As there isn't really a walkthrough style news post tutorial out there, I thought I may as well take and adapt our recently written internal tutorial to refer to when writing news as it can be difficult writing your first news when you don't have much of an idea what to do apart from seeing others news threads. Just follow the steps below and you should have a news post ready for scheduling


1 - Laying out the News Post

1.1 - Title
1.2 - Frontpage Text
1.3 - News Banner
1.4 - News Lead In

2 - Common Sections

2.1 - Image Sections
2.2 - Video Sections
2.3 - Information Sections

3 - Lead Out
4 - Related Links and Finish
5 - General Formatting Tips and Things to Check Before Posting



1 - Laying out the News Post
There are a number of different elements that make up a complete news post, ranging from the title to the related links. I've explained writing each of these below; the function to write a news post can be found as the Post News function in the options of your ModTeam CP.

• 1.1 - Title - The title should summarise in a few words what the news post is about to the community. In the Crymod news we generally add a prefix in square brackets to signify what kind of news post is being read. This will generally be any of the following, although of course for specialist news topics you'll need to invent your own.
  
  [WIP] - This should be used for a project that has not yet been covered before and is currently work in progress.
  [Update] - Use this for any kind of news where you're updating a previously featured project.
  [Release] - This should be used for a released asset or project.
  
  Once you've chosen your prefix, you'll need to add a few words to the title afterwards to complete the topic. This entirely depends on the news, so just remember to keep it concise (5-6 words at the most), and if in doubt ask someone who has written lots of news posts before. Examples include
  
  [Update] - Eclipse Mod Blade Weapon
  [WIP] - Crater PS Level Screenshots
  [Release] - Custom Vehicle Skins
  [Article] - IGN Talks Crysis Warhead With Cevat Yerli
  
  
  
  
• 1.2 - Frontpage Text - The frontpage text is the blurb that appears in the small box on the frontpage. This area of the news (marked as News Introduction) should be used to describe what the reader will find in the full post if he chooses to read it, as well as provide a bit of filler for the page. As with the title. the text will differ hugely with the topic, but here are a few examples that work well. Note: Although all the blurbs on the frontpage feature "..." at the end of the text, you do not need to add this in manually. The news posting feature will add this for you, so remember to keep the last sentence from punctuation at the end. A few examples are shown below; remember you'll be writing in the first person so refer to your team/mod as such.
  
  
  Quote:
  A variety of different custom skins have been produced to replace the stock nanosuit textures since the release of Crysis, and today we've got a real gem out of the selection to present. arthuro12 has spent the past few weeks working on a nanosuit "Wood Stealth" skin that helps the player and other nano-clad characters to blend in to the forests. Today we've got the latest media on this asset to present
  
  
  
  Quote:
  It's been almost 5 years since the release of Far Cry, and in that time the CryENGINE has moved rapidly forwards in its graphical potential. However, level designer Spay has gone back to the roots of the franchise and has developed a Crysis level that mirrors the graphical style of Far Cry; today we've got his work to show you
  
  
  
  Quote:
  In today's Crymod news we have another mod introduction to presenet to the community! Talented modder and staff member jlim has been working on a new mod concept, so today we have all his latest work to present on Souleon Storm
  
  
  
  
• 1.3 - News Banner - Each news post should have one of the available banners at the top to start the news layout. The banner should be a roughly 600x120 image (although sizes can vary), and is put above the news post itself; if you don't have your own team banner, feel free to use the Crymod banner below. The banners should be centre aligned and image linked as shown below.
  
  
  Code:
  [center][img]http://www.crymod.com/uploads/mediapool/modification_update.jpg[/img][/center]
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 1.4 - News Lead In - The Lead In serves a similar purpose to the frontpage text, and in some cases can be copied and pasted if what you've written fits in to both spaces, and then edited to make it read better as well as ensuring the two don't look too copy/pasted.. Essentially it welcomes the reader to that news post, and outlines what we'll be in the news post, with slightly more detail. Shown below are a few good examples of lead ins.
  
  
  Quote:
  Welcome to today's news update and another look at an exciting work in development modification entitled "Loop - Trapped In Sunshine Valley". Crymod forum member theanzelm has been hard at work developing this new mod and we would like to present you with some new features and a selection of ingame screenshots that the author has created so far.
  
  
  
  Quote:
  After their recent expansive ingame weapons update, the Trails of Deception mod team have updated the Crymod community with yet more news regarding their latest work! The team have spent the past weeks creating some fantastic new levels and assets to keep in fitting with their Star Wars universe; today we have their latest work to present to the community.
  
