Have CA released Official Mod Tools?

**stupiddk** · May 02, 2009, 05:54 PM

I was just wondering when I could expect them to be released and if they have, where I can find them?

**S-te-Fan** · May 02, 2009, 06:12 PM

Nope, non are released yet.

**OneManShow** · May 03, 2009, 06:44 AM

Im sure they wont do it until they will release their own add-on, probably napoleonic or civil war. If they release mod tools now, they are sure some modders will create plenty napoleonic or civil war mod and they wont seel their new add-on

**l33tl4m3r** · May 11, 2009, 02:18 AM

Originally Posted by OneManShow

Im sure they wont do it until they will release their own add-on, probably napoleonic or civil war. If they release mod tools now, they are sure some modders will create plenty napoleonic or civil war mod and they wont seel their new add-on

I'd still buy it; one of the things that always comes with the expansions is expanded gameplay options.

If previous expansions are any indication we'll see new gameplay features, something modders cannot create, added to the game!

**PubliusKhannus** · May 11, 2009, 02:34 AM

Agreed with that Leet, there are certain hard-coding options modders can't change, most of the changes are purely aesthetic, though they go a helluva long way in creating a more dynamic atmosphere and experience.

**Kinjo** · May 13, 2009, 08:14 PM

ETW sucks for modding compared to M2TW!

**Condottiere SOG** · May 21, 2009, 01:48 PM

I like the modular part of it...but yeah that visuals are not as spectacular...but I can remember not wanting them to be that great in favor of gameplay and commenting to that effect. So I will say no more.

**Comrade the Colonel** · May 27, 2009, 08:29 PM

Originally Posted by Reiksmarshal

ETW sucks for modding compared to M2TW!

it does, and didnt they say it would be very easy to mod?

**hokomoko** · May 28, 2009, 02:50 AM

No one said it would be the easiest to mod.
They said it'd be the most moddable, which in some ways it is.

**Tobler75** · May 28, 2009, 07:32 AM

No there are no tools from CA in the moment and there won't be any tools released by CA until the Gameplay and Crashes will be fixed, so its stated in http://www.totalwar-zone.de/forum/thread.php?threadid=15790

Here the translation for those who couldn't understand the german:

"We do recommend the making of mods and we are pleased, that there are fine mods and tools from the society already.

It may be, that there will be a release of tools in future, but for now we're using our programmers for the fixing of bugfixes and performance..."

Thats kind of a clear statement for the modding community...

**JaM** · May 28, 2009, 12:10 PM

they should at least give us docudemon files so we would at least able to identify some values... c'mon CA its not that much...

**Tobler75** · May 28, 2009, 12:34 PM

A later post tells that the complete ETW was written by hand, without any tools, so there are no one to publish right away, but there's already a big quarrel in the german mooding community. At least CA asked us what tools we'd like to have. Maybe that's a startingpoint for a better cooperation between CA and the modding community, for instance I hope so

**Comrade the Colonel** · May 28, 2009, 07:37 PM

what they are doing is good. They should make sure that all the bugs are fixed before starting on the mod tools.

**Tobler75** · May 29, 2009, 05:10 AM

@Polite: yes, quite right, it's essential for mods, that the main game is free of bugs, according to this, CA should put all ressources on bugfixes. I'm sorry that there are no tools and that the documentations or error logs will not be published at the moment, but that only means that we#ve got to wait a little bit longer

**Bladerunner** · May 29, 2009, 05:45 AM

Hmmm i read there about they think what kind of tools they like to have, not the modders...

Thamis also wrote: "Zur Zeit befuerworten wir die Erstellung von Mods, und freuen uns, dass es bereits sehr gute Mods und auch Tools von der Community gibt." (At the Moment we are for making mods and are happy, that there exist already very good mods and also Mod-Tools by the Community)

What worries me is the beginning of the sentance: "zu Zeit" - At the Moment...

Does this mean, that this was different in the Past or that might change in the Future, if CA is ready with the Patches?

Additionally up to now, the help for Modding by CA is nearly not existing. Some minor issues might be answered, but nothing really important for now. Even the purposed Modding format, might be nice, but who ever tried to make a mod working online, knows, that it don't run that way.

I also doubt, that CA didn't have any tools to make ETW, as it would be horrible to do all the db-files without a tool. Minimum they need to have used Excel and some kind of Converter. The same is true for Maps and 3d-Models. There need to be a tool to make the maps and a converter to bring both Maps and Models into the right format for ETW.

They also need to have a documentation about the structure of the game. Otherwise i would worry about how CA would ever manage to patch the Game.

Going back to the Maps i wonder about the Change of Format between Demo and Game. While in the Demo, there were several Highmaps, Grassmaps and XML's in a Map-Folder (look at the Lordz-Maps as i suppose they worked with the Demo Format), this is reduced in the full game to two not readable files.
The announcement of FREE new units also fit the the impression i got from all those behaviors: CA is happy the Mods help to keep interest in the Game, till CA sorted out the Problems. But they imo plan to sell additional maps and Models via DLC in Steam (this is also supported by all players need to have a map to play it online).

**Tobler75** · May 29, 2009, 07:50 AM

I don't care about any comments of anyone at CA, i'll just wait for the results of their work

**Bladerunner** · May 29, 2009, 12:29 PM

I hope you are right, that this is just a bad impression by reading CA comments.
All i could read up to now was: "mayby someday, between next week and never, we realease some tools, but i can't tell what kind tools this will be..."
What i would like to get from CA are some real info about their idea of ETW, modding and the tools (hopefully they have one). No need to give a definite date of release, but an info if we will get any tools at all, what tools they could think of giving us and mayby a vague timeframe (something like "we'll make tools after patching is ready" or "not before we released an Add-On"). So something you can handle with.

**Tobler75** · May 29, 2009, 02:57 PM

Yes, a definite answer would be fine, but hoping for tools before the first Addon is a no go for me, while a little group works on bugfixes, the other group works on the Addon, there's definitely no one left for programming tools for modders like us, so we just got to wait till the first ( or even the second) addon is published, then we will get all the tools from CA. so it's a job for some programmers in our rows to help out CA and make something for us!

**l33tl4m3r** · May 30, 2009, 07:58 PM

At least the answers we get now are better than the answers in the beginning;

I believe we were once told that our community tools were already better than what they had for us!

We'll see though!