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F1 2012 The Game: The End of Modding?
Ever since F1 2010 The Game first came out, RaceDepartment is the place to be when it comes to modding. Not only are modders coming in from all angles making a boatload of mods, but the community is gobbling them up just as fast. I’m sure 2010 was a time of major growth for RD, as records were constantly being broken at the downloads section.
And as we fast forward to today, the modding community is still very much alive and kicking for F1 2011 The Game, almost 10 months after its initial release. So it is no secret that modding is very important to a lot of our community members. But for how much longer will this continue before Codemasters lock down all their files from modding?
Why do I say this you ask? Well if you look over at Codemasters’ latest release, DiRT Showdown, you will find that one of the most important files for making really cool mods, the database.bin, has been encrypted and packaged into the executable file of the game. This file has allowed us to make many awesome mods such as changing AI driver performance and difficulty, switching teams and their drivers around, adding more flashbacks, allowing higher level teams to be selected for the start of career and the list goes on and on. It has even had its hand in the making of total conversion season mods.
While we can’t be sure if the same thing will be done in F1 2012 The Game, and I hope my assumption is wrong, it is not a good idea to take chances, especially looking at past games and how things have been done before.
Please take this opportunity to let Codemasters know how much you care about modding before any more files are possibly locked away for good. Simply sign here to show your support or leave your views in the comments below whether you agree or not.
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18 Comments
although i can see where Codemasters might want to encrypt the files, i love the idea of being able to mod the cars around. i do hope codemasters don’t change it
Okay Dirt Showdown (if not mistaken) uses some sort of 3rd party of theirs to save the players profile and stuff right? if so, then I can see why they encrypted most of the files, to prevent possible “cheating”. I get that.
If they don’t want any community being able to mod it, then I can they are prepared for 2 things.
1. Bust their brains off making my pc bleed liquid pcb with high-res, real dx11 tesselation, DOF, etc and actually UPDATE the cars as we see it in the world of F1.
2. Prepare for a massive (possibly) low down on sales.
Other than that I cannot see any other reason for them to do such things, unless their regulations changed or someone at higher up in the office told them to do so.(or maybe they are tired of US making their work look bad
)
You have to be realistic, F1 2011 sold only around 120 000 copies for PC according to vgchartz. Even if 10% of those boycott F1 2012 because of missing modding (and that’s an extremely optimistic estimate) Codemasters probably won’t even notice a difference in sales in the big picture.
VG is not always very correct about PC sales tbh. PC games are sold via too many platforms to have a good count.
But i am sure it will not be hundreds of thousands with F1 2011 I agree.
The other problem is – even if those files aren’t encrypted, doesn’t Steam inspect the game files to prevent any cheats and raise an alarm when some file has been changed?
I don’t think steam itself does the inspection. The game does the file check so its all based on what CM put in.
If Steam should function like that it surely doesn’t work that way then as many games on Steam are a paradise for cheaters (RACE 07 for ex.). Outside of Steam also to be honest
Cheating will always happen as long as there are videogames to be played unfortunately. Just a matter of taking the right precautions and have a zero tolerance policy (full permanent ban) towards cheaters.
I was not planning to buy it in any case. Now that chances are nobody will be able to fix anything that CM leaves unfinished/broken… I would probably not get it even if it were free to play!
Modding is a must. Won’t buy it if it’s locked out. Could be not buying anyway as I am not impressed with 2011 much either, but no mod=no buy for me always.
well for me they already lost my patronage when they said they were sticking with a p2p lobby system. It seems the heyday of PC gaming is coming to an end. apparently pcars is looking to “crush” AC and rf2, interesting that a supposedly community funded and guided project is looking to crush two more games that are way more community oriented. Sad days.
Crushed really? The games you mention aren’t even in the same genre. AC and rF2 will be totally different in terms of physics and online gameplay than pCARS.
pCARS is more a contestant of F1 2012, Forza and GT5
not according to pcars
You mean.. “not according to Micas”. When I said that pCARS is going to “crush” AC and rF2, I meant in sales.
It’s impossible to gauge the quality of the respective sims when none are released yet, but it’s quite easy to gauge sales estimates. A million units on pCARS should be easy.. and with that you get your very good physics, FFB, tremendous content, fully featured and ground breaking single player content, social features, dedicated server multiplayer.. and.. multi-platform, plus the obvious state of the art graphics, with the most advanced lighting and weather systems in genre.
Of course it will sell more than rF2 or AC. Its multi platform and total different genre of racing. Apples and Oranges.
if CM want to maximise the sales on pc then they will not change anything
Hello! Urgently want to answer this question. Anything can be done to swap the car externally f1 2012 (another look)?? if so, how?, is that the multiplayer work?
for example, if you drive a Ferrari Force India see. or vice versa.
I suppose it’s possible, but I do not know what I’m allowed to operate even in the past?