Is the MOD community being set up for a let down???

[Sgt Sly]

I've been thinking about how the BF2 community have been obsess with their stats and how when maps come out like the totalbf2 team map pack they can't even keep a server up and running for it since its always empty...


Now I'm sure the big mods like POE and Shattered Faith or even Forgotten Hope 2 will find a following... but what about all the other mods!?!?!

Can we honestly believe that a month after its release we'll find servers with 40 people in it!?


Now I don't want to discourage anyone but I wanted your taught on it and personally I don't know why some of the teams don't try and merge to create less but better mods.

[grolsche]

Merging 2 mod teams is one of the hardest things about modding, potentially. Reasons for many mod collapses are due to leaders not wanting to give up their power and unwilling to share it with anyone else. This alone puts most mods off merging. Another reason is every mod is different and sets out to achieve a different purpose. You can say well theres 4 or 5 world war 2 mods but each is after different things, one for realism maybe, one for pure carnage and others for a mix of the two. Even if mods merged, that just means theres less mods overall and it doesnt mean the quality increases. Two teams merging means a larger dev team, meaning more chance one of them will disappear or stop working. So in closing, mod teams should not merge based on the reasoning you give. Maybe not many people play the mods but its the same with any mod for any game.

[=DNC=SYSEX73]

Its a very good question. All I can say is that its obvious that EA and dice dont want the MOD groups to get very far. The support doesnt exist, and some would say they are doing what they can to hold the mods back. After all, they want you to spend money on thier MODs, err I mean updates, errr I mean booster\expansions. They are a big bisuness, and have corporate investors.

People ***** and complain about the "Big Brother" game companies, but they still support every move they make like lemmings. I work in the music industry, and its the same story. There are lots of amazing artists out there to support, but the sales still go to garbage like the Black Eyed Peas, or Mariah.:rolleyes:

[satcomNL]

its kinda weird that nobody noted this thread :
http://www.totalbf2.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55346&highlight=battlefieldranking

lemme update:
the devchat is over, POE, FH2, Frontline18, Desert-Conflict, Brickfield and more mod developers participated.

Mod developers are agains Pointfarming kinda situations.
they try to avoid that as much as possible.

My opinion? the developers were quite optimistic, i haven got one negative thought.
But: We are in contact with them, and exchanging thoughts for the World Mod rankings etc.

if you want to knwo more about the devchat, and what we talked about, a quick wrapup can be found here :http://www.battlefieldranking.net/News/Latest_News/Development_Chat_Roundup.html

regards,
Satcom
ABR Developer.

[edit:i fixed that typo sysex! srry ]

[=DNC=SYSEX73]

lemme update:
the devchat is over, POE, FH2, Frontline18, Desert Combat, Brickfield and more mod developers participated.

Great sight, and some very good info. Thanks Satcom for the work to keep the mod community strong.

P.S. Its Desert Conflict, not Desert Combat :cool: .

Keep up the good work.

[jimbob]

Merging 2 mod teams is one of the hardest things about modding, potentially. Reasons for many mod collapses are due to leaders not wanting to give up their power and unwilling to share it with anyone else. This alone puts most mods off merging. Another reason is every mod is different and sets out to achieve a different purpose. You can say well theres 4 or 5 world war 2 mods but each is after different things, one for realism maybe, one for pure carnage and others for a mix of the two. Even if mods merged, that just means theres less mods overall and it doesnt mean the quality increases. Two teams merging means a larger dev team, meaning more chance one of them will disappear or stop working. So in closing, mod teams should not merge based on the reasoning you give. Maybe not many people play the mods but its the same with any mod for any game.

i agree with you on the factors causing difficulty in mods merging - most of the time it is sheer pride tht gets in the way - but i disagree with you on the point that teams shouldnt merge. there are so many struggling mods out there - it is only now tht mods are starting to look at the big picture rather than focusing on the initial goal. look at the cooperation between BG2 and warfront or restore hopes offer for collaboration as an example. as the thread starter touched upon, it has really all come down to release date now - as much as we would like to think they would, the fanbase isnt going to wait forever. And at the end of the day, a mod isnt worth it if it only has a life of a month or so - especially considering it took far longer to make it, [and you didnt gain a cent doing it]. as you said with the world war two mods, sure one may be for carnage and one may be for realism - there is no reason why these two couldnt share modelling and skinning duties (the labour intensive duties lol) and just keep their coding departments seperate with a goal of two different releases ;) and there is certainly no reason why the two in between couldnt merge completely....

at the moment it is starting to look like damage control - USI will get a massive fanbase simply because it will release first and will tap into the audience of everyone waiting for mods - this enthusiasm will dissapate over time, until finally the late starters get to release onto near dead websites for a game made obsolete by bf3 ;) all one has to do is look at allllll the failed mods for bfv.... its depressing to think of all the work tht went in :(