Addons At Ease - official initiative

[Baphomet]

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

NOOOOOOOOOOO!

The shitboxers don't deserve our addons! They should be left scratching their stupid X-box playing heads wondering what the big deal about this game is while I laugh and gloat at them for being stupid enough to attempt to play a FPS game with their beastly controllers!

OFP is an example of a game taking full advantage of the PC platform. Yeah I'm biased, I don't think the people who have never touched a pc should be enjoying the fruits of the PC ofp community's labour. Why a PC ofp'er would play it on the X-box. I have no idea. Consoles are garbage for fps games.

[toadlife]

Bah!!

Instead of clogging my registry with 100 msi programs, how about focusing on getting right next time? I'd like to some sort of integrated program(I'll call it the "OFP update Manager") come with the next version of OFP that makes the whole mission/addon thing completely painless and error free for the folks who just want to PLAY the game.

Perhaps mission makers could post XML files on their websites that contain all of the info for their missions. Maybe even a browser plug in that integrates with "OFP update Manager" thingy, that would handle special links mission makers put on their site.

The user could wither click on a link, a have the browser plugin load the "OFP update Manager", or the user could put in the URL for the website where the XML file is. The "OFP update Manager" would then connect, get the XML file, and display a list of missions available. Then the user would click on the mission they want, and OFP would magically download all of the necessary files, and install them automatically.

An "update" feature could automatically go out to the net, and download whatever updates are necessary for the various downloaded missions and addons.

Something like this could even be used to install official patches for OFP.

Along with a BIS supported standard to keep addons from stepping on each other, this could make things 1000% better.

Just my 2 pennies.

[asmodeus]

a very interesting idea!  

That would definately make things easier!  

:thumbsup:

For some reason I have the nagging feeling that it might interrupt some of the editing freedom currently found in OFP...  But I don't know enough about the details to say why.  

Thoughts?

Asmo

[Tomb]

yea that sounds uuhm... nice, toady  

(why do I have the feeling that games 'n' addons will never ever see a church & get 100% married?!)
To some extend, I guess you'll always need 2 do a lil' thinking and fixing if ya wanna use addons  

  Could be fun to know just HOW many NFMYSPCOFP's there are out there?!

(non-forum-members-yet-still-PC-version-ofp'ers), all the 'easy gamers' yanno.
Do they care at all?

[Baphomet]

That would be good mainly for the upper echelon of ofp addons out there, from well known makers. Definitely, still the ability to back up older versions of addons for whatever reason would still be nice. I wouldn't want it to take over tasks I normally prefer to do on my own. Personally I like doing things the good ol fashioned way. That's just me.

As far as other addons that aren't as mainstream. I don't think that would be a benefit. However on the same token someone might contend that there is no place for ofp addons that aren't coming from BAS or what have you. I'd have to strongly disagree. I like my obscure intermediate to low quality addons as long as they give me a certain degree of enjoyment. The Toyota Hilux is a good example of this. =P

I'm also a tinkerer and I like to customize things, so fidding with the other huge addon packs doesn't really tickle my fancy too much. I like to be able to take a selection of addons, balance them out for a specific purpose and LAN it up with my buddies.

The day that the amateur ofp addon scene is exiled from the community is the day I'll stop enjoying the game. That reason alone was one of the reasons why I loved it. Anyone could make an addon and the variety was just wonderful. I log onto those ofp sites and I see an addon every few days or so and it's like a gift that keeps on giving. =P

[macguba]

Gentlemen, relax.    BIS are not suggesting any kind of interference with the existing addon/editing community.    We will always be able to enjoy our tinkering.   What they are suggesting is a new venture, aimed largely at people who currently do not use addons at all and have never clicked on the mysterious words "Mission Editor".

BIS have observed that some user created addons and missions are of sufficient quality to release to the general public.  This is an effective way of doing it.    No addon maker is going to be compelled to do it and there is no reason why a given addon cannot be hosted on the maker's site (or OFPEC or whereever) as it is now, as well as being part of a BIS pack.

By hosting addons on the official site with a user friendly installer, what they are effectively doing is offering mini expansion packs.    This is a way of extending the life of OFP till OFP2 is ready next year, and consequently it's a commercially attractive idea.

In other words, in only affects people like us if we want it to.    We can still tinker, edit, change and generally manipulate the game as much as we did before.    And apart from anything else, BIS are not going to accept any user addons until we - the community - have beta tested them to death.

Personally I think this is an absolutely superb idea and the community should support it as much as it can.   It only does us good.

[Tomb]

...BIS have observed that some user created addons and missions are of sufficient quality to release to the general public

hehehe, they oserved that some of the gamers were in fact making better models than the original models were made  ;D But with such a relative succesful game, I would of been surprised if there WOULDN'T have been at least a FEW exellent talents among the mob of OFP fans out there. Besides, some of the orig. models prolly date back to 1997-8 (take the BMP as an example) when the graphics was alot more rough than what can be made nowadays.
Also, when reading the orig config. it seems to me that lots of ideas were dumped in the process of developing the game, and BIS didn't bother removing all of this trash, or they kept if for (possible) future use (as in the "class motorcycle" case).   So boosting the gameplay for regular OFP'ers by offering/advertising exellent non official addons - and doing it with some sys. of basic quality demands - is great, especially if this initiative can also boost the more 'underground' type of addon makers to use tags in all their home made classes, PBO file names (and, as I prefer myself, even on p3d's and sub class names - it never hurts, it doesn't cost you anything, no one can see it ingame, and it MAY be useful in case any future, further class restrictions should occur).