The workshop is accessed in the ContentTool in a separate dialog box, which can be called up in the ContentTool main menu with the "Workshop" button. The tool itself does not have to be logged into the LOTUS server, but the Steam client does.
1 Managing
1.1 Overview
On the left of the workshop dialog box is a list of your own workshop articles. As soon as you have more than 50 articles, the list is divided into several pages. The page change is then controlled under the list and there you can also read the current page number.
As soon as an article is selected, further information - especially the uploaded containers - is displayed, the buttons for editing this dialog box are activated on the right and a red or green square indicates whether the article is already publicly visible or still hidden and thus only visible to you.
1.2 Create item
To do this, simply click on the appropriate button and then enter the name and description. Important: It is allowed that several articles have the same name. I.e. however also that it is not checked whether the entered name is already assigned! However, attention should be paid to this, because otherwise the articles in the list can no longer be distinguished.
Important: In order to use the workshop as a developer, you must first confirm an agreement with Steam. As soon as you have created your first article, a message will appear to inform you of this and you will be redirected to the corresponding Steam website. There you have to log in and confirm this agreement.
Unless you agree with it, you cannot publish downloads via the Steam platform.
1.3 Changing name or description
To do this, simply select the item on the left and click the corresponding button on the right.
1.4 Uploading content
Once an article has been created, containers can now be uploaded. For this purpose, the MyContent folder in the LOTUS directory including its subfolders is searched and a list of all container files (*.lct) is displayed. There you can check the containers that should belong to this article. After confirming the list, the current version of these containers is immediately uploaded to the Steam server.
If containers have already been uploaded, they are already checked in the container list! Do not remove this checkmark, otherwise this container will be deleted from the workshop article! After confirming, all checked containers - even those that were already in the workshop article - will be uploaded again in the current version. A container that is already in the workshop cannot be kept in its old version.
1.5 Uploading preview images
A preview image can be uploaded with the corresponding button. It should be in the format 16:9. It is allowed to use a high resolution - although the images are automatically scaled down for the Steamworkshop, the interested party can still display the image in full size.
1.6 Creating dependencies
As a map developer, sooner or later you will find yourself in the situation of using scenery objects or splines that are not part of the LOTUS standard scope, but are part of another workshop article (from another developer or from yourself).
In this case Steam offers to set up dependencies; the Map Workshop article "MapX" is then told that it will only work if you also subscribe to the Object Workshop article "ObjY". As soon as this is done, the Steam Workshop will show that "ObjY" is needed and also whether "ObjY" has already been subscribed to. Also, a corresponding warning appears as soon as you subscribe to "MapX", although "ObjY" has not yet been subscribed.
These dependencies can be set up in the ContentTool: To do this, first select the workshop article "MapX" in the main list of the workshop dialog box. Clicking the "Dependencies" button opens another dialog box with two lists. Here you can search for other workshop articles in the upper list - in our case of course for "ObjY". Then you can use the corresponding button between the two lists to add it to the lower list, which means that the article is now set up as a dependency in the Steam Workshop.
1.7 Visibility
In order to be able to configure your workshop article in peace at first and perhaps even to release it only on a certain date/time for marketing reasons, articles are initially created "hidden"; it is then only visible to the owner in the workshop.
To make the article visible, click on the corresponding button - if you click on it again, it will be hidden again.
1.8 Further settings
Steam offers a large number of other features. To configure these, click on the "More Settings" button to switch over to the Steam client to the configuration page for the currently highlighted item and make further configurations there.
