[Eradicator]

I don't think there is such a thing as too much mod support. In the BF 42 case it was a long time before any true mods were being made bcause of the lack of tools. But because the develoepr was generally supportive and enthuastic about modding the community developed its own tools. I know the developer and publisher situation with EA and DICE and EAP That is why I believe BF 42 has more mod support and more succesful mods and a larger community because the developer is allowed more creative freedom and is more supportive of mods. Not just technology wise, but everything else that goes with mod support as well. In my opinion the more power modders have the better. Take a look at the Quake 1 community. The fact that it simply still exists is amazing. That communtiy now has access to the full Quake 1 engine code. And take a look whats come out of it. Projects like Tenebrae and Tenebrae 2 of which I am (or was, the project has slowed considerably) a developer on the team. Obviously I'm not expecting EA to release the SAGE engine code. But some game code in the form of modular input through some kind of safe DLL (like a VM file in Quake 3) would have been really nice, but even the INI system we have now without all hard coded variables and programmable modules would have been really cool. Back in the days of Generals without ZH (not that long ago, lol) I hadn't even heard EA even acknowledge there was a problem with the WB when it would simply crash without warning if a mod was used and that was 90% of mods because we hadn't even received any docs saying the WB is mysteriously more picky than the game is with INI code. That in my view is a true sign of a lack of mod support. Although the technology is there the company just doesn't seem to care post release and that's just really disapointing. But I guess that's how huge coporations like EA and Microsoft will be. Of course I will continue to mod Generals for as long as the community lives because its enjoyable, but I guess I have some kind if hope that if we harass EA enough they will become more mod friendly in the future. I can hope can't it?

[Flyby]

The success of Desert Combat as mod is mainly due to the contacts the mod-leader, Frank Delise, had. Not many people know that Frank was the former 3dsmax Manager for Discreet. In this position he had an intimate contact with several game developers. So when, after he got fired, he decided to take a year off and do some "fun" things, it was not so hard to find the right PROFESSIONAL people for his modding project.
I think his intention was a professional one from the start, as i suspect Frank wanted to continue his career in the game business, by using his former position as lever.
If you start a mod with the idea to use it as professional step stone then you have a whole different attitude then when you just doing it for fun.

Don't be blinded by the title "mod", because in the case of DC it is not the case. It was laid out professionally from the start, with the intention to create an opening in the games market. Because Frank didn't want to gamble with a lot of money by buying the rights of the engine, the "modding scene" was the most obvious choice to start up something.

Frank has the experience what it takes to lead a company and is putting that to very good use....

[Godwin]

there still is a large number of quality mods for BF1942, DC is just the most popular because it was in there early, undoubtedly it does have good visuals and effects (though many are not unique to or pioneered by DC) and the subject matter appealed to people

[smurfbizkit]

<back on topic>

No one can name any big ra1 mods? I know there were a bunch...1 that turned it into the (then) upcoming ts...desert storm (using lots of td unit images) and so on

also...for the looking ahead section, what do you guys see in the future of cnc modding?

I personally see the community continuing the trend of making better quality mod with each era, as well as having more and more people approach modding from a more professional standpoint (ie. people using mods to help get into the industry). Of course this all depends on EA and how they have cnc modding...

[Chronosfera]

Was there a mod called BadRA or something ... ? Can't remember well :dead:


And uhm ... back to off-topic, maybe we should just accept the fact that FPS mods are just meant to be way more popular than any RTS mod could dream to be. People just like to kill each others online. You cannot get a continuously running multiplayer game on an RTS where people can freely join, frag and leave. The level of involvement is just much higher in FPS.

[key0p]

Hey, I love BF1942 and Im a dedicated CSer, but I crave a good cerebral strategic game - and I dont have it in generals

[smurfbizkit]

*bump*

finally got some time to work on this article some more...

if you have more info, please share

[alasz11]

I showed up late TS days, you've all pretty much covered everything I remember.

Edit: Has anyone mentioned Sleipnir yet? He never actually released a mod IIRC, but he's got an extremely popular forum and has contributed in both gfx and ini's. He should get a mention

[smurfbizkit]

i thought i mentioned his forums somewhere? it would be listed under "community hub"

imo this forum and his are the only good editing forums in the community

[DeeZire]

I could be wrong but I think Sleipnir and his forum showed up in the 'mid RA2' days.

What struck me about his site was the attention to detail and quality that him and the members there churned out. IMHO, that really took RA2 modding in a new direction - a lot of SHPs there were near pro quality when they were completed. Some icons in particular were very good. IIRC, that site pioneered the cut n paste approach to making new buildings and other SHPs. I guess it stemmed form the fact that his site was (initially at least) comprised of people with an artistic background rather than a coding one, so with the arrival of his forums the community had 2 branches - art and coding.

You can always tell a good site - theres much remorse in the community when it goes offline, and when his site went down for along period of time there was alot of sadness and of course elation when it eventually came back up.

I dont remember specifically when Cannis' site went up, again in the RA2 days, and I suspect it arose out of his own frustrations at the immense 'noobness' everywhere else. Although his site started primarily as a host for his own work, mainly his maps, it too has developed into a general modding site.

As for RA1 mods, I dont recall one uber mod, but there were lots of mods all sharing the spotlight. The only underlying common factor throughout the whole games life was Nurple, but its worth noting that eventually Nurples work became (to many people) synonymous (sp?) with cheating because some of the units were massively overpowered (Nuke dropping planes etc). This gave rise to some difficulties eventually, particularly in the TS and RA2 days, when players closely associated 'mod maps' with 'cheating'. Ironically, this was not Nurples intention at all - his changes were designed to make the game much faster for online play as well as more fun.