EAP (as they were) are very very for mods - the engineer responsible for the -mod command line implementation posted here to underline that support which I thought was a fantastic step. The credit for the moddability has to go to Delphi who campaigned long and hard for it. I discussed this at great length with him and provided an enormous list, and I have to say a lot of those things materialized.
The
issue if you like has been the actual implementation of those ideas
They have perhaps not been as well executed as we would have liked, and its here where the line between editing community and developer has to shorten.
If history is any measure, then modding becomes more difficult after an expansion due in part to the way that the expansion pack gets integrated with the original product in order to effect its changes and enhancements, and again as history suggests the editing community invariably finds a way around this although a functional compromise has to be made on the part of the modder. I underline my comment, that its here where the line between developer and editor has be finer. We need to be more informed and to a small degree 'consulted'.
Initially, this was great, I recall Harvard hosting a dinner in LA centered around a discussion for mod support, although that kind of process would have be periodic (if not continual) to be regarded as serious editing community support.
I guess the proof would come if EA (as a commercial giant) saw the value attached to editing communities when they work well, and for this reason I applaudand congratulate the authors of the BF1942 mod as in their own way the may have unwittingly brought the whole idea to the fore in EA's eyes, and with some luck it may become a more common thing.
Im still in touch with people at EA myself, and I still complain about mod support
Still, would be interesting to see how smurf would react if they made Blitz2 into a retail product
To underline my point about greater collaboration between modder and developer, I thin the biggest challenge faced by modders and developers alike as far as Generals goes, is 'what to put in the expansion'. For example, a lot of unused assets etc from the BETA is posted all over the place now (heck theres even a whole site dedicated to it), so what are the implications of somebody using those things, only to find that EA were planning on using them for the expansion? The consequences to both parties are very restrictive indeed, hence the need for regular dialogue between them.
