Here's a bit of a post I started writing a long while ago.
I can see some of the things I've mentioned were actually implemented, which is great to see those features, but also great to help you guys measure how much time you spent on them that could have been saved if there'd been mod support.
A modder would likely have already released several tested and refined versions of the same functionality before you guys even considered implementing it.
I never really finished the post. Partially because I didn't really know how to finish it, but also because of the aforementioned disappointment in where the game was going (mini-game focus instead of the exploration part that initially drew me in, back when that WAS the game).
Hopefully y'all can still get some use out of it though, I still 100% stand by it. I've added a little bit to the end to finish it off, and updated some of the numbers and references and things.
======================
G'day Bohemia Interactive,
Do you want Ylands to be both popular (large playerbase) and have staying power (to keep the playerbase large/growing)?
Of course you do, and the best way (from this user's perspective) is to prioritise Mod Support as soon as possible (and to give it as much access to change the game as possible).
Why?
Look at Rimworld.
Each Rimworld update has a handful of new features, or some bug fixes, but nothing earth-shatteringly awesome. Development is hard and time is limited.
If you want to polish a feature so that players don't complain, it takes even longer!
But Rimworld was in early access for ages and ages, and is still one of the (if not the) most popular games to play (says someone who's played >500 hours of it, and is playing it right now) within it's genre.
Because Mods.
Rimworld has had mod support for most, if not all of it's development. Right now there are five seventeen thousand mods for Rimworld on the Steam workshop, that's ~1,000 ~1,800 per version.
Sure, many of them are mini-mods that just translate another mod into Japanese (it's very popular in Japan apparently), but there are just as many colossal undertakings. Some that radically and fundamentally change existing mechanics, and others that add them in entirely!
Not only do these new/different mechanics allow players to 'refresh' themselves without running off to a different game, but they aren't expected to maintain the same level of polish as an in-game feature, allowing for rapid community-driven development to fill holes in people's play-styles that haven't yet occurred to the developers, or have but haven't been added (being able to tow boats behind ships so you can explore coastlines without running aground or eaten by sharks, for example).
It can also open up the possibility of patching/replacing/modifying existing mechanics to work differently (ie: Rimworld has a mod that adds in a blueprinting system, perhaps someone might want to mod Ylands to fix or replace the in-game version so it worked as expected. Like being able to target a ship's hull and having not only the hull but everything parented to it, stored in the blueprint with the correct local orientation, instead of only capturing the player-placed blocks and retaining the global orientation This is fixed now maybe?).
Maybe someone wants Cannons to be more realistic and have to first pour in gunpowder, then tamp it down, then fire. That could be a mod.
Maybe someone wants Cannons to be smarter and assume you want to load a cannonball if you've got one in your inventory, so it does it for you and doesn't obscure your target with an inventory menu. That could also be a mod.
Maybe someone wants to re-enact Pirates of the Caribbean by firing a fork out of a cannon. I've never actually tried that in game, but if it's not possible, it could be modded in!
Those suggestions should not necessarily be 'official' changes to the base game. The current system strikes a good balance between the extremes, where the suggestions are specific to a subset of players and don't cater to the majority.
What they are is a 'nice to have' optional feature for those subsets, which is the perfect type of situation for mods to step in.
Rimworld mods also do smaller things, like add extra/ tweak existing 'things' in the game. Ylands and Rimworld have walls and doors and weapons and food and the like.
But Rimworld has mods that add new versions of those things, as well as mods that tweak them slightly to suit different playstyles. It also has mods that allow you to 'legitimately' obtain things that aren't normally obtainable (re-adding disabled assets, adding the ability to craft uncraftable things, etc), or to obtain things in a different way.
Maybe someone wants a wider variety of inventory containers, ammo-belt for bullets, quivers for arrows or bolts, a toolbelt for their tools exists now, a picnic basket for their food. That could be a mod.
Maybe someone wants to add in some new backpacks that increase the inventory capacity. That could be a mod.
Maybe someone wants to add new biome-specific animals, like kangaroos and camels for desert islands, . That could be a mod.
Maybe someone wants to add some cloaks to the backpack slot so they can wear armour while also regulating their temperature. That could be a mod.
Maybe someone wants to add new kinds of trees/flowers/foods and things. That could be a mod.
Maybe someone wants doors of different/dynamic widths. That could be a mod.
Perhaps some of those suggestions should be 'official' changes to the base game. But they are relatively minor, and are essentially just extra instances of existing features, which would take official development time away from other broader-scale areas.
This is also a great scenario for mods to step in. Especially if some people wanted to add crazier things like enchanted coal buckets that constantly refilled or something, so they didn't have to worry about micro-managing their coal stores in their engines and could just focus on pirating, or if they wanted to make all finite resources into renewable resources, or something similarly 'cheaty'. Because those things almost certainly shouldn't be in the base game. But are also 'nice to haves' for a subset of the playerbase who want to focus on different areas of gameplay to others.
=================================
The downside of course, is that supporting mods makes the game much harder to make, and if it's not already architected in a way that supports that, it's going to be very difficult to shoe-horn them in.
That said, I do truly believe that even if it has to be re-written from the ground up, it would still be entirely worthwhile. You're already on the right track with giving the community the ability to make maps and minigames and whatnot, you just need to take it a little step further and let them change ANYTHING (more or less). All this game needs for it to be fantastic is a proper modding infrastructure in place, and the right community.
I believe this is very achievable, but only you guys can lead that charge.
Edited by Roberestarkk Didn't realise the horizontal rules would actually make people click to see the 'next page' so replaced them with =====
G'day Guys,
Here's a bit of a post I started writing a long while ago.
