The Witcher 2 SDK and plans for the modding community

[Garrison72]

Well, it's good to know they at least are not opposed to releasing a toolset. No doubt they have their hands full right now. Thanks for responding MM360. And it's great Bethesda is offering this for Skyrim. Continued support for the pc platform is always great news!

 

[soldiergeralt]

i hope it comes out eventually. i just watched the dev diary 3 with explanation of kingdom soldiers. these are the most well done character models i have ever seen for any game. the artists and visionaries are truly deserving of praise.

 

[bonssaaay]

And RED also is hiring folks from community. Take me for instance

CDPR hired you? That's great news! What will you be doing for them?

QA At least for time of polishing TW2.

 

[Dark0ne]

Just going to poke this one back up to the top as we get closer to a release for the game..

 

[mdarwin]

Hello everyone,We want to release a tool set for modders just like we did with the first Witcher but we can't tell you when exactly this will happen. Please keep in mind that RED engine is a totally new thing and there are no games running on it yet so this will definitely take some time to implement.Just wanted to let you know that we love the modding community and we haven't forgotten about you guys=)

If they release a good/average TS for The Witcher 2, I will be defnetly will use it! As I am still modding for NWN and NWN2. A TS for a Game extends the play ability of such a Game, by a long Time.Just the support of such a tool has to be there (Patches) as well. The DAO TS fails in that department, so far!

 

[Chromie192]

Just going to poke this one back up to the top as we get closer to a release for the game..

bump!Just to add something so it's not spam. The Nexus sites are the reason I still play games like Oblivion. Oblivion was no where near the the awesomeness of Morrowind but the modding community really did change it all around. If it weren't for mods I would have given up on Oblivion a long time ago.Look at Dragon Age 2. People like it while not Origins people do like it. On the DAnexus there are mods for Dragon Age 2. Sadly Bioware has only said they want to update the toolset for DA2 and pretty much said nothing else. Evenutally this game will be at the back of our minds and with out people constantly making mods people will forget about it. Witcher 1 has some great modules but sadly there aren't a whole lot. With a proper tool set we can see more people modding and add stuff to the game that the develoeper's never put in. Like in Oblivion Deadly Combat or Thieves Aresenal, Fallout 3 fellout mod (Now i cant play FO3 with out removing the green) or Dragon Age Adonay's weapon replacer. Better yet some modders release fixes for game. Currently in DA2 there is a bug that for me hasn't been fixed. Two certain companions slow your character's attack speed and movement speed to a crawl. There is a mod that actually fixes this yet Bioware seems to slow to react and do it themselves. DarkOne, nice seeing you here!

 

[chauntea]

Indeed its nice to see you here Dark0ne! I've been a part of the nexus community since 2006 and I visit it very often to download and review new mods, share images, discuss video games or even ask for technical help. Community is very helpful and I would really like to know about CDPR's stance on this. Hopefully we'll hear something from them in the future!

 

[zax19]

I usually use mods whenever I can, the OOO for Oblivion or several mods for Mount and Blade. I don't want to read all 4 pages but my take on this is that mods are great for an indie game like Mount and Blade because the community is able to fix some design faults and add many details which are missing in the original game. Considering the RED engine and their toolkit (editor) it might be a sort of competition for CDPR to release it because I'd expect them to continue producing additional adventures. Honestly, I expect them to offer the RED engine for other games, or at least use it for DLCs and future games because they invested into developing it. Or they could release the editor for TW2 and offer to integrate it (feature it) in the DLC content for a share of the revenue....When I compare it to Neverwinter Nights, there were several mods, community expansion packs and more importantly multiplayer servers, but BW was still able to release new content as an expansion. With TW2 I'm not sure there would be much content which could be done only by CDPR, maybe voiceover with good sound quality, some game design updates or new RPG elements, as it was with TW1.So for me it comes down to their plan with DLCs and if they intend to control the development of the game. Releasing modding tools/editor could mean that their DLCs would be less popular, not as exclusive. E.g. there is story A available for 5 dollars, but there is story B available for free. Also some community mods might take design path opposite to the official mods.If they were to produce TW2 and continue to their next game then I'd expect full array of tools available. But if they want to control the future of TW2 then we might not see the tools before their next title comes out.

 

[spaceritual]

Any news on the SDK/Toolkit yet? I think the release of a toolkit would extend the life of the game and ensure sales as people seeing the game is still being played will buy it to see what all the excitement is still about , the case in point here would be Oblivion.

It is 6 years old or so and still people buy it and mod it as well as buying Bethesda's other games, the ability to mod seems to work as an extra push for the game not as a loss to the developers revenue.

Also adding longevity to your titles would also encourage players to invest in something they know will entertain them for years to come .

I did a search for toolkit and hopefully my question has not already been answered but after playing the two main story lines I have not gone back to Witcher 2 , an SDK would get me back and involved.

