21 replies to this topic

[Fingulfin]

I don't mod C&C (don't hurt me xD), but I would like to answer one of your questions...

How important do you feel official support is for modding games?

VASTLY. When I modded BFME, I didn't realize how spoiled I was, even though the community always wanted more tools. Of course I did too, especially when BFME II came out and half of the models/animations started using a different type of W3D Shader and we couldn't mod them using existing tools...

However that is NOTHING compared to the nightmare I have experienced when modding BF 2142. Apparently EA/DICE intended on releasing an editor... but when they looked at the the editor they were using they realized that it exposed too much of the games source code so they scrapped mod support altogether. The existing mods are running off of the BF2 editor which sortof works...

Compare the two modding communities: C&C vs BF. Because of the support shown for modders for the C&C Series, the modding community is still vagrant and thriving. Because of the lack of support shown for the battlefield series, the modding community is limited to one forum with MAYBE 5 active members. . .

All in all, I believe that support is a necessary ingredient to keep a game alive.

BTW, my favorite modding tool is Notepad++

[CommieDog]

Why did you decide to mod whatever C&C game you do (please specify)?

I know that it's unpopular to say this, but I like modding C&C 3. The C&C 3 engine seems to be the most flexible of all the C&C games to date; for instance, I can easily make an Iron Curtain superweapon in C&C 3 (thanks AttrubuteModifiers!), whereas the closest thing I could do in ZH was a messy hack involving the Avenger's weapon and not absorbing the damage of the first shot. I admit that the C&C code is less user-friendly than in previous games like Generals, but I consider that a price worth paying for increased flexibility. (Plus it makes my job as a coder as a coder more valuable, but that may just be my bias showing. )

How important do you feel official support is for modding games?

Having developers that aren't openly hostile to modding their product is a big help. Beyond that, the amount that official support helps the community really depends of the architecture of the game's engine: open architecture can be more easily interfaced with community tools, making official tools less helpful than for closed architecture. Even when not necessary, I still support official tools; I'm not a big fan of the "making your own tools is a pain, but pain builds character!" argument. Still, I like open architecture better because it lessens the dependence on developers who may have deadlines to meet and new projects to complete (see Kane's Wrath ).

What tools do you use when modding a game? Please specify the tools and the game so that I can correlate the two.

I used XCC Mixer and Notepad for TS, RA2, and Generals modding. I've switched to using the Mod SDK for C&C 3 to do the packaging work, but I still use Notepad for all my text-editing needs. In addition, I use Gmax and Jonwil's SDK Extras tools to peek at the game models for coding purposes (after all, how can I code bones if I don't know what I can work with?).