Separate Vanilla/Modded Community Support

[The_Rocketeer]

Note: I put this here since it directly relates to this part of the forum. Moderators feel free to move it if you believe somewhere else would be more appropriate.

I like to scan through the Gameplay Questions from time to time and offer a tip or two, especially to newcomers who are hitting the learning curve of the vanilla game for the first time. I don't have anything particularly against mods, but my experience with them is very limited compared with my knowledge of the vanilla game and the basic physics of interplanetary travel. Lately, I've found that a lot of mod-related questions are coming up, and though they are legitimate requests for assistance, I can't help but feel it's a totally different kind of help you're looking for if you've installed a mod that you don't fully understand or that's created bugs that you need to work around, compared with just getting to grips with the core game. It seems like the rookies are being lumped in with the old-guard, and I can see that being a little intimidating to new arrivals on the forum.

It occurs to me that having two Q&A rooms, one for modded and one for unmodded versions of the game, might be the answer.

I'm not sure I've expressed myself brilliantly here, but if anyone thinks they get what I mean maybe they can say it better.

[DerekL1963]

It occurs to me that having two Q&A rooms, one for modded and one for unmodded versions of the game, might be the answer.

No thank you. There's enough division in the community over mods without "enforcing it by law" (as it were).

[Bengsch85]

And generally if its strictly a mod related issue, the question should be taken to that mod's thread.

[Epthelyn]

So you're asking for separate forum sections for modded and unmodded game installations, that's clear enough. A similar system exists on Minecraft's forums and seems to work well enough.

No thank you. There's enough division in the community over mods without "enforcing it by law" (as it were).

Any division can be ignored. Squad has made a game that can be modded, therefore it is fine to mod it. If you don't want to use mods, then that's your choice and you can avoid them and choose not to help anyone.

That's not directed towards you, specifically, but it nullifies what you just said.

In actual fact dividing the support sections would remove mod requests from the stock requests, meaning the haters could be free of modifications forever.

And generally if its strictly a mod related issue, the question should be taken to that mod's thread.

1) Someone has a single mod installed which is causing problems in an otherwise stable stock game

Solution: Go to the mod thread and ask there

2) Someone has multiple mods installed which may or may not be conflicting to cause the problem

Solution: Go around the threads of every mod you have installed asking for help, or delete mods one by one to find the conflicting mod(s) (which will usually work when used alone)

Basically mods may cause conflicts between each other that neither the creators or people using single mods will have ever encountered. There are billions of combinations of possible mods that an individual can have, and it may not be feasible to seek the support of a single mod thread for a solution.

----

So yeah, good idea.

Edited January 18, 2014 by Epthelyn

[Trueborn]

There's already an Add-on Requests and Support forum for, you know, mod support.

[thereaverofdarkness]

A lot of the mods are made and managed by KSP developers, I think that has a lot to do with it. In a way, they are part of the game, just not a part that has been debugged enough to add stock. It's nice when they can make you the player uninstall your mods to narrow down the problem. Every problem you find stock requires developer time to figure out where it's originating from.

That's how I see it.

[Captain Sierra]

For every one of these discussions in public, there's about 15 in private somewhere. The forums are kind of borked as far as organization. There are too many categories and it results in overwhelmed newbs piling in and posting everything in general.

example. We have a forum forum. Did you know that? This technically should be there. That said, less than a half percent of the active forum population (about 5000 right now) browses there. Fan works only has one percent. If this thread got moved, it'd be gone. The activity would flatline, and 'proper categorization' ceases to be any different than rule-supported thread burying.

So, the forums need some tweaking to make more parts of them see more activity. Mod related questions should be directed more to addon general or addon support (which, unfortunate as it is, lots of humans don't think and don't get that addon=mod) rather than gameplay suggestions (though there are some reasonable exceptions). Ultimately, many mods change gameplay behavior, which then changes the nature of the question.

So should they get split? no. Humans are lazy and don't want to navigate through more subforums. That would probably make the new section neglected, not counting the stock elitists who would purposely avoid it and not help, or troll. I have no doubt there will be at least one who does it, answering everything with 'go stock'.

[Vanamonde]

When we moderators see questions that are specifically about mods, we do move the questions to add-on support. Sometimes the question is borderline (includes a mod but might not be dependent upon it) and we may feel that it's more likely to get help if it stays here. Or there was one thread recently where the question was answered before I found it, so the thread was effectively dead and there seemed to be no reason to move it. Or, we might simply have not run across a thread that needs moving yet, as we are volunteers and monitor the forum on irregular schedules when we have time, and not all of us read every sub-forum.

If you see something that you think is in the wrong place, just hit the little triangular report button to call the attention of the mod team to it. That being said, this thread seems to have served its purpose, and is in the wrong sub-section, so let's close it and move on, shall we?