Help me understand Mods

[crazylegsmurphy]

Hey,

 

I wanted to ask a few questions regarding Mods as honestly, this is the first game that I have seen so easily modded. I have a few concerns and questions maybe you guys can help me with.

 

I have my Demo modded, and there are aspects of it that I like, and some that I don't. When the final release comes out, is it possible to mix and match mods to my liking? If so, how does this effect the stability of the game?

 

If my friends and I decide to Mod our games, how does it work with multiplayer? What will happen if our mods aren't the same?

 

How does modding effect the game in general? Will it make it unplayable with everyone else online?

 

I suppose I'm not really sold on the idea of mods. I get that there are things that can make the game really cool (Scaled Ships), but there are times when a mod can make the game really annoying to play (Scaled Ships).....is it possible to undo a mod?

 

Thanks!

 

Jeff

[Quickshot14_pff]

Heya,

 

First let me say welcome to the world of modding, belive me one you start your understand and learn theres no going back, people don't relize or are just starting too how much mods have become the lifeblood of the Interactive Entertainment industry witch is why modders and mods are starting to be taken very seriously by publishers. The wonderfull thing about modding is it can be somethng very small and minute as changing some text to something huge and amazing like a big total conversion. It's important to understand that mods are for first and foremost ussaly done for the modders enjoyment/fun in making. So remeber to have fun with it, and try not to take your self or your work a little to seriously as some can.

 

On to your questions:

 

1-

I have my Demo modded, and there are aspects of it that I like, and some that I don't. When the final release comes out, is it possible to mix and match mods to my liking? If so, how does this effect the stability of the game?

 

As the demo is only a slice of the whole pie if you will, were really not sure on most these aspects but let me try to anwser you with my assumptions and what petro has told us. Mix and matching mods or mods on top of mods or mods of mods has been around in many games since well modding really started. Mods on mods is always possible as long as modding is possible of course doing so sometimes can be tricky. As the modding golden rule if you use or release any type of mod in your mod or as part of your mod you always want to give credit. Its a must not to do so is very frowned on. Some ask/require that you ask them to use it as well first. Ussaly they state it and it's my opinion if they don't state in there mods that you need to ask before you can use/edit/release there mod then giving them credit will be enough and you should regardless.

 

It has been said that the main game will be much more moddable and have many more options, also petro is hoping to release as many tools for us after the game as LA allows. What tools and what they can do is still anyones guess. As for stabillty that can be always an issue and it really depends on what kind of mod your doing, if your testing it pretty throughly and are looking to balance it properly. In most cases mods for the game get along but you never can tell for sure, testing is always the best and sure way to see how it will run esspically on other systems besides yours. Next question:

 

2-

If my friends and I decide to Mod our games, how does it work with multiplayer? What will happen if our mods aren't the same?

 

Honestly none of use knows, first and foremost were not sure how the multiplayer is setup since no one has really seen it. We also don't know if mutiplayer uses the same files we have been modding or a specific one. What we do know from petro is that any multiplayer game connecting to someone with diffrent files then them *ie ones running modding files one is running retail* will automaticly end up in a out of sync dissconnect. Petro has stated they will keep track of out of sync to look for possible cheaters in standard multiplayer games. it is my opinon from experince in other games, that if your modded files/ie have the same files is the same then it will run fine in multiplayer otherwise it will not. At this point it's still not clear exactly how multiplayer modding will go and we really won't know till the game is out. Next question:

 

3-

How does modding effect the game in general? Will it make it unplayable with everyone else online?

 

This is praticly the same or part of the same question above. If you mean with standard out of the box retial EAW then yes, you will not be able to play online with anyone who does not have thoese same modded files. Otherwise you should be able to just fine, again as I stated above were not exactly clear on online play modding yet and we won't know for sure untill the game is out. Last question:

 

4-

I suppose I'm not really sold on the idea of mods. I get that there are things that can make the game really cool (Scaled Ships), but there are times when a mod can make the game really annoying to play (Scaled Ships).....is it possible to undo a mod?

 

There are really 3 types of modders out there, casual, standard, hardcore. The casuals ussaly make small mods, or even add-ons to mods and the like every now and then, but ussaly there just mod players. Standard is more of your ussaly modder, doing projects helping with projects things like that, takes modding in stride when he/she can. The hardcores are thoese who go all out on big huge mod projects, dig to find out whats going on and pretty much help push the modding community as a whole. The wonderfull thing about mods is no matter how big or small they are they can be tweaked or moved around more to a players likely. This is why I genreal find it helps thoese who play mods to at least have a small understanding of how to mod. Now obviously not everyone does or can and this is where things like documentation, user freindlyness and some type of mod manager really help out. It lets thoses users go through diffrent mods and find the one they like the most and use it. Of course the beatifull things about mods is there praticly endless and theres always some intresting or cool new mod just around the corner. And to the last part of your question a simple yes is your anwser. With the help of a mod manager or some understanding of a mods install/file structure, installing and uninstalling mods is a breeze and of course always as a last resort you can always do a uninstall re-install of the game to clear out any mods.

 

I hope this anwsered your questions and helped give you a little more insight about modding in genreal. As for modding EAW were still really at it's infancy but if I can tell you one thing about the SW modding community or any major modding community in genreal, you will be blown away by what can and will be released, petro has made are job in this game 10x easier but if there are any limts or roadblocks or missing things you can be sure the modding community will fill it in one way or another. May the modding force be will you and a powerfull ally it is ;D

[Foshjedi2004]

A Casual Modder would be the original Mods we saw when the demo was released.  The Chriz Mod v1 was one of thes. 

 

Standard mods are Bryants mod

 

Hardcore Mods are the LOW, IA2, TSW, STTIW, OW2, ROR and WTME mods in the community.

Edited February 6, 2006 by Cain

[crazylegsmurphy]

Wow, thanks for the reply guys!

 

I suppose if it works out that everyone has to have the same versions of the game, then that would be cool...but it could also make things really lonely in the multiplayer world if everyone who has a slight mod (Ship names) can't play with anyone else because of it. I hope there is some way that the game understands high level mods (Ship size, build times, hero/unit strength) and low level mods (Ship names, planet size) so the user can still play the game on thier end the way they want it to look, but the basic game elements would stay.

 

Basically, I am leary to mod anything on my game because I don't want it to limit me from playing with my friends. At the same time, there are some things I would love to Mod to make it more enjoyable for me, but don't need everyone else to have that mod.

[DragonShadow]

I'm pretty sure scale changes, name changes, and other minor (and rather inconsequential) mods should have little or no effect on multiplayer. As for other changes (build time, build cost, etc.), these may either cause compatibility issues or simply unbalanced gameplay (one side plays with ISDs costing 0 credits and the other has MCs costing 5000 or something).