Thoughts around user made content

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[JHB]

This have been discussed before and I'm aware of it. But I want to point out some facts:

• Several games does support user made content, all from first-shooter games to MMO games.
• Several games have a editor where you can make own content with the features the game have. Ship Simulator does already have a mission editor which is good.

...but what about taking this one step future? it have been discussed many times before but I write it again:

Custom player ships repainted

For Ship simulator 2006 you cud make a re-paint of one boat. Now you cannot make repaints of any boat for what I know. Maybe it got something to do with copyright and that VSTEP don't want to be responsible when someone puts a Cunard logo on a repainted version of Ocean Star (for example).

But if there was a system where VSTEP did approve repaints and where VSTEP did publish these on "The Shipyard" as free download content then I think it all would be okey.

Custom modeled player ships

This part is still very hard, tricky and limited. The modeler need to follow a guide for how and what he need to design for his custom made boat and that the implementation is performed by VSTEP.

I still want VSTEP to be the one that judge if a boat is going to be added to the game or not. What I miss is a better way to implement the boat and less work that need to be performed by the modeler, like the collision model for example.

Overall custom made content

I think that if VSTEP did open themselves for more custom made content and did make it easier for the modeler to add these to the game then we would see a lot more add-ons by serious developers (where a serious developer hereby means a developer that don't start with a simple Sketshup project and this is his first project ever created).

I also think that VSTEP need to encourage teams of people or people that want to do commercial work for VSTEP and give more information how these can benefit from making commercial 3rd party add-ons for the game.

What is so far a strange situation here is that there are very few people that today have been able to get their custom boats into the game. I can only count one...Goax. So either there is too difficult to add add-ons into the game or it's simply not popular to make add-ons for Ship Simulator maybe because the game doesn't seem to have potential for someone or it is difficult to see a potential to doing business over a long time.

Comparing to the add-on development when it comes to Microsoft Flight Simulator it's of course many different things that have made Microsoft Flight Simulator into a popular game and that the game have been developed over several years and where user made content have given this game a lot of attention and where the simulation is up to a advanced level, a advanced level that I think Ship Simulator still doesn't have since it's moved over to the pro version (more or less). So maybe it's this advanced level that VSTEP should pay attention to in the next versions of Ship Simulator.

The advanced player is maybe a user of Ship Simulator that prefer more real simulation, a simulator that is closer to the pro version but in the same time not a pro version. The advanced player is maybe a player with real experience from life on board a vessel or a career at a boat/ship and has knowledge and experience that makes him look for advanced stuff in Ship Simulator. So maybe this is the group of customers that the add-on developer really wants to make add-ons for?

Summary

One thing is for sure and what I have stated previously in other topics is that Ship Simulator is just yet born and is a baby that have just started to learn about ship dynamics, navigation, instrumental bridge systems, engine systems, boat data, ship traffic etc. and where we have just seen small bites of these topics that together will give this baby a lot of knowledge and hopefully more users in 2010, 2011, 2012 ..etc.

It's also a baby when it comes to add-on development. We have just seen one 3rd party add-on developer and not a team of developers that makes add-ons for this game and benefit from it (doing business). So it's a question of when this will come or it it will happen at all. All trough I'm pretty sure that if a team of such people is going to be established then it will be established and founded as a company or a group of individual developers that share the income of their production and sales.

So far its still VSTEP that gives us the main content when it comes to Ship Simulator and where overall  user made content represents maybe just 3 %. It's time to see what new steps VSTEP may take to mak the game more open to user made content where not only the mission editor is the main way to modify the game play for yourself and others.

Large game companies have just started to see the positive effect of what user made content can bring to the game, because there is a lot of creative people out there that of course would like to customize the game play and the environment in a game and make it personally and share this with others.

Virtual Sailor

Anyway it's actually mysterious and strange to see that the neighbor game Virtual Sailor have not shown any great results when it comes to this since this game is more open for add-ons. I got no idea why Virtual Sailor seems to be a unpopular game and where there is no massive community of serious add-on developers...I can barely count maybe 5 serious add-on developers that publish add-ons for this game today and where 0.5% of them (where the 0.5% represents me) actually sell the content or try to benefit from such business.

It's hard to explain why a game like Virtual Sailor that was first released in the middle year 1998 still is not a big game, or a game title that you cud read about on famous game reviewing sites. Maybe it got something to do with how the game is published...or maybe there is a hidden history that we don't know?

But let's say that Ship Simulator was as much add-on friendly as Virtual Sailor, how would this affect the game in the next couple of years? Would that give Ship Simulator a similar success as Microsoft Flight Simulator?

[Mad_Fred]

Hi JHB,

I'll react to a few things, I mostly agree with all that you say.

Custom player ships repainted

For Ship simulator 2006 you cud make a re-paint of one boat. Now you cannot make repaints of any boat for what I know. Maybe it got something to do with copyright and that VSTEP don't want to be responsible when someone puts a Cunard logo on a repainted version of Ocean Star (for example).

But if there was a system where VSTEP did approve repaints and where VSTEP did publish these on "The Shipyard" as free download content then I think it all would be okey.

You can still repaint the p6 as in SS2006, also the sailing yacht and the Dortmunder, and also the bouy. (red/green)

There has been talk of skin packs, but indeed, as copyright is a problem, you cannot just paint any ship any way you like. These would only be meant for the fictional ships, maybe sisterships (pride of hull for example). Nothing concrete to report on this yet though.

Custom modeled player ships

This part is still very hard, tricky and limited. The modeler need to follow a guide for how and what he need to design for his custom made boat and that the implementation is performed by VSTEP.

I still want VSTEP to be the one that judge if a boat is going to be added to the game or not. What I miss is a better way to implement the boat and less work that need to be performed by the modeler, like the collision model for example.

Well, I think you can't expect VSTEP to be able to take manpower away from their own work to do work on 3rd party developer's work, if those 3rd party addon makers can do it themselves.. It depends on what you offer, I think. Once you have something that they want to add, it's a different story.

Overall custom made content

I think that if VSTEP did open themselves for more custom made content and did make it easier for the modeler to add these to the game then we would see a lot more add-ons by serious developers (where a serious developer hereby means a developer that don't start with a simple Sketshup project and this is his first project ever created).

I also think that VSTEP need to encourage teams of people or people that want to do commercial work for VSTEP and give more information how these can benefit from making commercial 3rd party add-ons for the game.

A bit more patience with this point, and something might be set in motion. I have been working with Terry and we have some good ideas and started something that might lead to what you suggest, but first there needs to be some procedures set up, more to follow soon, I hope.

As for the rest of what you say..

I think that there is just so much more going on in the flighsim genre, that it's hard to compare. And there, there is also a lot of rubbish around, but when you filter that out, you still have so many good models, by som many good people and groups, this simply doesn't exsist for ship simulations..

And like you say, even with VS, that is always praised for being addon friendly, there is so much rubbish, and so little actual quality, that you can even say there is more quality user-made content in SS, than in VS.    (jason de donno is '3rd party' too I guess)

If you look at the number of people here that have the ability, the talent, to make models that are suited for the game, you wont end up with a very high number. And how many have actually offered a model, that was made following the guidelines, to vstep? I haven't seen any figures on that, but suspect that there has not really been THAT much on offer yet.

There are a lot of plans allready, but as you say, it's a young sim, and it's a small developer. But the user made content side of things will no doubt be expanded in the future versions, as far as I expect things to go.


Fred

[JHB]

Thanks Mad Fred for a useful understanding answer

[Mad_Fred]

You're very welcome!