Myron Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 I can't really vouch for the groups in Eclipse, since I actually joined SB in the month (Week?) the groups were disbanded. I even participated in the 'Group wars' for a while. Something I'm not quite proud of, but what happened, happened.@Soul:> I understand his reasons, of course. I believe removing groups did more harm than good (hint: look at the interval from October to November compared to September to November). If we made a group _with a focus_, not just chit-chat group, I think it would greatly help Eclipse's community.A group of a select few members who are there to answer people's questions and guide the noobs (New members) to the right path. Perhaps also can be trusted with any problems they would have here in Eclipse?Of course this is just a raw idea.@Soul:> The best way would be to pinpoint exactly where Eclipse started failing, and then search for major events around that, to find the problem.Personally I don't think this is major because of Eclipse. In my opinion, it's more that people grow up and their ideas/dreams shift a little bit and their interests in 2D Game Development (Or any at all) stop existing.While the older (and experienced) members leave, new (young) members come in. Let's not forget that the Game Development in this time is mostly done 3D by now and so the younger generation see more 3D games then they do 2D. So they probably see 2D as a chance to make a game to be a stepping stone to achieve a higher goal.That's only the way I see it, and I based my information on personal experience and the questions I asked my cousins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marsh Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Starting monthly contests is definitely a good idea and i will be starting this after Christmas for name color prizes. They will most likely be wiped every 6 months so things dont get out of control. Most likely will just start with 1 or two contests a month and then perhaps more based on popularity and amount of entries.As for the groups i will have to give a bit more though on this. They were definitely fun but had a big impact on the forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZoSo Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Top Eclipse games on the front page (top up on the forum)?Free advertising for top eclipse games.. people need to compete. I think you need to blow eclipse games in people's faces on this page. Right now i don't even know what games are out.. if there even are any. People need to discuss games and not regular shit.You people talk about stupid titles and shit, what kind of crap suggestion is that and in what way will that help the community, you just want a unique title >_>, nothing interesting will happend here unless its eclipse game related, one common interest we all share is the making of games using eclipse. All else is second-thought.Thats also where the big fault is, this is big chit-chat forum for talking shit nowadays… thats atleast how i feel a bit.. Dunno if its really true.Ive always thought Eclipse forum has been a bit dirty with stuff, now its really dirty.I miss old Elysium, there people used to talk about games all the time.. and there were so many potential games and so much competition.Ranking/Karma system for people doing usefull shit like posting resources instead of spamming images and commenting shit. So people who do good get a good karma/points or whatever.. Seriously how havent you done this allready...?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Octohunter Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 @ZoSo:> Top Eclipse games on the front page (top up on the forum)?> > Free advertising for top eclipse games.. people need to compete. I think you need to blow eclipse games in people's faces on this page.This.Competition would likely increase the community's output of better-quality games, as well as encourage people to make more games in hopes of getting public recognition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZoSo Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Adding groups?Marsh dont be stupid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evilbunnie Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 I agree with ZoSo in the reputation system. However 35 character limit seems good, because people wont post "No." or just an image like a certain member does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Impossible to make anything good with SMF. Everything looks like shit and the plugin system is a whore to work with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crzyone9584 Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 @Robin:> Impossible to make anything good with SMF. Everything looks like shit and the plugin system is a whore to work with.Why not change over to Mybb or phpbb? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myron Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 @crzy:> Why not change over to Mybb or phpbb?Lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erkro1 Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 @crzy:> Why not change over to Mybb or phpbb?Yes, must be easy with 643,562 Posts in 52,314 Topics by 36,675 Members. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saadhamza Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Karma points sound like a nice idea. I really liked groups as well, even though they didn't serve their real purpose. They did make sure, however, that people stayed relatively active. It was also really fun ^^. A 35 character limit sounds like a bitch, sometimes i don't want to have to type something that long.Also, what happened to that forum game that ou ahd started for a few days? Like, everyone had been submitting new sprites for monsters. It was pretty useless, but i thought it had been fun ^^ It was cool seeing my level next to my username, lol. Also, again with the Karma system, i think that would work well. People could like give karma to people who they agreed with or thought had been helpful.