New File Download System
- Thread starter LKendter
- Start date
Charis
Realms Beyond
This is going to be... somewhat painful for SG players. 
It seems to work like this:
- Hit "Upload File", and choose the file you want to upload, myfile.zip
- the URL which you TYPE into your game/forum post is:
h t t p : / / www.civfanatics.com/uploads/myfile.zip
(I put spaces in the above to not have it actually show up as a link, remove the spaces
)
- I see no way to delete files, just overwrite
- All files for ALL threads get shoved, loose, in this directory. Once this gets going, there are going to be a TON of files in there.
- All this occurs in a tiny popup window, which you can't resize.
- Because of the last point, I don't see how to 'refresh' the list and could not see the file I uploaded 8-\
- This system is almost guaranteed to break because of the abuse possible. Any other scheme which allows unrestricted uploading to an 'uploads' folder eventually dies, and dies hard. No need to go into details on this, but it's true.
The best way to do this would be to have one or a small number of files per SG, *NOT* a few file name each save. e.g.,
rbd3-builders.zip
Using just ONE file will definitely suck, as if two people in a row play quick, readers or other players in the game will never even get a chance to see the first save file. Instead you might use
rbd3-buildersA.zip rbd3-buildersB.zip rbd3-buildersC.zip
So when you're ready to post your 'turn', type or paste in the write up, and end with htt p : / / www.civfanatics.com/uploads/rbd3-buildersB.zip
choosing a,b,c to be different from the last one, and then upload the zip file with that name (actually, upload the file FIRST, then post)
Screen shots and picts?
rbd3-screenA.jpg rbd3-screenB.jpg
Actually, I few screenshots as integral to the story, and you would not see them inline with this method, so I plan to continue to use the forum upload procedure for screenshots. I shrink mine down and use high compression to reduce size.
Thunderfall, one suggestion that might help, and would not be too hard to implement. Have the upload javascript point not to the uploads directory (which could get HUGE) but to uploads/threadidnumber (e.g. in this case uploads/18832)
Have the upload files and view files access this directory according to which thread you're looking at. That way we could see ONLY the uploads for that ONE thread. If you have a game that ends up with a dozen or so screenshots and a handful of save files worth saving (start, finish, 1000BC, interesting turning points), you could do so without having to wade through a hundred such files in the 'uploads' directory. That threadid is already in the URL as we're reading the thread, so if you don't already have that info for the upload script, you could get the 'current URL' and parse it for the 'threadid' value.
Any other thoughts from SG fans?
Charis
It seems to work like this:
- Hit "Upload File", and choose the file you want to upload, myfile.zip
- the URL which you TYPE into your game/forum post is:
h t t p : / / www.civfanatics.com/uploads/myfile.zip
(I put spaces in the above to not have it actually show up as a link, remove the spaces
)- I see no way to delete files, just overwrite
- All files for ALL threads get shoved, loose, in this directory. Once this gets going, there are going to be a TON of files in there.
- All this occurs in a tiny popup window, which you can't resize.
- Because of the last point, I don't see how to 'refresh' the list and could not see the file I uploaded 8-\
- This system is almost guaranteed to break because of the abuse possible. Any other scheme which allows unrestricted uploading to an 'uploads' folder eventually dies, and dies hard. No need to go into details on this, but it's true.
The best way to do this would be to have one or a small number of files per SG, *NOT* a few file name each save. e.g.,
rbd3-builders.zip
Using just ONE file will definitely suck, as if two people in a row play quick, readers or other players in the game will never even get a chance to see the first save file. Instead you might use
rbd3-buildersA.zip rbd3-buildersB.zip rbd3-buildersC.zip
So when you're ready to post your 'turn', type or paste in the write up, and end with htt p : / / www.civfanatics.com/uploads/rbd3-buildersB.zip
choosing a,b,c to be different from the last one, and then upload the zip file with that name (actually, upload the file FIRST, then post)
Screen shots and picts?
rbd3-screenA.jpg rbd3-screenB.jpg
Actually, I few screenshots as integral to the story, and you would not see them inline with this method, so I plan to continue to use the forum upload procedure for screenshots. I shrink mine down and use high compression to reduce size.
Thunderfall, one suggestion that might help, and would not be too hard to implement. Have the upload javascript point not to the uploads directory (which could get HUGE) but to uploads/threadidnumber (e.g. in this case uploads/18832)
Have the upload files and view files access this directory according to which thread you're looking at. That way we could see ONLY the uploads for that ONE thread. If you have a game that ends up with a dozen or so screenshots and a handful of save files worth saving (start, finish, 1000BC, interesting turning points), you could do so without having to wade through a hundred such files in the 'uploads' directory. That threadid is already in the URL as we're reading the thread, so if you don't already have that info for the upload script, you could get the 'current URL' and parse it for the 'threadid' value.
Any other thoughts from SG fans?
Charis
meldor
Deity
Unfortunately, you can not overwrite a file. The upload will rename the new file by added a number to the end. The subdirectory suggestion would be good. At the end of the SG all of the files that are not needed could be removed from the dir and leave just the main ones some period of time.
Ozymandous
Prince
Yeah, how about deleting the off-topic aspect of the forum (all forums have them) and have someone ACTIVELY patrol the rest of the forums to erase ANY Off topic of duplicate threads.
The idea here would be to keep the crap and spam to an absolute minimum while allowing people who want to play the game to, well, PLAY the game.
EIther this or go to a different forum and have people store stuff to individual file areas and bypass the whole "public (i.e. at times childish) forum" thing all together.
Not meaning this to sound rude, but this is a Civ site, I would hazzard a gues that if everything NOT Civ related** were hosed and diligently patrolled against the forums would be much smaller.
-Ozy
** "Civ related" does not mean 1500 posts from people complaining because the game is not how THEY want it, but real strategies and stories.
donsig
Low level intermediary
That seems to be part of playing a succession game. Keeping track of whose turn it is, posting that you can't play for a while (or posting that you are playing in an open game) are all needed. It would be nice to remove those posts after they have accomplished their purpose. Doing so makes the story of the game flow a bit better. We were able to do this for a short time but the option to delete posts has been removed (because while threads can be deleted by deleteing just the first post).
As for the new upload system, one thing I see that I'll have to change is what I name the zip file. I hardly ever rename my saves but it looks as though that will have to be done now just to find the thing among all the others. Seems as though we need a standardized system for naming these saves and the games themselves.
donsig
Low level intermediary
I've used the new upload system a couple times now. One thing I found out:
An uploaded file with spaces in the name will be saved with the underscore (_).
Example: "saved game.zip" is actually saved as "saved_game.zip". This is important to know when creating the link to the files that are uploaded.
An uploaded file with spaces in the name will be saved with the underscore (_).
Example: "saved game.zip" is actually saved as "saved_game.zip". This is important to know when creating the link to the files that are uploaded.
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