Modders: We need to talk

I like this a lot better than the idea of paid mods.
Also a dev wiki of what all the variously setting do would be muchly appreciated. It's hard tweaking thinks when you have to trial and error just to figure out what they do. I also like the idea of modders getting early access to updates and other future content.

Editaying money to not have to see ads,like a premium membership, would a good idea as well

 

I'm sure that the mods going up for sale would have to be approved by the staff, they shouldn't let anything like that slip by.

 

im fine with ads as long as there isnt 5 million of them

 

same here,i am fine with ads,as long as there aren't a ton of them,much better idea than the paid mods. oh,and the money generated from the ads can go to the modders. so it is a win-win the players get free vehicles,and the modders get money for their good quality mod.

 

One view of a 30 second ad most definitely does not bring in the same money as a one-time mod purchase, say 99 cents. You'd have to load the page with ads everywhere just to equal a normal paid mod price. Wishful thinking, though.

Same as above. Also, I think only certain modders would get access to early versions of the game builds. Me, for example, I mainly focus on skins. Other than early access to UV maps, there's really no reason that I would need early updates. Yes, it's cool, and yes, I would love it, but it's just not needed. If not controlled/moderated properly, the amount of people making low quality mods and skins just to feel like they're special/just to get early access would skyrocket.

Sure, ads will bring in money, but how much? If ads are added conservatively, there's probably no way that it would match the income of mod prices.
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"..does not represent any specific individual by name"

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I definitely agree that "Most Resources" should be removed. I make mods because it's... well, fun.
But having a counter turns it into a sort of competition to those who want to be ranked #1, emphasizing quantity over quality. Hell, I've been getting more aware of the mods I release. I hold back smaller skins for like tires and stuff or skins that took less than an hour or so and simply don't release them publicly, so I don't clutter the repo. It's not the best method, but I'd hate to be known for a metric whackton of mediocre quick mods.

 

Duh... I guess that's gone too far.
Tom is just dramatized a lot...
#dramaqueen #dramaalert

 

I would really like more information on material editing for BeamNG. I tried to start making a custom map with new models but kept hitting roadblocks when it came to importing models with materials that had more than one assigned texture (2x Diff/2x Spec/2x Normal). Ran into some annoying issues like Anistropic Filtering not working when more than one texture was added, or textures assigning themselves to the wrong faces. I've been 3d modeling for over 15 years now, and have never encountered something as frustrating as importing objects into BeamNG.

For reference, here's the thread I made asking questions:
http://www.beamng.com/threads/tryin...ng-issues-help-appreciated.16839/#post-264936

It's frustrating because I had so many questions outside of the Wiki (or I was doing something outside of blender where the Wiki didn't help) that the developers just don't have time to baby me through it. I don't expect them to, so i just dropped the project.

I want to make a city map like Riverside so badly, it's all I've been interested in, but I know as soon as I get back it will just be a frustrating mess. Plus I have other questions too, like the current polygon limit the maps can have, how many LOD stages each model can have? The size each model can be before there becomes issues?

If anyone is reading this, for the love of God please become my sensei to get my models in the game correctly. Nadeox helped get me part of the way there (Thank you so much for your help!), I just need multi-material help.

I haven't been motivated for years by a project, this is the first time I've really wanted to spend a lot of time making something, just for the roadblocks to make it too stressful.

 

a side note on ads, adblock... They're bypassable. Although beamng is on my exceptions list as adblock used to screw up the steam green light banner thing

 

I agree with @SixSixSevenSeven as I also have AdBlock, meaning the entire purpose of ads is defeated when AdBlock is present. Because I'm an AdBlock user, I'm totally against having ads for mods.

 

Hi everyone !

So I have also read whole thread. Just to point it out I'm not a modder I'm not even very active user. I just play BeamNg becouse I like it. Keeping that in mind I just want to say that I thing paid mods is a great idea for me. I belive that people that spend time and make something out of nothing deserve to get some reward. My only objection is with quality. I have spend some time on testing car mods and 99% of theam are not very good if you compare them to official cars and I would rather paid for car mod if it was official car quality than have 100 low quality mods for free. As it is for now I'm only using map mods like Altitiude etc. Of course there is a price aspect and how much would you charge for those kind of mods. Any numbers in mind? Hope it's nothing like £20 or something like that with the game itself priced at ~£18.

