You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

We have alot of new lurkers.
Sorry if this will seem like a rant but its something I see on alot of forums. People want free things but they wait quietly to get them. Remember your "please" and "thankyou" people!

When someone is providing something for free (or even not for free) their motivation can often be more from public appreciation than from anything else. There are wonderful things being done which we are all enjoying. AARs, 3rd party programs, helpful spreedsheets, game addons, tutorials, fan sites, etc.

PAY for the free stuff please. Let the people know that you are interested in their projects, that you would like to see more of it. If you just wait for such things then it might be a long LONG wait.

This is true anyplace on the net. Pay for the free things that you enjoy. A please and thankyou is not expensive for such things.

(end of rant)
Gandalf Parker

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

I agree wholeheartedly. THANK YOU, Gandalf Parker, for posting this. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

Good rant bud. Thanks.

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

ROTFL http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

As someone who on occasion provides free tech support, and slowly taking my first steps into modding with Dom3, I know full well just how much a thank you means, a lot more than a please actually. I fully endorse this post and hopefully I havn't forgoten my thanks here and there.

However I would disagree with AARs. IMO an ARR thread shouldn't have any posts except for the AAR itself.

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

No I guess adding a post to an AAR thread would be wrong. Maybe a thank you when its all done. Or a seperate thread to praise its style.

Mostly Im looking at the mods/maps directory. I see many people reading but few people saying anything encouraging. We dont have to flood them but it helps if we dont let the thread get stale.

Personally I started many projects for Dom2 (see www.dom2minions.com ) which I let drop from lack of interest. I kept starting new projects instead. Only now am I hearing that people were interested but didnt say anything.

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

Twice again Ive recently seen threads asking someone why they dropped their projects. "You did xxxx and xxxxx and mentioned xxxxxx but didnt do it. How come?" and the answer is something along the line of "I didn't think anyone was interested in them".

And we see again the old "why arent more free things done" question. And I want to say "because people dont remember how to pay for free things".

[soapbox]
Im not getting into anyones case, but we all should take note. When its not done for money (and many times even if it is) if you want more of it then be sure to thank the people who have done some. Ive seen it since the very birth of internet.

Right now, look at your machine. Every game, mod, service whatever that you are enjoying and want more of.. go thank them for it. Its a cheap way to "pay" for free things. You would be amazed at how many things you enjoy are being fueled by please and thank yous.

Its like a virtual form of saying grace.
"I want to thank Illwinter for a wonderful game. I want to thank Shrapnel for these forums. I want to thank Edi for the great unit files. I want to thank (theme, mod, mod, map, map, host, host, tool, tool)."
[/soapbox]

Not so much for me. I get many great thankyous for my hosting services. I greatly appreciate it from all who have done that. It DOES keep the service going. But I see some great work in other areas (themes, maps, mods, tools) that I KNOW is getting use but it seems to be falling off abit. My "please" to you is that you remember to "thankyou" the people who have made the things you have found to be good. Especially those that are getting the least amount of recognition if you want them to do more of it.

Gandalf Parker
--
If I sound like your grandpa its probably because I am one.

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

I fully agree with what Gandal is saying.

I'm not the most active modder, only having released 2 mods over the many years since modding on Dom2 became possible. Even so, I can tell you that the feedback and interest directed towards them directly resulted in hours put into working on them that would never have happened if no-one had said anything.

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

The mod forum is still suffering pretty bad from lack of discussion and feedback. We now have quite a few modders, modders learning the ropes etc and are forming a pretty tight community, but there's a serious need for more feedback. Those mods get downloaded a lot and yet some of them it seems get very little in the way of thanks, comments, problems etc.

Maybe there aren't enough people actually playing the mods, since Dom3 is so stuffed with content already,... but I'm thinking it might be more that people are playing them and just not giving the feedback.

-shrug-

What can y'do? :]

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

I am guilty of making mods and not playing anyone elses mods unless specifically asked. This is due to time constraints but the next 3 weeks that should not be a problem. I am going to grab Sombre's mod list and make it a point to check out all the mods I have not had a chance to check out and offer constructive feedback and thank yous http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

Well if you make mods it's a bit different. I was thinking more of people who just play them but don't remember/want to offer anything constructive.

