Site Upgrade Complete!

[TechAngel85]

After some scares, a late night, and two days we are finally pleased to announce the completed release of "STEP 3.0"! The site has been successfully moved to a new server with updated software, features, and services.

Take note of our new URL: https://stepmodifications.org

 

Below are some notable changes:

Wiki Upgrades
To date, the STEP wiki has primarily been used for serving up our Skyrim modding and tool guides in addition to user-created guides and content. This infrastructure has been supported using Mediawiki and Semantic Mediawiki, and it has served its purposes pretty well. The latest Mediawiki software opens up more possibilities, enhancements, and features:

• Mediawiki - v1.21 --> v1.35 (LTS)
• Extension: Semantic Mediawiki - v1.18 --> v3.2
• Extension: CSS - we longer be supporting custom styling, so content creators will need to use other solutions that the new software will provide within the constraints of site themes. Please PM z929669 or TechAngel85 for more info.
• All other extensions upgraded

Forums Upgrade
The forums upgraded from Invision Power Board v3.4.6 to v4.5.4, which, as you can see, offers significant enhancements:

• A new forum structure that mirrors and supports our v3.0 setup for multi-game support.
• Enhanced security
  • We now have a Captcha solution during registration that is non-evasive, and two-factor authentication is optional.
• Auto-promotion for users that meant specific criteria.
• An event calendar that the community can use to list and track Step Modification and other modding events such as releases.
• HTML posting support via CKeditor (BB code is deprecated)
• Much better admin support and user features

Overall Upgrades
New Guides:

• New Skyrim SE v1.0.0 guide
• New Skyrim LE v3.0.0 guide - Unless a significant proportion of the community feels otherwise, this will be the final release of Step's SkyrimLE Guide. It will be supported perpetually.

The updated platform has the capacity to support guide creation and maintenance of multiple moddable games. This includes:

• Forum support for each supported game
• User-select-able, site-wide themes (Light, Dark, and Classic)
• Semantic Mediawiki-powered infrastructure for building STEP guides
• Significant improvements to mod inclusion into guides and guide flow using collapsible mod tables allows guide users to follow an entire guide without ever needing to navigate away from the page (except to obtain mod packages from providers)
• Games supported at launch:
  • Beyond Skyrim
  • Fallout 3
  • Fallout 4
  • Fallout New Vegas
  • Morrowind
  • Morroblivion
  • Oblivion
  • Skyblivion
  • Skyrim LE
  • Skyrim SE
  • Skyrim VR
  • Skywind
  • No Mans Sky

We WILL NOT have guides for all of these games at the outset. Nor will we have all relevant modding content, tools, and ancillary guides specific to each. Nevertheless, we WILL have the infrastructure to support guide creators/maintainers and related content. Those interested in creating and maintaining an official STEP guide for your favorite supported game, please PM z929669 or TechAngel85.