[QUESTION] Should the community really start making mods ...

Discussion about Mods for Prison Architect

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CJH
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[QUESTION] Should the community really start making mods ...

Postby CJH » Sun Aug 31, 2014 9:44 pm

Should the community really start making important mods at this time that in my opinion should instead be put in by the devs?

Maybe the community needs to relax a little and see what more the devs will put in so we dont remove work they could input way better. Just feels like community is doing the devs job. In the end devs will do the inputs way better so maybe we as community should wait a little on important inputs like Towers, more guns, bunk beds etc.

Dont get me mistaken, i love mods and really hope they will come flying in. But i personally would prefer those ideas would get implemented after the game is done. Just feels like people are rushing it too quick.
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Re: Should the community really start making mods at this ti

Postby knoest26 » Sun Aug 31, 2014 9:50 pm

I agree that the developers would be able to do things better for now but I guess this is a thing to keep us all hyped for the coming year or so
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Re: Should the community really start making mods at this ti

Postby CJH » Sun Aug 31, 2014 9:57 pm

knoest26 wrote:I agree that the developers would be able to do things better for now but I guess this is a thing to keep us all hyped for the coming year or so


I just hope it doesnt give the devs a reason too say -You already have a mod for (exemple) towers so we dont need to make that input on our following alphas.....

I really hope it wont ruin any of the introversion awsomeness due to lazyness or pressure to come up with enough content too meet the communities expectations.. or whatever might be the reason! I just love how introversion has made these alphas to perfection and i hope that the community by its mods at this point will lower the quality and expectations.
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Re: Should the community really start making mods at this ti

Postby spectacularnono18 » Sun Aug 31, 2014 10:55 pm

yes
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Re: Should the community really start making mods at this ti

Postby koshensky » Mon Sep 01, 2014 2:22 am

It's worth noting that the developers already have goals and lists of things in mind, they don't just make things up each month after they release each new alpha version. Within days of us having these new modding capabilities we're already starting to duplicate content between the community, of course we're going to end up doing things that the devs haven't had an opportunity to do yet. That doesn't mean that we're doing their job for them, they're not just going to rip the mods and stick them straight in the game, but equally they're not about to just ignore the content because there are mods out there that already do it because they want these things to be a part of the game so everybody can use them, not so everybody has to download an extra 20 things to play the game properly.

At the end of the day, we're doing exactly what the community is here for. In making mods and adding functionality that we've been suggesting for 2 years, we're able to spend our time to see if it even works out, how the community wants to use it, what it actually adds to the game etc. If it turns out that it doesn't work, or that the game is unbalanced as a result, then the developers can determine what their time should really be spent doing. Should they redress the balance with something else, should they scrap that idea altogether or change it etc. Importantly, they can work those questions out before they've even done any work on it, saving themselves say 20 hours of development time only to determine that it never would have worked.

Equally, in creating various mods that are almost "expected" to get made, we're learning how modding works, how to do things, how we can push the system, which means that we will be able to better make systems that the developers really don't have time for. Looking at the Alpha 24 release video, Chris and Mark were discussing things like adding a basketball court and getting the prisoners to play. Things like that are way too time consuming and not at all worthwhile for the developers to be spending time doing, compared to all the things that should be in the game first, but if we can do those kinds of things and make them awesome, then they'll be all the more inclined to take the idea and spend a fraction of the time polishing it up as opposed to building it from scratch. Way more useful for them, and much more rewarding for us.
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Re: Should the community really start making mods at this ti

Postby mazetar » Mon Sep 01, 2014 9:30 am

The devs can and will implement a feature into the game regardless of the existence of a mod.
They may even add things to their plans and ideas based on popular/interesting concepts in mods.

In regards to if there's a point to modding now instead of waiting, well that's up to personal taste and opinions :)
Developing mods from the start would make it possible for the modding community to influence the development of both the game and the modding system.
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Re: Should the community really start making mods at this ti

Postby CJH » Mon Sep 01, 2014 11:08 am

koshensky wrote:It's worth noting that the developers already have goals and lists of things in mind, they don't just make things up each month after they release each new alpha version. Within days of us having these new modding capabilities we're already starting to duplicate content between the community, of course we're going to end up doing things that the devs haven't had an opportunity to do yet. That doesn't mean that we're doing their job for them, they're not just going to rip the mods and stick them straight in the game, but equally they're not about to just ignore the content because there are mods out there that already do it because they want these things to be a part of the game so everybody can use them, not so everybody has to download an extra 20 things to play the game properly.

At the end of the day, we're doing exactly what the community is here for. In making mods and adding functionality that we've been suggesting for 2 years, we're able to spend our time to see if it even works out, how the community wants to use it, what it actually adds to the game etc. If it turns out that it doesn't work, or that the game is unbalanced as a result, then the developers can determine what their time should really be spent doing. Should they redress the balance with something else, should they scrap that idea altogether or change it etc. Importantly, they can work those questions out before they've even done any work on it, saving themselves say 20 hours of development time only to determine that it never would have worked.

Equally, in creating various mods that are almost "expected" to get made, we're learning how modding works, how to do things, how we can push the system, which means that we will be able to better make systems that the developers really don't have time for. Looking at the Alpha 24 release video, Chris and Mark were discussing things like adding a basketball court and getting the prisoners to play. Things like that are way too time consuming and not at all worthwhile for the developers to be spending time doing, compared to all the things that should be in the game first, but if we can do those kinds of things and make them awesome, then they'll be all the more inclined to take the idea and spend a fraction of the time polishing it up as opposed to building it from scratch. Way more useful for them, and much more rewarding for us.


Yes when you put it that way sure theres allot to gain from it too. I just wanted to see what people thought about it. Thanks for a good reply.
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Re: Should the community really start making mods at this ti

Postby Phraxas » Mon Sep 01, 2014 7:46 pm

Speaking from experience with Kerbal Space Program, developers of games do tend to see highly functional mods as a reason not to do it, but that's not necessarily bad. In KSP, someone built a way to mine resources which the devs were working on, but they dropped their work entirely to do something else. What they ended up implementing was a whole science aspect to the game that modders could not do. So if something can be done by a modder and is overlooked for a little while by devs, it's probably because that just means the devs can do something better in some other area of the game.

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