My solution to Apolyton's problems

[Locutus]

Lately we've been having problems lot's of problems with Apolyton (databases down, forums overcrowded, server dead or dying, corrupted attachments, etc). I think I can offer the CtP2 community a solution for most of these problems (all but the forums being too crowded problem but those day's aren't too likely to return and we still have CivFanatics as backup there). I signed myself up at Spaceports, a free web host that offers unlimited space for websites. I did this because I wanted to have a place where I could upload some large files that I can't upload to my Uni website (it has a limit of 10 MB or something). I also imagined it could serve as sort of a back-up/replacement of the Apolyton CtP2 File Database as that database is down too often and updated too rarely And, with this corrupted attachments problem, this space could also very well be used to store files people would like to make available in the forums. I'm more than happy to open my account to everyone for this reason and to allow others to upload files to it as well (in fact, I registered with this in mind). Kind of like the CtP2 File Database except that everyone is a database manager (To some extend Dave's website already has this function too but it has a limited capacity and people have to go through the trouble of emailing him and asking him to post the files for them)

So, if you have files that you wish to make publicly available (temporarily or permanently; small attachments or entire mods) but you don't have a place to upload them to, feel free to use my site. To upload files to it, you can use FTP: with your favorite FTP utility at galileo.spaceports.com (username: apolyton, password: GXU2jZA9), or via your browser (works for IE, I *think* for Netscape too but I'm not 100% sure) at ftp://apolyton:GXU2jZA9@galileo.spaceports.com/ (those guys really know how to protect a password ). In case you didn't know, all files should be located in (a subfolder of) public_html or they won't be available online. But before you upload anything, please read the (brief) readme file in that same folder.

Once a file have been uploaded by someone, it can be downloaded from http://galileo.spaceports.com/~apolyton (the exact location of the file has to be announced by the person who uploaded the file, see the aforementioned readme). At this location, I also made a small website with some SLIC info and some files to download (nothing new or special, just (some of) the same stuff that's on my Uni account). I plan to add more stuff to that as well, such as a (partial) back-up/replacement of the CtP2 File Database and some pages with useful info on modmaking, SLIC, etc (basically convert all the existing files (by me, IW, Hexagonian, Activision, etc) to HTML format and later on maybe add some new stuff. I also plan on permanently keeping back-ups of important threads there (such as 'Conversations with Azmel'), so that these threads can easily be recovered if needed and will still be available when Apolyton is not. Any suggestions for stuff that I should add to this site is of course more than welcome.

[Martin Gühmann]

OK here is the first submission to the CtP2 Modmaker's Depot. At first I created a subfolder with my name but I felt as I am not the author of this file, that a better place for this file would be the Database and I felt that CTP2 files need an own subfolder therefore I created a CtP2 subfolder in the Database subfolder and put the servers.dat file into this new folder.

Originally, I downloaded this file from The Call To Power 2 Temple, but it looks that this page does not exist anymore. I also mirrored this file on my own homepage. Just to be shure in the case that one of these pages are not available temporarily.

The link is:

http://galileo.spaceports.com/~apolyton/Database/CtP2/servers.zip

Actual this servers.dat is really missing in the CTP2 Apolyton DataBase.

By the way I would use google to search for something like WS_FTP. Originally Klaus Kaan gave me the link for my FTP utility. This FTP utility allows to transfer files from your computer to another computer and you can manipulate the content on a webpage as well, like adding/deleting files/directories... Oh and you can download files as well. If you have the password and the log in.

-Martin

[Immortal Wombat]

Originally posted by Martin Gühmann
By the way I would use google to search for something like WS_FTP. Originally Klaus Kaan gave me the link for my FTP utility. This FTP utility allows to transfer files from your computer to another computer and you can manipulate the content on a webpage as well, like adding/deleting files/directories... Oh and you can download files as well. If you have the password and the log in.

That's the program I use, and its easy to use, and fast as well.

(It got 95% rating from 7500 reviews on http://www.downloads.com - the best of all FTP programs there)

[Immortal Wombat]

In Dale's absence, I've uploaded his Capture City, AirUnit, Withdraw scripts and also Diplomod v3.5.
Would they be better in Dale directory, or SLIC central?

(I have an index page for Dale's mods from my site if it would help. The layout's bad, the colour's rubbish, but it'll do I think.)

[Locutus]

Great, good to see people are appreciating and actually using this.

I use WS_FTP myself as well (that is, whenever I don't just use the standard Windows text-based FTP utility) but from what I understand CuteFTP is slightly more userfriendly for non-computer savvy people (then again, I don't think many people in the Creation forum fall in this category ). I'm kind of surprised WS_FTP actually has a higher score on downloads.com, IIRC that wasn't the case last time I checked (then again, that was at least 2 years ago ).

As far as the Dale files, I figure their best place would be in the Database, but the Dale folder is fine too (if Dale doesn't like it, he can kick them out anytime he wants...). I'll simply add links to the from the Database HTML file. The CtP2 folder is probably also a good idea, I only thought of creating seperate folders after I had already uploaded the 1,3 MB unitcreation.zip and I was too lazy to create the folder and move that file (not even sure if that's possible with the standard Windows FTP program, might even require uploading it again) I'll move it later tonight or tomorrow...

