Open Form Modding

[marcbarker]

I would like to apologize for any comment that is taken out of context or content....I went to various game forum sites and looked at what makes a customer buy a product. The overall consesus was the ability to mod without hinderance.

A civil War Game
-------
The editor I spoke of is 'built in' to the game executable.... it comes AFTER yo've edited spreadsheets, extracted csv files, and used csv splitter to create scripts, models, units,abilities, etc. etc.....

Trust me! [I'm a maniacal modder, not an employee of AGEOD ]. You can change any unit in the game, any parameter describing the behavior of a unit, create new units, new scenarios. It's very 'open'.

These changes are what I'm actually doing to help p with WIA development. Different map, essentially same engine.
----------------------------------------------
modders never mod the saved games, they alter scenarios setup and the database. So for your specific question, the way of doing it is to alter the setup of the scenario. The database is provided for free as the tools to export it.
------------------------------------------

These are just some comments from other companies as to why they do open modding...makes for a better game and etc

[marcbarker]

very good article on modding

Modders and Hackers
Modders The term 'modder' is sometimes used to refer to a person who creates a mod. The term modder is usually used poorly in it's context, as it defines an entire group, both legit and cheating, as one entity. This is especially true in cases where someone in a multi-player game is using a mod to give them an unfair advantage. Examples might include an auto-targeting modification in a shooting game or a mod which allows the player to move faster than others. Colloquially, within the gaming community, such modders are often called "hackers". Such mods are generally considered cheating, especially if the match is ranked or will affect the statistics of the players disadvantaged.

However some mods can have an effect on all of the players in a multiplayer game. Such mods give every player the same increase ability and/or extra item(s) and therefore is sometimes not considered cheating, although it is possible that only the modder would use the changes especially if the changes are subtle. Though in many, many cases, the changes are not that subtle at all. Take example for Battlefield 2. Mods such as Project Reality or Forgotten Hope 2 try to change gameplay as far as the game engine will allow them. Racing games also have an inumerous amount of mods, shown in Papyrus's Nascar Racing 2003 Season and ISI's rFactor.

Most modders do not consider themselves to be "hackers." A modder makes mods in order to increase the entertainment value of a game through making new maps, levels, power-ups, and weapons that can be used by all players.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mod_(computer_gaming)

I would read this excellent article