Mods and Modding: Everything You Need to Know

A modification or mod is the changing of the program code in a video game to make it work in such a way that is different from its main version. Modifications can be made on the Real Dudes Inc site for whichever genre of game but are particularly famous in role-playing games, first-person shooters, and real-time strategy games.

Modifications are created by developers or the general public and can be entirely new games in and of themselves but modifications like the Phantom X Mod Menu are not stand-alone apps and demand that the user has the first release for it to run. They can add characters, modded weapons, music, armor, textures, life, levels, new items, enemies, money, storylines, models, and game modes. They can be multiplayer or single-player.

Modifications that contribute new content to the main game are usually known as partial conversions, while modifications that make a very new game are referred to as total conversions, and modifications that resolve bugs alone are known as unofficial patches.

Games operating on a personal laptop are usually designed with alterations in mind, giving room for modern PC games to be altered by gamers without much stress. Like the modifications from Real Dudes Inc, these modifications can contribute additional replay value and interest.

The world wide web offers a cost-effective medium to distribute and advertise mods, and they are now a very important factor in the overall success of a few games. Developers like Valve Bethesda Softworks, Re-Logic, Software, Crytek, Firaxis, Mojang, id Software, The Creative Assembly, and Epic Games offer many tools and documentation to help modification makers, upping the potential success made possible by a famous mod like Counter-Strike.

Mods can assist with continuing the progress of the initial game, even as the original become outdated. In such a case, players may have to ascertain they are talking about the unmodified game with regards to playing a game.

The term vanilla is usually employed in making this distinction. “Vanilla Battlefield 1942”, for instance, means the initial, unmodified game. With regards to vanilla games, the prefix “v” or “V” is often used together with the game title acronym, e.g., VQ3 means “vanilla Quake 3”.

Right from the 1980s, video game modifications have been employed for the main purpose of developing art, as opposed to a real game. They can consist of recording in-game action like a film, as well as trying to remake real-life areas in a game without any regard for gameplay value. Also check artistic video game mod, machinima, and demoscene.

Development

Most modifications do not go very far and are left without even earning a public release. Some are truly limited and simply include a few gameplay changes or just another loading screen while others are total conversions and can alter content and gameplay very well. Some mods become so famous and change themselves into unique games, with the rights being acquired and turned into an official mod. A group of modification developers may team up to create a “mod team”.

Game support for mods

The possibility for end-user alterations in games varies a lot, though it can have a modest correlation with the amount and quality of modifications created for a game.

In general, the most mod-friendly games will portray gameplay variables in other non-proprietary format files (for example in the Civilization series one can change the travel rate along roads and several other factors) or text, and have graphics of a basic format such as bitmaps.

Publishers can determine modification-friendliness as well in the way crucial source files are present (a few programs get their source material onto big proprietary archives, but others set the files into holders).

Games have different support from their publishers for mods, but usually require pricey professional software to do.

For advanced modifications that are total conversions, tough modeling and texturing software are needed to create original content. Advanced modifications can compete with the complexity and task of creating the real game content (short of the engine itself), making the differences in ease of modding small when compared to the entire amount of work needed.

Using an engine that is for instance, easy to introduce models into, is not of great help when modeling, making research, and creating a photorealistic texture for a game item. Due to this, other game characteristics like capabilities and popularity have a major effect on the number of modifications made for the game by users. A game that enables modding is claimed to be “moddable”.

The game industry is now facing the challenge of how well it should embrace the players’ contribution in making new material for the mod-communities or games to be part of their structure in the game. A few software companies accept and even promote such communities. Others though have decided to encircle their games in well-guarded copyright or IPR (Intellectual Property Regimes) and shut down sites that they believe to infringe their ownership of a game.

Tools

Modification-making tools are a series of construction sets for making modifications for a game. Pioneer commercial modification-making tools were the Bard’s Tail Construction Set (1991) and Boulder Dash Construction Kit (1986) that allowed users to make game designs in these series.

There are free content delivery tools available as well that make playing modifications easier. They assist with handling updates, downloads, and modification installation to enable people who are not very technically literate to play. Steam for Half-Life 2 modifications is an example.

Portability issues

For cross-platform games, modifications meant for the Windows version have for long not been compatible with the Mac OS X and/or Linux ports of the game. In most cases, this is because the publisher is concerned with focusing on the porting of the main game itself, when distributing resources for resolving the porting of modification-specific functions may not be very affordable for the lesser market share of various platforms.

Also, modifications set into platform-specific libraries are usually built only for the Windows platform, creating a lack of cross-platform usage even as the underlying game is very portable. In the same line of thinking, modification development tools are commonly provided just on the Windows platform.

Modification teams that don’t have either the resources or knowledge to build their modifications for other platforms at times send out their code and art assets to groups or individuals who can port the mod.

The modification specialist site for Macologist, Macs, has made GUI launchers and installers for various UT2004 mods and fixing cross-platform conversion challenges for modifications for other games.