Edit: BTW Ben, I'll add links to other websites soon as well: I added that links section at the last moment and didn't have much time left, and Apolyton's URL was the only one I knew by heart Gee, after reading your guestbook entry I realized that of the hard-core CtP2 modmakers of the moment Peter is the only one who doesn't have his own website - should we pity or disdain him for being inferior?

[WesW]

The Stonehenge avi needs to be moved from David's site onto this new site sometime. If you guys will do this, I will edit my page to link to it.
The one time I tried to delete a file since the server move, I could not do it, so I don't know if I can currently edit my homepage or not.

[Immortal Wombat]

Okay, they can stay where they are.
I figured you'd add the links some time anyway. When I was writing the links page for my site I realised how many sites there are .

BTW, have you seen John Bytheway's guide to CtP scenario design? It works quite well with Dave's modding guide as a complete guide to making scenarios, and needs little adaption for CtP2.

[Locutus]

Wes, I'll upload the Stoney from Uni Monday, I have a faster (and cheaper, i.e. free ) connection there.

Originally posted by Immortal Wombat
Okay, they can stay where they are.
I figured you'd add the links some time anyway. When I was writing the links page for my site I realised how many sites there are .

The HTML file that came with Dale's files, did you put that together, Ben, or did was that an already existing file? (If you made it, I would like to edit it to match the layout of the rest of the site, if it's an existing file I guess I'll leave it alone).

Yeah, I figured that out too about the links. I'm not sure though whether I should include ALL CtP-related sites or just the ones that are relevent for modmaking. For now I'm going with the latter, I might add the rest later...

BTW, have you seen John Bytheway's guide to CtP scenario design? It works quite well with Dave's modding guide as a complete guide to making scenarios, and needs little adaption for CtP2.

Yeah, already converted it to HTML (d*mn, that was a lot of work - I figured I'd simply use Word for it but Word s*cks: completely screwed up the layout). I don't wanna put it on the site before I have John's permission though (I might have already uploaded it with a whole batch of other files, but I haven't linked to it from anywhere)...
As far as adaptation goes: I might do that at some later time. I've decided to cover both C:CtP and CtP2 anyway, so the current version has to be there anyway.

BTW, I made some major additions to the site today (or yesterday, depending on your time zone), in case anyone wants to check them out (HTML files aren't completely done yet, in part because I'm awaiting authorization from various authors).

[Ekmek]

CuteFTP usage

I was able to get on with CuteFTP. For anyone not familiar with it I'll provide quick info so they can get on.

1) Just use the wizard. Use OTHER as the port

2) for the site use this: galileo.spaceports.com/~apolyton

3) username: apolyton

4) password: GXU2jZA9

and then the explorer interface is up.


Locutus, I began adding my files. At first I was trying to add all of the data which I know is huge, but do you have a rough estimate of how much space we have available?

thanks

[Locutus]

Re: CuteFTP usage

Originally posted by E
Locutus, I began adding my files. At first I was trying to add all of the data which I know is huge, but do you have a rough estimate of how much space we have available?
thanks

As much as we need, there is no limit. However, you only have 20MB available at a time. Once you've filled that up you can go to config.spaceports.com and request more space (I haven't done this yet so I don't know exactly how this works).

[Locutus]

E,
Just saw your folder on FTP, it should be a subfolder of public_html, not of the root (otherwise it won't be accessible from the web. I'm moving it for you...

[Immortal Wombat]

Originally posted by Locutus
The HTML file that came with Dale's files, did you put that together, Ben, or did was that an already existing file? (If you made it, I would like to edit it to match the layout of the rest of the site, if it's an existing file I guess I'll leave it alone).

I made it from Dale's readme files. Edit it all you want, its rubbish.

[Ekmek]

Locutus,

Thanks for moving the folder. I did a login and saw that our website has 19.9 MB of our 20MB quota. I'm trying to upload now. All of my Civ3 graphic files comes to about 43MB so if requesting its gotta be more than that. I figure they won't be up long because onlya few people are interested in making Civ3 sprites.

[Martin Gühmann]

I just downloaded the whole Civ3 graphics stuff. It is very comfortable to do it with ws_ftp. I also tried to upload something but the page is now full, so you need more space.

-Martin

[Locutus]

Bah! Turns out the request thingie is crap: they process requests manually (and I'll bet they're not gonna like it when you request more space every 2 weeks), you have to give good argumentation what you need the space for, make certain code changes to all your pages, etc, etc... I can't be bothered with all that so I'm trying to move the site to a different server. Many of the unlimited space servers have not survived the collapse of the add market of a few months ago (or at least don't offer unlimited space anymore or don't accept new members) but there are still some out there. Might take a few days though to find a suitable site and register there (I've got 2 registration requests going right now). Meanwhile, I removed some of the larger files from the server so if you want to upload (small) files, you can now do that again...