When are the mod makers going to work together?

[Locksley 10]

I loved ArmA as I was unemployed and had a lot of free time on my hands to really get my teeth stuck in to downloading and installing all the best mods to create an awesome game, but these days I just want one installer to install all the best mods for me :rolleyes:

I wouldn't mind if all we had to do was downlaoding and install mods, but there's so much conflict and frame rate issues with many of the great mods, forcing the player to go as far as deleting certain .pbo files to disable features that don't get on well with seperate mods.

It's ridiculous.

When will ACE, SLX, JTD and all the other dozens of great mods be compiled in to one huge awesome mod that is easy to install and keep up to date?

Edited September 7, 2011 by Locksley

[jibemorel 10]

If you start a thread here that means you've got a mod/addon in the oven you want to show to everyone to discuss about it, hence my question where your mod/addons ?

Nah, seriously try here : http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=74039

[dmarkwick 261]

Thanks for the mention :)

IMO the greatest thing about ArmA is its flexibility, it can become the game you wish it to become, either through some work or some 3rd party addon. There might well be a market for an all-inclusive addon suite, but everyone has their own ideas about what addons ought to be in it, some addons exclude/clash with others, some simply don't wish for a certain addon, some wish for rather particular details that border on obsession.

Myself, I have a range of addons that I regularly enable/disable to give me varying gameplay, sometimes I use ACE2, sometimes I disable it & use SLX instead, sometimes together etc, and I throw in ASR_AI and GL4 into the mix... Just to keep things fluid.

There are a few addon suites already available, most notably (IMO) is Gunter's COWarMod suite. This, and ACE2, is a good start IMO.

[Gunter Severloh 3949]

When will ACE, SLX, JTD and all the other dozens of great mods be compiled in to

one huge awesome mod that is easy to install and keep up to date?

Lol your kidding right, how much time have you had to browse the forums here and read all the stuff?

Somehow you have missed my 3 compilations of what your asking about.

Depending on what your playing, there is:

WarMod for Arma1

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=90816&highlight=warmod

WarMod for Arma2 aka A2WarMod

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?p=1764332#post1764332

WarMod for Arma2CO aka COWarMod

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=121837

A2WarMod for arma2 has most of the addons and mods (126 addons/mods) that deal with AI enhancement,

gameplay, effects, and many other gameplay type features, it also has an ace compatible version.

COWarMod on the other hand was the biggest of them all it has 223 addons and mods, but does not have an ace compatible version.

Edited September 7, 2011 by Gnter Severloh

[Locksley 10]

Hi, I am aware of CoWarMod and will try it soon, but I am really waiting for a ACE compatible version to be honest.

I think ACE should be the basis that all other mods aim to fit and be compatible with.

[dm 9]

I think ACE should be the basis that all other mods aim to fit and be compatible with.

Fortunately, not everyone thinks the same way.

ACE is cool, but I dont want to have to use it, and I dont.

PR is cool, but I dont want to have to use it, and I dont.

Vilas' stuff is cool, but I dont want to have to use it, and I dont.

FDF is cool, but I dont want to have to use it, and I dont.

etc etc

[PuFu 4591]

I loved ArmA as I was unemployed and had a lot of free time on my hands to really get my teeth stuck in to downloading and installing all the best mods to create an awesome game, but these days I just want one installer to install all the best mods for me :rolleyes:

gotten lazy i guess..Also, today is easier to deal with mods than back in A1 days due to six updater and yoma's...i really don't see the issue

I wouldn't mind if all we had to do was downlaoding and install mods, but there's so much conflict and frame rate issues with many of the great mods, forcing the player to go as far as deleting certain .pbo files to disable features that don't get on well with seperate mods.

It's ridiculous.

Different mods have different scopes. There are a lot of addons and developers that are working together, but on the other hand having everyone on the same page is impossible.

You call it ridiculous, i call it the way it is...get used to it.

When will ACE, SLX, JTD and all the other dozens of great mods be compiled in to one huge awesome mod that is easy to install and keep up to date?

never

Hi, I am aware of CoWarMod and will try it soon, but I am really waiting for a ACE compatible version to be honest.

I think ACE should be the basis that all other mods aim to fit and be compatible with.

LOL...

ACE is a great mod no wonder. So are 99% of the guys working on it. But that doesn't mean it is the only mod out there, nor the norm.

Some of us like a lot of its features, but not quite all.

Just like with the game itself, i call it a love hate relationship

[-)rStrangelove 0]

I think ACE should be the basis that all other mods aim to fit and be compatible with.

No, just no.

[sickboy 13]

If you want an easy way to install mods and keep them updated, and launch the game with them, incl automatic dependency handling, use Six Updater: http://www.six-updater.net/p/about.html

If you want mods to become better, for starters, report bugs and issues you find with them to the authors.

