The workshop is a mess : I want to help !

[ANONYMOU$TACH]

This may sound absurd but I've been on the pursuit of the perfect mod-pack and scrolled through hundreds of pages already.

In this adventure I've stumbled onto real gems that were either lost in the masses
(almost 600 pages of 1.5 mods) or simply forgotten (1.3-1.4 mods working on 1.5)
My ambition now shifted from having fun with my game after hours of work and perhaps sharing with the small community that heard about fully complete mod-packs (Hardcore SK or Progression, among many others), to directly helping the community by making a stronger framework for a better workshop browsing experience.

My main ideas would be to start by differentiating mods into multiple categories ; User-Interface, Re-textures, Game Mechanics, Gear...
As the legendary developer peaked into this community and added a plethora of player ideas, many mods are rendered obsolete (the most popular one is one at the moment)
these older mods are of course welcomed as legacy but should be made filterable for a relevant workshop listing.
Then comes what I love most about this community and want to aid the process of ;
Older gems are often brought back to life by dedicated mod witters (😉Mlie).
This unfortunately divides the popularity of one mod and makes user have to either scroll to the comments in hopes of finding a continuation or look for it by trial and error via the search button.
Having an option to hide those deprecated mods would remove a lot of clutter.
Some older mods are reported functional on newer versions so I thought that a category of "fully functional in X version" and "partially functional in X version" (<- for a now partial re-texture or mod missing features).

These ideas would only be a start but re-arranging everything could still be do-able and would help shine light on the hidden treasures, both giving them the chance to get a second life, or inspiring coders on a revamped project.
Many hours and resources are hidden through the pages and I would happily take part in this whole endeavor!

[apud.harald]

Methinks that the workshop works the same for all software sold on Steam, so one thing you'd have to look into is something that works for ALL the apps.

[Wraith_Magus]

Simply setting it to search for 1.5 and having Steam remember that you want to filter out any mod that doesn't use your language would solve most problems. (I haven't seen many mods actually declared abandoned that are actually for 1.5) I do wish Steam could just remember these settings rather than having them reset every time, but that's a lack of Steam features, not something Ludeon can do much about.

[ANONYMOU$TACH]

@apud.harald of course
im not looking into revamping the entire workshop system even though it might have a few corners to polish
but simply by comparing it to the cities skyline workshop anyone would notice the difference in usability
the categories are nicely diverse and it makes finding what you are looking for much easier

[ANONYMOU$TACH]

Originally posted by Wraith_Magus:

(I haven't seen many mods actually declared abandoned that are actually for 1.5)

Exactly my point
by filtering this way you wont ever find a mod that's for 1.4 or 1.3 but still working fine on newer versions
thats why im not a fan of the version tag

[ANONYMOU$TACH]

im hoping to come in contact with either a steam representative or the ludeon studio in order to see whats possible

[Radiosity]

Getting Steam to look at this will likely be a fool's errand. An external website with API access and community help to get everything tagged and set up is probably the only real option here. Something akin to what Louis Rossmann is doing with his consumer advocacy/rights wiki where the community can add pages, edit, etc. to let people know what companies are doing shady stuff.

The trouble with that is always going to be the same: who's going to pay for the server? Who's going to maintain everything? RimWorld has a thriving mod community, so that's certainly a huge benefit, and you'll likely find plenty of volunteers who'd like a better system for finding mods or putting together mod packs, but the first hurdle is the upfront costs, server maintanance, etc.

If you're legit up for something like that, then best of luck, and I'd highly recommend you also contact Mister Samuel Streamer, as he's probably the biggest Youtuber in the RimWorld sphere, and routinely puts together big mod packs for his series. He could probably amplify your efforts pretty seriously. Best way to contact is through Discord, check any of his videos for the link.

[apud.harald]

I wish you good luck.

[Chibi Life]

You'd have a better chance getting Joe Biden to confess publicly to the contents of his daughter's diary than Steam looking at this, yet alone caring about it

[Pong]

Maybe something like this but indicating mods that compliment the existing collection:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3396308787

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Originally posted by ANONYMOU$TACH:

im hoping to come in contact with either a steam representative or the ludeon studio in order to see whats possible

Have you tried to either email Ludeon directly or post on their forum or discord?

[Dunkurtin]

What you are suggesting is actually how the workshop used to be. It was sorted into categories not version compatibility and it was 100x more usable.
Workshop now is not at all navigable if you are wanting to just browse whats available.

[ANONYMOU$TACH]

Originally posted by BlackSmokeDMax:

Have you tried to either email Ludeon directly or post on their forum or discord?

That would be my next course of action

[ANONYMOU$TACH]

Originally posted by Pong:

Maybe something like this but indicating mods that compliment the existing collection:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3396308787

Right that mod could help in some ways but the main point was the browsing experience in the workshop

[ANONYMOU$TACH]

Originally posted by Dunkurtin:

What you are suggesting is actually how the workshop used to be. It was sorted into categories not version compatibility and it was 100x more usable.
Workshop now is not at all navigable if you are wanting to just browse whats available.

Well that brings hope as it means changes can happen

[ANONYMOU$TACH]

@Radiosity
Its definitely an idea but kinda overkill if we can bring attention as a community
I'm also not that repulsed by the steam workshop in general and making yet another online mod hoster wouldn't be that much more productive as it would also get lost on the internet without having much impact on the community (the whole premise was to make lost mods more popular)
other than that im also not fond of setting up a website