MRC Roadmap and Timeline
This is my current vision for the Modding Resource Catalogue. Unfortunately my vision and time for the site are quite fluid, which is not ideal, but is what it is.
Life seems to be making it impossible for me to stick to monthly timelines, so changed to just the year, less pressure.
MRC is all about finding stuff, so this is a high priority. While the current system is functional, it needs to be better! My goal is for the following functionality:
- Sorting by Title, Author, Added/Created Date (Done)
- View Recently Added Resources
- View Recently Updated Resource (Resource update not Catalogue page)
- Filter on Categories, Tags, Authors and Custom Fields (Format, Location, NSFW etc..)
Update 2023.04.30:
An update to the CMS I use added sorting to the search results in an update, yoo-hoo.
Update 2022.12.30
After testing 4 different 3rd party products, this is turning into quite the challenge to get the functionality I want. I am still awaiting to hear back from one vendor who has offered to enhance their product if I become a beta tester. We shall see how that works out.
Now that there are some non-information-only Starfield resources available for MRC, those resources need to be added. Also, some changes to the Search system are needed to deal with inadequacies recently discovered.
On that note, the following tasks are priority #1.
- Update existing Starfield resource to any reflect changes
- Add the fixes, configuration tools and modding related resources to the Starfield Search
- Get an initial What’s New page up and running to keep everyone up to date
- Rework the resource categorising and search systems to better handle owners and tools that have resources across multiple games.
My hope is that the above is a matter of days, not weeks
Going forward I will try to post more details on the What’s New page, which will be a WIP for a little while.
I would like to improve communications between MRC and users. Some of this will require user login, but as I have stated before, the core functionality of MRC, finding resources will never require it.
The following are just some ideas I have come up with:
- A newsletter of some sort, like ‘What happened in June 2023’, hopefully I can come up with a better title. Or maybe a blog of some sort. Biggles Blog has a ring to it.
An option to flag favourite resources to “watch” so users can be notified when there is an update.
As an additional feature from above, would be if users could filter on their favourites, but I don’t have the skill level for that so probably on the back burner for now.
There would be user level options to opt-in for notifications on user profile.
A page listing the following information about the resource owner’s, all optional of course:
- Aliases
- Other Resources, like mods in Nexus and from other games
- Preferrer Support Contact method
- Comments
- Bio
Provide a method for owners to manage their resources themselves. This will require login and a valid email address but hopefully allow for more interaction between owners and MRC and give me more time to improve MRC and find new owners and resources.
Modding and community projects are often looking for people to volunteer and help out (Voice actors, 3D modellers). I also have a Help Wanted page which would be better served as part of a larger, more public, feature.
This is also the perfect feature for testing and implementing a free extension that provides for custom tables and basic data entry forms, hence the priority.
There are some maintenance tasks that need to be done on a regular basis and being me, I would like to have these listed in a table. This type of functionality would also be useful to owners when they have the option to manage their own resources. There are some CMS extensions for adding custom tables and basic UI into the system.
I have also been looking into a CMS feature called Workflow which allows you to set up a series of steps to perform. Not sure if it would apply but need to investigate.
I need owner and user feedback to make MRC better. I am lacking in so many skills needed to create and manage a good and useful website, that I desperately need to hear what people think after using MRC.
To that end, I will add a feedback system that makes it easy for users to tell me what they think. The good, the bad and the ugly, a great, must see film!
It would be possible to extend this into feedback at a resource level but I am not sure if owners would even want that so will put that in a holding pattern for now.
I made some ill informed decisions when first setting up the core CMS and other 3rd Party Tools that unfortunately cannot be extricated from the current installation. So I will need to start from scratch in terms of physical pages and resources.
I have decided to purchase a new site building framework that uses the same CMS. This is a system, built for professionals, which provides many more options that will make my life easier in the long term. Short term, it means learning a new system and creating the entire site from scratch. Thankfully the content (words and images) will already exist, so it’s just creating prototypes and small templates for resources and such. Then it's just a lot of cut-n-pasting.
I expect this to take a few months, so have decided to put this off until 2024 as I think the last quarter of 2023 will be spent playing the bejesus out of Starfield!
After the move I will focus on adding the backlog of resources from the past 6 months into MRC. I will also split the time with updating all existing resources to a new layout that includes images and resource update information.