Even better; assist them more closely.

Also if you feel it is bad these days, you should go back and look at OFP - the time when there was no Extended EventHandlers yet, no mod updater tools, and no easy override configs like these are possible now :P

Many great mods couldn't be combined without a lot of work.

If you really want to experience mod-hell, try installing some mods for Minecraft, especially when you wanna upgrade to the next version :P

Edited September 7, 2011 by Sickboy

[dysta 10]

You know, everybody is having a different, but INCALCULABLE rulers for measuring what exactly they need to play with mods or such. I love ACE2, doesn't mean ACE2 is part of my life.

[Locksley 10]

PuFu you come accross like you love the fact that getting all the great mods to install and play together properly is difficult and wouldn't want it any other way. Bizzare.

As for being lazy, how about I have other stuff going on in my life unlike in the ArmA1 days when gaming was my only hobby.

Also note I actually made some sound mods for ArmA1 when it was first released so I'm not a n00b.

I see SixUpdater has finally become a usuable piece of software.. much simpler to use than earlier versions.

I still would prefer a combined mod package that would be so comprehensive and awesome that it would quickly be adopted by the majority of players and clans. Uniformity in mods is what is badly needed in this community.

I will install this CoWarMod and try it later tonight.

[sickboy 13]

There are a lot of different tastes and wishes, you're not going to address them with 1 mod, small or big, perhaps partially by full configuration ability but still.

ACE is somewhat popular; http://stats.six-updater.net/mods/nested/a546d346-a754-11de-b50f-0021855d3b6d?_method=get&associations=queryservers

There are some others, and hopefully more will become popular as hopefully BIS improves mod support, as well as community tools like Six Updater.

IMO the answer is not one large mod, but improving compatibility and mod distribution, installation, updating and bundling with the game.

While endevours like cowarmod etc also function as a guide to compatibility etc, perhaps an example to be followed.

The potential is certainly there, just needs to gain traction.

In any case, you seem to only take the perspective from the player into consideration,

but there's a whole other side to it and that's wishes, preferences, timetables, etc, of the community developers of Mods (free time).

Edited September 7, 2011 by Sickboy

[max power 21]

As PuFu was saying, different mods have different scopes, different standards, and different solutions to problems.

Now, let me not profess to be an expert on ACE, and my information is probably quite outdated, but let's take this as an example.

ACE does a lot of things to make the game more realistic as they see it, and they try to think of solutions to problems within the bounds of the engine. For instance they (at one point, I don't know if they do now) put the hit points for certain vulnerable parts of tanks away from the actual body of the tank so that they would be more robust. This solution takes the tank addons away from compatibility with the vanilla game. It is important for some mod makers that their stuff plays well and can integrate with the vanilla game, so it can be enjoyed by the maximum number of people.

Also, ACE requires a slightly different development environment for its configs and such. In order to make something for ACE, you would have to know something about ACE in the first place. It's the same with CWR. We have our own inheritances and config values to facilitate future compatibility with OFP stuff. If other mods want to integrate with ACE or other mods, you kind of need someone who is an expert in both in order to figure out how to make configs compatible with each other. And what about beginning modders? Do you suggest that they learn not only how to get things going in ArmA, which is difficult enough to start, but also with ACE? It would be overwhelming. It is hard enough to find information on how to make a regular addon work. Every new person would need ACE dev support.

And, I don't want to speak for Solus, but again let's use this as an example. I think Solus was using SLX as a vehicle for him to see what he could do with ArmA in order to add features according to his own vision. You can see how this is fundamentally incompatible with a community mod standard. To put it another way, I think if there was a way to force a community mod standard on developers, SLX would not exist. It is the same with CWR². Our aim is to re-create the OFP experience. We can't do that with ACE config values and systems.

Edited September 7, 2011 by Max Power

[NoRailgunner 0]

Well there are many people who appreciate diversity, flexibility and modularity of addons and mods.

If you need "uniformity" that badly go and tryout some console games/shooters. :p

[Gunter Severloh 3949]

Hi, I am aware of CoWarMod and will try it soon, but I am really waiting for a ACE compatible version to be honest.

So is alot of people, and even though i have the time to build it which would take me about a month or two all depends, tbh I dont play with ace,

i used too I just never got back into it, and right now I have a project going on with my missions and some things.

Unless alot of people convince me to start on the Ace compatible version then I will, but as right now it aint going to happen,

I'm finding myself rather to lazy to work hard on another long project, especially after finishing with COWarMod as that took me 6 months to build.

