TheoTown

Hey everyone,

it is awesome to see to what extent the plugin ecosystem of TheoTown has developed in the past few years and how widespread they became, in particular after we added the Plugin Store.

However, after receiving complaints for approved plugin quality but also about unjustified disapprovals we want to think over the rules and guidelines for plugin uploads.


This thread aims to comprise a discussion about the quality for Plugin Store plugins that we should aim for. Please share your point of view on the matter in regard to what quality plugins of the Plugin Store should adhere to, why that is and how it could be accomplished. After all, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.

I really don't like it when you have to pay like 30 diamonds just for a small-ish house or something, I feel like there should be at least some control for the pricing of plugins. For example, if there's just a small house that costs 200 diamonds, the plugin should be disapproved with something like "the price is too high".

The Quality Control does results an quality products in the store, however some of it display inaccurate thumbnail of the actual product and some contain insufficient details for it in description, thus reducing its quality.

By this, maybe the description and thumbnail also need
to be.. umm, what's the word?. Watch, Aware, something like that I'm sorry. Anyway

It would be much better if we could understand the plugin before downloading it.

The26 wrote: ↑

18 Nov 2020, 23:33

I really don't like it when you have to pay like 30 diamonds just for a small-ish house or something, I feel like there should be at least some control for the pricing of plugins. For example, if there's just a small house that costs 200 diamonds, the plugin should be disapproved with something like "the price is too high".

It is the minimum price to pay

The26 wrote: ↑

18 Nov 2020, 23:33

I really don't like it when you have to pay like 30 diamonds just for a small-ish house or something, I feel like there should be at least some control for the pricing of plugins. For example, if there's just a small house that costs 200 diamonds, the plugin should be disapproved with something like "the price is too high".

Or 40

I think it is important to separate the high and low quality plugins. Creators will get more motivated if high plugins have high rewards. Maybe it's an idea to have grades based on the quality of a plugin.

Like A= Very good plugins
B= good plugins
C= mediocre plugins
D= bad plugins
F= stupid plugins

And we don't allow plugins below C

The_Real_Michael_1 wrote: ↑

19 Nov 2020, 14:30

Like A= Very good plugins
B= good plugins
C= mediocre plugins
D= bad plugins
F= stupid plugins

Yeah something like that

Plugin store indeed needs more quality control, and a rating systems for plugins creators would be a nice idem.

Another interesting idea would be the ability for plugins creators to upvote / promote an amount of plugins per weeks, based on their rating, and the plugins with the most upvotes would then be featured.

I think this would be quite a reward by itself to be recognised by talented plugins creators themselves and it would really encourage newcomers + allow for less visible plugins to be featured.

In order to prevent abuse of that system, a plugin would lose its ability to be upvoted after a certain time, allowing for newer plugins to be featured instead.

Perhaps plugins creators with an high enough rank (or any person with a special role or an approval from the plugin store staff) could also write guides, topics featuring plugins or similar content which would be found directly on the plugin store. Perhaps it could be made possible for plugin featuring topics to link directly to a plugin on the plugin store.

I could imagine a guide like "Themax favorite plugins of the week" just like some content creators do on cities skylines workshop sometimes.

Some plugins lack proper descriptions, some lack decent thumbnails, and some just blatantly spammed the exact same building to fill up their download counts.

I think what we really need are proper and competent plugin store moderators. Some of them just don't care and just approve each plugin that comes, even if they are broken, doesn't look even good, are literally stolen from somebody else or from a different game or don't have a thumbnail that shows the plugin itself (that actually breaks plugin store rules!).

The easiest solution would be to allow all plugins, make them all free by default, allow pricing only if the plugin is good enough.
Probably wouldn't be too great for the p2w concept.

All the plugins need to be tested. First by mods and admins, then it could be released if it had no problems like: bad textures, stolen textures, .json and .lua errors, bad thumbnails (anything other than the building, thumbnails with the building inspired from) etc.

how about the moderator can change the price to be free or 0 for "bad plugins"? it will make the creators can improve their ability and not continuously make the same things. "if you want diamonds, making a better from the last your plugins". but yeah, it will be need a competent moderators.

What do you think of this one?

It has no build or monthly price and gives off a kw of power.

I'm suggesting that the plugins are tested by honest mods first. They will check the quality of the plugin itself and if it works. If it doesn't meet the standards, it will be automatically demonitized or deleted if it's broken. And a voting system where the most plugin with the most votes will be popular. If that plugin has been popular for a week, it will be removed from popular category so other plugins can make it. The votes renew every week with the most popular plugins released a week after.

CommanderABab wrote: ↑

14 Dec 2020, 18:25

Screenshot_20201214-101625_TheoTown.jpgScreenshot_20201214-101709_TheoTown.jpgScreenshot_20201214-101727_TheoTown.jpg

What do you think of this one?

It has no build or monthly price and gives off a kw of power.

I think I have seen the guy who posted this plugin in the fb group advertising that clock landmark

You left out an n in management.

Not a fatal error, so I approved it. Please fix and update though.