And there was a reason why, in the end, most still stuck with the regular game. This is called bringing in new players to the game to keep the community vibrant. The fact is that mod-based communities, especially in TW tend to be very insulated from the new players and getting them to start playing a mod was hard already in VI. Imagine what the difficulty is in Empire when we don't even have a working foyer to instruct people how to install the mod/mappack. Imagine the shock of Neil Newbie when he logs in and all games are red for some reason. I have a feeling he won't stick around for long.

The community mods were never truly successful as they never eclipsed the regular game in popularity and the only ones that had any longetivity were essentially total conversions like Samurai Wars or NTW 1 as they attracted a rather different niche of players. The perfect example of a community attempt to improve the game by modding was the Dux mod and within a month or so we were back playing regular VI. As to the Map Packs, we still played more on the regular maps as truth be told the best of them were superior to anything Orda created.

Anyway mappacks being used for tournaments is a valid concept though and has been proven to work as it gives an incentive to install the mappack and play on them. But balance modifications are a major no no as the likes of Dux and Retrofit Mod have proven to us. They are just a dream.