radestock

Just wondering if there has been any thoughts on changes to skin installation for future games. There are still many questions from novice users having problems getting skins to work. I know that there was some discussion when FM2005 was out about improving on certain areas (much of which I am probably repeating below) and am curious as to whether this is being considered for the '07 release. A couple of scenarios:

Ideal scenario

A dedicated installer for skins (including perhaps a packager and file format):

Having a dedicated installer would help an awful lot, especially with the introduction of the skin cache etc. This could simply read a zip file and install it to the right place (clearing the skin cache etc too). Going further perhaps a dedicated file format and small app for skinners to package their work would be better - once again, the installer reading and decompressing to the right place.

As it is now I realise that a skinner can use free setup software to create an executable zip to install everything in the right place. However this creates a problem for Mac users with FM being multi-platform (as well as using extra online space to have a PC version and a Mac version of a skin).

Obviously with facepacks and logo's being popular too I'm sure that a similar system for all graphics would be very helpful for graphic makers and novice users alike.

Reasonable scenario - as the ideal one may be a little much

Better error handling and skin placement:

There are regularly questions raised about the 'skin loading' screen being on for hours and nothing happening or a black screen after a user has installed a skin. I think that rather than the game basically stalling (looking for an .xml file that isn't there but never giving an error when it can't find it) some kind of error message giving an indication of the probable problem and how to fix it would be very useful. Also moving user installed skins to the SI folder in My Documents along with the tactics etc might makes things easier, keeping everything together.

Ter

It would be ideal to have a dedicated packager and installer for skins and it is something that we have discussed in the past. At the end of the day it comes down to priorities and as skins work fine if they are installed properly, this is a very low priority. I would love it to be possible but there are far more important things to be done before considering this (same old story ).

The error handling is something that I think has had some work to it, but I'm not entirely sure. Definitely need some better feedback if a skin can't be found rather than the dialog just staying on the screen.

The placement thing as well is something that has been done/will be done and skins should be supported from the My Documents folder in FM 2007 so that people don't go messing around in the core game directories (of course they will anyway though!)

Any other suggestions/questions then fire away.

radestock

I thought the packager/installer would be low priority, but its good to know that the second scenario is pretty much what you guys are trying for.

Perhaps an easier way of skinners being able to be sure skin cache is cleared would be my only other thought. I don't like having to rely on the user to make sure they move a clear file to the cache folder or untick the box. If it were possible to include the clear file somewhere within the skin without it needed to be moved anywhere that would be great.

Ter

What we should really do is have proper version checking on the skins, so if it's an updated version then it will refresh the cache.

Ricey

How about a preview image of the skin in the preference screen?

This would be a smallish screenshot that will show tyhe skin selected.