@Erwin:> Yes, must be easy with 643,562 Posts in 52,314 Topics by 36,675 Members.Is it the amount of posts that causes a problem? I thought it was something else, transferring text doesn't seem that hard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myron Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Karma IMO, is not a good idea. While I agree it's only a little because my Karma will probably be negative as will with most members. It's also becomes a sort of a threat. 'I don't like you, I'm gonna give you a negative on your karma'.It basically starts this childish fight over karma. While some are going to do their best to earn a positive karma status some are just going to be negative the whole time for a simple disagreement, especially if the person who gives it, is not old enough and takes the internet seriously.And from my experience with other forums, people with negative karma seem to be the 'black sheep and you shouldn't talk to them'. While you could let the Karma system be moderated by the Moderaters and Admin (Like making them parents who punish and reward their children) it basically adds up to the work the Moderators and Admins have to do. And it makes people want to suck up to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crzyone9584 Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 @Erwin:> Yes, must be easy with 643,562 Posts in 52,314 Topics by 36,675 Members.Never said it was fucking easy… Now did I? And you can always modify the converting scripts to only do one forum at a time.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marsh Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 We have experimented with a karma system a number of times over the years. It simply does not work and i wont be implementing it. The advertising of games on the front page is done occasionally the problem is not many games make it to that stage. Perhaps if a promising WIP shows up. I could shove it in the old ad slot as i am not currently displaying any. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawQuart Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Karma? Why not a simple "+1" thing, that way there isn't negativity? It worked for the Minecraft Forums and they are waaaaay less mature than us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 @crzy:> Why not change over to Mybb or phpbb?What don't you people understand about my usergroup? xD I'm done. I promised people I'd re-do the forum and site before I left and I did. I haven't done anything on Eclipse since March.Now I'm working a 40 hour week it's difficult for me to find the time to do anything. The spare time I do get is spent with family and friends or working on Crystalshire.I'll see what Evan does with the site over the next year or so. If nothing crops up I'll think about opening up a new closed-source RPG Maker style engine based off the new Crystalshire eventing system with some completely new forum software. The site as it is right now is completely pointless, but if I could open up a premium version of the engine which was linked in to the forum then I could do some great things.I really won't have time until around this time next year, however. Life is way too hectic as it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myron Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 @Robin:> The site as it is right now is completely pointless, but if I could open up a premium version of the engine which was linked in to the forum then I could do some great things.> > I really won't have time until around this time next year, however. Life is way too hectic as it is.The fact that the forum needs to be counting on one person to change the forum or add something new is kind of weak. I don't mean to offend you with this Robin, you've done a great job in all your engines and the forum itself.It basically shows that we need something 'new' to keep the forum going. Like how EE and after that ES was basically too slow and messy to work with so we needed a new engine and then EO came out. Or the new forum style.To think we need to count on one (Two for Rory?) person to get this forum out the gutter is just incomprehensible when it should be a the work of a whole community that should be doing it.In my opinion we don't need contests, karma system, games on the forum main page to stop this forum from dying or progressing. In these years the forum has been active we are getting people who are striving to make a MMORPG and in the end drop the project from the lack of time, motivation and support.We can't stop nor change people from doing so. We all have or had this moment where in the heat of the moment you're going to be that and in a week you'll be doing something else entirely. It's just that, like it already has been said before, the people who are more experienced with game development should set out an example for the people striving to make one their selves.While I'm a big fan and supporter of MMORPG games, it takes a lot of time to make one and then keep tuning it, balancing it and all that. Above all you need people to fill up those games with activity. When playing a MMORPG, you shouldn't be the only one online but in some games in Eclipse it's the case.This is just a suggestion, something you are allowed to refute anytime. But we could use a single player game maker. One where beginners could learn to develop games instead of just making a MMORPG for the heck of it without any experience at all. This also opens a possibility for people who are interested in making RPG games to join. I do occasionally enjoy a RPG and I don't want to just buy a game or play an old one.I want to see games made by other people. While I could just go to the RPG Maker forums or any other for that matter, it all comes down to that I don't like their programs and are pretty much tired of seeing people use the standard tileset because they don't want to spend time making their own. Those forums are about the Engine in general. I see this forum as a forum about game development itself. While it only supports EO and CS;DE.