Korodic Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Well, I've never heard of the place you're hosting on, and I doubt it gets as much traffic as the nexus. Thus, why don't you just remove a few unimportant replacement textures so that it isn't considered an asset replacement, then post in on the nexus? It seems like your concerned about people not using your mod, yet you just expect people to find it on some obscure website.well he explained why he doesn't host it on here, however I believe a moderator should clarify publicly on this post why it isn't possible. If he has the permission he says he does, then this shouldn't even be an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KMA Posted April 23, 2012 Author Share Posted April 23, 2012 (edited) Well, I've never heard of the place you're hosting on, and I doubt it gets as much traffic as the nexus. Thus, why don't you just remove a few unimportant replacement textures so that it isn't considered an asset replacement, then post in on the nexus? It seems like your concerned about people not using your mod, yet you just expect people to find it on some obscure website. That is why I am in the forums of the Nexus letting people know in various threads. There were about 10 people that were going to try them out (UG/UG Nano) and then rate it, but they all disappeared. So when I returned and found only three DLs I decided to give it another shot before scrapping it to the finalized pile. I have packed it all into replacement BSAs as users asked for it with both F3 and FNV. For example, if you want to install UberGrafix Nano without the shaders, then you just rename the original textures BSA and copy mine into the directory. Boom - insta-install of 16K textures. For full UberGrafix it takes a little more work, but not much. If I take any of the files out, then the indexing system that the gamebyro engine uses will screw things up if I try to use BSAs with missing files. So then the entire mod has to become loose files. Then installing any mods after mine will overwrite my textures, and users hate that. They like the ability to test any other mod with mine, knowing that they just have to delete everything in the texture folder to revert back to mine. They also tend to ask me why my texture X looks so bad, only for me to find out after 30 minutes of digging that it was another mod. The place I am hosting the free files has no premium service, so no personal or CC information is necessary and I even give instructions on how to set up a disposable email account to use. If they do not have any of your info, I cannot see what the problem is. It is just a file sharing site that has excellent speeds (300+ kb/s) with large filesizes (1GB), no server issues, and no wait or captcha. Out of the 12 or so I have used over the last 6 years to host mods, this is a godsend and no one wants to use it (so far). EDIT - Korodic PM'd. The admins just decided (the rules allow for such with an admin veto catch-all clause) to disallow Total Asset Class Replacement (TACR) mods. They did not feel that they were (if I remember correctly) 'not in the spirit' of modding. I am not asking why, just following their instructions. Edited April 23, 2012 by KMA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korodic Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 EDIT - Korodic PM'd. The admins just decided (the rules allow for such with an admin veto catch-all clause) to disallow Total Asset Class Replacement (TACR) mods. They did not feel that they were (if I remember correctly) 'not in the spirit' of modding. I am not asking why, just following their instructions. Well, I'm not intentionally mod bashing. Just curious. But meh, you would think more mods would violate that rule, such as the total conversion mods I saw in Oblivion. Anyways, I'm off to bed. Goodnight everyone :wub: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
totalwarman Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Man ,at least you could made a video and post it in Youtube. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadWizard25 Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 (edited) Hi KMA, i'm sorry your texture replenishment pack hasn't gained as much traction as you had wished. I imagine you must feel a bit gutted after seeing little reaction to what must have been a massive amount of work and effort. Id like to help remedy that if possible! Firstly, I had a look at the screenshots on your website, and i must say im pretty impressed! Most of the vanilla look has been vastly improved, although i have to say im not a big fan of the blue windows and blue ice. I would love to try your pack, and I would have if i had found this 2 weeks ago, but unfortunately im swamped atm with RL stuff and will be for some time. After that its back to skyrim though :) If your pack is still up then ill give it a proper look. So id like to give you some suggestions if i may, that might help your replacement texture pack be more visible, and/ or more thoroughly tested/ compared against other big texture packs. I understand why in strict definition the nexus admins have not allowed your mod to be uploaded here. However, it seems a petty distinction to make for TACR mods vs the rest, how can it not be in the spirit of modding? Does anyone even have a consensual definition of spirit of modding? As far as i can tell this is a mod; it modifies a game, skyrim. Did the same rules apply to TACRs with oblivion? In any case, if Total is the sticking point here, can you not as a previous poster wrote, just add one or two textures from the original game back in? I think it is very important to get your mod hosted on nexus asap, otherwise many people will not be bothered, no matter how great it is. You have probably realized that most mod users are looking for the easiest way to get a mod, which is why nexus works so well. As soon as extra effort is required 80% will move on, even if the effort is tiny. Human nature, we are lazy or busy most the time. So do whatever it takes to get in on nexus. In a similar vein, although i applaud your choice of 4shared for hosting, the sign-up requirement is another killer. Again many will be turned away just because of this, even with your helpful instructions on using a temporary email address to do so. Again tiny extra effort, but human nature trumps again. Is there no way to split the pack into 4 parts, each under 1GB? So yeah, work with the lowest common denominators for people here. Make it as easy as possible to get the mod, without any intervening steps or requirements. You can argue all you want against this, but unless your really really lucky you will suffer