So many great mods GONE!

I understand that the general public is ... but afterall aren't they the reason why you do this in the first place?

No they arn't.

The vast majority of my mods I have written to fix inconsistencies/annoyances in the games I've been playing (2696 hours according to Steam), some have been intellectual exercises to see if things could be done, and a few have been prompted by suggestions that interested or intrigued me in posts in these (and other) forums. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of mods I have made because others have directly asked for them. Even the multi-part UI tutorial was an interesting exercise in digging out what gems I could find hidden in the depths of the xml/lua UI code.

If nobody played another one of my mods ever again I'd not lose any sleep over it.
 
Count me in as another huge fan of WHoward69's mods: I use a few dozen of them "as is" in a typical game, and have remodded three of them with the original author's permission. WHoward69 has also helped me solve coding problems several times, just as he's helped other forum members. Surely we can do our part by helping him find a better long-term home for such an outstanding mod collection; a good-sized free hosting space is best, though I would not mind donating a few dollars towards the total fee for a paid site if it's the only way to get enough room. Anyone else who has or can recommend a good storage space, please speak up here!
 
Count me in as another huge fan of WHoward69's mods

Thanks for the votes of confidence (where's the embarrassed Santa's Elf smiley when you need one!)

An alternative hosting source is being investigated, but it must be suitable for automating the uploading of files and meta-data (which the CFC database is not) and the easy update of meta-data (which ModBuddy / Steam Workshop is not) - space/speed is not really an issue as (through work) I have access to Amazon EC2 if necessary!
 
Ok, maybe I'm being daft here, but I have a lot of your mods on my computer and currently Steam is set to offline mode.
1) Will they be deleted if I open game in offline mode?
2) Will they be deleted if I go online?
3) Or is the deleting thing something that only happens sometimes, and I'm just lucky it hasn't happened to me?
4) And if 3) is the case, might it happen at some random later time?

I believe i can answer this question...If you downloaded mods from steam and chose to go offline... Say good bye to your mods.
Now if you have mods saved or downloaded from CFC onto your computer those will still be there.
If you back online your going find them again to unsubcribe then subcribe again.
 
Thanks for the votes of confidence (where's the embarrassed Santa's Elf smiley when you need one!)

An alternative hosting source is being investigated, but it must be suitable for automating the uploading of files and meta-data (which the CFC database is not) and the easy update of meta-data (which ModBuddy / Steam Workshop is not) - space/speed is not really an issue as (through work) I have access to Amazon EC2 if necessary!

On another note, I remember you had mentioned a tunnel boring machine mod that was on the old mod hub (pre-Workshop) which, like many other mods, is gone. Do you retain a copy, and in that case, could you upload it to these forums? I'm sure there are many modders who wish to have such a functionality.
 
The Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) mod broke when Firaxis changed the order that the ImprovementCreated/ImprovementDestroyed events fired in and I never fixed it - partly because I never needed one as I changed the TerrainGenerator to produce fewer "plateaus" and more "chains with passes" and partly as it never worked properly in the first place (as the map doesn't change until a save/load cycle).

The ModBuddy project is attached for anyone wanting the basics of the code for their own mod.
 
Well, it's not like the ImprovementCreated event ever worked right in the first place. It wouldn't trigger for AI players if the active player didn't have line of sight to the hex in question; VERY annoying, since a true improvement created event would have made my terraforming logic much, much easier.

It's good to know that the Steam Workshop is about as screwed up as I thought it would be; it makes it easier for me to justify only posting mods here on CivFanatics. (That is, once I get my mods working again.)
 
Count me in as another huge fan of WHoward69's mods: I use a few dozen of them "as is" in a typical game, and have remodded three of them with the original author's permission. WHoward69 has also helped me solve coding problems several times, just as he's helped other forum members. Surely we can do our part by helping him find a better long-term home for such an outstanding mod collection; a good-sized free hosting space is best, though I would not mind donating a few dollars towards the total fee for a paid site if it's the only way to get enough room. Anyone else who has or can recommend a good storage space, please speak up here!

Same here. One of two of my mods wouldn't have been anywhere near as whorthwhile without his input :)
 
All I can say is, bless you, whoward69, for all the great mods and for still making them available for download after leaving the steam workshop. That place has been a sheer incompetent misery to use, in my experience. /salute
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dunkah
I understand that the general public is ... but afterall aren't they the reason why you do this in the first place?

No they arn't.

And that is the answer of an artist in HIS field.

Dunkah your interest is, as it should be, to sell Ice Cream to as many people as possible. The Art is in drawing to your product as much of the "general public" as is possible under the constraints that exist for you. This is taught under various subjects in Business Schools throughout the world.

