Will we receive free Mod tools like what Bethesda gave The Elder Scrolls and Fallout 3?

[Grimstoned]

I know they haven't in the past. Just wondering if CA ever mentioned something like a construction set.

[TSD]

I know they haven't in the past. Just wondering if CA ever mentioned something like a construction set.

Though it would be nice to have a GUI based editor like that, making it easier for people who never had the patience to learn to mod, be able to do the simpler things on their own, but I doubt it.

[Grimstoned]

So Mod makers that have "patience" wouldn't find a tool like that useful? I had no idea

[TSD]

So Mod makers that have "patience" wouldn't find a tool like that useful? I had no idea

I never said it wouldn't be useful for modders, was just pointing out it would open an avenue for people that have no experience in the area. Even on that token its a matter of opinion, whats easy and convenient for one person may be restricting to another. For example (im a software developer) my company has an app for editting parms in xml files (we use alot of xml files for configs) basically you open an xml file with it and you select a parameter with a radio button and enter the value you want it to be in a text box and save. I for one just think its quicker and easier to open the xml, ctr+f to the parm your looking for and plug in the new value. Its a matter of taste and what your comfortable with.

Now a gui for editting the modeldb like files I wouldnt mind, was always annoying editting a bunch of models, only to crash on start up parsing through your work to find you tacked an extra character on a line or something.

[Grimstoned]

I never said it wouldn't be useful for modders, was just pointing out it would open an avenue for people that have no experience in the area. Even on that token its a matter of opinion, whats easy and convenient for one person may be restricting to another. For example (im a software developer) my company has an app for editting parms in xml files (we use alot of xml files for configs) basically you open an xml file with it and you select a parameter with a radio button and enter the value you want it to be in a text box and save. I for one just think its quicker and easier to open the xml, ctr+f to the parm your looking for and plug in the new value. Its a matter of taste and what your comfortable with.

Now a gui for editting the modeldb like files I wouldnt mind, was always annoying editting a bunch of models, only to crash on start up parsing through your work to find you tacked an extra character on a line or something.

I see. Thats relative to a small about of the total mod ability. Also we don't know what the new tool would look like or be capable of. So we really cant argue it. And you really can't say you would rather edit the file manually over using the tool. Because the Tool does not exist.

[JaM]

kinda doubdt CA will ever release construction kit. They never did it before.

[Grimstoned]

kinda doubdt CA will ever release construction kit. They never did it before.

They also never used Steam before. A tool like that could only help grow the fan base of this game even more. Official tools for mods =

[Rabid]

They also never used Steam before. A tool like that could only help grow the fan base of this game even more. Official tools for mods =

Um, some of you obviously havn't had a steam game before.. mods are rare... modding tools are even more so.

http://store.steampowered.com/search/?category1=997

37 mods out of howmany games? lets see

http://store.steampowered.com/search...&category1=998

imo steam is more about copyrite protection and sales.. not modding

sorry to say this but it's very likely that we're on our own.. oh and i'm not sure how steam will respond to a modded game file.. chances are that file will be corrected when steam forces you to go online after awhile, and naturally it will force you to update ETW.

personally, I believe we fans got the shaft

just my 2cents

[random_samurai]

They plan on releasing a set of tools, unfortunately, the release has been mention as "soon" after the game launched. I highly doubt we'll see anything this month or even through April.

Anim asks: What will the mentioned modding tools for Empire: Total War contain and when will they be released?
Kieran Brigden: Primarily, and of most importance, Empire is moddable without tools. I imagine a large number of people will write their own basic editors for a variety of parts of the game and its also possible to edit it with other basic apps. Our own dev tool-set isn't for public release as its not UI friendly and is internal software, so the answer there is 'soon' but the game is moddable without tools, although there are some functions for which users may want to write their own tools in the short term.


Based on the difficulty we're having from the beginning (not even knowing where to find the equivalent of a descr_strat) it might even be after April before we see any "dev tools"

[Korvus77]

They plan on releasing a set of tools, unfortunately, the release has been mention as "soon" after the game launched. I highly doubt we'll see anything this month or even through April.