 

[mikhailrc]

I left some post about this issue in another sub-forum. No need to copy/paste, I just link to it.

http://en.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?/topic/24953-any-mods-that-change-tw1-geralt-face-morph-or-hair/page__p__737650#entry737650

 

[silverfoxx]

Bit of a lurker here on the witcher forums but thought I would like to post a bit about this issue.

I would describe myself as a bit of a hardcore gamer but I got into TW a bit late when TW was on special offer on steam in 2010.
After a few days I had played through the witcher and really enjoyed it have to say one of my top all five games, and then I came onto these forums after playing the modded adventures made by the community included in the Enhanced Edition, to find more and I did and again wasnt dissappointed by TW community and found some great adventures and in total clocked up over 150hrs of gameplay for the TW.

Playing the TW and especially the mods made me pre order TW2 for release.

However so far I have been really dissappointed by TW2 (not the graphics) but the game is easy and short I was done within 14 hours (first day), I even played through again to see both sides but even with that my total gameplay has been only 39 hours probably 5 hours getting the few achievs I didn't get on the first two play throughs.

I think the only part of the witcher 2 I enjoyed was Flotsam.

As it stands unless there are are tools for the modders to create adventures and other mods then I doubt I will be ever going back to play the TW2.

However I have just come on here and seen that Corylea has released Medical Problems 2 for TW so I'm gonna download that and play through that adventure sometime this weekend.

So I would strongly urge that tools are released so I can enjoy more of TW2. As to be honest the last installment wasnt enough on its own...

 

[spaceritual]

Surely there must be some news on the Construction Kit by now ? it has been nearly a year since this thread opened and still nothing ?

 

[gregski]

Surely there must be some news on the Construction Kit by now ? it has been nearly a year since this thread opened and still nothing ?

Nothing.

It's been hinted in one of the interviews, that considering the amount of work they have right now plus the need to adapt the tools so the community can actually use them it will take at least around 1-1.5 years.

 

[Garrison72]

^^^While it's better late than never, that's too long. Many PC gamers will have left the game by then. Imo mod tools should be bundled at release to keep the greatest number of people glued to the game.

This is also why I wish they would have outsourced the port for the funbox version.

 

[gregski]

^^^While it's better late than never, that's too long. Many PC gamers will have left the game by then. Imo mod tools should be bundled at release to keep the greatest number of people glued to the game.

Who knows, maybe they will surprise us in 2012?

 

[GuyNwah]

Imo mod tools should be bundled at release to keep the greatest number of people glued to the game.

While it would be great for the fans who want to mod and the ones who appreciate modding, it would be impractical and uneconomic.

Everything you add to a game costs time and money. Time is even more important than money, when it comes to meeting a release date, because every day you miss that release date means a day of zero sales; it means diminished expectations and earlier discounting. While a Construction Kit may counter the diminished expectations and prolong the life of the game as a profitable product, if putting effort into it means a delayed or missed release date, or bugs not solved in the initial release, all its benefits will not cover the initial damage.

Usually this means product and development management must be brutal in restricting the initial release of the game to the core functionality, to make sure it is well done and on time.

I'd prefer to see CDPR and a well-formed fan group with some talent in SDK development and reverse engineering meet at the center circle and say "we have more economic things to do than develop a Construction Kit, but you may do so with our blessing and so much technical support as you need".

 

[80maxwell08]

Honestly a SDK would be really good for sales down the line especially since how demanding it is now but in a few years the price for a computer to max TW2 would probably be cut in half or more. Being able to pick TW2 up then to play it on max settings with a bunch of mods in it would definitely be awesome. This reminds me I need to start modding oblivion sometime but it seems all the mods I want require more mods for them.

 

[username_17]

Well, well... nothing did change since I left 2 years ago... and then the people wonder why all good modders left and were gone to other games. ^^

I don't know if DarkOne is still hanging around here (I think he has given up just like the modding community did long ago), but I still want to give my 2 cents to this thread.

I attempted to make contact with CDProjekt on this issue but have been told that they are not ready to discuss any plans for an SDK as yet.

They will never discuss it or even support modders, they didn't with TW1 the whole time, they also will not do it with TW2 if there ever will be a toolset for it.
When I see how old this thread is, and that DarkOne has only 8 posts in all that time then I know what happened and why he doesn't look into this again.^^

I totally agree with the rest of DarkOne's posting.

I also totally agree with Corylea's posting on the first page.

When the D'jinni for TW1 came out there were several really good modders around in this forums, Red Flame Team, Ifrit-Team, Simon Brooke, Arkray, myself etc... programmers, graphic designers and lots of other people with good ideas and good knowledge.
I can only speak for myself now, 'cause it seemed always that polish modders did get at least a bit of support somehow. But I as a german/international modder still remember the hundreds of PN's I sent to Eriash and other RED's, how often I felt like a beggar when talked to Eriash in Skype, how often I then asked Red Flame or Ifrit if they can do something for getting help with toolset and/or support somehow, but nothing did come from CDPR.
In the end the above mentined modders, including myself, did all the work to find out how things were working in the D'jinni, writing some first tutorials for it and so on.