But Please understand that COWarMod like the other WarMods in the series are customization mods, it is not

a mod that is "final" meaning you can remove things, the mod has no config in terms of getting all the mods to work together,

its basically one huge mod folder with all the mods in it, but they were all tested to make sure they worked together.

Anyways the mod needs to be updated, if and when you decide to download COWarMod then refer to my release

thread for my list of things to remove, as they are "fixes" for the mod atm.

Any questions for the mod use my release thread.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=121837

As for modders in general working together, it would take alot of work, but as been said it aint going to happen.

As sickboy had said:

There are a lot of different tastes and wishes, you're not going to address them with 1 mod, small or big,

perhaps partially by full configuration ability but still.

[max power 21]

To answer the question posed in the topic title:

Modders do work together. Many of us share information freely, and even go out of our way to help each other out. To suggest that we don't 'work together' for the purposes of satisfying a rhetorical aim about some restrictive community standard is, frankly, uninformed at best.

Edited September 7, 2011 by Max Power

[Spartan 163 0]

Cool made it before it got locked.

Moders will work together the same day people post in correct section of the forums and search will be used before posting.

Op should make an addon or utility to make it all work at once seeing how strongly he feels about it.

Edited September 7, 2011 by PROTOTYPE 001

[Gunter Severloh 3949]

Modder's do work together as you said max power, when i said it in my post, it was more of physically

working together like on one huge team as that is what I meant.

But when i was working on my mod, i had to contact many of the modders that I had their mod in my mod,

and I had even asked them questions to gather more info about other things related to mods n general,

so yes i do agree there is a communication amongsted modders.

[HyperU2 11]

Cool made it before it got locked.

Moders will work together the same day people post in correct section of the forums and search will be used before posting.

Op should make an addon or utility to make it all work at once seeing how strongly he feels about it.

Careful, I hear that's flamebaiting.

Anyway, OP went from unemployed to lazy.

[HR4 Elite 10]

Uniformity in mods is what is badly needed in this community.

I can see where your coming from, uniformity is probably what it needs. It would be great if someone could suggest a reasonable alternative, other than that, uniformity is certainly a reasonable suggestion…..

[Gunter Severloh 3949]

In detail or at least some points of it, what in the community in terms of uniformity are you looking for,

maybe im not totally understanding the concept here, i get the idea but what is it that you are looking for in terms of uniformity?

Maybe someone else can explain this concept of what we all think is needed, needed one thing but realistic being another,

but Id like to know, and how would this work?

I mean why make statements, and or comments and then leave it there, as far as Im concerned just clearing up some

question for the OP has really done nothing but (sorry to say) another useless thread in the forums that has not changed

anything other then the Op's understanding of where the modders in the community maybe stand.

[HR4 Elite 10]

I would say why bother to raise a thread when you get reactions like some of the ones here.

‘Uniformity’ IMO in this instance ‘Mod’s working together based on some foundation’, ACE is a sort of foundation many mod makers are trying to build with ACE compatibility in mind. Before everyone shouts, I am not saying ACE has to be it, it would be the mod makers to decide what, if & how it would work. I also don’t believe we need one large mod, Six Updater is in essence my mod folder, its so easy to add or remove a mod even for someone like me with no particular skill at mod organisation, so lots of small mod’s are just as good as one large one, provided they can slot together more seamlessly.

It has been said here that working together just won’t happen! Well that’s a shame because without doubt I think that the mod/addon makers on here are fantastic at what they do, and of course they do talk and contact one another, however you don’t have to physically work together to work together, if you get my drift…

When you build a building you don’t get 20 builders to put 20 different types of foundation down, better to work on the one sound foundation chosen by the builders coming together and discussing which and what would be the best foundation to build on…

ACE may have started the ball rolling...who know's...

.

[NoRailgunner 0]

Something like a auto-downloader/updater with just one "Give me the best mod/addon!!" button to clicky on. Of course all mission should require this "best addon/mod!!".

Now the question is what is "the best mod/addon" for everyone? Who's going to force or restrict people to like a certain mod/addon or mission? ;)

[Gunter Severloh 3949]

I do agree ACE does have a good foundation, but lets not forget the other big mods out there as well like CWR2,

Invasion 1944 to name a couple.

My suggestion is if you want the features from these mods then run them together, there might be conflicts but all depends.

Also depends on what your looking for in a mod, do you want just gameplay and effects, or you want realism, do you want units and vehicles, or what.

Theres plenty of stuff out there. But it is what it is, its up to you how you would like to play and with what.

Theres uniformity already in the big mods find ones that suite you and have fun.

[pathetic_berserker 4]

This nut appears to be of diamond...... but still its just a worthless pebble.

Edited September 8, 2011 by Pathetic_Berserker