Where are we going?

*Ahem* Does CRD monster truck ring any bells? One of the most popular mods to date?

 

Never heard of it...

On a serious note, I was mostly referring to community interactions on the forums.

Popular mods don't necessarily equate to nice and pleasant community members. I'm the living proof of this...

 

tdev, please don't worry too much about negative comments: (most) people are smart enough to discern constructive criticism from disrespectful barks.

I came to this forum because I was interested in this "game" (I'd rather call it simulator) and wanted to know the progress and whether it was still alive and where it was going. Reading this thread I learned that:

• the developers are passionate about their work, and willing to advance it
  
• there is an active community, sometimes rightfully critical (this is a sign of health!)
• there are weak points in the software and the communication from the developers
  
• there are trolls in the forum - but they are everywhere, I don't care

My decision? I bought the game, yesterday. Also thanks to this thread. So you can say that, even if critical and at times heated, this discussion has brought at least one new customer and one new forum member.

Oh, and the game itself is outstanding. I already have a question on the gameplay, but that's for another thread.

 

Welcome to the forums mate

 

That's true. I just saw the CRD as an example of something you've contributed to that left a huge, positive impact on the community.

 

That would truly be redicilous! Excluding people because they arent on the forum for 3 years wouldnt fix anything.

But I guess I have to stop making high quality automation mods then.
Its not like i already spent 200+ hours making ~50 cars and also edit their files a bit
For example the Rimac Concept one I made is a fully electric car with a reasonable selfmade powercurve.

Just because asomeone hasnt been on the forum for long it doesnt mean theyre a bad person or bad for the community.

 

...Is it just me, or did I just have a dream that Automation would pull the plug from BeamNG.Drive and stop with their mods? Because with how all this Automation hate is going, I could see that happening in the near future. Creating your own vehicle, or even making a config, is hard and time consuming.
Like @Inn0centJok3r said, at the end of the day, Automation mods still take skill to do...atleast for actually good ones. Because using blender or whatever these modders use is such a daunting task, I feel Automation mods are a good thing; for the people that want to make a mod, but either don't have the time, or want to dip their toes in a bit. Let's just say it's a stepping stone.

 

I think the likely reason often times high skilled modders hate the Automation porter is, as far as I'm aware, valid reasonless.. That "It shrouds our higher quality mods" is bullshit in my opinion, when that LKS Prerunner came out it rose to the top almost immediately. The only mods made attentionless from the Automation ports are mesh slaps, which, to be honest, deserve to be hidden.
Secondly, Automation cars have their own section in the repository, if you want to go and download an automation car, you click on the Automation section and there you go. If you want to download an actual mod then you can go into the Vehicles/skins/whatever section and there you go.
I don't think Automation ports deserve this hate, the hate is unwarranted and, in the end, the people who tend to hate them the most are people who just can't shake off the pride of making a skin for themselves a year ago.
Automation ports are for people who want to show what their design capabilities are without having to dive into complex 3D modelling software like Blender and complex things like Jbeam.

(Note: I'm not saying you can't have an opinion, you can like them or dislike them but I don't think they deserve the hate that they get.)

 

How about a forum for people who made an actual mod. No Automation, no skins, and no configs only mods (to prevent new comers from joining). Just people who made content to the game. Though that leaves a small handful, me for example.

 

So what would the benefit of separating people's skill be? How would that make everyone happy* Also, that would be uneedingly complicated.

 

So... A forum for about 12 people?..

 

Exactly. As if a community of mod creators only is automatically a mature and harmonious one... Wishful thinking.

Somebody probably missed the Elitist Revolt Against Lowly 12yrs Olds® that ultimately led to some permanent bans last year...

By the way, I'd really like to know what's so utterly wrong with Automation vehicles... Once you know their limitations and what to expect from them, they are just another kind of BeamNG vehicles made possible by an official game implementation.

Don't like them? Don't play them. It's that simple.

 

Automation exports have their place. Are they great? No. But it's something to play with. Obviously they're no replacement for high quality original content, but even I like throwing together Automation cars for the hell of it.... Helps keep me more focused on my actual projects I want to complete instead of running off starting something new just to see how it drives.