for not having it accessible in an easy manner or hosted on nexus.This will help a lot. As totalwarman mentioned, do a good quality youtube video. Most texture packs have a vid, like SRO or Skyrim 2K.You dont even need voice commentary, just decent quality, a little graphic text, a few mins of panning camera, and/or screenshots of some places where you think your texture replacements really shine, etc. You could also try contacting some of the well known mod reviewers on youtube and see if they can review it (probably not, but you never know). You could try promote your mod to the STEP community and the author of the STEP anthology; TheCompiler. Urge them to test it out and compare it. If you haven't heard of STEP, its probably the largest mod anthology guide there is for skyrim right now and its popular, with over 2000 endorsements. The community and author put effort into comparing and contrasting many mods, including most of the large texture packs, as well as some of the mods you have also included in your pack plus many more. What results is that the final recommendation is a mix of the texture pack parts. While this may not be ideal if you only wish for people to exclusively use your mod pack for textures, in reality many do like a mix. Inclusive to this point is that you should also have a loose files versions of you mod as well, precisely because both BSA and loose will cover all bases, plus allowing for rigorous comparison and testing. Inclusion into STEP (if possible) would also rais the visibility of your mod. The link to the STEP guide; http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=11. Link to STEP community site; http://forum.step-project.com/index.php On a similar note, Guru82 reviews large texture pack mods and compares and contrasts, resulting in a small guide that looks at fps performance as well as many screenshots of these textures. A user can dl the guide and basically look and the screenshots and say, hey i prefer this texture pack personally, etc. You could try contacting him for inclusion of your mod. Link; http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=14632. Thats it, sry for the wall of text but i think the effort you put into this, especially since its a TACR, deserves some attention and reviews/ comparisons at the minimum. I hope some of these suggestions help. Edited April 23, 2012 by MadWizard25 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KMA Posted April 26, 2012 Author Share Posted April 26, 2012 (edited) Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, but RL robbed me of the last three days. As for a TAC not being 'in the spirit of modding', I would assume that they think that this kind of a mod is a comment on the quality of the game itself (which it is not) - but could be considered a slap in the face for some game companies. That could theoretically lead to legal action (spurious and easily beaten in court, but still very harassing) and the Nexus would want to avoid that. The problem (as I mentioned in greater detail earlier) is that removing the BSA wrapper makes this mod much more unfriendly for users. Now you said to reintroduce a few of the original textures, but that would be pushing the bounds of legality. Sharing original assets that are not required for your mod to function could be considered piracy. See the virtual complaint (since it does not actually mean much in the real world), is that sharing a Vanilla texture means that someone could reverse-engineer a mesh for it to fit on and then pirate that texture. Now everyone realizes how ridiculous that is, but still I have been warned for that (F3) too. The real threat comes from what the game company could do, and the Nexus is a much larger target, so I do not blame them for being so strict with Vanilla assets. You also ask if their unwritten rule about TAC mods covers Oblivion - and the answer is yes, if the mod in question was released after F:NV (about 3 months after it's release date to be exact). It applies to ALL mods on the Nexus regardless of the game, as long as those mods were released after the date on which this rule was created (F:NV Release Day +90 - not sure what that is). Is there no way to split the pack into 4 parts, each under 1GB?Yes, why? I did a vid for Fallout New Vegas and it did not help at all (and that was the first HiRes, real-world total landscape re-texture mod for that game). I was going to shoot a vid after I got some feedback and finished the armor, but no DLs and little free time have hampered this. Thanks for the info on STEP. I did not know about them or the other group. I have not had any time to follow-up on anything Skyrim or even play in over three months. :wallbash: I will leave it up for the time being. If I can scrounge up a few hours I will try to shoot and UL a vid to YT (and post a link here). Cheers! Edited April 26, 2012 by KMA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staind716 Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 I went to your site to check out the screenshots and couldn't see them for some reason. It's a shame that you aren't getting a lot of attention with this since I'm sure there was a lot of hard work involved but as long as it is not on an "official" mod site that is to be expected. Good luck and I will check back on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KMA Posted April 29, 2012 Author Share Posted April 29, 2012 (edited) I went to your site to check out the screenshots and couldn't see them for some reason. It's a shame that you aren't getting a lot of attention with this since I'm sure there was a lot of hard work involved but as long as it is not on an "official" mod site that is to be expected. Good luck and I will check back on this. Was that off my personal site or the DMG site? My personal is run off of Google, and I am sure there is a limit on the daily bandwidth. There are no such limitations on the DMG site, so if you were visiting there then they should have been displayed. Cheers! EDIT I just found out that I have lost at least one person off my dev team, and another is AWOL (sick I think). I do not have any free time right now to even visit this forum (hence it being 12:30 AM). Perhaps after the game ships I can revisit these mods. I would like to thank you all for your suggestions! So to be clear - the mod is being removed from general release at this time. I have altered the DMG webpage to reflect this, and removed it from mine so there is no confusion. If an admin reads this - please lock this thread. Thanks! Cheers! Edited April 30, 2012 by KMA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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