Where is the modding section?

[SgtScum]

Have I missed it? 

I ask because after going through the suggestions forums I lucked across a replacement .png for the lightning turret which now looks absolutely spectacular and some alternate bullets which also look very nice and clean. Seems to me you could lure in lots of competant free talent who would gladly contrubute new graphics, sound effects etc or even do total conversions which can up the visibility of this game by orders of magnitude if say someone makes a good trek or star wars mod or even somthing completely original. A bonus is that all of this would be optional content that arcen games would not have to support in any way past making and moderating the new mod forums and possibly making the game officially mod friendly.

Sound like a good idea? =)

[Fleet]

You had me at Star Trek mod

[x4000]

Yep, cool idea!  Created one here: http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/board,72.0.html

I've moved all the mod posts that I could quickly find into there, though I'm sure there are more hanging around that need to be moved by a moderator at some point (or the original poster, I think, can also move their own post).

[SgtScum]

\o/

I'll spam that link in some of the active game mod forums I frequent to give them a heads up that AI War is looking to break into the mod scene. Graphics and sound should tie most of them over for the moment provided they are interested but deep gameplay changes will be the carrot that brings the real talent around. For me personally mods are one of the reasons I will purchase a game though in AI Wars case the stellar gameplay hooked me right away. Here is looking at a bright modding future. 

[keith.lamothe]

Sgt, "deep gameplay changes" will not be possible through modding in the near future.  Maybe much later, but I don't think there are any plans for that, it's been discussed at length elsewhere (though I don't have a link handy).

Graphics and sounds are certainly fair game, though.  We've actually incorporated a fair bit of player provided stuff into the official releases, too.

[SgtScum]

Sgt, "deep gameplay changes" will not be possible through modding in the near future.  Maybe much later, but I don't think there are any plans for that, it's been discussed at length elsewhere (though I don't have a link handy).

Understandable as you are a small team and additionally have other games to spread your development time on. Btw I am really looking forward to the tower defence game you are making as it looks to be rather unique much like AI War. =)

However..

Being a long term modder myself that was on the ground floor of the Homeworld modding scene that modded the game that was supposed to be completely unmoddable and are still cranking out awesome stuff after all these years in multiple games I seriously urge you to think about upping the modibility of the game. Nothing but positive results can come from it as many a game developer has found out much to the delight of his bottom line.  But of course no real hurry as there is yet to form a pushy opinionated modding community to cater to. 

Graphics and sounds are certainly fair game, though.  We've actually incorporated a fair bit of player provided stuff into the official releases, too.

I noticed that and its one of the main reasons I made the topic as there is nothing a modder likes better than getting his stuff put into the game officially with his name on the credits page. Sadly too many devs tell us that whilst they love the stuff we do they can't officially include it because their entire legal department went into convulsions when it was mentioned. 

[RCIX]

I noticed that and its one of the main reasons I made the topic as there is nothing a modder likes better than getting his stuff put into the game officially with his name on the credits page. Sadly too many devs tell us that whilst they love the stuff we do they can't officially include it because their entire legal department went into convulsions when it was mentioned. 

That's the upside of not having one: the dev team (all 2 of them ) can actually do things like that! I wonder how GPG is pulling that off (taking fans unit suggestions)...

[x4000]

Funny story: Arcen's lawyer is the same one that GPG has, incidentally.

[RCIX]

Funny story: Arcen's lawyer is the same one that GPG has, incidentally.

Oh yeah, i remember you mentioning something about snagging (one of) GPG's lawyers now...

[Buttons840]

What sort of legal issues is a small developer like you worried about?

Perhaps the typical patent claim:  Someone writes a letter and buys a stamp, you spend a few thousand investigating the legitimacy of their claims and upon discovering they're bogus claims they reply with "my bad, lol".

[RCIX]

What sort of legal issues is a small developer like you worried about?

Perhaps the typical patent claim:  Someone writes a letter and buys a stamp, you spend a few thousand investigating the legitimacy of their claims and upon discovering they're bogus claims they reply with "my bad, lol".

That, and some miserly person giving an idea or mod and then suing the code out of Arcen games.

[x4000]

The reason we have a lawyer is mainly for contract negotiation/review with publishers. But if something else  does come up, then yeah.

[Kaptein]

you guys are making a tower defense game? if the answer happens to be yes, please work faster 
despite wc3 mods and what not, the only decent tower defense game ever made was Defence Grid, and i played it to death

[RCIX]

you guys are making a tower defense game? if the answer happens to be yes, please work faster 
despite wc3 mods and what not, the only decent tower defense game ever made was Defence Grid, and i played it to death

I personally agree with this one, because i'm not a fan of the other game in line for development. Perhaps X should hold a poll after Tidalus is out!

[x4000]

Yep, we will be!  A Valley Without Wind is currently slated to begin work in early 2011, after our next two games have come out in 2010, plus then also the next AI War game.  The TD game we are planning is pretty ambitious on all fronts, so it got bumped from our second slot in 2010 to 2011 so that we would have time to do it justice.