Now see what moding does for a game and company!

[Gankhuu]

And in reply to who mentioned they don't think modding works for flightsim.... take a look at the A2A forums and the accusim guys. Amazing things are going on over there because of the ability to change the game to create!

I would agree it requires some extra braincells. And that can deter the large community to make it work for online play... which is best to keep simple for the majority of gamers who just don't want to think while relaxing. (completely understandable) But this still boils down to what kind of person you are and what gets your jollies off. Limo? Or modify-able racecar?

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2

[Whacker]

Originally Posted by T}{OR

It destroys certain aspects of it, every time. The offline community is the one who profited the most from mods. Online community in return, got decimated. Period.

Sorry, no. Period. Modding never destroys games, it only enhances them. There's far too many reasons that argument is old and busted.

[csThor]

European Air War ... Panzer Elite ... for me modding killed sims already. If I had been into online flying in 1946 at the end it would have done the same. It does fracture the community into groups, sometimes these groups get along fine, sometimes it degenerates into ego-driven flamewars. IMO modding is less about enhancing the gaming experience for the end user but about fiddling, experimenting and ultimately receiving internet adulation.

[KG26_Alpha]

Well as an online user via Hyperlobby I can say only what I see.

Mods definitely affected the online aspect of IL2 1946 for the worse.

From an average @ 1000 users to 350 the decline was obvious what they had done.

Mod users will say that natural decay of user interest will be the reason, but after 10 years watching IL2 build its online community that just isn't the case,
there was a exodus due to the mods from squads and individuals across the board.

v4.11.1 has seen a rise in Hyperlobby activity with the most popular Dogfight servers split approximately 50/50 between stock and various mods.

CooP pilots are flying stock v4.11.1 more than before.

As a mod user myself in the past I appreciate there's been some good work done, but also at present there's some bad things that have been done especially the mod that allows users to force thier way into CRT=2 stock versions.
This is the base of the mistrust between the community when mod creators allow back door hacks into the stock version of the game.

v4.11.1 has no protection from the mod hacks so once again stock users are at the mercy of pilots bringing altered aircraft into a stock version, this also creates problems for the stock users that low level bomb as they instantly explode as soon as thier bombs are dropped, this then leaves the v4.11.1 user confused as he flying stock and cant get his bombs to arm correctly.
The modded users are causing this problem possibly due to the new synchronization of the bomb effects between clients.

The confused stock user then install a mod pack to get around the bomb problem compounding the problem further for stock users, as the mods are the cause of the problem in the first place.

So some stuff good some bad, mostly bad in my opinion as it is at the moment.






.

[ECV56_Guevara]

I m a mod user, I really like some of them, I hate others. And of course them disgregate the comunity. What Caspar and Alpha said it s true. Offline activity maybe increased, who knows...but the hiperlobby it s a desert now. And it is not only about a 10 years old game, disgregation, confusion, made the comunity smaller. The only shelter are squads, the ones big enought to still be attractive to coop or FoF players.

[RPS69]

Mods could kill the community, yes, but cheats have been going on in il2 far before the modding started.

There are bad attitude modders, and there are well intentioned ones.

Some MODS are absolutely fantastic, some are just crap. But anyway, it shows at least many things that were called not possible as a reality.

I have witnessed cheats with MODS, but I also witnessed that long before they were released. Some squads were well known for their cheating capacity, well before the MODS become open.

So, there is a large confusion about MODS, but hardcore people are still on it, with better missions than before.

And also the tendency to join squads and play private campaigns was there far before the MODS appeared. It was the only safe haven from cheaters online.

The only damage MODS could really be blamed, is the different versions available, and the risk of destroying your own il2 install with singular MODS.

The last patch from TD, have got many people back to official patch release, instead of modded ones. Mainly because of their better management of planes and AI behavior. Those are the things that really makes a difference in this game, not one more variant of a 109 or a spit.

Now, make the ships engage evasive maneuvers, better their wrecks, and the same for moving ground objects, and it will be a better move than adding any more planes into the sim.

This sims, needs better playability, not more objects to play with.

[sniperton]

Originally Posted by RPS69

Those are the things that really makes a difference in this game, not one more variant of a 109 or a spit. ... This sims, needs better playability, not more objects to play with.

Agreed. But some selected objects/planes/maps, better sounds and visual effects wouldn't hurt either, provided they are of high quality. Now the problem is that TD goes one way (e.g. AI -- that's good), while the modding community goes another (more effects, more this and that -- and that's not bad either). Both approaches have produced some really excellent stuff, but they hardly overlap: it's better to fly the stock game, while it's better to look at, and to listen to, the mod games.

There should be a compromise IMHO, on TD's side as well. The mod community should accept that TD is serving as a 'quality filter', while TD should implement much, much more from the high quality part of mods. Sounds and some visual effects are likely candidates IMHO, as well as retextured stock objects and some new ones. And I simply can't understand why we couldn't have at least a fraction of the new maps made by modders. I don't beleive they are all just crap...

[KG26_Alpha]

One of the main reasons for people wanting mods was for the sound.

Now I have a good knowledge of the history of IL2's sound engine the reasons for it and the way its was compromised some time ago.

Now not to dwell on the fact that for me the sound engines been ok due to the fact I never used onboard sound devices but high end sound cards/speakers/headphones.

Security has been the ideology whilst flying online back in Olegs day, and IL2 did a good job of it, all the Aces from other sims suddenly disappeared when IL2 came out as all files were secure and the sound engine was locked down.

Some thing that might be able to be done is to have a switch in the GUI for the Host/Server to allow modded sounds out side of the games sound generator.

So if I want to host a CooP that allows mods sounds I can select a switch to allow users to fly with stock version with modded sounds.

And if I want a totally locked down CooP mission select the switch to default sound.

This would probably be a great improvement for a lot of users and not require them to have to use mod packs just for the game sounds.

.

[Jones]

Originally Posted by sniperton

And I simply can't understand why we couldn't have at least a fraction of the new maps made by modders. I don't beleive they are all just crap...

Read up on intelectual property law to know why everything produced by the Mod community is unusable by TD. What the moders rarely seem to understand is that they are actually operating outside of the law! These issues will not go away as there are too many parties and vested interests involved to ever make it legal. What we have is the best of what we'll ever get.

[Cloyd]

Originally Posted by Jones

Read up on intelectual property law to know why everything produced by the Mod community is unusable by TD. What the moders rarely seem to understand is that they are actually operating outside of the law! These issues will not go away as there are too many parties and vested interests involved to ever make it legal. What we have is the best of what we'll ever get.

You do realize that the Solomons map, which is now oficially incorporated, was made by a MOD team?

Cloyd