Anim asks: What will the mentioned modding tools for Empire: Total War contain and when will they be released?
Kieran Brigden: Primarily, and of most importance, Empire is moddable without tools. I imagine a large number of people will write their own basic editors for a variety of parts of the game and its also possible to edit it with other basic apps. Our own dev tool-set isn't for public release as its not UI friendly and is internal software, so the answer there is 'soon' but the game is moddable without tools, although there are some functions for which users may want to write their own tools in the short term.


Based on the difficulty we're having from the beginning (not even knowing where to find the equivalent of a descr_strat) it might even be after April before we see any "dev tools"

No offense but this Kieran fella keeps on saying it can be done without taking five seconds to show how it can be done. If it's so easy why doesn't he just tell us?

So far it's

1. Intention to mod game.

+

2. *@#^$*&#^$*#&^*@#&^$*#&^?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

=

3. Modded game.

[Gaidin]

No offense but this Kieran fella keeps on saying it can be done without taking five seconds to show how it can be done. If it's so easy why doesn't he just tell us?

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he doesn't tell us because he's not yet authorized to.

[Rorarii]

Funny thing is, if CA sold their front end tools, say for A$40, I'd BUY 'EM .. if it saved me time to covert ETW into a Roman Repubic mod, which I can see won't be easy.

Other, more skilled modders would probably prefer to save the money.

just look at all the players of SS, which proves there is a large modding community and it would be stupid for CA to neglect them.

R

[random_samurai]

Looking at what i just posted, there are so many things wrong with his statement.

its also possible to edit it with other basic apps - maybe he could tell us what those were at least

[Björneborgs regemente]

Looking at what i just posted, there are so many things wrong with his statement.

its also possible to edit it with other basic apps - maybe he could tell us what those were at least

What are "basic apps" for exsample?

[Captian Barbossa]

...but the game is moddable without tools.

Urm....No.

It isn't.

I know they haven't in the past.

Actually, yes, they did. They released the .CAS model and animation exporter for 3D Studio Max. And someone wrote a maxscript version that allowed importing of CAS files INTO max, and unless I'm mistaken, Kingdoms included several .max scene files, for people who have max to play around with.

But I doubt we'll see any tools from CA until the Summer, at least. I just hope they include another max exporter, otherwise, there will be no new models.

[Grimstoned]

Thanks for the info Guys. Hopefully they follow Bethesda lead. And give the community an all inclusive tool of sorts and some instructions. Though I bet some of the fun for the TW Modders is discovering on there own how to Mod the game.

Captian Barbossa I stand corrected I suppose. But I don't consider those exactly a Construction set. User friendly they are not. Tools they are.

[LtChambers]

The key difference between Bethesda and CA in this regard is that Bethesda develops their internal tools with the intention of releasing them to the community at some point after the game is out. If CA has to develop new tools to do the same thing that their internal tools due, that's wasted development and they're less likely to provide as much functionality because they're not getting money for it (directly, anyway).

[compound]

lol most game companies i worked for havent had a tool chain as stable as that to release, at a guess theyll have several hacked together tools that really only work under very specific conditions that probably would never be fit for general release, best we can hope for is the tools they use to pack up there data files into the binary format weve recieved.... with literally no support, but that would prob be good enough to start our own tools off

[Rorarii]

lol most game companies i worked for havent had a tool chain as stable as that to release, at a guess theyll have several hacked together tools that really only work under very specific conditions that probably would never be fit for general release, best we can hope for is the tools they use to pack up there data files into the binary format weve recieved.... with literally no support, but that would prob be good enough to start our own tools off

I would have hoped CA are more professional than a 'hack-it-together' company!? :


Although, if they're not happy to release their in-house tools then just releasing the file formats should see a 'Modded' front-end tool suite developed by the community quickly enough .. i hope! (now where did I put my C compiler?)

R

[LtChambers]

The minimum that we need is either a decoder for the db files or a format reference. Also, their Lua API documentation will probably be necessary.