Modding Support?

[Kookaburra]

I haven't played this game yet, but I was wondering if this game has modding support or if there are plans to implement them in the future. 

 

I'm mainly talking about client side mods, like ship skins and other textures, or slight changes to the HUD. Nothing to give a gameplay advantage, but little things to help players customize their game a bit. 

[maturin]

In my dreams it will one day be possible to rent private deathmatch servers where you can play a fully mod-enabled version of the game with your friends. Sort of like ArmA or Half-Life.

[Balsafer]

There will be no need to have mods for skin's and textures because in the future you will be able to customize your ships sails,flags, and ship color the way you wan't. Maybe mods for HuD.

[Brigand]

I don't think any final decision has been mode on this, but admin has mentioned that modding support or private servers are not planned in the near future. The reason stated is that by giving people access to the source code will greatly increase the chances for cheaters.

Even small changes such as a higher contrasted HUD, can give an advantage. Any advantage one player has over another is unfair.

 

~Brigand

[thomas aagaard]

Would in my view be a waste of development time...

[Elcid Barrett]

Any time I have seen mods in an online, PvP environment it has been an open door to cheats and hacks. Even if it is just skins people will make one so that enemy ships are bright pink, etc.

 

My personal opinion is no client side mods please.

[SYN_Bloody-Bandy]

Any time I have seen mods in an online, PvP environment it has been an open door to cheats and hacks. Even if it is just skins people will make one so that enemy ships are bright pink, etc.

 

My personal opinion is no client side mods please.

 

Well, I'm not sure what era of gaming you are talking about, because most game developers nowadays are pretty sophisticated when it comes to detecting "cheats and hacks".  Usually these 'cheats' are nothing but developer tools themselves that have somehow been leaked to the public; they are often refereed to 'god mode' so that a dev can play a game and test some aspect without having to worry about dying and restarting all the time.

 

As far as 3rd party skins go, simply have a system where the community votes on skins for inclusion in the game.  Have 'historic' category and 'non-historic'.  You as a client choose whether to include them on your hard drive or not.  If you don't have your "bright pink skin" installed, for example, then you simply see the default.  Here is a link to the Rise of Flight community skin poll section on the forum, easy enough to replicate something like that here... http://riseofflight.com/forum/forum/112-skins-textures/

 

In truth, I'm a bit surprised at some of the negative perspectives on community content posted above.  Granted, it is a little early in the game to be talking about it, BUT the longevity of any game is built on community involvement and this includes some very talented people who want to make and see their objects in game.  THERE IS NO TRANSFER OF SOURCE CODE in these instances, trust me.

 

Simply think about how much more free time the devs can have to build more ships if they don't have to model simple structures like houses, grass huts, docks, etc. etc. etc. by letting these things be made by vetted individuals with the tools to do it correctly and easily get them in game.

Edited March 23, 2015 by SYN_Bloody-Bandy

[Sir Madoc]

Lets not turn naval action into minecraft.

[Brigand]

(...)

 

As far as 3rd party skins go, simply have a system where the community votes on skins for inclusion in the game.  Have 'historic' category and 'non-historic'.  You as a client choose whether to include them on your hard drive or not.  If you don't have your "bright pink skin" installed, for example, then you simply see the default.  (...)

 

The concern is not about being confronted by the pink skinned ship in your game. The concern is about players who play to win at all costs, who change skins for the sole purpose of gaining an advantage on other players.

 

Right now, smoke is, for example, done on the server, because it could be made invisible otherwise, thereby giving an unfair advantage to the cheaters.

 

Since it is easier to spot pink ships than natural coloured ones, some players will use pink skinned ships. (Or red for enemy, blue for friendly). This is a well known form of cheating: some players try to get advantages by whatever means they can, if changing the intended visuals is possible, they will turn it into an advantage.

As a side note, many studies on games, types of gameplay, people who play and their motivations, typically also show that the people who are attracted to winning by cheating are not the most friendly bunch out there. Some argue that this behaviour is deliberate: getting the opponent angry will cloud their gameplay skills. I think it has as much, if not more, to do with Pavlovian conditioning.

 

If by 'mods' you instead mean user contributed content (content which is distributed through official channels after being checked and approved), that is a whole other story.

 

~Brigand

[Elcid Barrett]

*stuff*

 

I know RoF's model very well. Although I am not active anymore I was a forum moderator there. What you seemed to miss was that I was referring to client side mods, as the OP was.

 

Server side, community voted mods? Sure. But no client side.

[Alex Connor]

My preference would be no mods at all, rather community content of sufficient quality is included as part of the official game...

[Juliette LaCroix]

Unity3D engine packs all its stuff in single libraries, so unless devs implement their own content pipeline mods for the ingame content are unlikely. It would be technically possible to have an script language that could achieve moddable interfaces. But I doubt it will ever be included.