Mod Summit 2015- Assembly Kit for Total War: ATTILA

[Mackles]

hmm, were was that certain member who claimed the modders would be communicating on TWC and twitter during the event.......
(CA NDA? )

Sorry, I was busy taking notes. I'll post some real feedback once I've got a real keyboard under me. Overall, good news and impressions!

[Lord Baratheon]

EDIT:
....oh its only battle map editing and campaign map aesthetics

However, does not enable editing of:

• Settlement positioning.
• Tree positioning.
• Border positioning.
• Campaign logic (pathfinding and collision).

Wait, does that mean those ugly cliffs can be modded out. That would be something at least.

[Anna_Gein]

Wow this modding summit is a big deception to me. Not only is R2 forsaken (and let's not even talk about older titles such as NTW or S2TW) but even Atilla will not have moddable map. This is a bitter ending for all people who expected R2 map to be moddable once CA moved to it's new title. This means to me that no complete conversion will be ever made on R2 but it also such things are unlikely to happen on Atilla too. My hopes for an Hellenistic mod focused on Greece and Macedon are all gone.

So much for "R2 is our most moddable game" and "we will support R2 for a long long time"

At least this modding summit teach us something : nothing previously offered by CA should be considered as granted. We were able to mod S2 campaign map. We won't on R2 and Atilla.

[JoeSaunders]

Wait, does that mean those ugly cliffs can be modded out. That would be something at least.

Oh God I hope this is possible.

[Lionheart11]

Ok this is me being nice

Just let modders fix your broke arse Rome 2 game, give them the campaign tools neccesary!, it's clear you dont give a toss about that game and have moved on. You have recieved 40% more money from dirty tricks now just let modders fix your work. Please, before all this fantasy hits the fan.

Quite simply CA get the 'How to devide a community 2014 award', put out rip off alpha game, sell the beta version full price(atilla), develop fantasy game only 25% of community want.

Peace.

[stevehoos]

Ok this is me being nice

Just let modders fix your broke arse Rome 2 game, give them the campaign tools neccesary!, it's clear you dont give a toss about that game and have moved on. You have recieved 40% more money from dirty tricks now just let modders fix your work. Please, before all this fantasy hits the fan.

Quite simply CA get the 'How to devide a community 2014 award', put out rip off alpha game, sell the beta version full price(atilla), develop fantasy game only 25% of community want.

Peace.

Bravo bravo, pretty much the truth right here.

Wonder if we can edit the maps where the sun sets in front of the mountains, because we all know CA is "all about that polish."

[MathiasOfAthens]

Ok this is me being nice

Just let modders fix your broke arse Rome 2 game, give them the campaign tools neccesary!, it's clear you dont give a toss about that game and have moved on. You have recieved 40% more money from dirty tricks now just let modders fix your work. Please, before all this fantasy hits the fan.

Quite simply CA get the 'How to devide a community 2014 award', put out rip off alpha game, sell the beta version full price(atilla), develop fantasy game only 25% of community want.

Peace.

They are selling a fantasy game to a fantasy fanbase. They said they have a separate department working on this just like they have a separate crew working on TW Arena and the upcoming Kingdoms. I suspect they already a crew working on the next historical title as well... prob Empire or something set in the Medieval age. Vikings?

[DeliCiousTZM]

Its a step in the right direction. Lets see if we can get that campaign map editor thing online though asap.

[FrozenmenSS]

The bosses are still scared of mods being bad for the DLC business, huh.

disapointed

[jackwei]

If modders could position new cities and borders than there would be no reason for CA to release DLC campaigns as the community would be create their own however the reason why that will never happen because well you know!

[Dresden]

There will be some full write ups hopefully tomorrow from modders present. My initial impressions of the new tools are that they are going to open up a lot of options for creative modders to make some excellent maps. You can tie specific campaign tiles to specific battle maps, so every city could have its own map in theory. As you know there are limitations to editing the campaign map such as city placement and water/land recognition. However, you can fully customize the terrain, lighting, props and effects, such as adding new wonders, changing rivers and coastlines etc. I think some modders are going to be able to do more than we expect with these tools by working around the limitations. The simple fact that we can customize battle maps to campaign tiles makes tons of mods possible by changing the battle map that is loaded rather than the fixed one for a given city.

The battle map editor is extraordinary, really no other way I can describe it. You can import custom building models/variants and really make any kind of field, siege or fortification maps you can imagine. On a side note units will fight under columns and in open building spaces, Attilas buildings look incredible, and civilians can be customized and altered to change aggression levels and what buildings they are around or flee to. You can even customize battle maps for siege stages to show damage from that.

I know many wanted full map editing tools but Attilas map system is not like Shogun 2. Massive development time would have to be devoted to giving access to the base logic in any sort of tool. It simply isn't feasible as it, like some other things like ui, is tied to the base code structure. Perhaps one day in the future, but for now the time required to devote to it would majorly cut into development time of core game mechanics for actual release products.

I have no problem saying that, this being my first summit, I was happy to find a really focused and attentive group of developers who worked with us all day. They were very interested in our specific feedback about both Rome 2 mod functionality and desired things for Attila. They are working on improving mod tool access and hope to expand that access over time. It is a long process because it has to be done alongside their actual development and will always have limitations based on what is tied to their internal systems.

