Questionnaire Results (TW Mods): Analysis & Discussion

[MasterOfNone]

Thank you to the 704 participants from TWC, the Org, TotalWar.com and a few other places! Here are the results of the questionnaire:

1. How many mods for the Total War series do you think you could name?

2% (15) None
18% (129) 1-3
29% (207) 4-6
18% (127) 7-10
32% (226) More than 10

Comment: a fifth of people polled know 3 mods or less, 50% a half dozen or less! And remember the people in this poll come from TWC, the Org and the Com (There were at least 300 from the Org, probably the same or more from TWC and the remainder from the Com)! Could mods be promoted better, even on sites with a strong modding presence?

2. As of the last few months, how was the proportion of your play time split between mods and the original (vanilla) games?

11% (81) Vanilla only
39% (279) Mods only
9% (68) 50/50 split
13% (92) Mainly vanilla but some mods
23% (163) Mainly mods but some vanilla
2% (21) Not played Total War vanilla or mods in last few months

COMMENT: Nearly everyone's playing mods Interesting, especially considering question #1.

3. What is your favourite genre of mod or game?

13% (98) Historical - Antiquity
35% (250) Historical - Roman Era
4% (35) Historical - Dark Ages
21% (151) Historical - Medieval
11% (81) Historical - Gunpowder Age
1% (14) Historical - World War I
2% (15) Modern Warfare
0% (0) Futuristic Earth
0% (2) Science Fiction
1% (13) Fantasy (original)
5% (37) Fantasy (based on known world of novel etc.)
1% (8) Mythical

COMMENT: Roman era still dominates TW players, with Medieval coming in a "far" second.

4. What is your favourite historical culture to play as?

33% (239) Western European (Vikings, British, Gauls, etc.)
47% (331) Mediterranean European (Roman, Greek, etc.)
5% (36) Central/Eastern European (Russian, Polish, Slavic, etc.)
7% (54) Eastern (Sassanids, Arabs, etc.)
0% (3) Egyptian
0% (4) African Tribes
4% (31) Oriental (China, Japan, etc.)
0% (6) Meso-American

COMMENT: Classical cultures come in top, but the Vikings/Gauls/Brits still poll a third of the vote. Nearly all of the votes here go for these two groupings.

5. What length or expanse of mod do you prefer?

3% (26) Small (c. 50 regions, 8 factions, or less)
10% (77) Medium (c. 100 regions, 15 factions)
48% (341) Big (c. 150+ regions, 20 factions)
36% (260) All (depends on my mood)

COMMENT: Nearly half seem to like big mods, though over a third say it depends on their mood at the time. Interesting that some popular mods do fall into the Small category so often the mood takes people there quite a bit

6. How do you feel about heavy scripting in mods? (scripting is where a script runs in the background of the campaign and causes certain things to happen. Historical mods, for example, may use scripts to keep things closer to the historical circumstances than the player might otherwise take it. Scripted mods will have the Advisor have you activate the script when you start and load the game generally. They can make the AI turn slower and make mods harder to debug) Vanilla is unscripted (apart from the Prologue tutorial in Rome TW).

22% (159) I like heavy scripting in a mod
24% (173) I like scripting, but not too much
12% (90) I like a bit of scripting
6% (48) I prefer non-scripted mods
33% (234) I don't care as long as the mod is good

COMMENT: Bit of a split of opinion here, but all generally not opposed to scripting; 22% even admitted to liking heavy scripting!

7. How important is it that an historical mod is accurate, historically speaking (or that a fantasy mod based on a known work is faithful to that work both in the spirit and lore of that world)?

28% (202) Very important - every detail should be accurate
59% (422) Important - but don't sweat it
8% (61) Unimportant - as long as there are no big anachronisms or fictitious creations!
2% (19) Totally Unimportant - I just want to have fun!

COMMENT: I'm glad the Important option got about 60% - this is a warning to both pedantic historians and carefree modders who pay not attention to detail - though more so with the latter as 28% like detailed accuracy!

8. Some mods overwrite original game files which means that, to continue to play vanilla (and other mods), you need to make a whole new copy of your installation of the game for every such mod. Some mods are "modfoldered", meaning that they exist in a single folder and not only leave the original game files untouched but also allow other mods to be installed to the same installation of your game (and also are uninstalled simply by deleting the modfolder). What is your feeling on these two variations of installation?

67% (478) All mods should be modfoldered - I don't have space or time to keep making new copies of the game!
6% (48) It doesn't bother me, I probably will never play other mods anyway
9% (69) I have a mean rig that can easily cope with as many copies of the game as I want!
15% (109) I'll install and play a non-modfoldered mod, but only if it's really good

COMMENT: Modders of non-modfoldered mods taken note!

