Wolf3D.net, and Discord

Edit: New url!

Hey guys! It's been a long time since I was here, but I've missed the entire Wolf3D Community while I've been gone.

I apologize if this isn't the right place to post this, if there's a better place, feel free to move the post!

Anyway, I've been a bit disheartened since returning to Wolf3D to find most of the news websites have suspended updates, many unexpectedly. As a result, I've decided to revive an old project of mine, in a couple of ways:

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First, Discord.

It's been great talking in Discord with other fans of Wolf3D, but I wanted to offer a server specifically dedicated to Wolfenstein and it's sister games. You can join the Discord Server using https://discord.gg/Fee7PBY

Discord is a free and very lightweight chat program that works in browser, and has both a desktop and phone apps.

Feel free to join, chat with others and relax!

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Second, Website.

This is a much bigger thing, but here goes. There are a few goals with the project:

1. Obviously, attempting to be a regularly updated aggregate of news, mod announcements, and interesting Wolfenstein related things.
   
2. Provide a more easily searchable database of mods, and provide a way to discover random mods.
   
3. Provide a mirror download for mods, and restore mods that only lead to dead links elsewhere.
   
4. Find a way to adequately showcase video content.
   

With these things in mind, I have the following so far (design/colours to be tweaked): http://wolf3d.net/
Currently the site is attempting to house current news, and expand it's mod list, which sits at http://wolf3d.net/wolf3dmods/

The idea there is to make it easier to find mods you want by being able to sort the games list, and type in search terms to find select titles or authors, as well as showcase random mods at the top.

I'm working on the website a little bit each day, adding more mods and attempting to fill in any blanks I see. There's a roadmap in the About section on WolfSource that shows general plans and in-progress aspects of the website.

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Second, part 2

If you've read this far, thank you so much. It's been a bit of effort getting all of this together in 40 degree heat, but I'm happy with how it's starting to shape up.

I hope people find this project useful. I invite any suggestions or critique for it so I can build the site in the right direction. I am one man with his own ideas.

If you have a mod or news you want to display on the website, there are submission links on the website that will send it to me.

Cheers guys, hope everyone is well.
-Zombie

The website has now transitioned to it's permanent hosting at wolf3d.morezombies.net! The domain might be simplified later on, but this link should always work.

The move seemed smooth enough, but if you find anything broken, let me know. I'm currently working on updating the image links.

It's nowhere near done yet, but the mod list is growing. It's now over 200 strong x_x

In a quest to keep things organized, a new section has been added to the site: http://wolf3d.net/wolf3dmods/addons/

Additional Content is a section for those mods and map packs that are actually built off of other mods; such as Klooni, Spear Resurrection, the bonus maps Team Raycast makes, etc.

The goal: Additional Map Pack releases tend to get sidelined after initial release, as they get mixed in and drowned in the plethora of standalone content available for Wolfenstein 3D.
By giving it a special home, I hope to highlight and bring them to more people's attention, and maybe point interested parties in the direction of making their own.

To accomplish that last part, there's a (WIP) slider at the top of the page that cycles through standalone games that have modding tools, or have made their source/mapinfo available.

It's got a small list of content at the moment, but as more mods are added and I identify more add-on content, it'll naturally expand.

I hope you find this useful!

It says that the discod invite is expired

OOF.

Thank you. It should have been infinite. Fixing it now!

EDIT: It just spits the same link out, which seems to work on my end. Looks like it's refreshed or something, so it should be okay!

Yes now it worked, thanks

The website has been plodding along.

The contest at https://wolf3d.darkbb.com/t3608-contest-the-key-to-success has several entries which is exciting, and the majority of total conversions have been added to the mod list.

There are resource pages up now, with music and graphics people have made for use in other people's mods (with proper credit of course).

For people who are looking for information on editing programs, there's now a couple of pages dedicated to suites like WDC, and Map Editors.
Thanks to Chris and Serpens, the MapEdit page is fairly comprehensive, with all but 2 known versions of the program available for download.

