A letter to Creative Assembly

[Marcus Cornelius Marcellus]

Dear all,

After checking with the esteemed TosaInu, I am letting you all know that there is a letter to Creative Assembly on behalf of the Total War modding community. Without flaming in any way,and as die hard fans of the Total War series, we are concerned at the lack of modding tools that are currently available for recent TW series games, especially ETW and the new NTW.

This is after repeated promises from CA both on the Sega website and in communications and press releases given by the company.

Many of us feel that perhaps the glory days of modding are now over, as many of the older ranks are retiring, and there are precious few new modders out there with any hopes of doing a full conversion mod.

Frustration with lack of tools, lack of customer support for bug ridden releases make us seriously concerned at the future of both the games and our community.

Having personally been a fan of TW games since Shogun, and as an ex-modder ( team leader of Rome Total Realism, Hexagon Council modding representative and community leader at Total War Center, I feel that we must speak up and voice our concerns and continuing love and hopes for TW games.

If you would like to join us in our letter, please follow this link and you add your name to the letter here.

With Very best regards,

Marcus Cornelius Marcellus

[pevergreen]

I'd do it if I thought it would accomplish anything.

[G. Septimus]

I don't do Letters, or join letters in TWC..........

~Caivs

[antisocialmunky]

A script bot could do a few thousand spam posts on their forums.

But then again you could yell at Jack Lusted.

[Husar]

Some marketing guy will count the number of signatories, substract it from the number of total sales of the last game, add a certain number for future new customers(and those who signed the letter but will give CA another "last chance" anyway) from the growing gamer market, factor in the DLC revenues, and decide it's not worth paying attention to.
That is if the marketing guy is bored enough to do it in the first place.
Oh and if they can find a developer who is really bored because he is not working on an improved AI, they will try to convince him to make a blog entry explaining how much CA value the customer feedback but that they cannot do the modding tools because they have to write long blog entries and calculate sales losses vs new customers.

[gollum]

Many of the problems mentioned are chronic and have been accumulating for quite some time. CA has been adamant in closing its ears when it had judged that it had no benefit from listening as in the MP community letter that went on sometime after RTW was released and was flat out rejected despite being signed by long term fans that were on since Shogun (and many say that in this day and age but not all are what they profess) and involved in many ways in the game, its scene and even its development.

However, given that mods contribute commerically to sales in the long run, there might be a chance that your voice may be heard. Of course CA seem very keen on keeping TW as mainstream as possible and as long as that line persists all fantypes are at the mercy of what "the suits" decide, so do not trust to hope.

In any case promising and then playing deaf will not the first nor the last time, most likely, for CA.

[DukeCanada]

Totalwar players, modders and fans. I urge you to join this petition. Imagine the possibilities of full ETW and NTW tools at our disposal! All it takes is a signature.

Also join the facebook group if you can,

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/...5958315&ref=nf

[pevergreen]

27 members is why i dont think this will do anything.

The l4d2 boycott group had huge numbers and actual leverage.

[Fisherking]

It certainly can’t hurt.

It runs to 23 pages at TWC at this point.

[pevergreen]

28,649 Members

Get north of 5 thousand and it might mean something.

[Fisherking]

I don’t understand the mind set.

It is as if no one would vote until they knew who the winner was going to be.

Of course numbers mean something but being unwilling to commit or contribute until it is a landslide is a bit puzzling to me.

[antisocialmunky]

Everyone has seen these things before and seen them fail because it is naive to believe that a commercial enterprise that doesn't have a history of 'we really care about our image in the community' and does not actively try to cultivate the community outside of pre-release hype will change their ways for a few people.

[Marcus Cornelius Marcellus]

Dear all,
Thank you for your response so far, both positive and negative.

Yes, I am aware of previous petitions in the past that have failed. I did a bit of research on Google, and its amazing what pops up.
I am also aware that historically up till now CA has been less than responsive, and that the general feeling of many members of the modding community that perhaps the best has already gone. I can also appreciate the apathy that some people feel.

That being said, I urge all of you to show your interest, and if possible even, add your name to the thread. Its a case where very much, every voice counts.

We have had 10,000 views on the topic over at the TWCenter in a week. We also now have a Modders Group on Facebook. The reason being is that as long as our voice only resonates here on the fan forums, its controllable and perhaps ignored.

Many of the general public have no idea the strength of the modding community, nor the passion with which these teams pursue their dreams, dealing with members at times spread across the globe. The goal is to show that indeed we are a unified voice. WE are a legitimate community that sparks incredible levels of creativity and development. In many ways I am sure that it stimulates CA to at least try a little harder.

I personally, as a past team member and then as a team leader, have seen some incredible talents develop under these teams and in these communities. Members learn valuable skills which that can take with them back into the real world. They learn a sense of discipline and an ability to push themselves even in the face of , at times, seemingly insurmountable obstacles. They learn to communicate and interact with people from other cultures, to listen and to find the commonalities which drive these teams together.

