Addon submission being denied for being "too simple"
Hi, I'm posting on the forum because the moderator who denied my submission doesn't want to any questions via PM and I'm trying to get some understanding.
First off, I don't understand why a submission can be denied and then not give useful reasons on why it is actually denied. Giving a blanket statement of "being too simple" doesn't really cut it when there are plenty of addons that cater for a specific use that are simple. (Also found it quite rude for a site Moderator to call it a "5 second script" - evidently if you don't post something like VCMod you are clearly shit at dev stuff)
My initial question is why would an addon be declined for being 'too simple' when it is designed to be a minimalistic hud? There are far too many HUDs which are jam-packed with unnecessary stuff that a lot of people don't necessarily want to see. I've been making this HUD as part of my community and have had good feedback about it not being 'bloated'. Surely it should be down to the buyers to determine whether it is worth purchasing? That's not to say some of the more feature-rich HUDs aren't great; it's just that a lot of their features make use of screen-wide banners, popups, etc. which actually get in the way of the player trying to play.
For reference, my HUD (intended for SWRP) included the following:
- HP bar w/ icon (with flashing at certain threshold)
- Weapon name
- Ammo counter w/ icon
- Clip, magazine, reserves and style changes based on empty mags
- Weapon name/bar is changed when weapon doesn't use ammo
- Armor bar
- Player name
- Player job
- Compass bar
- Agenda bar (dynamic text color based on agenda text)
- Player name
- Name fades out based on distance
- Color changes based on target's health
- Tracks arrested state
- Weapon selector
- Organised weapons into categories (Primary, Secondary, Heavy, Melee, Equipment, & Tools)
Secondly, the inspiration for this HUD was from a previously accepted script BF1HUD which is very much so 'just boxes'. I'm unsure what makes mine too simple and other ones are allowed which are in a similar style. If someone can explain what makes a script "not too simple" when there are similar accepted scripts, I can at least try to improve my script to make it a worthy submission.
Thanks in advance for any help,
Deano
That BF1 hud was approved in 2016 if you even bothered to pay attention to that when writing your little rant. Script standards change over time for the better as the market becomes more saturated. The point of gmodstore is to provide quality scripts. If you look at any of the recent HUDs, you can see that https://www.gmodstore.com/market/browse?search=hud
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I wasn't making fun of your post, i was posting an old ugly ass hud
chill
Do you want more elaboration about why your script was denied or do you understand why it was denied from kanalumaddela's post?
I'm just wondering why you DM'd me even when my profile said not to, all I replied with was just a screenshot of that text on my profile
You should disable PMs
I've considered it, but I get a decent amount of legit PMs about private jobs and whatnot so I keep them open for that
I ain't here to be a dick, nor do I know OP, but, you're fucking kidding, right?
Take a look at this : https://www.gmodstore.com/market/view/upjail-cozy-zone
What place does that have? Is that a "high quality script"? No it isn't, don't get me wrong, I'm not fluent in gLua by any means, but I have enough knowledge to say straight off the bat, that's a "5 minute script" - I should also note I don't know the creator of upjail so I'm not trying to sales bash but, damn, atleast keep it equal by declining other scripts that fall under the same "5 minute script" category.
Along with what I said in my initial post, I think it is a bit of a weird system to put in place because it can stop good scripts being added. Like what kanalumaddela said, the BF1 HUD was posted in 2016 and was accepted. Does this mean that it would be denied now? I personally think that is wrong.
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I also agree with what
- We, as script reviewers, are obviously fairly experienced in making scripts. That being said, we can estimate a general ballpark sense of how much effort it would take a somewhat intermediately experienced programmer to make a certain type of script. For example, the HUD that you submitted would take me around ~15-20 minutes to create, and I know it's a biased perspective considering most of my experience is UI/UX centered, but even if we're talking completely subjective numbers your HUD would only take ~7
surface.DrawRectcalls and ~10draw.SimpleTextcalls to recreate, excluding the weapon switcher and compass which are both relatively simple math. - In response to you saying that the buyer should be the one to decide, they aren't the only person simple scripts like these are affecting. They have an impact on the general look and feel of the store, and if you're selling your code and UI here it better at least look like effort has been put into it, from an objective standpoint. This is also why we deny addons for having MS-Paint banners.
- You ask why we deny it for being "simple" when it's meant to be "minimalistic" - there is a stark difference between these two words. Minimalism is a design choice, simplicity is a lack of effort. A lot of people (especially authors of HUD submissions) get these confused. See these actual minimalistic scripts, if there's one thing they're not, they're not "simple": One, Two, Three, Four - You also can't say that you can lower the bar of quality just because your script was intended for SWRP.
