Author Topic: MODs - new stuff vs. I love old style gameplay (Read 2752 times)

Mart · « **on:** January 13, 2013, 07:41:14 PM »

... Haven't been here for a while. Recently looking into what was happening in SMACX, I found new "let's play" on youtube. This reminded me about UMOD I was working on few years ago. I have some thoughts about modding, UMOD is working with its changes, but gameplay is different compared to vanila SMAC/SMACX. I do not want to go into UMOD details, just to think here about modding in general, or actually about what the title says:
We like fresh content. To some extent, for some time. And then we come back to old gameplay style. Even if it is full of bugs, not-perfect gaming.
Anyone remembers projects close to total conversions? Like Aldebaran?

Yitzi · « **Reply #1 on:** January 13, 2013, 09:21:05 PM »

I love old-style* gameplay, and am willing to use mods to encourage that if that's what it takes.

*Really old. As in, before people discovered all the unbalanced and ugly tactics that experienced players use now.

Mart · « **Reply #2 on:** January 13, 2013, 10:20:10 PM »

You mean like from the first months after the game release?
Yet there are tricks, that some people do not use often, e.g. getting riches from planetpearls.

Yitzi · « **Reply #3 on:** January 13, 2013, 10:49:18 PM »

Quote from: Mart on January 13, 2013, 10:20:10 PM

You mean like from the first months after the game release?

If that's what it means.
I think of "old style" as "more or less what the designers envisioned it being played as."

Quote

Yet there are tricks, that some people do not use often, e.g. getting riches from planetpearls.

I'd like to see those less useful too.

Kilkakon · « **Reply #4 on:** January 14, 2013, 02:28:09 AM »

Yeah I'm a crazy mod guy! Most of the people here are vanilla fans though.

gwillybj · « **Reply #5 on:** January 14, 2013, 11:19:25 PM »

I'm one who prefers old-style in the sense that I don't use the unofficial patches. I don't MP, so I'm ok with what are known as bugs. I'm so used to the official Firaxis versions that I'm not bothered by any glitches and see them as odd features. I'm fairly confident I don't exploit anything knowingly. Actually, I must not, since my win-loss ratio is still only 50-60% on Librarian!

JarlWolf · « **Reply #6 on:** January 19, 2013, 11:22:10 AM »

I've never used lots of the cheap tactics I've found. I typically play for a mixture of role play factors and other such things. I wouldn't mind mods at all if I knew how to get them to work, im illiterate with coding and modding, and Alpha Centauri has a hard learning curve for modding things I found.

Yitzi · « **Reply #7 on:** January 20, 2013, 12:00:30 AM »

Quote from: JarlWolf on January 19, 2013, 11:22:10 AM

I've never used lots of the cheap tactics I've found. I typically play for a mixture of role play factors and other such things. I wouldn't mind mods at all if I knew how to get them to work, im illiterate with coding and modding, and Alpha Centauri has a hard learning curve for modding things I found.

When it's ready, you can test out my mod (one of the main goals of which is to make it impossible to use the cheap tactics even unintentionally.)

Green1 · « **Reply #8 on:** January 20, 2013, 02:49:56 AM »

I think the demand for vanilla mods that add something, squish bugs, or enhance what is already there is common to most games.

I only know of two TCMs that ever got widespread universal fanbases in thier own right. Those are Defense of the Ancients for Warcraft 3 and Fall from Heaven for Civilization 4. Those TCMs are notible exception because they offered gameplay there was a niche for but no games to fill that niche.

However... we talk enhancement mods, We can name dozens that have more DLs than TCMs. Thing is, most people just want something the original game may be lacking. Whether it is a certain unit, better AI, a leader, pretty UI, an extended tech tree, or what have you. They want to eat off of a modding buffet, not be limited to a dish. They want more toys for their own private playground. Not someone else's playground entirely.

I ask the mod makers to be cool.. and allow modularity. Unless it is bug fixes. Squish them all ya like!

Yitzi · « **Reply #9 on:** January 20, 2013, 03:44:20 AM »

Quote from: Green1 on January 20, 2013, 02:49:56 AM

I ask the mod makers to be cool.. and allow modularity. Unless it is bug fixes. Squish them all ya like!

Mine is two parts. The first is the exe mod, which is indeed modular. The second is actually making a set of settings (using the exe mod and existing alphax settings) that will allow the game to be played as it was meant to be played, and that will not be modular in essence (though it will be easy to take some ideas from it and leave others if you want.)

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