Why do mods break in newer versions?

[Brixter]

I've seen comments in the steam workshop that some mods that were last updated in 2021 don't work anymore. What's the reason they broke?

I think the syntax should be the same. The modifiers, requirements, arguments, etc should follow the same format between versions so the mods should still work.

The only plausible reason I can think of is if the developers, by chance, use the same identifier. Like if a mod created UNIT_FLAMETHROWER, then Firaxis released the same unit in the base game.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

All sorts of things can change as the game progresses - modifiers, requirements, arguments, etc can all be altered as the game develops to take account of new features. Note some Mods will say they are incompatible as they haven't been updated but may still work if the things they rely on haven't changed, they just be missing the compatibility flag for the latest version.

 

[Dragabond]

I'm still using mods that haven't updated since 2019, but they work just fine. It's all about what new updates change (whether it's a full update or just a bugfix), because if there's no conflict then there's no problem (global politics solved, right there).