- Standards were different back in 2016. That's just how it is, it's partially due to how many scripts and submissions we have now v.s. how many there were back then. If I have to guess, I'd say about 1/4 to 1/3 of scripts made back in that time period would be denied nowadays.
- You don't need to read my profile to see text this large. I guarantee you that when you first scrolled down the page to read this post, those words are the first thing you read. When the human brain catches a glance of text (especially large in-your-face text), it's automatically inclined to read it. How many times have you seen an advertisement on the side of a passing bus and said to yourself, "I will not read that!"? Because you do read it every single time. Your brain is designed to.
- "I'm not going to hunt down other 'simple' scripts to validate my own" Referring back to your original post: "Secondly, the inspiration for this HUD was from a previously accepted script BF1HUD which is very much so 'just boxes'. I'm unsure what makes mine too simple and other ones are allowed which are in a similar style." You're literally doing this, so don't say you aren't.
We, as script reviewers, are obviously fairly experienced in making scripts.
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while(true) do Color(255, 255, 255, 255) end
Thanks for clarifying further Threebow, that's all I wanted from my PM.
I know my first post here came across a like a rant, it did piss me off (as someone new to the gmod lua stuff) to basically get told "no ur bad lol".
I literally didn't read the big text on your profile. Like I said, I didn't even glance at it. On your profile you have some videos etc. and I had no interest in reading it otherwise I wouldn't have bothered to PM you. (and for the reference no, I didn't read the big text first)
In regards to point 6, I meant I wasn't going to continue finding other HUDs that I would call simple. I only get BF1HUD as an example because that was what I was basing my work from.
Again, thanks for your response. Back to the drawing board it is.
So Threebow basically pointed out the obvious reason this was denied for being way too simple.
You mention you put a lot of effort into this, but a lot of effort can mean a lot of things. Threebow already pointed out that an experienced coder can make this in about half an hour, so most likely because you are a new coder, you would consider this a lot of effort, but we do not, sorry.
Your presentation is a whole different situation as well. We expect you to put a lot of effort into your presentation, but you literally placed a screenshot of your HUD as the banner. Your description is in one tab and less than 15 lines. This is very minimal amount of effort, compared to the rest of the gmodstore market.
And when we compare scripts, we normally compare with recently released scripts. In your case, recently released HUD's.
Another thing is you used https://github.com/Kefta/Weapon-Switcher-Skeleton for "your" weapon switcher. That's fair and all, but you mention that nowhere, which is required with his license of distribution.
I get this isn't my place to really chime in on the conversation but I don't mind it appropriate for moderators or content curators to bash his Hud of which actually looks clean and people would like to really justify that it is a "5minute script" and you guys have let plenty of terrible scripts make it on to gmodstore.
https://www.gmodstore.com/market/view/advanced-killfeed-1 , is just one of the many examples of which I have personally argued with a moderator (privately to keep the forum clean) about how simple this is. You guys go way over the top and include too much of your "personal opinion" into the scripts to say that it isn't hard. Go look at that script and tell me you couldn't make that is less than half an hour.
Feel free to delete my post or warn me for posting but this is a little ridiculous, yes he makes mistakes on what he needs to do about his script to improve but don't sit here and act like work didn't go into something, just because his Hud isn't at the same level as everybody elses, doesn't mean it isn't a good hud. What if his hud is simpler and sleeker and cheaper than the other huds, some people don't want an overly flashy hud, clean and sleek is very common and much appreciated by many server owners.
I think you guys need to actually set a standard for what is considered a "simple script" or something because this isn't the first time I've heard of people struggling to get there scripts on here because someone with their own opinions doesn't find it valuable.
Sorry for DM'ing you about the TDLib documentation thing btw.
But yeah, as long more people come to develop for gmod, the default standards of what is a good and a bad addons changes.
For example, i see people asking discount on 9 bucks addons with good models and animated custom derma.
The killfeed is a killfeed, and there are no other addons like it being sold on the store to my knowledge. You simply cannot compare this to a HUD, which is easily one of if not the most saturated types of addon on the store.
As for the customers deciding, that's just something we need to balance out - we can't have the market flooded with a ton of easy-to-make HUDs because a few people might like one and a few different people might like another. Yes, what any one buyer considers "good" is incredibly subjective, but we can't allow people to submit a hundred "sleek/minimal" HUDs with minor differences. Want to make a good script that fits what a bunch of people want? Look at something like CNotify (which by the way, did take me an hour or two to write. same deal with the killfeed you brought up, you just can't compare it to a HUD) and apply it to HUDs. Create a tool that allows people to customize their own HUD on more than just a colors level.
Don't worry about that, I do keep my PMs open for those kinds of questions :)