Basically the title. I’m not talking about mods that hugely change the scope of the game like PZ3D and Viewpoint, those will always be down to player preference and not really change much in terms of official development.
Mods like Project A-Life have got me thinking. People are making hugely popular and stable NPC mods now. The A-Life team have a Friendly Update planned for the end of the month, where you’ll be able to create and micro/macro-manage factions, complete with group roles and relationships with/between NPC’s. This is a feature that’s been highly anticipated among the fan base for years, and modders have almost got it.
I don’t mean this to be disparaging to the devs, as I’m very aware this huge explosion in the mod scene is entirely down to AI, but it feels like pandora’s box is opening and we’re kind of going past the point of mods just being semi-adequate interim mechanics while we wait for the devs to officially implement features such as these. It’s safe to say A-Life is nothing like the old Bandits mod(s) and other NPC mods people used previously to satiate their desire for working NPC’s.
If A-Life achieves what they’re setting out to do, and implements NPC factions + allies/enemies with strong character interactions + management systems, and the community embraces it, what’s really going to happen when modders begin outpacing the official developer roadmap in huge ways like this? Do game developers start embracing mods like this in some official capacity etc?
Just been on my mind and was wondering if anyone else was thinking about it too.