Hey everyone! As usual, this is the time of the year where we wish you a happy new year, although we always want your whole life to be happy, healthy and may your dreams come true, except if they are related to the destruction of this humble site. And it's also one of these times of the year where I post everything we've accomplished in the year and our list of objectives for the next year... that will never be accomplished, although some exceptions may get eventually done.... by some random accident, of course.
Anyway, if you have any doubts, I've done that in 2015, 2014 and 2013. It was a way to compensate 2012, 2011 and 2010, which we did not have any new feature for the site/forums, unlike in 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006.
Anyway, among the things that happened here in 2015, we have:
- PPM Forums has gained a new domain (ppmforums.com) and the evil errors 503 that were haunting us were wiped from the face of the internet. I won't ask you if you remember them because I've already ask it at this birthday topic. Besides that, we've complemented the forums with a couple of administrative features and several fixes for some random problems.
- The following mods were released: Twisted Insurrection 0.45, The Dawn of the Tiberium Age 1.1468, EASB Hour 1.000, TDX Public Beta 1 and CnC D2k 2.83.
- Voxel Section Editor III has got two new features (Rotate Model and 2D View Background Colors) and tons of bug fixes. OS SHP Builder has got a couple of bug fixes and no longer requires admin priviledges to run (unless you are installing it). OS BIG Editor may read most .meg files from GreyGoo. There is an incomplete OS HVA Builder 2.2 without the source being disclosed that revamped the interface, fixed several bugs and adds some interesting features such as Custom Palettes, Grid, Section Center, etc. TS & RA2 Tunnel Drawer has received some bug fixes. An unoficial update for the XCC TMP Editor was made by tomsons26lv that allows the creation of terrains with different tile sizes, for OpenRA. Shapeset was created to convert PCX files to SHPs used by Command & Conquer 95, Red Alert 1 and Sole Survivor. TS Wave Maker was created to aid modders to code AI for Tiberian Sun.
- Ares 0.9 was released last year, although few hours ago, Ares 0.A has been released. This new version has a better performance and many new features such as Troop Crawler logic known from Generals, Saboteurs and Crush Damage from Dune 2000, buildings degrading while a player is low on power, Stealth Tanks holding fire unless in area guard mode, and several more. Some more enhancements on the Firestorm Walls, focus on passengers, like transports accepting only certain infantry units to enter and more.
If we take into account our 2015 plans, we've only managed to improve the site stability, by fixing the error 503s. So, this is why copy and paste was once again used in our 2016 plans:
-> Expand the site to become more popular with games beyond Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 scope: We are slowly adding content for other games here, but we are not getting many modders interested to discuss them in our community yet. We'll try to change this situation by adding more content and trying to approach communities from other games.
-> Progress with VXLSE III's 3D model export feature: This is our ultimate goal to become a significant community that modifies or develops 3D games. We have many voxel assets that would be very useful in newer games if we are able to convert them.
-> Attract more high quality mods: We need fresh blood and attractive content in this place. PPM is still an attractive place to have forums to advertise your projects and it still holds a community with skilled modders and artists to improve the quality of your project in the long term.
-> Improve news coverage from other games and communites: Nowadays, we are covering news related to RTS Command & Conquer games and OpenRA, while we want this place to become a modding reference for every game. Although we have channels where everyone may post a news, such as our Community News Forum, we shouldn't have to rely only on our community. We need to change our strategy on this matter. We'll soon start a service where you may have forums to discuss news from your mod (imported from RSS feeds).
-> Improve methods to organize our content: The News Tracker is a nice way to organize the news that happens in this place, but there are other ways to organize the content that we may explore. We are still researching how to implement the hashtag idea.
-> Revamp the mobile site: We'll change the menu text using one of these android looking buttons to help you to navigate the mobile site.
-> A new PPM Network Bar: We may eventually drop Revora's network bar and build our own, focusing on what do we have to offer here.
And that's it. Happy new year and I hope you enjoy PPM in the future.
Anyway, if you have any doubts, I've done that in 2015, 2014 and 2013. It was a way to compensate 2012, 2011 and 2010, which we did not have any new feature for the site/forums, unlike in 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006.
Anyway, among the things that happened here in 2015, we have:
- PPM Forums has gained a new domain (ppmforums.com) and the evil errors 503 that were haunting us were wiped from the face of the internet. I won't ask you if you remember them because I've already ask it at this birthday topic. Besides that, we've complemented the forums with a couple of administrative features and several fixes for some random problems.
- The following mods were released: Twisted Insurrection 0.45, The Dawn of the Tiberium Age 1.1468, EASB Hour 1.000, TDX Public Beta 1 and CnC D2k 2.83.
- Voxel Section Editor III has got two new features (Rotate Model and 2D View Background Colors) and tons of bug fixes. OS SHP Builder has got a couple of bug fixes and no longer requires admin priviledges to run (unless you are installing it). OS BIG Editor may read most .meg files from GreyGoo. There is an incomplete OS HVA Builder 2.2 without the source being disclosed that revamped the interface, fixed several bugs and adds some interesting features such as Custom Palettes, Grid, Section Center, etc. TS & RA2 Tunnel Drawer has received some bug fixes. An unoficial update for the XCC TMP Editor was made by tomsons26lv that allows the creation of terrains with different tile sizes, for OpenRA. Shapeset was created to convert PCX files to SHPs used by Command & Conquer 95, Red Alert 1 and Sole Survivor. TS Wave Maker was created to aid modders to code AI for Tiberian Sun.
- Ares 0.9 was released last year, although few hours ago, Ares 0.A has been released. This new version has a better performance and many new features such as Troop Crawler logic known from Generals, Saboteurs and Crush Damage from Dune 2000, buildings degrading while a player is low on power, Stealth Tanks holding fire unless in area guard mode, and several more. Some more enhancements on the Firestorm Walls, focus on passengers, like transports accepting only certain infantry units to enter and more.
If we take into account our 2015 plans, we've only managed to improve the site stability, by fixing the error 503s. So, this is why copy and paste was once again used in our 2016 plans:
-> Expand the site to become more popular with games beyond Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 scope: We are slowly adding content for other games here, but we are not getting many modders interested to discuss them in our community yet. We'll try to change this situation by adding more content and trying to approach communities from other games.
-> Progress with VXLSE III's 3D model export feature: This is our ultimate goal to become a significant community that modifies or develops 3D games. We have many voxel assets that would be very useful in newer games if we are able to convert them.
-> Attract more high quality mods: We need fresh blood and attractive content in this place. PPM is still an attractive place to have forums to advertise your projects and it still holds a community with skilled modders and artists to improve the quality of your project in the long term.
-> Improve news coverage from other games and communites: Nowadays, we are covering news related to RTS Command & Conquer games and OpenRA, while we want this place to become a modding reference for every game. Although we have channels where everyone may post a news, such as our Community News Forum, we shouldn't have to rely only on our community. We need to change our strategy on this matter. We'll soon start a service where you may have forums to discuss news from your mod (imported from RSS feeds).
-> Improve methods to organize our content: The News Tracker is a nice way to organize the news that happens in this place, but there are other ways to organize the content that we may explore. We are still researching how to implement the hashtag idea.
-> Revamp the mobile site: We'll change the menu text using one of these android looking buttons to help you to navigate the mobile site.
-> A new PPM Network Bar: We may eventually drop Revora's network bar and build our own, focusing on what do we have to offer here.
And that's it. Happy new year and I hope you enjoy PPM in the future.