To see that community die out due to lack of tools, support and encouragement to me seems a terrible travesty.

It only takes a few seconds to log in and read what people have been saying. Many of the top shelf modders have posted and voice their own opinions and concerns, so if you do not want to be a part of the cause, at least inform yourself as to the nature of our concern and requests.

All communities, even like this one here at the Org, require user input. To stand on the sidelines while this important battle goes on would be the biggest tragedy of all.

With sincerest regards,

MCM

[Megas Methuselah]

That being said, I urge all of you to show your interest, and if possible even, add your name to the thread.

Oh? How much money you gonna give me?

[Furunculus]

signed.

[gollum]

Fisherking is actually right, anyone who owns the game and is expecting to play it again, better sign in for the modding tools. The modding community adds tremendous value and replayability in TW games, that are usually released and left unbalanced and poorly optimised in terms of gameplay. Can anyone imagine RTW or M2TW without the mods?

If the modding community fades out, then CA/SEGA's dry, commercial efforts will be all one gets. Not a very nice prospect.

[Krusader]

Fisherking is actually right, anyone who owns the game and is expecting to play it again, better sign in for the modding tools. The modding community adds tremendous value and replayability in TW games, that are usually released and left unbalanced and poorly optimised in terms of gameplay. Can anyone imagine RTW or M2TW without the mods?

If the modding community fades out, then CA/SEGA's dry, commercial efforts will be all one gets. Not a very nice prospect.

Isn't that what the publishers don't want? Some Activision rep apparently said they don't want people playing old games, but rather see gamers move on to newer games that are released later.

[antisocialmunky]

We'll I wouldn't mind moving from TW to SC2 if that's what the publishers want. :-D

[DisruptorX]

We'll I wouldn't mind moving from TW to SC2 if that's what the publishers want. :-D

A game which, coincidentally, will have amazing mod tools.

[Dead Guy]

They're not going to give you modding tools, because they have figured out they can make sub-par "mods" and sell them for 5$ every other month to thousands of customers who reason that 5$ is so little money it doesn't matter.

If gamers started pumping out mods for free, this business model would be completely defunct. You want your modding tools? Stop buying their reskinned models instead of joining yet another facebook group. Five bucks per dissatisfied customer hurts way more than a list of names.

[gollum]

Originally posted by Dead Guy
They're not going to give you modding tools, because they have figured out they can make sub-par "mods" and sell them for 5$ every other month to thousands of customers who reason that 5$ is so little money it doesn't matter.

If gamers started pumping out mods for free, this business model would be completely defunct. You want your modding tools? Stop buying their reskinned models instead of joining yet another facebook group. Five bucks per dissatisfied customer hurts way more than a list of names.

This sounds (sadly) true. Its difficult to say what was more obscene with ETW: the state the game was released (and left) in? the exploitation of teh fan base with add-ons? or the insistance of the same to buy them?

[antisocialmunky]

That's probably SEGA territory as its business strategy.

[Furunculus]

Dear CA,

Could your next game please be 17th century total war:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17th_century

Some details:
It should cover the whole world
It should have four turns per year
It should span at least 1640-1700

Why because lots of interesting empires existed around then:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qing_Dynasty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edo_period
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safavid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_Empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maratha_Empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years%27_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europea...f_the_Americas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugese_Empire

Thank you.

F

[caravel]

Hello,

I'm sorry but your petition is actually "worthless":

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...=1#post1187838

No the petition did not work. As we have clearly stated before we treat online petitions as worthless as they are not email verified and are totally open to abuse.

What we do take seriously though is polite feedback from our community. Despite what a tiny minority will try have you believe (generally to feed their inner troll) we are keen to support the community as much as possible.

This has always been the Creative Assembly stance on "online petitions" and has yet to change.

Yohei

[Marcus Cornelius Marcellus]

I think they may be paying a little bit more attention to this one..;)
Its managed to get press coverage and is also spreading through social media. The response is quite substantial. I suggest you go have a look.

An official communication was sent to CA this week, and acknowledged received. So I believe that they are listening. Whether they choose to act, we shall see.

Cheers,

MCM

[antisocialmunky]

Why can't they jsut release the file specs. Its not hard to make mod tools if you have specs.

[Madoushi]

Signed, though I'm personally more interested in AI fixing than mod tools.

[Kagemusha]

I have already signed this at TWC, while it is only wishful thinking that it could achieve anything. Personally M2TW has been so far the last TW game ive purchased. The reason being that the game simply is unmoddable for full conversion modifications, unless the said TW game sets on the same area and point of time as the modification does.

[antisocialmunky]

Hey Kage, what have you been doing? :-D

[Kagemusha]

Hey Kage, what have you been doing? :-D

Hi Munky! :) . Ive been having a vacation from TW world so does speak. ;)