The New Technic Platform and Launcher

[KakerMix]

We did the livestream and it was fun. Watch the recording here:

http://www.twitch.tv/sctx/c/3976807

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday March 29th @ 9:00 PM Eastern Standard Time

Where: http://www.twitch.tv/sctx

 

Are you ready to see what is waiting for you with the new Technic? Are you pumped to see just how gosh-darn pretty it will all look? Then you should make some space on Saturday, March 29th where sct, CanVox and I we will be livestreaming the new Technic Platform, Launcher, designs and features for both, and general chit chattery. We'll be answering questions, swerving wildly off-topic and probably just being idiots.

 

Topics to be Talked About:

• New Platform and how rad max it is!  Tired of upvotes being the only way to sort packs? Us too!
• New Launcher and how max rad it is!  Looks great, performs better. Platform integration means doing more within the launcher itself from the comfort of your desktop (Linux, Mac and PC's are all invited)
• How great both of them work together in wonderful ways!  I'd say 'synergize' but I'm pretty sure you have to be a giant company to use that word.
• Why sct constantly says things like "omg you guys elastic search" while he's all sweaty and breathing heavy!  This happens more often than you'd think!
• Where Technic could go in the future!  We want to move into new directions, new games. Making things easy for every gaming community to enjoy itself is a pretty rad goal we think.
• New art!!  It's so fresh and so clean, we'd like to have some posters and shirts someday!
• Real world costs and how we plan to pay for all of this!  We're down 3 kidneys and two mortgages!

 

Joking aside, costs for operating Technic have grown dramatically in the last year, and spiked hard when we launched Attack of the B-Team. Because the new Platform and Launcher include so many new features that are going to blow your minds, we've got some decisions to make on how to pay for all this. Right now we have a significant hosting bill across two services, we have three full-time people who "do" Technic exclusively, and we have a few other various people that do incredible work for the community. Like most websites Technic's lifeblood is ads on our site, but with the new features and services we're going to provide and costs being what they are *right now*, we have to do something else. Rather than curse  ourselves to sell out to a much larger company we are determined to do this ourselves. Since the new Launcher integrates with the new Platform in such a way to allow lots of things to be done within the Launcher (as opposed to having to go to the website) we're looking at having a single small ad (300x250) within the launcher itself. Nothing is set in stone and we certainly don't want to upset the community, but the reality is things cost money and they have to be paid for somehow. 

 

We don't have a time set for when the stream ends, but typically when we hang out privately we do it for an hour or two, so plan on that if you'd like to stay for the whole thing.

Any questions or concerns about anything I've said above or about the stream in general post em' here or tweet with the hashtag #newtechnic!  On the stream, we'll be answering questions posted to twitter and in the stream chat.

 

See you guys at Saturday March 29th @ 9:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.

[SoTotallyXray]

Awesome! could you edit the time to make it suitable for us Uk people  

[CanVox]

We argued awhile about the time, I think we're sticking with it.  It is a saturday night so hopefully staying up real late isn't a deal-breaker.  I know that it's made worse by the fact that you guys go on BST that night, which could not be helped.

 

If you can't make it, do the following two things:

1.  Tweet any questions you want us to answer to hashtag #newtechnic so we see it and can answer them on the live stream.

2.  Catch the stream on VOD & youtube when you wake up the next morning.

[Amaxter]

I'm excited!

Edited March 23, 2014 by Amaxter

[Dpa1991]

Would the ad show up ingame or just on the launcher? if it's on the launcher that'd be fine with me.

 

Some ideas:
 

Free users: 

Max 3 modpacks in the system

Smaller fizesize limits for images/logo

Premium Users:

Max of 6 modpacks in the system

Larger filesize limits for images/logo

Usage of animated backgrounds for their packs

Other cool customization stuff for platform page (nothing that will break the sites theme)

No advertisements

 

Sponsored packs:

Either for a flat fee, or weekly bids you could auction off 5 slots to have your modpack always on the top of the page (like minestatus does, but with our packs instead and hopefully not as expensive)

 

I'd also love to see broken/nonworking packs set to hidden  so they're taken off the list of "top rated" because it's annoying to see so many dead/not working packs with angry players in the discussion. Just some random thoughts/suggestions.

