RTW II and Modding: good news?

**Monk** · 07-08-2012, 02:55

They say the same thing with every game, and with every game, modding gets harder and proves to be an even bigger pain for those interested in it. Statements are put out that promise much more modding capability which are almost always changed before release. I see no reason this will be any different.

By all means i'd love for CA to prove me wrong but I'll believe it when i see it.

**cunctator** · 07-08-2012, 10:46

At least this time they are organizing this modding summit, something I believe they never did before. It seems CA is unhappy with the current state of modding. Until Empire the community could always hack their way into the game and produce the desired total conversion mods, even without the ever promised tools, so there was no need for CA to really release them.
And although I remember an article from 2003 that, the never released, mod tolls will ship with R:TW, the game itself turned out to be as modable as they said so I don't consider their past record as that bad.

**Sarmatian** · 07-08-2012, 20:24

I don't know... Haven't played anything since M2TW but it seems that Empire and Shogun 2 had worse modding capabilities than RTW or M2TW.

I think modding isn't really on the list of priorities for big guys anymore. Not only it takes funds to make a game more modding friendly, it limits the DLC's sales - who's gonna buy a new skin when they can get 99 better looking ones for free?

**Arjos** · 07-08-2012, 20:34

Well should they advertise a moddable R2TW, forget about DLCs, the vanilla sales would go through the roof!
Question is: will they realize that? :D

**Sarmatian** · 07-08-2012, 21:12

Point is, vanilla sales aren't as profitable as DLC sales.

You spend a few years and millions of creating a game, hyping it, distributing it, updating and supporting it. And you sell it for 50-60 dollars/euros.

Then you have a few guys sit at their computers for a few weeks and you sell that for 2-3 dollars/euros.

If you sold the entire content of the game as a DLC, you'd probably get about 500-600 dollars, if not more. That's how much more profitable DLC's are, and no big company is gonna shy away from them. Companies also hate the fact that they get their money at the beginning and then have to support to product for free for a very long time. So, micro transactions are the way to go.

Also, DLC's and modding are often conflicting - modders need to have a relatively stable base to build on, constant minor changes and additions don't help, which in the end also helps the decision to not really care about modding.

To conclude, anything that helps DLC sales = good, anything that may be detrimental, however minute = bad.

**Arjos** · 07-08-2012, 21:35

That's already the case though...

What matters are the sales in the first months, that's what should be pushed for...
Later the game will cost as much as a DLC, but people would be interested in buying it...

Right now, there are few people buying the vanilla and even less buying the DLCs...

**Moros** · 07-09-2012, 00:00

There will indeed be DLC for RTWII I seem to remember reading that at least.

**rickinator9** · 07-09-2012, 03:03

Originally Posted by Sarmatian

Also, DLC's and modding are often conflicting - modders need to have a relatively stable base to build on, constant minor changes and additions don't help, which in the end also helps the decision to not really care about modding.

Paradox Interactive patches it's games at least twice per month and still, there is a thriving modding community there. I do think we will see modding tools. That Shogun 2 level editor shows they are willing to help the modders out.

**Nightbringer** · 07-09-2012, 03:21

I think Skyrim stands out as an excellent example of a game that is both very mod-able, and commercially successful. With fallout and oblivion the DLC still sold well, despite the high levels of modding, and I would hazard a guess the same will be true for Skyrim. No, they don't release skin pack and expect them to sell, but the Total War franchise has had large scale dlc/expansions, such as Fall of the Samurai, Barbarian Invasion, Kingdoms, etc...

As such, I think it would be quite financially feasible for them to make a highly modifiable game. However, I am less sure that most companies realize this, and the last few Total War games have made me doubt that Sega does. Sega games in general seem to be very opposed to the concept, and Sega's acquisition of CA marked the change in the Total War series.

Basically, I doubt Sega will let CA make the game very modifiable, even if CA wanted to do so.