24 replies to this topic

[cazidin]

Greetings Mechwarriors. Today I have a simple yet bold theory. I've heard stories of dedicated fans offering work-arounds, solutions or even outright bug fixes to the games they love that certain developers release in an unfinished state.

My question, my bold theory, is thus; how long would it take for us as a community to implement missing features like collisions, death from above, inverse kinetics or just simple balance changes or new custom made maps?

[Cyborne Elemental]

24 hours.

[cazidin]

Mister D, on 21 February 2016 - 03:20 PM, said:

24 hours.

You must have a low opinion of us.

[Bishop Steiner]

Plenty of open source code around

Price your can do it so far on those, reliably, then maybe I'll believe the expertise so many people claim on here


Otherwise it's just so much talking out your butts.

[cazidin]

Bishop Steiner, on 21 February 2016 - 03:24 PM, said:

Plenty of open source code around

Price your can do it so far on those, reliably, then maybe I'll believe the expertise so many people claim on here


Otherwise it's just so much talking out your butts.

I, myself, am not a programmer. I just got the idea that this game would benefit greatly if PGI allowed fan created maps. It'd be tricky to endorse or even permit certain gameplay mods in an online game but it can be done so long as they don't break the game.

[Metus regem]

I think the bulk of the issues, aside from not having all the right people, stem from making MWO potato friendly, rather than 2012-2015 mid-range gaming PC friendly.

[Siegegun]

This is a pointless question as PGI has said on more than one occasion they will never allow this. Why wonder about such a thing and bandy about on it as a subject when they will never allow it to happen? PGI is not doing bad and they do not even "need" this at all.

[cazidin]

Metus regem, on 21 February 2016 - 03:27 PM, said:

I think the bulk of the issues, aside from not having all the right people, stem from making MWO potato friendly, rather than 2012-2015 mid-range gaming PC friendly.

Perhaps. We'll have to see how or even if the engine upgrade improves things.

[Kassatsu]

If Payday 2 modders can do in a few hours what the developers literally claimed was "impossible" (leg/arm hitboxes on NPCs in case you wish to know), and the entirety of Natural Selection 2's future development was entrusted to community members working for free... Probably not very long.

Not that I could help aside from making a few basic geometric shapes as I have zero knowledge of developing anything for cryengine and extremely limited knowledge for obsolete unreal engine versions and some decent goldsrc (and by extension of that, slightly less Source) mapping knowledge... All of which equal exactly nothing in the modern game/mod scene.

[Metus regem]

cazidin, on 21 February 2016 - 03:29 PM, said:

Perhaps. We'll have to see how or even if the engine upgrade improves things.

I'd like it, if they could get the guy back that knew how to make ammo switching work, or at the very least pay him as a sub contractor to get that done, so we can finally have proper LB series AC's and do away with the Clan standard AC's.... Hell that would open the doors to ATM's and MML's later....

[cazidin]

Siegegun, on 21 February 2016 - 03:29 PM, said:

This is a pointless question as PGI has said on more than one occasion they will never allow this. Why wonder about such a thing and bandy about on it as a subject when they will never allow it to happen? PGI is not doing bad and they do not even "need" this at all.

I don't think that I, at any point, criticized PGI's work on their game. I referenced a few publishers, albeit without naming them, who have released their product in a questionable state. I only proposed an idea. One that, if PGI would permit, could improve the quality of the game as so many good fan-made mods have for other games.

Just as an idea. A mod that would replace the HUD and put that information on the cockpit monitors.

Edited by cazidin, 21 February 2016 - 03:33 PM.

[Metus regem]

cazidin, on 21 February 2016 - 03:32 PM, said:

Just as an idea. A mod that would replace the HUD and put that information on the cockpit monitors.

That again goes back to potato PC's frame rate issues and lack of optimization....

[Siegegun]

I did not mean to imply you were criticizing them in any way. And I do not see my post reflecting such an accusation. I just think its a pointless question given PGI's stance.

If I were to entertain the idea... I am sure this community could do such a thing. There are a lot of programmers in the player population. Some are even professional game programmers.

[Mcgral18]

Metus regem, on 21 February 2016 - 03:34 PM, said:

That again goes back to potato PC's frame rate issues and lack of optimization....

Actually, the HUD is one of the most demanding parts of MWO.

Most potatos notice a large increase as soon as they turn the HUD off.
Was it right shift+F11?

[cazidin]

Siegegun, on 21 February 2016 - 03:37 PM, said:

I did not mean to imply you were criticizing them in any way. And I do not see my post reflecting such an accusation. I just think its a pointless question given PGI's stance.

If I were to entertain the idea... I am sure this community could do such a thing. There are a lot of programmers in the player population. Some are even professional game programmers.

My apologies. I took your comment in a more hostile tone than you had originally intended. I disagree that it's pointless as we, the players, can change PGIs mind if we request it be done in large enough numbers.

[sycocys]

http://cryengine.com...oter-industries

There you go - $10 a month make us some maps.

And the truth of the matter is that -if- the community wanted to make a PVE or even totally overhauled MWO on a better engine and crowdfund a license they likely could. I don't really get the impression that anyone other than Alex really wants to keep working on MWO so if it actually happened there's a pretty good shot that they'd hop on the chance to not have to deal with us to make money.

[ShinobiHunter]

Metus regem, on 21 February 2016 - 03:27 PM, said:

I think the bulk of the issues, aside from not having all the right people, stem from making MWO potato friendly, rather than 2012-2015 mid-range gaming PC friendly.

It's not really potato friendly though....

[cazidin]

ShinobiHunter, on 21 February 2016 - 06:55 PM, said:

It's not really potato friendly though....

Back in my day... we didn't call weak computers a potato, we called them a toaster! And our mechs had inverse kinetics to walk uphill, in the snow, both ways! And who're these "Clans" you keep talking about?

[Novakaine]

Metus regem, on 21 February 2016 - 03:27 PM, said:

I think the bulk of the issues, aside from not having all the right people, stem from making MWO potato friendly, rather than 2012-2015 mid-range gaming PC friendly.

[Bud Crue]

This gets me thinking. Do/did any of you play Civilization? Before Civ 5, the source code was readily available (note: maybe it is with civ 5, I don't know). Some very skilled folks worked with that code and made mods that were so detailed and often divergent from the core game as to be almost unrecognizable from the original (see civfanatics.com for examples, see specifically the mod Fall From Heaven 2, and subsequent mod, mods). From incredibly detailed maps, to music, the entire game play elements. All were available to the player base for manipulation and as a result some incredible variants and even new stand alone games were created. Some of these led to actual careers in game development for some of these folks.

With all that in mind, I realize MWO is a far different beast. But I can't help but wonder what the potential would be for improved development and diversity if PGI provided a forum where willing moders could play with the code to create maps or weapon effects, or help with some of the grunt work...whatever. I can't help but feel there is a whole world of possibility...and free labor...to be had if they did this. Even if 99% of the player created content were crap, that 1% might be the new feature which draws in new players and new $. Alas.