User generated content- does SOE have a plan?

[XxAxMayxX]

Being an artist and a coder as well as a Planetside fan I have been researching SOE’s policies on moding. So far I have found little other than curtain copyright policies. As far as my opinion goes I want to mod the source file and maybe be able to host that mod on LAN, not as a full game but say have a track where me and A friend race sunderers or train and practice with dummies. I assume that the world files (map layouts) will be on kept on the servers (cloud) so SOE would have to release that to the public as well as the Forgelight engine for non-commercial use. None of the mods would be used in full release without maybe steam workshop, but is something I look for in every PC game.

I desperately want this but what about you, am I the only moder here would the devs allow this?

[p0intman]

you *are* the content...

[Slide Surveyor]

I want PENIS camo!

[The Kush]

FAIL thread

Use the search button

/closed
/fail

[Hamma]

The most you will see is the ability to maybe customize your UI. An MMO for PlanetSide is not the type of game with a modding community or modded servers

[QuantumMechanic]

The only times the server code for an MMO becomes publicly available is in a less than legal fashion. Or unless the game is over like 10 years old and fans have written their own server implementations or the game has gone public domain (like Ultima Online, Neocron, maybe others).

so unless you are up to writing a Forgelight clone yourself, I don't think your wishes are going to come true.

[Notturno]

This simply isn't the type of game that caters to modding. Usually modding communities are more focused in games that support dedicated servers.

When you allow modding in games such as Team Fortress 2, you have thousands of dedicated servers that are administrated by the server owners. Those administrators can dictate which content they want on their servers, what rules they want, et cetera. Players are then able to choose which servers they support; if you want to see mods then you are welcome to play those servers, but if you want a vanilla experience then there are servers that allow this too.

In a game like PlanetSide 2, SOE is responsible for hosting many clusters that create the server infrastructure for the game. There are no server administrators, since SOE retain direct control of the server code and host all of their own servers. You cannot allow for server side modding of the game, as this forces every single player to patch each time mods are submitted, and even then players would not be able to choose which mods they support. If you have hundreds of mods available for the game... creating servers that support each flavor of mod combinations becomes impossible to maintain. It doesn't make sense to allow for server side modding.

When you consider client side modding, there's a simple reason things like that are discouraged. If SOE were to allow for players to dig around the client files and modify them, there's a high likelihood of individuals using this to take advantage of the system and cheat. Players could modify the client to display information they potentially should not see, if the server is sending that data over, or it could be used to modify textures to make it easier to see content and potentially through it. Point being, it's safer to force everyone to be on the same playing field when it comes to the game client.

Finally, the last argument I can think of is, "why not just allow players to host their own servers?" Theoretically this solves the issue of modding, but it also creates a situation where SOE is now unable to monetize their game. Since PlanetSide 2 is free to play, SOE makes money exclusively on post-game download purchases. If you have dedicated servers available to players, SOE now officially loses any monetary benefit from the game. Even if they were to charge for server hosting and make the game buy to play, you end up in a situation where they lose creative integrity over the game and simply run into more issues than its worth.

At the end of the day, this is a game built for persistence and large scale combat. There are countless developmental and creative reasons why the game is built like this, namely just the style of the game alone. To switch away from this design at this late stage would be unnecessary and contrary to the reason SOE is in business; to turn a profit. I think the only modding of the game you may see is UI modifications. Other than that, statistical feeds are being made available in JSON and XML forms.

Hopefully this answers your question, or at least sheds some light on the subject.

[Karrade]

There is an opening up here to user creativity in camo, appearance UI, sandbox style play etc, so quite generous compared to many companies, but for a large part its the same locks on player creativity as you'd expect from a big corporation.

Though for what its worth, far better than microsoft who actively do anything they can to shoot down player creativity, or EA who don't know what the word means.

[Littleman]

Player creativity has it's place.

In an MMOFPS that focuses entirely around player versus player combat, it's a VERY risky move to let players mod the client in any way. There will be people with awesome mods. I'd kill to see the edges of my helmet ala Star Wars: Republic Commando.



But then... there will be people with game breaking mods. Something as simple as highlighting all enemies regardless of whether or not they're behind something WILL be possible with even HUD mods only. Even if you can't see them, you're still receiving their locational data, and someone will figure out how to take that data and put their location on your screen.

Modding is best left to games intentionally built around players hosting their own dedicated servers, not MMO's.