Lack of Game Mods

[JasonKR]

Is there any reason why a game like SH3 has over a thousand mods whereas other good games like 688i H/K, Sub Command and Dangerous Waters only have mods that add up to like 150, altogether?

[Sailor Steve]

Because modders aren't machines, or even employees. A modder makes the mods he wants for the game he likes. Sometimes a modder will make a mod on request, but even then it's from the forum he reads for the game he likes.

By and large every modder started out knowing nothing, and learned how to make mods for the game he likes. If you want mods for the games you like you may have to do the same.

[Rockin Robbins]

And it tends to be a function of how many people play the game and how long they keep playing the game after they get it. Generally a modder is a player who is somewhat an expert at playing the game and who sees enough replay value to stay involved.

Sometimes it comes together in a perfect storm, like SH3. There was no similar game out there as SH3 just reinvented the diesel-electric submarine simulation genre. This concentrated all players for that category of games into a single pool of talent.

This is really rare. SH4 didn't do as well because it wasn't the only game in the category and just diluted the modding pool. SH5 did the same in a lesser manner.

So to get a large modding community you need a large playing community, a game with extensive replay value and little or no equivalent games to dilute the modding pool.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by JasonKR

Is there any reason why a game like SH3 has over a thousand mods whereas other good games like 688i H/K, Sub Command and Dangerous Waters only have mods that add up to like 150, altogether?

I wonder the same thing sometimes. It's probably due to numbers, the diesel subsims sell in much larger numbers than nuke subsims, so there are more players per title to make mods.

[JasonKR]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Because modders aren't machines, or even employees. A modder makes the mods he wants for the game he likes. Sometimes a modder will make a mod on request, but even then it's from the forum he reads for the game he likes.

By and large every modder started out knowing nothing, and learned how to make mods for the game he likes. If you want mods for the games you like you may have to do the same.

I understand its about personal preference.. What I'm saying in that case then is that I cant believe SH3 is sooooo much more popular (when it comes to modding) than those other 3 games, since they are all damn good.. Maybe its just easier to make mods for SH3 than it is for the rest? Or, what makes SH3 "better" is that it just happens to have more mods when it could easily have been the other way around? So for some reason SH3 was just on the luckier side... unless those 3 other games arent really moddable... I know all the different sounds in 688i for instance is crammed into one big single file (dont you just hate that?) - so I guess you cant really create sound mods for that game, I suppose.

[JasonKR]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

And it tends to be a function of how many people play the game and how long they keep playing the game after they get it. Generally a modder is a player who is somewhat an expert at playing the game and who sees enough replay value to stay involved.

Sometimes it comes together in a perfect storm, like SH3. There was no similar game out there as SH3 just reinvented the diesel-electric submarine simulation genre. This concentrated all players for that category of games into a single pool of talent.

This is really rare. SH4 didn't do as well because it wasn't the only game in the category and just diluted the modding pool. SH5 did the same in a lesser manner.

So to get a large modding community you need a large playing community, a game with extensive replay value and little or no equivalent games to dilute the modding pool.

True......

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by JasonKR

What I'm saying in that case then is that I cant believe SH3 is sooooo much more popular (when it comes to modding) than those other 3 games, since they are all damn good.

That I don't know. Possibly RR is correct and it's the luck of the draw. SH3 was the first of its kind in bringing sub sims to a new level of feel and immersion.

I know all the different sounds in 688i for instance is crammed into one big single file (dont you just hate that?) - so I guess you cant really create sound mods for that game, I suppose.

SH3 (and 4 and 5), while having a large variety of Speech files, has all its other sounds in one folder as well. Creating a sound mod involves no more than finding a mixer that can save the same format as that used in the game, and then isolating the sounds you want and converting them to the correct format. I know this much because I have converted sound files for SH3 and SH4 myself. It's not that hard.