TDM Fan Site

[Deadlove]

I'm going to make a TDM fansite. I've made hundreds of websites over the years about things I'm passionate about or as a work for hire. I believe it's about time to get myself a TDM one.

 

I can build it. Don't ask for an idea how long it will take to bring it to life.

 

Some notes...

 

1) Will ask for help for info. to compared with the Wiki or help in geenral (not on html, but with accurate info on Bridgfeport).

 

 

2) : What does community thinik of this idea?

 

3) What is some kind of additional content lacking other game sites? What would members of the community you like to see?

[AluminumHaste]

Isn't this the TDM Fan site? I mean, really everything is here.

[Bikerdude]

@Dl you could put your energies into working on a map of your own, or editing the wiki, or fixing old textures, etc etc.

[SeriousToni]

I like your efforts but really, what should this website be about? Which content would it have that wouldn't fit here?

[nbohr1more]

There are a few TDM fan sites already but there's no harm in having another as long as you don't try to pass your site as the official TDM site and do harmful things like package spyware with Mission downloads etc.

 

What I hope to someday see is a fork project based on TDM with its own site. This way we can grow asset resources by sharing with another project that doesn't necessarily have the same vision. If, for example, some outside party made an RPG with TDM's code base it would probably have more popular appeal and we'd reap the benefits of all those new contributors.

[demagogue]

I think it's a great idea. We need fan sites.

 

If you want to do world building, my suggestion is read the universe wiki pages and compile world info we get from FMs, then make a guide of Bridgeport and the Empire with major sites, the factions and important people and politics, and maybe some historical events. But make it geared more for style and entertainment.

 

And since nobody has much information because it doesn't exist, IMO you should feel free to invent details. That's what mappers do, this is collective fiction, and everyone understands it's your vision, people will take or leave what they like. So make it interesting and consistent and people will take more.

[Springheel]

There are a few TDM fan sites already

 

 

Really? Where?

[Deadlove]

I really suck at mapping. I cent even connect two rooms making a door.

[Springheel]

What about a site like this?

 

http://spirited-tech.com/thief/category/furniture/

[OrbWeaver]

In my opinion what is most needed is a user-friendly searchable asset repository that asset creators can use to store their models/sounds/textures etc in such a way that they are easily obtained and used by other mappers without having to duplicate effort. We have lots of talented people producing content but the only way to share it is via manually downloading other missions and extracting the assets (and needing to contact the author for permission), or with ad-hoc "My stuff" threads that get posted on the forums from time to time.

 

If you have good web design skills this seems like an area where you could really contribute, because AFAIK there aren't many people on the forums with the time, energy or skills to build such a resource.

 

What I think a site would need is:

• Browsable by category (All Sounds, All Models etc).
• Full text search within or across categories (Find anything called "chair" in Models)
• Restrict results by format (only show me ASE models because I don't have anything that will edit LWOs).
• Each item has a textual description and a number of images (if appropriate). Even better if you can embed a sound player for audio assets.
• Author information and contact information is available, and the licence for each asset is clearly displayed.
• Unlimited user tags for each asset, which can be clicked on to use as search terms.
• An "asset" should be able to contain a ZIP with more than one file, for example if someone uploads a sound file as several .ogg files with a .sndshd shader attached.

[Obsttorte]

I like the idea of an online repo for assets. But I may add that uploads, to really serve the purpose of easy usage, should be uploaded as zips containing a specific folder structure, so that authors only have to unpack them in their fm folder to get things to work.

 

Such a repo would also require that everything that gets uploaded gets tested, to ensure it is working properly and does not contain any malware etc... Personally I think this can mean a big load of work if it gets used a lot.

 

Regarding some of the comments: I don't consider a forum a fan side. The idea behind a forum is to allow people to discuss a certain topic, while a fan sites purpose is to present a certain topic from a very individual point of view. I think these are two very different things.

 

And to be honest, we shouldn't judge everything someone wants to do in regardence to how useful it is. Even if a fan site may not help attracting new peoples or potential new mappers, it is a demonstration of the passion someone has towards the work we are doing here, and this is more then enough of a legimitation. So if you have the will to do it, do it.

 

Regarding the already existing tdm fan sites, Niels, I would like to get to know more about them, too. So if you know some, post the links.

[SeriousToni]

 

And to be honest, we shouldn't judge everything someone wants to do in regardence to how useful it is. Even if a fan site may not help attracting new peoples or potential new mappers, it is a demonstration of the passion someone has towards the work we are doing here, and this is more then enough of a legimitation. So if you have the will to do it, do it.

 

Ah yes, I think you've got a point there! Also, I see there are really nice ideas showing up here! Okay now I'm curious what Deadlove will manage to do!

[Springheel]

 

And to be honest, we shouldn't judge everything someone wants to do in regardence to how useful it is. Even if a fan site may not help attracting new peoples or potential new mappers, it is a demonstration of the passion someone has towards the work we are doing here, and this is more then enough of a legimitation.

.

To be fair, the OP did ask what people thought of the idea. Saying you don't think it would be useful is a valid way to answer to that question.

[Nightcrawler]

Regarding the already existing tdm fan sites, Niels, I would like to get to know more about them, too. So if you know some, post the links.

 

I don't think there are any real tdm fan pages out there. But some Thief fan pages also post news about tdm:

http://www.taffersparadise.net/index.html

 

 

In my opinion what is most needed is a user-friendly searchable asset repository that asset creators can use to store their models/sounds/textures etc in such a way that they are easily obtained and used by other mappers without having to duplicate effort. We have lots of talented people producing content but the only way to share it is via manually downloading other missions and extracting the assets (and needing to contact the author for permission), or with ad-hoc "My stuff" threads that get posted on the forums from time to time.

 

Regarding asset repositories Fidcal's website comes to my mind. However it never made it to a good and full repository but stayed quite empty:

http://www.fidcal.com/DarkModContributions/

[nbohr1more]

Really? Where?

I'll have to go back and google a bit but here's one I recalled:

 

http://thed4rkblog.blogspot.com/?m=1

 

Though it also claims to cover other Thief games.

 

We've got at least a few regular bloggers who have featured TDM sections as well.

 

Yeah, a modern fan site with regular coverage would be an improvement since most of them have let their TDM sections grow dusty.

[Deadlove]

Anyone have space available to host this site?;

 

I can't imagine the site would be larger than a few MB. Videos or other largr media would be embedded from YT or similar setup to minimize data transfer usage.

[Deadlove]

Noone has a site they can host this aT for me?