Mod DB for Developers
If you are developing a game, mod or engine and want to use ModDB to promote and distribute it, please read our new tutorial (as well as this!)
Navigating Mod DB
On first glance everything looks totally different, but if you ignore the platform tabs up top, the site operates almost identically to v3. First you choose the platform you are interested in (you can customize this) and then you choose something to browse (lets choose mods). From the mod list you find what you are after, then click its name to be taken to its profile (lets choose the Iron Grip mod). Once you are in a profile you can browse all related content such as news, downloads, features and more without having to jump around the site as you did in v3. We encourage you to try this by clicking the image below and browsing through the Iron Grip profile.
This should make it a lot easier to find what you are after, because if you want Half-Life 2 mods, you simply find Half-Life 2 and then you browse its mods tab. The same idea applies when posting content. Instead of navigating through a control panel, look out for the admin buttons (situated in the top right hand corner of boxes), and click these to do stuff (i.e. post news) where you are. That's all there is too it, simply choose what you want to browse, find your profile and then go through it.
Groups & Links
The major change that v4 brings is the idea of Groups and smart relationships. Do you and a number of people work on different mods, games, maps, skins and more? By creating a group you can link all of this together and show what your group / company is doing. If we continue our Iron Grip mod example, you will notice they are made by a company called Isotx who are also working on various addons (maps, skins etc), a mod download application called Crosus, and two other mods (CNC Holland & Mideast Crisis) which are now all linked togehtor via their groups profile. By registering a group and inviting members, they can link all of this content together share news from their company and give their development team control over all of this. We recommend you click the image below and browse through their profile, to see how they have linked their content up.
The idea of linking above also extends to news, downloads and features which can be linked to multiple mods, games, engines, groups. Want to know what mods run on the Source engine? Soon you can. Want to see news related to Half-Life? Now you can because the system automatically builds these relationships in.
Community Content
These days blogs, social networks, friends and all that nonsense is all the rage. We at the Mod DB believe there is too much of this crap out there, but that didn't stop us from cramming these features in. Why you ask? A few reasons. Any game site to date that has attempted these features has done so in a pretty piss poor way. Allowing comments on posts, user reviews and hidden blog profiles hardly counts in our eyes. We want to change this, because Mod DB is all about game development and game development is all about working with a team of people, sharing your knowledge, creations and thoughts. That's why we have totally opened up the site. You can review games and mods, post your own editorial or blog, add tutorials, upload screenshots to profiles, create a group, add a game, mod or engine we haven't. You can even watch anything you want from games to mods to groups and be notified when they update. You control the sites content because that's how we believe it should work.
Site Administration
The control panel from v3 is gone, and has been replaced by what we call "in-place" editing. Now to do stuff look out for the admin buttons (situated in the top right hand corner of boxes), which allow you to control the content you are looking at. This saves you having to navigate through a maze of control panel options, and makes adding all the community based content (mentioned above) a breeze. For example if you were browsing Half-Life 2 tutorials and wanted to add one yourself, provided the games developer allows content to be added, just look out for these icons and click the appropriate one (the addicon).
Platforms
Up until recently indie game developers and mod makers have stuck purely to PC games, simply because consoles did not allow them to create their own content. Finally these platforms are starting to open up with the XBOX360, PS3, PSP, Nintendo DS and others slowly embracing indie-game creations. Furthermore, thanks to forward thinking developers like Epic and their Unreal Engine 3, soon we will start to see mods made for their games running on all platforms their engine is ported too (XBOX360, PS3 etc). Because of this and our aim as a site to support all game development projects from maps, skins, mods to commercial game projects, we decided it was time to list multiple platforms and support their developers by providing them with the tools and community interaction they require to make a better game. By default all platforms will be listed, but you can choose the ones you are interested in here and customize the site to your liking. So please take advantage of this new functionality and spread the word to developers on other platforms.
Games
The site maybe called Mod DB and mods maybe our love, but for a long time now we have found indie-game developers taking advantage of the sites functionality more and more, using it as a tool that helps them make their game. That's why all indie-games are now listed in our gamessection, alongside commercial game titles. We want to show that they are just as good and if not better than some of the store titles out there, and feel they deserve this recognition. Plus it allows them to open up their title to mods, addons and more which is the way it should be.
Videos & More
There are many more features to use (and many more still coming), so we encourage you to dive in and try out everything you can, ask questions, and join in the community spirit. See you out there. Mod DB Team
Nice to see a tutorial pop up so fast. I'm not having too much trouble navigating the site myself, but it is all still new to me so there might be some snags along the way. Overall it is a pleasing change. I just think there is something missing...
yay for star wars!!!!
Same here, this website has Halo Mods?
i really know what you mean, but i just got one question, how do you make the mods???
In Platforms it mentions customising your tabs. I think it needs a picture to let people know how awesome this is: Crispy.nuclear-dawn.net
I had no idea you could do that - awesome!
yeah i got to admit that is a seriously cool feature. I only made that yesterday. Very last thing before deployment.
