Dont Kill a Good Game with MODS

[Echo]

Ive heard talk of mods floating around already, and nothing kills a good MP game faster than the incompatbility issues that arise from user hacked mods. This game is sweet as is, and short of maybe minor graphic improvements, or improved sounds, I will no be the whoremonger that defiles the sacred CM code. (Much chanting and Drums in the distance follow)

[Guest Big Time Software]

We agree. And that is why we took some time to hopefully make it very difficult to have mods for CM, especially ones for multi-player games. I'm not saying that CM can not be hacked, but we have tried to make it difficult. If there are changes and/or corrections to be made, we will gladly do them and release them as patches.

Steve

[Guest Madmatt]

The ONLY mods that I am aware of will focus SOLEY on Graphics and Sound improvements.

They will not affect any of the core DATA or even touch the executable at all.

For the record I am currently working on a sound effects MOD (new small arms and possibly some new voices) and have plans for some graphics mods as well.

Oh, and umm THEY ROCK!

Madmatt

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[Bakker@home]

Uhm ....... will we be graced by a BITEME!!!.wav perhaps ?

And certainly you will not withold the bigrintankcommander.bmp from us, would you?

Grtz S bakker

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[Bullethead]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>The ONLY mods that I am aware of will focus SOLEY on Graphics and Sound improvements.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

For realism, IMHO the voice sounds need to contain a lot more profanity. If somebody has the recording equipment and voice donors, I will be happy to provide some words for them to scream. I believe my experience as a Sergeant of Marines qualifies me as a technical advisor in this matter

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-Bullethead

jtweller@delphi.com

WW2 AFV Photos: people.delphi.com/jtweller/tanks/tanks.htm

[Lorak]

Also for new members here worried about mods and combatability. Sound and Texture Mods are Local. They only effect the way you see and here the game.

Lorak

[Sublime]

Mods can screw up a game I agree.. but they can also help a lot. Of course this doesn't seem to apply to CM since it is excellently made but if you had a game.. say Close Combat mods are the only thing to save it.. CC3 sucked but realred and westfront helped a lot..

[Guest Pham]

Gotta agree with Sublime. Mods are what made Quake what it is today(for what that's worth... though team fortress was pretty cool). Mods saved CC3, and playing CC2 in a WWI setting is pretty interesting even if the scale is wrong.

I really can't see anyone taking the time to make a RealRed type mod just to tweak unit data, as BTS seems to have put quite a bit of effort into making units behave realisticly. But I could see someone making a much different mod(for example, CC3: Vietnam is pretty much as different as you can get to CC3: The Russian Front).

What I don't see at all is mods in any way damaging MP games. It's easy to say: "Hi, I'm playing CM: WWI and was looking for a PBEM oppenent."

And, if you're playing a modified version and ask someone playing the normal CM to play a game with you, and then proceed to spend countless hours trying to figure out why you can't get a game going, you deserve to be smacked on the head.

Mods are a moot point. They'll probably be made, but nobody's forced to play them.

What I've never understood about mods is why not just license the game engine and make a commercial product out of your hard work? If you've got the time to rewrite half a program, you've got the time to try to find someone to invest a few bucks for the licensing fees. Or, just write a new clone type engine for that matter and save the money.

I don't know. I personally look forward to seeing what kinds of mods are developed for CM. Should be interesting.

[Walt]

I agree with Pham. I think mods would only make Combat Mission a better game. I doubt any one's going to bother making a mod to tweak the existing WWII setting, there's no point, it's basically perfect. I can also understand why the people at BTS would prefer that ignorant people didn't screw up their hard work.

Having said all that, I'd also like to say that CM has the only game engine I know of that exists right now that could accurately simulate battle in Vietnam and Korea. Both wars had unique attributes that caused them to differ from your average war, CM could model the mountainous battlefields of Korea and the jungles of Vietnam much better than any game engine out there.

I also think it would be a good business move to offer the engine to companies who want to make new games out of it. It saves those companies the time it would take to write a new engine, and BTS profits from the license. But hey, it's your game not mine. So long as I get to beat up Germans in CM2: eastern front I will live.

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[Guest Big Fat Guy]

Mods don't hurt sales, but they don't help much either. It is all the same. Pirates hurt sales. CC3 was not saved by mods, they just made it fun to play.