The only complaint I have about Automation cars is that they should be made not to deform. They look ugly when deformed, and it really takes away from enjoying them.

 

one, that revolt happen?
two, its not hard for someone to make an automation mod, nothing wrong with it.

 

Why do we need to turn a game community into an elusive cult? We’re a game forum! Calm down! People are supposed to be welcomed here, not repelled away by old members.

If there is any evidence of the community worsening, this utterly toxic, two-class forum assertatiom does far more to harm us as a community than a crappy automation mod will.

The internet was created so that everybody could be equal, and this whole idea undermines that.

I’m not into publically shaming people, but @SHOme1289, you know FAR better than that.

 

technically there's 3 class, the newcomers, the ones that doesn't do mods but comes here often (me), and the ones that does mods. But yeah I agree

 

Well there shouldn’t be any classes IMO. What you create doesn’t define who you are. For example I’m still in the process of learning, I can just create skins and I have almost no idea how to use blender, does that mean I should be separated from the more experienced modders? I don’t think so. We shouldn’t be separated at all, for example the experienced modders are the ones that help me and give me valuable advice, if they were in a different forum I would be no where right now. Everybody has to start somewhere mate. I think you forget that.

Ok I think this is getting way too off topic, let’s end this class system, segregation discussion here. It’s completely pointless and stupid

 

It may be worth noting that this thread is actually dedicated to examining and discussing the game itself (more specifically the direction of development), and not the behavior of the forum community.

 

I Agree. But, if the internet's taught us anything, anything at all, it's that any form of media, whether it be video games, TV shows, movies, anime, etc., one of the things that really shapes them is their communities.

 

My personal angle on that idea is that online communities tend to shape outside perception of a media more than shaping the media itself, but that's subsidiary to the point you're making.

This community has shaped BeamNG, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Just look at the suggestions that have made it in, the bugs that have been caught and fixed, and even the recent uptick in developer-to-player communication owing in part to this very thread.

We owe it to ourselves, our fellow community members, and the development team to see that we are the best community that we can possibly be. There are a few simple things we can start doing more often:

• Communicate clearly and properly; paying attention in particular to punctuation and word choice. This will reduce miscommunication and resultant arguments. When you're in doubt of whether or not you've got the right technical term or the perfect word to articulate how you feel about an issue, do some internet searching to make certain. Diagrams are also always helpful - a drawing that takes ten seconds to make can sometimes spare you ten pages of discussion.
• Be considerate of other forum member's concerns - If somebody else is concerned about a small detail of a piece of in-game content, then telling them not to worry about it "because it isn't important" is a remarkably dumb thing to do. If they're worried about, then it's important to someone.
• By the same token, be aware that other forum members have emotions - No angry person in the history of the world has been calmed down by the words "calm down" alone - put in the effort to de-escalate the situation by other means, or remove yourself from the conversation if necessary.
• Be cognizant of when you've drifted off of your original discussion and into tangential territory - particularly during debates. There's a big difference between arguing whether or not a particular feature makes sense for a BeamNG drive vehicle and arguing whether or not that particular feature ever made sense in the real world. I myself learned this the hard way very recently.
• Be mindful and compassionate to new forum users - remember that you were once in their place. It's not easy for them - in addition to the "official" forum rules, there's a second layer of "informal" forum rules (Vehicle suggestions in the "Vehicle Suggestions" thread only, use the search bar before creating a new thread, etc.) that they need time to master.

With that said, there may be two things that would help the community that the forum moderators can do.

• Keep us up-to-date on changes to the Forum Rules. If and when they change, the entire community needs to know. There was actually a major overhaul to the rules page made on Oct. 13. Among other things, it became against the official rules to bump a thread for no reason or to call out someone else for bumping a thread.
• Perhaps introduce a video illustrating the Forum Rules along with as some of the technical features of the forum (searchbar, uploading images, etc.) that all new users must watch before posting on the forums. In fact, this should be retroactive - everybody must watch the video before they are able to post further.