 

E: Sorry if this isn't the place for it, I saw the post mention costs running Technic and had some ideas of things I'd pay for.

Edited March 23, 2014 by Dpa1991

[CanVox]

Would the ad show up ingame or just on the launcher? if it's on the launcher that'd be fine with me.

Launcher only! We'd never interrupt your play experience.

 

Some ideas:

 

Free users: 

Max 3 modpacks in the system

Smaller fizesize limits for images/logo

Premium Users:

Max of 6 modpacks in the system

Larger filesize limits for images/logo

Usage of animated backgrounds for their packs

Other cool customization stuff for platform page (nothing that will break the sites theme)

No advertisements

 

Sponsored packs:

Either for a flat fee, or weekly bids you could auction off 5 slots to have your modpack always on the top of the page (like minestatus does, but with our packs instead)

We've discussed the idea of premium services for pack developers, and it could happen in the future. A subscription for more than 3 slots could I guess be a thing, but it's so easy to create another user with another 3 slots, that I don't know how much demand there'd be, and it seems kind of lame to set an arbitrary limitation and then sell a way to surpass it. We set that limitation to stop people from creating a ton of terrible useless packs, so we should instead look into setting up a way for productive pack developers to get an expansion without cost. I could see a situation where an account could have its limitations lifted if it hard-linked to solder- any pack you create in solder shows in the platform, with no limitations on pack count?

One thing we've discussed (just talk, so far) is a solder subscription service- basically we'd host a solder instance for you, maybe auto-link it to your platform account. That's a real service that we've seen actual demand for, not an arbitrary usage limitation on our users, so the idea really appeals to us.

As for sponsored packs, I doubt we'd do anything like that, but we will be working to open up access to our advertising purchasing process so that if a pack owner wanted to promote their pack, they could buy advertising space on the site or the launcher just like everyone else. We haven't nailed down that process yet, so I can't tell you much more than that we'd like that to happen.

I'd also love to see broken/nonworking packs set to hidden  so they're taken off the list of "top rated" because it's annoying to see so many dead/not working packs with angry players in the discussion. Just some random thoughts/suggestions.

 

E: Sorry if this isn't the place for it, I saw the post mention costs running Technic and had some ideas of things I'd pay for.

Nope, feel free to post all about your suggestions and thoughts here. As for broken/nonworking packs, it can be difficult to locate packs that have stopped working, without dedicating a lot of processing power to automated testing. Instead, we're going to change the way that packs are surfaced to keep track of runs & installs over the past 7/14 days, and preference those numbers over +1's, so if a pack stops working, then runs will fall off and the pack will no longer be surfaced.

Oh, and that's another thing. We're using a new search service called "elastic search", which aside from being blazing fast, and not as buggy as our current search, allows us to sort & filter by various pack properties. So right now search results are basically arbitrary- we'll be able to sort by popularity or whatever else, so broken packs won't show up on page 1 anymore.

[KakerMix]

Would the ad show up ingame or just on the launcher? if it's on the launcher that'd be fine with me.

 

Some ideas:

 

Free users: 

Max 3 modpacks in the system

Smaller fizesize limits for images/logo

Premium Users:

Max of 6 modpacks in the system

Larger filesize limits for images/logo

Usage of animated backgrounds for their packs

Other cool customization stuff for platform page (nothing that will break the sites theme)

No advertisements

 

Sponsored packs:

Either for a flat fee, or weekly bids you could auction off 5 slots to have your modpack always on the top of the page (like minestatus does, but with our packs instead and hopefully not as expensive)

 

I'd also love to see broken/nonworking packs set to hidden  so they're taken off the list of "top rated" because it's annoying to see so many dead/not working packs with angry players in the discussion. Just some random thoughts/suggestions.

 

E: Sorry if this isn't the place for it, I saw the post mention costs running Technic and had some ideas of things I'd pay for.

Nah this is the place for it, no worries. The whole point of this topic and eventual live stream is to get a feel for what people would like and include them in the discussion, including people that want to suggest features like you are.

An ad in game? We just need to pay some bills not destroy people's games by shoving Pepsi billboards in their caves. Strictly in the launcher only, and they will be vetted ads if we move in this direction.