Finally, there's now a page dedicated to modding with ECWolf. The page lists the editors that work with it, and a few guides and tutorials. Tutorials for ECWolf are a little rarer, and I hope to see that change as time goes on.

As usual, I'd love to hear any opinions on the website, any area, etc.

I hope everyone is well.

Pages:

http://wolf3d.net/ecwolf-modding/
http://wolf3d.net/editing-suites/
http://wolf3d.net/map-editors/
http://wolf3d.net/resources/gallery/
http://wolf3d.net/resources/game-music/

We have a new URL, so links have been updated in the thread! The simplified URL should make things look cleaner and nicer.

Along with that, hosting has been increased so now mods are hosted directly on the website. For now, TCs have not been uploaded, but all other Wolf3D mods have their own dedicated download links. TCs will be updated in the next few days, then I'll get to adding missing items to the lists.

Ah, that's probably the recaptcha stuff needing to be pointed in the right direction. Cheers man, it wont hurt anyone in the meantime but I'll fix it when I can

I've got download links set up for most Wolf3D TCs and Mods that I have listed. I'd say this puts it about halfway for getting mods onto the website. I have to sort a few of the unorganized mods I have (listed but hidden), then go over and start to fill in gaps. 

I've added some resource pages for mods. While ImageWorld is currently unattended there's a Gallery with user-submitted art and sprites, as well as a page for music, and another for ECWolf-specific resources. There's quite a few things in those pages already thanks to people like AstroCreep and Dunkelschwamm. 

http://wolf3d.net/resources/gallery/  
http://wolf3d.net/resources/ecwolf/  
http://wolf3d.net/resources/game-music/  

As a cool side-thing too, with Chris and Serpen's help there is also a little page with the old Wolfenstein 3D FAQ at http://wolf3d.net/pushwall/wolfaq/  if anyone is curious about it

New news already.



New website design, which I think is much nicer. Along with that, there's now a new section on the site; Job Boards.

You can access the board at http://wolf3d.net/jobs . The intention here is to connect projects with modders. You can post jobs needed or services offered. I'm hoping this proves useful to people who need help with aspects of their games.

I'm keen for feedback on all aspects of the website as usual, as well as seeing what Wolf3D related stuff people create!

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I'd like to tack one more thing onto the end of this: http://wolf3d.net/write-for-wolfsource/

I'd very much love to host the musings of people in the community. If anyone has thoughts on anything whatsoever, I'd love to talk about possibly posting it on the website. Wolf3D mapping, post mortems of mod development, humour posts, etc.
Even if it's just a niche thing (Ie Can Creator Maps Ever Be Good, The Redeeming Qualities of Operation Body Count, 5 things I wish I knew before I starting making this project), there's really no limit to the sorts of things I'd be interested in hosting and honestly, most likely super interested in reading.

There's been a few changes going on in the website, mainly fiddling and adding features, and trying to get things cleaner and looking nicer. The amount of items in the navigation menu is being tidied up in particular. Removal of redundant or unnecessary links, and the general condensing of it.

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I've been having fun creating specialized splash pages for each of the "active" source ports we have:

http://wolf3d.net/wolf4sdl/
http://wolf3d.net/ecwolf/

And of course, one for Linuxwolf's newly branded ECWolf fork , LZWolf http://wolf3d.net/lzwolf/

My basic goal here was to create pages that could be used to give a brief overview of the engines and important links with a nice presentation. I'd love to know what more people think about these.

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The mods have all been accessed from the single page for Wolf3D, with each type in it's own tab you could flip to on the page.While I liked setting it up, it's proven slow in the long run, and I don't like the amount of clicks it takes to get to what is wanted.
Changes are underway in regards to how the site is presenting games and mods. Now, different mod pages will be found under http://wolf3d.net/mods/ with each game or type having it's own subpage. So once these changes go through, blake stone mods will be found at wolf3d.net/mods/blakestone

Currently "available", are the ECWolf and LZWolf mod pages, at http://wolf3d.net/mods/ecwolf and http://wolf3d.net/mods/lzwolf respectively. Over the next week the rest will be converted.

