So no mod support...

[caravel]

I would think that CA could make more money selling the game to people who will buy it solely for modding it or for mods made available to it vs. DLC, but what do I know?

Mods are probably viewed by CA/SEGA as "lost sales", as are second hand game sales. If mods prolong the lifespan of the previous titles (e.g. MTW, RTW and M2TW) then that's a bad thing for CA who obviously want players to move on and buy the newer releases.

who'll bought DLC when someone could made them with better, more detailed thingies and FREE?

Unfortunately there are plenty of people who will pay up for DLC. There is obviously no visible income for CA in modding. Also the Steam platform lends itself best to DLC and multiplayer, which is probably where CA's focus is going to be from now on.

[Swoosh So]

Id have to disagree with the statement "If mods prolong the lifespan of the previous titles (e.g. MTW, RTW and M2TW) then that's a bad thing for CA who obviously want players to move on and buy the newer releases." Im of the impression that people who play mods buy all the totalwar games unless the game is not to their taste at all which would have nothing to do with modding.
Its actually a healthy thing in my opinion to have the ability to mod as it keeps the community buzzing and fresh, generating more interest in the series. For example some players would not normally have looked at totalwar but got it to play the excellent lord of the rings mods (sorry i forget the name), this puts the game in the hands of players who would not normally touch it and they may buy future releases if they get into it. I know that i will buy kingdoms again when the Europa Barbarorum II mod is released (I lost the game dvd when i moved house last year). If it werent for that mod coming out i would not repurchase the game.

[edyzmedieval]

No mod support, I am obviously disappointed, but it's the trend nowadays... If you want to mod, go open source. You have Mount & Blade for that.

[Martok]

That is a huge disappointment. I will not be buying this Total War.

Yeah, but that's only because the next TW title is Shogun 2. Don't pretend you're refusing to purchase it because of CA's recent statement about not providing modding tools. If the next game were Rome 2, you know you'd probably be getting it, mod support or no mod support.

Also: Throughout the entire series, CA has provided very little in the way of mod support (and pretty much nothing at all the last couple games). So why some of you are suddenly so upset about this eludes me; the only real difference is that now they're at least being up front about it and not giving anyone false hope in this regard. Would you prefer CA claim they'll make modding tools available and then fail to make good on that claim (like they have almost every time in the past)? I mean, really.


Would we prefer that CA provide modding tools for Shogun 2? Of course! But since that's not going to happen, then I'd just as soon they tell us now and get the disappointment out of the way right off the bat. Better that, than stringing modders along for months, promising modding tools/support that will never come.

Id have to disagree with the statement "If mods prolong the lifespan of the previous titles (e.g. MTW, RTW and M2TW) then that's a bad thing for CA who obviously want players to move on and buy the newer releases." Im of the impression that people who play mods buy all the totalwar games unless the game is not to their taste at all which would have nothing to do with modding.
Its actually a healthy thing in my opinion to have the ability to mod as it keeps the community buzzing and fresh, generating more interest in the series. For example some players would not normally have looked at totalwar but got it to play the excellent lord of the rings mods (sorry i forget the name), this puts the game in the hands of players who would not normally touch it and they may buy future releases if they get into it. I know that i will buy kingdoms again when the Europa Barbarorum II mod is released (I lost the game dvd when i moved house last year). If it werent for that mod coming out i would not repurchase the game.

In fairness, I believe Asai Nagamasa was actually presenting what is likely CA/Sega's viewpoint on the matter, not his own. I'm quite certain his own perspective regarding games' moddability is quite similar to yours. In other words, you're already preaching to the choir.


(Nagamasa, feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken.)

[pevergreen]

Mods are probably viewed by CA/SEGA as "lost sales", as are second hand game sales.

Likely correct. They got rid of the second hand problem when they switched to steam.

At least they are being honest.

I think part of the difference is before it was text files. It wasn't hard to do yourself (RTW/M2TW) with the introduction of new file formats etc, its harder to mod.

[al Roumi]

If the game is good out of the box I'm ok with this.

If however the default game is poorly balanced like RTW/M2TW/Empire, it means no sale because there is no opportunity for that to be fixed.

What he said.

It probably need not be said (again, for the nth time), but recent form indicates that the above is a massive caveat.

Were it not for Darth Mod, Empire would be a waste of time. And Darthmod is by no means the answer to every gaming desire -or TW flaw (I hope Darth himself might think that fair).

But... Darthmod, and all the minor mods which it has encluded, were all done without the promised Mod tools.

Personaly, I'd be more upset if people like Darth said they would discontinue their modding.

[caravel]

They got rid of the second hand problem when they switched to steam.

This is one of the many reasons why I'm opposed to Steam.

As to mod support, there has been none since ETW, so what's new? I disagree with the assertion that people buy the games because of a particular mod. This may be the case in the small minority of sales, but on the whole SEGA/CA makes its money selling new full priced games to new customers - not to the same few thousand members of a particular online forum.

I'm afraid that most TW players don't post on these forums and haven't heard of any of the mods - it's dangerous to assume that we somehow reflect the "consumerbase". Most people buy a game on the strength of what's advertised or based on reviews. Mods are discovered later on by more seasoned players that participate in the discussions online. To be clear I support modding and the inclusion of modding tools, but I can easily see why CA are blocking modding (not to say I agree with their business model - quite the opposite).

Thanks for clearing that up Martok-san