9. From what source do you generally find out about mods?

77% (543) Main Modding Forums at TWCenter.Net, TotalWar.org, TotalWar.com
6% (48) Non-modding Forums at TWCenter.Net, TotalWar.org, TotalWar.com
4% (34) Other game forums that include other games as well as TW
0% (3) Magazines/coverdisks
0% (6) Word of Mouth - offline
7% (52) Word of Mouth - online (gaming friends or through sig. banners etc.)
2% (18) The TWC Wiki tables of released mods

COMMENT: No surprise here given where the poll was announced!

10. When did you become aware of TW mods?

9% (70) I knew about the mods from or before the day I bought my first TW game
41% (290) I knew about mods soon after I bought my TW game
32% (226) I found out about mods about a year after I bought my TW game
16% (118) It took me some years to discover that mods existed

COMMENT: Almost 50% of people polled never knew about mods until a year or more after buying the game!

11. Mods extend the lifetime of a game. On average, how much longer do you think you have spent playing because of mods?

8% (59) Mods have not extended my play time at all as I prefer the original game
21% (148) Mods have contributed months of extra play for me
21% (153) Mods have contributed a good year of extra play for me
48% (344) Mods have had added well over a year of extra use of the game - in fact I might need to buy a new CD!

COMMENT: SEGA/CA, take note! This is a great credit to mods.

12. It takes a lot of hard work to make a mod fully stable. How important is game stability to you?

29% (206) I will never play anything but the most stable mods - I do not want a CTD (crash to desktop) interrupting my campaigns!
65% (459) Stability is important but if I really like a mod I will grin and bear a little instability (as long as they are still working on improving it)
4% (35) I do not mind a little instability, a CTD every hour or so is fine. I can reload a saved game.
0% (4) Instability is not an issue - I can always save and reboot the game!

COMMENT: Split here between about a third wanting total stability and two thirds wanting near-stability.

13. Of necessity all mod releases are to some extent betas because the development team could never pick up on as many errors as thousands of players can find. But how important is it to you that a mod's first release is reasonably complete?

37% (262) I won't play mods that have missing unit cards, have not been balanced, etc. A mod should attend to those things before being released, even as a beta.
54% (384) I don't mind some obviously missing elements as long as it's playable
8% (58) I enjoy finding and listing errors and helping the development team, so release all mods in their skeletal form and it'll help them get done faster!

COMMENT: As I suspected, a sizeable number of people do want even a beta to be reasonably complete. nevertheless half of people polled are willing to bear some missing elements as long as it's playable. I'm glad the last option did not have strong support!

14. What, in your view, are the top 3 most important element of a mod of the 8 things listed below? SELECT 3 ONLY.

9% (69) 2D Art (Menu graphics and symbols and banners)
11% (78) Music/Audio
61% (434) Unit Models and Textures
21% (149) Text (building descriptions, unit descriptions, trait descriptions etc.)
62% (441) Campaign Map
68% (481) Balance (unit and campaign)
63% (448) Coding (stability and functionality)

COMMENT: Pleasing results here from my point of view, though not an easy question. I think players want to know that what they're playing is reliable and balanced (otherwise it's not really a challenge - at least a fair one). I does not inspire confidence in a mod if you think it might CTD at any moment or if your armoured knights get defeated by horsemen wearing nothing but linen clothing...which, btw, also breaks the spell of immersion and belief.

15. If you are following the development of a mod, which of the following best reflects your attitude?

21% (149) I expect a good update at least every month, a limited release (such as units or custom battles) within 6 months, and a campaign release after a year
21% (149) I expect a good update at least every quarter, a limited release (such as units or custom battles) after a year, and a campaign release after two years
52% (370) I am a patient man and content to abide by the modders' motif, "It's done when it's done!"
5% (36) I want to play this mod NOW! Hurry it up as soon as possible! My Birthday's a good date for release! It's next week

COMMENT: These people are more patient than me - though I'm on the other side, as it were

16. What, in terms of cultural range, do you prefer as a focus for a mod?

7% (53) Tight focus (e.g. Viking Age British Isles, or Mesoamerican etc.)
12% (87) Limited Focus (e.g. Western European)
48% (342) Broad Focus (e.g. as per Rome Total War - all of Europe with northern Africa, the Middle-East, etc.)
31% (222) Universal (the whole world - or much more of it than vanilla at least!)

COMMENT: Looks like CA got it right with RTW then I must admit I was expecting more for the Limited Focus category.

