I am very skeptical about modding MII TW. If mesh/texture can’t be modded not even in future (one year) then Hosted Modifications subforum can be shut down for every conversion which will need new meshes and textures. Mods just use space in servers for nothing and community useless waits for great modification.

I don’t care any more will be modding possible. Europa Universalis III comes in market for two months. There can be modded everything; I will again easily create my own Realism mod, so why should I bother with MII TW?

Even now when CA is part of SEGA realm, it seems like both companies are (still) feared from nonexistent competition. I can’t explain it different (if we release code somebody will steal it and create better game).

Why should they allow modding of golden hen? Somebody (other companies) can steal golden hen. Calculation is easy: they know how many copies of RTW and BI they sold, how much time mods were downloaded and calculation probably said that profit margin from mods is irrelevant (I mean impact of mods in number of sold copies). The risk from stealing of golden hen (M2TW) is greater than impact of potential mods will have on numbers of sold copies.

I absolutely understand CA and SEGA (before that Activision).

P.S.
That are just my thoughts as student of economy.

Quote Originally Posted by econ21
I know what you are saying, and you are probably right, but isn't it a little bit ironic? The "hardcore" TW fans, among which I count myself, bitch and moan about the limitations of the AI and lack of realism of TW while conceding the graphics were pretty and state of the art. Later, when M2TW comes out and (worst case scenario) they find they can't change the graphics, they abandon modding the game at all.
I will say what an irony is. Irony is that CA didn’t provide any tools for modding RTW but in another hand in totalwar.com they advertise great modifications for RTW and BI like RTR.

Quote Originally Posted by econ21
With M2TW, we have better AI but (maybe) can't change the graphics. With RTW, we have inferior AI but can make even better eye candy. So the hardcore choose to stick to modding RTW. I'm not wanting personally criticise someone, but it seems almost hypocritical. To repeat - I am not criticising anyone: I guess it's human nature, we are preprogrammed to like eye candy, just like we are preprogrammed to have a sweet tooth.
AI is just maybe better from RTW but 1.5 and 1.6 patches improved both RTW and BI.
Look FIFA by EA and ISS Pro Evolution by Konami – the first always had much better graphics but because lack of gameplay ISS now plays everybody.
And CA had no direct competition in their market segment! In FPS market segment where competition is ruthless many games are open for modding.

Quote Originally Posted by Lusted
Well personally, with the news that diplomacy and ai will be moddable to some extent in M2TW, i think it would be silly for modders not to mod M2Tw, as it will allow for so many more possibilities.
This is boring.