Why doesn't CA add mods into ETW?

[Jefzor]

I have been thinking , what is the reason that CA doesn't use some of the mods provided here ?
There are very awesome mods which improve the game very much , archimondays campaign ai, all the reskins ,danova's extra units, darthmods AI ,the sounds between the lines all the effects and all others!... . Why doesn't CA save itself's time by adding these mods into the core data of ETW so they can focus their time on other things ? Since the community is also sort of a dev team helping CA improve the game.

 

[Astaroth]

Thread renamed for clarification.

 

[Steeltrap]

....because they'd rather release updates for which you pay $$, a.k.a Nappy TW.

 

[Ter]

I think it's probably a bit of a dodgy area legally for them.

 

[roy34543]

I think its partly due to steam, CA never really ever added mod tools to its games, it just made the code very easy to change.
Now that its on steam the files are VERY hard to mess with and they actually need to release a good toolkit, and they jsut dont know how.

 

[♔Lord Stason♔]

I think the better question is, why doesn't CA hire these modders that so improve the game just by themselves?

I don't see why they shouldn't work together or take a few leaves out of each other’s books.

I' can’t see them actually employing them though, but I don't see why they don't communicate with some of the people that created some popular and useful mods.

 

[Brusilov]

I don't see why they shouldn't work together or take a few leaves out of each other’s books.

I' can’t see them actually employing them though, but I don't see why they don't communicate with some of the people that created some popular and useful mods.

Jack Lusted used to be a modder that was active in these forums before he started to work for CA.

A company would need to either pay the modders for their work or to get the modders to agree for their work to be included. Otherwise CA should be in legal problems.

A lot of mods are the author's own perceptions on how things should be - they don't necessarily fit with the product that CA produced.

There also appears to be a number of conflicts between various mods (just read through the technical help forum). If there was a 'full conversion' mod available for this game I would probably use it (I mainly play RTW and haven't played vanilla RTW for about three or four years).

 

[Jefzor]

Well , really what they only have to do is ask and mention their names.
It would save their time using some of the communty's mods.
Can't see a problem with it.

 

[Abspara]

I don't think they'll go down that path as it's a hard pill to swallow when the unpaid modder can do better work than a person who creates games professionally. It sort of sends the wrong message to the shareholders and suits.

 

[Archimonday]

But wasn't one of the lead AI programmers for Empire a modder back in the day? I swear I read that somewhere

 

[colin666]

But wasn't one of the lead AI programmers for Empire a modder back in the day? I swear I read that somewhere

Well, everyone has to start somewhere.

I'm going with the guy who said that it's probably a sketchy legal area and some other guy who said that the modders probably wouldn't do as told by CA.

 

[blonkers1234]

But wasn't one of the lead AI programmers for Empire a modder back in the day? I swear I read that somewhere

I think Jack Lusted became part of the Empire team after his excellent modding skills, i think thats who your reffering to

 

[Sir Winston Churchill]

I think the better question is why doesn't CA hire these modders who so improve the game. Wouldn't it be better that instead of actually having to have mods attached to the game, that the mods be part of the actual game itself?

Well I believe it is a good idea anyway, and other games (such as Civ for instance) have already exploited the possibilities of such a thing. Worked out for them! Although, there weren't that many files and memory associated, and mods for TW can change and add alot of things.

 

[antaeus]

CA dont include mods because it would mean they would have to support them.. they already struggle to support the game as it is, let alone any other non official variation of their game. it's a recipe for disaster.

it's a significant concession on their part to make the game modifiable at all.

 

[Oberbefehlshaber]

Anyway, CA could not use mods because that would mean CA agrees that they cannot develop games on their own, so therefore they have to use their own material.

 

[Bacon!]

if they started using other peoples work then they are indirectly admiting they cant do the job properly themselves

 

[Oberbefehlshaber]

if they started using other peoples work then they are indirectly admiting they cant do the job properly themselves

Haha, I just said that...

 

[Bacon!]

Haha, I just said that...