I can see some of the things I've mentioned were actually implemented, which is great to see those features, but also great to help you guys measure how much time you spent on them that could have been saved if there'd been mod support.
A modder would likely have already released several tested and refined versions of the same functionality before you guys even considered implementing it.
I never really finished the post. Partially because I didn't really know how to finish it, but also because of the aforementioned disappointment in where the game was going (mini-game focus instead of the exploration part that initially drew me in, back when that WAS the game).
Hopefully y'all can still get some use out of it though, I still 100% stand by it. I've added a little bit to the end to finish it off, and updated some of the numbers and references and things.
======================
G'day Bohemia Interactive,
Do you want Ylands to be both popular (large playerbase) and have staying power (to keep the playerbase large/growing)?
Of course you do, and the best way (from this user's perspective) is to prioritise Mod Support as soon as possible (and to give it as much access to change the game as possible).
Why?
Look at Rimworld.
Each Rimworld update has a handful of new features, or some bug fixes, but nothing earth-shatteringly awesome. Development is hard and time is limited.
If you want to polish a feature so that players don't complain, it takes even longer!
But Rimworld was in early access for ages and ages, and is still one of the (if not the) most popular games to play (says someone who's played >500 hours of it, and is playing it right now) within it's genre.
Because Mods.
Rimworld has had mod support for most, if not all of it's development. Right now there are
fiveseventeen thousand mods for Rimworld on the Steam workshop, that's~1,000~1,800 per version.Sure, many of them are mini-mods that just translate another mod into Japanese (it's very popular in Japan apparently), but there are just as many colossal undertakings. Some that radically and fundamentally change existing mechanics, and others that add them in entirely!
Not only do these new/different mechanics allow players to 'refresh' themselves without running off to a different game, but they aren't expected to maintain the same level of polish as an in-game feature, allowing for rapid community-driven development to fill holes in people's play-styles that haven't yet occurred to the developers, or have but haven't been added (being able to tow boats behind ships so you can explore coastlines without running aground or eaten by sharks, for example).
It can also open up the possibility of patching/replacing/modifying existing mechanics to work differently (ie: Rimworld has a mod that adds in a blueprinting system, perhaps someone might want to mod Ylands to fix or replace the in-game version so it worked as expected.
Like being able to target a ship's hull and having not only the hull but everything parented to it, stored in the blueprint with the correct local orientation, instead of only capturing the player-placed blocks and retaining the global orientationThis is fixed now maybe?).Maybe someone wants Cannons to be more realistic and have to first pour in gunpowder, then tamp it down, then fire. That could be a mod.
Maybe someone wants Cannons to be smarter and assume you want to load a cannonball if you've got one in your inventory, so it does it for you and doesn't obscure your target with an inventory menu. That could also be a mod.
Maybe someone wants to re-enact Pirates of the Caribbean by firing a fork out of a cannon. I've never actually tried that in game, but if it's not possible, it could be modded in!
Those suggestions should not necessarily be 'official' changes to the base game. The current system strikes a good balance between the extremes, where the suggestions are specific to a subset of players and don't cater to the majority.
What they are is a 'nice to have' optional feature for those subsets, which is the perfect type of situation for mods to step in.
Rimworld mods also do smaller things, like add extra/ tweak existing 'things' in the game. Ylands and Rimworld have walls and doors and weapons and food and the like.
But Rimworld has mods that add new versions of those things, as well as mods that tweak them slightly to suit different playstyles. It also has mods that allow you to 'legitimately' obtain things that aren't normally obtainable (re-adding disabled assets, adding the ability to craft uncraftable things, etc), or to obtain things in a different way.
Maybe someone wants a wider variety of inventory containers, ammo-belt for bullets, quivers for arrows or bolts,
a toolbelt for their toolsexists now, a picnic basket for their food. That could be a mod.Maybe someone wants to add in some new backpacks that increase the inventory capacity. That could be a mod.
Maybe someone wants to add new biome-specific animals, like kangaroos and camels for desert islands, . That could be a mod.
Maybe someone wants to add some cloaks to the backpack slot so they can wear armour while also regulating their temperature. That could be a mod.
Maybe someone wants to add new kinds of trees/flowers/foods and things. That could be a mod.
Maybe someone wants doors of different/dynamic widths. That could be a mod.
Perhaps some of those suggestions should be 'official' changes to the base game. But they are relatively minor, and are essentially just extra instances of existing features, which would take official development time away from other broader-scale areas.
This is also a great scenario for mods to step in. Especially if some people wanted to add crazier things like enchanted coal buckets that constantly refilled or something, so they didn't have to worry about micro-managing their coal stores in their engines and could just focus on pirating, or if they wanted to make all finite resources into renewable resources, or something similarly 'cheaty'. Because those things almost certainly shouldn't be in the base game. But are also 'nice to haves' for a subset of the playerbase who want to focus on different areas of gameplay to others.
=================================
The downside of course, is that supporting mods makes the game much harder to make, and if it's not already architected in a way that supports that, it's going to be very difficult to shoe-horn them in.
That said, I do truly believe that even if it has to be re-written from the ground up, it would still be entirely worthwhile. You're already on the right track with giving the community the ability to make maps and minigames and whatnot, you just need to take it a little step further and let them change ANYTHING (more or less). All this game needs for it to be fantastic is a proper modding infrastructure in place, and the right community.
I believe this is very achievable, but only you guys can lead that charge.
Didn't realise the horizontal rules would actually make people click to see the 'next page' so replaced them with =====
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