Hi guys,
I discussed with
@Schmiddie.
(
@Schmiddie, please correct me if I got anything wrong.
)
Both of us agree that
fully integrating
all the new ships of
V's SubMod into
WTP core mod is a
nogo for us.
(
Maybe there are one or two ship models though that might be reused after
@Schmiddie checked and potentially improved them.)
Reason 1: Graphical Quality (3D and Animations)
- Some of the new ship graphics really lack in quality considering WTP's high quality standards considering details for ships models (e.g. the small nation flags).
- Some of the new ships lack animations (e.g. movement, fortificatiuon or combat) which is also an absolute nogo because we would get endless bug reports over time.
- Some of the graphics included (even if only available in World Builder and not normally ingame) cause CTDs because they have not properly been integrated in XML.
- Many of the ship graphics look way too similar and on first sight it is really hard to distinguish them.
@Schmiddie said that he would take weeks to correct the issues and create the missing animations.
Reason 2: Gameplay Design and Balancing
New Units should have a specific purpose. Sheer amount of "same old same old" does not make a mod better in our opinion.
There is no reason in gameplay for 3 Types of Frigate or 4 Types of Ship of the Line.
Many of the Ships only vary insignificantly in costs and strength but have the exact same spot in gameplay strategically.
Also, some Nations seem to have gotten Nation specific Units while others seem to have not for no obvious reason to me. This is a nogo for me as a game designer.
All nations need to be equally interesting and powerful, even if it is achieved by asymetric means which is actually the most interesting way to do it because it supports different gameplay strategies for different Nations.
This definitely can be solved but it needs a good and interesting concept for gameplay that may span further than just Ships and may affect Land Units and Buildings as well.
I know that other people and modders prefer immersion over gameplay and balancing but that is simply not our philosophie.
Not everything that exists or existed in real world needs to be reflected in a game.
It does not necessarily get better that way.
Reason 3: Future Effort
- It would be additional effort for me to adapt all your new Ships to the changed movement rules of Large Rivers
- It would be additional effort to considering all your new ships in balancing and concepts of future updates (e.g. Tech Tree).
- It would already now be an incredible effort to match e.g. balancing of Founding Fathers.
- It would be even more effort if we ever have major graphical expansions that require e.g. changes in nationspecific UnitArtStyles
- It would also be lots of effort to adapt all the Colopedia Texts of Game Concepts (which I doubt has been checked yet)
- ....
We simply do not want to commit to such a potential future effort if we see no reason in adding all these new ships at first.
------------
Summary:
We still need to figure out which parts of V's SubMod we want to integrate.
But ships with bad graphics or ships without a gameplay purpose should not be part of it.
But as I said there are
potentially 1 or 2 ships with
really nice models and animations we might find a
good gameplay purpose for.
Those we would then integrate and also accept the future effort to maintain them for all upcoming new updates and features.
------------
@Vaeringjar
I am really sorry if this sounds harsh.
But I am just trying to reflect honestly the opinion of
@Schmiddie and myself.
This is
not meant as criticism of
your work, since we really appreciate if new modders create their own mod mods.
This is also
not an objective judgment since in modding everything simply comes down to
personal taste only.
However we have always said that we wanted to be a
quality mod that follows certain
design principals.
We have seen way too many bad examples of patchwork mod that were created without a proper concept to follow that road.
Players usually do not consider the
"long term" consequences of such simple decisions as "let us add 10 more Units" to the mod.
But as "Game Designers" and modders that have been modding this game for almost 14 years now we have become very aware of such consequences.