17. Which series of TW games do you play mods for the most?

36% (257) Medieval 2/Kingdoms
58% (411) Rome Total War/BI/Alexander
5% (36) Shogun/Mongol Invasion, Medieval/Viking Invasion originals

COMMENT: RTW/BI still dominates the TW scene but I think it may even out between RTW and M2 as the year progresses - in terms of players at least.

18. How challenging should the campaign be?

11% (83) Extreme - I like to battle against all the odds, no matter how long it takes to lead my faction to victory!
45% (321) Hard - I like there to be a good chance of losing, even with a player as good as me!
19% (140) Average - I like a challenging campaign where I'll probably win, unless I make serious mistakes.
0% (5) Easy - I like a campaign where I will probably win even though I may make some big mistakes
22% (155) Mixed - I like a campaign that offers a wide-range of challenges, from easy to extreme, depending upon which faction I choose

COMMENT: Pretty much what I expected.

19. What speed of battle do you prefer?

16% (116) Slow - I like to see the battles take almost as long as they would in the real world!
37% (262) Slower Than Vanilla - I like to see the battles take a little longer than they do in the original game
40% (288) Average - Leave it alone. Vanilla was just right.
4% (29) Faster Than Vanilla - I like to see battles resolved a little faster than vanilla
1% (9) Speedy - I've no time for long battles, the faster the better! I only choose them to avoid the autoresolve AI being unfair to me!

COMMENT: Again pretty much what I would have voted (no, I did not vote in this poll!).

20. What is your favoured level of management on the strategy map?

80% (569) Micromanager - I like to ensure that I have control over every unit trained/retrained, every building built and tax levels
16% (119) Partial Management - I like to leave my cities to AI managment where I think it will not do much harm, but I like to check them every few turns and never put key cities under AI control
2% (16) Automanager - I like to generally leave the AI managing the cities whilst I focus on the armies and agents and get involved with the action!

COMMENT: Although generally what I would have expected, I did think Partial Management would get a bit more. People must have a lot of time on their hands

21. Have you ever thought about trying out a little bit of modding yourself?

15% (112) No, I leave it to the modders. I can't be bothered or do not have time.
15% (107) No, I do not think I am good enough to learn
12% (90) Yes, but I find the thought daunting
15% (109) Yes, but I would need a lot of help
13% (97) Yes, but only for minor stuff
2% (21) Yes, I think I'd like modding and be good at it
13% (98) I've already modded a bit!
9% (70) I've modded a lot already!

COMMENT: Well, I think those options were all mostly quite evenly supported but I'm glad the poll did not have too many strong modders to skew the results (about 10% judging by the above) as the poll was really for players!

FAVOURITE MODS

It has not been possible to collate the information in its entirety mainly due to a great deal of ambiguity in the results! It has proved impossible to judge between variations of versions etc. and so, for example, RTR has been lumped into one group rather than into its various iterations. I have not included mods with less than 3 votes. Here, then, is a list of the most common mods listed:


1. Europa Barbarorum - 212
2. Stainless Steel - 137
3. Rome Total Realism (various) - 120
4. Broken Crescent - 80
5. Roma Surrectum - 69
6. Fourth Age Total War (The New Shadow) - 54
7. Extended Greek Mod / Napoleonic Total War I & II - 52
8. DarthMod (various) - 38
9. Lord of the Rings - 35
10. SPQR / Invasion Barbaroum - 29
11. Lands To Conquer - 28
12. Viking Invasion II / XL / DLV - 23
13. IBFD / Rise of Persia - 17
14. Retrofit Mod - 16
15. Terrae Expugnadae - 15
16. THERA - 12
17. Chivalry TW / Pike and Musket - 10
18. Chivalry II / Grand Campaign / Arthurian TW / Rusichi / For King and Country / The Long Road - 9
19. End of Days I / End of Days II / Des Hellige Romische Reich / Barebones / FRRE / Rome Medieval / Pro Deo Et Rege - 8
20. Clouds Across Europe / Extended Realism Mod - 7
21. Samurai Warlord / BKB / Diadochi / Res Gestae - 6
22. Ancient Empires / Troy / Hellenic / Amazon TW - 5
23. Anno Domini / Imperator Juilanorum / Hundred Years War / Midde-earth TW / Blue Lotus - 4
24. Imperium Splendor / Machiavello / Megas Alexandros / Blood Mod / Crusader / Greek Wars / Iberia - 3

Discuss.

[Arto]

Micromanager should be 99.99% since the AI always destroys my economy.

[Killerbee]

Pretty much all the expected results

[MasterOfNone]

Yes, in most ways ... I have added in some brief comments in red to get the ball rolling.

