[MODDING] friendlier, perhaps ?

[dam]

Hey everyone,

 

 

 

I don't know about you guys, but I for one think there were very little mods actually available for PoE.

 

Aside from IEMod, which was a fine mod and is still maintained to this day, there were basically 2-3 gameplay mods, the rest were portraits.

 

 

If you compare this to Baldur's Gate 2 which featured complete overhauls, new quests and companions, rebalanced stats and classes, new spells... we're talking about an absolutely massive difference here.

 

 

 

Now, why would that be ?

Would it perhaps show a lack of interest from modders ?

 

I would have loved to mod a thing or two in PoE.

I would have loved to be able to buff or nerf this or that ability to my liking, like I could in the BG series with NearInfinity.

 

 

 

The truth is, PoE is hard to mod, at least to the less programming educated of us.

 

I tried my hand at PoE modding back in 2015, I wanted to make the rogue's Fearsome Strike 3/rest instead of 1/rest.

Now questions of balance aside, that would seem to be a very easy and straightforward affair right ?

Wrong.

 

I went over and downloaded the Unity editor, and I pored over the game files to find the ability I wanted to mod.

Found it, made my edits, saved it.

No changes ingame.

Tinkered a bit, fiddled here and there, still no luck.

Gave up pure and simple.

 

Then, comes along IEMod and a lot of nifty features, including normal speed sneaking, yay I've gotta get me some of that.

Thing is, even with IEMod's source code available over at github, one actually needs to compile it if they want to customize it a bit.

 

 

 

Might we hope for easier, user-friendly modding in POE2 ?

The game's potential can only increase with easier modding and more accessibility.

 

People will create new quests, new maps, additional companions and spells and abilities.

This ability to tinker with the game is part of what made the BG series the great success it remains even today.

 

 

 

Devs, make it easier for us to mod the game, s'il vous please.

[Archaven]

I do hope so sincerely because of obvious reasons. But seeing first PoE there isn't much mod at all IINM. Even Witcher 3 didn't have much mods :/

[Osvir]

Start practicing your Unity skills, I suppose. Maybe even on Pillars 1? Knowldge gathered could probably be used for Deadfire.

[anameforobsidian]

Comments from the campaign made it sound like they were abstracting more to XML.  However, this game will never have the NWN ease of creating characters.  More's the pity, because if it's easy to mod, it's probably easier to add content in the first place.

[injurai]

Comments from the campaign made it sound like they were abstracting more to XML.  However, this game will never have the NWN ease of creating characters.  More's the pity, because if it's easy to mod, it's probably easier to add content in the first place.

 

That's not necessarily true. It's just that their content creation tools may require the full open source of the game, the source of Unity and the Unity dev kit. Also they may not want to distribute their internal tools if it's what gives them their edge in rp content creation.

[dam]

Start practicing your Unity skills, I suppose. Maybe even on Pillars 1? Knowldge gathered could probably be used for Deadfire.

 

That's my point entirely.

 

In the BG series you could just load an item or spell/ability in NearInfinity and easily edit it, put it in your override/ folder and voila.

Wanted to get shot of it ? Remove it from override.

 

 

Yesterday I tried again to edit [1] Fearsome Strike to be 3/rest and ultimately failed.

I would very much like to be able to mod for 5 hours and spend 65 ingame, rather than mod for 35 hours and spend 25 ingame

 

I'm not trying to overhaul the game entirely here or change some hard coded behaviour.

We were promised modding ability during the kickstarter campaign.

What we got here is more akin to hacking the game's internals than actual modding support.

 

Divinity Original Sin for example, has modding support.

As in you can actually create mods, and toggle them via a useful ingame menu.

 

What we "received" for PoE is nothing like "modding support".

 

 

[1] https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/86074-tutorial-editing-abilities-talents-and-items/

[dam]

 

Comments from the campaign made it sound like they were abstracting more to XML.  However, this game will never have the NWN ease of creating characters.  More's the pity, because if it's easy to mod, it's probably easier to add content in the first place.

 

That's not necessarily true. It's just that their content creation tools may require the full open source of the game, the source of Unity and the Unity dev kit. Also they may not want to distribute their internal tools if it's what gives them their edge in rp content creation.

 

Distributing content editors worked very well for the NWN and TES series so that is very very debatable.

 

To each their own I guess.

