Why so little mods?

[Daniel.Kiwi]

The Steam workshop has a couple, the paradox workshop has a few.
But I would of expected a ton of mods by now.

Is the game hard to mod or is there just a very low player base?

[ellacharmed]

Based on my experience playing this game and others like The Sims, Sim City, Cities Skylines, Surviving Mars, Tropico, Banished, Endzone and more games of similar genre too numerous to mention, I think it is due to a few contributing factors.

Gameplay

I wished the game has more random outcomes and unlimited choices like Cities Skylines, but alas the 3-4 difficulty levels and even the Custom game do not introduce that "anything can happen" randomizations. And due to this fact, not many would play this game over and over by tweaking the options.

So, if the gameplay proves not to be as dynamic as we'd like, we can certainly mod the game by adding more buildings and script things in or script our way out of other things. Then that comes down to numbers.

Statistics

Number of gamers interested in game --> number of gamers who purchased the game --> number of players who play long enough to want to mod the game --> number of players who's tired of waiting and create mods for the game themselves --> modders who continue to be interested to continue supporting and/or creating more mods for the game.

As we go further down, the pool of people keeps shrinking.

Skills, Mindset, Choices

Another factor is I think there are less gamers who are incline to experiment these days, and with learning new skills. As we're inundated with a lot more choices for our entertainment these days. And more people are also so used to the mindset of "others could do it, why should I?". I see a lot less players in forums engaged in the modding discussions these days than in the playing discussions.

I took it on because I wanted to learn Unity, and I've barely scratched the surface.

Technology, technical reasons

Also, since this is a Unity game, each time a new patch is released or a mod gets updated, players would need to start a new game and the mystery has already worn off, you know? Until someone figures out how to add a mod in a mid-save-playthough, maybe the number of available mods would remain low.

Attitude

Yet another factor is having to deal with the entitled players who thinks modders exist to make their games more fun instead of thinking of it as a community effort and also not understanding the sheer amount of time and effort in creating, updating and supporting any mods and dealing with patches. Might be potential modders are scared of being treated like what I'm seeing in forums each time a new DLC or patch drops. Not just here but every game's discussion board that I visit.

Community, service

This community has been stellar in welcoming my creations but there were still pockets of demanding ****** players who wanted to know why the mod didn't get updated on their timeline. For a labor of love, for a hobby, an unpaid, voluntary contribution.

Time

And alas, apart from having technical difficulties (lack of PC equipment) in my personal use case, another major contributing factor is also time to invest in the creation and support of mods.
We all have cyclical periods of busyness of life and then suddenly things change and you become free. So at this time, for me personally, I have to proportion my time and focus elsewhere. And so proportioning the budget for a new PC is not yet in the cards since it is not a priority....


Oh, wow! I didn't mean to get started and go on a rant. But that's my 2 cents, anyway. For what it's worth.

[Daniel.Kiwi]

I totally get your reasoning and points

I'm just surprised at the difference in mods between Mars & Aftermath

[ellacharmed]

What does one have to do with the other? Their only common ground is that they are published by the same company.

If a gamer plays Surviving Mars, there's nothing to say that they would play Surviving the Aftermath.
If a gamer decide to create mods for Surviving Mars, there's no corelation nor causation that they would want to create mods for Surviving the Aftermath.

[lolic_lol]

There were more mods (on the nexus and not only). Unfortunately, most of them are outdated and do not work on new patches, so they were removed from distribution.
Another reason (my opinion) is that unlike Mars, in Aftermath you cannot enable/disable mods in existing games, only start a new game. This reduces the desire to use and create mods.

[Rodrius]

Originally posted by ellacharmed:

Based on my experience playing this game and others like The Sims, Sim City, Cities Skylines, Surviving Mars, Tropico, Banished, Endzone and more games of similar genre too numerous to mention, I think it is due to a few contributing factors.

Gameplay

I wished the game has more random outcomes and unlimited choices like Cities Skylines, but alas the 3-4 difficulty levels and even the Custom game do not introduce that "anything can happen" randomizations. And due to this fact, not many would play this game over and over by tweaking the options.

So, if the gameplay proves not to be as dynamic as we'd like, we can certainly mod the game by adding more buildings and script things in or script our way out of other things. Then that comes down to numbers.

Statistics

Number of gamers interested in game --> number of gamers who purchased the game --> number of players who play long enough to want to mod the game --> number of players who's tired of waiting and create mods for the game themselves --> modders who continue to be interested to continue supporting and/or creating more mods for the game.

As we go further down, the pool of people keeps shrinking.

Skills, Mindset, Choices

Another factor is I think there are less gamers who are incline to experiment these days, and with learning new skills. As we're inundated with a lot more choices for our entertainment these days. And more people are also so used to the mindset of "others could do it, why should I?". I see a lot less players in forums engaged in the modding discussions these days than in the playing discussions.

I took it on because I wanted to learn Unity, and I've barely scratched the surface.

Technology, technical reasons

Also, since this is a Unity game, each time a new patch is released or a mod gets updated, players would need to start a new game and the mystery has already worn off, you know? Until someone figures out how to add a mod in a mid-save-playthough, maybe the number of available mods would remain low.

Attitude

Yet another factor is having to deal with the entitled players who thinks modders exist to make their games more fun instead of thinking of it as a community effort and also not understanding the sheer amount of time and effort in creating, updating and supporting any mods and dealing with patches. Might be potential modders are scared of being treated like what I'm seeing in forums each time a new DLC or patch drops. Not just here but every game's discussion board that I visit.

