Distributing content

The Forum

The BFW forum is a good way to distribute small creations, like single multiplayer maps. Larger creations, like unit packs or campaigns, should be compressed before uploading them. Note that you may encounter a size limit on attachments.

Also, there is a legal announcement that you should read before distributing anything on the forum. Basically, by posting you say that you own the license to what you are posting, and that you are licensing it under the General Public License.

The Campaign Server

The campaign server is the preferred way to distribute your creations, but it is more suited for larger projects. It currently lacks advanced organization features such as filtering and reviewing, so adding hundreds of little things makes it harder to find anything. Basically, the server should not be used to post single maps, units, songs, or artwork, but map packs, campaigns, entire eras, music packs, and unit packs are fine.

Once you are ready to publish, here is how you access the campaign server:

Open Wesnoth
Select "Get Add-ons" from the main menu
Select "Publish Campaign: Your Campaign Name" (the last entry in the list of campaigns)

Template:DevFeature Version 1.5.1 has a bug hiding the last entry of these options. You can use 1.5.0 or trunk to upload an add-on. Another trick is to create (but not publish) a second dummy add-on with a name starting by 'z'. Because of the alphabetical order, this one will take the bad missing row, making accessible the option of your real add-on.

Anything you distribute on the server will be upload from and downloaded to the userdata/data/campaigns directory regardless of what it is (units, maps, campaign, etc). For this reason, you need three things in the campaigns directory to distribute via the server:

A .cfg file, for example MyCampaign.cfg
A .pbl file, for example MyCampaign.pbl
A folder, for example MyCampaign

General Reading

General information about the .pbl file - It has a campaign flavor, but it is adaptable to any content
Syntax reference for the .pbl file

Content-specific instructions

Campaign - see the Buidling Campaigns Article
- About distributing campaigns
Multiplayer era - see the MP Era Article
Unit pack - see the Units Article
Map pack - see the
Others?

(If I don't have BFW on the computer I'm working on, but I have it on a different computer, on which I don't Know how to find it's "./wesnoth/userdata" folder, how do I publish my Campaigns?-Drake Raider)

(To Find that folder, go into prefrences and make it in a window. Then at the top of the screen there should be a menu. Not at the top of the game screen but computer screen. Saerch the menu until you see user data folder.-Knight)

License

You should note that by uploading anything to the campaign server, you say that you own the license to all content in your upload and that it is under the GPL. Whenever you upload or update your content pack, you will have to say "OK" to this statement: "All campaigns uploaded to this server must be licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). By uploading content to this server, you certify that you have the right to placethe content under the conditions of the GPL, and choose to do so."