laggy 0 Posted July 29, 2009 Dear Addon makers, Before I start my list of ideas and suggestions I would like to make it clear how much I value and respect your work. The community addons are what will keep this game alive for a long time, just like they did (and still do) with Armed Assault and OFP. Addon making is a field where I have very limited experience. I made an island for OFP with the WRPtool and that's about it. What I do have some knowledge about is the usage (or lack of usage) of addons, and this is where I have some input. I think that alot of addons are way too small and limited and the use of them therefore become very specific and insignificant. Often they are also useless without other additional elements. I would say that alot of addons are useless without a fitting environment (island). My favourite addons have always been COMPLETE mods like: ACE, Finnish Defence Forces Mod, BAS Tonal Mod and ECP. Why? Those addons came in a complete and seemless pack where you had environments (islands) in which new characters (units) could run around and use new stuff (weapons, objects and vehicles). Often the mods also came with additional sounds, music, animations and scripting functions to enhance the gameplay and atmosphere. This meant that you would have a useful combination of absolutely everything you needed to take the game to a new level. How fun was it not to play a rock throwing african insurgent, fighting corrupt government forces in a varied and beautifully designed country in chaos. Who didn't enjoy playing a finnish policeman going after a "Car Stereo BMW" carthief trying to cross the russian border, handcuffing him after a long carchase and teaching him a lesson with the baton. I think that some addons can be useful even without a whole mod (i.e nukes and zombies), but some things are not very useful. Here are some questions. *Why would you create a NYPD S.W.A.T unit if you don't have an american environment to play in? Would they be stationed on Chernarus? Not very likely. An American environment would be needed first. *Why would you create Palestinian insurgents without any Israeli soldiers to match them? Who are they going to fight... The Russians? *Why would you create anything that doesn't have a real purpose in terms of gameplay: environment, enemies or new functions? In many cases I think that these things could be fixed by simple team work. Work together with someone that is creating similar addons, that way you could join your capabilities and maybe construct a COMPLETE mod like the ones mentioned above. As a mission maker I really enjoy feedback on my missions, and I'm pretty sure that you as addonmakers want feedback as well. My problem with addons though, is that I would never use a single "new sound AK47" or "retextured Marine" unless they came as part of a whole mod. It's simply not worth the effort in my opinion, and I think that many share my view. If you really want people to use your creations thay have to be either extremely inventive and useful or part of something larger. Like I said in the beginning, I really love your work and enjoy trying out new addons, but many of them end up in the trash bin, just because they are not useful enough. Meaning: They don't really change or add anything to the quality of gameplay. With some thoughts spent on the actual usage of your addons I think the work you do would pay off much more. Otherwise: Keep up your great work :cheers: Laggy Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Defunkt 431 Posted July 29, 2009 People will make what they're inspired to make, what they have time to make and what damn well takes their fancy. Providing you with matching sets probably doesn't enter into their thinking a great deal nor, I would suggest, should it. To use it or not is your choice, to make it or not is theirs and if they care about having it used they can work out for themselves how and to whom it might be useful. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
laggy 0 Posted July 30, 2009 People will make what they're inspired to make, what they have time to make and what damn well takes their fancy. Providing you with matching sets probably doesn't enter into their thinking a great deal nor, I would suggest, should it. To use it or not is your choice, to make it or not is theirs and if they care about having it used they can work out for themselves how and to whom it might be useful. WHOA :couch:!!! If you read the thread title it says: Ideas and suggestions and not Do as I say ! I am merely bringing up a topic that would be good to discuss. Laggy Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sakura_chan 9 Posted July 30, 2009 People will make what they're inspired to make, what they have time to make and what damn well takes their fancy. Providing you with matching sets probably doesn't enter into their thinking a great deal nor, I would suggest, should it. To use it or not is your choice, to make it or not is theirs and if they care about having it used they can work out for themselves how and to whom it might be useful. Quoted for truth. Any addon is a good addon! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Big Dawg KS 6 Posted July 30, 2009 I would have to agree with laggy about larger addons/mods being more useful for mission makers. It was a problem in OFP because all the different addons just never fit together really well. However it is also still nice to see some of the cool standalone addons. Sometimes with these addons you can experiment with trying new things in the engine. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mathias_eichinger 64 Posted July 30, 2009 I have to say that laggy has a valid point, since I am a mission maker too.. While it is also true that nobody can force addon makers to do a specific addon, I wonder if it would be possible to provide a larger selection of retextures of their favourite addon, probably through cooperation with people who can retexture, but cannot do models. Let's assume somebody wants to model the following helicopter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puma_helicopter If he's French he would most likely do a French version, but if there would be an additional UK skin, any upcoming UK infantry addons would already have a suitable transport. The more skins that could be made, the more useful the addon would be. This could in turn inspire other texture artists to create new unit addons because from now on their addon would have a suitable mount. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
laggy 0 Posted July 31, 2009 Thinking about it some more, I've come to realize that maybe the real problem is not the abundance of useless addons, but rather some mission designers' way of including all those addons in their missions, without questioning the actual enhancement of gameplay. Maybe I'm missing the best mission ever, because I don't want to download 10 new "retextured" weapon models with "cooler" sounds. That is really my and the mission designers problem, not the addon makers'. In that sense I fully agree with Defunkt and rest my case. Laggy Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
