If Elder Scrolls VI was too hard to mod (hypothetical)

[Dénouement]

[Edit a month later: It turns out this idea was already thought of and acted on, go support them: https://www.loverslab.com/topic/84118-creatorslab-loverslab-community-project-announcement/ ]

 

 

There's some chance to see ESVI this year at E3, though very unlikely. Whether it's the rumored Starfield, or whatever else, Todd Howard said it will be built on the same engine. The next game they intend to release will be on a new engine.

 

This has a thought provoking implication, and so thoughtfully provoked, here I am to ask modders what they think. 

 

If ESVI is too hard to mod, where does the community go from there?

 

I imagine three outcomes that I suspect would exist in some blended fashion. 

 

1) We would largely stick with Skyrim. 

 

2) We would mod other games. 

 

3) A section of this community would get together and crowdfund or crowdsource their own. 

 

It's the second and third option that has me wondering. What upcoming game might work? Unreal 4? Lumberyard? Other? 

 

Thoughts?

[Guest]

I'm not a modder, but I'll throw an idea or two about this. Bethesda knows why their games are so popular. So they won't shoot their own feet by creating the new TES on an unmoddable engine. Also a new engine shouldn't be an impediment to mod the game, new games have been released under more up to date engines with great modding capabilities. Finally, an engine change is neccesary, c'mon it was needed since the Oblivion days. So I'd be grateful if they work over a new one.

 

The only issue I see it's the current Beth's approach to bringing mods to their own platform, where they decide what is acceptable and what not. Maybe they will limit (intentionally or not...) the modding potential in an attempt to keep things balanced among different platforms (because PC mods allow more freedom and complex functionality, unless something big changes with a new engine, which I doubt). But those are just speculations. As I've said, Beth knows why their games live so longer.

 

PS: Pretty sure the game announced on this E3 won't be a TES, but I really really hope I'm wrong on this.

[fred200]

Bethesda seems to like money - maybe above all else. Not as bad as EA though.

I could see Elder Scroills VI going console only. That has the best cash payback. And of course hand-helds.

They could also enforce Creation Club only mods. They get a cash cut of those.

Don't lose your Skyrim SE and Fallout 4. They might be our last modable games for awhile.

[Gameplayer]

I really doubt that they would change even the engine if they so much as thought it would make it harder on mod authors to make content for the game.

However if they did go ahead and make it too hard to mod the new game, well the outcome would be obvious...

We'd simply find some other way to fill our time now wouldn't we?

There would be other games and amoung those are the older titles that we already know how to make mods for.

I would say that it'd be like what happened to the Fallout series but at the moment we are already going through that with Skyrim, in that we're basically seeing Skyrim kept alive through mod life support.

 

Right now it would seem that its quite easy for Skyrim to just keep being played as there hasn't been very much in other must have games over the last few years though.

Although my own taste in games probably doesn't reflect how others feel, as I don't have a consol machine Im not sure about gaming on those, and there may very well be some good games there.

On PC though it seems like we have Total War series and that's about it....

CDredproject CyberPunk 2027 seems to be far off in the future of 2027 rather than in the next year.

Witcher 3 is a nice game but doesn't have the modability of the TES or FO series.

 

Perhaps Kingdom Come would be a good distraction but its only on my radar from the supposed controversy.

 

In my mind what keeps TES and FO in the public mind is that these are easily modded.....

If you look at the landscape of gaming and the direction that politics is going in gaming with say stuff like EA and Bioware....It would seem that gaming is under attack.

This has resulted in a lot less interest in newer games from me and perhaps others feel the same way,

Im just not interested in spending money or time on games that are from companies willing to partake in the political koolade.

The modding scene allows the end-user to put into place content that would likely be too hot for the acceptability crowd and could never make it into a release in a Western video game.

What the gaming companies need to keep in mind is that if they stop making content we want in our games they are just opening the doors for Eastern Video game companies that don't have to play along with Western Politics to just produce those types of games and reap all of the money for having done so.

 

Modding gives companies like Bethsada an advantage despite however fans feel about them needing new engines.

