Org Promotion

[Vincent Butler]

i use https://obsproject.com/ to capture. its a streaming program but it also has a record feature that works incredibly well. the program is open source with lots of support forums that has info enough to tweak the recording settings for your quality standards.

Fraps is also the time honored "if all else fails" and has been around even longer than OBS. http://www.fraps.com/

I was hoping it would not involve outside software. I wonder if I have some similar program hidden on my newer laptop, I am constantly finding apps on it that I did not know about, simply because of my ignorance of what different stuff is.

I have been on the Backroom before participating in one or two discussions. What a complete waste of my time. I agree with RS, it is not a good sign for us if that is the main area that is visited.
RTR has its own forum now, so anybody looking for stuff on that will only find old stuff here. I don't know why they don't use the Org anymore, but it would be interesting to find that out. That is one example of modders going elsewhere. I don't mod, so I have no advice there. The bottom line is, it is hard to convince people to leave a perfectly good brand and go to a less known one that its developers don't know why it is becoming less popular. I know that is what everybody has been saying. 'Twould be nice to ask the people on TWC if they have heard of the Org, and if they were on it once, why they left.

[Vincent Butler]

I was hoping it would not involve outside software. I wonder if I have some similar program hidden on my newer laptop, I am constantly finding apps on it that I did not know about, simply because of my ignorance of what different stuff is.

Bingo.
For those running their games on Windows 10 (as I am), there is an app already on for doing game DVR, so no need to download external software (I don't think). Here is a link on how to work it
http://gizmodo.com/windows-10-is-hid...ool-1719196149
I will try this out when I get the time and report.

It seems a lot of blame is going to the index for the lack of enthusiasm for the Org and why TWC is getting a lot of traffic. I don't know that TWC has a much better index than the Org (though theirs does look less cluttered), I think the root problem lies deeper. Now their index seems more vivid with their TWC logos by each section, so that may help them. They have a lot of threads for Attila, much more than we have, but not much for Warhammer (comparatively), which tells me that
a) Warhammer was not as popular as the other games
b) Our problem started before Attila

Identifying exactly what drove people to TWC is the problem, and I don't know if there is any way to find that out. It is a sad state of affairs when the most generated discussion is on how do we get more people to visit the site, instead of the content of the site. It seems we need to get the newcomers, but here is something of note.

I googled "Total War Forums". The .com was the first, then after their stuff came TWC. We were the last link on the page. I googled "help with Rome Total War". I couldn't find us four pages in, I did see some erado.totalwar.org on page 2, whatever that site is. I got .wiki pages, ign.com, Total War Heaven, Steam communities, and TWC on the first page. That is a problem, but with my limited understanding of how that stuff works, I don't know how to fix the problem. Maybe give someone who does know something an idea, though.

[Mouzafphaerre]

I was just being silly

[Tuuvi]

It seems a lot of blame is going to the index for the lack of enthusiasm for the Org and why TWC is getting a lot of traffic. I don't know that TWC has a much better index than the Org (though theirs does look less cluttered), I think the root problem lies deeper. Now their index seems more vivid with their TWC logos by each section, so that may help them. They have a lot of threads for Attila, much more than we have, but not much for Warhammer (comparatively), which tells me that
a) Warhammer was not as popular as the other games
b) Our problem started before Attila

Personally I find TWC's index a pain to navigate, I had to click on several different links just to get to the EB II forums so I just bookmarked EB and I haven't really bothered with the rest of the site very much.

You are right that our problem started before Attila, I can remember the activity of this site starting to decline when Empire Total War was released and we had discussions about what to do about the decline back then as well.

[Vincent Butler]

I attempted to use the in-game DVR, I will have to try it again as it quit in the middle of my battle. I may have to set it up, the webpage I saw has a setup screen in the screenshot, and I did not see it when I went into it, so that may be the problem.

so I just bookmarked EB and I haven't really bothered with the rest of the site very much

That may be happening a lot, I have done it on the Subsim forum I am on. Same with RTR. With the Org, I bookmarked the Forum site, so that is why I notice what is happening in other areas than the Rome forum, which is pretty much the only part I am on.

I have not tried to navigate TWC, but as far as appearance goes, ours seems cluttered. For example, when I go to look at say the Rome section, I see the moderators and links to all the Rome subsections in a small area. Not that I am saying that we should copy them, but perhaps it is something that can be rearranged.

Of course, as RS has pointed out, maybe some of the regulars got their own lives and have less time for the Org. I am still single, so outside of college, work, and church I have no real commitments. Others may have gained some. That said, we are trying to figure out why we aren't getting new people as well. As I pointed out, somebody googling Total War stuff is not going to see us because we are so far down the list of hits. I think that is by amount of visitors to that particular site, but am not sure of that. If we can change that somehow we will be in business.

Perhaps someone can answer this question. How popular is modding the game versus just playing the vanilla version? Do we need to tailor our appeal more to modders or regular gamers? I am just asking because a lot of people bring up the modding community. I know I mainly play just vanilla RTW, some RTR, some EB. I tried MTW2 but the inquisitors drove me away. Also, do more people focus on one game, or do they have a more broad range of the TW games that they play?

[Gigantus]

I tried MTW2 but the inquisitors drove me away.

That's the kind of stuff that starts it - looking for a fix that is. If the solution is easily found (it's a simple text file edit), or even just the place where to ask, then the forum is doing a good job of providing support.
With the right motivation it also starts modding - even more so if the forum environment supports this as well. That is if you can find the place -

• Forum
• Historical Total War Titles
• Medieval 2: Total War
• M2:TW Modification
• Learn to Mod
• Modding Questions

Anyone surprised that the last post in that forum was six months ago?

