Kerbalnet [updated 13/9]: A mod site for KSP (www.kerbal.net)

[wizard`]

Hello mod makers, developers and just plain old KSP fans, I am here to tell you about an exciting (at least we think so ) new mod site for KSP.

Developed by a small group of designers and developers from the Facepunch forums we hope to make a big impact on how users get mods for KSP both now and also in the future.

Our site (www.kerbal.net) has just entered an open beta phase and as of the 29th of August has been accessible to the public.

In it's current state mod authors are able to upload their content to a 'mod page' not unlike having a thread on the forum here but being designed specifically for the task. The site is relatively bare-bones at the moment and there is a HUGE stack of features in development and testing even as you read this and so it is important you realize this is by no means a finished product (and perhaps never will be).

Bearing that in mind we highly encourage you to check out the site at http://www.kerbal.net/ and we are completely open to criticism as we as new idea's. We want to know what you like (hopefully everything! <3) and what you hate (hopefully nothing :c) and what you think needs improvement.

Another big request is to get a lot more content on there, as you can see it's pretty bare at the moment (mostly due to it only being live for 3 days) but also because it hasn't been widely publicized, until now. We would REALLY love to see you guys upload your own creations, whether that be simple craft files or complex mod packs we don't mind, we just want to see people getting quick and easy access to mods for a game we all love

Some pictures:

The mod page for Kerbal Engineer Redux by cybutek.

This is the home page.

All the mods we currently have on the site,

We have a rule on the site about uploading content which is you must own the content you are uploading. By this we mean you must be able to provide proof and or refute ownership claims if the authenticity is in question. In simple terms we don't want duplicate mods uploaded by fake authors because we don't believe this will result in good mod page upkeep and so fake mods will be taken down (so that the real author has the opportunity to create the page themselves).

This does not mean you cannot upload your craft files and saves that use those model packs, it simply means you cannot upload the model packs themselves (but we really want you to upload your craft files!).

Another great thing is you won't ever have to sign up in order to download files, that's right it's completely anonymous and instant. No waiting 5s with an ad on the screen or anything. You will be required to log in in order to publish your own content, rate mods, comment on mods as well as various other future features.

As a finishing touch to this hopefully awesome post I would like to let you all know that there is a standalone client for kerbalnet being worked on right now, so there's always that to look out for.

Thanks endlessly,

The Kerbalnet team.

Edited September 14, 2012 by wizard`

[mnnm1234]

er mer gerd!

[wizard`]

We have reached the big milestone of 500 downloads (512 at time of posting), thank's to everyone that has downloaded and extra special thanks to everyone who has uploaded content.

We are working everyday to get more and more features onto the site and just today we have completely redone the ranking system to be more efficient and user-friendly. We have updated the way mod descriptions work and instead it's much easier to quickly identify what a mod is.

We encourage everyone who hasn't yet checked it out to go and have a look for yourself (and give us feedback <3) and maybe even upload a save or a mod of your own.

Thanks guys,

The Kerbalnet team.

[StanE]

Nice job. Too dark for my taste, but looks good anyway.

Edited September 5, 2012 by StanE

[kockaspiton]

Nice site! Keep up the good work.

[wizard`]

You can now put a dynamically generated image in your signature to show your support for a mod that looks like this

if you would like to put one (or more) in your signatures you can copy the code here

ExPI: Stations Pack

[url=http://kerbal.net/mod.php?id=1][img=http://kerbal.net/includes/functions.php?landing=mod_infographics&target=mod_signature&id=1][/url]

Deep Space Mission pack

[url=http://kerbal.net/mod.php?id=4][img=http://kerbal.net/includes/functions.php?landing=mod_infographics&target=mod_signature&id=4][/url]

NERVA Engine

[url=http://kerbal.net/mod.php?id=5][img=http://kerbal.net/includes/functions.php?landing=mod_infographics&target=mod_signature&id=5][/url]

GI Radial Decouplers

[url=http://kerbal.net/mod.php?id=6][img=http://kerbal.net/includes/functions.php?landing=mod_infographics&target=mod_signature&id=6][/url]

ExPI: Interplanetary Missions

[url=http://kerbal.net/mod.php?id=7][img=http://kerbal.net/includes/functions.php?landing=mod_infographics&target=mod_signature&id=7][/url]

Astronaut Memorial Plaques

[url=http://kerbal.net/mod.php?id=8][img=http://kerbal.net/includes/functions.php?landing=mod_infographics&target=mod_signature&id=8][/url]

Electrical Energy plugin

[url=http://kerbal.net/mod.php?id=9][img=http://kerbal.net/includes/functions.php?landing=mod_infographics&target=mod_signature&id=9][/url]

The Crewtank

[url=http://kerbal.net/mod.php?id=10][img=http://kerbal.net/includes/functions.php?landing=mod_infographics&target=mod_signature&id=10][/url]

MEM by Lionhead Aerospace Inc.

[url=http://kerbal.net/mod.php?id=12][img=http://kerbal.net/includes/functions.php?landing=mod_infographics&target=mod_signature&id=12][/url]

Enjoy!

[MaverickSawyer]

May I suggest a "odd'n'ends" area for modded (for good purpose) .cfg's and dev tools? I have some modded stock parts that I think some folks may enjoy.

[wizard`]

May I suggest a "odd'n'ends" area for modded (for good purpose) .cfg's and dev tools? I have some modded stock parts that I think some folks may enjoy.

Excellent Idea I'll add it straight away! In the meantime I suggest you upload them anyway and use the categories "parts" and "saves" perhaps?

[MaverickSawyer]

I'll do that tomorrow, as I don't have the parts with me. Also, do you require the packs be zipped, or just loaded ready to go?

