Integratable MODs

from Elemental Forums

i've looked throguh what forums i could, and couldn't see anything about this take on the modding aspect of the game.

 

For me one of the things i'd like to see is being able to play other peoples mods seemlessly.

 

what i mean by this is, comparing it to say sins for example.  the mods on there were great, but when the community wittled down a bit it was almost impossible to get a mod game going, and the main reason for this i found was you ( the user ) had to get off your backside and go trudging off to through the modders website and download thier installers.  In some cases download new maps too.

Personally coming home from work and wanting a good game of sins i'd rarely try a mod, i'd simply not bother because i knew ( from previous failed attempts ) that to get the mod working... would take large amounts of time even tryin to explain to other people where to go to install the mod, and if the game did start, not many would play another game on that mod, especially if they lost. heh.  So in the end i just took what games i could with sins, and mods just got ignored simply because of how difficult if was to get everyone on the same hm sheet so to speak, when most just wanted to sit down and play.

I hope that with EWOM, we can still get these features, however i would like the game to incorporate the downloading and installing of the other players mods or user created content.  This would then inturn abolish the need to try to explain to others how to install mods.  Hopefully everyone would be able to simply download from each other or from the server ( once host uploaded ) like, say user created maps might download in FPS games for example.

 

Anyways, i wanted to bring this up, in the hope it can be implemented in some way, i'll like the game regardless, but itd be nice to be able to try the usercreated content without having to install things seperatley, mainly because in my experience... the masses tend to steer away from seperate installs.  Automation server side would be great !!! :D

6,073 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Q: How does modding work in Elemental? How can I make my own creatures?

A: In most game projects, art assets are checked in through source control (CVS, PerForce, SVN, etc.).  In Elemental, we are moving our artists to checking in those assets as if they were modders using the built in UI.

We will have two types of assets in Elemental: Canon and non-canon.  Canon assets are ones we created. Non-canon ones are ones that players have created. Players will be able to pick and choose what assets they want in their games.

We won’t be putting elves into Elemental for instance. No unicorns. No fairies. No gnomes. No orcs. But if someone else wants to use Maya or 3D Studio and export it into the format we’re using (we’re using a standard 3D model format, forgot which one) you can put it into the game and then share it, within the game, for others to use.


End of quote

from reading this on the journal, can anyone at stardock confirm the model format you guys are using?  i've got some experience with max and maya... would like to try my hand at making maybe some uniits :D might as well get the correct spec before modelling.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

*bump

 

just bumping to try and get the forum started, and really would like a confirmation on what model format you guys at stardock are thinking of or are actually using for models so i can start doinw some models for future in my spare time.

so anyone, at stardock.  get back to me when you can.  i do realise i've only given yas 1 working day for a response, apologies.

thanks

blueman

CursorFX - Customize your Windows cursor
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

B1ueman, odds are you aren't going to get a response, especially since you're being so rude (bumping the thread).

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I think your last post was really uncalled for, i've simply asked for clairity on a point i couldn't find answered on the forum so far. 

I bumped the thread after the weekend to see if any of the team were about to answer incase they missed it,

cant see the rudeness in that, i know some people can find it annoying if the topic is old or already been covered.  but its neither of those.

 

i'll avoid the flamewar, and just sit in silence and hope a dev can answer,

 

 

 

 

Anyways really looking forward to contributing to the community in the future with models.

peaceout.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Well, if you really think about it.  What are they going to say?

They've stated a few times they want this to be as mod friendly as possible.   I'm sure they want you to be able to play  other people's mods and move between them seemslessly.    I know I don't want to have to constantly move physical files around to change in and out mods.    But until the beta comes out at the very minimum, there isn't much to say on the subject.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

b1ue, there's a kind of ettiquete involved in online forums.  Bumping a post which isn't even off the first page is, to most people, innapropriate behaviour.  The devs will, or won't, read this forum.  Your bump was unnecessary, and most bumps are considered 'rude'.  You can occasionally get away with it when the thread in question has become re-relevant (for example, if a new thread makes it clear the information in it is important and overlooked), but in general it's just bad form.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

I'll be willing to wager that, in a multiplayer game, you'll at the very least be able to see what kind of mods the other parties are running. I'm not sure wheter or not you'll be able to pick and choose who's mods you're going to run the game with, or if there'll be some kind of auto-transfer into your mod bank - but regardless, gathered from various dev. statements, I think it's fair to say that you won't have similar problems as you had in Sins.