  
  
  Quote:
  Welcome to another Crymod update news on community member CyberAlien who has been spending the past months developing another flowcode based mod for Crysis entitled Survival Tournament. Today we've got some information and media on the upcoming modification.

2 - Common Sections
Generally speaking, news posts will contain one or more of a few different types of news sections, ranging from quoted text to videos. The subpoints below show how you should approach each of these types of sections when writing your news. The sections come after the lead in above, and you can feature as many of these as you want (within reason). Each section should also have a short heading which outlines what will be featured in that section. This is formatted in white underlined skyblue bold text; how this is done with the BBcode is shown below (remember to use the exact BBcode so that the headings stay the same for each news post.

New Screenshots

• 2.1 - Image Sections - This is generally the most common kind of section. Use this section if your news post contains any sort of image/images of the project.
  
  - Underneath the heading, include a paragraph or so of text that describes what is being shown in the images, progress since last time and other kind of filler stuff that you can add.
  - After the paragraph, include a row (maximum of three images per row) of image thumbnails that link to the full size images. You will need to make the thumbnails yourself as currently we have no automatic thumbnail creator on Crymod.
  - Make sure that all the thumbs in the same row are the same size exactly. I like to use 170x123 pixels as a good size for my thumbnails, but it can differ depending on how much cropping of the native image is required to produce the thumbnail.
  - All thumbs and images must be on the Crymod server; this prevents any kind of external image hosting site giving our news post dead links. To upload directly to the mediapool of the server, go to the attachments window in the news posting function, where you can upload the images and the function returns you the URL's of the image you've uploaded. It can be useful to give the date as a subfolder to avoid anyone overwriting your image in the future if there are any identically named images being uploaded (it has happened before).
  - Shown below is a good example image section.
  
  
  Code:
  [u][b][color=skyblue]Skin Screenshots[/color][/b][/u]
  Shown below are a small selection of screenshots that show off the amazing work done on the skin so far. Displayed in the images is the nanosuit blending incredibly well into the ingame environment, as well as a full detail shot showing what the skin looks like out of dense vegetation.
  
  [center]
  [url=http://www.crymod.com/uploads/mediapool/090224cs/image2.jpg][img]http://www.crymod.com/uploads/mediapool/090224cs/image2.png[/img][/url] [url=http://www.crymod.com/uploads/mediapool/090224cs/image1.jpg][img]http://www.crymod.com/uploads/mediapool/090224cs/image1.png[/img][/url] [url=http://www.crymod.com/uploads/mediapool/090224cs/image3.jpg][img]http://www.crymod.com/uploads/mediapool/090224cs/image3.png[/img][/url]
  [/center]
  
  
  
  Quote:
  Skin Screenshots
  Shown below are a small selection of screenshots that show off the amazing work done on the skin so far. Displayed in the images is the nanosuit blending incredibly well into the ingame environment, as well as a full detail shot showing what the skin looks like out of dense vegetation.
  
  

  
  
  
• 2.2 - Video Sections - You will also find videos are included a lot in news post; these are easier to feature as they don't require the down/uploading of images to add. However you have to know how to embed the videos correctly, as well provide additional video information.
  
  - As with the images, include a short paragraph describing what the video is and what is shown in the clip.
  - Provide a link for viewing the higher quality/larger version on the video's page on whatever site the video is hosted on.
  - To embed the video, you'll need to either use the Crymod BBcode for that video, or get the flash video file from the html embed code and put that in videoext tags. Shown below is an example of how to embed the popular types of video into a post.
  - If you're trying to embed a video from a site that doesn't supply the simple .flv/.swf file in its html code, then paste the entire html embed code into the post and ask an admin to activate html in that post so that the video embeds correctly.
  
  
  Code:
  Host: YouTube
  Video URL: http://www.youtube.com//watch?v=IzgSaagHvSw
  Crymod Embed Code: [center][youtube]IzgSaagHvSw[/youtube][/center]
  Method: Crymod BBCode Embed
  [youtube]IzgSaagHvSw[/youtube]
  
  
  
  
  Code:
  Host: Veoh
  Video URL: http://www.veoh.com/videos/v16977808FcXqfmmH
  Crymod Embed Code: [center][veoh]v16977808FcXqfmmH[/veoh][/center]
  Method: Crymod BBCode Embed
  [veoh]v16977808FcXqfmmH[/veoh]
  
  
  
  
  
  Code:
  Host: DailyMotion
  Video URL: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k4NIOiMnm8Q5CBKp7D
  Crymod Embed Code: [center][videoext=420,336]http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/k5YgtpgN0K8tF6Kp7D[/videoext][/center]
  Method: Take resolution and source video file from the HTML embed code and insert between [videoext] tags.
  [videoext=420,336]http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/k5YgtpgN0K8tF6Kp7D[/videoext]
  
  
  
  
  Shown below is an example of a good video section.
  
