I know I am coming into late, but it strikes me as a disappointment. First I must say that I come to UE4 after looking at just about every other ‘engine’ solution out there I could find. And what I see from the start is impressive, way impressive in terms of the tools. But I also come to point from an old game and an old engine. Freely available tools for mapping, scripting outside of the compiled game that allowed the game to be modded. Yes, a different generation of game/engine … but it is still, as old as it is, very widely played, and new maps and mods made all the time, renewing interest in it.
When I came to UE4 I saw the possibilities of making a FPS shooter game that would surpass the limits of those older games, offering much better gameplay and graphics. But considering the mapping and modding I have done, I hoped that (and got a subscription without finding out if any of was possible) UE4 would provide for gamers to make their own maps that they can share and people can run on their dedicated servers (at a minimum) and that when a user connects to a server where they are running a map the client does not have, it can be set to download that map then launch the player into the game. Of course hopes for modability as well, adding new weapons or game types.
Yes, I understand that someone can pay 19 bucks, get the editor, or if it’s a different version than the game was made with, download older source and build it… but let’s face reality, most gamers that do a bit of modding and mapping would be overwhelmed with all the tools in the editor… and most game makers are not going to give them their game project so they can rebuild it after modifying it some… I don’t know about scripting to ‘mod’ a game made with UE4, that may just not be possible. But cutting down the UE4 editor to a simple map editor that lets you build materials for maps, import meshes and the general features that allow you you build and compile a level so it can be shared and added to servers, would be beyond awesome.
I know a lot of business and money decisions go into all of , but when an 8 year old game can still have a following and active mapping/modding community due to free tools to allow that mapping and modding to happen, that means that developer is still selling copies of that old game. I know a lot of other games out there where the tools do not exist to make maps or add them, or mod at all, and even those those games are much newer, have far better graphics, they are dead for the most part. So if money is the consideration, consider that any game maker that uses UE4 to make a popular game that a mapping/modding community can form around, they will probably be bringing in money a lot longer than a game without that capacity. Which of course with the 5% deal with UE4, means Epic will make money off that game longer.
Things to think about. Now I have to go back to hundreds of tutorials and thousands of threads to read and figure out if engine can accomplish what I want, or if I need to drop it (which honestly would suck… but I have a vision and will not let an engine limit it).
