Future of the site?

[Misery]

So what is this place for you guys now?  Is this the only place you hang, or is it just one of your periodic stops?

I only check in here occasionally... since stuff does happen here occasionally.
I mostly go on GSAR (Adepts' Refuge), but even there I'm not that active.

[MaxiPower]

Honestly i was under the impression that Sala was Teawater lol

both with their yoshi avaters

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

Nope. I'm not Salanewt. But I guess I can say I am a fan, which might be part of the reason I have a Yoshi avatar.

[Thunder-squall]

I've always been a fan of blue yoshi, and the ability to fly.  Was there a Black Yoshi in Super Mario World (1)?  Because one of the older kids told me there was, but I didn't quite believe him....

Anyway, is the Adept's Refuge basically everything that Role and whomever were suggesting at the beginning of this thread?  I.e. with the roleplay, and the lore-documentation stuff?

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

I don't think so. I only recall Yellow (Ground Pound), Red (Fire), Blue (Fly), and Green (Normal). Also, I think Green(?) Yoshi (Not sure about others?) could hold a shell in his mouth of red, blue, or yellow to use their respective ability. (Or was that how Yoshis got their ability in the first place? I forget now... I'll just go with the former.)

(If one was in SMW, either I missed it, or it was unused material. My guess is that he was thinking of a different game.)

[MaxiPower]

The original yoshi came in 4 colours in SMW. red, blue. yellow green

I always said, in Mario Kart, they shopuld add in a yellow shell. that does the pound. the bluw shell can keep the wings and attack in a different way but meh anyone thats played SMW will know what i mean.

[Thunder-squall]

Wasn't the yellow shell also the one where, if a Koopa Troopa got into it, they'd basically get star-powers?

[Thunder-squall]

Well, this site is even called Golden Sun Hacking... personally, I think it should primarily be about hacking Golden Sun. And the people who are active here right now don't really come across to me as roleplaying people. Except maybe Role (duh).

The problem we're looking at if we want an active community based around that is, there are not enough people doing it. As of now, only Teawater is actually looking into the game's code. But I don't really see why this is a problem. Why does it have to be an active community? As far as I can see, that's not necessary to fulfill its intended purpose.

As for the editor, it has come a long way already. You can edit pretty much all existing values and all text, and the map code viewer is very powerful. What the editor really needs now is the ability to edit the actual maps, along with documentation on Golden Sun's scripting language. That, and preferrably some way to rewrite the text compression table, and figure out the remaining graphic compression routines (wait, hasn't Atrius done this already?)

I do have my own hack that I work with from time to time. I've also tried looking into the game's code a bit. I can do 6502/65c816 assembly, but the ARM opcodes have me stumped, even with Salanewt's reference list and the documentation on GBAtek. I can't seem to make any sense of the code I've seen so far, so clearly I'm missing something about how the commands are being used. I could probably figure it out eventually, but... it's a huge time sink and I'm not making much progress. Otherwise I might be able to contribute a bit more to this site.

And then there's the Community Hack, which was supposed to be the big thing for this site... which I think is dead in a sense. Not because Atrius stopped working with the editor, but because the community that wanted to make the hack in the first place simply isn't there anymore. Even if the community hack is finished now, it will never be what it was intended to be. I'll probably make a more official post about my thoughts on this later, it's something I've planned to do for quite a while.

I think one reason it's important to chart out a direction for the site is because it helps moderators and admin determine how to govern   I.e. do you want to encourage activity for activity's sake, or do you want to keep interactions focused around certain objectives?  What behavior should mod's and members encourage or discourage directly, or indirectly with badges and the like?

One option's to let clans find their own interpretations for these things, and choose their own internal directions.  But I do think it's helpful to have some sort of broad collective agreement as well.

For example, do we all agree that we want to reward people for using or providing documentation for the LA editor?  Do we want to give Tea more incentive to get a collection of guides together? Etc. etc.  And do we care about activity for activity's sake, at least at the moment?  So maybe post a victory ranking for the clans, depending on active members.  Maybe give double points for active clan leaders, since it encourages leaders to troop on, even with no supporters.

[Misery]

I would personally describe the site's direction as this: it's the home of the GS/TLA editor, and by extension, is about Golden Sun, game hacking/modding, and games/game development in a broader sense. I think activity of any kind (well, within reason) is probably good, because it gives people a reason to come back to the site. This in turn can serve as encouragement to contribute to the site - if there's people here, such contributions won't go unnoticed.

I don't see any worth in introducing a new point system, ranking system, etc. There's already the karma system and the coin system (though I think people, like myself, tend to forget that it exists). As for the clans, I always liked the idea, but they can't really be a thing with the community being as small as it is. And honestly, with the GS fandom being as small as it is, it's pretty hard to make it a thing anywhere.

On another note, I can see I've learned a thing or two since I made that post... ehehe.

[Thunder-squall]

One reason I've stuck with the site was the potential to find more people who'd actually be willing to engage with technical stuff-- I.e. Majora who's given me some pointers on audio stuff.  It's the technical bent of the site that's kept me here. In contrast, I'm not even registered at the GSAR (though to be fair haven't even lurked there much).