[MadMansGun]

Elder Scrolls VI: a empty map with no quests or content what so ever

[worik]

1 hour ago, MadMansGun said:

Elder Scrolls VI: a empty map with no quests or content what so ever

... plus a bunch of pay-per-download quest, items, NPCs in the Bugthesda-Crap-Creators-Club (R)  ...

 

EDIT:

Just hypothetical of course! No resaonable and responsible software company would ever do that! No company with any sympathy for their user base would do that! Not even it is fake and only for PR. Only the others

[MadMansGun]

28 minutes ago, worik said:

No resaonable and responsible software company would ever do that!

Beth is not reasonable or responsible anymore, they totally will do that if they can get away with it, and in this age of cell phone zombies playing pay to win games they can.

 

"COMING SOON: SKYRIM ON IPHONE WHATEVER FUCKING NUMBER THEY ARE ON NOW"

[SexDwarf2250]

Dunno, but if there is a significant decrease of modability in ES games, or paywall requirement for mods, I will immediately stop giving them money. There are other games that can be modded, and other games to be enjoyed.

 

For that matter, what if all the Skyrim modders took to porting everything (that doesn't work yet) to Enderal and developing any new mods for it? It's practically a new ES game in itself. 

 

Building another game universe similar to Enderal could be yet another idea. In fact, if it's intended for modders, it might suffice at first to make it a huge, mostly empty wilderness with just the backbone of a questline and a major hub so every modder has questgivers to hook into: maybe a new island of wilderness is discovered, and is being colonized.

[Dénouement]

 Yeah, I basically agree with all of you and that's all part of my thought process on this. They can't put a price on these mods, and a recent article, i forget where exactly, gave some sharp criticism to this very community. CDProjectRed promised a RedKit and didn't deliver, just gave us enough for new skins.

 

Of course, they could just give us a blank map with no content at all. As long as the engine under the hood can manage our creations, the modding scene can make it great. Think of this too: a modder won an award for the writing in his quests. Bethesda didn't even get any nominations from the writer's guild for skyrim. We've got voice actors with their own equipment producing content just as professional as any. As for art, we've just about replaced every texture, model, mesh, and animation in the game. The best gameplay, from combat to how easily we can click a dialogue option: modders. 

 

Might be worth considering a future with a game that's not just crowd funded... maybe not crowd funded at all, but crowd sourced. Doesn't mean it can't make money: get something to early access quality and sell that on steam (*possibly pre-sex mod), anyone who contributes pre launch gets a free copy, something like that. 

[ToJKa]

23 hours ago, fred200 said:

Bethesda seems to like money - maybe above all else. Not as bad as EA though.

Apart from EA being a studio serial killer, there isn't that much difference.

 

All Your Monies Are Belong To Us (Evil) Inc.

and

All Your Monies Are Belong To Us (Stupid) Inc.

 

Though seeing that Prey and The Evil Within 2 have no DLC, maybe it's just the developer part that is the problem. After all, those are actually pretty good games too.

[Dénouement]

 It turns out, folk are already building a new game here, go support them if you can: https://www.loverslab.com/topic/84118-creatorslab-loverslab-community-project-announcement/ 

[Ernest Lemmingway]

Bethesda makes a game that's too hard to mod and/or forces modders to release their work through them (same basic thing) -> their game becomes a commercial and PR disaster as customers quit buying their stuff -> Bethesda goes bye-bye. Pretty simple logic, tabodi. Maybe too simple for Howard and Hines. Their new space RPG will be the litmus test for me regarding whether I give them a second chance or close the book on them permanently.

 

We could even add a few extra steps, like "they try to make things better and instead make them worse," before the "bye-bye" part given their recent history.

[FauxFurry]

They know that, if they made TES6 too difficult for anyone to mod who wasn't personally instructed by the staff at Bethesda Game Studio themselves, modders would finally knuckle down and learn how to properly mod for Divinity Original Sin 2 and the upcoming Mount and Blade: Bannerlord.

They know that they aren't the only game in town (literally) so cutting off a source of post-release content is the same as cutting off potential revenue streams.