**TL;DR**: I don't think this is really a problem we can solve by adding small plugins or contests (while they do stimulate people to do better). We just need something to show people that there are people (Robin and Rory not included) who can take this engine and show that it can be used to make something amazing. And there are some amazing WIP's out there, so who knows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawQuart Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Rusher, people have already developed engines in different languages just nobody has been arsed to release it because it would be too hard to document and open to the public. I see your point though, and I think we should reopen the C++, Java, and C# programming boards like we had before. If we add those again then I'd love to post stuff in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 @Rusher:> -snip-That's the point. The community don't want to do anything. They want to sit in this thread blaming me for everything whilst sitting on their high horse. ;]I've been doing everything myself for years. Evan keeps the site running and Soul used to keep the newbs happy with posts, but that's about it. Every single new development over the last 3 years has been done by Rory and I.The simple fact is that most people don't have the talent or drive to do anything good. The reason I always work my way to the top of anything I decide to participate in is because I have good ideas, know how to bring them to life and I know how to make them look good.Claiming it should be other people's responsibility to help out is all very well and good, but I've been saying the exact same thing since I took over all the development. All I get is a bunch of spoilt fucks acting like it's my job to look after them.But as I said, the forum as it is now is impossible for me to maintain. It's ugly, outdated and generally dead. If I'm going to put the time in to developing a truly user-friendly engine then I need to get something out of it through a premium membership systems which covers lost wages from time spent on it.Whether the other staff members would let that go through or not is a completely different story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marsh Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 @crzy:> Why not change over to Mybb or phpbb?A new forum system isnt going to fix any of the problems that are currently present. Also i know that most of you guys are still in school but we have full time jobs, college, social lives etc etc. Not making excuses just saying me and Robin both have a lot on our plates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 @Marshy:> A new forum system isnt going to fix any of the problems that are currently present.No. It gives a solid foundation for a new CMS system, forum-integrated plugins and generally make the place look nice. It would be very easy to integrate a user-friendly, closed-source engine similar to RPG Maker with the community. Just not SMF.This forum design is constantly getting broken by plugin additions and no one seems to bother fixing them. Hell, that Google+ bollocks completely destroyed the footer but no one ever bothered fixing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marsh Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Yea that is basically remaking the site though. Which may be needed at this point. As i mentioned earlier full time jobs, college etc really take up a ton of time. We will see what happens in the future. Now if that sounds like a bullshit excuse to you guys well thats a shame but to bad. As Robin stated we can see what is happening in the future. We can work on upgrading this site at a later date. Or if he so chooses can start his premium service or a new engine on his site. Change is a necessity. The forum is on hard times but is not in the state of complete collapse.I just got turned down for my loan am moving and starting college in the next two weeks. It is a terrible time for me and i am not even sure how hosting costs are going to get payed at this point. Again i know its just sounds like excuses but it really is a bad time.Eclipse has been going strong for like 7 years at this point and has adapted many times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myron Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 @Marsh:> I just got turned down for my loan am moving and starting college in the next two weeks. It is a terrible time for me and i am not even sure how hosting costs are going to get payed at this point. Again i know its just sounds like excuses but it really is a bad time.How much are the costs actually? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marsh Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 Think its sitting at about $30 to $40 a month right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myron Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 I thought it was like $ 10 a month at your web host, or am I overlooking something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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