As far as 'premium' membership sort of user things we have talked about it, but it would strictly be "in addition" rather than "take away and then sell them back as premium" because while we're jerks we aren't THAT big of jerks.

[Munaus]

I'm interested in knowing what other gaming communities you guys are looking into in the future...

 

and waiting when you announce to sell shirts. Socks would be sweet, I got cold feet so anything with as much cotton as possible.

 

How about Hellen Keller underwear? I miss that pink baby avatar... make one completely black with the baby on the butt-end.

[KakerMix]

Launcher only! We'd never interrupt your play experience.

 

 

Do the Dew™ brought to you by RedBox Instant™ from Verizon®. Click the Doritos Locos Taco™ by Taco Bell® to continue Attack of the B-Team™

[Mooseman9]

I'm interested in knowing what other gaming communities you guys are looking into in the future...

Yeah, is it going to be still focused on the modding communities for games, or just in general? You guys planning for it to be kinda like the Nexus?

[KakerMix]

Yeah, is it going to be still focused on the modding communities for games, or just in general? You guys planning for it to be kinda like the Nexus?

 

With the way the new Platform is designed it isn't tied to just Minecraft. 

[dwwojcik]

Wow, new stuff!

 

Kidneys are fairly important, I wouldn't want you to loose any more.  I'd rather have a little ad on the launcher.

 

What other games are you considering?

[CanVox]

I'm interested in knowing what other gaming communities you guys are looking into in the future...

 

Yeah, is it going to be still focused on the modding communities for games, or just in general? You guys planning for it to be kinda like the Nexus?

 

What other games are you considering?

Any games with mods are a good fit for us. Idunno that we're planning on being like the Nexus per se. Our trump card is our technological superiority, automating stuff, etc, which sets us apart from every company operating on user-created content. So many games have great stuff made by the community, but a really tiny portion of the community actually enjoying that stuff, because of the difficulties of putting together an install that uses that content. In Minecraft, 40%(?) of the community is enjoying Forge mods on a regular, active basis. That's unheard of! It's not just us making that happen, of course, there are tons of other launchers and stuff like Multicraft and the Magic Launcher have been around forever. But the point is that Minecraft doesn't just have a community producing great content, we have a community producing better ways to enjoy that content, and that's very unusual. A lot of game communities could benefit from the sort of tech we produce.

Our future tech architecture will have the idea of non-minecraft games in mind, but we don't want to talk about what games or what sort of games we have our eye on, because we're not just some dudes in an IRC channel anymore, and new business thangs take time and discussion. Just know that this new launcher and platform are just the beginning- we want to bring the enjoyment you get from us to everyone.

[laureled]

We (and our users at Akliz) are excited about the new features.  One person raves about using Solder and the Platform for his custom mod pack.  Can't wait to hear more about the new developments in detail!

[Neowulf]

Do the Dew™ brought to you by RedBox Instant™ from Verizon®. Click the Doritos Locos Taco™ by Taco Bell® to continue Attack of the B-Team™

The kids won't get this but:

Punch the Monkey to get a free Diamond!

[Dpa1991]

We've discussed the idea of premium services for pack developers, and it could happen in the future. A subscription for more than 3 slots could I guess be a thing, but it's so easy to create another user with another 3 slots, that I don't know how much demand there'd be, and it seems kind of lame to set an arbitrary limitation and then sell a way to surpass it. We set that limitation to stop people from creating a ton of terrible useless packs, so we should instead look into setting up a way for productive pack developers to get an expansion without cost. I could see a situation where an account could have its limitations lifted if it hard-linked to solder- any pack you create in solder shows in the platform, with no limitations on pack count?

 

The reason for wanting more pack slots is because currently I have 1 really big pack and another fair sized one. The 3rd pack slot is reserved for a hidden "test" pack so I can test updates before updating the other two. Maybe you can do a system where you can unlock pack slots based on popularity or +1's

 

Over all, good responses. Quite excited to see where this goes. Slightly off topic - My main pack stats (runs/downloads) has never worked, so will that mean my pack is going to be out of luck for the new rating system?