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

Mods are a great example.

Themes (background screens and color schemes) are another. Or anyone doing graphic help for the modders and mappers.

Maps are another area where people ask why more arent done but if you dont tell the people who made your map that you want more then dont bother asking why more arent done.

Servers. There were alot of requests for servers. Now we have people doing it. Have you thanked the ones you are using? (OK that one is selfish. I REALLY want MORE people taking the server load. I dont want to lose any)

All of the wonderful reference material out there which takes many hours to maintain.

These are all things that I want to see more of, Im too A.D.D. to do them myself, and I want to make sure that they get their "pay" for their efforts.

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

I am trying to get to all the mods to offer feedback, but I only have so much time to devote to that project in addition to all the others on my plate. ><

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon44.gif[/img] Hi all modders!

I'd better pay some for the free stuff as well then http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I haven't tried much mods, but downloaded all I could find a week ago. Only had time to try a few, but it was nice and fun . I was impressed.
Modding has evolved since the days of Dom2. Keep up the good work http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/heart.gif

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

Kristoffer: Mine just went up (in preliminary form) today. I'd appreciate it if you could download, if only to comment on the art (in the appropriate thread of course). Mostly palette-shifting, but it was still not the easiest thing in the world. (For the record, this is the Caelis Immolatum mod.)

</not-so-shameless self-promotion>

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

:bump:
Now that we have the new forums this subject has many new ways to be satisfied.

A) find the posts where people have told you something, provided something, helped in your appreciation of the game and hit the "Thanks" button on the post.

B) click on the scales icon at the top of a post and add to that persons reputation

C) and of course, the good old thank you note is always appreciated also.

You can help keep things rolling with your please and thankyous.


Gandalf Parker

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

I agree with this.. I'm modding a bit and while I can do without thanks I'd really like feedback.. I don't like doing the usual mod stuff so most of my mods don't get a lot of downloads so I need pplz using them to give feedback or there can't be improvement.

Also I think it's strange my things get DL so few times.. don't pplz like things different?

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

I'm not able to download anything, Aezeal, or I definitely would do so. Without being able to look at everything in the scope of a game, it's difficult for me to give you constructive feedback. People will download things, though, but in your case-since you're creating a whole new era/way of playing, and each Nation has to be overhauled to be compatible, you've got to expect that people are going to take more time to get behind it. When you have 8 nations-and I am trying to help with that, on a limited basis (because even I have a rational limit to the amount of projects I can work on at a given time-ability to complete them or not)-but until you have around 8 nations minimum, people are probably going to delay getting too involved.

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

How do the scale thingies work and why are there 3?

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

The top one tracks "level"
The second one tracks how close you are to gaining a new "level"
The third one seems to track some statistic about your amount of daily activity.

I have no idea how the level thing relates to the military ranks for number of posts.
I also have no idea how being given good/bad reputation affects them.

You get some info by hovering over the three bars with the cursor but there's more info on your profile page. Click on your own user name. On the page that loads, there's a "visitor message" window. On the upper right there's a ">>". If you click on it, something called vbExperience will pop up for you to click which will give more details.

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

You'll find more information about how level is computed if you access your profile (by clicking on your own name), then go to the "VB experience tab" (not visible at first : click on the ">>" right of the rightmost tab, then choose the appropriate menu)

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

"You have to pay for free things"
Isn't that an oxymoron? If you pay for it, then it is no longer free.

Hah, sorry. I guess I couldn't help pointing that out. Even if I do get the gist of what you are saying.

Re: You need to PAY for FREE things!!!
 

Maybe some of the lurkers are like me, who with the forum change got their login details changed, and the browser doesn't any more log on automatically to the browser.

Well, that should be fixed for me now :)

Oh, and thanks to all you people who are providing all the nice AAR's and strategy guides. I still keep on learning new things of this game years after playing it (well, nearly two years of Dom3, and a bit of Dom2 before that :) ).