I think this a legitimate topic.

LP has implied that some mods will be allowed to be incorporated into F4 AF. Yet 2 months after the game release no further details have emerged. Alot of would-be contributors have been on hold pending the unvealing of this mod policy.

Meanwhile....OK I won't go there.

But come on guys, what is the mod framework?

Respectfully,

uhoh7

Fret not

The framework will be published within 10 days, most likely. But, it has been just six weeks or so since we released. We've been rather busy on other things in the meantime, like patches to improve gameplay

Overdue according to what published date that it was supposed to be done? Take your time LP, the same people that are complaining about the policy not being out ON THEIR TIME TABLE, are going to complain about the policy itself, no doubt.

If the mod policy is going to be good - hurry up.

If its going to be bad - take your time.

Why did poor calves have to suffer for this policy?

-PumpyHead

To keep it from becoming bull.

T-Rex - LOL

Pumpy - LMAO

PR - That will happen regardless, stay tuned to your local station!

hehehe

No worries, DR.

Does this mean that you guys have been working on the flight model?

Ditto BeerDog's 3 props.

"To keep it from becoming bull."

lol...

Personally, I hope mods are kept in check. Allow a few to keep the artsey crowd happy but keep Falcon more about joysticks and less about paint brushes. Just one man's opinion.

Thanks for the reply, and thanks to the Mods here at SimHQ for letting the thread stand...so far anyway hehe.

Everyone can appreciate the work LP has put into F4 and the herclean task of getting the sim back on the shelves.

But a considerable degree of the successful sales has been due to those who have kept the sim alive over the years with volentary work.

Oleg has proved the value of interacting with and responding to community concerns. Another school of thought has it that the online community really has no effect on sales or success.

What sort of potential Mods are we talking about?

Theaters. huge amounts of work have gone into new theaters and campaigns, like the Angola Theater, which has a real following in SA and the community.

Terrain. hi rez tiles and increased relief

Functionality. in game coms which work similar to the real radio, IFF, and many other features.

This stuff is not pipe dreams.Its all been done.

The bottom line is that these add-ons are optional, if you like the straight install, np, keep it that way.

Besides an improved sim this stuff creates real excitement and real sales.

But the greatest mod would be...OK OK I'm stopping.


uhoh7

I agree. I am a huge fan of F4:AF. I think LP have done a great job to get the core program much more stable - especially in multiplayer - and for improving the campaign tremendously. Getting Falcon 4 back onto the shelves (and with good sales fgiures I am guessing ?) has put the Falcon franchise back in business. Fantastic. Many people are aware, though, of a number of additional major improvements to the original game that were put in place by the community over the past 6 years that have not been implemented in F4:AF (for good reasons touching on IP and stability in many cases, I understand). If LP can find a way to bring some of these into the AF fold without negating their achievements in terms of stability and multiplayer compatability then they will have a big long-term winner on their hands. This tremendous potential is probably why some people are champing at the bit to hear and understand what the modding policy will be and how it will be implemented.

Without for a moment pre-empting the release text of the framework document, nor its detail, some of what you have touched upon is not something which would form part of any third party modification framework. Of course there are certain things which people have been talking about which will form part of the agreement, but I would want to be straight with everyone by saying we cannot accommodate everyone's wishes. I'm sure people understand this, and also that incorporating everything is something which obviously detracts from other things we can be doing. We have a detailed timetable ahead for the next product, which must also be factored in. Anyway, that's it from me on this subject until the framework is published.

" I'm sure people understand this, and... " -C3PO

I am pretty sure some people dont understand any of this! As a matter of fact, I am pretty sure I have no idea whats going on anymore.

Hope you can just say one more brief thing on the subject.

What exactly will it be called, or has it not been decided yet?

You used the phrase above, but Kurt used a phrase like "Community Interaction Framework."

Those are two different things, I think. Or are there two different policies in the making?

Sorry if this is overstepping any boundaries.

i understand that you cannot say anymore until the publication of the framework document. But i'm guessing that you are speaking of :
-additional theaters
-avionics improvments

If i am right, indeed, i wouldn't want third parties to do this kind of coding : too risky for the stability...But is Leadpursuit gonna do it... improve,work more on Allied Force.
Actually, what i am really curious about is the addon policy by LeadPursuit.

Absolutely - LP should be the ones who implement most or all changes. Issue is that I believe LP has intimated elsewhere that they won't do much in the way of add-ons for Falcon 4 as this would get in the way of their new project(s). Personally I would argue that they should cement their user base by bringing Falcon 4 bang up to date with one or more(paid-for) add-ons over the next two years before betting their company on a major new software product. Makes sense commercially to me.

I suspect their underlying concern is the ancient graphics engine which is heavily intertwined with the rest of Falcon 4. The trouble is that building a brand new generation product always seems like a great idea but company after company have underestimated the enormous effort required to re-create previous generation functionality. Even Microsoft, IBM and Apple have all stumbled badly here. The incremental approach looks commercially much lower risk to me and I think would tie in a broad customer base. Other community modified versions of Falcon 4 have shown that the graphics can be improved to a very high level with the existing core code. Now that they have finally debugged this, LP could realise the original integrated battlefield dream without having to go to a new piece of software. The current core code is strong enough to support (i) even higher quality graphics; (ii) ability to fly other planes (some issues with avionics ?); (iii) sophisticated "red" on "blue" games given (ii) and multiplayer stability; (iv) additional theatres (some already developed and probably available).

Just a thought ...

There is a relatively simple way to handle mods which would both protect LP from support issues, make nearly everyone very happy and I believe substancially increase revenue for LP.

I outline it here:

http://forums.frugalsworld.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=92309

uhoh7

I agree completly, i am sure Falcon 4 has still enough potential to be a commercial success. AF is, for me, the 1st brick into the construction of a wall.
I am sure LP were the first surprised by the huge success of AF, i am sure they would still be surprised by the success of an addon. There are lots of valid ideas in your post :

(i) even higher quality graphics; It would be good but it is not my primary concern (i am so much used to Falcon's graphics now).

(ii) ability to fly other planes; They have the rights on the exe, they could probably model a Mig29 with its own avionics and FM if they wanted to do so.

(iii) sophisticated "red" on "blue" games given (ii) and multiplayer stability; Multiplayer would rock even more !!!

(iv) additional theatres (some already developed and probably available); why not an additional theater in the mideast ?