Hi everyone, it has been a very long time since I've last posted, but I've saw all of this, and I needed to say something.
1) It warms my heart when the old school modders of SHS take appreciation for the newer system, so that we still play your old mods for everyone to enjoy. I can't see myself playing EET without Darkside, Dark Horizons, and many other mods.
2) I wish you all didn't fight like this, there is nothing to be gained. Personally the hate for EE is unwarranted, and don't you all remember a long long time ago you all struggled to work with the original engine to be where it is today for the original BGT? EE on the other hand offers a more up-to-date system to keep up with technology, and that was sorely needed. You guys are expert coders, and something like this should be just easy, and maybe there will be times it can get newly complicated, but that is part of the fun.
3) People are most likely on newer hardware & software these days, and as this advances, the less compatibility BGT would have gotten since it needs older software which has long since lost support, that does not help both modders & players. The revival of the series into Enhanced Editions greatly solved many issues regarding that, but while offering new problems that will need to get fixed.
4) Consider the fact Beamdog basically generated a new generation of Modders, I know a lot of you guys will not be around this scene forever as if I recall...many of the veterans since the beginning have retired..though thankfully there is still some that stick around to offer modding support.
Aside from all this..I just want to say something that's been on mind as well, I feel sometimes the more you guys delay fixing your mods, the less likely you will ever get around to it. To this day some mods, and even ones still currently in Beta that they still suffer from some issues, and these issues have been around for a few years now (though evidence suggest a sluggish, but successful pace is being made since last year). To us players, we're not really getting any younger, and eventually we would probably move on to something else or just simply play the game in it's vanilla state seeing as there is no point to keep waiting for another year. Usually modding communities are never this sluggish, and I find that to be a bad sign. Maybe it is a unfair assessment, I understand that most modders have a life, but it is always good to have a 2nd or 3rd man (or woman) in charge if you have to be away for awhile. That way there is continuous support with no long stops because that is what has been happening for a long time now.
There is exceptions to the norm, but those modders are rare.
The goal should be here to try to get most of the old mods (on BWS) fixed properly without stops in-between. Once we are sure the mods are fixed once, and for all then we can concentrate converting, and introducing other mods.
The Mega Mods, Quest Mods, and Ascension should be the first step to make sure we can at least squash bugs that cause major problems (either recently, and bugs that have yet to be squashed for years). The players likely would want those mods the most aside from Stratagems, but of course that is my opinion on the matter. There is also the issue with the Area Maps that need to be fixed that cause horizontal lines that many mods suffer from, and that has been a major thorn in the side for EE Modding.
On a Final Note on the subject:
If the number of modders have dwindled from SHS, G3, and elsewhere then the best thing to do is gather the manpower, and focus on one mod at a time, and then proceed to the next, and then the next. Let's say for example The Darkest Day was the most bug ridden mod, but with all that manpower on one project that it will cut the time down than it would normally take when it's just a few people to fix it up properly, players reporting in would be a bit of a bonus to help speed things up. I recommend having events like this only on the weekends where most people are free, and on the week days the man power would spread out, and do their own thing, but comeback together again on the weekend to squash bugs in a big mod.
Also I encourage the use of Modding Test Saves to be used, so everybody is on the same level (Your BWS has to have the same setup as the other users in order for the testing to be accurate, and elimination of false errors). I'm ignorant on this subject however because I don't know if it's possible to use Modded Saves in other Modded EETs. The benefit of this would be so that people don't have to sluggishly get back to the part of the game where the testing would be begin, it would cut down a lot of time for everyone.
Alternatively...
We can run Multiple Mods instead of one mod for a Community Playthrough on the weekend too which would bring faster results, and eliminate multiple bugs rather than just squashing bugs from just one mod.
Also this would help Alien out as he would have the most reports on the weekends, and the regularly usual reports on the weekdays for BWS.