Bring the "Shattered Seas Expansion" mod out of Discord

[Hektor Riven]

"Shattered Seas Expansion" is a project that aims to introduce new boats and new ports to Sailwind. It's developement is discussed in the Sailwind Discord server.

The open beta is out and it features something epic... A clipper!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3422929561

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3422885366

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3424958476

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3424958511

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3425143870

Sadly, the download link is only available when looking around the Discord Server. Screenshots are hardly to be found unless one cares to scrolls thousands of chat messages and, by typing the name of the mod, no result comes out on Google.

This is the most epic mod I've ever seen and, at the same time, the least advertised and enjoied.

Since its author has Sailwind and must own it here on Steam, I'm praying that he's bound to pass through these forums and hear this plea.

Reddit, Nexus, Moddb... Anywhere that can be located with a search engine would be a good place, with an easy to find download link, with upload date (to check for updates) and a dedicated comments section.

This is truly a jewel of a mod and Discord, on the other hand, is the worst place to be used as a database of contents due to the spam of chat messages, the limited number of channels, the fact that its contents don't appear on search engines and the fact that it's not organized neither as a forum nor as a mod database.

[Dezibahn]

I didn't even know there *were* mods for Sailwind. I tend to avoid Discord for the same reasons, and I'm with you on this, that clipper is beautiful and I would love to sail it!

[Thundercracker]

im 100% with you on not keeping this stuff gated off by discord...

but i am against modding a game in alpha state.

absolutly no one pays any mind to the fact that the game itself is an alpha in early access, and complains bitterly, loudly, and for a great length of time every single time the game updates, because the mod breaks.

high effort near-total conversions like this are the worst.

oh, and modding is completely antithetical to early access itself. we're supposed to be "testing" the game and providing feedback. cant do that when you're not playing the same game.

[Hektor Riven]

Originally posted by Thundercracker:

im 100% with you on not keeping this stuff gated off by discord...

but i am against modding a game in alpha state.

absolutly no one pays any mind to the fact that the game itself is an alpha in early access, and complains bitterly, loudly, and for a great length of time every single time the game updates, because the mod breaks.

high effort near-total conversions like this are the worst.

oh, and modding is completely antithetical to early access itself. we're supposed to be "testing" the game and providing feedback. cant do that when you're not playing the same game.

Yes, modding an early access game is generally to avoid, however in this case mods are endorsed as a part of the testing, because it seems the game plans for a long-scope modding support, and modding it now is just part of testing.
There's an entire section dedicated to this activity on the official Discord server.

In addition, mods that add boats seemed to suffer less from updates (at least the last one about food).
Finally, said updates for Sailwind don't come frequently, but only after extensive testing. I'm not saying the game isn't updated, on the contrary, it is indeed updated but it's done more calmly, leaving much time for the community to absorb the changes.

To be noted that I reported the name of the mod as it is provided, but in fact this is actually a ship mod: it doesn't add anything else than this beautiful clipper and other contents seem all work in progress.
Sadly, the beautiful screenshots by the fine mod developer are very hard to find in the chats... Yet I've seen images of the boats and of the lands in 3D editors.
I think the release of new contents for this mod are planned with the release of the game or, anyway, much later on.

Regardless, exactly because of what you said, it would be crucial to sum up all of these information on a true mod page, easily accessible, with all of these considerations made clear and officially endorsed by the author.

Also, please, don't take anything from my comments as something official. I just report what I managed to learn (WITH EXTREME DIFFICULTY) from the endless flow of Discord messages.

[Hektor Riven]

Originally posted by Dezibahn:

I didn't even know there *were* mods for Sailwind. I tend to avoid Discord for the same reasons, and I'm with you on this, that clipper is beautiful and I would love to sail it!

By answering you, I'd take the chance to make clear that, most sadly, I don't have a download link.
The link is available on Discord and it points to a Github page, yet I can't find anything sarching Github and didn't care at that time to copy the link.

Needless to say that none else than the author has the right to upload the mod.

Finally, I can't even be sure if my version is the last version.

Regarding specifically your comment, by the way, you're not the only one: when the mod came out, even some Discord users reported to have completely missed the developement and all the work in progress images.

[Dezibahn]

Originally posted by Hektor Riven:

The link is available on Discord and it points to a Github page, yet I can't find anything sarching Github and didn't care at that time to copy the link.

I may just have to bite the bullet and end up hunting through Discord for this... after I've done everything else I want to do in the vanilla experience, that is!

Originally posted by Thundercracker:

im 100% with you on not keeping this stuff gated off by discord...

but i am against modding a game in alpha state.

absolutly no one pays any mind to the fact that the game itself is an alpha in early access, and complains bitterly, loudly, and for a great length of time every single time the game updates, because the mod breaks.

high effort near-total conversions like this are the worst.

oh, and modding is completely antithetical to early access itself. we're supposed to be "testing" the game and providing feedback. cant do that when you're not playing the same game.

The counter point to this is that if the mod gains enough traction, and doesn't stray from the original vision, the developer can always add the mod as proper in-game content. I'm pretty sure the original Kerbal Space Program did that, adding several popular mods into the base game via game updates. In this case, I could also see the mod dev being integrated into proper development to help model and program new boats!

That being said, your point stands as a very valid statement. When a game is released for the purpose of feedback, the value of said feedback is strongly reduced when mods come into play.

[AoD_lexandro]

There is an entire section of the games discord for mods, that is easy to use and intuative. Also GitHub is a simple site to use, and if both are giving you issues you should not be modding anyway. If you are not savvy enough to use websites, you should not be messing around with editing game files or changing code.