It would be interesting to see if the popular mods listed fit into the categories supported in the answers to the questions...I think some do not so much.

[Killerbee]

Well , i was suprised to see RS "just" 4th .. I was also surprised by the historical accuracy .. i can't believe you would spend so much attention on historical accuracy

The last surprise for me was the most important stuff in a mod .. i thought that models and skins would've been top 3 (although i didn't vote for them)

[MasterOfNone]

RS is 3rd for the RTW mods - you can't expect anything to beat EB or RTR (and remember RTR also has many versions grouped into that).

Historical accuracy may be the main point of some mods - EB is primarily an educational vehicle, and I personally like games to be informative though of course playable and fun as well.

I'm glad the units were not #1, though I had thought they would be too. Good units are really quite a small part of a mod in terms of the work that goes into it, but they are of course very visible.

[killerrabbit]

good....

[Lord Willy]

I enjoyed This Poll - MON+rep

[Raglan]

i'd be interested to see the results after a few empire mods start coming along

[War lord]

i'd be interested to see the results after a few empire mods start coming along

If starwars:TW gets made I may bother getting Empire.

[MasterOfNone]

Empire was not even out when this Questionnaire was started, and it over ran by a month or so. I say this because there's lots of comments in the data saying "you missed out ETW!"

[decimator22]

A very good Questionnaire, + rep for you.

[War lord]

Soon to become "You missed out SW:TW"(Joking!)

[Augustus Lucifer]

I'd be interested to see if there's a correlation between people not knowing a lot of mod names, and the focus of mods desired being largely one-sided. What I mean by this, is people seem to vote for Western European/Mediterranean Rome/Medieval mods. That's what the poll seems to instance at least but someone could correct me if I'm wrong.

Now a lot of mods fit that bill, I'd say most mods fall into that grouping by and large. So then the question becomes, how many mods that focus on for our intents and purposes the same thing, will someone bother to try before just settling on one? I know as a modder I've downloaded almost every mod there is, but that's normally just to see how they tick and get ideas. But as a player, I have downloaded RTR way back when, and only later EB. I knew RS existed, I knew SPQR existed, I knew a bunch of other mods existed in the Rome timeframe. But frankly, I had no reason to play a similar setup 7 times over, especially since I was satisfied with EB/RTR, and so never felt it was worth the hard drive space to look into the others. (And that's not to mention any mods where you need to follow a 20 step install guide, which is even more of a turnoff to casual players)

A similar thing is true of M2 mods. I've played SS, PDER, and DLV, but if it wasn't for the fact I was involved in the modding community, I probably wouldn't remember all three. Personally I play PDER, and I've only had the other two on my HD to see how certain things were achieved(I'm sure they're great mods, I just can't be arsed personally to relive the same focus). I get that when I look at the above three mods for instance, but not when I look at SS vs. BC, or BC vs. FKaC, or FKaC vs. Thera. I have all of the aforementioned(BC, FKaC, Thera) on my HD because to me they present a wholly and intrinsically different scenario. I don't doubt the three mods compared above have differentiation, I know of their differences well and why they each have fanbases, but I think on a scenario level they have much in common so that if you saw them all on a Best Buy shelf you probably wouldn't be inclined to buy all three unless you go nutty for all things strategy(though, to be fair, people buy a gazillion iterations of WW2 shooters, so I don't doubt some people would buy all in that vein).

That's one consideration. The other consideration is the very relation-centric focus of interest which probably doesn't prompt many users to look further. I don't mean this to be over-generalizing, but I think by and large people are mostly interested with the familiar. We're polling Western Europeans(and some Americans) and they want to see Western European history mods -- that hardly surprises me. Similarly anything in Western pop culture is likely to receive a warm reception in a Western audience. If you were to poll Indians they'd probably be all in favor of Maharashtra Total War, though there's possible British sentiment as well from the Raj. If you asked a group of Africans or Chinese, chances are they'd want games from their area. This has much to do with the school curriculum which teaches us about history surrounding our nation and some basic hemisphere considerations, with laughable focus on overall world history. It also probably has, to a lesser extent, to do with national pride; I know as an American I played the US first in Empire, and we get Koreans over at the AUH forums who are giddy about playing their country.

