Moddability/File Access

[Anesah]

Hello folks. This is my first post here, but there is a feature that I would like to talk about, and at least get the community's (and the devs') take on it.

I would like the ability to access the game files in some human-readable format; of course not your engine or any other proprietary content, but modifying things like abilities, art, equipment, etc should be feasible depending on the design of your back-end. I like a three-tiered approach to making games, where you have a front end that most people see, what I call the mid-level, which amateur developers and modders can access, and then there's the proprietary back end, that does the real work. Usually, in games structures this way, the middle level is written in lua script or a data-driven format like xml (or a proprietary one, on both counts), depending on the level of control the developers want to give their community. Obviously, you didn't write your game this way, or we would already have the features I want.

I am both a computer enthusiast and work in the industry, so I love tinkering with software--especially games. I've found that many of the games that last and have active, long-term communities are those that allow for extensibility. I am certainly not telling you what to do with your game--which is already a work of art--but I've done all the tinkering I can, trying to decode the format of the save files, the .db files in the save folder, and anything in the game directory that would allow me to affect the game to no avail.

Even something as simple as releasing documentation on the format of your save files (or, better yet, a tool to make them readable and writable) would go a long way toward making people like me (if they exist...) happy.

So, what do some of you guys think? I know that it is possible that I'm asking for a lot, but even a small step for enthusiasts is a big step in the right direction. And the more extensible you make one game, the more extensible later games will be (this is an educated guess based on what I know of the devs' development cycle).

Thanks for listening

[fallen]

Anesah - thanks for the post and welcome to the forum. We are glad you are enjoying Heroes of Steel and we hope you'll try more Trese Brothers.

Moddability is on a long list of things we'd love to do if we had the time or funding. There are just two of us, so focus on our studio's goals is critical to allow us to be successful and continue to endeavor to make games. We're looking forward to a big 2015, and hope that our studio can continue to grow and stretch out to our "we'd love to" goals like moddability.

Heroes of Steel has no intended mod-access. The saved game files and core databases are not intended to be accessed.

EDIT: ps. our policy is always to be as frank and honest as we can about where we are at with developments, features, and these sorts of things. I hope that is the spirit in which this message is taken.