Scenario and Mod scarcity

[Georgie]

The following is an observation by me and I may be over reacting. Every one playing this game likes to have as many as possible of scenarios to choose from. Many people like to have a variety of mods to choose from. Scenarios and mods, except for the most simple ones require a lot of work. This work comes from a desire to create the scenario or mod. The desire to create the scenario or mod comes from the potential for it being used and appreciated by as many players as possible. BFs present practice of creating new games at a fast pace with out a map and mod conversion tool is disrupting this balance and will lead to a shortage of scenarios and mods in the least popular games which in turn will cause them to become even less popular which will lead to a drop in sales of that game and players will become more particular with their new purchases. In my opinion it is a self defeating practice; inputs please.

[Bimmer]

Go back and read the recent scenario thread - I think you'll see that you are making a few assumptions about what motivates designers. And a scenario/map conversion tool is pretty useless for any designer with even a vague sense of historical correctness.

[Ted]

The best place for mods:

http://cmmods.greenasjade.net/mods

[MikeyD]

If in the last month one in ten purchasers had done up one little scenario each we'd all be rolling in scenarios. Map overlay import, road/wall/fence draw tool, AI orders copying. Its never been easier. It would take longer to 'convert' an old CMBN map and get CMFI forces into them than to do from scratch. I think there's an unecessary 'intimidation factor' at work. People think their first scenario needs to be 4x4km with a battalion of troops all exactly recreating some historical event. It doesn't. Do US infantry verus US paratrooper if you want! For CMSF I once did a drunk Stryker Brigade company versus drunk Marines at a Texas shopping plaza on the 4th of July scenario. There are no rules.

[Mord]

Go back and read the recent scenario thread - I think you'll see that you are making a few assumptions about what motivates designers.

As a modder I can say I am not motivated by the hopes "as many people as possible will use it", as Georgie suggests. My motivations are, 1.) Do I have the skill to create the mod? 2.) is it something that I think is fun to do and interests me? 3.) Is it something that is needed? Everything after that is a side effect, for good or bad. So, yeah, I agree.

@Goergie; The game hasn't been out that long, but a lot of us have been modding graphics and designing scenarios for so long (some since CMSF) that I think a good portion have decided to actually play for once. I know I have, and DC has and even Aris, who was non stop with CMBN and CW. But no worries, the content will come. We are already seeing a pick up in both areas over the last week or so.

Mord.

[ZPB II]

For CMSF I once did a drunk Stryker Brigade company versus drunk Marines at a Texas shopping plaza on the 4th of July scenario.

Were you visited by G-Men afterwards?

[LongLeftFlank]

I dunno, after putting at least a couple hundred hours of research, design and testing into my PTO Makin map and scenario, I'm pretty disheartened by getting only 50 DLs in 2 weeks when throw together ETO scenarios seem to get twice as many. I can't really say how many is the magic number that makes it all worth it, but I'm wondering if I shouldn't maybe just make scenarios for myself and screw the testing, tweaking briefings and AI work.

[ZPB II]

I had no idea Makin was released. Good thing you posted that.

Duh, I've been paying too much attention to the CMFI forums and neglected the CMBN forums.

EDIT: The Japanese Army mod thread has 23 pages? This is going to take a while.

[sburke]

I dunno, after putting at least a couple hundred hours of research, design and testing into my PTO Makin map and scenario, I'm pretty disheartened by getting only 50 DLs in 2 weeks when throw together ETO scenarios seem to get twice as many. I can't really say how many is the magic number that makes it all worth it, but I'm wondering if I shouldn't maybe just make scenarios for myself and screw the testing, tweaking briefings and AI work.

Man I'd hate to see you "throw in the towel". Look at it this way, I am JUST getting to NDs TF Panther and enjoying the hell out of it. That one was posted over 3 years ago. Don't fall for the instant gratification thing.

I am loading another copy of CM just so I can run Makin and not worry about the mod effect on other games. That may be at least party why you aren't seeing more downloads, the mods impact every game someone is playing unless they think to load additional copies. It is easy enough to do and affects nothing other than drive space.

[Vinnart]

@Georgie, As far as mods go I have found all the ones i have work in CMFI that I have for CMBN, so there is much stuff out there in CMBN repository to explore. If you use Vin's animated text mod that one must use the right game version to work right, and is not cross compatible. There are game specific versions in each repository container. I havn't got the full game yet as I am still playing around with the demo, but am already modding floating icons to my preference to better distinguish FOW from spotted so I think it is practical. I'll share what i make down the road when I can get to the full game to test. I am also looking forward to getting to the overlay feature to have a little double imagry map making fun.

One thing I have to say is this is the best artistic debut from previous games. Much better choices for landscape colors, and textures than when CMBN first came out. Some units like the cammo Sherman certainly do not need any modding IMO looking so good right out out of the box. Salute to the artist. Great job guys!