it's Time to (let us) mod the whole game.
And I want to tell you why - and there are only positive sides for everyone: developer and player all alike.
The time has really come, because much time went by - and not that much has been achieved, game balance, ui and ease of user interaction.
So why do not let us together,after that whole time of trying, throw our forces together and everybody works there, where he has the greates interest in?
And it is obvious that some things are not that easy to get fixed.
So the developer concentrates on bugfixing and expanding the game as a whole.
The modder is going into detail concerning everyhing microintensive.
From ship-design (without using the stride engine) up to moddable UI - from the ability to switch the nebula generation off up to the size of the galaxy and up to the creation of new races in every aspect.
And it is not that the developer is losing money this way.
The point of a "never return to the game" is almost there if not already reached.
Modders go somewhere else, just as already happened.
And I guess it happened because the support is not only ALMOST not existent (well thanks for that what already is working, great addition) but some problems are there on purpose.
That is not nice. Please open up.
If a mod support is there, the community will grow and the game will be used more and bought more.
If nothing happens in the next weeks and months, nobody will come back to it.
Many people just want some new stuff (a new game that is talked about and everywhere it is promoted. For instance cyberpunk). Only a rare hardcore core is willing to go for the long run.
And that hardcore core is not really growing, even that one is shrinking.
Me myself do not care about new races, but I am willing to pay for the next DLC. But only to support the developer(s).
I do not believe in that kind of DLCs.
What would be much better would be if the engien is getting stable and better and better and then, a new story is told, nultiplaer is added, a sandbox to test ships and fleets is mad, or a fleet editor where you can position your fleets is added as a DLC.
Also a DLC for more realistic Planets and Moons, for a more detailed fight on the ground with raiding parties and bombing the earth from orbit, expanding the universe with more than one galaxy besides each other, there are endlöess possibilities.
Just think about how egosoft is doing it: There is a "huge" community that mod and fixes and adds content, and the developer takes the output and the best ideas and builds them into the next patch.
Think about counterstrike or so many other examples.
So by now I guess everybody understood what I am talking about.
There is no need to obfuscate a code that really would need some fresh air.
Open the code and the game will shine and the content will grow and people will talk about it.
Maybe, cause I am not a native speaker, many of what I wrote makes no sense - but again, for what it's worth:
time has come to make this game better - together!
To find out how many care about this and about what you think, I try to make a poll.
Please write down what you think and vote for or against it.
Thanks for reading and sorry for the bad writing!
P.S.: Here is an answer from the middle of the thread which might stand for many of us too
Thanks for all the votes so far.Ajeyyy wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 2:23 pm hi i am a modder from another strategy sci fi 4x game and i am probably also going to start modding for DW2 at some point in the future. however, the reason i am writing into this thread is because i want to share my experience as a modder. in my opinion mods do not replace DLCs and they are also not competing with DLCs - in fact quite the opposite is true. if developers allow their game to be modded and provide good mod support then many people will buy the DLCs because many modders will need to have all DLCs in order to mod the game successfully and some mods will even require certain DLCs to be used with - hence creating another point of motivation for buying DLCs.
but that's not even the biggest selling point for mods. the biggest advantage of having mods (from a developer point of view) is, that way more people will buy the game when there is a solid and active mod community available because it enriches the game and creates more options to play/enjoy the game. without mods there are far less options for replayability and by using mods you can create a gameplay experience that fits best for certain players. some players like blue, some prefer pink, some yellow. you will never be able to create a gameplay experience that fits for everybody even if you provide many settings/options.
my own experience as a modder was that many of my mod users (for another SCI Fi game) told me they would have quit playing that game long ago if it wasn't for my mods (same is true for other mods) and there have also been mod users that said they only bought the game because they wanted to use certain mods. the point there are many people who are using mods in order to stay interested and invested into a game. those people will more likely buy new DLC and keep following a game in the long term if there are mods available.
it does not matter if you have 2 employees or 2000 employees. it's a fact that an active modding community will generate a huge amount of new ways to play a game hence making a game more attractive to buy in the first place (or play for longer since you got more ways to play it). i often thought that one of the best possible games would be a game that provides a solid foundation but makes it super easy for everybody to mod it like everybody wants it to be. if you search the internet for the most successfull games of all time and exclude FPS/Shooter games you will soon find games that have a high modding support. in my opinion it's a no brainer for devs to make it easy for modders because the modders will basically help with doing a lot of work. frankly i even fixed a ton of bugs for that other game where i was modding. there is no better advertising, no cheaper way to let other people work on your platform than simply by enabling modders to work on their mods in the best possible way
Meanwhile, look into this thread from Elliot, the developer of this awesome game and try to achieve it that described way.
If not possible, then through stride;
if you have ideas about WHAT to mod, write down your wishes.
Let us find out in what direction DLCs and MODs could go!
) and certainly nothing to be embarrassed about - in fact, your English is much better than that of some native speakers here in the forum, in my opinion. 
) - and if the DEVs don't do it, maybe we could make it a community effort (so that the DEVs/Publishers only would have to read it 
)
- could you show/teach me this - please 
) - and that's why I don't really know how/where to do this on Discord properly, in order to reach as many people, as possible... 
, please tell me - or copy it for yourself if you like !