Just a curious conjecture, it's possible there's no correlation and I'm just rambling. Another interesting thing to explore is the significance of acronyms. If you told me you were going to play RTR, I'd know right away what you were talking about. If you said AD though, I'd be confused, and my mind wouldn't jump to Anno Domini(as a modder it would probably think AlphaDelta, but that's another matter). EB, SS, BC, RS, RTR. The Top 5 mods(by poll) and they all have in common a unique acronym that is comprised of few letters and is recognizable. To a lesser extent XGM, FATW, LotR, IB, LTC, EoD, TLR, dHRR, FKaC, CAE, BL, METW... you get the point. I think if you asked most people to name the mod based on the acronym, the amount who guessed it correctly without looking(impossible to gauge online since they can just search) would diminish substantially before it got to BL which few outside the Org or modding would probably know. Then there's some mods without acronyms as well. I think overall if you wanted to look into it, you might find that mods with an easy 2-3 letter acronym without "Total War" in the name are probably the most widely recognizable.

[|Sith| Max]

i agree with the first comment. you people need better advertising for mods than underaged german kids that scream that everything except the mod they play is .

[Nakharar]

that will help my modding team thanks BTW if third age total war was in the last question it would be landslide

[johnhughthom]

BTW if third age total war was in the last question it would be landslide

I'm pretty sure that you had to name your favourite mod, rather than pick from a list. They seem to have put all the LOTR mods together so it did get votes.

[MasterOfNone]

Yes, contributors did name the mods. There was no list. I wish there had of been in terms of me working out what all the scribblings and acronyms meant. Some people even listed vanilla expansions rather than mods...

No, the Middle-earth mods were not combined. Fourth Age Total War, Lord of the Rings Total War and Middle-earth Total War were not confused in the results and so could be differentiated easily.


Thanks for your comments, Augustus. I agree that acronyms help. Though some need to be a little bit more aware of conflicting acronyms - there are several ways ATW and MTW could be interpreted with both mods and vanilla (I can think of 3 for each!)! Of course, if they call their modfolders by those acronyms and people install another mod with the same name.... not good

[DaVinci]

Well done MoN, very obvious, that a lot work has been sticked into it.

As for the results, we all should know that even real science-rendered statistics are merely pretty inaccurate, you always need to keep it critical, what any statistics say.

Nonetheless that questionaire-result is very interesting and surely a pretty good insight into the given questions with a proper degree of a realistic (expected) result.

As for favourite mods results, my strong opinion is just that mod players stick pretty conservative with a mod that they found one time due to heavy advertisement and of course also as for the time that a mod is existing in the community as successful (as well just visible appearence in a forum), those were mainly also the times as there were just a handful of major mods in the TW community (now, since ca. 2007 the number of offered mods with a major-mod-approach is vastly increased). First as the modfolder feature got spreaded more and more, people try from time to time another mod.
And also i think the classical Greek/Roman timeperiod will dominate always, as it is just one of the most appealing timeframes of the history. Alexander and Caesar are the ones which is know to every kid. Next famous category in this relation is probable the Napoleonic era. Sega/CA would be good advised to create a Napoleonic Empire II ... while of course the knights/crusades timeframe has a similar appeal, besides Vikings.
That "favourite thing" is imo. very similar to any other real world commercial products, a trademark is worth something forever, and of course that "phenomen" has its right to exist in this way.
So in conclusion, so-called niche products need to offer often a mere of quality to get a meaning overall and make it to survive.

[Aradan]

1. How many mods for the Total War series do you think you could name?

2% (15) None
18% (129) 1-3
29% (207) 4-6
18% (127) 7-10
32% (226) More than 10

Comment: a fifth of people polled know 3 mods or less, 50% a half dozen or less! And remember the people in this poll come from TWC, the Org and the Com (There were at least 300 from the Org, probably the same or more from TWC and the remainder from the Com)! Could mods be promoted better, even on sites with a strong modding presence?

I wonder if people would like a "Mod Spotlight" feature. Each, say, fortnight TWC Staff (content staff or people chosen for this very reason) pick a mod, play it and review it, say two people for each mod, so personal preferences are balanced out somewheat. No negative comments (the mod is very bad, avoid it), but well-mannered feedback (feature X could be improved and feature Y would be a welcome addition) and focus on the positives of each mod, so that a) people get an idea of what a mod feels like without downloading it and b) modders get serious feedback that is neither rant nor fanboy praise and helps them identify issues that can be improved. Those reviews could then be put on the FP or a more prominent place (perhaps a dedicated forum where each review will have its own thread, so we'll also have an archive)

2. As of the last few months, how was the proportion of your play time split between mods and the original (vanilla) games?

11% (81) Vanilla only
39% (279) Mods only
9% (68) 50/50 split
13% (92) Mainly vanilla but some mods
23% (163) Mainly mods but some vanilla
2% (21) Not played Total War vanilla or mods in last few months

COMMENT: Nearly everyone's playing mods Interesting, especially considering question #1.