...BUT to viscerally understand what you're doing takes years of experience and analysis, believe me I know. Your outlook/attitude should never be the Ice Cream
but the Market. Your Artistry is in being in that Market.

wHoward's Artistry is in playing around with the codes and make them sing. In that he is like Picasso or any other great artist, primarily what an artist does is the "creative" process in whatever field they find they have an aptitude for.

Business itself is an Art form once one understands that it is just as creative if done right. And that is why so many MBA's worldwide are found lacking in application of what they learnt. They're not really Business Artists, they're just journeymen.

wHoward from what can be glimpsed, is an Artist in his field, so he works primarily for his own delight, the rest of us can only gape and heap accolades on his head for displaying his art to us. Thank you wHoward. :clap:

Yours is in making a particular product selling it and making a profit now and in the future. That's just as much an art form as any. The ratios show that it must be. this is a subject of my profession and I'll begin lecturing and that is not what I'm here for.

Just remember all creative processes are Arts, even the hard sciences fall into this category. Please believe me. Thus understand that Artists work for their own enjoyment first and foremost. Then comes the appreciation from others.
 
And that is the answer of an artist in HIS field.

Dunkah your interest is, as it should be, to sell Ice Cream to as many people as possible.

<snips>

Thus understand that Artists work for their own enjoyment first and foremost. Then comes the appreciation from others.

TL;DR: He's not in it for the money (obviously, since there is none) or applause of the masses. He's not selling anything to anybody.
 
Only 7/8 years ago we were learning to Mod CivIV, there were no illegal hacking Streams there. This and a few other independent forums is were most communicated and exchanged mods. 100,000 FFH games were downloaded like this 25,000 Rhys and Falls etc.

the practice was and still should be:

1) Download a Mod from the Data base here.

2) Open a folder under documents anywhere else except near the Civilization Folders, and call it MyMods, under which you copy the Download as well as a note to yourself of how to use it using Notepad or any such app.

3) Now copy the zipped or opened Mod folder under Civilization 5 or other reiteration of the game you're playing in that ones Documents/{user}/Civilization 5/ MOD folder.

4) My experience is play offline forget the stoopid cheap "wins" the Steam offers, and if you want to go online for whatever reason, cut & Paste your balanced MOD folder onto your desktop, and create a new Folder called MOD in it's place, leaving it empty.

5) Sure enough you'll get every single Mod you have ever subscribed for re-downloaded from Steam.

6) If you're not interested in the Steam scoring and prizes, that's it after the downloads pick the Mods you want and copy them to your useful folders, take the one that's full of unwanted mods and delete it. Go offline, replace your working MOD file and play. What requires more than a grain of common sense? :confused:

OR

If you can't live without winning the prizes, then learn to Mod the base files while keeping copies of the originals in another Folder. (That's how CivIV is modded anyway) give yourself the best handicaps build everything beat everyone etc. Then replace all your modded files with pristine new ones and without deleting your cache and with an empty MOD folder again, go back on line and be surprised by the kudos you'll get from the stoopid Stream Engine who'll read your cache but find no Mods!!! QED. Good Luck :mischief:
 
Gone from Steam Workshop yes (NEVER to return), coming to a (temporary) home in the CfC database soon ...

... and getting their own permanent home at http://www.picknmixmods.com/



(Click the image to follow the link to Flickr where there are mouse-over notes as to what each part of the page does)

The mod HTML pages (all 152 and rising) and the categories panel are automatically generated from the ModBuddy project files (via Java) and deltas automatically FTP'ed to the site - so no more maintenance nightmares for me :)
 
Whoward ... Just wanted to say I just recently stumbled onto your MOD's and downloaded a bunch off of the CFC download section. Your MOD's are awesome ... especially the UI and Global MOD's have made the game a lot more fun. I was going to ask about updates and how that works since I downloaded them from here. I was about to ask about updates until I saw this post ... Is this permanent home in the picture above where I can go get any updates if you release them? I was not sure how that process will work and if you release any updates I definitely want to get them asap.

Thanks for all the work on those MOD's. I seriously grabbed about a dozen of them right off the bat.
 
Yes you'll have to manually check for updates - it's a very minor PITA compared to the major PITA of Steam just removing mods on a whim

And yes, the permanent home will be where you can get them from
 
Not a PITA at all. Saving a link and checking it every once in awhile shouldn't be too difficult considering I scour this forum a couple of times a week already ... I can see how the other gets frustrating with Steam workshop for MODs after reading a couple threads ... Just wanted to make sure I knew where to check back since I plan on using your MOD's in games I am playing in the future and to keep a look out for any new ones. Great work
 
Really great work Thanks for making the game more pleasant to play and easier to download! :king:

BTW, what happened to the 5 Classical Techs?
 
i downloaded your global-espionage race mod but it's telling me i need another mod to use it. can you tell what mod i'm missing?

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