BlackIntel Forum
BlackIntel => General discussion => Topic started by: ShadeSlayer on June 10, 2013, 09:17:27 pm
-
DICE just announced that they are making battlefront. Anyone else think this is the greatest thing that could have ever happened?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2013/06/10/ea-announces-new-star-wars-battlegront-game/ (http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2013/06/10/ea-announces-new-star-wars-battlegront-game/)
-
It certainly is some exciting news, however, I'd rather wait and see if DICE can pull it off. :)
Also, I really hope it comes out on PC.
-
It's DICE, it'll come out on PC.
My worries is the fact it'll be on Frostbite. A lot of battlefronts appeal, at least on PC, was it's high ability to mod and add custom maps etc. With Dice/EA, what we'll probably get is a decent but small starting map pool and have to expand it with DLCs/Expansions. For some reason, I don't mind that for battlefield, but I don't like the idea of that for battlefront.
-
It's DICE, it'll come out on PC.
My worries is the fact it'll be on Frostbite. A lot of battlefronts appeal, at least on PC, was it's high ability to mod and add custom maps etc. With Dice/EA, what we'll probably get is a decent but small starting map pool and have to expand it with DLCs/Expansions. For some reason, I don't mind that for battlefield, but I don't like the idea of that for battlefront.
Isn't that the case for pretty much any game nowadays? DLC aren't very compatible with modding, so they'll leave out modding tools (=cost) and add DLC (=income).
-
Not all games are not mod friendly, it just tends to be larger companies and for good reasons.
As we progress, game engines are getting more and more powerful meaning they are also getting more complex. As the engines start to grow in complexity we start to see companies starting to use more and more 3rd party software, either as additions to what they have in an engine, or as tools they must use to do any work on the engine.
Battlefield gets a ton of flank for dropping mod support in the frostbite engine, but Dice simply can't release mod tools (or open the game up for modding), even if they wanted to. They are stopped from doing this by all of the 3rd party things they have to use. The licensing fees for that would by abysmal, and why should they have to cover that cost? I think an ideal situation would be them renting out modding licenses to individuals, but then they'd have to create the tools to do that, and I imagine that's just not worth the money.
Companies who own every aspect of their engine (or just don't have such complicated engines) are usually pretty good for releasing mod tools, or just enabling easy modding if that isn't feasable. These companies tend to make a lot more money because of the ability to mod and expand upon the game brings more people to it. I don't think that they worry about losing DLC sales much when it comes to modding. A tiny percentage of gamerpop plays with mods, and there are some games which allow modding but still release successful DLCs/expansions, Battlefield was one of those in the past.
-
A map editor that uses the game files should afaik not be an issue with licensing. Total conversions might be a problem, but even that seems unlikely to me, assuming it's not released as standalone. The W3D engine that Westwood used in C&C Renegade, Generals, Battle for Middle-Earth (2), also contains licensed tech, but they did provide modtools. The unreal engine has traditionally shipped with mod-tools, which where rather popular. Yet, with new games, they are no longer included in the game, why? Licensing? Well then Epic wouldn't be able to release the UDK now would they? The UDK also uses a lot of licensed tech, yet is available for free within certain conditions.
-
Looking forward to it, and it is confirmed to use Frostbite 3. But, like Ati, I'll wait and see before getting it.