To be expected, we're on a modding-oriented site. Still, I find that 11% a bit too much and I think those people would definitely prefer mods if they were familiar wiht more than just a couple. Unless people prefer vanilla to all mods (hard to believe).

3. What is your favourite genre of mod or game?

13% (98) Historical - Antiquity
35% (250) Historical - Roman Era
4% (35) Historical - Dark Ages
21% (151) Historical - Medieval
11% (81) Historical - Gunpowder Age
1% (14) Historical - World War I
2% (15) Modern Warfare
0% (0) Futuristic Earth
0% (2) Science Fiction
1% (13) Fantasy (original)
5% (37) Fantasy (based on known world of novel etc.)
1% (8) Mythical

COMMENT: Roman era still dominates TW players, with Medieval coming in a "far" second.

As AL said, it's relevant to the member-base of the community, where most people are american or european, plus people playing strategy games are often interested in history rather than fantasy. This means that mods that don't follow the mainstay will have a hard time becoming popular. Interesting questions would be "Would you try a mod that is not based on your favourite genre?" and "Would you prefer a mod that doesn't belong to your favourite genre to one that does, if the quality of the former was better?".

4. What is your favourite historical culture to play as?

33% (239) Western European (Vikings, British, Gauls, etc.)
47% (331) Mediterranean European (Roman, Greek, etc.)
5% (36) Central/Eastern European (Russian, Polish, Slavic, etc.)
7% (54) Eastern (Sassanids, Arabs, etc.)
0% (3) Egyptian
0% (4) African Tribes
4% (31) Oriental (China, Japan, etc.)
0% (6) Meso-American

COMMENT: Classical cultures come in top, but the Vikings/Gauls/Brits still poll a third of the vote. Nearly all of the votes here go for these two groupings.

See first part of the above.

5. What length or expanse of mod do you prefer?

3% (26) Small (c. 50 regions, 8 factions, or less)
10% (77) Medium (c. 100 regions, 15 factions)
48% (341) Big (c. 150+ regions, 20 factions)
36% (260) All (depends on my mood)

COMMENT: Nearly half seem to like big mods, though over a third say it depends on their mood at the time. Interesting that some popular mods do fall into the Small category so often the mood takes people there quite a bit

16. What, in terms of cultural range, do you prefer as a focus for a mod?

7% (53) Tight focus (e.g. Viking Age British Isles, or Mesoamerican etc.)
12% (87) Limited Focus (e.g. Western European)
48% (342) Broad Focus (e.g. as per Rome Total War - all of Europe with northern Africa, the Middle-East, etc.)
31% (222) Universal (the whole world - or much more of it than vanilla at least!)

COMMENT: Looks like CA got it right with RTW then I must admit I was expecting more for the Limited Focus category.

More is better, then, for players? I guess it adds to diversity.

6. How do you feel about heavy scripting in mods? (scripting is where a script runs in the background of the campaign and causes certain things to happen. Historical mods, for example, may use scripts to keep things closer to the historical circumstances than the player might otherwise take it. Scripted mods will have the Advisor have you activate the script when you start and load the game generally. They can make the AI turn slower and make mods harder to debug) Vanilla is unscripted (apart from the Prologue tutorial in Rome TW).

22% (159) I like heavy scripting in a mod
24% (173) I like scripting, but not too much
12% (90) I like a bit of scripting
6% (48) I prefer non-scripted mods
33% (234) I don't care as long as the mod is good

COMMENT: Bit of a split of opinion here, but all generally not opposed to scripting; 22% even admitted to liking heavy scripting!

If I'm reading this right, 1/4 of players would like a heavily-scripted mod even if it was a mess? I wonder what would the results be if the last option was the first; I would expect the majority of players to go for the "I don't care" one.

10. When did you become aware of TW mods?

9% (70) I knew about the mods from or before the day I bought my first TW game
41% (290) I knew about mods soon after I bought my TW game
32% (226) I found out about mods about a year after I bought my TW game
16% (118) It took me some years to discover that mods existed

COMMENT: Almost 50% of people polled never knew about mods until a year or more after buying the game!

I wonder what would happen if CA decided to help the community by providing some help here, like moe prevalent advertisment of their modding community or even embracing some modifications by -say- giving them an "official" approval or something.

11. Mods extend the lifetime of a game. On average, how much longer do you think you have spent playing because of mods?

8% (59) Mods have not extended my play time at all as I prefer the original game
21% (148) Mods have contributed months of extra play for me
21% (153) Mods have contributed a good year of extra play for me
48% (344) Mods have had added well over a year of extra use of the game - in fact I might need to buy a new CD!

