Final nail in MOH:Airborne's coffin.

[Lamron]

forums.ea.com/mboards/thread.jspa?threadID=332397&tstart=0

I've been working with people on the team, including our technical director, and unfortunately I have to report that we won't be delivering mod tools for Airborne. The simple honest answer is that the version of Unreal Engine 3 we used to ship Airborne did not support modding. We have been involved in several code updates since the ship of the game, but the varied costs of integrating a newer version of UE3 backwards into Airborne to allow modding is prohibitive. There is too much code we'd have to update, and it would essentially mean rebuilding too much of the game's architecture.

A year before the game came out, EA GAMES had representatives out in the modding forums asking for input and swearing that this was going to be the most moddable game ever. They had long discussions with fans about what features they wanted and about bugs that were never fixed in previous games. They even met with a few of the top MOH modders. There was a huge effort from the community to help design what was to be the best game ever. They promised that almost all of those suggestions would be included in the game.

Then when the game was released, we found that they completely IGNORED every one of their promises, and not only ignored all the bug fixes, but invented new bugs for the new game. Its not even playable out of the box. Of course, they said they would fix everything in the patch. When the patch came, it fixed a few typos on the menus and added a buggy FFA mode, and that's about all. By now, almost everyone had abandoned the game (and the liars at EA). The few eternally optimistic people left hoped they could fix all the problems when the modding tools were released, as promised.

They finally admitted here that they never intended to let anybody fix anything. This "does not support modding" stuff is BS. They built it the first time, those same tools are still usable. The main problem is that almost all of the files are in some weird proprietary format that no one can open. At least give us something that can OPEN those files so people can try to fix it!

I don't know why EA would purposely destroy the MOH franchise. Why bother spending all the work and money to develop a game, if you're going to sabotage it? Did all the lies in the beginning pump up first-day sales enough to make it worth it?

Players will STILL be playing MOH:Allied Assault and SpearHead, after the last Airborne server goes down. And the only reason for this is that the modding community has fixed the worst of the bugs, and new mods are still being developed to keep it interesting.

[a Silly Person]

I read most of the posts from that link and all I can say is, wow.

What the heck happened there?

EA Games just totally ignored their own marketing research?

I guess that Airborne just became another single-player game, that will begin collecting dust as soon as a person has finished playing the last level.

[Gen.Savahoe]

Amen!!!! Too bad for them.....I am truly grateful for the hours upon hours That modders like you have put into MoHAA...They have given me hours and hours of enjoyment....and I have had the opportunity to get to know some great people because of them (You)...I know I usually have a wise crack to post....but this time I am serious!!!!!!!!!
THANKS LAM!!!!!!!!!!!

[Death's Shadow]

EA produced a few other MOH flops too.. moh pa and moh vanguard.

One would think they would have learned from their mistakes, they are driving the knife deep into the heart of the moh community. I still love playing here at LP and will continue too.

Thank you for all your efforts to provide us the gaming home that we love Lam. I am truly supprised that EA did not contact you for in put into AB. I have slummed a few other servers over time.. Most of the ones I saw were running your mods.

Good job and keep the faith..

[a Silly Person]

Something just occurred to me. No Modding would mean less control over their software, less access to adjusting settings and other things.... this sounds a lot like what Microsoft is doing every time they upgrade Windows.

I would be willing to bet that certain management at EA Games is thinking that there would be more profits by having a new product to sell every couple of years after everyone is tired of the "old version".

They really don't make too much money if they offer a game that is really fun to play, reliable to run and easily mod-able....unless they would offer some modifications themselves. They could sell new maps and skins packages and the like.

Highly-mod-able..... This is only true because of people like Lamron.

Thanks again!

[vinsanity]

sillyperson said:

I read most of the posts from that link and all I can say is, wow.

What the heck happened there?

EA Games just totally ignored their own marketing research?

I guess that Airborne just became another single-player game, that will begin collecting dust as soon as a person has finished playing the last level.

Hell, I never made it that far as no one else bought it that I know of (except Baku). So for me it was $50 thrown in the trash...

[RedRock]

It reads like a Dilbert strip, where stupid decisions are made by management just because they can!

[Death's Shadow]

sillyperson said:

Something just occurred to me. No Modding would mean less control over their software, less access to adjusting settings and other things.... this sounds a lot like what Microsoft is doing every time they upgrade Windows.

I would be willing to bet that certain management at EA Games is thinking that there would be more profits by having a new product to sell every couple of years after everyone is tired of the "old version".

They really don't make too much money if they offer a game that is really fun to play, reliable to run and easily mod-able....unless they would offer some modifications themselves. They could sell new maps and skins packages and the like.

Highly-mod-able..... This is only true because of people like Lamron.

Thanks again!

Very true Silly, however as with the other game that we play. People become bored with the game if something new is not added very frequently. If it is their intention to release "mod" packs for mohab they better get too it. People are getting grumpy already.

My guess is they will cut their losses and run, as they did with the other moh flops.

[Lamron]

dreamingshadow said:

People become bored with the game if something new is not added very frequently.

Before I had high-speed internet I could only play the single player MOH:AA. After playing it a couple of times, I started making minor mods to it. One thing I still like doing is playing a level with different weapons than the game gives you. Like if a level gives you only a Thompson to clear a building, I try it with a shotgun. And I made both mine and the AI weapons much more powerful. Its hilarious to throw mustard gas at a group of AI. They aren't programed to recognize it as dangerous, so they don't run away. They just look confused and choke and fall to their knees. LOL

[Death's Shadow]

LMAO Lam.. so now we know were it began.. I must get busy on my mod tools now that I can run them. Man do I have a lot to learn.


speaking of slow speed internet.. I am getting very tired of my crappy ISP dsl speed.. and still they say we are a year out from 5MB service.. grrrr. Takes me 20 min to upload one map to my server.. then another 20 min to upload it to my dl space, and about 10 min to dl it in the first place. So each map takes about an hour if you include all the behind the scenes config file fixing to make the map run.

[RedRock]

admin said:

.....And I made both mine and the AI weapons much more powerful. Its hilarious to throw mustard gas at a group of AI. They aren't programed to recognize it as dangerous, so they don't run away. They just look confused and choke and fall to their knees. LOL

LOL, Lamron, you are one sick puppy! ;D