The Workshop shortcomings for anyone wanting to build

Fizzbang

Fizzbang
I have a spent a large amount of my time since launch, working on content in the workshop with the following focus:
  • Content that meets peoples needs (hopefully)
  • Content that has low lag and meets the performance challenges of the game

But here is the issue...it is almost impossible to get that type of work out there.
The only publicised pieces tend to be Frontiers Premier performers, the streamers and anyone who gets lucky and I really mean lucky, because if you do..then you can pretty much do what you want.

The prime players deliver wonderful examples of architectural modelling with many thousands of pieces and for the most part are enjoyable to look at. But are they practical?
How many of these pieces can you place in a park before it grinds to a halt?

I am not getting at these builders because this game offers that and it is up to people to decide if they can live with it...but it is these that get the limelight...not the practical simple builds that a lot of builders are seeking to get their park looking good and working well.
What I am asking or suggesting is that somehow the Workshop be shaped to categorise and highlight other less flamboyant builders and designers and not the ones that seem to be used as marketing tools for the game.
 

Bitter Jeweler

Bitter Jeweler
I don't look at the featured creators, or the most popular items. When I am looking for something, I use the search function, and as long as people name their items appropriately, I find what I am looking for.

The workshop is a great searchable library!
If you are looking for fame, you're going to have a hard time.
 

Big Draco

Big Draco
I am not a featured designer, nor do I wish to 'find fame', but I do enjoy designing various items (but most of them are of the 200-500 piece limit). I don't go for multi thousand piece builds (I think the highest build I have done is around 1500 pieces).

I always like to look at the Workshop - I tend to look for 'most recent' hoping that I get some inspiration. Most of my stuff has a purpose (shop), but I also create functional items such as my adventure light pole or my various stage pieces (for various themes).
 

Minnion

M
Have you tried making a thread in the community creations Tab with a compilation of links and screenshots of your items?
 

ST01

ST01
Minnion said:
Have you tried making a thread in the community creations Tab with a compilation of links and screenshots of your items?
Click to expand...

Yeah this would be cool :) Always looking for practical items, preferably with matching themes and all :D
 

lilibat

lilibat
I have made quite a lot of practical items with relatively low counts. I am by no means a big name creator here but some of my most 'popular' WS items have small counts. I guess I'm happy anyone likes my stuff enough to sub it, but then again I do pretty niche stuff.
 

FunrirWoulfe

FunrirWoulfe
My stuff looks bland as well for the most part as I don't know how to go crazy detailed with the game, so it possibly falls under the practical category.

Yeah, you can go over-board with details, but why would you if it make the game lag 6 ways to Sunday?

Simple is good if you like the game to run at a good rate without too many issues.
 

redrum

redrum
Funrir_Woulfe said:
Yeah, you can go over-board with details, but why would you if it make the game lag 6 ways to Sunday?
Click to expand...

After discovering the incredible Night of Damnation dark ride on the workshop, I am not so sure that an excessive number of pieces kills performance as much as I thought it did.

Apparently there's more than 200,000 pieces used, but the framerate is relatively good. This was an eye-opener for me, as I would not have expected a 200 K piece park would get 20-30 FPS.

No guests helps, no flat rides, and probably only triggered animations and effects rather than continuously looping animation throughout the park.

Economising for park performance is not just about number of scenery pieces.
 

Wagi

Wagi
There's over 190,000 assets available in the Workshop.

While I do scroll through the Most Recent offerings at least every other day if not more often, unless the thumbnail and title catch my eye or is of something I'm in current need of, they all get lost in the huge pile. I've found several designers who's creations I downloaded because they created list showing off their work elsewhere than just at the Workshop, like here ir at Shyguy's, or one of the PC fan pages on Facebook. Creating another category for lesser known designers win't work when there's dozens of additions to the Workshop by them every single day.

I really think it has to be on the designers themselves to be proactive and showcase their work and get the word out of what they have to share, otherwise you just have to sit back and hope someone stumbles across it among those 190,000+ items.
 

Citytrader

Citytrader
Wagi said:
I really think it has to be on the designers themselves to be proactive and showcase their work and get the word out of what they have to share, otherwise you just have to sit back and hope someone stumbles across it among those 190,000+ items.
Click to expand...

Absolutely! If you want to be noticed, you have to "sell" your product. All those premier performers you are talking about have YouTube channels, Reddit, and numerous other ways to get out there in the public eye. They sell their "brand" and people respond with hits and subscriptions. If that is what you want, then by all means, make it happen.

Someone else also mentioned that Frontier is trying to sell games, so of course they are going to feature spectacular builds showcasing how wonderful their game is.

I could be wrong here, but I believe that it's been stated in the past that Frontier does not control the workshop at all. Steam does. They choose what appears in the feature area based on hits, I think.