Community, service

This community has been stellar in welcoming my creations but there were still pockets of demanding ****** players who wanted to know why the mod didn't get updated on their timeline. For a labor of love, for a hobby, an unpaid, voluntary contribution.

Time

And alas, apart from having technical difficulties (lack of PC equipment) in my personal use case, another major contributing factor is also time to invest in the creation and support of mods.
We all have cyclical periods of busyness of life and then suddenly things change and you become free. So at this time, for me personally, I have to proportion my time and focus elsewhere. And so proportioning the budget for a new PC is not yet in the cards since it is not a priority....


Oh, wow! I didn't mean to get started and go on a rant. But that's my 2 cents, anyway. For what it's worth.

Your message made me think, when games update I usually ask modders if they will make a update, I remember in the past I used more cordial words but as no one uses it and are very direct I just do it too. I believe modders are very important for game development and gamers satisfaction, I feel sad because I'm not good to code.

I want to buy this game but I feel I've almost always been disappointed with games without mods. Paradox lauch good games(except Imperator: Rome they abandoned), but I want be sure that I could play in maps with a sea coast where I could do desalination or have a river and lakes near or a big mountain chain... but I see bad reviews about map seeds. Will mods could help this in this game?

[ellacharmed]

I would also mention another factor:

Expectations

Don't expect mods that game clearly has no features of, like oceans. It can be done once someone can figure out if custom maps is possible and hence the mapseed generation of said custom maps, but until then set expectations accordingly so as not to be disappointed.

And with no active modders currently stepping up to mod this game for us players, that figuring out portion might never happen.

My suggestion?
Play the game first or watch a few videos. Those things that you mention are not in the game at this time. The game does not have huge bodies of water that you can interact with, other than mighty small lakes for Fishing Huts and Water Pumps, as the gameplay map is kinda small.

[Rodrius]

Originally posted by ellacharmed:

I would also mention another factor:

Expectations

Don't expect mods that game clearly has no features of, like oceans. It can be done once someone can figure out if custom maps is possible and hence the mapseed generation of said custom maps, but until then set expectations accordingly so as not to be disappointed.

And with no active modders currently stepping up to mod this game for us players, that figuring out portion might never happen.

My suggestion?
Play the game first or watch a few videos. Those things that you mention are not in the game at this time. The game does not have huge bodies of water that you can interact with, other than mighty small lakes for Fishing Huts and Water Pumps, as the gameplay map is kinda small.

Thankyou! Yeah I love this game concept but this game is too much limited for me, it breaks my immersion, I like to see basic defensive buildings and water interactions, two so basic things humans do from miles of years.

With ABSOLUTE CERTAIN in post-apocalyptic world humans will do this two things soon or still more soon:

Basic defensive buildings:
I don't finded nothing about building defensive blocking scructures than the "gate", humans build walls long than 10,000 years, and milenar moats/trenches too, stone/wood/concrete walls need to exist, PERIOD. For sure attackers should have ladders, rafts, ramps, tractors, assalut towers, dig tunnels below walls, put pigs or explosives and blow up everiting above, it happens have centuries.

People put ladders in walls, put rafts in moats and push battering rams on gates more than 10 thousand years, this is so so so basic human things, no excuse for not have that or it is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ colony, sorry.

Water interactions:

Build watermill in rivers, sea desalination, boats to whales oil and food, raiders attacking in sea and land from boats, build coastal guard ships, explore abandoned ships, offshores, islands... divers to enter in sunken big ships full of containers or a destroyer, sea storms and tsunamis razing ships and coasts but sometimes puting interesting things from depp to the coast, sharks killing your divers. Maybe mutant octopus attacking your small boats could be challenger.

Games like Civilization have a lot of this, post-apocalyptic world don't change this basic things, its a basic devs fault.

[Eventide]

Alternate graphics / texture mods are often the lowest barrier to entry, and "ought to work" with existing saves. But methods have to be easy and documented. If a casual modder has to install all of Unity and compile a formal mod just to make all the windmills purple - sorry, purple windmill fans. lol.

Bethesda makes it easy, by reading for same-name files in a folder during game start. If it finds a match for a file in its resource / archive, the loose file is substituted. Zero programming at the cost of increased loading times.

[Slooge]

Originally posted by Rodrius:

Originally posted by ellacharmed:

I want to buy this game but I feel I've almost always been disappointed with games without mods. Paradox lauch good games(except Imperator: Rome they abandoned), but I want be sure that I could play in maps with a sea coast where I could do desalination or have a river and lakes near or a big mountain chain... but I see bad reviews about map seeds. Will mods could help this in this game?

eesh....it came out in 2019? It's a finished game. Why are so many people popping up lately saying a game, that is in full release, is abandoned if it isn't supported for the next 25 years? That is never how the industry worked, but expecting it to work that way is insanity.

[Rodrius]

Originally posted by Slooge:

Originally posted by Rodrius:

eesh....it came out in 2019? It's a finished game. Why are so many people popping up lately saying a game, that is in full release, is abandoned if it isn't supported for the next 25 years? That is never how the industry worked, but expecting it to work that way is insanity.

Sorry but you are very ignorant about Paradox Games, they NEVER sell games "finished", and that is GOOD. Because the community have influence in the BIG BIG changes they want, Stellaris is a common example: A game from 2016 with BIG changes last year and right now.

You don't know about what you are saying, sadly.