Site Changes
The following are the changes I have made or am currently researching, either to address some issues or improve the site and hopefully user experience.
2023
- Changed the Search Order text from Date asc/desc to Added asc/desc
- Changed the CSS for anchor/URLs so they are more consistent throughout. There are still some items showing formatting that shouldn't but will address at a later date
- Updated the Pending table to include a View options and removed checkboxes
- Updated the copyright to include 2022 and reduced the size of the font
- Add Greslin Starfield Mods - Vasco Combat AI (VCAI), Cross Faction Hostility (CFH), Aggressive Enemy AI (AEAI)
- Updated site stats on home page, were very outdated
- Added new User Access Group - Contributor, 1 Level above Owner
- Increase Login Session Time to 30min (from 15min)
- Server Provider - Rochen - Fixed some PHP settings, didn't tell me which ones, but site loaded snappier
- Updated the home page image slider to match the search page slider, I think it looks a bit better.
- Update Collective Modding Discord Server resource to include the new Starfield channel and also added direct link to all primary channel, including Mod Author specific one. Lastly added link to Onwer MRC resources if they exist. I will be adding and updating over time
- Add annoucement banner regarding the needed MRC updates
- Added new Roadmap item outlining the changes needed in the near future to deal with Starfield
- Updated the What's New page into a temoprary format
- Add owner DoubleYou and their resources
- Comitted to using Custom Table product - free version
- Changed the Search tooltips module design and included Pending search button
- Removed the Advanced Search button via visibilty flag, was redundant
- Updated Home Page search section, change button format and added pending
- Updated and Added to CyberDanz's resources
- Added Collectve Modding MRC Channel to Contact page
- Moved the Log menu item back up to the main menu
- Updated and Added new resource for Poet
- Added Buffout 4, with links to all relevant resources
- Pending Resources Table - Fixed empty field display issue
- Pending Resources Table - Changed description field type from single line text to text area to allow for more characters
- Updated the CMS Core along with 7 extensions
- Updated Lively's resourced and added Nexus User Files resource
- As part of the 'Finding Resources' update, changed the Search by Author text to Filter by
- Re-wrote a majority of Finding Resources, hopefully for the better.
- Updated the Search Tips - Basic in a similar manner
- Added a heading above the Tags in resources, to document that clickingon one will give you a list of resources using same tag
Been very remiss lately of updating this... I will do better!
- Added owner llamaRCA's server and Heather mod resource
- Added new Pending Resources table (Custom Tables Extension) - currently in beta
- Added owner Gokamo and their massive Starfield google doc to Starfield resources
- Added owner GingerVR's server and VR modlist to Fallout 4 resources
- Added owner Lexi and their Starfield Lorefield server
- Update Kinggath's resources and added Sim Settlements mods as a resource
- Changed all the search No Image images to Image Pending images
- Removed some test pages, even though hidden by highest level rights and flagged as noindex, were still showing up in google search. I have added redirects for these to home page
- Changed the menu search box label (Fallout 4:) to a link to the Fallout 4 search page. A convenience for me!
- Updated the Search Tips section by adding a link to Finding Resources, Advanced and Alternet Tip sections.
- Fixed the issues with the additional white space at the top of both Search pages
- Added buttons to go to search pages on the Error page
- Added buttons to the Search Tips section, to go other search page(s). Always irritated me I had to go to menu :-)
- Removed the concept of Pending Resources from MRC. Their purpose was to provide users access to new resources sooner but the time saved was negligible and the content suffered, so not worth it. In its place, resources will be added sooner, with an Image Pending image, while I await permission to use the resource and owner’s images.
- Related to MRC, update personal and MRC pages on the Independent Fallout Wiki
- Updated Damn Apocalypse resource, which included link to Discord Channel so remove that resource
- Fixed issue with the custom 404 Error Page not displaying, wasn't set up properly for new site
- Updated all Cryss resources and added the Translations resources
- Updated Darkfox127 creation kit resource and added the Discord server
- Updated Zorkaz Creating Perk Magazine resource
- Added Independent Fallout Wiki Starfield channel are Starfield resource
- Added Official Bethesda Starfield website and Bethesda Game Studios Discord which has Starfield channels.
