[Decision] Small & Medium Award for Modders

[z3n]

Firstly, while we have the Opifex award it has come to my attention after a concern raised by Axalon that we are severely lacking in awards given by the curia that recognize contributions made by modders and compliment the Opifex award, either before or more pertinently to his concerns, after the fact. Secondly, we have 6 awards for things other than modding and only 1 major award allowed to be awarded in 'exceptional' circumstances. That does not seem right.

About two months ago I contacted Katsumoto and Lifthrasir to make some artistic renditions of the awards. Lifthrasir has completed a first pass of the ideas but it's still WIP so I won't present that here.

Therefore, I would like to propose a medium award called the "Gears of War". The text and naming can be the subject of change, these are placeholders but the idea remains the same.

To qualify for the Gears of War, the nominee must have released a modding tool.

It is my strong belief that encouraging participation among the Q&A communities is in our best interests. It is a cornerstone of the modding community, a way of making TWC relevant in the simple fact that searching a problem on google about modding gave you a multitude of hits primarily from TWC. It retains members and fosters a sense of community but it's also no simple or small thing to donate ones time to solving another persons problems. I would like us to recognize that fact.

Of course, releasing a major modification on TWC is no small feat.

I would also like to propose a small award called the "Modding Service Award"

Awarded by the Curia for one or more of the following: creating a detailed and original tutorial containing relevant media (screenshots, video, code snippets), releasing a minor mod involving at minimum a single modding section (units, scripting, mapping, animations, sounds, media) of work estimated to have taken more than 5 hours or a remarkable act that benefits TWC modding community.

To qualify for a higher level of the award, the nominee must have participated within a workshop section with distinction over the span of 6 months or released a hosted modification.

The logic behind this small award lays in the fact that numerous remarkable deeds are done for the modding community but they are not often recognized. tone in particular releasing the RS2 environments to the public comes to the forefront of my mind. An absolutely amazing act that wasn't recognized to my knowledge and one I remember to this day hooked me into modding, after I was determined to implement them in every mod I wanted to play.

I would also like to add onto this small award by allowing it to be issued multiple times to the same person. Earning your stripes for example up to 3 times. After all, multiple remarkable modding related deeds can be done by the same person; Gigantus is a great example of this.

A simple graphical idea of this award can be construed as thus

Rank 1

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Rank 2

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Rank 3

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It is recommended that a competition and vote be held for the artwork of these medals.

[Gaius Baltar]

Support

[Morticia Iunia Bruti]

Sound reasonable from my perspective as modder. It would have my support.

[PikeStance]

ahhhck....I have no idea where my brain was earlier. I completely misread the award. SUPPORT.

[Iskar]

Sounds like a fruitful measure, support

[Lifthrasir]

Support of course.
Looks like I need to hurry to complete the full set now

[Leonardo]

Sounds like a good idea to have a medium/small modding award for modders who doesn't meet the criteria for the Opifex award.

I would also like to propose a small award called the "Legio 501st Modder"

This small award could also be called "Valour" by judging the images in the OP.

[Lifthrasir]

For info, the spherical astrolabe/armillary sphere will remains in the medals' models as many modders (who got the Opifex) seems attached to it

[Quintus Hortensius Hortalus]

Obviously great idea, support.
One minor thing, for the "Modding Service Award" I would also add participation in the workshops (or are they now called Q&A section?) / writing tutorials.

[z3n]

Obviously great idea, support.
One minor thing, for the "Modding Service Award" I would also add participation in the workshops (or are they now called Q&A section?) / writing tutorials.

Yeah, I basically meant the workshops + tutorials, we can definitely be more specific in the text. I'll update it!

To qualify for the Modding Service Award, the nominee must have participated within a workshop section with distinction over the span of 6 months or released a hosted modification.

[Sir Adrian]

A great idea but we ahould not vote on this until we see some art.

[AnthoniusII]

A good idea. That may give new modders an extra motivation to start and finish or even expand their modding projects. More modding projects more hope to TWC to survive as a modding site that is..
I do not know if my vote counts but if it does i fully suport it.

[z3n]

Anyone have anything they would like to add or modify in the above?

And could I have two more reaffirm support just for the sake of being able to move it to a vote if no other concerns are raised?

[Leonardo]

Anyone have anything they would like to add or modify in the above?

I don't know what you think about it, but I think having the small and medium award connected to each other.

Small Award is about valor similiar to units in TW-games
Medium Award is about a higher rank, a Centurion, than one previous had for a small award

Something like that.

And could I have two more reaffirm support just for the sake of being able to move it to a vote if no other concerns are raised?

I still support it, even if my suggestion above is rejected.

[Lifthrasir]

Still support

[Quintus Hortensius Hortalus]

Thanks for answering my question, and obviously support

[King Athelstan]

Support!

[Flinn]

Overall I support the idea; I'd like to see only one "secondary" medal below the Opifex, but I will accept any form you'll prefer z3n

[Leonardo]

Overall I support the idea; I'd like to see only one "secondary" medal below the Opifex, but I will accept any form you'll prefer z3n

How about my "Valor" suggestion as a small award and once one have improve it up to the 4th Valor (silver) then one is eligible for the Centurion medium award?

[z3n]

Well, I thought about what you said Leonardo but I'd really like to keep them separate. Mainly because I see the smaller award more of a way to recognize acts that benefit the community but don't really represent anything absolutely concrete in terms of a 'real' contribution. It's more of a theoretical contribution if you know what I mean? tone gave away the RS2 environments to the community but it wasn't to anyone in particular or for any particular purpose. It was fantastic but it was more of a singular act, a remarkable one to be sure, but a singular act nonetheless.

I apologize if the idea isn't very clear but I was also thinking of various other examples where people release their work for free use, like the RTWMK modders who released their animations to everyone to work with. Or for example, Gemini Sandi in M2TW who released all his models and textures for free use. Alternatively small mods can count too or minor but really important contributions, like a very important tutorial to the community. Somebody like the shogun 2 total war modder uanime5 comes to mind for an example of that where he showed everyone how to modify the TW3Engines campaign map and add settlements to it on a massive scale. He'd be someone who'd definitely qualify for that small mod because he wrote such an important tutorial and helped the community out.


Whereas the Modding Service Award would specifically be more aimed toward bigger larger scale contributions, where the person actually made efforts to help specific people over long periods of time or release a major mod.