Developer's Kit

[puckstop98]

I'm not going to profess to know the first thing about game development or zone design.

Would FunCom ever consider making developer kits available for users to try and create new content? This content (zones, pvp maps, and/or quests) would have to go back to funcom for final approval, editing, and rewards before being posted but it might provide a little more content with less developer hours.

The review of work is critical to avoid the unmitigated disaster user created stuff that populated a lot of Neverwinter's foundry.

Users that submit content that gets incorporated could be given funcom points or extra time on their subscriptions.

(By the way this isn't intended as complaining about a lack of new content but a way of hopefully seeing more).

[TribunLeader]

cant imagine FC will put out a developers kit. such a developers kit would most likely open doors wide for exploits since it gives deep access to the code. i am no pro at this but its highly unlikely imo.

[Khaletohep]

It would be very, very cool though. User-generated content is cheap content! At least "simple" outdoor areas should be possible, and would be pretty fun, I think.

Even if you could just design a landscape and place some pre-defined mobs there, it would be a fun thing.

Exploiting or designing deliberately easy content might be a problem. But with a character check before handing out the developer kit ("Are you, or have you ever been, a member of the communist party?" / "Imagine you're in a desert... there's a tortoise lying on its back just in front of you..."), let other users pre-check the content and then check the remaining stuff themselves. Should be less work than doing everything itself.

[Jota180]

This has been a successful thing on many a game and something that's kept people playing them long after they'd have otherwise stopped.

I can see how it works on the likes of Left4Dead2 where players can choose whether to download individual campaign maps or not.

I'm not sure at all how the FC world works behind the scenes or whether this is even possible.

I'm guessing it'd be aimed strictly at the PVP side of things.

[lmagowz]

cant imagine FC will put out a developers kit. such a developers kit would most likely open doors wide for exploits since it gives deep access to the code. i am no pro at this but its highly unlikely imo.

AoC flooded with cheaters, looks like someone already have deep access to the code

[Religolibri]

Yeah well, probability that a single person could manage to do something decent with this is close to zero anyway. ^^

[stiiixy]

Been suggesting a dev-kit for user-created content (even simple tools just to submit questlines and FC can connect the A/V resources then!) for years.

Means more time not spent on whatever it is they are doing to the game. Doesn't matter it could free up lots of time for themselves, and allow everyone more content.