I have no doubt I will be called an apologist by some but I hope this community can look past much of the anger that now pervades the forums. I went in with no expectations and came out seeing 2 great map editors so it seems like a win to me. I understand the frustration about full campaign tools, but I truly believe we can make some very interesting scenarios with some creativity and clever tricks to bypass some of the limitations. That is what modding has always been about for me: taking what we have and finding ways to do more. Heck, when I first modded Rome 2 we used community created tools only. I look at any expansion of official tools as a positive.

[WarriorPrince]

Thank you for the update Dresden!

I trust your opinion and it seems quite positive about the possibilties! There could be some very exciting mods made from this in the future.

Your point on the development of full map editing tools is also worth noting. If you are right about the development time that would e required, then for now at least it would be a waste of resources. I hope more people see the positive side of getting these tools.

[Dresden]

I would have posted the information sooner but we were literally working all day and I am attempting to post on a mobile after being up almost 24 hours with jet lag and an excited brain from the days events and revelations.

[Erus]

There will be some full write ups hopefully tomorrow from modders present. My initial impressions of the new tools are that they are going to open up a lot of options for creative modders to make some excellent maps. You can tie specific campaign tiles to specific battle maps, so every city could have its own map in theory. As you know there are limitations to editing the campaign map such as city placement and water/land recognition. However, you can fully customize the terrain, lighting, props and effects, such as adding new wonders, changing rivers and coastlines etc. I think some modders are going to be able to do more than we expect with these tools by working around the limitations. The simple fact that we can customize battle maps to campaign tiles makes tons of mods possible by changing the battle map that is loaded rather than the fixed one for a given city.

The battle map editor is extraordinary, really no other way I can describe it. You can import custom building models/variants and really make any kind of field, siege or fortification maps you can imagine. On a side note units will fight under columns and in open building spaces, Attilas buildings look incredible, and civilians can be customized and altered to change aggression levels and what buildings they are around or flee to. You can even customize battle maps for siege stages to show damage from that.

I know many wanted full map editing tools but Attilas map system is not like Shogun 2. Massive development time would have to be devoted to giving access to the base logic in any sort of tool. It simply isn't feasible as it, like some other things like ui, is tied to the base code structure. Perhaps one day in the future, but for now the time required to devote to it would majorly cut into development time of core game mechanics for actual release products.

I have no problem saying that, this being my first summit, I was happy to find a really focused and attentive group of developers who worked with us all day. They were very interested in our specific feedback about both Rome 2 mod functionality and desired things for Attila. They are working on improving mod tool access and hope to expand that access over time. It is a long process because it has to be done alongside their actual development and will always have limitations based on what is tied to their internal systems.

I have no doubt I will be called an apologist by some but I hope this community can look past much of the anger that now pervades the forums. I went in with no expectations and came out seeing 2 great map editors so it seems like a win to me. I understand the frustration about full campaign tools, but I truly believe we can make some very interesting scenarios with some creativity and clever tricks to bypass some of the limitations. That is what modding has always been about for me: taking what we have and finding ways to do more. Heck, when I first modded Rome 2 we used community created tools only. I look at any expansion of official tools as a positive.

You just gave me a little bit of hope....I'm not sure yet if that's a good or bad thing.

[Lionheart11]

My dream is modders to create extra battlemaps or battlemap packs for the main campaign.

[Linke]

Someone will have to go on a project to recreate every major city as it was in real life.
And another great idea is to create a lot of villages or even small towns and roads on battle maps to make give the feeling of an inhabited world

[leviath]

So to sum it up, people who know nothing about mods are not happy and real modders who actually were at the summit are happy.

[fizy45]

That is exactly what i was about to post now!!
That proves that this summit is a big joke (to avoid post more agressive terms) and all its happening there is a feast on the suckers (us all)!!!!
IF any one of the so called "modders" will post that CA created a modding tool he/she will have us all for fools!

True true so true.

We know why CA dont let us edit settlements,simply because of DLC policy.They thought that if modders make their own maps with new provinces on it no-one will buy their map oriented DLC packs or it will lower its sales.

[wangrin]

This is not about a DLC policy, this is about the cost to create modding tools :

I know many wanted full map editing tools but Attilas map system is not like Shogun 2. Massive development time would have to be devoted to giving access to the base logic in any sort of tool. It simply isn't feasible as it, like some other things like ui, is tied to the base code structure. Perhaps one day in the future, but for now the time required to devote to it would majorly cut into development time of core game mechanics for actual release products.

Don't forget that CA is a company that must generate profits and creating modding tools need resources and finally cost money.

The campaign map system has been modified since TWS2 and the new one seems to be more complex.

I would like to know how CA create Campaign Map, what process did they follow.
It was not explained during previous modding summit, mostly because Campaign Map tool was not include in TWR2 Assembly Kit and was only "maybe later".
To create TWS2 map, they create raw data using 3ds max. I would have liked if they have change the process, using other tools (such as a GIS) for example.

[Ltd.]

Thank you Dresden for the quick summary. I´m especially glad about the possibilities to change buildings on the battlemap.