Nasty habit of posting my opinion then reading others

 

[Tim_Ward]

On a somewhat related note, what's the CA position on adopting ideas they see posted on forums?

In storytelling land, this is legally very suspect. JMS of Babylon 5 specifically insisted people not submit story ideas to him or post fanfic anywhere he can see it, to avoid accusations of stealing people's work. Is there a similar problem with CA adopting ideas people post on forums about how to, e.g. improve the AI or the myriad of ideas for how to give sloops and brigs a role without breaking realism that were posted in the big threads on the naval re-balancing being worked on for 1.4.

If there is, then we'd be will better served by keeping our mouths shut in future and hoping CA comes up with the ideas we want in the game on their own, rather than posting them and thus ruling out their ever appearing in Empire.

 

[Inhuman One]

Kind of weird if they havent offered Darth Vader and King Kong a job though, but then again, that does sound very strange.

And we love their modding skills which would be pretty much gone if they where on the CA team.

 

[Ter]

On a somewhat related note, what's the CA position on adopting ideas they see posted on forums?

In storytelling land, this is legally very suspect. JMS of Babylon 5 specifically insisted people not submit story ideas to him or post fanfic anywhere he can see it, to avoid accusations of stealing people's work. Is there a similar problem with CA adopting ideas people post on forums about how to, e.g. improve the AI or the myriad of ideas for how to give sloops and brigs a role without breaking realism that were posted in the big threads on the naval re-balancing being worked on for 1.4.

If there is, then we'd be will better served by keeping our mouths shut in future and hoping CA comes up with the ideas we want in the game on their own, rather than posting them and thus ruling out their ever appearing in Empire.

No, I'm pretty sure there isn't a problem, in fact I think they actively encourage constructive criticism (with more of an emphasis on constructive).

 

[alpaca]

Well I believe it is a good idea anyway, and other games (such as Civ for instance) have already exploited the possibilities of such a thing. Worked out for them! Although, there weren't that many files and memory associated, and mods for TW can change and add alot of things.

Yeah, Firaxis included total conversions in the Beyond the Sword add-on. Very cheap way to add content, but if it's already there the profit goes both ways I guess. I would like to see the game devs pay the modders some money (no idea if Firaxis did) if they really release the mod as part of their games. I personally am not sure if I would allow anyone to make profit out of work I made for non-profit reasons.

That said, I would definitely not mind CA borrowing some ideas or designs from modders.

 

[blonkers1234]

I thought what I had posted was fairly straight forward. I even posted the details I had included in post #7 which you clearly had not read.

Here is the forum where the mod that Jack Lusted worked on: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=114

He also worked hard on Lands to Conquer for Med 2

 

[♔Lord Stason♔]

going back to how lusted got recruited was there any specific reason as to why?

If lusted why not Darth?

No favouritism here but I’m just curious what defines a valued asset to CA's team.

 

[ajp]

Hi, I am not expecting CA to go after any mod to try to implement it, maybe use some of the ideas for future patches will be good, but something simplier like unlocking all factions and make them playable in the grand campaign I believe they should do and we dont have to go around trying different mods etc just for something straight forward, which we have paid anyway by purchasing their game. ...

 

[Brusilov]

going back to how lusted got recruited was there any specific reason as to why?

If lusted why not Darth?

No favouritism here but I’m just curious what defines a valued asset to CA's team.

I guess a lot would depend upon whether or not Darth would want to work for CA? There is a lot of difference between working part-time on something that interests you and working full-time on it. Maybe, Darth has a job that they really like and is well paid?

 

[blonkers1234]

Yeah guys keep it to topic, going back to how lusted got recruited was there any specific reason as to why?

If lusted why not Darth?

No favouritism here but I’m just curious what defines a valued asset to CA's team.

Lusted rebuilt the A.I. from scratch in Med2 so thers some merit there id say we could just ask him ourselves.

 

[Astaroth]

Let's stay on topic please. This thread is about adding mods to ETW.

 

[♔Lord Stason♔]

Just for others if they are interested there’s another thread here that is discussing about whether or not CA looks into forums like this for ideas/views and so on.