[Archaven]

modding discourage priced DLCs . the only mod i want for deadfire is adding the 6th character back

[Celeras]

IIRC, they said in one of the updates that Deadfire will have a more 'open' file system. This means that certain things like stats, loot lists, etc. will probably be more easily modded but being able to mod in new locations and similar things probably won't be possible based on how the maps are created.

 

It would have been awesome though, considering the sheer size of Deadfire and the ability to stop anywhere on the map. Oh well.

[Wormerine]

modding discourage priced DLCs . the only mod i want for deadfire is adding the 6th character back

I don't believe that at all. There is no way a mod can match DLC quality (unless it is a complete ripoff). Even phenomenal and extensive mods like long war for XCOMs are obviously not in house developed. I suppose mods for Bethesda games feel more professional than base products, but thats Bethesda for you. I wonder if they make shoddy games in purpose, so mods fit better in.

[anameforobsidian]

modding discourage priced DLCs . the only mod i want for deadfire is adding the 6th character back

 

Tell that to Skyrim or Arma.

[Archaven]

 

modding discourage priced DLCs . the only mod i want for deadfire is adding the 6th character back

I don't believe that at all. There is no way a mod can match DLC quality (unless it is a complete ripoff). Even phenomenal and extensive mods like long war for XCOMs are obviously not in house developed. I suppose mods for Bethesda games feel more professional than base products, but thats Bethesda for you. I wonder if they make shoddy games in purpose, so mods fit better in.

 

 

Maybe i should elaborate more on what i meant. I normally download aesthetic/cosmetic mods, UI improvements, camera, and all sorts of interesting mods. One thing i found myself doing was.. i often buy story content DLCs from devs and i didn't really go for content related mods. That's me of course. But what i meant was, many devs/publishers discourage modding simply because of price DLCs as they too would like to do cosmetic/aesthetic DLCs (horse armor anyone?). At least that is what i believe. If Tyranny didn't teach you anything, did you see the portraits DLCs?

[injurai]

Maybe i should elaborate more on what i meant. I normally download aesthetic/cosmetic mods, UI improvements, camera, and all sorts of interesting mods. One thing i found myself doing was.. i often buy story content DLCs from devs and i didn't really go for content related mods. That's me of course. But what i meant was, many devs/publishers discourage modding simply because of price DLCs as they too would like to do cosmetic/aesthetic DLCs (horse armor anyone?). At least that is what i believe. If Tyranny didn't teach you anything, did you see the portraits DLCs?

 

PoE1 I didn't have many gripes with usability, but for games that I have mods have been a life saver so to speak. Skyrim's inventory made me want format my hard drive at times until the mods started rolling out.

[Wormerine]

 

 

modding discourage priced DLCs . the only mod i want for deadfire is adding the 6th character back

I don't believe that at all. There is no way a mod can match DLC quality (unless it is a complete ripoff). Even phenomenal and extensive mods like long war for XCOMs are obviously not in house developed. I suppose mods for Bethesda games feel more professional than base products, but thats Bethesda for you. I wonder if they make shoddy games in purpose, so mods fit better in.

 

 

Maybe i should elaborate more on what i meant. I normally download aesthetic/cosmetic mods, UI improvements, camera, and all sorts of interesting mods. One thing i found myself doing was.. i often buy story content DLCs from devs and i didn't really go for content related mods. That's me of course. But what i meant was, many devs/publishers discourage modding simply because of price DLCs as they too would like to do cosmetic/aesthetic DLCs (horse armor anyone?). At least that is what i believe. If Tyranny didn't teach you anything, did you see the portraits DLCs?

 

I think I, more or less, understand what you mean. But after way PoE handled (two solid expansions and free base game improvements with each) I just assume Obsidian won't make people pay for silly stuff like proper UI, colour scheme change or a reskin. Sure, Tyranny is doing some really dodgy stuff right now, but until I am proven wrong I will blame Paradox for that - it fits their portfolio just too well.

 

Of course, you are right devs do block modding to sell you overpriced new units or recolours (total wars, Dawn of War2) but I doubt it would be a deciding factor for Obsidian&PoE2.

[Varana]

It's not either-or.

You can add portraits, backgrounds and other aesthetic stuff to Stellaris by mods, for instance. They also sell portrait packs (or include them in bigger DLC). The developer, with full access to the code, will always be at an advantage over modders who're working at the surface, and can include features that aren't possible to do with modding (unless you dig really deep, but that's not the stuff of cosmetic mods any more).

It's mainly a question of design philosophy - keep the game as closed as possible and have full control; make it wide open and encourage 3rd party content; or a bit of both. All of these work, as a business model.