Hello there !



I'd like to discuss a bit about modding support for ES 2. I know it has already been talked about here, but this was a question and there was a slight deviation in the discussion.



First of all, thank you guys, developers, for allowing Endless Space to support mods, and players for all the great stuff you created. This is one great aspect of the game as it offered everyone more fun, more replayability & more wonderment when discovering the universe.



Being allowed to deeply edit the XML files of the game, as a player, was great. But if I'm posting this today, it's because I want more 3

The-Cat-o-Nine-Tales wrote:
I do hope for stronger mod support. The ability to more easily integrate additional models and textures, to create new affinities that are more than variations on stat bonuses, and the ability to affect the UI to actually make use of such affinities.

TL;DR Please, make a programming API for mods & let Endless Space 2 live long



What would this brings to ES2 ?



XML modding allowed people to edit visual aspects of in-game content, enhance or create it.

A programming API would bring far more. Basically, it would allow players to create new game mechanics, without limits to our imagination. And even more.



Examples wanted ?

Some of you may know the game "Freelancer", from the Digital Anvil Studios, released in 2001. Although the original game was great, its modding system was so powerful that total conversions of the game are still played today by hundreds of players. And if you don't believe me, have a look at http://www.freeworldstidesofwar.com/



Basically, all the game data was stored in plain text, while a DLL hooking system allowed developers to customize every aspect of the game.

From healing weapons to complete web applications for clan management, many refreshing ideas were implemented.

We are talking here about replayability in the meaning of "Endless evolution".



You'd like to add the possibility of blowing up a planet ? Ok.

You want to add a stock market system allowing player to bet dust ? No problem.

You want to connect to the NASA planet database to dynamically expand your galaxy map ? Sure!



Is it technically feasible ?



It depends on the will of the development team. As a developer, I know this is far from being easy to implement. Moreover, maybe the game engine will hardly allow it, even if the modding API would use some kind of basic LUA scripting. But I know this is not impossible, and that's why I'm talking about it. We can discuss about what features it would offer.



What I am thinking about



If we're thinking a bit, everything in Endless Space was turn- or event-based. From macroscopic galaxy management to microscopic fights.

What I would like to have is a way to "hook" our modded code to game steps / events. One hook at the beginning of each turn, at its end, when a player moves a ship, launches a construction, wins a game, etc...



Modding API would expose entities such as the galaxy, planets, ships, fleets, with their info, along with methods to act on it. (Create them, Read their info, Update their info, Delete them).



It would be done in any general-purpose programming language. I'm not asking for multi-language support or the creation of a new one, but just being able to interact with something such as C# (Hello Unity), C++, LUA, etc...



I do believe that if a tiny but powerful core API is created, players will themselves build libraries for the API to allow more complex things.



Any drawbacks ?



Yes, I'm thinking about development time. And cheating unfortunately.

Creating a great modding system may also ease the work for cheaters. I'm just thinking that we usually play with people we know & trust, and that encountering a cheater has no "huge impact" as it would have in a MMO or any kind or persistent universe.



Steam workshop support

Please. PLEASE.



To put it in a nutshell...



This is not a small request, I agree. It may involve only few players & the game has already a lot of features to be developed.



But this would make ES2 a huge place in my hearth !

I'm all for this idea! I know next to nothing about modding, in fact 90% of what I do know is from messing around with Endless Space's XML files.

Would it be possible to create such a thing post-release? Perhaps leave room for it to be done, but halt it and continue work once the game has been released.



That would allow for the vanilla game to be loved and understood by the community for a while before we try to shape it in the image of our ideas - It would also give Amplitude a far less stressful time-frame to create it.



Like I said, I know very little about such things, so I'm just brainstorming!

Signed.



Even if they put it on a list of secondary expansions, a mod-friendly interface would be masterful.

It would be great to be able to mod ES2. In fact I'm not really sure that I would buy it if there is no mod support, now that there are many recent or to-come space-opera themed games that do it.

That sort of advanced modding support is what I wanted in the first game so I could make more wide-reaching changes. This would be an excellent edition and put Endless Space 2 head and shoulders above the competition. Even if such advanced modding capabilities need to be save for an expansion.

Hook based programming would be great Civ4 had some forms of this and allowed a lot of mods due to this - some of those modders are even working in the industry now as game designers.

One thing I'd like to see in relation to mods is the ability to have more than one mod at once. With ES1 only allowing one mod at a time, ES1 mods tended to all become sweeping, all-in-one bundles. A lot of the really cool features and/or critical user fixes became all-or-nothing scenarios. Most of the time, if I wanted feature A, I had to also accept features B through P, whether I wanted them or not.



Multiple mod support seems like it would encourage smaller, individual feature mods that players could combine as desired for their preferred play experience, instead of having to accept the bad with the good.

Agreed. I buy games to mod them



For ES2 we basically need something like this.