Darth Plagus Posted April 18, 2006 Share Posted April 18, 2006 Hey, just need to vent for a few minutes... Im really starting to get worried that the mod tools will not be released during my life time. Did the developers take Clinton's loophole of depends what your definition of the word is, is? To me, shortly after the game is in stores means a week or two, at the very longest a month...you would think that given the game was already pushed back on its release that the people over at petro would have had someone working on the map/scenario editor well in advance to game release...could "shortly" really mean 3 months and counting? I understand all too well the difficulties involved in creating games, etc. but i mean come on! in 3 months you could create a completely new game...we are talking about an editor here. It wouldnt be bothering me so much if they had said, "we are not planning on releasing a map editor" and then BAM they slap one on us, that would be a surprise! and treated with much joy...but this "we have no comment on that at this time" thing is really starting to bug me...THE biggest reason i bought the game was b/c of the possibilities with the mod tools.... I dont mean to offend anyone, or annoy anyone, like i said just venting...feel free to pull this from the boards. Plagus out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukeiamyourdad Posted April 18, 2006 Share Posted April 18, 2006 Yeah, this ain't your blog or something...I'm giving it a chance since it can spark some kind of discussion. Avoid rant threads from now on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popcorn2008 Posted April 18, 2006 Share Posted April 18, 2006 Well patience... it took Lucas Arts and Pandemic around 3 and a half months to release Battlefront II mod tools as well. You have to understand they are trying to work all the bugs out of the software as once it's out they arent going to have official tech support for them like they do the actual game. They also have to add many things to the editor in order for us to use it and for it to make more sense. We all want the mod tools but right now the best thing to do is wait patiently. We all knew the mod tools would take time to release so we just have to deal with it. It will be all the better when they are released and you can think Im sure glad I waited for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukeiamyourdad Posted April 18, 2006 Share Posted April 18, 2006 It's somewhat of a vicious circle though. As the delay grows longer, more gamers leave the game, less incentive for the developers to make a patch or release anything. It's quite unfortunate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DarthMaulUK Posted April 18, 2006 Share Posted April 18, 2006 The tools are coming. Theres no eta but im guessing the end of this month. Both Lucasarts and Petroglyph are extremely busy working on E3, which is a major conference for both. Lucasarts are showing off this and next years games whilst Petroglyph will be there showing off some work and also looking for work - being a developer, they have to keep looking for publishers. DMUK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wuyanxu Posted April 18, 2006 Share Posted April 18, 2006 yeah, E3 is their no 1 at the moment, and then i think it's going to be about 1 month after E3 the mod tools will be out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthMuffin Posted April 18, 2006 Share Posted April 18, 2006 Lets not forget that LA had announced a demo for Battlefront 1. The said demo obviously never came out. ( the dead horse!) I know this has absolutely nothing to do with EaW, but remember that, unless I am mistaking, neither LA or Petro ever *promised* that they would release modding tools. As with any kind of "announced" online content, they can choose to pull the plug anytime they want should they see fit. I know, I'm a bit pessimistic. Someone has to be though. And Luke, I just realized you were a mod now. Congrats Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gswift Posted April 18, 2006 Share Posted April 18, 2006 If they release the mod tools before they are really ready, everyone will be even more upset than they are about any delay. I think they learned a lesson from the release of EaW before it was really ready. They probably could have sold more copies if they fixed more bugs before the release. I'm glad they are taking the time to get the mod tools working right before releasing them, rather than just dump some junk on us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
destruk Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 If they release the mod tools before they are really ready, everyone will be even more upset than they are about any delay. I think they learned a lesson from the release of EaW before it was really ready. They probably could have sold more copies if they fixed more bugs before the release. I'm glad they are taking the time to get the mod tools working right before releasing them, rather than just dump some junk on us. er...yeah... LucasArts has been around for >15 years. Petroglyph is made up of ex-EA/ex-Westwood employees with similar experience levels (C&C was 1995 right?) - so you think they learned something about releasing a product before it was ready, and that nobody involved had ever made a mistake like that before or wasn't aware of the consequences in doing so? uh huh... I'm not covering anything they don't know already - they're well aware that what they do has an impact on the size of their customer base. Whether they release mod tools at this point will allow them to regain some popularity with the users they already have. After the brash of support problems and the bad memories surrounding the marketing/handling of their first petroglyh product here, I doubt any mod tool release will draw in new customers or grow this product. An expansion that can be sold with fixes and mod tools included might do the trick, but a free download mod tool release wouldn't be worth much effort IMO, which is most probably why it is delayed. As had been stated above, E3 and their next product is taking the priority seat, as it should. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
†Saint_Killa† Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 er...yeah... LucasArts has been around for >15 years. Petroglyph is made up of ex-EA/ex-Westwood employees with similar experience levels (C&C was 1995 right?) - so you think they learned something about releasing a product before it was ready, and that nobody involved had ever made a mistake like that before or wasn't aware of the consequences in doing so? uh huh...Ummm.... that was old tecnology and may be more simple. But EaW is advanced already and a bit more complicated so it will take time to finish the game and mod tools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
