Mod support

Crook · Apr 10, 2016

Can anyone think of a solid reason against modding? The way I'd like it is if we could create our own assets for the game, but when using 3rd party assets the game requires a new CMDR, it doesn't affect the BGS, and of course you can't mode switch to earn money quickly. It would be self contained.

It's just that FD have done such a good job with space that I'd like to fly other ships from other universes.

Triple88a · Apr 10, 2016

The main thing is it all depends on how far the mods go. Ever played world of tanks? How about wow?

THere are mods that just change the color of your hud and menus. Cool, no biggy. On the other hand theres extreme mods that will break the game. For example world of tanks had mods that woudl remove the trees and bushes so you can see clearly where you're shooting at. There were autoaim mods that would automatically track and lead the target. There were mods that would show you which way the tanks turrets are pointing so you know when to peek and shoot or not. Wow had mods that would allow an inexperienced bad player to compete with the good players.. again game braking. For example there were tons of timer mods to track critical things. Arena suffered big time because there were tons of mods to track the enemys attacks and cooldowns.

Crook · Apr 10, 2016

There are ways to prevent it, for example make it like a private group. The owner is in charge of the ' master', and to play in the group your files must have the same hash as the master mod, so everyone in the group must be running identical setups.

RancidRance · Apr 10, 2016

Well the main issue I see is due to how the game is made, it's hard to mod a game that requires constant data feedback from the main server to do most things. The only real modding you could do is change sound effects and textures.

Ziljan · Apr 10, 2016

Well I wouldn't mind being able to swap out some engine sounds between ships. The keelback engine sound would be amazing on an Asp.

Thetele · Apr 10, 2016

Crook said:
There are ways to prevent it, for example make it like a private group. The owner is in charge of the ' master', and to play in the group your files must have the same hash as the master mod, so everyone in the group must be running identical setups.

It isn't solution. Private group still have effect on other players via BGS and effect to community goals. When ever you play elite you are always online open/group/solo just change which people you can meet while playing. With out connection to servers you won't get missions, npcs, bounties, rank progression, station, planets or systems as all systems are created from info given by servers. Without servers there isn't anything in ed as client just create stuff from what servers send them.

Vasious · Apr 10, 2016

Ziljan said:
Well I wouldn't mind being able to swap out some engine sounds between ships. The keelback engine sound would be amazing on an Asp.

That kinda thing sounds cool.

I have no idea of the scope, but I would love the weapons to be able to use the "Turreted" models even if fixed or gimballed.
The way they are stored facing backwards, pop up and flick in to firing position on deployement looks awesome

the100thmonkey · Apr 10, 2016

While it's technically possible, I doubt releasing mod tools is very high on FD's list of priorities right now.

R3DB3RD · Apr 10, 2016

Offline and mod tools. Yes please.

xondk · Apr 10, 2016

Crook said:
Can anyone think of a solid reason against modding? The way I'd like it is if we could create our own assets for the game, but when using 3rd party assets the game requires a new CMDR, it doesn't affect the BGS, and of course you can't mode switch to earn money quickly. It would be self contained.

It's just that FD have done such a good job with space that I'd like to fly other ships from other universes.

What type of mods were you thinking? obviously gameplay altering mods wouldn't really work, and as for visual mods, akind to texture packs or resource packs in minecraft?

Personally I think it would be cool if they added a mod support for the AI voice files, so you could make your own 'pack' for the various alerts and such to replace it.
Though in terms of visuals, I don't know, with paintjobs being part of what they are, though I guess with a resource ish pack it wouldn't only affect those using it, but yeah don't think that part would work, a mod for computer voice would though.

Khelder · Apr 11, 2016

I would love to see some form of client-side integration (API) that would allow retrieval of certain information (e.g. position, ship data, trade prices) as well as manipulation of certain things (e.g. setting navigation routes). I wouldn't want to see anything that fundamentally changes the game, though. That would include adding assets, ship types, etc. I'm all for enhancing gameplay, not changing it.

Here are a couple of other thoughts:

I made a comment a while ago with regard to the never-ending open vs solo debate. It was in discussing the idea of splitting the BGS for the different modes. One of the problems that I pointed out was that FD are building a narrative of sorts along with the gameplay. The events and actions that are announced in the newsletters and galnet affect all modes equally. If the BGS was split, that consistency would soon disappear.

The same would likely apply if mods indeed became possible and got out of hand. Could you imagine FD planning the careful steps leading towards the eventual discovery of Thargoids only to have someone release the Super Awesome Thargoid Mod? The storyline would become completely irrelevant.

Support would also become troublesome. We are playing a game that is under constant development and FD works with the community to iron out bugs as they come up. Throwing random modifications into the mix could make this process significantly harder.

There's also the argument that the mods would not be supported in all environments. Unfortunately, that same argument applies to many third-party apps. So I won't focus on that one too much. [uhh]

I won't even touch the potential for cheats.

Overall, though, I would prefer that FD's main focus remained on fixing current bugs and plowing ahead with future content. I would rather land on planets with atmosphere (I'm sure the XB1 players would just love to land on planets) than be able to change the voice of the ship feedback or colour of the HUD.