Are all Steam/PC games moddable?

[therob]

Just wondering - can you mod all Steam/PC games if you really wanted to? Like if you wanted to change the color palette and make Sub-Zero a pink ninja, could you do it? Why or why not? If not, what makes a game moddable and/or how do you know if a game is moddable or not?


I'm just wondering if things like that are possible is alll. For the record, I have no desire to turn Sub-Zero pink - it was just a random example.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

No. It is up to each game developer to let you mod their game.

You ask in their game hub.

[Jessie]

Yes it is possible. Whether it is allowed is a different question.

Why? The game exists in the first place... someone chose what colour to make the texture - so with an arbitrary degree of effort, that can be changed.

[Judgmental Amaterasu]

No, its up to the game structure. At best you'll have fully moddable "look at this new content" and at worst you'll have "we translated stuff"

[cinedine]

Originally posted by Jessie:

Yes it is possible. Whether it is allowed is a different question.

Why? The game exists in the first place... someone chose what colour to make the texture - so with an arbitrary degree of effort, that can be changed.

This. The files are on your PC, so you can modify them. That's all that's needed to mod games.

[Snapjak]

All it takes is someone with the dedication and tools.

Look at Breath of the Wild on WiiU as an example.. moded all over but clearly Nintendy never agreed to taht.

[☆ƧQυiяяєL♫]

I don't use mods unless it's a Xbox controller mod
Like fan fict, most mods are fan-created

I go to Nexus mods to see if the game I'm interested in, is listed there
https://www.nexusmods.com/


You can check in the games discussion hub about the best mods and software

There are a few homebrew software-writers that would produce "something" and if graded would get an F in C++

I think, some poorly written mods might flag the games anti-cheat, so it's best to check-in with the games hub and ask other gamers about the best options on mods

[Sir_0v3rk1ll]

Originally posted by therob:

Just wondering - can you mod all Steam/PC games if you really wanted to? Like if you wanted to change the color palette and make Sub-Zero a pink ninja, could you do it? Why or why not? If not, what makes a game moddable and/or how do you know if a game is moddable or not? :riddle:


I'm just wondering if things like that are possible is alll. For the record, I have no desire to turn Sub-Zero pink - it was just a random example. :jimmykid:

yes they are. It's just installed in a different location. if people can hack in steam multiplayer games what makes you think that anyone can stop you from modding. Especially since modding is harmless. You dont have to ask any permission to anyone like some other anacleto told you. That defeats the purpose of modding. Do you ask for permission to ford for modding your mustang? . . . exactly.

[vadim]

Originally posted by therob:

Just wondering - can you mod all Steam/PC games if you really wanted to?

No. For many games it's not much easier than rewrite them from scratch

[Sir_0v3rk1ll]

Originally posted by vadim:

Originally posted by therob:

Just wondering - can you mod all Steam/PC games if you really wanted to?

No. For many games it's not much easier than rewrite them from scratch

show me a game and I show you a ton of people that can mod it and hack it. Yes they are all modable. You can only go as far as your intelligence. With that Im out. This thread is getting old

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

All PC games are data on your computer. (Unless they're streamed.)

If you can modify data on your computer, which you definitely can, you can mod the game.

Depending on how the game data is structured, or what other people have done with modding the game before you attempt it, it may be easy or difficult to do so. Also, depending on legal details, it may or may not be legal to do so. But the possibility definitely exists.

[crunchyfrog]

All games are code and as such can be changed.

Whether it can be easily changed is the real question. I "mod" many old games on various consoles just by plugging away changing memory addresses. I have several lever arch files full of my own codes on various platforms dating back over 35 years.

So yes, in theory everything that is code can be modded.

However, whether they are is down to two things - ease of access and popularity. If a game is tightly sewn up, encrypted and compiled, then it's going to be harder to deconstruct what's going on in order to mod the thing. If it's been written with a view to be mod friendly, it can still have no mods if it's not a popular game.

Think of it like this - if writing a game is akin to painting your hallway, then modding is akin to painting the same hallway but you're only looking through the letterbox and only get a small view at any time, and a small window to actually do the painting.

So, in all practicality it boils down to this, which is what I do.

If I want to buy a game just to ♥♥♥♥ around or I'm more interested in the mod (for example, I bought Just Cause 2 on PC purely for the multiplayer stupidity mod, as I already had it on console, and I recently bought Dark Souls 2 just to cheat on because I'd already played it on console), I first go to the discussion pages here for that game.

Have a nose through a few pages and the stickies and see if anyone mentions mods, or generally note if the pages are still active, indicating the game is still somewhat popular. If that's the case, then I check on ModDB or Nexus to see what's out there.

If it all comes back with something cool, I'm in.

It really boils down to that.


Side note - I really must publish all the work I have written down some day.