simsjl

Opps, meant BTS WON'T open the game.....

Yikes... Post something, check back in a couple days and 114 replies.... In any case.. While it looks rather clear BTS would "open" up the game, a couple points... 1. Cheating: If people want to cheat, they will, Mods or no Mods. All it takes is a Hex Editor, SoftICE and knowledge of ASM/Windows System Calls and you can hack/cheat any program. If sombody wants a MG42 to hit like a King Tiger or disable a "CD check" at startup, they can. This is hacking. 2. Hacker != Modder. Modding is "in the open". Someone already said this. I would love a Pacific Theater MOD/TC (which doesn't even seem to be on BTS's roadmap). I'm really interested in a TC ability. 3. BTS is small. John Carmack writes most of the code for Quake himself (in fact Quake III was mainly written by just two people). An open piece of software just raises the bar on the programmer's abilities. 4. BTS are the only ones that can create historically accurate games. One thing I've gotten from this board is nobody seems to agree on what's exactly accruate (see "88 lacks punch" thread). Grogs themselves can't agree. Historically accurate to many posters seems to be "German tanks should be invulnerable and Americans should have there Tanks modelled with tissue-paper armour". There's the chance that someone would creat a MOD that the majority of the community considered more accurate then the original (especially if they could "MOD" a decent AI but that's maybye getting my hopes up to much). 5. Moddable games hurt sales. John Carmack drives two bright Red Ferraris! Bad games hurt sales and limited reply value hurts sales. Qauke III isn't a great single player game, I agree, but it is a great multiplayer game. CM is the same, the single player game tires quickly, the AI is just so stupid. I can't wait for TCP/IP but even then you are constantly refighting the same theater between releases. I guess I see so much potential for other games with the interface (especially if TCP/IP works well) that the replay would be infinite if it was open. In any case, I admit defeat and will just have to wait for the theaters I want, and pass on the theaters I don't. Jonathan P.S. Don't get me wrong, CM is a great game. Just IMHO, it could be much, much greater if it was open.....

After seeing post after post of "I wish CM2/3/4/5/etc would be battle/war X" I wish BTS would take a lesson from Id Software... I wish they would focus on making a great engine that is easily modifable (like Quake/Unreal/Half Life) so the user community could create various Mods.. Id (and others) have proven you don't lose sales by making a "modable" piece of software. 1. The CM community is very dedicated to the game (just look at the Mod community as it is ,even with the limited changes possible to CM). Some of the user graphics blow the BTS ones out of the water! 2. You don't lose sales for the next release because you make engine improvements that compel people to buy the next version (and also upgrade their mods to fit the new engine). Worry about the graphics engine, worry about network play.... Only put in core forces and vehicles.. Leave Esoteric forces, vehicles, buildings to the Mod community (let them create them if the want)! Half Life is still so popular because of mods like CounterStrike... It is amazing how much work and quality a dedicated user community puts into mods... If someone released a FPS that you couldn't mod it wouldn't sell (not the reverse). I for instance would like to see Korea or the Pacific theater... I don't want to wait 5 years.... BTS is risking another company recognizing this and releasing a truely "modable" game which I'm sure people would flock to. Also, what if your favorite theater was the Western Front 1944-45... Your favorite is left behind while new theaters get the new engines. For instance, I don't really care about the intial German invasion of France (oh boy, another French surrender and Axis Total Victory ), but that version will come out with an engine superior the both the West Front 1944-45 and the whole Eastern Front theater... Anyway. just a wish..... J Sims