Ok, so I want to address the "small bunch", and take it as you will. Modders are definitely a minority, and in some games those who use mods are also a majority.
Thank you for joining the converstation. Now firstly, like Erkka I'm also really confused why and how the small bunch gets people's attention. What I wrote was:
"In any case, separate menu seems to get support from this
small bunch of thread participants."
I was referencing solely to how many people had participated in the conversation, as the wish was and still is for more opinions the better. There's no reference to the number of players, modders, downloads, cat owners or horse lovers, or whatever
- but just to the number of the
thread participants. Had to clarify this first because it seem I may have been misunderstood.
(
If we release a patch describing the content with terms like; few improvements to this-and-that, small additions regarding this-and-that, fisful of fixes here and there, etc. nobody jumps up the walls saying "what! just small additions and only fistful of fixes!")
This really isn't just a conversation about BAC, it's a question of how can we make the CREATION of mods easier and also make the USE of mods easier, to extend the playtime of the average player, isn't it?
Yes, I agree, the probable changes should be prone to inclusive thinking considering the modding as a whole.
And dearly hope this viewpoint has become clear also from my replies thorough the tread.
I agree that it doesn't solve all ills, but it seems like a good relatively low cost option compared with the alternatives and better design ideas (like having an item identifier system that allows preloading/overlapping/replacement as stated). Is it a good use of developer time? Well that's a question I think we'll disagree on, but I think the potential improvement to the average player engagement time might be worth it, not just for BAC and current mods, but for future users making new mods that may be easier to maintain and therefore longer lived. Things like BAC do not occur commonly in a lot of larger modding communities because of how difficult it becomes to maintain, so any barrier is a problem.
Well, the actual cost of additions, be it solely on time investment, is quite hard to define from outside the development chambers - and defining the average player is also quite tricky.
Those aside identifying of the overlapping mod entries (from separate mods tweaking the same items) is pretty much mandatory from my point of view, as and for the reasons described in the earlier replies.
Also, we have to constantly prioritize things and juggle with several different to-do branches and lists, and sometimes certain section of the game development gets frozen until another section is finished, so fear not if it comes up that things have to be considered carefully as the time and resources are limited. This has been the case long before modding even was introduced.
You're also likely not going to get a TON of interaction on this thread because a) a lot of people are interested but don't know enough to contribute to the discussion, even some modders since modding here is so simple they don't need to know any programming at all, and b) people ebb and flow to this game, picking it up and putting it down often so the number of active people isn't always high, I tend to look only when there's an update and if I like it I play it for a few months and I know others do to. Something to consider.
Heh, tons of interaction is not necessary, but I'm happy for you pitching in as well - and for everyone who took time to bring up their two cents or things of importance.
Topic: Make Menu only for Modded items = saving BAC and other large mods (Read 19341 times)