Hey there everyone, it's been a short while since the last announcement was posted. Since then, things seem to have been going fairly well for the server. However, things are still fairly slow and I feel there's more that can still be done to help increase the server population, and hopefully forum usage as well. Firstly, I wanna discuss the idea of a server modpack, which will be the primary focus of this announcement. This was brought up in the past, and while I'm not a big fan of the idea, I wanna know what your guys' thoughts on the idea of introducing non-vanilla assets to the server are. If we were to go this route, the use of the Antares Launcher would be made mandatory to ensure all mods are installed and up to date for each connecting client to prevent any unwanted issues. For now, I only want to know if this is something you guys would want. It's a big change for Antares, so I wanna get everyone's opinion on this. Keep in mind that for now, I'm just gauging community interest in the idea. If the majority are for the idea of a modpack, another announcement will be posted asking for mods you would like to see included. If you have any questions regarding this, feel free to post them down below and I'll do my best to answer them. The poll will end after two weeks. Now, onto the forum changes. It's been pretty clear that, for awhile now, the forums haven't been very heavily used. The chatbox is currently the most used feature of the forums, which sorta defeats the purpose of having a forum. I'd like to know what you guys think could be done to make the forums more enticing. Regardless of whether it can be done or not, I do wanna hear all suggestions. I'll do my best to polish them up and make them more appealing to you guys, but there is a limit to what can be done. The final thing I have to bring up in this announcement is, in my opinion, a rather controversial one. It was suggested to me a little bit ago that ban appeals be made public, as in visible to all community members. Now, I've been considering this and, while it isn't something I necessarily agree with, I figured I'd bring it up anyway to see what you all thought about it. If ban appeals were made public, you all would be able to see our reasons for denying a player's appeal, and you'd be able to cast judgement on us if you felt that we did so wrongly. However, as I said, it potentially turns private matters into public ones. But, this is the reason why I'm adding this in to this announcement. I'd like to know your guys' thoughts on this, since this is a matter that would affect the community as a whole, not just the banned players. That's all I've got to be included in this announcement for now. Lemme know your thoughts on the matter, and feel free to offer up critique and suggestions, even if it doesn't relate to what's been written in this announcement. I always look forward to hearing your guys' criticism, it's the only way Antares can keep growing!
I've always liked the idea of a custom server modpack to reinforce the fact that we are in fact a roleplay server. And while this could greatly increase the variety (and therefore quality) of things we do, we of course risk alienating new players in making ourselves slightly less accessible. But from what I understand our new player retention is low to begin with. So in this case, I think its more about risk/reward assessment of either route. As for the forums, I think igniting the flames would be fairly easy. We used to use it for all sorts of roleplay, but its fallen into decline, especially as we do nothing but Bar RP anymore. There really isn't a variety of things going on in the server. Now I know several people have some projects in the works about this, but I think it might be in the interest of staff to pursue staff based events, and have the forums tie in. It will encourage forum usage, and others will follow suit, buying selling, trading, and chatting about space politics. It strikes me as a car that needs a jumpstart. Finally, public bans? No. I'm all for not having people get banned for stupid reasons, but currently I think most of the team is solid. But as a moderator in the past (Not for Antares of course), I am firmly against permanent bans except in extreme cases. I've seen friends from Antares perma'd, and even though they did deserve an extended time out, I think that permanently removing those people from the community is not the option and it does nothing but hurt the server. But don't get the general members involved, as we are subject to extreme bias.
I mean, Antares already has its own mod pack required to have the full roleplay experience, Though I feel like roleplay would be enhanced if there was more to it than being able to do goofy spins and noclip. Serverside is also good if we want more than that, too. On the subject of inactive forums, one thing I've found is that tight communities = active forums. Antares seems a bit detached from itself in the sense that the planets are too far away, as well as people are doing closet RP. Everyone's either in the bar at Monolith, building, or closet RPing. Like you've said: on many other servers I've found a general consensus, a jury if you will, generally help the staff know from the community know if it was a justified punishment. However, it may also cause drama or bias in some cases. I think it would hurt us less than having private appeals is hurting us right now.