With that said, its entirely up to the mods author where they are hosted.

[Hektor Riven]

Originally posted by AoD_lexandro:

There is an entire section of the games discord for mods, that is easy to use and intuative. Also GitHub is a simple site to use, and if both are giving you issues you should not be modding anyway. If you are not savvy enough to use websites, you should not be messing around with editing game files or changing code.

With that said, its entirely up to the mods author where they are hosted.

Discord servers aren't websites and, as such, don't appear on search engines.

Mods on Github hosted as projects do appear on search engines, but, for some reason, this doesn't: it's not a project, it's just a download link.
When looking on Google for the keywords "Shattered Seas" along with "Sailwind", there are no information on this jewel, nor in the Github own's search engine.

Lastly, the section dedicated to mods available in the Sailwind Discord server remains a section of a Discord server, with all the features and limits of a Discord channel with sub-channels.
As you can see by my screenshots, I managed to find the mod and download it, I just personally think that other platforms might be more interesting to use for the purpose of a database of contents.

[Hektor Riven]

Originally posted by Dezibahn:

That being said, your point stands as a very valid statement. When a game is released for the purpose of feedback, the value of said feedback is strongly reduced when mods come into play.

There may be developement projects where support for modding might be taken as a priority, maybe for marketing purposes inspired by the success of series like The Elder Scrolls.
In these cases, an early modding experience could provide feedback in that regard, so to better understand what could be changed by mods and what is better to be left undisturbed

*"The Hunt for Red October" music intensifies*

[AoD_lexandro]

Again if you cannot use discord, that is on you. You have posted a long thread that basically expects the mod maker to do as you want because you can't use discord. The mod is listed on the Sailwind Discord mod channel, has a massive banner and download links to its GitHub page. You can also chat directly with the mod developer. That is what the mod maker has chosen.

And fyi Discord is a website that links to a browser app for access to channels. That is how links work or else you would not be able to access channels without the discord app specifically installed.

TLDR; Learn to use Discord properly. The onus is on you, not the modder.

[Hektor Riven]

Originally posted by AoD_lexandro:

Again if you cannot use discord, that is on you. You have posted a long thread that basically expects the mod maker to do as you want because you can't use discord. The mod is listed on the Sailwind Discord mod channel, has a massive banner and download links to its GitHub page. You can also chat directly with the mod developer. That is what the mod maker has chosen.

And fyi Discord is a website that links to a browser app for access to channels. That is how links work or else you would not be able to access channels without the discord app specifically installed.

TLDR; Learn to use Discord properly. The onus is on you, not the modder.

If I wouldn't know how to use Discord then how could have I posted the screenshots of me playing the mod?

[Thundercracker]

Originally posted by Dezibahn:

The counter point to this is that if the mod gains enough traction, and doesn't stray from the original vision, the developer can always add the mod as proper in-game content. I'm pretty sure the original Kerbal Space Program did that, adding several popular mods into the base game via game updates. In this case, I could also see the mod dev being integrated into proper development to help model and program new boats!

they did indeed.

the thing is the mods integrated into KSP were little QoL things. at least up to the point i stopped following KSP (shortly after the sale of the game.)

i remember the two mods i actually personally used just exposed certain data. some velocity component for reentry, and some sort of stat on the parts readout in build mode.

integration of new assets into the main game is also a whole can of worms. there's the ownership issue. gotta make sure all assets are either licensed for commercial use or directly made by the modmaker.

and when you think about it, is any time actually saved by a single person dev team having to do all that checking vs just modeling a new boat?

[Hektor Riven]

At this point, I regret having made this thread.

I just thought that such a beautiful mod could have benefitted from being hosted in place accessible via search engines, and I thought that more players could have benefitted from such a lovely addition if only they would have managed to find it out more easily.

All of this without discussing the quality of the Discord app and the appropriateness of modding in general.

I should have minded my own business, sorry.

[Dezibahn]

Originally posted by Thundercracker:

Originally posted by Dezibahn:

...integration of new assets into the main game is also a whole can of worms. there's the ownership issue. gotta make sure all assets are either licensed for commercial use or directly made by the modmaker.

and when you think about it, is any time actually saved by a single person dev team having to do all that checking vs just modeling a new boat?

If the mod maker was, for lack of a better term, commissioned to make the asset for the core game, then I imagine the onus is on the mod developer to use assets good for commercial applications. You have a good point, though.

Originally posted by Hektor Riven:

At this point, I regret having made this thread.

Don't! I never would have known about this mod if you hadn't have said anything, and I'm excited to have some end-game mod content to look into. Don't get demoralized because of some aggressive conversation.

[Jim Taplin]

Originally posted by Hektor Riven:

At this point, I regret having made this thread.

I just thought that such a beautiful mod could have benefitted from being hosted in place accessible via search engines, and I thought that more players could have benefitted from such a lovely addition if only they would have managed to find it out more easily.

All of this without discussing the quality of the Discord app and the appropriateness of modding in general.

I should have minded my own business, sorry.

dont be sorry, i gotchu

https://github.com/TheOriginOfAllEvil/Shattered-Seas-Expansion/releases/tag/b1.2.0

ksp was modded from alpha

[Jim Taplin]

modding is always good, even the times where it doesnt work out dont outway all the times modding communities have enhanced a games reputation exponentially over time

discord is crap, but the good communties are well laid out, and ive yet to join a community for a game where a polite can i ask how to find/install x please hasn't been rewarded with help