I've finally gotten around to drawing up the uploading guidelines for submitting files to the various product archives. These guidelines will appear right on the window that appears when people click on the "Submit a file" button.

I'd appreciate if you'd give them the once-over, to check for accuracy and completeness. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.
(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/upload.html")http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/upload.html(/url)

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.

Andrew,
Just a couple of quick corrections if you don't mind

In section number three, in the first sentence, it looks as though a "you" is missing after "before." Also, in the fourth section, sentence one, change the first "and" in the sentence to "an."

Other than that, looks great!! Keep up the good work Andrew!

-BD

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Quote

Originally posted by B.D:
**Andrew,
Just a couple of quick corrections if you don't mind

In section number three, in the first sentence, it looks as though a "you" is missing after "before." Also, in the fourth section, sentence one, change the first "and" in the sentence to "an."

Other than that, looks great!! Keep up the good work Andrew!

**

Got 'em, thanks -- think there should be a line at the bottom that contains product-specific info? For instance, for EV/EVO, it might mention not uploading cheater plugs or such?

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.

Why would you want to stop the upload of "cheater" plugs? Just take a look at the most downloaded plug-ins for both EV and EVO and you'll see that they are in demand. If the idea is to eliminate repetition, well then I suppose you should erase a good 80% of the non-"cheater" plugs which are often nothing more than rip-offs of someone else's plug-in. Even when these "legitimate" plug-ins are original they often add nothing more than recolored graphics for a sparse one or two ship or outfit additions. If such mediocre plug-ins are acceptable I fail to see the need to eliminate "cheater" plug-ins. Creating good "cheater" plug-ins is as valid as creating any other plug-ins for the game.

Quote

Originally posted by SABER:
Why would you want to stop the upload of "cheater" plugs?

Because cheating is lame and there's far too many cheat plugs for EV/O.

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OpenGL Avara!

AIM: EVAndrewM

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?

I agree with SABER. If people want to use cheater plugs, where's the harm? It's not like they are competing against a human opponent. Let people play the game the way they want to. I do think that cheater plugs should make it clear in their descriptions that they are circumventing the original rules.
Jude

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(This message has been edited by Jude (edited 06-14-2000).)

As a matter of fact, of the top ten downloads on the EV add-ons page five are "cheater" plugs and three of the five are at the top of the list. On the EVO page the most downloaded plug-in is also a "cheater".
Obviously, there is a demand.
However, if people are worried about TOO MANY similar plugs perhaps the answer is to include a disclaimer during upload that asks developers of ALL plug-in types to peruse the current list and make sure they are adding something new and innovative. In this way perhaps a good deal of derivative and mediocre plugs, "cheater" or otherwise, could be eliminated. For the sake of clarity it might also be a good idea to create a specific section for "cheat" plugs, so the unwary would not unknowingly imbalance their gameplay.
As a side note, I wonder at the vehemence with which people assault "cheater" plug-ins. Since this is a game, and as such is presumably intended to be entertaining, why must it be regimented into a specific set of rules for everyone. The game was designed so players could modify and add to the original to enhance their personal enjoyment. A "cheater" is at the core of this idea. For some it is the chance to avoid any difficulty, but for most it is simply a way to customize their play experience. If you do not have the skill or desire to use resedit a "cheater" provides a limited alternative.

The file upload instructions are now "live" -- they describe what people need to do to get their plugins/files submitted and available in our archives.

When you click on the "Submit File" button in the archives, the window that pops up now has the instructions at the top of it, so people HAVE to read them (or consciously ignore them) before they can scroll down to enter the information about the file they want to upload.

Hopefully this will help out getting the files people upload available quickly.

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.