Interested in learning about the CORE community

[Commander666]

I have only played AoD, but have done so for many years. I am concerned by what I feel is a shrinking number of players using that game, and also the prospect that possibly v1.09 will be the last patch.

On the other hand, over the years, I have heard many excellent comments supporting CORE.

Obviously, I have numerous criticisms of AoD at it current state. But the game is only one aspect, with the Forum for the game being the other aspect. In fact, the Forum might be more important to me.

So my question is, "How big is the CORE community" comparatively speaking? Posting in your Forum for the first time recently leads me to believe that it probably is not as big - but I can only judge it by how much posting is going on.

The other curiosity I have regards how and why CORE ever got started. I don't understand the politics behind what seems to me must have been a "splinter group" of players deciding they can create a "better than AoD game". Clearly, I am convinced you did on account of the many good reports I've heard about CORE over the years.

However if I am correct in my assumptions, I think it also sad that the AoD community somehow got fractured, Basically I feel one large community playing the game which is the best is really the very best for all. Any chance CORE can become part of AoD .... to clarify... become a following version of AoD to so reunite the community? This seems to make sense from my limited perspective. I mean, if AoD development is really ending with v1.09, why can't v1.10 simply be your CORE to so reunite two communities?

Clearly, I don't understand the politics that might have been behind the separation but sure would like to know the history. Frankly I feel you must have a more democratic group than exists in AoD version development, but I not really sure my statement is accurate or fair. Please enlighten me. Thanks!

 

[ArmdChair]

CORE has been around since the original Hearts of Iron. All of the original team has since moved on over the years, but there is still a small, dedicated group who continue to improve the game experience from an historical perspective. I do believe that the various team members at the beginning were very interested in improving the historicity of the game over the vanilla version.

I'm not sure there were any politics involved . Paradox provided some wiggle room for modding, and some people picked up the challenge.
I AM pretty sure there were no politics with B-L Logic and Arsenal of Democracy. They were nothing but helpful and supportive, in my opinion. Some others might be able to speak to that better than I, though.

I doubt the overall community is very large, but others watch the downloads stats, where I do not. But, that isn't what we are here for, I'm thinking.

 

[dec152000]

Hi,

Yes, the focus at CORE was to make a more historical wargame out of what was a more sandbox approach from Paradox. With HOI2 the initial team had a lot of great ideas that they partially implemented. Unfortunately, the amount of work involved was beyond what any of them expected and the mod never reached anything near a finished state during the initial HOI2 days. The shifts in the EXE with DD/ARM/AOD generated a lot of new options. And a lot of rework to deal with them. As a result the project has been in cinstant development over the years. I think what we offer is really solid now. Unfortunately the fan base has dwindled over the years so indeed the community is rather small compared to the ones that played our much less polished early releases.

mm

 

[Zsar1]

The other curiosity I have regards how and why CORE ever got started. I don't understand the politics behind what seems to me must have been a "splinter group" of players deciding they can create a "better than AoD game".

I fail to understand the question. Is this not a game modification as any other?
Would you ask the creators of Point Defense System for Homeworld 2 the same question? Or any Skyrim modder?

It is obvious that developers do not include whatever the communities of their games throw at them - would not work out anyway. So what do members of such communities do (and are encouraged to do in cases such as AoD or the HoI franchise in general) - they make their own private changes and bundle them up into mods. Other people are allowed to play those mods to acquire inspiration and have more people for testing.

As to the motivation behind such changes: Sometimes, yes, we can do better. Because we have more time, fewer restrictions and no deadlines.
But mods also get started (or contributed to) when people just want to try out what is possible.
Sometimes, while acknowledging a solution in the vanilla game as valid, one may still dislike it - and change it to their liking. This, again, is then a mod. Not "better", but "different". Difference, or some measure of it, is the key, I guess, after all there are people who turn Star Wars games into Star Trek games and vice versa (and sometimes those are the very same people).

 

[Commander666]

Thank you to all. I basically learned what I was interested in knowing. CORE is a smaller community with a focus on making the game more historic. Where as in AoD vanilla the main focus seems to be to get the AIs to present a greater game challenge. At least you guys seem much more of the same mind... with actual history being the final word of what game changes should be made, I suppose.

I think both ideas have merit. My only real point was that I wish it were one larger community... but now better understand why it is as is. Thanks again.

 

[Zsar1]

Mayhap you might want to play CORE a few times and get a feeling for how it differs from vanilla.
- I for one have lost all interest in the vanilla setup since I did; and eventually even started contributing to CORE myself.

 

[Commander666]

I too have lost all interest in the vanilla setup. But I just made the decision to patch to Lord Jarski's mod because I am preparing for my first MP game... and, apparently, his mod is optimized for MP. I think my opponent also prefers that mod for MP.

But thank you for the invitation.. perhaps another time. I do like discussing real history and researching for that... so we'll see.

Very best wishes to CORE.

 

[novapaddy]

Hello CORE, remember I asked to use some CORE ideas etc a while back.
Well in my dh mod Twilight of the Gods, I have gotten this far.

When you hover your mouse of those little buttons, you get all kinds of information about the unit.

 

[dec152000]

Hi,

Looks interesting. good luck!

mm