Just read the modding guide, and sadly it is like all the other unreal engine modding

[Numenorean]

I was hoping that some efforts did go into making an editor, but ti seems that it is not the case. Just to mod the game, you need to know how to use Unreal engine; you need to work in its IDE.

Not sure why a self-contained editor hasn't been released; but the game would benefit from having the majority of users to be able to modify the maps at least.

I know how hard it is to get an editor up and running; but this was the main selling point for the game, so the expectation was to see something simple; not sure how many casual users will plan to install 20Gb of Unreal engine and fire it up, and learn how to operate it, just to make changes to a map.

[OlaHaldor]

Unreal Engine does not take up 20GB unless you install a lot of unnecessary content as far as I know. What you most likely will need is these packs:

- Core Components (Required)
- Starter Content (can be handy, but not required to use UE)
- Templates and Feature Packs (can be handy, but not required to use UE)

That adds up to a grand total of 10GB.


"Know how to use the tool" goes for every editor, regardless of UE4 or if it was their own custom editor.

I actually see this as a step forward. UE4 is great at what it does. :)

From the documentation I think the "hard parts" is all the custom things specifically for Bus Sim 18, and to learn and and follow their documentation. UE4 itself is pretty much straight forward as long as you don't need to dive into blueprints when you're not familiar with it. A lot of the editor is visual and what you see is what you get.

The parts that do require blueprints according to the documentation seem straight forward too, since they're.. well.. documented.

As an example.. I find modding for Farming Sim a lot more convoluted, because of all the scripting you have to do in a text editor, even to add a simple function or direct the game engine to a specific texture or function.. Yet Farming sim is floodded with mods anyway!

UE4 on the other hand is more "wysiwyg". I don't fear a lack of mods, really.

[Numenorean]

I did run the standard installer and ended up with 19.34 GB; not a beast by any means, but it is still extra stuff that you don't really need (I have already Unity and Lumberyard on my machine).

On one side, learning UE4 is better in the long run, than learn a custom editor, although not everyone has the will to do so; I always found UE interface a bit confusing and not really friendly; it is the "blender" of the 3d engines after all, compared to other engines that give you a different and more polished UI and concepts. Although they all look the same these days; so the statement was valid probably few years ago. Blueprint is the holy grail for people with no coding experience, and that probably is the reason why many devs switch to that. Easier to train someone with blueprint, than teach them concepts that takes 4 years in a college :)

I am not sure that the editing is totally WYSIWYG; maybe the road can be built in a modular fashion, but I am not clear how do you modify behaviors for the bus or objects for example; or am I expecting some modding capabilities that are not open to the public? I did parse briefly the document; but didn't go in detail, since I can't load the game data into the engine yet.

Modding for me is something that should be easy; drag and drop of buildings on the terrain; modify the road using handles, auto-snapping components and such. ETS 2 support modding and same goes for the old train simulator; and you can tell that the easiest is the modding tool, the more people contribute and make awesome things. Not worried for the lack of a dedicated editor; but some may be put off by the entry point of getting and using UE4.

[OlaHaldor]

It sounds to me you've not used UE4 before?

Splines in UE4 can snap together (if that's how they've made the road system anyway). And by looking at the document, it looks like intersections have sockets, just to mention something.

I've yet to try though, as I don't have the game for obvious reasons.

By WYSIWYG I mean it's not so much guesswork. With a text editor (and for newbies) just the simple thing as assigning a texture to a model can be daunting. Type one letter wrong, and the game won't know where to look, or worst case, crashes, without giving a clue as to why, leaving the end user with a big question hard to answer.

In UE you can drag-and-drop a lot of things. Assets such as buildings can absolutely be drag-and-dropped into the editor viewport. Foliage can be painted onto the landscape. Rules can be applied based on existing blueprints, and modified if needed to create something custom.

I'm on deep water, as I can't tell *exactly* what is possible or not with modding for Bus Sim 18, but in a few days we'll know a lot more for sure, and I hope we all will have a pleasant experience when we start to dabble with it.

[Numenorean]

Last time I tried UE was in 2014 probably; have been using Unity on a daily basis, and then moved to Lumberyard, so I didn't spend much time with UE. Not sure how is it these days, but few years ago was not that friendly. Got the latest version installed and I have yet to launch it. Probably will have to do so, when the game release.

LEt's see how does it look like once the game release; maybe it is easier than I thought

[Duke Dudeston]

I will!
I have always wanted to play around with UE and I never really had any motivation to do so, I do agree that its not everyone's cup of tea, but I am sure if you are wanting to mod the game you will.

Unfortunatly this is how UE works though, why would the devs want to spend a lot of time creating a tool that does everything the UE does anyway?

Modding isn't something everyone does, I be honest I never really thought about modding, I haven't created a single mod in my life and I am going to jump in with UE, as I said I have always wanted to use UE and now is a good chance if any to create a mod for a game I am excited about.

If I get some UE experience out of it, who knows I might attempt to create my own game with it.

[Numenorean]

I would say that time spent making ad-hoc editors is not time wasted; especially if your strong point is modding.
Space engineers did offer modding from the get-go; and they even implemented scripting in game and released the source code to users. I like that approach, because it is the way to go, to get a game going, when your team is pretty small.

I don't do much modding because I don't have enough time; but the rare times that I actually mod something, I favor the applications that give me the chance to do what I want, in a easy way. Star TRek Online has a wondeful (in some aspects) editor that allow you to create missions. It is customized and decently flexible. You may not like the main game, but just the idea that you can make your own scenarios, ina relatively easy way, it is empowering.

IF you do start making games, please don't make EA :D