zombie_striker However, I realized, they didn't actually provide any tools to mod the game. In fact a lot of the things we needed to work on before we even start making our dream mods would be to actually make the infrastructure to support the mods. We would have needed to build our own language to compile code, build our own networks for sending the data from our mods on the server to clients, and potentially even build our own distribution network to serve mods to the client.
This is a problem that would be solved by slowly building ABI, which should have started 7 years ago on day one. Had they actually started they could’ve had an ecosystem going even before where we are today.
In corpo speak, especially considering the trajectory of rent-seeking behavior by software publishers, this could mean “no disabling every spy feature we add”
zombie_striker 5 no complaining if it stops working in a future game version,
They won’t seem to ever commit to any stability. Any stability means they can’t add their dumb eyecandy features as easily. You also can’t advertise your new doubled-in-size modding ABI to Steam customers.
zombie_striker Rule 4 means we can't post any modded servers to the general server list that breaks vanilla clients or in any way "doesn't work". This means that vanilla players NEED to be able to load into the server correctly without mod requirements interfering
In Blockland it’s an occasional practice to disallow connections from those who don’t install required client mods. A single required boolean on the server list could fix this and make it clear what requires a mod. Of course, they have no actual modding plan so it’s almost pointless to think about my suggestion.
zombie_striker Rules 5, 6, and 7 are all about making sure none of what we do can affect them and their development. We are supposed to be at their mercy that features and functions exist, and if we don't, we must suck up that we may spend months of development time on systems that could be forcibly removed or purposefully neglected if they ever choose that they want to prioritize their system over ours.
zombie_striker Finally Rule 2 specifically states to not compete with their business, currently and in the future. This means that if the Modding platform gets in the way of their development, shines a bad light on them if they remove features the modding platform needs, or if they change the EULA at any point to anything they want. It also means that if, for example, they create a "mod marketplace" like Bedrock Minecraft, any free modding service would be competing with their business, so the entire modding platform would be in violation of their rules.
Our beloved Valcle stated this about “provider-daddies”:
if a game becomes public and closed source, the company who made it is the "provider-daddy" in the sense that modification of the source code is restricted heavily via anti cheats or for the sake of corporate image or for money making. one must ask the provider-daddy to do anything interesting. the provider-daddy makes the players rely on it
zombie_striker Why allow modding Now, and not anytime during the alpha, demo, or first few weeks of EA?
The answer, I propose, is that they were not planning on adding any form of modding anytime soon. The entire greenlight to the Omegga team was specifically to give us red meat and for us to develop the modding platform for them. They already have been swamped with bug reports, technical issues, PR mishaps, and features that were promised for EA, that they still have not delivered on. The roadmap, remember? So, in order to compensate for the entire steam discussions backlash where everyone wants modding for a game that basically promised modding and whose entire business model and gameplay loop Requires people to be able to mod, they chose to allow a bunch of volunteers from the community solve their problem and potentially dedicate weeks of unpaid labor so they can point to something when people ask for modding. The entire reason to release that statement when they did was specifically so people who want modding can be shut-up by directing them to this community project. Then, once the community makes the system exactly in the way that complies with the rules (if they don't they will be punished, potentially legally), the team can either buy-out the code, or find some way to integrate the system into the game, and they now have an entire modding platform all pre-made for them - all the hours of free labor, playtesting, and mod database - all given to them for free.
Blockland had relied (or should have) on a symbiotic relationship. The developer provides updates and features demanded by modders and modders create an ecosystem all for fun.
Brickadia has no such symbiotic relationship. They’re trying to fabricate one without even putting in the required effort. It’s also not a game like GTA IV or V where bored modders are going to go to insane lengths reverse engineering just to mod the game. Brickadia is a relatively unknown game with no history, so you can’t take shortcuts.
zombie_striker I will try to keep updating omegga and keeping it running, and may even help with whatever modding system the community comes up with.
I read your entire post and only at this point did I realize you made omegga. All they had to do was move the entire ABI into function exports and write a small module loader, then slowly increase the size of the ABI over time.
I’m embarrassed to share a profession with these people because I like to think 5 years ahead and these people simply can’t do that or worse, they intentionally don’t care.