Reason why is because Mod DB is about game development, not about commercial console games. So sure we have the tabs up top and we will cover content in these areas somewhat, but we want to give you the power to view and see what you want. We still have a lot of work to go before its perfect, but bear with us and we will get there.
One thing I dislike the most is the search feature.
Why search genre?
I preferred to search for the game the mod comes under.
Hey you know somewhere we can find mods and creat units for civ4
Wow I just noticed that MadKill. Searching by game was by far much easier as you only needed to look at mods for that game only not that whole genre!
What's this RANK thing...?
NOT being able to hide your email address is pretty bad I think, as it invites spam & even worse viruses.
Try setting your profile privacy from drop-down menu to "Only I can see my profile..." or something like that... until they improve this h4x3d version of moddb.com
That hides everything including your mods.
We're on it - this change will be rolled out in the next code update (Probably no longer than a couple of days)
Email bug has been squashed in a code merge today.
Err... I accidentally flagged my profile as inappropriate XD
by your name I think that was a good idea and should of been done a long time ago in a galexy far far far far far (even further) far away, where the teletubies come to play
What?
How does one go about observing the list of mods from their mod watch list?
By reading what it says at the search, you would find out, that if you first off find the game, you can search for mods for that game (ex. go to PC > Games > Half-Life 2 > Mods and you will only search mods for hl2 ;) )
Would also be helpful if you could list the group a mod belongs to (like how you have related groups here for this article).
jeffman.
wait yea...the mod watch! oh noes! :|
There are a couple of grammatical errors, such as "Maybe" instead of "May be" and etc. Might want to look over it. Helpful in the end, though.
i do i find my old mods or do i have to re watch them
I'm gonna take long in getting used to this thing... but anyway, "It's all so shiny and new!"
It'll be old and worn soon enough with your, uh, avatar bleeding or puking (or both) all over it :)
I personally liked the old one better, and didn't see a reason to change it. This one seems to be missing so many features that were missing in the last version. You don't see the stats for an image until you have clicked it, so I can't quickly check to see if someone has commented on one without looking at them all individually. Also, there seems to be no general comment section for a mod itself. I get most of my bug reports and comments/suggestions through there, and with it gone It's going to be much harder for me to sift through all the places people can comment to find discovered bugs.
On a related note; what happened to the profile comments?
Will they be brought back? I missed conversations through comments, they made up easily half of the interaction that goes on in ModDB.
Where in the hell is my mod watch??
They are still there.. i just haven't figured out how to edit them. But it says "# updates" in the top, telling you the amount of updates (eg. mod watch updates) you have.
For example i watch The World of Padman and they have been spamming around with updates... i've got 5 from them just today...
Yeah I get the updates on the mods that I am watching but it doesn't "list which mods" I am watching. I even went to my profile page thinking it would be listed there but it isn't.
I know - its kinda strange - but you can check wether you are watching a mod, by going to its profile and hover one of the icons - dont remember which - at the "profile" of the mod. If it says "Stop Tracking Mod" you already watch it but if it says "Track this mod" you dont.
wheres the mod comments? o_o..how do we get supports? and @ solvalou, i think its the updates button :D
I utterly despise big changes like this. I like it though...
Yes, mod tracking dosent seem to work anymore
How can I see the mod comments? Also, it's very bad that the downloads have been reset to 0.
Weres the mod comments and were have gone smilies?
Smilies will be available in the V4 forums, but they arent available in comments anymore.
Good Idea there.
I like to see the date a post is made, could that get added back in please. I also like to see the stats ( how many downloads ) of the files that are listed in our download page. Now have to open each file listed, to see how many times file was downloaded. :(
Going to take a little getting use to new site. ;)
If you go to www.moddb.com/mods you can still see all of the old mods.
Damn, I really liked the old site better.
wait, am I missing something? On a mods profile, where is the section that includes all the members that work on the mod and their status/job, then a link to their profile? That was a big part of moddb.com. Having a little resume of all the mods you have worked on.
I cant see my mod watch anyone know where it went?
I love the new template; everything seems so much more connected now. I'm not sure I quite understand linking, but I'm sure that'll come with time.
one thing that would help is if you could put the mods name or what it is for in the news section so people know if they are looking for mods specific games
lol Having to read a navigation guide on how to use the website just proves to you even more how bad this design is.
Well, I have to disagree..
See, moddb is an established website that changed (not to mention VERY expansive) and so people adjusting is mostly the navigation issues here-in
Also, navigation across 5 platforms of games PLUS mods/addons etc, and still making all of our capabilities very web 2.0 is a huge task they are winning me over on each code update.
You dont consider that, so i did for you :)
Have the patience and take the time to orient yourself.It's a good sized site and a bit more complex than, say "Facebook".
I don't think so, I find Facebook a lot more disorienting than ModDB. That's probably because of all the adds and pointless comments though xD