Originally Posted by CraigTW
Hi all,
Firstly, thanks for all of your comments on our proposed “mod summit”. We thank you for showing such passion and enthusiasm for a series we know you love as much as we do.
However, as I’ve said since the start, we do have to be very clear with setting expectations and say that if you’re expecting more to result from the event than a friendly chat, you’ll likely go away disappointed.
I promised to post an agenda of sorts, and this post will deal with just that. We’re still working out the final details of the summit, and what format the day will take exactly, but we’re getting close to nailing down some of the sessions we’re hoping to bring invitees on the day.
So I thought I’d update you guys with the latest thinking from CA towers. Below is a sample agenda. Just to re-iterate: there’s a good chance some of this will change, so don’t become too reliant on it just yet. It’s very much a work in progress.
In terms of what we’re expecting from attendees: You’ll need to have a very good technical grasp of English to participate. As much as we’d love to be able to speak lots of languages, English is the one we talk in, and some of the concepts will get technical. We’ll also be looking for people with a high level of expertise in modding – perhaps authors of community tools, or well-known mods.
In terms of who gets selected: well, that’s something we’re going to be looking to our community for. In the coming days and weeks, we’ll be consulting with moderation staff on our official forums and on TWC to determine who attends. A chunk of the development team are giving time that would otherwise be scheduled for making our games to attend this event, so we want to make sure we make absolutely the most of the day: and that means getting the right people in. Please continue to PM me if you are interested in attending.
Final location is still being confirmed, but the event will be held in the UK, so ease of transportation is a factor we will be considering.
Proposed agenda
Morning
Introductions - Round table. Who are you, what do you do, and what are you working on at the moment? Or what have you been working on most recently? Community Manager Craig Laycock will explain the agenda and the format of the day.
Opening remarks – Brand Director Rob Bartholomew will talk about the day and what people can expect to get from it.
Why is Total War hard to mod these days? – Jamie Ferguson, (Design Lead, Shogun 2) has been involved with the Total War series for years, and has tonnes of experience in just about every aspect of games design. He’ll talk you through how we work internally, and how that affects modding. He’ll also explain the differences between modding “then” and modding “now”. We’ll discuss the challenges you’re facing as modders.
Building the Campaign Map – Alan Blair, (Lead Campaign Programmer) will talk through some of the difficulties surrounding the most requested “modable” feature – the campaign map. He’ll discuss what the process to design and build the Shogun 2 campaign map involved. This will not be a how-to session, more of a practical explanation of the many complicated elements that go into a campaign map.
TEd Masterclass / Release and Development – Elliott Lock, Designer and TEd guru, will talk through the process involved in building the recent Shogun 2 editor, and will share tips and tricks in this masterclass. This session will also include feedback and discussions on TEd: What was found difficult, confusing or beneficial?
Unit balancing, design and AI reactions – Jack Lusted, Lead Unit Designer, and familiar face to modders all, will discuss some of the thought processes behind balancing AI responses and how data values in the released tables can be altered to affect those responses, including some insight on how the AI is programmed. We’ll also talk about the data tables we released. How useful were these?
LUNCH
Afternoon
Total War infrastructure – Guy Davidson, Coding Manager, talks through the path of data in the game in detail, from raw source to packed data, and explains how the process works internally, and why.
PC Modding and Total War – A roundtable discussion on the state of PC modding in general and Total War in particular. What are the technical and social barriers and concerns? What do people do well? What infrastructure is available/used?
Open Question Session – Ask us anything. We reserve the right to say “no” or nothing!
Pub – Decamp to the pub for drinks and dinner, with discussion to be strictly limited to games and history only!
I’d love to hear what you think about this, so please do continue to give us feedback – but this is likely to be close to the final format of the day.
Thanks,
CraigTW
Any modders here going to attend CA's modding summit?
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