Era Mods

[uly]

As far as I've seen, the much-touted modability of Pirates! seem more like a myth. I can't speak for everyone, of course, but for me there is a clear distinction between "modification" and "customization": mods change the way the game works in different ways, whereas customizations merely change how the game looks. Obviously, all the so-called mods, including the official mods on the LE, are nothing more than cosmetic changes that are better described as skins. Now, I don't mean to tarnish the accomplishment of the many skinners here, I merely wish to express my dissappointment at the way Pirates! doesn't really facilitate easy modding.

That said, does anyone know how to add/change the era/scenarios? I.E. changing the year, cities, nations, etc. Is it even possible?

[Chuko]

I say Firaxis have a Construction Set all ready which they are holding out on us... just to spite us (perhaps an expansion) no one has yet has done this, although I would say it is possible...

That is the one big gripe of this Pirates Release, the lack of a Construction Set
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Captian of the Ryokuryuukai!

Status of Ships;
Sloop Syzer sunk, all hands presumed dead
Frigate Sezcka, 28 guns, 260 men
Sloop of War Aozora, 12 guns, 120 men

[Davos]

Indeed. Up to now we seem only to be able to customize certain aspects, namely skins, of the game. You can´t call this modding.

[crabber338]

There are some files in the packs that seem to point to scenerios and other events. I don't really see any central area that seems to control what goes where, so I fear that perhaps all that can really be done is modify current files. Thus, you can either change a skin or graphic or maybe change the model for the sword (but changes might be limited, because of hit detection and opponents reaction). There is nothing that seems like it would allow you to ADD new things like more ships for example, or more weapons to begin a duel with.

The fact that Firaxis has not released an editor also implicates that there are limitations on what can be done.

[Wolfwood]

Or that they were in a hurry to push the product out of the door, which is what I suspect.

There seems to be some graphic files in the .fpk files that aren't even used by the game (additional governor's daughters) and I can only see this (and the editor) as something that they were intending to put in (at least in the LE), but did not have the time...

[TheDS]

Indeed. I lot of things can be explained by assuming the game is not complete. If you recall, there was a minor flap about the game being set back about a month right before release. I would imagine, that as in most game companies, the boss said "We gotta get it out NOW" and the coders said "But we still need 6 months to finish it" and the artists said "Hey, we made it look pretty, isn't that enough?" So normally I would blame the boss, but in this case, it's obviously the artists at fault. It all looks pretty, so the images are done, and nowadays games only have to look good, they don't have to play good on release. If the game sells well, then they consider finishing, or just calling the finished product version 2 and selling it again.
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[dot hog]

I don't know who's at fault for the lack of mod-ability, but I'd like to know if Firaxis has addressed this publically anywhere. Have they mentioned expansions, editing tools, or even patches? Just curious...

[Davos]

Not yet... I suppose they currently work on the X-Box version of the game. And yeah, I think too that they hadn´t enough time to really finish Pirates. There are some details that were announced, but are simply missing. Where is the Silver Train, why doesn´t the treasure fleet anchor in towns, why can´t I use cannons in land battles, why are there skins not being used...? And if I recall correctly there definetely was word of an editor packed with the game.

[uly]

Agreed. Again, therein lies a major blunder of the current Pirates release: that there are plenty of unused art yet the very limited (virtually non-existent) modability makes it impossible to make better use of these art. Again, all the "modders" are limited to merely changing how things look instead of adding new content that may expand and extend the gameplay.

I know this is already off topic (well, I guess I started off topic), and I don't really want to get into a game review, but: IMHO, for a "open ended" game, Pirates has remarkably few things that players can do -- the gameplay goes stale quickly after you master dueling and dancing.

[rokchild]

All very valid points, thge possibility of an expansion would be nice, and a construction Kit would be really great too..

[Kiwegapa]

I miss the earlier era which was in the original Pirates! called The Silver Empire, set in 1560. Nearly all the settlements are Spanish and it's a rather difficult but fun setting if you like trying to stake a claim in the Carribean for France or England. Trading in this era included hides instead of the later sugar resource. Another era included the much talked about tobacco.

Modifying this would mean either adding a new menu option to the game or creating an external program to change game settings then launch a game. Thanks to our resident modders, we already have access to such things as what nation owns a town and what sort of wealth they posess.

Adding other things such as other resources or era-specific news would be harder and perhaps not worth pursuing, depending upon how the game info is stored. Era-specific ships would be very nice if it could be possible though.

[Carlos Lezama]

It would be cool to have a "construction set" or something like it, maybe with an expansion, as someone has pointed.

Maybe even the chance to practice piracy in other scenarios, away from the caribbean. After all, a lot of the "top 10 historical pirates" that you have to chase, had their carreers outside the caribbean and the timeframe of the game.
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"The King has forgiven me?
Bah, who is the King to forgive me?"
- Carlos Lezama, the Black Pirate.