MODing concern?

from Elemental Forums

Having a game be easy to MOD and create new content for can be a HUGE upside.  The only potential downside to that coin is whether there will be a reasonably easy way to asses the QUALITY of all this potential content: is it balanced, is it reasonably well thought out, is it well written, does it even WORK properly, etc?

I am excited by the MODability of E:WoM, but that aspect of the game could be made even better if there can/will be some efficient way to sort out the quality of what will probably be a LOT of content besides trial and error?

What do you think?  Any ideas/suggestions?

elemental
3,844 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

What exactly would be your suggestions besides trial and error? That's generally the best way to judge the balance of a new feature. What alternative is there. anyway?

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting kyogre12, reply 1
What exactly would be your suggestions besides trial and error? That's generally the best way to judge the balance of a new feature. What alternative is there. anyway?
End of kyogre12's quote

Perhaps a rating/voting system where you can see how many other people have used a particular version of a mod and how they rated it or something like that (0-5 stars or something)?  You'd have to ensure each IP address could only vote once per version# of a mod or something like that I guess (to prevent people from spamming ratings on their own mods), but nothing too complicated?

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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Soulfire777, reply 2



Quoting kyogre12,
reply 1
What exactly would be your suggestions besides trial and error? That's generally the best way to judge the balance of a new feature. What alternative is there. anyway?



Perhaps a rating/voting system where you can see how many other people have used a particular version of a mod and how they rated it or something like that (0-5 stars or something)?  You'd have to ensure each IP address could only vote once per version# of a mod or something like that I guess (to prevent people from spamming ratings on their own mods), but nothing too complicated?
End of Soulfire777's quote

Seems unecissary to me. All of the "good" mods will probably be very apparent, because they are run by a well-known and/or knowledgeable member of the community, they have their own website, their media (screenshots, trailers, etc) show how good it is, lots of replies on the forum topic, frequent updates, and/or other such factors. My point is that there are a lot of ways to tell that a modder or a team has put in a lot of time and effort, and generally any mod made by such people will be good. I don't think any sort of rating system will be necissary, because the good mods will be pretty self-evident.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting kyogre12, reply 3
I don't think any sort of rating system will be necissary, because the good mods will be pretty self-evident.
End of kyogre12's quote

This is amazingly untrue. Sure, many of the good mods will be recognized as such. But many amazing ones will be completely ignored, for any number of reasons. I've seen this in more than one modding community.

Chances are good that if the scene really gets going, the Nexus folks will set up a repository (they currently host mods for Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Dragon Age). They've got an endorsement and comments system that works fairly well, though it still doesn't help the problem of some great things simply being overlooked.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Well given that uploading/sharing/downloading mods will be handled through Impulse::Reactor, one would hope it would have a rating system. A Comments section would also be awesome, but really we'll have to see how it actually works when we get our modding beta, assuming that the beta will also be testing that system.