Quote:
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Originally Posted by Hatch
My mistake.  |
Yes, it is your mistake, coming in as a newbie to a
mod forum filled with dedicated modders to post your view that, to put it bluntly, Mods SUXORS (to use crap Internet vernacular). At the very least you could put it in the
Users forum (the main one), since that's where the guys who don't with mods might reside. Anyone here plays with mods almost by definition and loves it.
My answers would be specific to DW mods:
The "division of labor", so to speak, is clearly delineated in DW. Modders can change the text files (doctrines and databases) as well as 3D models, but not the main program and its DLLs (at least they can't distribute it - no one can stop them from changing their own copy). That greatly reduces the chance of a trojan being transmitted. We can't even change enough in the program to change the Weapon Loadout interface's titles. I think you have little to worry about from trojans or even Easter Eggs from the DW mod community.
A modder is generally closer to the applied side of the game than the developer. This allows them to clearly see some things the developer doesn't. For instance, Sonalysts
knew the cable for a dipping sonar is hundreds of meters long. Yet for some reason they decided it was better for gameplay to limit it to IIRC 400 feet (I'm not exactly a helo player; having toyed with everything
but the helo...). That move did nothng good for either realism
or gameplay - now it won't go through many deeper layers, to say the least. Let's just say a modder fixed that.
Same with the VLAD buoys - by increasing their depth, we have something that will go through the deeper layers, as well as providing a real reason to use both DIFARs and them.
There are also times when a quick check would identify mysterious errors. I was pretty stunned when I walked into the DB one day and realized that almost every Russian SSM, even the Sunburns and Switchblades used doctrines made for nonseaskimmers, which made the missiles fly way too high = vulnerable to shootdowns. Let's just say I had to go change that. If this is some kind of realism error, it should be changed, no? If this is some kind of gameplay, well, I'm not sure how this is going to improve gameplay, but gamers can better decide whether they like "gameplay" or realism.
Some people actually apparently saw real Akulas and/or their diagrams and came to the conclusion that the stock 3D model doesn't come close to it. Are you telling me their eyes are fooling them?
Sure, for all of this maybe if we beg Sonalysts it may eventually all get changed. But why? They can, as OKO noted, use that time developing the main program - improved sonar models or actually detecting masts that stuck above water, or improved handling of objects travelling at >55 knots, or new interfaces, better ballast controls - all things we CAN'T control. Few of us can do that stuff in the first place and it is now blatantly clear no one can change that stuff legally. Might as well do the stuff we can ourselves and let SCS do the stuff we can't.
There are also other considerations in MP than reliability or even the quality of package.
Suppose we have a mod package that everyone in the know agrees is decisively superior in all respects to the original. Even then, many people won't mod. There will always be the Suspicious, like you. And there will be even more Ignorants who never go to a BBS to find out what mods are available.
To put it on a reduced scale, I use LW's mod and go on to make a few refinements here and there. But when I go MP, I'd have to revert to LW's mod, or even the Stock.
The MP community faces the same dilemma. Everyone has the stock version stashed away somewhere. Not everybody has the modded version. This is where what one may call a quality vs quantity dilemma comes in. Does a community want to force its players to mod for a superior gaming experience?
Or do they just want more, on the theory that more players = more good players and good players are more important than realism improvements (after all, DW is a long way up in realism from 688 Fast-Attack, but many people played that too).