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Can we have a subforum for Foundry questions/problems/tips?
thestoryteller01
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
As much as I like to browse the Foundry forum for interesting new quests, it has become quite a chore to keep track of all the interesting posts about Foundry editing itself, especially when you can't log in every day.
Would it really be so complicated/hard/expensive to have a seperate Foundry forum with no quest advertising?
Would it really be so complicated/hard/expensive to have a seperate Foundry forum with no quest advertising?
In case you find my grammar or spelling weird ---> native german speaker 
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We've been asking for that for a long, long, long time.
We do have a separate Foundry forum where all the quest advertising/requests/reviews are supposed to be posted: Foundry Spotlight
For some reason though, the moderators don't move them out of this thread and into the spotlight thread.
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
Personally I would love to have a thread for quests, and thread for review trades, and a thread for tool discussion, with no main thread for posting at all.
Which is why forums like this have moderators. Unfortunately the forum moderators are undoubtedly too busy on the rest of the forum to deal with the minority of players in the foundry areas. We probably need a dedicated Foundry forum moderator.
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
I can remember when the "Spotlight" forum was added. It hasn't always been here, so some of us were just already accustomed to using this general section.
For me, the sticky for the "Spotlight" forum is a bit intimidating, and worded as though quests posted there are to be brilliant, polished, as well as suitable and eligible for being featured quests. I never thought of my quest as being worthy, and definitely never considered it a place to post brand new quests.
As a reviewer, i have never looked in that section for new quests to review. I clicked over there one day, and was just heartbroken and in awe at how many quest threads were sitting there with 0 replies. I'm not the only reviewer that passed over that section to look for new quests in this general forum.
All of this has been discussed before, people have said they didn't understand the purpose of the "Spotlight" section, and the information on the sticky has never been reworded or clarified. I don't have any fancy screenshots, let alone a place to "link to high-res versions", and have never considered either of my quests as featured material or submitted them for such.
Having said that, if other authors will do it too, i'll go ahead and message Zebular to move my thread to that other section. Maybe if we all go together, it won't be as scary? I still won't have the fancy screenshots and all of that, but if that's where my thread is supposed to go, i'll ask for it to be moved.
Update: I asked. *grits teeth and expresses a fake grin* Wish i hadn't, would much rather just have my thread in the general forum.
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Okay, i'm sorry, i seriously regret having my thread moved. Please please please move it back Zeb, pleeeeease.
[UGC] Kolde Acres (Discontinued)
If I remember, that section came about in response to community asking for a separate thread to post foundry quest information and requests for plays. Now if Cryptic had another plans for that thread other then providing a place for us to post quest information for general consumption, this is the first I have heard of it. The description of the section makes no mention of the spotlighted quests, but simply states it is a subform to share your quests with others.
I think that this is a case of word association and not necessarily intent. The word spotlight in the sub-forum name does not necessarily connect with the Spotlighted Quests selected by Cryptic.
Zeb can you verify this please
honestly i'm confused by the spotlight section, i thought it was to submit your quest to be reviewed for the weekly foundry spotlight.
Your response ....
. . . . . . Indeed. Foundry threads made there have a chance to be pulled for review to be Spotlight for a week. If you don't want them spotlit, then post in this forum instead. A separate forum just for Foundry Feedback Threads would be nice.
. . . . . . In the sticky, Foundry Spotlight Forrum Guidelines, it says: "Welcome to the Foundry Spotlight forums! These forums are a place for you to share all of your amazing quests (and hard work) with your fellow players and authors, receive feedback about your dungeons and campaigns, and even get a chance to have your work be featured in the Foundry Spotlight!"
. . . . . . This very last part of the sentence in yellow is the bit that mentions the chance on being Spotlight. That is why there is a guideline example to post your threads. In any case, please rest assured that we're discussing the structure and use of the Foundry forums, as I type this even.
. . . . . . If you, or anyone else, needs a thread moved - just PM me or any moderator. We'll be happy to. Let me know if you have any more questions, feel free to ask here.
All taken care of!
Don't worry at all, that's what I'm here for. No harm done, at all. Indeed!
[ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
[ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
-Looking for feedback/review trade
-Functionality questions (looking for how to make something work)
-Bug reports (reporting when something doesn't work)
-Tool requests (requesting that something works different, or that something be added)
I could see benefit of having a sub-forum for each of those.
All of the above and just a place for quest descriptions with no spotlight or other connotations. I want a place where I can list my quests or campaigns and get feedback and such that is longer then the 100 chars allowed ingame. This also gives me a place to link to my quests in signatures and such for promotional purposes. With the current feature copy and lock policy, it makes me very shy about what I put up for consideration for these designations.
Same. I don't mind if my thread gets buried under new quests or review trades, i just want a place for it for links and reference.
[UGC] Kolde Acres (Discontinued)
Does there need to be a forum-centric duplication of that process? Should it be made clearer that the button in the Foundry is available for that purpose?
I feel like if we have a Spotlight (for Feature consideration) and a general Quest Listing sub-forum, that it will be double work for some, and confusing to others.
Can the Spotlight forum be for general posting (maybe renamed), but have a more active "opt-in" method for marking the threads for Feature consideration (a Flag or CM PM?) rather than an "opt-out" method that leaves some authors without options for posting quest threads?