COMMENT: SEGA/CA, take note! This is a great credit to mods.

It is. Another nice question would be "Would you buy/have you ever bought a TW game/expansion just so you can play a mod?"

12. It takes a lot of hard work to make a mod fully stable. How important is game stability to you?

29% (206) I will never play anything but the most stable mods - I do not want a CTD (crash to desktop) interrupting my campaigns!
65% (459) Stability is important but if I really like a mod I will grin and bear a little instability (as long as they are still working on improving it)
4% (35) I do not mind a little instability, a CTD every hour or so is fine. I can reload a saved game.
0% (4) Instability is not an issue - I can always save and reboot the game!

COMMENT: Split here between about a third wanting total stability and two thirds wanting near-stability.

13. Of necessity all mod releases are to some extent betas because the development team could never pick up on as many errors as thousands of players can find. But how important is it to you that a mod's first release is reasonably complete?

37% (262) I won't play mods that have missing unit cards, have not been balanced, etc. A mod should attend to those things before being released, even as a beta.
54% (384) I don't mind some obviously missing elements as long as it's playable
8% (58) I enjoy finding and listing errors and helping the development team, so release all mods in their skeletal form and it'll help them get done faster!

COMMENT: As I suspected, a sizeable number of people do want even a beta to be reasonably complete. nevertheless half of people polled are willing to bear some missing elements as long as it's playable. I'm glad the last option did not have strong support!

I still think mod developers should try a bit harder for stable/complete mods and avoid presenting CTDs or missing elemnts as inevitable in a mod (even in small quantities); players would then have higher expectations and would therefore enjoy highr level of modifications. Just my two cents.

14. What, in your view, are the top 3 most important element of a mod of the 8 things listed below? SELECT 3 ONLY.

9% (69) 2D Art (Menu graphics and symbols and banners)
11% (78) Music/Audio
61% (434) Unit Models and Textures
21% (149) Text (building descriptions, unit descriptions, trait descriptions etc.)
62% (441) Campaign Map
68% (481) Balance (unit and campaign)
63% (448) Coding (stability and functionality)

COMMENT: Pleasing results here from my point of view, though not an easy question. I think players want to know that what they're playing is reliable and balanced (otherwise it's not really a challenge - at least a fair one). I does not inspire confidence in a mod if you think it might CTD at any moment or if your armoured knights get defeated by horsemen wearing nothing but linen clothing...which, btw, also breaks the spell of immersion and belief.

Poll results are great, but I don't know if they mirror reality. There are exceptionally stable and balanced mods that are overlooked (lack of PR or not-so-popular genre etc) and major mods that are, for instance, unstable and yet have huge fanbases because of "how cool they look".

20. What is your favoured level of management on the strategy map?

80% (569) Micromanager - I like to ensure that I have control over every unit trained/retrained, every building built and tax levels
16% (119) Partial Management - I like to leave my cities to AI managment where I think it will not do much harm, but I like to check them every few turns and never put key cities under AI control
2% (16) Automanager - I like to generally leave the AI managing the cities whilst I focus on the armies and agents and get involved with the action!

COMMENT: Although generally what I would have expected, I did think Partial Management would get a bit more. People must have a lot of time on their hands

I wonder if that also means people like to RPG their campaigns; following characters development, traits, ancs, etc

FAVOURITE MODS

It has not been possible to collate the information in its entirety mainly due to a great deal of ambiguity in the results! It has proved impossible to judge between variations of versions etc. and so, for example, RTR has been lumped into one group rather than into its various iterations. I have not included mods with less than 3 votes. Here, then, is a list of the most common mods listed:


1. Europa Barbarorum - 212
2. Stainless Steel - 137
3. Rome Total Realism (various) - 120
4. Broken Crescent - 80
5. Roma Surrectum - 69
6. Fourth Age Total War (The New Shadow) - 54
7. Extended Greek Mod / Napoleonic Total War I & II - 52
8. DarthMod (various) - 38
9. Lord of the Rings - 35
10. SPQR / Invasion Barbaroum - 29
11. Lands To Conquer - 28
12. Viking Invasion II / XL / DLV - 23
13. IBFD / Rise of Persia - 17
14. Retrofit Mod - 16
15. Terrae Expugnadae - 15
16. THERA - 12
17. Chivalry TW / Pike and Musket - 10
18. Chivalry II / Grand Campaign / Arthurian TW / Rusichi / For King and Country / The Long Road - 9
19. End of Days I / End of Days II / Des Hellige Romische Reich / Barebones / FRRE / Rome Medieval / Pro Deo Et Rege - 8
20. Clouds Across Europe / Extended Realism Mod - 7
21. Samurai Warlord / BKB / Diadochi / Res Gestae - 6
22. Ancient Empires / Troy / Hellenic / Amazon TW - 5
23. Anno Domini / Imperator Juilanorum / Hundred Years War / Midde-earth TW / Blue Lotus - 4
24. Imperium Splendor / Machiavello / Megas Alexandros / Blood Mod / Crusader / Greek Wars / Iberia - 3

