Steam Workshop

Paul Cantea · Mar 1, 2013

I was browsing a thread on the RRRE forums when I came across a grand idea. If Assetto Corsa gets greenlit, how hard would it be to integrate the Steam Workshop for mods? It would be amazing to have a one-stop shop for all mods

XN-Sigma · Mar 1, 2013

To me, the whole point of having AC on Steam is for it to use the workshop as a centralized mod database. It works great for Gmod, you can download mods from inside the game, and they install automatically, and if the mod creator makes any update, then the update will install automatically too, it makes dealing with mods much easier.

Akbar Sal · Mar 2, 2013

I'm an first person shooter sim game aka ArmA2 player. the game is open to modding, and there is a ton of mods. for a long time, mods are so much bothersome when we join a server. Since a briliant guy made a software where it matches all mods (the software is Sixupdater). since the software appear, it was heaven. it was just so easy to update and it all matches.

Now since ArmA 3 is cooming out (sorry for the long history), they are also going steam exclusive. I think they are also going to use steam workshop. If I was AC dev, I would keep a close eye on ArmA 3 on how to handle these mods.

jlnprssnr · Oct 17, 2016

Now that rFactor 2 is hopefully going to get a lot more momentum, I hope that Kunos finally realize how much potential Steam Workshop has.

William Levesque · Oct 17, 2016

I agree, Workshop is nice. And you dont need to hunt for mod updates either, it's all done for you as soon as the author updates the mod.

Epistolarius · Oct 17, 2016

In my experience it's a pain to sort and find mods with Steam Workshop though (you still can't sort for rating with a more recent time frame for example) and I believe there's still a maximum file size for individual mods. In some games it takes ages from subscribing to a mod and downloading it for it to actually appear and work in the game. The comment threading on mod pages is also not particularly great, you can't really do WIP update posts. So as nice as it sounds and as much potential as it has I don't think it's the end all be all. Sites like RaceDepartment and ********* (particularly with the Nexus Mod Manager) still offer the better experience over Steam Workshop IMHO. And as slowly as Valve is making improvements to its platform I don't think this will change any time soon.

jlnprssnr · Oct 18, 2016

Having none of your issues with rFactor 2, Wreckfest, Spintires, ... Quite the opposite, the option to follow your favorite modders, the most popular last 3 weeks view etc. make it really easy to find good mods

Gevatter · Oct 19, 2016

The one problem I have with the Steam Workshop is that if a mod gets deleted from the Workshop, it disappears from your game and you are never even notified. At least that happend a lot when rFactor2 started on Steam.

Andreas Knöpke · Oct 19, 2016

jlnprssnr said:
Now that rFactor 2 is hopefully going to get a lot more momentum, I hope that Kunos finally realize how much potential Steam Workshop has.

Unlikely.

Given how much of a pain in the butt companies like Ferrari & Porsche are for modders I would call it almost certain that Kunos is not gonna add a workshop to AC. Would only create a constant stirr of removal requests and all that shizzle. Not to mention the problem with ripped content.

Plus, I guess a DLC sells better when players do not know that there are also free mod versions of the same cars

Epistolarius · Oct 19, 2016

Andreas Knöpke said:
Plus, I guess a DLC sells better when players do not know that there are also free mod versions of the same cars

Most mods aren't anywhere near the standard of the official content, the ones that are are well known.

Andreas Knöpke · Oct 19, 2016

That's not the point in this case.
Plus, I'd challenge that given that Kunos has already bought a couple of models. Not to mention that Kunos also outsources many models etc.

jlnprssnr · Oct 19, 2016

I'm thinking skins, apps, setups, tracks... there are enough cars in the base game

Brandon Wright · Oct 19, 2016

Andreas Knöpke said:
That's not the point in this case.
Plus, I'd challenge that given that Kunos has already bought a couple of models. Not to mention that Kunos also outsources many models etc.

They only do the 3D models, physics and all the important bits are done in house. I'm one that would gladly pay for a DLC car over a mod car, even if the mod car is decent.

