Site Downloads Renovation

[Lord_Chris 267]

I'm pleased to announce that after a small (and complex) renovation, the site downloads section is now back online and running as usual. You can now submit your files to us again.

Not much has visually changed, however there have been massive changes behind the scenes that have taken many hours to complete. I've essentially rewritten the entire downloads section from the ground up and restructured all of the database tables, which is not easy considering it's live data. One of the major changes I've been able to make is the addition of a number of options available for each file your submit.

Prior to the change, each download section had a number of set inputs of: estates, map balance, number of missions, and map difficulty (slightly different for CivCity Rome with Mission Type and Map Size). I'm pleased to announce that after putting considerable thought into design improvements, each download section now has unique field inputs tailored to that game. These are:

Stronghold

• Difficulty
• Balanced
• Number of Missions
• Number of Players
• Map Size

Stronghold Crusader

• Difficulty
• Balanced
• Number of Missions
• Number of Players
• Map Size

Stronghold 2

• Number of Estates
• Difficulty
• Map Type
• Balanced
• Number of Missions
• Number of Players

CivCity Rome

• Difficulty
• Mission Type
• Map Type
• Number of Missions

Stronghold Legends

• Number of Estates
• Difficulty
• Map Type
• Balanced
• Number of Missions
• Number of Players

Stronghold 3

• Number of Estates
• Difficulty
• Balanced
• Number of Missions
• Map Size
• Mission Type
• Random Events
• Number of Players

Stronghold Crusader 2

• Number of Estates
• Difficulty
• Balanced
• Number of Missions
• Map Size
• Mission Type
• Random Events
• Number of Players

The files that have already been submitted to us have data available only for the options which have already been input. However, if you go to update your files, you will now be able to populate the additional data which we have available. I'm hoping this will provide more information for users when they try to download files.

I've also refactored the submission form as well. Tags are obsolete, and the site will now programmatically determine which keywords are relevant to your file and generate them by itself. You also have the option to subscribe to your file upon submission now. You can subscribe afterwards once it has been approved by visiting your file's page, but you can also subscribe right away if you want and get notified when it's approved.

In addition to this, based on feedback submitted by @Krarilotus and other members, I've changed the way downloads are submitted. Once you hit submit, a loading spinner will appear and you will be unable to do anything until the submission is complete. If you switch to another browsing tab during the upload, then the page title will animate informing you that the file is still submitting, so that you don't accidently close the tab.

We also have a malware scanner now. While all files are downloaded and checked for safety reasons, I felt it was important to protect everyone as much as possible from any kind of threat. All files are scanned on upload to the site.

As well as this, I've also added a number of new security measures, including file checks to ensure downloads are legitimate. Many other things have been optimised and improved, but I hope you guys notice a difference in how things are running. I'd like to thank all the members who have provided input into the new downloads system, and everyone for their patience while I've been busy working on this.

I've tested everything thoroughly but as always there may be one or two small outstanding issues, if you can identify the cause or find an error message please shoot me a PM and I'll get anything fixed ASAP.

[EaglePrince 233]

Glad to see all those nice changes which are going to make the downloads section even better.🙂