end of modding ?

[empire tw]

this week we had the information that Dots (mod for medieval 2) has been cancelled because of CA
it had something to do with permissions
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/newth...ewthread&f=331
i dont see how Dots is different than other mods
so..

this is a remimder we dont own nothing CA can do whatever they like with our more estimated mods...
great move CA, great move !

this can be the beggining of a even bigger dark era of tw modding...

[AnthoniusII]

Maybe....CA/SEGA has been redusing the modding tools in a stable way since M2TW and radicaly redused the modding sources even since.
But we must wait for CA/SEGA official answer before we will make our own statements. We can not judge anyone with out hear him first.

[Halie Satanus]

Far from the dramatic misinformation of the OP, Dominion of the Sword was not cancelled because of CA.

The actual situation is explained by 'Resurrection' here.

[T-reg]

You really scared me with a title like this END OF MODDING

[Yerevan]

You really scared me with a title like this END OF MODDING

ah !

[Diocle]

I've read about the real situation and probably the OP was really a little too alarmistic, but..... only a question:

Really CA is slowly closing the door to any modding activity?

All the new games (not only by SEGA/CA) are really hard to mod....is this a real choice of the companies or does it depend only from the complexity of the new games?

[AngryTitusPullo]

Really CA is slowly closing the door to any modding activity?

No. The way games cannot be modded (legally) is by hardcoding everything. As long as the files are accesible and be unpack then it means the games can be modded.

All the new games (not only by SEGA/CA) are really hard to mod....is this a real choice of the companies or does it depend only from the complexity of the new games?

Both. Newer games are more complex which is also because of companies choice since their customers demands better graphic, better features, better sounds etc. When I first started pc gaming long time ago a single full game do not even exceed 100mb insize. Now even the patches are in gbs.

[AnthoniusII]

My friend LestaT that's not entirely true.
CA indeed closing modding suport in every newst game.
See that we had to wait 9 years before we can moddify settlements in M2TW.
See that we CAN NOT create new maps in ETW/NTW/S2.
See that we can not create entirely new models of warriors in S2.
Every newst game of CA/SEGA comes with less suport. The Huge announcements of modding tools are nothing but dust in our eyes.
I would like to use S2 for TGC mod but i can not unless i will put it in JAPAN, with Samuries as soldiers with Japanese Castles.
Is this "modding suport"? I don't think so.

[AngryTitusPullo]

My friend LestaT that's not entirely true.
CA indeed closing modding suport in every newst game.
See that we had to wait 9 years before we can moddify settlements in M2TW.
See that we CAN NOT create new maps in ETW/NTW/S2.
See that we can not create entirely new models of warriors in S2.
Every newst game of CA/SEGA comes with less suport. The Huge announcements of modding tools are nothing but dust in our eyes.
I would like to use S2 for TGC mod but i can not unless i will put it in JAPAN, with Samuries as soldiers with Japanese Castles.
Is this "modding suport"? I don't think so.

Whether it's 1 day or 1 year as long as it's moddable then it's moddable. In RTW the AI is almost entirely hardcoded. In Med2 some options to change how AI react becomes available. More so in ETW onwards.

The very fact that the Med2 file structure is made by making separate kingdoms campaign in mod folder shows that the game is build with mods in mind. That we can now easily created mods without overwriting vanilla files using warscape engine shows that mods is not a taboo words for CA. I remember before the release of ETW one of the developer posted here on TWC how the file structures work in warscape shows that the engine itself was created with having mods since the very beginning.

The fact that mods are now much harder to make compared to mainly text base modifications of yesteryears does not diminish CA support towards mods. Their job is to create games. They are not oblige to come here and show you how to create stuff. In fact by releasing the Assembly Kit they have done much more that they have done in their entire career. Modding is about passion. It doesn't matter whether 9 days or 9 years.

Just because you don't know how to use the Assembly kit does not change the fact that making a new map is entirely posible as shown by spartan_warrior. That is is hard to do is another issue. Just compare the amount of files that can be edited in Shogun 2 data folder compared to Med2 data folder is enough to know that most what was being hardcoded during Rome modding days (unless you cracked the .dll files) are being available now.

If less support you mean that no CA reps come here everyday to teach you how to edit units, create or import new models etc then you're probably right. But they the have never done that. They are not obliged to tech us how to mod actually. Yet not long after the TEd release the designer itself come and posted here with tips how to use TEd.

Making computer games these days are much harder unless you compare with some bedroom coder making some indie games. Making games are harder, so why should we expect modding will become more easier ?