More monsters through modding.

[Kinasin]

Is there a way to add more monsters through modding into the game? If not why hasn't it been implemented?

[tigersfan]

No, there isn't a way to mod in more monsters, and the reason is simple: adding the ability to mod in monsters would require a lot of time and effort on our part, and we feel that the limited time we have (there are only five of us on full-time staff) is better spent doing other things with the game.

[Kinasin]

No, there isn't a way to mod in more monsters, and the reason is simple: adding the ability to mod in monsters would require a lot of time and effort on our part, and we feel that the limited time we have (there are only five of us on full-time staff) is better spent doing other things with the game.

Aw, I see. Well if you guys ever get to the point were you can implement such a feature I think it would be awesome. BTW, I love the game. Was getting down on it last night and man it's like nothing else I've ever played before. I don't get why people hate on the graphics. I personally like the graphics a lot. Thx for answering my question btw.

[Kinasin]

One more thought. Would you guys be interested in starting an enemies/monsters suggestion thread? Where we can vote on various new enemies to put have you all put into the game " just make various suggestions and popular ideas could be implemented". 

[Coppermantis]

http://arcengames.com/mantisbt/view_all_bug_page.php

This is the master list of all suggestions and issues.

[tigersfan]

http://arcengames.com/mantisbt/view_all_bug_page.php

This is the master list of all suggestions and issues.

Yep, absolutely. We like to keep as much of that stuff as we can in one place. Mantis allows you to vote on and discuss specific ideas.

[Elijah]

Ehi modding is important. See ARMA II, they made like 900K copies more for modding Day-Z mod. They practically sold more games for the mod than for the game itself. Modding development from the community I guess, especially today that people are more capable of using the current technology, is vital to a videogame.

No?

[tigersfan]

Ehi modding is important. See ARMA II, they made like 900K copies more for modding Day-Z mod. They practically sold more games for the mod than for the game itself. Modding development from the community I guess, especially today that people are more capable of using the current technology, is vital to a videogame.

No?

I wouldn't call it vital, no. There are certainly examples of moddable games that have apparently been successful because of the modability. But there are also many examples of games that are successful that aren't all that moddable.

Part of the problem with making games moddable is that they become harder to change for the developer. What if the change they make will break most mods out there? Does the developer make that change then? Or do they leave the game alone? What if that change is something a lot of players of the actual game want? What if it will make a big improvement to the game? With as fast and as often as we tend to change our games, having to also worry about how a particular change will effect the mods and the modding community would add a lot of time to what we do, and really slow us down.

[LaughingThesaurus]

While I love moddability and all, it only really seems important to me if the modding community would be doing a better job than the developers. For one, I actually don't want DayZ, so that doesn't sell me on ARMA II. However, Minecraft having such a gigantic mod community, and such slow development, I have to download Minecraft mods to layer on the complexity I need to the experience. Likewise, Unreal Tournament 3 ended up having a comparatively crap modding community, so I ended up playing it far less. Particularly because its gameplay ended up being vastly more shallow compared to Unreal Tournament 2004, which actually had a wonderful mod community.

However, the fellows at Arcen are anything but slow in their development. A Valley Without Wind alone got two major updates within, what, a month and a half or less? Patches are more 'major overhauls' with how much content they add. I doubt these games ever need mods, aside from maybe Tidalis. But, that's just me. I wouldn't use a mod, just because the regular updates more than cut it for me.

[Elijah]

I guess moddability doesn't only improve the experience through the work of some people who are not the developers. It gives more important changes to the player experience.

First : a game that I quite like can become awesome if I can make it like I would like it to be. Great moddability attracts these section of customers.

Second : the game can become from "developer to player" to "player to player" which makes the community so much more vibrant.

Third : developers can actually learn from mods the trend of how people want the game to go to, not only from discussions, which are really just theory, but from practice as well. Modders can, and will I assure you, find new ways to create new stuff from their imagination that developers, as they are in smaller number, will never be able to cover entirely. Imagine the game as the central part of the plant, the mods being little branches spanning in every direction : where the branches seems gather in bigger number that is the direction the plant could go. Sometimes the branch can become a new fundamental part of the plant.

We also have empyrical proofs of games so sucessful thanks for modding, and game that, even if sucessful by themselves, can be much more bright with modding framework. Minecraft, Mount and Blade, also Age of empires 2, that with map making gave me much more to play after I finished the main campaigns and got bored of random scenarios.

Especially considering the huge love of this community toward the game Arcen has made, modding capabilities would be probably the best long-term choice I could think of.

Hey, that's what i'd do

[tigersfan]

In all of those examples that you mentioned, two of them aren't being updated anymore by the developers at all, and the third is being updated, but they come out with updates very infrequently. The way we do business here, with fast and frequent updates, it's just not something we're able to consider right now. Especially now that we have 3 separate major projects running concurrently.

[Misery]

Aye, I just cant see this game being all that modable beyond the ability to add in rooms and such.   The idea of being able to add monsters or whatever would be neat, but I'm betting a nightmare to implement.

And really, I just think some games dont really need modding all that much.  Even something like Mount & Blade, I know that one IS moddable, but there arent all that many mods (at least, not when I had a look) and in all honesty I always thought the base game was just fine, particularly when you have the expansions.  Never seemed like one that really NEEDED mods.

Whereas Minecraft works with mods due to it's basic nature and gameplay style;  it's easy to come up with ideas that can really fit into that one.   Though I do think the official updates need to come faster.   Though, I follow the snapshots for that one, so there's been stuff weekly at least.  Buggy stuff, but still stuff, heh.

[Elijah]

In all of those examples that you mentioned, two of them aren't being updated anymore by the developers at all, and the third is being updated, but they come out with updates very infrequently. The way we do business here, with fast and frequent updates, it's just not something we're able to consider right now. Especially now that we have 3 separate major projects running concurrently.

3 separate projects? O.o

AI war expansion, avww and? I missed one!

[tigersfan]

And our new game, Shattered Haven. You can find out more about that here: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/board,85.0.html

[LaughingThesaurus]

In all of those examples that you mentioned, two of them aren't being updated anymore by the developers at all, and the third is being updated, but they come out with updates very infrequently. The way we do business here, with fast and frequent updates, it's just not something we're able to consider right now. Especially now that we have 3 separate major projects running concurrently.

Oh, were you responding to me? I was meaning to agree that these games don't really need mods with how often they're updated.