In addition, you might notice the removal of the screenshot carousels. I'm still on the fence about whether or not to keep them, so opinions on the new look pages is encouraged. At the very least, accessing less mods at once should turn out to be faster.

The other change is the eventual site-wide soft-integration with the wiki. Serpens, Dunkelschwamm and everyone else have been doing such an intense and indepth job with their project, it's awe-inspiring.
On the ECWolf and LZWolf mod pages, clicking on a mod thumbnail (Unless marked by a *) will bring up an integrated info-box with the mod's associated wiki page. The idea here is easy access to find out what a mod is like, beyond the name and title screen.

These changes are slowly rolling out, so I apologize for any hiccups occuring during the transition. I'm hoping these changes will lead to a nicer experience on the site.

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Finally, on a smaller front I've started the Wolfsource YouTube channel. The channel won't (at least for now) be a source of original content, but rather an aggregator for what I hope is interesting Wolf3d related content. Going to http://wolf3d.net/youtube will take you to the channel. In the channel you'll find videos from around YouTube showing off interesting and entertaining Wolf3D content, as well as full playlists of Let's Plays and Long Plays of mods.

I'm uncertain if this will ultimately prove useful to people, but I do hope so. I'll be going on now and again to maintain it, and add content as deemed fit (With input from others, if they so wish).

@Zombie_Plan wrote:On the ECWolf and LZWolf mod pages, clicking on a mod thumbnail (Unless marked by a *) will bring up an integrated info-box with the mod's associated wiki page. The idea here is easy access to find out what a mod is like, beyond the name and title screen.

Lies. Doesn't work for me on any browser or OS. Wouldn't a simple <a href=""></a> around it work better?

@Princess Peach wrote:

@Zombie_Plan wrote:On the ECWolf and LZWolf mod pages, clicking on a mod thumbnail (Unless marked by a *) will bring up an integrated info-box with the mod's associated wiki page. The idea here is easy access to find out what a mod is like, beyond the name and title screen.

Lies. Doesn't work for me on any browser or OS. Wouldn't a simple around it work better?

It would, but take you straight to the page. I'd like to get this to work if possible. It's odd it's not working on a lot of things (Including my phone), but I'd like to work out a way to get it to function as intended.

It's been a while since I updated this thread, but a lot has happened in the interim.

First, there's the work-in-progress that is the Wolf3D.net FAQ . At current it is a collection of small guides to get started with Wolf3D modding, including basic setup of coding environments and some editors.

I plan to expand it with more troubleshooting solutions, guides, and q&as, as well as expand the number of topics covered (Try to cover old source ports, for example). This is longterm though, as the main focus at current is getting the new site up and running while time is plentiful.

On that note, the Wolf3D.net website itself. I am currently building a whole new version from the ground up, trying to create a smoother and more purpose-built experience.

I've been working on it for a while and as things get nearer to publishing, I'm starting to write about the changes that will be taking place, as well as the goals and reasons behind the decision.

The first post is here  discussing the Game Search functionality compared to current, with future posts being written as things become ready.

I joined the Discord channel just now. I won't be active at all times - naturally. But if there's anybody willing to "talk", hit me up. I'm the one with the mutant avatar.

The Pushwall archives will be worked into aspects of the website, probably.

Wolf3D will continue to be about all the games on the engine.
What is changing though is these things are going to stop being spread over 12 pages and be one filterable DB. So in theory you could click a couple of search filters and you'll have only DOS Blake Stone mods, or in the distant future, LZWolf OBC mods.
A more flexible system for games, basically. As things happen (Let's say, someone implements multiplayer in one of the engines, a new source port comes out, or a new game/mod comes out and people start actively modding THAT), its simple to implement those things now.

Im working through a few key issues on game pages and user profiles atm (css sucks sometimes) but when these things get closer Ill be able to explain in more detail.