my 0.03€
1# Congratulations to Valve people (*all* from marketing to coders, and also CEO and others ) for this simple *gold* feature.
2# I agree other's mails about to start with something better, intesat to populate the listbox with zentibillions of entrys with no sort, not type.
3# A suggestion...
My idea is about to distribute small files, not the whole mod, but a small file that contain enough info to add a entry to the mod list, and have some info to sort these (game type, etc..).
I think this idea is better than Unreal idea ".umod" (instalable mods), because its more easy for modders to host small files than bigger ones. Mods teams can host "portraits" at mod homepage, and steam can use that portrait to download the mod.
Valve can collect this "portraits", that will contain everything that Valve need to know about the safe/cool/valid about the mod, and add a digital signature to this file, and send to the mod autor and to a repository, so will be a piece of cake work with this stuff...
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"Portraits" idea:
a)
break downloading in 2 levels,
level 1) a "portrait" file, small, with info about mod type (multiplayer, singleplayer, genre, author...) and a ID to download. (and a digital signature (???), againts evildoers)
level 2) the mod data itself, ready to download from the "portrait"
b)
able to browse/download this portraits from a query window, with filter options
selected portraits will be download to "modlist" and able to download from there (will start gray-out, and will be posible to download/upgrade).
able to download/import from the WEB, so mod-teams can host his own "portraits" to let people pick and add his mod easy (withouth the finder)
c)
able to sort the mod list by portraits info, AND use a sensible default order (game type IMO).
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Critics:
CONS: Its need to code a browse windows, and a import window (to import "portraits" from webpages or the HD), and a "portratis" generator tool.
PROS: Will be much easy to review mods as Valve people can easily read the info that the "portrait" will have. People dont need to download a whole file to check the details,
- - -
Portraits contents:
1- a jpg image 200x200 2- a 32x32 icon (for Steam use) 3- mod name 4- base download url (for Valve use) 5- steam mod id 6- author name or team name 7- digital signature of portrait from author name (optional) 8- short text description 9- mod homepage url 10- contact author mail (optional)
The file itself can be a mime file (like html mail messages, that mix images and text), or a xml file, or a binary fixed size registers, or whatever. Sould be around 2 k size or less.
note: arggh!!... my engRish suck!
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