My resignation from moderating the Dungeon

[Duke John]

Thanks for letting know that I at least did my job right

I just have to get it of my chest. Since I'm not that interested in the ancient period I mainly bought the game for the engine. CA said we would get a very moddable game. So I expected at least the same moddability as M:TW - VI. So when I got it I immediately started browsing through the files; PAK, CAS, IDX, RWM extensions? What the hell? Luckily Vercingetorix and Midnight discovered how to edit those. This week I went through the files again; more CAS files unopenable by the CAS editor, ITEM files for buildings, animation still unpossible to mod.

So can we expect CA to give us tools to make the game at last very moddable? From what I have read they are giving us a battlemap editor and perhaps a sprite generator. Not enough to make total conversions. So does the community need to wait for Vercingetorix to crack all those files? Do we need to buy an expansion? Well, I'm not gonna wait for that. My ME:TW beta mod has over 30.000 downloads, it's hosted at most of major download sites, it got a couple of good reviews in gaming magazines. Wasn't that enough for CA to show that mods do sell games?

The TW modding community is in top gear, the speed of how quick mods are released shows that. Then why did CA had to bring us back to cruising speed? Publishing a good game is nice, but if that game is accompanied with excellent total conversions within a few months wouldn't that be far better? You can see all over the internet that more and more people are able to put out professional quality grahics and modifications.

When CA said the game would be very moddable, I expect that they realized that they made a whole bunch of file unknown extentions. The logical consequence would be that they would make a list of tools that the modding community needs. This wasn't the case as the discovered editor interfaces weren't made for us they were made for the developers. A possible release of the sprite generator sounded like a, "oh yeah, those things, yeah perhaps we will release that". When I brought up wether CA would release CAS editors they reacted "We need to first discuss that." They hadn't even talked about us being able to make new models! That is surely the base of a game being very moddable?!?

I wanted to make a total conversion. How long do I need to wait before I have the tools? If the next TW release is over 2 years, is it worth waiting 1 year before the modders have cracked all the file types? Perhaps new modders may think so, but I think that I'm capable of modding everything in the game provided I have the tools. 1 year waiting is then very long sit and I have came to realize that it's not worth the time.

Note that I having personal against the CA employees who come here. I sometimes get the feeling that they want to give us alot more than they are allowed to.

So no, I won't modding this game anymore although I do loved to. And because of that I will stop moderating the Dungeon.

CBR
Patch 1.2 will come soon and hopefully they will fix the controls and MP lobby so that I can at least enjoy a few games. The games I had in M:TW with the Mizu clan were one of the best games I had and I remember them dearly. It's sad to read that so many of your clan are leaving.

[tombom]

I understand how you feel. It is very annoying. I mod other games (well, only the paradox ones ~:D) and the only reason I do that is that they're pretty moddable (except the maps).

[SpencerH]

Duke John

We dont dont know one another online yet so I hope you'll take this in the friendly spirit in which its posted.

I understand, to some extent, your frustration with the inability to mod RTW out of the box. Before I read this thread, I posted a comment/question along the same lines as your concerns (in the thread about modding questions). I think you are making a mistake, however, by not remaining as a moderator here. Sites like this are a huge boon for the players of the games these sites support. Many players who are trying to deal with the many bugs/glitches/setup errors found in most games would be lost without the resources these sites provide. After all, what does one expect to learn at the official sites. A moderator of the modding threads who is more than 'just familiar' with the process of modifying games benefits the entire community. Building a TW mod must be an enormous task (much more than I'm willing to take on with some civ modding under my belt). Moderating these threads is an invaluable service to us all, even to those who dont (and wont ever) mod themselves. I think you should view it in that light, and change your mind.

[dj jones]

I have only been here a few days, but your posts / insights have been excellent, and I for one hope you change your mind. Despite the (so far) limited support given to us by CA, the 'must know' question thread that was answered by that cool CA employee (forget the name) at least shows that they are interested in what the modding community wants - but you know the deal, its the suits who never play games that make the decisions.

And unfortunately, those suits will never know about the trials and tribs that we gamers go through just to get their games playing 'the way we want' to play them - so if you are leaving in spite, it really wont get anyone's attention over there, and will hurt the community that you have helped build. If you are leaving simply because you would rather mod Medieval, well, then, good luck with that and I look forward to playing your mods!

Hope you reconsider!

[dessa14]

yes the moddibility of this latest game, is really dissappointing.
i love the paradox games..
i reckon CA should have released the Source if they wanted to make it hard to mod without it.
look at HL why was it so successful for so many years, the fact they could mod the entire game, and people did, they created new flavours for the game that kept people into it for years.
thanks,
dessa