auto-update IDEA

why dont we make it so when you do that auto-update thing all the current mods are also installed?

because not all mods are likely to inter-operate with each other in a balanced way, just because of the huge amount of checking and tweaking that is required to avoid a situation where there is a definitive ‘killer’ strategy that always wins.
If there are some mods that are insanely popular and everyone is in agreement on, we can add them to the auto update, but for now its probably easier to have things discussed and downloaded as individual mods. What does everyone think?

I think that it would be a very good idea if, say, there were two options in the in-game auto-updater - you could choose to just install “official” Positech mods or to install “official” and “unofficial” mods. If a person wanted to ensure that their game was definitely balanced, they would just pick the former, but a player who wanted all the mods avaliable could pick the latter.

Obviously it would be up to Cliff decide what mods made it into the auto updater - to “quality control” mods and ensure that only ones that were of reasonable/good quality were sent out via the auto updater.

It could be made more sophisticated so that people could see which mods were on offer and only download the ones that they wanted, but using the in-game auto-updater, rather than having to find them on these forums and try to copy all the files to the right place. Basically, in the auto-updater, they would get a list of mods and a short description of what they did, and then they could tick the ones they wanted and download them.

Alternatively, if the above idea is not accepted, I think that high quality user mods should be included with the auto updater even if it is not split in the way suggested above. Again, it would be up to Cliff to decide which mods went out, although people could “nominate” those mods that they thought of sufficiently high quality to be included. Provided that Cliff and/or the majority of posters here thought the mod to be of high enough quality, I can’t see any reason why it should not be included.

I don’t know whether Cliff can access this data, but I would be interested to know how many people use the auto-updater in the game compared with visit these forums and download mods that way. If the former number is significantly higher than the latter, then it seems reasonable that the best user created mods should be given a wider audience. Potentially, some of the mods I have seen here have the potential to enhance the game, and it seems a shame that these mods should not be enjoyed by as many people as possible.