News - ModBlog

21 comments by INtense! on Nov 20th, 2007 digg this super bookmark

I'll be the first to admit that finding stuff you want on Mod DB v4 is not as easy as it was on v3. It seems the main issues our visitors faced was that the “search is dumb”, “sorting isn't there”, “we cannot filter by game”, “the linked mod is no longer shown” and “the related game icon is no longer shown”.

These were major issues which are now hopefully resolved. Here are the changes which were just deployed:

• Sorting is back, you can sort by any of the fields shown under the “filter” area
• Search is smarter. The most relevant results will be shown first and partial matches will now be found. So for example if you search for “hal” Half-Life will be returned
• More filtering options have been added including a smart “by game” filter which lets you find exactly what you want to find
• The related game icon is now shown consistently to the right when browsing
• Finally, the best and biggest change. The mod, game, engine or group the content is linked to will now be shown. Better yet, when you click on the subject you will be taken direct to the profile the article / download is linked with. For mod teams, games, engines and groups this means you now have people coming to your profile when you post news, downloads etc. This provides you with a great opportunity to show off your profile and hopefully get another follower. This will also act as a double bonus when your content is posted on ModDB.com as that will likely help boost your mods popularity skyward and help it climb the “most popular” list.

As always if there are still areas you think we can improve in please let us know, because we won't change the site unless you help us out by proposing ideas.

31 comments by INtense! on Nov 16th, 2007 digg this super bookmark

We have a lot of work on the go to make Mod DB v4 a happy place. Our focus at the moment is addressing everyones number one complaint. To show we mean business "game" filtering has just been added to the mod listing. It is by no means perfect but we wanted to deploy this quick fix to show we care, and that we will make every aspect of this site better than v3.

The Mod DB Team (look out for more soon, otherwise please tell us your no.1 issues and we will do our best to address them!)

49 comments by INtense! on Nov 14th, 2007 digg this super bookmark

Just like in v3 you can now watch mods be notified when they update and see the mods you are watching by clicking the update link in the top left corner of the screen. Mod teams can also see how many people are watching their mod via the profiles "statistics sidemenu" and click this number to view exactly who is watching. Also thanks to the all new v4 POWA, we rolled out the following enhancements:

• v4 allows you to watch games, engines, groups and members - not just mods anymore!
• v4 shows you the most popular games, mods etc you are watching
• v4 allows you to browse and search what you are watching, and who is watching you

Enjoy the update and as always let us hear your praise and complaints.

50 comments by jacksonj04 on Nov 12th, 2007 digg this super bookmark

UPDATE: Dates were just added to comments and the correct comment ordering in news / downloads was restored

First of all, let me say thanks to everybody who has let us know your opinion, pointed out bugs, or otherwise helped us through the launch. Your help is appreciated.

We've just rolled out some updates to Mod DB based on your feedback, so here's the good news:

Comments are back. Yep, every game, mod, engine and group now has comments enabled for it. We've also made sure all the existing comments are still in there, so nothing is lost. This is probably the feature we get the most questions about, so I hope you enjoy it!

In other changes, RSS links are now a bit more intelligent. You'll notice a lot of pages now have an RSS link in your browser (As long as it supports RSS that is), which now is directly relevant to the page you're on. If you're browsing a mod and want to subscribe to its news, you can now use your browser's direct method instead of having to hunt down the link.

Finally (And this isn't released yet, it's just an advance notice to keep you at bay), we are bringing back modWatch lists so you can see what you're watching, and who else is watching things. This update should be ready tomorrow, we're just in the process of flattening some bugs at the moment.

Upcoming features still include private messaging, forums, help wanted, topsites and more.

53 comments by INtense! on Nov 9th, 2007 digg this super bookmark

After years of brainstorming and scheming, months of developing Mod DB v4 is here, and we hope you like what you see. If not, well let us try and convince you by sharing what Mod DB v4 is all about and what is still to come.

Background Story

For the past few years blogs, groups, friends, bookmarking and other "social networking" type features have been all the rage across the internet. Though we believe 99% of the time these features are a total waste of space, unless you are a lone ranger like Zorro or Chuck Norris, mod making is very much a team activity which requires communication and networking among many individuals. With this in mind we set out to build a site which empowers the developers to do what they do best (develop games), and gives the community control over the content, since the mob knows what it wants and we don't want to stand in its way. What does this all mean? Well member blogs can be used to share tidbits of your development knowledge, groups can be created (privately and publically) with the aim of working as a team by sharing assets, news and files among the groups members. Like Wikipedia all content is open, members can add engines, games, mods and addons to the site. Profiles now act as "full webpages" allowing you to browse, read and post news without ever leaving the profile. Multimedia content can be added and embeded (if a picture is worth a 1000 words, share a million by posting a video). Interlinking and relationships between content can be established so you can see which games run on which engines, and what addons, games and mods various groups are working on. v4 is an information powerhorse. Everything can be smartly connected which will hopefully with time make the Mod DB a great development resource which provides information from the developers to the engines powering the games, mods and addons built.

What's still to come

You are only looking at the tip of an iceberg. There is so much still to come, especially for the developers as we work on a suite of web-based tools which should assist you in your game development endevours. We are also going to bring you closer to the games industry, how games are made, how you can score a job doing what you love. Our todo list is 500 items long so you can expect to hear a lot from us as we work through it over the coming months and with MOTY only a week away you can bet things are not going to slow down anytime soon. In the meantime for a more detailed breakdown of what "v4" is all about, we recommend you check out the walkthrough. Otherwise enjoy the site, there are tons of new features to explore and use, and let us know your thoughts.