MTS2:Creator Guidelines/Majors

Creator Guidelines - Majors

The quality of uploads in this forum has come to staff attention, and while many files themselves are pretty much up to par, the upload posts in particular need desperate attention.

Creation requirements for all majors

• Unless your major is specifically intended to overwrite a Maxis major, it ABSOLUTELY MUST have a registered custom GUID
• Description, Title, and Classes must be new, unique, and inventive. Make sure you check that you have hit "Clear All Languages" before you upload, or your file will not work properly with non-US English games!
• If you use a custom icon, make it the right colour. You can clone the colour from the original icon using your eyedropper tool. For those with graphics knowledge, this is the RGB value: R:5 G:6 B:113
• If you use BCONs to alter skill requirements, test them thoroughly before you upload. I know from personal experience what a mess these can create if you don't get them perfect!!

Uploading Guidelines

The following information must be included in all Major upload posts:

• Major title and description, and class names
• Whether or not it overwrites another major. If it does: you must state which major it overwrites. If it doesn't: you should provide the unique GUID used for your major
• If you used BCONs to alter skill requirements, you should state which skills you focussed on
• The icon used for the major: attaching it is sufficient, you don't need to include it in the post - although of course you may do so if you wish. If you created your icon in a program which uses lurid pink to show transparency, put it on a white background. Otherwise downloaders will see that horrific background colour and think "Ah... OK... I really don't want that in my game".
• The careers your major links to. This depends on the Maxis major you cloned from - you can find the major/career table on page 9 of your Uni manual.
• It is a good idea to link to FrikaC's Majors Made Easier in your post.
• Any other information you feel is necessary/useful.

Tagging

All new major threads will be checked by staff according to these criteria, as well as existing threads - which will be worked through periodically as time allows. I shall post in threads which do not comply with these rules, to provide suggestions for improvement. If they are not fixed within a week, or if we receive no indication that the creator is working on fixing things, they will be tagged. I am doing this simply to help improve the quality of the majors section. If I tag one of your threads and you disagree with my opinion, please tell me - either in the thread or via PM - I'm open to your opinions, bear in mind that I'm trying to improve the quality of downloads in this forum, in keeping with MTS2's famous high standards, I am NOT looking for a reason to delete your thread!!

Other Notes

• If your thread is deleted while you are on holiday/otherwise indisposed, feel free to re-upload, and also to PM me to ask what was wrong with your original post.
• When you're looking for inspiration, check the Majors forum to see if your idea has been done before. There is nothing wrong with having, say, two Fashion majors - as long as they are different enough to both be worth downloading - perhaps a Post-modern fashion major and a 1960's one - what we don't need is two almost identical files!!

A message from Whiterider

I am a creator too, for a long time majors were the only things I created, and I was (as far as I know) the first person to break into and manipulate BCONs for Majors. Custom majors tend to be overlooked, but they can add some great variety to the game. I want as many fantastic downloads in this forum as possible!! As such, if you need any help, ideas, or testing, feel free to PM me on site.

Credits

Whiterider for the original article.