I'll agree with DaVinci on that people usually get stuck with the first mod they find to their liking. It's a common trend that people get hooked up with the first mods that are made for a game, even if those mods are only slightly different to the original, and then they stick with those mods eternally, rarely switching their favourites to mods that are developed later on.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

7. How important is it that an historical mod is accurate, historically speaking (or that a fantasy mod based on a known work is faithful to that work both in the spirit and lore of that world)?

28% (202) Very important - every detail should be accurate
59% (422) Important - but don't sweat it
8% (61) Unimportant - as long as there are no big anachronisms or fictitious creations!
2% (19) Totally Unimportant - I just want to have fun!

COMMENT: I'm glad the Important option got about 60% - this is a warning to both pedantic historians and carefree modders who pay not attention to detail - though more so with the latter as 28% like detailed accuracy!

8. Some mods overwrite original game files which means that, to continue to play vanilla (and other mods), you need to make a whole new copy of your installation of the game for every such mod. Some mods are "modfoldered", meaning that they exist in a single folder and not only leave the original game files untouched but also allow other mods to be installed to the same installation of your game (and also are uninstalled simply by deleting the modfolder). What is your feeling on these two variations of installation?

67% (478) All mods should be modfoldered - I don't have space or time to keep making new copies of the game!
6% (48) It doesn't bother me, I probably will never play other mods anyway
9% (69) I have a mean rig that can easily cope with as many copies of the game as I want!
15% (109) I'll install and play a non-modfoldered mod, but only if it's really good

COMMENT: Modders of non-modfoldered mods taken note!
9. From what source do you generally find out about mods?

77% (543) Main Modding Forums at TWCenter.Net, TotalWar.org, TotalWar.com
6% (48) Non-modding Forums at TWCenter.Net, TotalWar.org, TotalWar.com
4% (34) Other game forums that include other games as well as TW
0% (3) Magazines/coverdisks
0% (6) Word of Mouth - offline
7% (52) Word of Mouth - online (gaming friends or through sig. banners etc.)
2% (18) The TWC Wiki tables of released mods

COMMENT: No surprise here given where the poll was announced!
15. If you are following the development of a mod, which of the following best reflects your attitude?

21% (149) I expect a good update at least every month, a limited release (such as units or custom battles) within 6 months, and a campaign release after a year
21% (149) I expect a good update at least every quarter, a limited release (such as units or custom battles) after a year, and a campaign release after two years
52% (370) I am a patient man and content to abide by the modders' motif, "It's done when it's done!"
5% (36) I want to play this mod NOW! Hurry it up as soon as possible! My Birthday's a good date for release! It's next week

COMMENT: These people are more patient than me - though I'm on the other side, as it were.

17. Which series of TW games do you play mods for the most?

36% (257) Medieval 2/Kingdoms
58% (411) Rome Total War/BI/Alexander
5% (36) Shogun/Mongol Invasion, Medieval/Viking Invasion originals

COMMENT: RTW/BI still dominates the TW scene but I think it may even out between RTW and M2 as the year progresses - in terms of players at least.

18. How challenging should the campaign be?

11% (83) Extreme - I like to battle against all the odds, no matter how long it takes to lead my faction to victory!
45% (321) Hard - I like there to be a good chance of losing, even with a player as good as me!
19% (140) Average - I like a challenging campaign where I'll probably win, unless I make serious mistakes.
0% (5) Easy - I like a campaign where I will probably win even though I may make some big mistakes
22% (155) Mixed - I like a campaign that offers a wide-range of challenges, from easy to extreme, depending upon which faction I choose

COMMENT: Pretty much what I expected.

19. What speed of battle do you prefer?

16% (116) Slow - I like to see the battles take almost as long as they would in the real world!
37% (262) Slower Than Vanilla - I like to see the battles take a little longer than they do in the original game
40% (288) Average - Leave it alone. Vanilla was just right.
4% (29) Faster Than Vanilla - I like to see battles resolved a little faster than vanilla
1% (9) Speedy - I've no time for long battles, the faster the better! I only choose them to avoid the autoresolve AI being unfair to me!

COMMENT: Again pretty much what I would have voted (no, I did not vote in this poll!).