Useful Sub-Forum topics:
-Looking for feedback/review trade
-Functionality questions (looking for how to make something work -questions/problems/tips)
-Bug reports (reporting when something doesn't work)
-Tool requests (requesting that something works different, or that something be added)
-Quest Listings (for those who want a thread, but don't necessarily want it featured)
Imho the General forum should be dedicated to the general discussion about the Foundry only: praise, criticism, ideas, content wishes, bug reports, downtime rant/updates etc. ....plus several stickies (mostly like the ones we allready have) for collection the aforementioned, known bugs etc.
In addition there should be a subforum where builders can discuss technical Foundry stuff: Q&A, how to do things, tips & tricks, storytelling advice etc ....plus stickies for collecting tutorials/tips & tricks etc.
And last but not least a subforum for advertising published Foundry quests plus stickies for review trades, spotlight, quests sorted by... etc.
In addition to the advantages for us builders/players, a general forum thats only here to discuss general Foundry stuff will make it also easier for the mods/devs to check out whats going on in the community.
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
Which brings me to my point... sometimes you need to go where your customers are, not where the most people are. Having said that, we need a bug reports sub forum for the foundry. This is where we are, this is where we look, this is where we talk about things, and this is where our topics won't get drowned out by other game issues.
So, to remind and reiterate, we need a bug forum, and a sort of library forum to store our quest threads, and the other sub categories that people have listed here. Just kinda wanted to refresh this thread.
[UGC] Kolde Acres (Discontinued)
If the main page is where people are gonna post their quests for review, then let's make the 'help' section a subforum. I know that I, for one, wouldn't mind going there to see if I could help with any issues people are having.
I second that.
Hear! Hear!
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I like it on this thread, because most people who are on this thread pick up on editing posts as quickly and efficiently as they do with the Foundry Quest publication posts since the active foundry members check this particular thread quite frequently. I even have the thread up while playing.
I am not a veteran on this post like some of you guys, since I really just started scripting foundries, but personally, I think it is easier to watch one thread, despite the variety of posts, than having to monitor two, even if they are for separate purposes.
I think that they could at the very least create an icon next to the post so that Foundry Titles use a different icon, or different color on the existing icon to differentiate between Foundry Titles and editing threads.
I'm adding my vote to ask for dividing the Foundry section to different sub categories.
Even if a lot of people are now using the one main thread to review/post/trade foundry quests, as a Foundry author I personally do not like having to search through hundreds of trade posts to find any how-to's/tips/bugs about lighting effects and how to make my end boss look l337. Or why this or that effect doesn't work.
It's a numbers problem. The search engine for the forums, I feel, does not search effectively enough to have all Foundry issues in one massive section. It's too generalized, not enough ways to narrow your options. When you search, even with multiple key words, you get hundreds of hits that are 99.9% irrelevant to your problem because the terms you're looking for are in someone else's post about advertising for their quest. And your problem goes unanswered because of the sheer volume of posts you have to slog through to find something even resembling your issue. If you're lucky.
Then you end up like me, with mediocre quests published primarily for trial and error to learn and practice the basics. I still don't know how to use depthfade or what it's for. Or what ambush AI is. And I learned how to do the dialogue trees appropriately, finally, but only after publishing my quest, after I spent hours writing the dialogue, then rewriting it when it deleted (due to how the foundry mechanic is set up). I got fed up with trying to find that information, and figured out a lot on my own.
My point is that I didn't even try to author until I'd been playing for about four months, and with the tens of thousands of quests published in that time, was surprised and put off at how much information for authoring is buried. I thought it'd be way more organized by then.
After hours of slogging through this one section to try to find answers to my many and varied questions on authoring, I've settled for publishing mediocre, subpar quests just so I can learn as I go, building off what I learned from the last one. For a game option as dynamic, robust, and FREE as the Foundry, finding information should not be so difficult.
I almost didn't try authoring because of how difficult info is to find. I wonder how many more people are missing out on authoring for the same reason.
Sometimes the Foundry chat channel doesn't have someone knowledgeable enough to answer the questions I may have. And the Wiki truly does not have enough information. Other than hours of trial and error, where would you go to learn more about how to use the Foundry? Where do you go to learn how to build or gets answers to questions about your NW character or how-to's for NW quests? The forum. THOSE sections have sub-categories. Why not the foundry one?
Easier to moderate, easier to manage posting guidelines, and you can find information easier with the style of search engine currently available. Additionally, the first page of posts won't be a constant, messy battle between people bumping posts for reviews about their quests or their friends' quests versus bumping posts about foundry bugs/issues/questions. You'll know what you're reading when you click on the post.
I'd love to post Foundry how-to's and all the tricks I've learned or figured out. But with the way this section is now, it'd just get lost with all the rest.
Will people still post in the wrong categories? Sure. But moderators moderate for a reason, and they can move it.
Let's get organized.
Please, separate the foundry section into subcategories for the builders and the advertising/trading as others have laid out in earlier posts.
Done ranting and rambling. Sorry for the TL;DR feel.
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Zeb and I agree that it would be nice to have a bit more structure in these forums.
We asked a couple of weeks ago but things became a little hectic. We'll nudge 'em again but no promises.