destruk Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 Old technology? Releasing a product that works, the first time, without needing to release 2 updates in the first week to correct mistakes that were missed by beta testing/QA? The actual release process has been unchanged. Perhaps what you mean to refer to, is that it's an 'entirely' new engine with the same pathing problems and gameplay logic errors. And nobody knows what the mod tool package will encompass. If they're going all out allowing for custom ship types, complete stat editing, map editing, AI tactics editing, then sure, it will take a lot of time. For now I think we'd be happy with a standard map editor using existing skins and a text editor to modify existing units, which wouldn't take 3 months to kick out to the public. But we'll see when/if there is one to begin with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popcorn2008 Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 I know this has absolutely nothing to do with EaW, but remember that, unless I am mistaking, neither LA or Petro ever *promised* that they would release modding tools. As with any kind of "announced" online content, they can choose to pull the plug anytime they want should they see fit. Well they have promised a map editor, but they never have promised quote on quote "mod tools". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foshjedi2004 Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 Well I have no hard feelings for posting an Excerpt from an Email Mike Legg Sent Me about 2 weeks ago: "..the mod tools are going to be released before E3" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthMuffin Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 Well I have no hard feelings for posting an Excerpt from an Email Mike Legg Sent Me about 2 weeks ago: "..the mod tools are going to be released before E3" And so the countdown begins. ~21 days left. I say the chances are pretty good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Windu Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 Well I have no hard feelings for posting an Excerpt from an Email Mike Legg Sent Me about 2 weeks ago: "..the mod tools are going to be released before E3" Did he say which year's E3? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slocket Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 LUA Editor please. And the Map editor would be nice too. Else, the game is getting stale without new fan made content. Most great games have this stuff, fan made stuff and tons of replay value and adds to the fan base by keeping it alive. (Civ4, Oblivion, etc). It adds to game sales since the most popular games have full SDK did you notice? Good Mods = More fun = More Hype + SALES = PROFITSSS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthMuffin Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 LUA Editor please. And the Map editor would be nice too. Else, the game is getting stale without new fan made content. Most great games have this stuff, fan made stuff and tons of replay value and adds to the fan base by keeping it alive. (Civ4, Oblivion, etc). It adds to game sales since the most popular games have full SDK did you notice? Good Mods = More fun = More Hype + SALES = PROFITSSS! Yes, but releasing mod tools takes time. Greedy LA doesn't like it when things take time to be released. Instead, they prefer to make a "new" game that you will pay full price (Battlefront II, anyone?). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slocket Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 I would pay for a nice expansion with improvement and added gameplay such as diplomacy and maintenance (stuff cutout due to time -what Kufloaden). And if it would include the full editor tools as said above as promised way back when. Most games longevity depends upon new content to keep the community alive. And we know how greedy they are...Dark Horse Comic books comes to mind..original idea, yeh that was the original source material back in the 70's. Similiar to Bill Gates hatchet job to stick us with HIS god ownership of OS. When Vista comes out and DX10 you may as well throw away all your favorite 'legacy' games. Be lucky to find the hardware to even run it. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCorris Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 i would expect a map editor sometime soon but as to a mod tools, if i can take a moment to be hypothetical if they "are" making an expansion pack, they woudnt want to release tools so that people could make mods that could fill the expansions place just a thought Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingerhs Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 ^^^^ its never stopped devs before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCorris Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 true but but theres only so many ways you can go at the moment people want a clone wars/return of the jedi/new republic expansions, theres a mod coming out for each, and if this game is going to be as moddable as they say it is, then there would be no point releasing an expansion pack, the only thing that would be unique is the campaign sounds/voices etc, as the rest you could do with mods Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foshjedi2004 Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 That will be why these next few weeks are crucial for Petroglyph...Deliver the Mod tools or an Xpack that expands across all these gaps with a game we Want to have... OR: The Modders will just close down the large mods and move along to other games...the ultimate Sting in the tail would be IA2 moving to CNC3... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popcorn2008 Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 That will be why these next few weeks are crucial for Petroglyph...Deliver the Mod tools or an Xpack that expands across all these gaps with a game we Want to have... OR: The Modders will just close down the large mods and move along to other games...the ultimate Sting in the tail would be IA2 moving to CNC3... If the bigger mods move to CnC3 it would be a disapointment, seeing as it wont be released until 2007 (most likely late 2007). Not to mention that it's still using the same engine from Generals. Though it's supposed to be "better and improved" version, I seriously doubt that it will be that big of an improvment, maybe in graphics and AI but not much else. Besides CnC3 wont have as much continuality as EaW does. For example, if it follows in the paths of all other CnC games then it wont have anything similar to a "Battle map" (galatic map) meaning when you build one base, in the next mission you move foward and all those other units are scrapped and done for. But in EaW you have a galaxy to control and units matter a lot more because losing one effects your fleet and the continuality. Whew... does that make sense? Devs should learn that Mod tools are just as big as the game itself now a days. They should learn to release games with mod tools already in them, instead of rushing them out and releasing tools later. Or at least include a map editor with the game. Many devs have learned this lesson, while others still need to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orao Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 Devs should learn that Mod tools are just as big as the game itself now a days. They should learn to release games with mod tools already in them, instead of rushing them out and releasing tools later. Or at least include a map editor with the game. Many devs have learned this lesson, while others still need to. [/Quote] Small dev team of Act of War did this. They released mod tools with second patch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foshjedi2004 Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 popcorn you have to realise that the transition from Generals Zero Hour IA to a CNC3 IA2 won't be that difficult to accomplish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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