How popular is modding the game versus just playing the vanilla version?

Seriously? The question is probably not asked correctly, the direct answer: if you can't mod then you haven't much of an option. If you still play the vanilla version after more then 10 years then hats off to you.
If the question is 'Do you still play vanilla or modded versions?' then I am wondering if you have ever tried a mod.

With regards to RTW and M2TW I would simply say that without the excellent modding capabilities these versions have they would have slipped into oblivion like ETW, NTW, S2 have already done and as R2 is busy doing. I think the question should be 'How much modding is still happening and how can it be supported'.

Certainly not by burying the forums 5 levels down.

[Axalon]

Toché!

Excellent post, Gigs.

- A

[Gigantus]

Thanks, I have my moments

[Vincent Butler]

That's the kind of stuff that starts it - looking for a fix that is. If the solution is easily found (it's a simple text file edit), or even just the place where to ask, then the forum is doing a good job of providing support.
With the right motivation it also starts modding - even more so if the forum environment supports this as well. That is if you can find the place -

• Forum
• Historical Total War Titles
• Medieval 2: Total War
• M2:TW Modification
• Learn to Mod
• Modding Questions

Anyone surprised that the last post in that forum was six months ago?



Seriously? The question is probably not asked correctly, the direct answer: if you can't mod then you haven't much of an option. If you still play the vanilla version after more then 10 years then hats off to you.
If the question is 'Do you still play vanilla or modded versions?' then I am wondering if you have ever tried a mod.

Good point on how far you have to go to find stuff on modding.

I think I like vanilla RTW because of its simplicity. RTR is nice, but still has bugs last I knew, and with 16 credits this semester, including three upper division electrical engineering classes, I have had virtually zero time for gaming.

I love EB, but it is certainly more in-depth. With the extra lengths of time to build, and increased costs of building and training, it is not as casual, so I will have to wait till I get more time to devote to a campaign. Also, it has a tendency to eventually crash in a campaign, and I can't get those campaigns to work again. I like to see a campaign through at least till I beat the game, preferably till I conquer the entire map. However, with EB, that will probably not be the case, considering the size of the map.

[Gigantus]

You just stated more reasons why mods need the proper exposure and support. Picking up a mod and trying it and then having problems playing is a sure put off if you haven't got good access to problem solving. It's rather simple - the more feed back a mod has the better it will evolve.

Putting 'older' (low traffic) mods into a forum suffixed 'Archive' is about as much as a death kiss as one can wish for:

Rome: Total War

(1 Viewing)
Old or Inactive Hosted R:TW Mods

Last post - July this year, a bit over 30 mods in there. Any surprises?


All in all you have 5 active mods for all Total War versions - prominently displayed and taking all the lime light. Now why would anyone bother about those other 30 mods further down?

[Husar]

That's the kind of stuff that starts it - looking for a fix that is. If the solution is easily found (it's a simple text file edit), or even just the place where to ask, then the forum is doing a good job of providing support.
With the right motivation it also starts modding - even more so if the forum environment supports this as well. That is if you can find the place -

• Forum
• Historical Total War Titles
• Medieval 2: Total War
• M2:TW Modification
• Learn to Mod
• Modding Questions

Anyone surprised that the last post in that forum was six months ago?

It's only two clicks from the first layer to the last.
How would you arrange this particular example to make it more accessible or easier to find?

[Gigantus]

It's only two clicks from the first layer to the last.
How would you arrange this particular example to make it more accessible or easier to find?

Getting into the 'modding questions' forum is actually three clicks if you go directly to 'modifications' from the forum view. My suggestion: Have a 'workshop' forum with sub fora for each game version. It's intuitive and central. It will also make the limited material appear more substantial.
Note: while displaying child forums in the forum view works well in this case it unnecessarily stretches the forum page (Hosted Mods (Archive) section), not having the child fora alphabetically sorted doesn't help either in long lists.

Now how many mods are actually active working mods and not just projects? That is also relevant, because obviously if it is not active, nobody can play it and therefore there will only be activity from the modders, if they are still even working on it. Those might be able to go into a separate category, and if they become active, they can be moved up at the request of the modders.

It's irrelevant if a mod is active or not (be it traffic wise or modding wise) when it comes to playing - provided the download link is still valid. Pro Deo et Rege (the first mod I participated in should you wonder) over at TWC is dead for at least 5 years now and still gets downloaded. Putting those inactive mods into a separate forum is simply putting a 'certified dead, of no further interest, don't bother' stamp on it. That's what 'archive' means on a website, it's for reference purpose only.
A website takes it's significance from the traffic it generates, actively excluding content from possible traffic goes completely against that.

Shuffling individual forums back and forth according to activity is probably every admins night mare - never mind 'oops, where is my favorite mod now?'.

Leaving all mods of a game version in one forum doesn't hurt their viewing rate: at TWC EBII is in between 68 other mods (alphabetically sorted) and still has double the posts compared to here where it has got a prime, top level forum to itself.

Edit: it's probably best if I a do a clarification so as to avoid misunderstandings - I have been an administrator at TWC for several years now and going into details how to approach the issue (eg what vbulletin add-on to use or which content strategy to follow) constitutes a conflict of interest for me. I do however owe you the courtesy as participating member of this forum to point out areas that I think need change and offer general suggestions.
Correcting misconceptions is par for the course.