Modding has always been important to Amplitude as a way for our players to further customize their experience with our games. While the modding community for our previous games may have been small, they proved to be creative, and quite dedicated. Over the years since the release of our first game, we have seen many ambitious and remarkable mods, like A Galaxy of Endless Diversity for Endless Space 1, the Community Patch for Endless Legend, or Endless Moons for Endless Space 2, to name but a few. Yet most of these mods were made with relatively simple tools; a text- or xml-editor and copies of a few game files. Many modders must have spent many hours poring over those files, trying to understand their structures and connections and just what to tweak to get the effect they want.
With Humankind, we’d like to take the modding capabilities a step further. We’ve been thinking about mod support virtually since the beginning of the project, and put greater emphasis on providing our community with powerful but accessible tools. Instead of editing game data files by hand, modders will have access to a set of Unity tools based on the tools our own team uses to add content to the game. The AI will also be moddable, so it can be adapted to the new or altered content. On the other hand, if you don’t want to dive into modding technologies or cultures or the AI, you can grab the map editor and craft any map you want, whether it’s a recreation of a real area or a map for competitive multiplayer.
As we are focused on improving and polishing Humankind first, unfortunately neither of these tools will be ready when the game releases. Still, some of you may already be asking “What can we do with these modding tools once they do release?” as ideas take shape in their heads. Quite a bit, actually, though some limitations will apply.
When we first release the Modding Tools, you will be able to:
- Change game values, e.g. for balancing, or to change or add new content, like technologies, civics, units, or even cultures.
- Change localization (Names, descriptions, event texts, tooltips)
- Reuse existing 3D and 2D assets for your new content
- Import 2D UI assets for new Content
- Change AI code (so it can take your other modded content into account)
- Create fixed maps (The Map Editor will likely be a separate tool)
We hope to add the following capabilities later, but they won’t be available at release:
- Import 3D assets like unit models or buildings
- Import materials or textures
- Create full scenarios
Frequently Asked Questions
We've seen a number of questions come up many times on the forums, social media, or during streams, so here are some answers to the most frequent ones.
- Will Humankind use the Steam Workshop?
Yes, on Steam you will be able to share your mods through the Workshop.EDIT: As we want to offer multi-platform support for modding, we have pivoted to mod.io since this FAQ was originally issued. This will allow users outside of Steam to easily access mods, while offering Steam users a similar experience by using their Steam account to log into mod.io. - Will there be mods on Stadia?
While it’s an interesting idea, mods support on Stadia is not something we can achieve on our own, so we cannot make any promises. - Will the Avatar be moddable?
The Avatars will not be moddable, at least not at release, though this might change eventually. - Are game mechanics moddable?
You won’t be able to alter game systems by changing the code, but you will be able to mod all values and content these systems interact with, which can have an enormous effect on how the game plays. - Will the game automatically download missing mods in multiplayer?
We have not decided on this yet. - Can you mod the Tech Tree and add new eras?
Yes, you can definitely change or add technologies. Unfortunately, adding entire eras will probably not be possible at release. - Can you mod the terrain?
You will be able to mod the gameplay values of the terrain and the map generator weights, but you won’t be able to add new visuals at release (though we hope to add this possibility later.)
Tools, much like games, need to be tested and used to be improved. We’d like to know what you think of the modding tools, so if you want to take a crack at creating mods for Humankind, please contact us (by email to the address below or direct message), and we’ll reach out to you if you’ve been picked to help us test the tools.
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