[wizard`]

At the moment it is required they they are zipped but in the (not too distant) future it will zip files for you if it hasn't been already, good question though

[tsakali]

nice clean layout, easy on the eyes. Good work!

[ScratchXP]

Yay, I can find mods with ease!

[wizard`]

Thanks tsakali and ScratchXP it really means a lot when we hear our work is appreciated, just remember the site mostly relies on users uploading the content so if you want to see one of your favourite mods up there then you need to go and ask the developer(s) to upload it, the more you require developers to put all their mods together in one place the better the community will be in the long run.

And there is more good news, we are moving to a new host over the next day or so which will give us MUCH greater global coverage and significantly increased download/upload speeds

[MaverickSawyer]

Quick question: how do I add a picture as an edit to the mod page?

[JnyJny]

I like it!

Any chance you can make the download URLs and ZIP file names more descriptive?

For instance, downloading:

http://www.kerbal.net/includes/functions.php?landing=mod_download&mod_id=8

resulted in a zip file named "1.1.0.0.zip".

The results were similar for some of the other entries I looked at, but admittedly I haven't tried them all.

[Shoar]

Quick question: how do I add a picture as an edit to the mod page?

Log in, go to your mod page and click the edit mod page, click the box and you should be selected to upload a new image, then click "Update cover image" - If you mean multi-images, they're going to be added soon

[wizard`]

I like it!

Any chance you can make the download URLs and ZIP file names more descriptive?

For instance, downloading:

http://www.kerbal.net/includes/functions.php?landing=mod_download&mod_id=8

resulted in a zip file named "1.1.0.0.zip".

The results were similar for some of the other entries I looked at, but admittedly I haven't tried them all.

That's a good idea, the main reason it is like that is because files are named based on what version they are but they should also contain part of the mod's name too.

Quick question: how do I add a picture as an edit to the mod page?

Okay so if your on the mod page it should look somewhere along the lines of this

In the bottom left of the "feature box" or image slider is the image selector, and in the bottom right is the upload button, this will become much clearer in the future.

[longbyte1]

If I made such kind of website, I'd require a captcha and add a flag button for spam/bad stuff, viruses, etc.

[MaverickSawyer]

OK, that's odd. the most recent IE does NOT like the edit mod page...

EDIT: Confirmed. the site does not like being modified from IE9...

Edited September 7, 2012 by MaverickSawyer

[CaptRobau]

Great site, just created an account. A few things I noticed:

-Crate a new account should be Create a new account

-In the account creating form, I'd change Email to E-mail Address. It just looks a little better and the hyphen is actually gramatically necessary

-I'd like to see a automatic log-in checkbox to be added so that I don't have to type my name and password all the time

[tsakali]

T...if you want to see one of your favourite mods up there then you need to go and ask the developer(s) to upload it, the more you require developers to put all their mods together in one place the better the community will be in the long run.

yeah that's the way the new internet works! But as a start up advice, you might want to go on a hunt yourself and get atleast the most popular mods/addons to get the ball rolling and give your site a respectful amount of content. Is that going to complicate things for you, since each mod is supposed to be handled by a specific user account?

I guess if you were to upload stuff up there yourself, you might later have to allow the actual author to have access to it, for updating the content etc. I can see that being a problem, but as a new website , I would personally do anything I could to get content on there, and give people sense of "the place to be" for addons. You might even have to do some leg work and personally hunt down developers and invite them to your website.

I personally hate having to go looking for mods one by one, so I'm already loving the idea behind the site. It's a much needed addition to the community.

Edited September 7, 2012 by tsakali

[wizard`]

Great site, just created an account. A few things I noticed:

-Crate a new account should be Create a new account

-In the account creating form, I'd change Email to E-mail Address. It just looks a little better and the hyphen is actually gramatically necessary

-I'd like to see a automatic log-in checkbox to be added so that I don't have to type my name and password all the time

1. Ohdear thanks for pointing that out

2. I'll fix that right away

3. Again, I'll get onto it right away (it's been on the table but we had a few things we wanted to put in before it)

yeah that's the way the new internet works! But as a start up advice, you might want to go on a hunt yourself and get atleast the most popular mods/addons to get the ball rolling and give your site a respectful amount of content. Is that going to complicate things for you, since each mod is supposed to be handled by a specific user account?

I guess if you were to upload stuff up there yourself, you might later have to allow the actual author to have access to it, for updating the content etc. I can see that being a problem, but as a new website , I would personally do anything I could to get content on there, and give people sense of "the place to be" for addons. You might even have to do some leg work and personally hunt down developers and invite them to your website.

I personally hate having to go looking for mods one by one, so I'm already loving the idea behind the site. It's a much needed addition to the community.

The best we can do is ask mod makers directly to put their content on (and help them through the process) as well as making the site as publicly known as possible (both of which we are trying hard to achieve)!

It's really good to get feedback, thanks a lot guys!

[JnyJny]

I re-read your post and caught the teaser at the end about a stand-alone application. Is it going to be a Windows thing or something more cross-platform ( Java, Mono/.Net )?

[wizard`]

I re-read your post and caught the teaser at the end about a stand-alone application. Is it going to be a Windows thing or something more cross-platform ( Java, Mono/.Net )?

It's a java application, the client isn't the only big advance in that area - we are actually in the process of developing a full fledged HTTP rest API for developers (web or otherwise) to access data about mods and other site features, so far we have established most of the basic functions of the API and hope to have a working preview up by the end of the weekend.

Also big news, we JUST ticked 2,500 downloads and 20,000 visitors!

[JnyJny]

It's a java application, the client isn't the only big advance in that area - we are actually in the process of developing a full fledged HTTP rest API for developers (web or otherwise) to access data about mods and other site features, so far we have established most of the basic functions of the API and hope to have a working preview up by the end of the weekend.

Sweet, put me on the list of people interested in consuming the API.