Anyway from my point of view paid mods not a problem

ps Sorry for spelling mistakes. I'm nowhere near at being good at languages

Good Luck

 

Kickstarter sounds nice, I'm on the fence about "UGC" method, two years ago, I was self employed with cash, not online transacted money, which meant I had to go to the bank and shove money in their face to put it online, bit of a pain. I'm just saying it may be a little hard for people that are having to convince their parents to pay for everything of which was online. I honestly don't mind that anymore, but others might.
as long as "UGC" is a $1 or under, I'll do it. But than again, I'll do it anyway, because if a mod is too expensive, I just won't buy it. tough luck, but true.

 

Been collecting my own info, got lazy and called it the 10,000 club (because there was too much data to put down and I want to sleep). 21 Mod makers collectively generating 345,727 downloads out of a forum with 124,706 members. I think that's pretty decent.

 

My two cents on the paid mod thing; Ive done mostly free mods over the past decade, but even free mods pay handsomely, if they're good enough. They get your portfolio out there. Developers are always combing the mod sections looking for 'product'. Ive been hired several times for pro work, just by releasing good quality content. Donations are nice, but the returns are less than $1/1000 downloads in my experience. I may see 1 or 2 $5 donations for a hall of fame track on a super popular game like rFactor.

As far as what I need from the developers; I'm hesitant to go all BeamNG for level creation, for the above reason. If I get contacted by an outside developer for a contract, and my level is 80% built in beamed, Ill have to put another 80% of work in 3DS to recreate it for them. I'm hinting at implementing multiple terrain types for static objects, and importing forest systems from separate models, rather than instances painted in the editor, so most, if not all 3d stuff can be handled externally.

Also, the editor is problematic; Im not sure how much it can be fixed by your team, but I have problems saving materials; saving materials with the same name, but for different objects saves to a different file in the beamng/art folder, and textures wont load if they are saved from files anywhere in the Documents subfolders. Id also like decal roads to be buildable on static object surfaces.

 

As long, as paid mod wouldn't change game itself it's very good idea. I mean it shouldn't be - pay 2$ and get better performing car in campaign or (planned but not promised) multiplayer mode. Skins/rims(should have same parameters)/stering wheels etc allowed, as long as there will be enough of them in stock version of game, then it would work good for everybody
- BeamNG team - less fees for used transfer, actually a bit of money for them = better content and game - that 70/30 is pretty fair
- High Quality "Modders" - They really deserve something for their mods ( range like 0.1-5$ would be fine IMO ) = more high quality mods, and overall even higher quality of them
- Community - we'd get better game look - *less financial problems for BeamNG team gives us as example better controllers support becouse BeamTeam would have enough $$$ to afford some etc - maybe even VR support who knows? More workers so game will be finished sooner or will have better and more content or features*, "subscribed" mods support so they'll work constantly, and some even better mods.

Piracy isn't actually a big deal, they are ways to prevent from it.
TBH I wouldn't buy any mod, becouse I simply can't. Also I don't spent any money in any games.

Peoples like me will always be like "No it's bad idea - some arguments" becouse they'd have lack of nice content in game at "this" moment, but they don't look forward, actually it's good idea, and it will be good for everybody. BeamNG Team try to solve this issue like a real proffesionals and they discuss it with us, which is nice, and they try to implement this feature very friendly for modders, and mods users. If I'd have to "vote" I'd say TOTALLY YES.

 

Thanks for letting me know. AR162B is added to the list. But the download number is more relevant than you think. I agree it's not really a contest. Some may see it that way. You can glean your own stats from that list in regard to who has the most popular vehicle, map, skin, scenario etc. That's why I was careful to say "collectively generating". These numbers are not based on updates or re-downloads as updates are added to the total downloads for that particular mod, an update is extra work to improve the mod. Whether updated or not they are still essentially the same mod. Reasons for re-downloads are irrelevant, If people liked the mod and lost it somehow or the mod is updated, they are going to download it again. If they think it's good enough.

 

Just dropping to say: even if I had a computer that could run this and the 3D modelling skills required to make mods, I would probably not take advantage of any paid-mod scheme and I probably wouldn't download from anyone who did.

 

I would go with the Kickstarter idea. It seems to be the best way for modders to get some reward from their mods and people could still download for free. It keeps the definition of being a mod. The Paid mods idea is essentially 3rd party DLC which I don't think is a good idea. DLC is pretty hated these days. Also this system could be abused with low quality mods.

I would say go for the kickstarter idea!

 

The system can't be abused. They'll have very strict quality standards for paid mods.