  
  Quote:
  Demonstration Video
  As well as the fantastic screenshots, he's also been kind enough to record an in-game video that shows off the snake in action in a custom level. Shown below is the embedded version, but you can find the full sized version on DailyMotion here.
  
  

  [videoext=420,336]http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/k5YgtpgN0K8tF6Kp7D[/videoext]
  
  
  
  
  
• 2.3 - Information Sections - These are used generally for large mod/level projects where the author(s) have released information or a description about the mod that is worth presenting on the frontpage along with the media. It can also be used for quoting information about a weapon for example from Wikipedia, so that the community understand some of the basic information about that asset.
  
  - Before quoting the text, make sure you have a short description of who the text was quoted from and briefly summarise what it contains.
  - To quote the text, put the entire passage between quote tags, and italicise the entire extract. This differentiates it from the rest of the article making the whole post look more organised.
  - Shown below is a good example of an information section in a news post.
  
  
  
  
  
  Quote:
  Mod Update
  To kick off this news update, we have a short statement from the mod leader regarding the mods progress.
  
  

  Quote:

  Quick Update
  Not a great deal to say, only that work continues well and we should be on target for our promised updates quite soon.
  
  What I'm working on
  1. I have been writing a lot recently and the fruits of this labour will be used to give greater depth and context to the coming updates. I decided that giving esoteric quotes and historical details was probably somewhat off-putting to a lot of people without a greater sense of the world as it is lived in. To present the world in a fuller light has been my goal.
  
  2. I, with my brother, have been developing and filming a wide variety of combat techniques. We have so far filmed around 80-85 individual combat sequences. The current focus is "grappling-type" counters in which the defender aims to control the weapon of the attacker and then either simply finish them off or disarm them.
  
  We have so far developed techniques for an unarmed fighter to use in countering a longsword (two handed, between 45 and 52 inches long), an arming sword (one handed, 35-40 inches long) and a spear (6-8 feet long). We have also created defences for the use of a fighter armed with a knife and with an arming sword. Future weapon types include axes and blunt weapons and the use of shields.
  
  We are creating these more complex techniques (which will require a fair amount of skill to use) as a test for our combat system as planned. We will soon be moving on to the simpler "block, parry, strike" style of techniques which will be far easier to develop.
  
  In devising these techniques we have drawn on many years of training in Ju-jitsu (a 16th Century Japanese martial art designed for use by samurai against armed, unarmed, armoured and unarmoured opponents) and on our more recent exposure to Medieval martial arts which are currently experiencing somewhat of a revival. It is this cross-cultural examination that has revealed the, often incredible, similarities between martial arts from opposite sides of the earth. It is this similarity that has somewhat vindicated our use of a Japanese system as our basis.
  
  Well, I hope that this update has shed some light on an otherwise dim period of development!

3 - Lead Out
The lead out from a news post should give users who were interested in the piece of news they just read more information on how they can find out more or give some feedback. It should also link to the forum thread in this text so that the majority of the questions go in the forum thread rather than the news post thread. The lead out follows the final section which you have created. A few good examples of a lead out is quoted below.







4 - Related Links and Finish
The final thing in the news post should be the related links section. This section should provide readers with any links that would interest them or prove useful after having read the post. Things that should be included in related links (if they are available are:

- Forum Thread: (the Crymod forum thread)
- Dev Site: (the website for the project/team if they have one)
- ModDB: (the Crymod/ModDB.com entry
- Full Sized Video: (a link to the larger video on its native page elsewhere)
- Download: (a link to the download page if available)
- Other: (any other link made prevalent in the news post)


They should be formatted as shown above, except the actual link should be there instead of the bracketed text. The "Related Links" title that goes above the list should be bold and underlined, but not skyblue. After the related links, the post should be signed off with a "- [ModName] Mod Team" to show that your team is behind the news post. Shown below is a good example of a related links section.




5 - General Formatting Tips and Things to Check Before Posting

• Try to format all usernames in bold skyblue font. Example = Cry-McGinge
• When linking to places, try to hyperlink text rather than post raw links. For example, post Crymod instead of http://www.crymod.com
• Try and make sure that all your thumbnails (if you're using any) link to the correct images and not dead links.
• If you have any questions or problems - ask a moderator/admin!

Cool :cheesy:

does this mean anyone can post news in the news forum?

i thought people werent allowed to post there

The very obvious answer to that is,try it.

You can (not sure if this is still true) submit a news post written by your mod team for review and publication

As we don't currently have a mod section, that will be difficult

Will update/unlock once we have everything setup.

Cheers!