Ever since gamma introduced unique commanders, this question has been on my mind. Will people be able to download a program that allows them to develop their own commanders? I realize there is several drawbacks to this, but lets look at it: Pros It will allow for an entire boom of creativity and a new wave of sheer awesomeness to the game-play. It will bring old players back. This mechanic would be a major pull factor for PA. It would re-energize and bring back old fans of this awesome game. It will just be plain awesome. Recognizing rival commanders, leaving an insignia of your own- would just be epic. Cons It will specifically undermine people who payed thousands of dollars at the beginning for their own unique signature (that's a big one.) As one of the devs said (either @jables or @mkrater) making Commanders is not easy. It would require an extreme amount of time to make one, even with a software. This is a pro within itself, as it won't dilute the game's already awesome commanders with mediocre or sloppy ones. A screening process will be required- An UBER employee who takes a look and clicks "approve" or "reject" to make sure twelve-year-olds don't play the game with giant phallus robots. It wouldn't be a particularly hard job- but it would add to the already tedious work schedule that UBER seems to have. Let's hear some thoughts guys. Pros and Cons, guys
Well if Uber really wanted to include a commander dev kit, they would not have the resources to make something as powerful as blender or other modeling programs. They would probably have pre-modeled parts that users can switch around to make a unique commander. But I think you'll just need to learn modeling programs and make a mod for a new commander.
New commanders cannot be included in a standard server mod as their lobby selection is defined by serverscripts, which cannot be dynamically loaded by server mods on the fly and are instead only loaded once when the server is started. If this were changed new commanders would be possible.
PA is open source right? If that's the case, a team of fans could look into the way they work and create a program themselves. I could help too, I have some experience.
New commanders doesn't mean as much as you might think it does. First off, they must all play the same. If they're going to be user-created, they must play the same, with absolutely no variables. That also applies to commanders created by Uber, but that's beside the point. Making custom commanders with rocket launchers instead of uber cannons might seem like a cool idea, but it separates players and involves a supposedly cosmetic choice with the meta. That's not good. Secondly, the commanders are rarely seen past the starting phase of the game. Once you have T2, you probably won't touch your commander again unless you're moving it to another planet. Thirdly, custom commanders means custom textures and custom models. That means someone could fairly easily make a commander with a wild poly count or texture resolution and cause the game to have abnormal lag while that commander is being rendered. Finally, it'll kill the theme of the commanders. Sooner or later, someone is going to import a model from TA or some other game, and it's going to look painfully out of place compared to all the other commanders. That, or someone will try and make a model for themselves from scratch, and it's going to be of a much lower quality than the commanders already in the game. Yes, it means the players get to express their freedom, but the only players who'll get to do that are those who have a serious background in modeling, texturing, and animating. Everyone else is going to have something that looks like it was ripped from a game in the 20th century or some kind of phallic object. I'd much rather have Uber create more commanders than rely on the player base to make them. It's a custom engine. It would be beautiful to have access to the source code, but it's probably not going to happen. If it does, there'll be a serious price tag attached with heavy royalties.
Firstly, I didn't say customize weapons. They're just skins. Secondly, who cares? Thirdly, Pending system or resource limits. Finally, Commander Development Kit won't have the capacity to go outside of the theme.
