Matrix Games Forums

Howdy guys, I am new to your little community here, although I have to say that I am very happy to see that it exists. I played the demo for Hired Guns a while back and for a long time was avidly watching the net for any scrap of information I could come across. I'm sure many of you shared the same disappointment I felt at the terrible reviews it received, but to that end, I see that y'all have been hard at work learning how to mod this game. I am really excited to learn that, because even playing the demo I could tell that HG had tons of potential. I've been a big fan of these kinds of games since I picked up Jagged Alliance 2 on a whim, and for the last several years I've been looking for a game that might serve as a good base for a mod I've had in mind. I'm a huge fan of the GI JOE comics, and these turn-based strategy games seemed the perfect setting to bring those stories into 3D life. To that end (and a general curiosity about the improvements y'all have made to the game) I have been reading through this forum. I have already found the answers to many questions I had, but I have a few more that I hope y'all might help me with. I did not see these particular questions answered in the modding FAQ, but please let me know if I overlooked something.

I assume that there is no nice, neat map editor, would that assumption be correct? Is there any way to edit maps? Are there any rumblings from the devs about editing software?

Is there any way that y'all have found so far to edit the actual mission structure? World map? If so, do missions have to be scripted, or can you take the cheap route and just place enemies on the map and let things take their course?

I'd definitely like to try my hand at modding this game if it turns out to be a possibility. Would there be any interest in this community for a GI JOE mod? I'm not asking for volunteers or anything, as I've got a project that I'm already working on, and I'd like to do the majority of the work myself if possible anyway.

Welcome to this little community. I haven't been there for long, and this forum isn't visited often, or very few bother to post. Still, this game, while being left in a sorry state of unfinishness, has great potential for modding because so much of it can me edited with either notepad or excel. The engine is also fault tolerant, it's very hard to make it crash with mistakes, and most bugs can be figured out just by guessing what doesn't do it's job right. Unfortunatly, i'm not aware of any way to edit maps themselves, but you can edit the code related to the game campain, it's all in lua scripts (notepad). For now, i don't think you can change this game into a GI JOE mod, but if you are willing, just fixing/improving the current campain could be a great project in itself. I'm currently working on the hardware/goodies and AI aspect of the game, someone working on the campain itself would be a great addition to this community. While working on the current campain, you might figure out ways to add stuff or create new missions/quests. I'm sure you can find something to your modding desires .

Edit : Oh and Babel Fish is your friend, most comments the devs left in are in Russian.

Thanks for the welcome Foraven!  I appreciate you answering my questions, and I am glad that the game is relatively edit friendly.  However, without the ability to edit the maps, I think you're right about there not being much hope for a JOE mod.  I'm afraid that my priorities at the moment are to find a game I can accomplish that with, though.  I do plan on pursuing Hired Guns eventually though, but I think for the moment I'll have to fall back to Silent Storm.