As the game becomes more complete, I'm really starting to see more and more need for a separation of the Suggestions megafolder into threads intended for suggestions/requests for things that could only be coded in by Toady One, and threads for things that can be immediately modded into the game, by players.
I was wondering if we could please have a Suggestions for Mods/Modding subfolder, with the main intention that it be a place for people to make requests of player-modders, for things they want to see in the game. Yes, people can mod these things in themselves, and that's perfectly fine, but I don't see any harm in there being a place for requests. It would also be a place for people to educate themselves and others on what it's possible to mod into the game already, to hold poles on what people most want modded into the game, and to locate mods that have already been made, saving a duplication of effort.
Importantly, it would additionally act as a repository for what's already been done, helping to reduce a duplication of effort, and helping people to find up-to-date examples of things they want to see in the game, that have already been modded in, or atleast to get ideas of where to start looking. It would be a subfolder for discussing the future of modding.
It seems like an obvious division. For instance, Suggestions for coding changes would obviously relate much more closely to bug reports and updates to the game, while the Suggestions for Mods/Modding subfolder could include requests for, and discussions about, additional modding tools, that would add to that aspect of the game, but be unrelated to the main game.
The fact that the Modding megathread itself is larger than the Suggestions megathread itself should point
to there being enough interest in the subject to warrant a division, that there are people who enjoy modding the game as much as playing it, and that vanilla versions and modded versions of the game will only continue to increasingly diverge from one another.
The main modding thread would still hold all of the mods, themselves, and be the place to get help with mods, and to discuss existing mods. A suggestions subfolder would help keep the main folder cleaner and more organised, and help keep the focus of conversation threads on the mods themselves.
Having moddable requests separated out from Coding Suggestions, should make it easier for Toady One to find important mechanical functions that players would like to see added, or modified, and how directly they relate to the current version of the game, and any outstanding bugs, without having to wade through an enormous volume of perfectly moddable ideas, and general vagueness, while educating players on how empowered they are to make the game more like what they want it to be.
This could be done with just adding new threads in the 'Modding' folder, but it would only add to the messiness of that folder, and I feel a subfolder is a better solution.
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Topic: Suggestions Forum Organization (Read 275438 times)