Ever since this was posted, they have been neglecting the rest of us at the UDK forums, I do NOT know exactly what was added, removed, or improved and I know this is NOT the Unreal way of how they release their versions.
I figured since they seem to be focusing more on Unreal Engine 4 so much, I would imagine we would have a better chance of them listening and resolving the problem(s) here if I was to post this article on the behalf of the UDK community. I do not like touching a new version of UDK without knowing the new details. Look for the comments towards the end of page 2 in the last release article for February 2014.
If this can be resolved, we will GREATLY appreciate it.
Forgive me for sounding harsh, but why is it “Really Important?” - If you’re unsure about the build, then use a previous one with release notes? It seems they’re trying to get everyone to convert to UE4 and I don’t blame them: It’s a better pricing model and frankly a more refined and improved Engine.
People can’t use previous builds as May 2014 is supposed to be the more stable one for working with XCode 5. Release notes in the public domain would be kind of useful.
I am using the previous version (February 2014), but it still has some flaws that have yet to be fixed. For starters, the subtitles are f#@ked - they will work as usual in UDK, but when playing the packaged version of my game, it refuses to show up at all regardless of what I do. Now here in the May 2014 version I can not find anything of what they exactly did new aside from a few new code scripts (AICommandBase.uc) and perhaps the CoverSystem functionality. Luckily I found such features will definitely help with my game but It would help a hell of a LOT more if Epic Games would release some notes for the public domain as they usually would do. Especially since I still plan to use my game with UDK since user-mod support is already discouraged under the UE4 EULA and replaced with a commercial alternative to persuade common average players to pay a monthly subscription just to make custom content for my game, much less to even make small server-side addons. Mod support is one of the very crucial goals of my game, if that becomes impossible, I might as well can the entire project, and/or refrain from using Unreal Engine and resort to Unity or CryEngine for any future games.
The subscription wasn’t to discourage people from modding, and $20 is still very cheap and would mean they could do a lot more than just mod your game. Even then, they wouldn’t have to have an active subscription to be able to do that, they would only need to do it once and get the version of the engine that your game uses.
Also, I would look at other games and consider how important mod support really is, there’s plenty of big games even that people don’t care about modding, smaller games have an even lower interest in that.
The $20 subscription is a complete barrier to modding - almost noone is going to drop $20 a month to mod your game, especially when our price tag is intended to be less than $20.
There is a reason why modding support is VERY important prior to developing games. Sure, granted some games like the modern Call of Duty titles, Counter-Strike, and Halo managed to stay alive without mod support (I am a little surprised the original Halo PC’s multiplayer is still very popular to this day despite the few modding capabilities compared to Halo Custom Edition), but then what about the games that do NOT have that luxury (and there are actually quite a LOT of them)? That is where user-created content comes in! They can extend the lives of your games, they can boost even more publicity to games and inspire devs to make their own games, they can even save certain games from total obscurity or underrated demise caused by biased critics like IGN, and common haters of the said franchise.
For instance, C&C Renegade was practically neutered by critics complaining primarily about its constant patch releases, lackluster singleplayer, and buggy/glitchy multiplayer. The game itself was already dying out in its own right, but what saved that game from total obscurity and actually made the thing very popular is USER-MOD content support - That and the fact that it is the only official First/Third Person Shooter in the entire Command & Conquer franchise. Numerous maps, skins, and other content has been made for this game and even up to this day, much to my surprise, the game is still actually alive. I thought Gamespy would actually enforced the end of C&C Renegade, but then I found other server provider sources that still had quite a lot of servers, and I was suprised. You also have Fallout 3, Elder Scrolls series (primarily Morrowind, Oblivion, and now Skyrim), Unreal Tournament, Unreal Gold, even the old-a$$ Quake and Doom games which are still VERY alive, backed up with a Sh#t-load of mods and addons made by the community. How did you think Minecraft and Garry’s Mod still survives?
Couldn’t have said it better myself Ambershee.
It’s already troublesome enough if the gamers have to purchase your game, especially if its at a AAA price range (i.e. $60), but I strongly doubt anyone would want to deal with the annoying pay wall of an additional $20 just to make custom maps, custom characters, small mutators, server-side scripts, or addons that are specially designed only for their own game. Mods were designed to be free, if they become inspired enough to want to make their own game from scratch or if they actually do want to sell their content, then let them pay the subscription price on their own accord. Hell, we can suggest or highlight the option to those who want to make their own game entirely via from our own games or official websites and sources. But for those that only just want to make small maps or addons to play with their friends on their beloved game and do not need all of this full-fledged content “cr@p”(or so some of them would probably assume) or do not care about making their own full-fledged indie game titles, they should have the option to make them free of charge.
Look. I am very sorry to say this, but nothing can justify this enormous error. Tim Sweeney and Epic Games really screwed up this time. Aside from the yearly 5% royalty deduction (which I can actually forgive to an extent), I never thought I would feel more inclined to consider switching to Unity over UE4, or even switch to the Source Engine, especially considering I practically fell in love with the Unreal Engine series since I first got my hands on the Unreal game franchise (primarily Unreal, and UT2004). But luckily, its still not too late to resolve this and I sure hope EG is actually trying to resolve this dilemma.
We are working to resolve issues in UDK that prevent folks from shipping. This mostly consists of crashes and system failures but can be extended to poorly-functioning features. In the case of this build, most of what’s fixed is iAD’s and assorted rotation issues.
Because what “prevents someone from shipping” varies from developer to developer, and the issue can be emotionally charged, we have decided not to “advertise” these builds, but rather contact the forum posters and contributors from the forums here: UDK Forums Update - UDK Content Creation and Design - Epic Developer Community Forums that call out the various issues, when we fix them.
Best to keep future UDK conversation to those forums. Hope this makes sense.
As far as mods go, I was thinking more about indie games, there’s way less cases in that space where modding has made a difference, so you’d have to consider how likely is it really that anyone would care to mod your game. Today, since the tools are available (like UE4) people are more interested in their own games than in modding others.