retard can't extract a rar, ace, or zip file.

Sorry if anyone finds this offensive, but I really hate it when people do that with addons. It's not necessary and makes things overall a big pain in the ass when I want to install a bunch of addons.

Keep it simple. That's what I say.

[Messiah]

and hey.... who can be sure what those installers are doing? they may put the addon in the right place.... but what about some malicious git who decides to place 'other' files in your pc? and .exe is the evil file name  

[Tomb]

I've ha a bad experience once with such stuff (not an ofp addon though), and since that I stay clear of 99% .exe crap  

But there are a few things to this:

• Installing/using addons SHOULD always be "AAE", in theory
• Selecting NORMAL (.zip/.rar etc) installation methods should be a free choise
• The perfect addon should (in theory) come without any readme/install_to_folder stuff

...like if one could simly "click & play"  

But I'd still like to have the opportunity to select regular unzipping; isn't it possible to just add this feature to the *extractor So that we can choose for ourselves wether or not we wanna use the .exe or the 'manual unpacking' ?

I can't imagine that being such a difficult programming job to do   to simply add these two options to the same installer program.

Readme's are great but addons should (as I like to see them) be kept simple (not in structure but in use), so that you can actually play with them even though you may be one of the "outside_ofp'ers" who never visit forums or read any installing notes.

I don't think an addon maker can take for granted that the gamers will read his readMe; in fact, most ppl probably don't (stupid it may be). And thus: Those d00ds can use the .exe and continue their ways of gaming   while the more cautious ppl could select :

"manual installing"

 - or alike. That would be nice.  

As for the author tag sys: it's not really an author tag system as I see it but an anti-crasher,
and as such a great way to avoid conflicts ('expelled' addons etc.)

And "quality stamps" ... well, if it boosts the autors efforts to do a better job so that they can get the   mark of pride and eternal afterlife, 10 wifes and three Rolls Royce's (and give us mortals better addons) then I'm all for that too  ;D

Tombs

[MI_Fred]

Ã-h Tombey, don't let loose these kinda things out of your hole:

The perfect addon should (in theory) come without any readme/install_to_folder stuff

How else, with all the more advanced and widget-featuring addons coming out, are you going to be able to know how to nudge that widget?  ;D I am, ofcourse pointing at BAS (for example uh huh), which addons require notes of usage if they wish someone will use their fancy widgets some day. And any other, when you wan't to use it scripting wise, class names and such are good knowledge to include in a readme. There was once a day (more like a year and still is) when no readmes existed and that was a nightmare, remember? wanna revert progression?

Instead of .txt file readme, well, you could run the installer which has the readme somehow incorporated (was that what you meant Tomb?) for easy viewing. And this might mean there'd have to be instructional material for making installers if they'd go complex. I don't see that happening... or has BIS taken this into account? They'd better, or I'll wan't back my 9 wifes and 4 Rolls. Wait...yes.
 

[Tomb]

 ;D



lol, nah I just meant that the "easy user" types should be able to use an addon without doing anything but "click & play", while the rest of us can choose to read the readme & get the benefits from doing that  

  et's just take the bas_rangers as an example.
(we could also take the DKM_comanche, or the bas_OH58D etc.) :

You can use right away, and thats fine.
Or you can read (...and read... ) and explore an even better addon.

The good addon work both ways, and intern scrolls can auto-run without ppl know it.

See,  I just like it when ppl have a free choise. It doesn't mean I don't like readMe's myself  

cheers  :cheers: :thumbsup:

[Tomb]

 
     I'll have to agree with Tombs on this one  

[asmodeus]

huh?  

Anyway, all of us "OFP Guru's" need to realize that BIS (like they said in the 1985 forums) is not doing this for us.  They are doing it for the "casual gamer" to be able to use the easier to use addons and have a place to get them where they all live up to a standard.

I also think this could have to do with x-box as it would have to use installers.  

So... I agree with the idea, but unfortunately a lot of the EC's addons won't be "casual gamer" compatible due to the fact that we try to achieve things that weren't supposed to be done in OFP...  And that almost always requires at least a description.ext with 1 line in it or an init.sqs with 1 line of code in it...   :-\

Bottom line, I like the idea and it will be beneficial to a lot of people out there that we don't see on a day-to-day basis.  (and it will probably help the OFP community grow even more)    I think it's cool and everyone doesn't have to participate if they don't want to.  

If the EC does end up trying to submit something to addons at ease, we will have a .zip version available always for those that don't like installers.  (like me)  

Asmo

[Wolf]

I don't like self extrating EXE file either, case in point, I wanted to try some of the addons from the Swiss mod, so I downloaded them, found out they were EXE files, thought, no big deal, I'll just set the directory to my downloads folder so I can see whats going into my addons folder. However, after clicking on it, it automatially installed it somewhere, but not in my addons directory. I assumed it must have put it in my addons folder, deleted the exe file, and started OFP. But the addons weren't there, and I couldn't remember the names of the PBOs, so I redownloaded(I have a 56k, and these were 8mb addons), and reinstalled them, this time it asked to overwrite, and I saw where it was putting them.
I found out that it had put it in a
Program Files\Codemastes blablabla.
I did not however have OFP in the default directory.
So, this is one reason why I think Self extrating EXE files are no good. And that good ol zip\rar is fine.

[Kaliyuga]

 I also think this could have to do with x-box

 anyone have any other speculations on this aspect of it?  

 I did hear something about being able to add missions/addons to the X box by downloading them....

 could using this kind of installer... easily used addons open up a whole new realm of console gaming to us addon and mission makers?

 Of course this is all wild speculation.....  but it was the first thing that came to mind when I heard of this initiative.

 As Asmo said the main goal of this initiative from what I understand it is to make addons more moron friendly..
  for those that really have no clue how to unzip something to an addon folder.

 I can certainly understand the motivation to reach the greatest number of people with addons and such...

  but I personally think if you haven't figured out how to install an addon by now then there is something seriously wrong with you, and you may as well give up on OFP and possibly computer gaming all together  

 So the only way I would like to see some sort of installer/easy to use addon system implemented would be if it had something to do with console versions of OFP being able to implement third party addons and missions
:toocool:

[Tigershark]

Isn't this rather like shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted  

Couldn't have said it better myself.