About mods?

[Hybarf Tics]

Will mods ever be possible say a year after launch to add replay ability?

[Hybarf Tics]

Just to name a few mods; Pandora in Avatar, Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, Star Trek, Dune, Babylon 5, Aliens, Stargate.

[rado84]

Nope, they're not. The've encrypted the PAKs which means they have 0 intention to allow game modding. Which, considering the sky high prices of ships and the miserable missions rewards, means I'm not gonna buy this game. Such a bad extortionist game economics is typical for Russian games and I wouldn't be surprised if the developers are Russian, which is another "no" for me.

[Geekbyte]

Messaggio originale di rado84:

Nope, they're not. The've encrypted the PAKs which means they have 0 intention to allow game modding. Which, considering the sky high prices of ships and the miserable missions rewards, means I'm not gonna buy this game. Such a bad extortionist game economics is typical for Russian games and I wouldn't be surprised if the developers are Russian, which is another "no" for me.

Hey there.

Just a couple of points of clarity that I think would help people understand RFG’s stance on Modding.

Firstly the team would love to include modding in the game, but as Andi said a long time ago it takes a lot of work to incorporate the ability to Mod a game and make it work well.
It’s on the list of “nice to haves”, but the team have to finish the game for 1.0 release, work on the Free update coming later this year as well as plan and develop the DLC coming in 2024.
Plus the console versions for PS5 and Xbox Series S|X are due in the Summer of this year as well.

All that takes a lot of work and especially for a small development team from Germany.

[rado84]

Messaggio originale di Geekbyte:

it takes a lot of work to incorporate the ability to Mod a game

No it doesn't. All they have to do is unencrypt the pak files and gives us a full access to the text files - every parameter in games is written in some sort of a text file with changed extension. I have programs to pak and unpak UE archives (.pak), altough the most of the UE games can run just fine with the whole content extracted and without the pak files themselves. This leaves only player's resonsibility to keep a backup of the original files that they have changed.
A few years ago I modified "Hard Truck Apocalypse" and "Galaxy on Fire 2 HD" but that was possible because the developers wanted the games to be moddable. Just change the parameters in the original files and replace them. The simplest way to mod a game that doesn't require any additional work from the developer. All they have to do is unencrypt the damn pak files!

[NotoriousNix]

I really hope they add mod support. It's something that can make a game timeless, just look at games like the x4 series, stalker, etc.

[rado84]

Messaggio originale di NotoriousNix:

I really hope they add mod support. It's something that can make a game timeless, just look at games like the x4 series, stalker, etc.

These are too recent, LOL! Just look at Carmageddon 2 (1998) which is still being played and modded till present day...

[Johnny Hazard]

Or Doom. Or the classic, over-abused modded Skyrim.
But yes, they can remove the pak encryption and that will allow mods to work. But that is the "rough way".
And, anyway, v1.0 isn't out there. I just hope they do it after the DLC later on.
Removing the encryption at least.
But if they are buddies, they will add a folder for mods, with a txt file that sets up the priority of these, and which ones to load.
And they can add a packer/unpacker.
And some template files for 3d models, so we can add stuff without messing things up.

[rado84]

Messaggio originale di Johnny Hazard:

And they can add a packer/unpacker.

There is such a thing for Linux: u4pak. There's one for Windows as well but IDK if it actually works: UnrealPak.exe.

[ToJKa]

Even Woflenstein 3D Not fair to compare this game to id's games though. Doom engine's source code was released, which is impossible here since it's Unreal Engine.

But still, just being able to add new models would open incredible possibilities.

[Godis]

There is an interesting newer tool that could allow this. Unreal Engine Mod Loader.

[rado84]

Messaggio originale di Godis:

There is an interesting newer tool that could allow this. Unreal Engine Mod Loader.

Sounds like something that would allow to install mods, not to make them from scratch.

[Derjyn]

The game can be unofficially modded, and Unreal Engine has modding support built in (Epic even has official guides on this for developers: https://youtu.be/MobYn8XVp6U?t=509). So this comes down to the developers simply not taking that route. Odds are, they aren't going to, or at least the odds are very slim.

It would have been easier to engineer ES2 from the beginning with modding in mind, versus going back and integrating that in after the fact.

The community should go ahead and accept this, and work on modding tools and such on their own. If enough mods pop up and garner attention, that might light a fire. It's happened before with many other games.

The fact that there was already a big push for modding in ES1 long ago, and we still aren't seeing it and even being told it's not a priority at the moment... Well, that's further evidence it will come down to the community to get it done.

[Johnny Hazard]

the hard part is indeed unencrypt those pak files.

[Dondu]

the mods i want is to pilot a capitalship or dreadnought

[titaniumweasel]

agreed, modding support or bust! endless replayability, adjustment and fun, customization and blah blah blah - WE'RE SAYING WE'LL BUY IT. right? send us a bill in form of a DLC that enables it if nothing else, establish legacy sales for a decade for your franchise. 0-0.