Andreas Knöpke · Oct 19, 2016

Brandon Wright said:
They only do the 3D models, physics and all the important bits are done in house. I'm one that would gladly pay for a DLC car over a mod car, even if the mod car is decent.

I am fully aware of that.

And I'd probably agree with you that most players are willing to spend money on better official cars.
However, every person that disagrees here and there are certainly a few, would simply be a financial loss for Kunos.
It's that simple.

Epistolarius · Oct 19, 2016

Andreas Knöpke said:
That's not the point in this case.

Then what is your point?

Andreas Knöpke said:
Plus, I'd challenge that given that Kunos has already bought a couple of models. Not to mention that Kunos also outsources many models etc.

Challenge what exactly? I didn't just talk about the 3D models, which is what Kunos would be buying when buying rights to mods. They'd still redo much of the mod from ground up, particularly in terms of physics and sounds. And as I said, the mods that are up to standard would already be known, the mods that make it into official content in particular. So I don't see your point with that statement, how you're getting to

Andreas Knöpke said:
I guess a DLC sells better when players do not know that there are also free mod versions of the same cars

Andreas Knöpke · Oct 19, 2016

Challenge what exactly?

This:

Most mods aren't anywhere near the standard of the official content

Honestly, pretty much all mods are stunningly good.
Obviously, I'm talking about real mods, not rips or semi-rips.

Anyhow, about your question:

Imagine a standard player with no ambitions to race online or so, just a regular guy who likes to drive - whether it's hotlapping or against AI.
Imagine that guy sees 2 options which would be presented somewhat nicely through the workshop: either buy a car or download a car for free

It's really not that difficult to see that for some people, not necessarily MOST or even MANY, but certainly for some people the second option would appear as the one to go with.
And this very simply would result in a financial deficit, meaning every player going for option 2 would be a loss for Kunos.

Brandon Wright · Oct 19, 2016

Andreas Knöpke said:
I am fully aware of that.

I'm confused. If you know that, and presuming you know that 3D models have nothing to do with how the cars drive, why would you challenge the notion that most mod cars aren't as good as official content?

And I'd probably agree with you that most players are willing to spend money on better official cars.
However, every person that disagrees here and there are certainly a few, would simply be a financial loss for Kunos.
It's that simple.

I'm just guessing here, but I'd think the overwhelming majority of AC players know there are free mod cars out there, and as such any financial loss to Kunos is already in place so putting them in the Workshop would have a negligible effect. Just my opinion of course, they probably have reasons for not using the Workshop but I kinda doubt it's just because they don't want mod cars (that everyone already knows about) to cut into their DLC sales.

Andreas Knöpke said:
This:

Honestly, pretty much all mods are stunningly good.
Obviously, I'm talking about real mods, not rips or semi-rips.

Not in my experience, I've only come across maybe one or two I'd consider stunningly good. The majority are average at best. Just my experience though. I guess that partially explains why we'd have a different opinion on the topic.

Epistolarius · Oct 19, 2016

Andreas Knöpke said:
This:

Honestly, pretty much all mods are stunningly good.
Obviously, I'm talking about real mods, not rips or semi-rips.

Anyhow, about your question:

Imagine a standard player with no ambitions to race online or so, just a regular guy who likes to drive - whether it's hotlapping or against AI.

Imagine that guy sees 2 options which would be presented somewhat nicely through the workshop: either buy a car or download a car for free

It's really not that difficult to see that for some people, not necessarily MOST or even MANY, but certainly for some people the second option would appear as the one to go with.
And this very simply would result in a financial deficit, meaning every player going for option 2 would be a loss for Kunos.

There aren't that many content mods that are on the same level as official content, or even finished (!) and mods don't give you the guarantee to be automatically updated to work with each patch and new functionality. I personally would much prefer good mods to be integrated into the official content and not having to worry about any of that, even for a price. It benefits the modders as well, some even get a job and good jump into the industry. So I really don't think any sim racing dev needs to hide mods to sell official content, with the openness of the software to modding from the ground up I think Kunos does anything but. But that's just me.