Quoting Ron, reply 6
b1ue, there's a kind of ettiquete involved in online forums.  Bumping a post which isn't even off the first page is, to most people, innapropriate behaviour.  The devs will, or won't, read this forum.  Your bump was unnecessary, and most bumps are considered 'rude'.  You can occasionally get away with it when the thread in question has become re-relevant (for example, if a new thread makes it clear the information in it is important and overlooked), but in general it's just bad form.
End of Ron's quote
Yeah, god knows I've had my share of threads I've wanted to bump, but just the fact that I was the last posted keeps me from doing so. I didn't find the OP rude, though, not sure what you're getting at.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Yeah, god knows I've had my share of threads I've wanted to bump, but just the fact that I was the last posted keeps me from doing so. I didn't find the OP rude, though, not sure what you're getting at.
End of quote

Some of us find that kind of bump annoying, and consider it rude in and of itself :D

Plus, to be honest, I think I was just in a bad mood (read tired) when I wrote that, I could have phrased myself a lot better.

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

I like blueman's idea.  I play Civilization 4, but I never accually play the out of the box game, I play either Rise of Mankind mod, or Fall from Heaven Mod, and I've wanted to play a multiplayer game of them... but sadly it has yet to come to be. 

I look forward to the day that I get to have my own favorite mods to play with, hosting a game stating "Role-playing only", having people join, and finally have those people role-play their empires, not just to win the game, but to create a rich fantasy history.

Or at least not feel like such a nerd doing that solo. X|

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

What would be really great would be to have a centrally run mod repository that was integrated into the multiplayer matchmaking.  You want to play a mod and the other person doesn't have it?  No problem!  They may have a significantly longer loading time after they click to confirm, but the entire mod downloading and activation process would be handled automatically behind the scenes.

Something like that would no doubt involve a major amount of technical work, but I think it would revolutionize the way that mods are accessed, and increase the life and value of the core IP immensely.  Perhaps it could even be developed on a multigame basis as part of something like Ready To Play.

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

Goodmorning all,


From what i understand, Stardoc wants to set multiplayer up as Dopplex was stateing. A central repository where you click to activate the mod's you want to play with.  and then everybody who joins, sees the list, accepts playing with that list, and when they hit go, the game will autodownload any bits they are missing.


This got me thinking though, How do you search this databace? and what about mods that change the underlieing mechanics?  or incompatible mods?


by way of  examples;

a standard mod is a bug fix mod,  most good modding communities end up finding bugs in the game and fixing them.

a balance mod, where game elements are re-ballanced by the community.
a total mod, which would be incompatible with the two above mods.  such as the CIV 4 mod which changes the game to Master of Orion. or Sid Myers Alpha Century.

and then you have questions about what to do about mods that work together, but really don't belong together,  Tom's Death knights, Sallies Death (k)Nights, and John's dEATH kNights. Each mod may all be fun and entertaining, but having all three would be a headache.


so i was thinking that Stardoc would do well to have a system where mods can be or are automatically grouped into packages.  What i'm evisioning is two lists,  one of mods, each and every mod,  and then one of packages, and when you click on a package to inspect it the mods that are included in the package are displayed, and those that are incompatible with the package are displayed.  if you select the mod package,  all the mods on the first list that are included whould be highlighted, or ticked, those that are incompatible become crossed out,  and then you can choose a second mod pac, or click individual mods you want to add.

Now as people use the mods if two mods almost always get used together, a mod pack would be generated by the algorithm, or by users, and put into the second list,  if two or more mod packs are almost always used together a third mod pac would be made that has all the bits of the other two.  If a mod pack stops being used or is not used, it would be deleated (not the mods, just the option to pick them all at once) to keep the mod pack list from becoming too populated [thus causing the same problem we're attempting to avoid too many options to pick from no way to search them all].  Of course each pack and each mod would also have a indicator of it's popularity, and what stage it is in (new, etablished, changing, nearly discarded).


Does anybody with more artictic talent then i think this could be doable, how it might look and would want to draw up a draft?  for this or any other solution?


Take care all

Robbie