- Fixed some resources where I was using wrong button images. There are probably still some more to fix
- Added/updated Oddlittleturtle’s website, discord server and load order document
- Added/updated Zorkaz’s Creating Custom Perk Magazine tutorial and user files
- Added/updated ElminsterAU's xEdit discord server and user files
- Added the Starfield Wiki by UESP (Dave Humphrey) and its Discord server to MRC Starfield search.
- Added and updated Oddlittleturtle’s website, discord server and load order document
- Added and updatedZorkaz’s Creating Custom Perk Magazine tutorial and user files
- Added and updated ElminsterAU's xEdit discord server and user files
- Fixed most of the old site redirect issues and cleaned up the ‘moved’ message
- Added site mapping extension to make sitemaps used by search engines easier to manage and update
- Submitted sitemaps to Google and Bing. DuckDuckGo doesn’t allow for that so we just need to wait for it to crawl. Will do more at a later date.
- Updated MRC to use Google Structured Data for search results. This does not affect results position, but does format the Google search results better.
- Updated all of Greslin's Resources to the new format
- Added Kaos Theory's mod
The Move... nuff said
- Removed A Note To Authors page
- Added new Owners Menu which includes Why MRC and Your Resources
- Updated the home page resource onwer module to point to the new pages
- Maybe some changes to the Rules, clarified some items
- Removed dates from roadmap as most items will need to change in some way
- Changed the Author Search to display by default
- Pending Resource are now integrated into the primary dataset so there is no seperate search. The pending resource can now be identified by a tag and by the images used (Pending)
- Added Log In, Log Out and User Profile features. Currently only available to existing MRC owners. These menu items can be found in the site footer.
- Moved the About Me and Contact menu items into the site footer.
- Started working on Atribution Page
- Finished implementing the Privacy Policy and added menu item under About Site
- Re-published the Contact Form which now has the Accept Privacy Policy check box
- Category Change - Mods to Mods and Patches, Removed the Patches Category
- Started testing Feedfback extensions
- Started implementing the Login and Registration feature as the Feedback extension requires it
- Added Attributions page becuase it was on list but also ecuase I want to have the Login menu option discreetly in the footer of the home page
- Updated the Home page Contributors and Help Wanted section to include link to attributions
- Finished writing the Privacy Policy
- Unpublished the Open Items page as it was outdated
- Added Feature - Privacy Policy and Cookie Permissions
- Started work on Privacy Policy
- Started going through site and added Modding to site name
- Flagged Pending Resources Feature as done, added Pending count to home page
- Tweaked the Advanced Search which is now limited a list of Authors to filter on
2022
- Added Categories to the Download file descriptions
- Greslin's Agreesive AI Enemies
- Continued testing search and filtering systems
- Added search tips to search results page
- Implemented the Pending Resources page, though as of this writing there are no pending resources
- Continued testing search and filtering systems
- Added announcement to the Pending Resource page
- Search Results - Added date the resource was Added to the Catalogue
- Search Results - Changed the sort order to that date. This is more useful than Title I think as you can see what is new.
- Search Results - Changed the Author label to Owner, as in Resource Owner, and also updated Search Tips
- Search Results - Dropped Type in as it will always be Article
- Search Results - Increased spacing between Direct and Alternate links
- Created No Image Yet image for resource where I don't have permission for images yet or am unlikely to get it. Will take time to add to all the resources
- Started added the No Image to resources. Did mostly resources for the big searches, Horizon, FROST, PANPC, Greslin
- Updated a few Resources
- Started testing new Search and Filter Extensions
- Added Timeline/Roadmap section for Home Page to replace My Plans section as Phases are out.
- Added new Tags: Developer Resource and Self-Promotion
- Prepping default images for Resources based on category for those where I am unable to contact the Author for permission
- Implementing a ‘Recommended By’ comment, a link to all the Author’s Catalogue resources will be included.
- Added new Category - Pending Resources - which is 'outside' the Resource Categories tree. I will be using this in an attempt to making Pending Resources (not ready for primetime) searchable
- Removed the Smart Box Search Button on Home Page, couldn't find way to stop wrapping
- Added CSS code for Footer content so it left/right aligned better
- Fixed issue with Search Box Hints drop down in Home Page being hidden behind section below
- Made some formatting changes to the Site Update Banner, think it looks a little better
- Working on updating Home Page, moving search option to Left to better include Pending Resource option
- Started implmenting Images and Resource Update in the live site. All new resources will have these features, but this will be an ongoing project for existing resources
- Re-wrote the A Note to Authors page
- Re-wrote the Site Content page
- Implemented a Custom Error 404 page
- Implemented a banner to annouce updates to the Site
After another unforseen break I am back to updating the site.
