On Modding and Difficulty

[Merriadeck]

Disclaimer : Not my birth language, my apologies for any mistake that could have slipped in.
TL;DR : Blood, romance and sex. Kidding, I just want to know the stance of the devs on the matter of modding, and its feasibility.

Let's begin with something unrelated : I *loved* Gunpoint and Heat Signature probably is one of the best games I found this year. That message will probably end up forgotten by all, but it's worth a shot. So, let's begin.


There's a couple things that frustrated me... Not the somewhat repetitive aspect of the game, but its complete lack of difficulty once you learn how to use (effectively) some of the tools (to the point that I forbade myself the use of some of them - yes, I'm thinking of you, Stealth Shield. Oh, and Double/Triple armor-piercing Longblades ? Throw in a CrashBeam and you're unstoppable).

When I lost a living Legend because the guard simply didn't have enough time to throw me back into the airlock, I was frustrated... until I discovered that I could *rescue* that particular character via another's personnal mission - that... that was amazing. But the frustration that came when I found that even being hit with a "lethal weapon" doesn't do much damage ? That one stays with me - it somewhat 'tainted' the grand story of the character.
I'm not especially looking for difficulty - I'm looking for *consequences*. I love the stories that I can create with my character ("My personnal mission is to rescue bring my dad's murderer to justice ? Let's make that character a simple boy that never kill, and heroically hijack a cargo to destroy the murderer's stronghold once the mission is done, dying in the process." Well, that last past wasn't *completely* intentional, but it did add a nice catch to the story.), I love the self-challenge that I can add to the game (Never kill. Nether harm anyone/harm only a specific faction. Complete the personnal mission with only a *very* limited and fixed set of tools. On the 'fun' side, never, ever dock a pod to a ship. Etc.).

I already dived (a little) into the files and I think I found a way to edit/replace the practice&defector missions (more on that soon, if I'm successful), and implement new challenges - specific items sets, no bleeding allowed, no alarms allowed, and so on. But we can't do much with that files... and there comes modding.
What's the dev stance on modding ? Does anyone know how to dive deeper into the core mechanics ? Besides tweaking some of the mechanics (I'm the kind of psycho that thinks "Lethal weapons ? Meh, let's make them *really* lethal after a couple shots."), there's just so much that I would love to add to the game... so that we can in turn dive deeper into the stories we want to tell with our characters - add (optionnal) challenge (or the kind that triggers only after you destroy X stronghold(s), allowing you to unlock items before), pacing and *consequences* to the game.

Among them ?
- Starting with the obvious, more ship layouts. Exotic layouts as well (that pesky pilot ? Nope, can't reach him on that ship).

- Time limits on some objectifs, beyond the classic one that can be disabled by taking out the pilot. You want to rescue your dad/mom/brother/dog ? You should hurry, because he's bleeding out and there's not much time left.

- Add modifiers to the characters. Reflect the choices of the players on the character - you're the kind of guy that nether kills ? The kind of hero this galaxy deserves, but not the one it needs right now ? Let's add a line to your legend, add a small permanent effect to your character. Oh, and maybe throw a medal into the mix.

- The ability for a guard to take back the piloting seat. You're the kind of guy that reaaally don't care about alarms, because the first one to die is always the pilot ? Well, now you have to watch your back, because some sneaky bastard could very well trigger that alarm again. (Not quite sure if it's possible, though.)

- The ability for a guard to... well, wake up. Except for "that guard is your target" objectives, there's not much difference between a lethal approach and a more "peaceful" one. You want to be one of the good guys ? Well, be careful because one of the guards you knocked up is about to wake up, and he looks quite pissed off !

- This one would probably be quite unpopular, but... explosives ? Make that "you're scattered in a thousand pieces" lethal.

- Etc. You get the idea.


Oh, and I would love to help create a mod to translate the game into french, as I have some friends that would be interested in the game but struggle with foreign languages.

[YamaTsunami]

Modding would be great, but if it happens i doubt it'll be something like nexus modding, it's probably going to be steam workshop. also, i disagree with your last point, i love blowing up engine rooms that i'm in with grenade launchers, making it a death would be no fun

[Merriadeck]

Like I said, eh, optional :p (Adding difficulty without giving a possibility to disable it is not something I believe in).
I was thinking "explosives tanks going off by mistake" more than player controlled explosives, though - keeping a difference there could be interesting.

[YamaTsunami]

Originally posted by Merriadeck:

I was thinking "explosives tanks going off by mistake" more than player controlled explosives, though - keeping a difference there could be interesting.

maybe shooting engines yourself won't kill you, but if an enemy shoots it it kills you

[YamaTsunami]

Originally posted by Merriadeck:

Like I said, eh, optional :p (Adding difficulty without giving a possibility to disable it is not something I believe in).

agree, we have options to make it easier, why not have options to make it harder?

[hotmatrixx]

right now, only limited options are available.

I figured out how to do all the things you're talking about ages ago, along wiht a couple of other guys;

Here is (most - we are bad at documentation) a lot of the stuff we have derived :
Be aware that modding is highly difficult in that the game is all one big .exe - even though it's possible to mod it by cracking it open, it's messy and a great understanding of code is needed. I haven't included that stuff in the Guide. Maybe I should....

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1146098596

[Midnight]

Originally posted by hotmatrixx:

right now, only limited options are available.

I figured out how to do all the things you're talking about ages ago, along wiht a couple of other guys;

Here is (most - we are bad at documentation) a lot of the stuff we have derived :
Be aware that modding is highly difficult in that the game is all one big .exe - even though it's possible to mod it by cracking it open, it's messy and a great understanding of code is needed. I haven't included that stuff in the Guide. Maybe I should....

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1146098596

Be careful and take a look at the EULA first as that might count as reverse engineering

[hotmatrixx]

Originally posted by Midnight:

Originally posted by hotmatrixx:

right now, only limited options are available.

I figured out how to do all the things you're talking about ages ago, along wiht a couple of other guys;

Here is (most - we are bad at documentation) a lot of the stuff we have derived :
Be aware that modding is highly difficult in that the game is all one big .exe - even though it's possible to mod it by cracking it open, it's messy and a great understanding of code is needed. I haven't included that stuff in the Guide. Maybe I should....

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1146098596

Be careful and take a look at the EULA first as that might count as reverse engineering

nah... but taking apart the .exe would be. All this guide is about is modding the 'external' save files to add weapons / change stats to your characters, really.