You could also send your simpler creations to Bo for one of her community build videos. Include a message to the effect that perhaps she should highlight simpler objects as well as the spectacular. Might work.
 

WingardiumLevicoaster

Volunteer Moderator
WingardiumLevicoaster
I find that the steam search picks up keywords well, so I try and make my descriptions meaningful. However I would love a bit more showcasing of more useful and practical things I havent discovered yet. Or small but decent themed rides [happy]
 

sethyr

S
You should import your creations from the workshop into my new site PlanCo World! It wil let you add more practical tags that should help others find the right pieces for their parks. Just login with your Steam account :)
 

HeatherG

Volunteer Moderator
HeatherG
There are NO shortcomings for me in the workshop. Thats for sure.

build what u want to build not what u think others peoples computers can handle. You could create a building the size of a park and computers could handle it. Some people build small parks and some make large ones.

To Frontiers defense....their streams are NOT full of featured designers.( I know because I watch and look creators up on Stream). People submit their creations for use in the stream and they show the BEST creations.

if your that unhappy with the workshop then i guess u have to create ur own stuff
 
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Plan1

Plan1
Wagi said:
There's over 190,000 assets available in the Workshop.

While I do scroll through the Most Recent offerings at least every other day if not more often, unless the thumbnail and title catch my eye or is of something I'm in current need of, they all get lost in the huge pile. I've found several designers who's creations I downloaded because they created list showing off their work elsewhere than just at the Workshop, like here ir at Shyguy's, or one of the PC fan pages on Facebook. Creating another category for lesser known designers win't work when there's dozens of additions to the Workshop by them every single day.

I really think it has to be on the designers themselves to be proactive and showcase their work and get the word out of what they have to share, otherwise you just have to sit back and hope someone stumbles across it among those 190,000+ items.
Click to expand...


That's like peanuts compared to the traffic that comes with being featured, and besides, not everyone should have to be a Youtuber with a popular channel, and have 20 hours a week to dedicate to promoting their stuff. Even if you do make threads, post to the PC subreddit, make videos, etc., you're playing Where's Waldo among all the noise.
 

Wagi

Wagi
Plan said:
That's like peanuts compared to the traffic that comes with being featured, and besides, not everyone should have to be a Youtuber with a popular channel, and have 20 hours a week to dedicate to promoting their stuff. Even if you do make threads, post to the PC subreddit, make videos, etc., you're playing Where's Waldo among all the noise.
Click to expand...

True. You're absolutely right. But what it comes down to is that there's dozens to a couple hundred items uploaded to the Workshop every week...so how are they going to display each of those? They can't, it's impossible unless they flash each item on the screen for no more than maybe a maximum of 15 minutes before moving on to the next one, and that does no good. You can't offer highlights to just a few people, or just the ones who complained.

Personally I'm not bothered by the selection of items highlighted. I scroll down through the Most Recent list to see what's come out since I last looked anyways, I don't use the Most Popular or the Most Subscribed lists as I want to see everything. But that scrolling through the list is a make or break it time for me, if their screenshot doesn't show off the download well, if it's too dark, if it doesn't show much, chances are I'll just scroll on by because there are so many new ones added. If they slapped some really stupid name on the download (usually slang for body parts or bodily functions,I'm not a prude by any means but some of which forum rules don't allow me to repeat here...) then I figure they are just messing around and can't be tasked to treat their work seriously enough to name it correctly so why should I stop to look at it? That first impression of how they posted their work usually tells me a lot about how serious they were in creating it and what quality it is. They can't be bothered then I probably can't be bothered either.

I also don't think most people limit their Workshop downloads to just those highlighted anyways. People scroll through the list. Or they search by keywords. If someone took the time to add them, it will show up.

Many people don't promote their stuff otherwise because they are just offering to share if anyone cares to use it. They don't feel the need to promote anything. If you stumble across it and decide to download it...great! Sure, there are people who spend a great deal of time promoting their work, just as many artists do. Nothing wrong with that. Still others can spend a few minutes here and there to post a screenshot or two and a link to their Workshop page if they want to make people aware of it. I find quite a few things that way myself. I can see more on a forum screenshot than I can on those small Workshop thumbnails. I think it comes down to the fact that if traffic is important to them, then it's something that they have to work for. We always had to take the time to show off our work in RCT2 and 3 if we wanted anyone to know about it.

Tweaking the highlights to show more featured selections isn't going to get them the promotion they want because it's impossible to do. They can't tweak it just to allow those who complain to have their work shown, or just a select few either, they'd have to tweak it to allow everyone's work, and that doesn't help anyone really unless it cures someone's jealousy about those who are highlighted often.

At least that's how I see it.
 
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