[dragonshardz]

One thing we've discussed (just talk, so far) is a solder subscription service- basically we'd host a solder instance for you, maybe auto-link it to your platform account. That's a real service that we've seen actual demand for, not an arbitrary usage limitation on our users, so the idea really appeals to us.

Yes, yes, all my yes. Do this thing.

 

(Also, elastic search made me wet.)

[CanVox]

My main pack stats (runs/downloads) has never worked, so will that mean my pack is going to be out of luck for the new rating system?

That's real weird, so without knowing the reason, I can't answer definitively, but we're not using the existing system for those stats to drive the new stuff, there will be a new tracking system. Reason being, we don't track runs/installs over time, just totals. The admin screen graph view currently on the platform is actually driven by some google analytics integration we use, but with the new Platform, we're bringing that tracking in-house so we can do things like prevent abuse and access the data for searches more quickly.

[Stubbypickle205]

So many good things coming it seems! I'm real excited but, at the same time very curious how this is going to effect my community (OhGaming) in the long run. Currently, I think it's going to be a positive mark.

 

The news on Technic going into some new games is also awesome news. I'm hoping to be able and following along with you.

 

Ad space on the launcher is a good idea. Don't feel bad for adding more ads to your network. It's revenue needed for positive changes and expansion. You guys are doing great and I'm interested in the ad space if it's available to the public.

 

I look forward to seeing the stream on the 29th! 

[FyberOptic]

Honestly the only real problem I have with the current Technic launcher is that there's no way to set stuff like the Java version or JVM options to use when launching Minecraft.  This is important for me to be able to run the game smoothly.  Are there any plans to add such a thing to this new launcher?  

[Amaxter]

I think it would be awesome for you guys to rent out Solder instances with a pre-done shared library of mods. As for modding other games, Starbound already has a great modding community and could benefit from having it's own Technic Launcher. Also about having more options than a +1 for rating packs, I worry that packs will get abused with a bunch of 1 star ratings (or however it will be done) from people who have potatoes that can't run the pack. The +1 may be simple, but it is also genius in that it prevents abuse by only allowing for a positive rating from those who enjoy the pack.

Edited March 24, 2014 by Amaxter

[Dpa1991]

That's real weird, so without knowing the reason, I can't answer definitively, but we're not using the existing system for those stats to drive the new stuff, there will be a new tracking system. Reason being, we don't track runs/installs over time, just totals. The admin screen graph view currently on the platform is actually driven by some google analytics integration we use, but with the new Platform, we're bringing that tracking in-house so we can do things like prevent abuse and access the data for searches more quickly.

So will everyone start fresh on runs/dls? I have mediafire stats that shows my downloads (unique/total) as for runs I can't get that but its probably over 350k

[sct]

I think it would be awesome for you guys to rent out Solder instances with a pre-done shared library of mods. As for modding other games, Starbound already has a great modding community and could benefit from having it's own Technic Launcher. Also about having more options than a +1 for rating packs, I worry that packs will get abused with a bunch of 1 star ratings (or however it will be done) from people who have potatoes that can't run the pack. The +1 may be simple, but it is also genius in that it prevents abuse by only allowing for a positive rating from those who enjoy the pack.

I wouldn't worry about the new system replacing ratings. We will go into detail about how it works Saturday.

[Dark_Arcana]

I was going to wait until the stream to ask about this, but maybe it's worth saying now. Is it possible to differentiate server specific packs from other mod packs? My pack is designed specifically for a single server and I know there are a lot of other packs just like that. Maybe making some check boxes for pack makers to define their set up could ease in categorizing packs and make searching simpler for users in the long run. Everyone is looking for something different. Some people want to play something cool by themselves or find a fun pack that they can use to make a server on their own. And in the case of my pack, it already comes with the server and you just need to download and log in. Separating these categories could also help make different types of packs with higher quality more visible that might fall under the radar because their scope isn't as grand as some of the more popular packs. Just some thoughts.

[hobby_boy]

If there are adverts in the launcher, would they only be static images (and gifs, like in the first launcher) and text? I don't like the flash adverts, as I found they slowed down my browser (and may also be a security risk).

I've already found the source code on github, is it working at the moment?