Creative Assembly....missing a trick?

**Gaius Sempronius Gracchus** · 07-16-2010, 12:27

Trying to understand the workings of the Eleutheroi faction it becomes apparent that much of this stuff is hidden/hard-coded deep within the exe. I'm aware that CA won't share that coding/allow it to be tampered with. Now, to me this sort of misunderstands their market. Now, can understand that they don't want key-gens etc to be produced (allowing people to pirate the games), but surely there are aspects of the coding that they could release to modders. The TW series is bedecked with mods/sub-mods etc. and the distribution of (limited) code could be beneficial to both parties.

By combining their efforts with modding teams CA could probably extend their sales, and also utilise what they learn from the modders (as in, what they wish to mod, and why) to direct the development of their new releases incorporating what the playing community seeks (and thus having a greater understanding of what their audience is after in a game.)

Take EB as an example. How many here are putting off purchasing M2:TW until EB2 is out? I know I am..., having far too much fun playing EB1

So..., let's say that CA were to work with the EB team, offer them a level of assistance on the deeper coding of, say, Empires: Total War - facilitating the development of the mod onto the latest level/release... wouldn't that enhance sales of E:TW? Or am I just a cheapskate and everybody's buying these anyway

?

**Hax** · 07-16-2010, 13:36

The costs of them combining work with a modding team would probably outweigh the profit they would make. So yeah.

**Gaius Sempronius Gracchus** · 07-16-2010, 13:42

Originally Posted by Hax

The costs of them combining work with a modding team would probably outweigh the profit they would make. So yeah.

I see what you're saying, but it depends upon what is meant by combining efforts..... my bad-wording, really, I meant simply co-operating, in terms of releasing certain aspects of coding etc.

**mountaingoat** · 07-16-2010, 16:18

... it would take someone within the company that has A LOT of "pull", to get something like that released ....corporations only exist to make money

but u never know =)

**Chris_** · 07-16-2010, 16:51

Remember that it is not solely CA's decision to make. Sega has a big (final) say in what they do or do not do, since they own them.

**Ludens** · 07-16-2010, 18:44

My guess is that if there was money to be made in this, someone would already have done it.

BTW, is it even possible to release the partial code of a game? I only know the beginnings of C++ coding, but my understanding is that to compile an .exe file you need to have the entire source code.

**vartan** · 07-16-2010, 20:06

Originally Posted by Gaius Sempronius Gracchus

Trying to understand the workings of the Eleutheroi faction it becomes apparent that much of this stuff is hidden/hard-coded deep within the exe. I'm aware that CA won't share that coding/allow it to be tampered with. Now, to me this sort of misunderstands their market. Now, can understand that they don't want key-gens etc to be produced (allowing people to pirate the games), but surely there are aspects of the coding that they could release to modders. The TW series is bedecked with mods/sub-mods etc. and the distribution of (limited) code could be beneficial to both parties.

By combining their efforts with modding teams CA could probably extend their sales, and also utilise what they learn from the modders (as in, what they wish to mod, and why) to direct the development of their new releases incorporating what the playing community seeks (and thus having a greater understanding of what their audience is after in a game.)

Take EB as an example. How many here are putting off purchasing M2:TW until EB2 is out? I know I am..., having far too much fun playing EB1

So..., let's say that CA were to work with the EB team, offer them a level of assistance on the deeper coding of, say, Empires: Total War - facilitating the development of the mod onto the latest level/release... wouldn't that enhance sales of E:TW? Or am I just a cheapskate and everybody's buying these anyway

?

Did you really think this post belonged here? You should have emailed this to CA herself.

**Claudius** · 07-17-2010, 06:31

Firaxis sells way more copies of Civ than all the total war games combined. How dare Sid Meier destroy his brand by supporting the game's modding community!