After getting more and more frustrated every day with CDPR's no-modding-support-tactics, the best modders left and made their stuff for other games.

For me modding games is my hobby, if CDPR is not able/will not support my hobby it's pretty simple: I play TW2 and if finished and no toolset is out I will go to another game or back to an older game and make my mods for those other games. See? Pretty simple. It's not my problem if TW2 will be dead after 2 years or if it will still live after 5 years like NWN or Oblivion. It's their problem, so why should I worry? I can do my hobby with many other games that are out.

Oh and:

The problem with support comes from bad timing. There was time when CDPR strongly supported all modders but then there was no non-Polish modders around that I know of.

That's not true! I was here (Germany), Simon Brooke (Scottland) was here, Arkray (Spain) was here, several others... they were all here from the very beginning and only left because of horrible/no support.

Just wanted to let you know that we love the modding community and we haven't forgotten about you guys=)

^^ Hehe yes, as I said above: I know how it feels to be loved by you as "your" modder.

The people at CDPR may have changed, but with a look at this thread the overall strategy how to proceed with your modders doesn't look like it has changed at all.


Also I want to mention that I am not lucky how Bioware sold their soul to EA and released all that DL content for money, for me as modder it means, I still do my own stuff and can/should be able to implement it in the game then, or I have to buy all the DLC's to finally have the content the community wants to see in my mods too.
But not everybody is a rich millionaire and can efford all the DLC's, so you can imagine that a mod wihtout all the DLC stuff will never be one of the best. So for not-rich people like me it means I have to look for another game for which I can efford to get the needed modding-stuff!
Heck, it even begins with things like an im-/exporter for Blender, companies always seems to think that every good modder has the 5000 bucks to buy a damned 3D Studio or Maya or such, so they would need no im-/exporting tools.
So if CDPR goes the same way with TW2 then good luck to them but without me.

Several months ago marketing & PR people decided that modding community is an unimportant detail.

That's CDPR how i knew them.
It may be true that I am an very unimportant detail... but really, I think a company that sees their modding community as an "unimportant detail" should fire their whole marketing and PR department.^^
One or two modders are truly unimportant, but thousands of modders are NOT!
Several games show this, and even CDPR can't be too blind to see this. Especially in these times where money making is essentiell to a company they should not be so blind that they can't see how many more copies of their games could be sold if they have a good (and supported) modding community.

But well... I had a reason why I left long ago and did no more mods for TW1... and if you ask me: I have no hope that something will change with TW2, even if we will once have a toolset for it.^^

 

[Garrison72]

Who knows, maybe they will surprise us in 2012?

I hope so. TW1 has amazing mods and adventures courtesy of the community, and it's so cool that when I bought the game these came bundled with the disk.

I hope CDPR can get the toolset out for us PC users soon so we see the same thing with TW2.

 

[bonssaaay]

After getting more and more frustrated every day with CDPR's no-modding-support-tactics, the best modders left and made their stuff for other games.

It's very interesting opinion coz:
- several developers were working half an year in order to prepare toolset for modders
- handbook covering basics had been delivered with D'jinni and it stands for most of content of D'jinni wiki
- modders always could ask for promoting their stuff, even for posting news like "team X looking for 3D artists"

The truth is D'jinni toolset isn't too flexible and easy to use. It's really amazing what modders of TW1 achieved

How good modding support looks like? Company releases toolkit (and basic docs) you can easily use without ever asking developers for help. Community supposed to be your support. Community builds its own distribution channels like Mod DB, Nexus. Developer could promote the best works.
If released toolset isn't good enough, nobody won't help you. Even developer ;]

Heck, it even begins with things like an im-/exporter for Blender, companies always seems to think that every good modder has the 5000 bucks to buy a damned 3D Studio or Maya or such, so they would need no im-/exporting tools.

Nobody thinks you have $5000 to pay for software. Simply Blender isn't effective tool to create assets for games. Very few companies use it. And if they do, the reason is price or "love to Open Source"
When you build a game in studio using 3Ds Max, you write tools fitting to 3Ds Max. It takes months and years to make those tools functional, stable and effective.

Let's imagine, you finished your game. Now you wanna create the next one. Programmers have to start working on it.
Nobody have time to write tools for Blender your company never used, on code that already is outdated. You need to ensure tools are working properly although you've very limited time. And... what for?
Releasing plugins for Blender is possible only if company was developing these plugins along with game.

Do not get me wrong, I'd like to see game developers providing plugins for all tools that modders use. But Blender isn't common tool in gamedev.