Modpack: Strong Yes, if done correctly. The Modpack needs to be accessible enough of that a Bambi can click a button on the main page and move a file into their mods folder with very little effort. Anything above that drives people away. As for what mods, their are a TON of possiblities. A PDA mod, instant teleportation to colonies, realistic guns, etc. Inactive Forums: Forum Based RP Closet RPs, quickly becoming the Bubonic Plague of Antares. Which is almost impossible to stop because of the giant size of the server. Y'know what's harder to closet RP? Forums. Start up something exclusive to forums. Maybe an encrypted message that needs to be codebroken. Maybe somebody makes a computer game. (Wow, meta). That could not only lead to interesting forum interaction. (Cricket v. Oak fight of the centuries without need for constant server connection. But also in-game interaction. Maybe the creators move into Antares and set up a tournament with prizes. Maybe once you beat a certain number of people you get a reward. I don't know, but these questions should be explored Public Bans: Hard Pass If I've broken the rules and am making an appeal to get back on the server, that means I care about the server. Only two things can happen in a public ban. A. The public agrees with me Whenever agrees Moderator's rule is contested, thints get dicey, nobody wants to see that. Plus it could lead to a Moderator leaving his position, or worse, leaving Antares. B. The public disagrees with me After being, from my perspective, attacked by both the staff and the public, I am under the impression this server doesn't want me. I leave forever. Catch 22 there, Bans should be kept private
Mod pack: A firm no from me. I don't know anything about the mod manager, and I'd definitely prefer not to learn. I think it's important to make entry to the server as painless as possible, and the more steps you create the less likely any given individual is to join. I'm not punching my card and leaving if it's implemented, but I do think it wholly unnecessary. Forums: In the past the IC forums were a place for social commentary, news drama, and trading. With a smaller player base, everyone is doing that ingame. There aren't many people to talk to that you aren't already speaking with, so why make a post about it? I don't really think there is a better use for the forums though, it's a good reference for information. It is basically what the wiki aught to be, a reliable index for IC and OOC information on available factions, settlements, and current events. Not sure if that's good or bad, but that's how I see it. Public Bans: I've been a part of communities that have done it both ways. Public bans puts a lot of pressure on staff to make sure they think out all of their reasoning, and sets precedent. It is very bad for burnout for those reasons. That said, I do think it is beneficial for the same reasons. It also allows you to facilitate discussion between the two parties before creating a verdict. Sometimes a player's report just comes down to clearing up a misunderstanding, and in those cases an open process is beneficial.
It's super simplified. You run the launcher, just like you do for vanilla Starbound. Then you select your binary, (32bit, OpenGL, 64bit, etc.) just like you do in vanilla Starbound. That's it. Everything else is taken care of for you automatically, aside from optional client mods which are only a few clicks away. The only added step is downloading the launcher and putting it in your Starbound folder. If people find that to be too much work, I could probably automate that, too, with an installer.
What I mean by that is for personal mods. Someone made me a chat mod a while ago that helped with my colourblindness, and I was unsure on how exactly the launcher works. I can imagine the simplest implementation, which shouldn't interfere, but it was moreover the idea that if I had this potential issue then it's not unlikely other people will bump into something as well. Without knowing what mods are proposed to be put into the pack, it's hard to judge if it should be a thing or not. I'm also uncertain on how it's all going to work out on day zero of an update.
Now I want to add a colorblind mode to the launcher that would enable a color blindness mod. Although it would be almost impossible to account for all the different types of color blindness, I think. Anyway, the launcher prohibites unauthorized mods, including client mods. This could be changed, or new mods could be added, as it's fairly simple to do so. (New launcher releases are NOT required to add newly supported mods, as that's handled server side.) As for new updates, the launcher has a compatibility fail safe and will cease working if Starbound does a major update. This is where I would personally verify compatibility and issue an update. In the meantime, server mods could be temporarily disabled or folks could copy the antares_mods folder to their regular mod folder and see what happens.
It's not the easiest, which is why I like that I was able to customise it for myself. This: Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet can give you an idea of what to try, and I can give feedback on the tritanope side. Technically I'm only partially deficiant so it isn't quite as extreme as that image, but I do struggle distinguishing blue/green and yellow/white. My chat right now looks like this: http://puu.sh/nJnH1/c76bee9873.png My galaxy is in white, and you can see the background has been darkened for better contrast (probably the most important part). In the end, I think this issue specifically could just be addressed with a robust enough chat mod. If you could change the colour of player and npc names so they aren't green and blue, that'd also make my life a lot less confusing.