- Still testing major update(s) on test site but hope to implement on live today (2022.11.28)... completed update of Joomla and Exntensions
- Working on a custom 404 Error Page in case I mess up when adding links - Ran into error , waiting for Tech Suppotr
- Added a "This is TestSite" Module for use in Test Site in case anyone gets there by accident
- Starting research on "New Resources" section for home page
- Started testing images in articles. Tested with FROST, hoping for feedback (in testsite)
- Started testing an Updates section in articles, hoping for feedback (in testsite)
- Changed the Category and Tags search menu option text - new Browse
- Started the testing phase to implement a major update in both the Joomla 4 CMS (v4.2.4) and 3rd party page builder (v3.8.9). After the update is applied, I will be making some functional changes to the site, mostly around searches.
- Updating some of the resources content
- Finished adding the Creative Family Mods resources
- Added xBox tag for mod resources that have xBox version available
Real Life pretty much took over September and while I did add a few resources here and there not much more was done. I hope to get back into adding more resources regularly and improving the catalogue starting today.
- Add new resource tags - Precombines and PreVis, Textures and Meshes - that will primarily be for guides that cover those topics
- Changed the Discord Only tag to Discord Server to tag Discord Servers so visitors can see all of them in a list
- Removed the Discord Only Tag from all the resource I had flagged with it that are not Servers
- Started work on processing the Creative Family Mods resources.
- Added Creative Family Website and Discord Server as resources
- Started processing more resources, will continue this until I have reached over 100
- Add the following resource tags - Locations, Quests, Sound and Music
- Changed the menu items for the off-canvas menu (Mobile phones) so everything is expanded by default.Also changed the color of the menu burger icon and close icons so they are more noticable
- Processed more resources, reaching over 100!
- Started proper Mobile testing and tweaking. Resource page tags on hold
- Removed Tag and Category entries from Search Results. Not ideal but there is a bug where wrong information was being displayed and I don't have the PHP skills to debug
- Finished adding Resource Tags to the resource page, Format is not ideal but it is functional.
- Removed redundant Direct/Alt Links from Resource page
- Added Alternate Link ro the Search Results Page
Improved code to align the Custom Fields better but still needs to be in a better format at some point (next phase) - Started working on getting tags added to resource page so user can easily get a list of related resources
- Added more Resources
- Improving Resource page. Adds resource tags list so user can find similar resources by clicking on tag
- Fixed overlapping search box drop-down hints on home page
- Added more resources
- Added Reddit to the Rules (Out)
- Fixed user error where I made the search box disappear for a few hours [sigh]
- Changed all Change Log references to Changelog. Thanks to Greslin's changelog resource I looked it up.
- Added new tags Loot / Economy, Power Armor, Radiation, Combat
- Added more resources
- Started Tags Review process. It is imperative that all resource are flagged with the approriate tags and I have been a ittle slapdash with it so I am reviewing each one and formalising a process to assign them
- Added more resources for Mod Lists, Guides and Discord Servers
- Improved the Search Results page so they contain more information, including a Direct Link so you don't have to go into the resource article itself to get the link.
- Add 10 new resources and 3 new authors
- Created a change log and made the first entry
- Added resource count to the home page
- Added new tags - Creatures, Immersion, Mod Creation, MO2 Download Metafile and Weather and Lighting
- Added Q-n-A type accordion on Site Content page
- Made the 50th Resource Entry
- Added new Formats - Forum and Website
- Added FROST Resource Entries
- Added new Tags - Overhaul, Survival and Shrubbery
- Add Biggles at Work module to easily enable/disable
- Made some changes to Home Page Introduction text
- Moved the Welcome section into a module and the Title position
- Redesigned the Home Page to use modules, trying to ‘break it up’ a bit
- Added Search option to home page, which unfortunately caused some search issue
- Moved Finding Resources information its own page
- Added Finding Resources page to the Catalogue menu
- Added Finding Resources comment to Home Page
- Added What’s In or Out Section to Site Content
- Fixed the Search Results issues, was always landing on Home Page