why does giants software create mods for its own game instead of adding it to the main game?

[chedly_farms]

To be honest, I keep a lot of stuff saved in my downloads that I will never use. I look at something on the modhub and think, "I could use it in this scenario". I have yet to use probably 60% of the stuff I download from the modhub onto my xbox.

[j_maybury]

Actually I think this is the first game update where they have paired down some of their older mods, as a rule all the DLC's from this version come free in the next version. As did the FS17 DLC's to this version but this time some of the older stuff have been left out.

[jasonbarron]

Sitting at the keyboard of his mighty PC, jasonbarron stares guiltily at the insanely lengthy list of mods currently enabled on his game...

[FarmBoss]

Yeah, removing items that were part of the base game for eons, then releasing them as mods doesn't make much sense. As to why they do it? Good luck getting the real answer.

[CowsGoMoo]

The only thing that upsets me about the giants mods is that they take up so much space, and on console the mod space is limited. Otherwise I think they are great, I mean who doesn’t like free content.

The only giants mod that is big is Estancia (600 something mb) because its a map with custom textures and buildings not in base game, and the Horsche pack 220mb I think.

There certainly were a few mods like small Big Bud and Ursa trailer and nh big baler that should have or could have been in game. Makes me think 'they forgot it' and 'didnt have time' theories have some validity.

[Cad_dao]

Hi,

Maybe Giants putting them on ModHud instead of putting them in main game means they do not need to release a game patch to make them availiable. Meaning they can also just update the mod instead of the whole game if a modification is required...or remove it if it breaks something. They seems to not be fan so far of doing game update and patch. Everyone here have his own reason of why it's like that or not. Do they have a "X" number of update/patch allowed by Sony or Microsoft...who knows?

Is it because it have less chance to create bugs to the game that way? And if it does, they simply remove that mod of ModHud instead of having the whole game bugged again...I don't know but I rather like them in ModHud if it's the case cause the last time, it took 5½ months to get a patch to their latest DLC release. So, maybe they simply choosed to not touch the game core once it runs ok. Again, who knows for sure? If they were to modify something in game coding...on purpose or not...and doing so, that all released mods would require an update to work. Ouch!!! It would be hell on the farming world for sure.

Is justification required? If they were feeling it was to be the case, they would already let known everything about why it's that way. And still bring up fuel to fire even with justifications. So maybe they just called to stay away from any post that might like a meat grinder or an endless discussion. If so...don't bet your savings they will admit it. You likely have better chance to hear ingame crickets in your spearkers than an answer.

Regards!

[SkyBurner JB]

Because of the PS4's 4GB mod limit "Sony's Policy" not a fault of the actual PS4 hardware, I think Giants should take every one of their mods released on the ModHub and make a free DLC like they did for the Classics Pack on FS15. The Estancia Lapacho map alone uses up 20% of the "Sony permitted" mod space! Nice map but I uninstalled it a long time ago because of that. If a few console users don't want it, just don't install the DLC with all of the Giants mods. I have 1 1/2 TB of hard drive space because of a 1TB USB add on HD so Sony's policy infuriates me. If most console users installed this free DLC it would sure make multiplayer a lot less aggravation to join a session. But this stuff is way less important to me now because I pretty much have moved on to the PC version and will never buy a PS5 because of Sony's ridiculous, unnecessary, overwhelming control issues. ( Its all about saving space on THEIR system to buy more stuff from them so they can make more billions of money ). I still play FS19 on the PS4 from time to time but I'm mostly on my laptop PC. A minimal Lenovo ideapad 320, with an intel i5 8th Gen and only 8GB of ram shared with the build in intel UHD graphic 620 video. At 1920x1080 resolution and mostly low settings FS19 runs between 40 and 60 FPS depending on the situation, it seems pretty much equal to the PS4 looks and performance. I also discovered windows 10 now has native support for the PS4's Dual Shock controller so FS19 plays just like the console with the keyboard used for the extra stuff available on PC.

[cwattyeso]

Yeah, removing items that were part of the base game for eons, then releasing them as mods doesn't make much sense. As to why they do it? Good luck getting the real answer.

Simple - Expired Licensees and Deals with Manufactures. When Giants make a Farm Simulator game they have contracts for the manufacturers and brands featured in that game. Those contracts usually are limited only to that particular game. So for example the manufacturers and equipment in FS17 were licensed for that game. They would need to renew those Licences for FS19. Some companies for whatever reason may not have wanted to renew those licenses. This means that Giants can't include those items in the new game as they can't profit or make revenue from stuff they are not licensed to. However releasing these items on the ModHub as Free Downloads later on circumvents this problem, because technically they are not charging or profiting from that content anymore as it's free to everyone. Which means they don't need to updated and get new licences. The problem for players is each new game that means more and more content from previous games will need to be mods, and for the console players especially this becomes a huge pain as they have only a limited amount of download space for mods.

[FarmBoss]

Yeah, removing items that were part of the base game for eons, then releasing them as mods doesn't make much sense. As to why they do it? Good luck getting the real answer.

Simple - Expired Licensees and Deals with Manufactures. When Giants make a Farm Simulator game they have contracts for the manufacturers and brands featured in that game. Those contracts usually are limited only to that particular game. So for example the manufacturers and equipment in FS17 were licensed for that game. They would need to renew those Licences for FS19. Some companies for whatever reason may not have wanted to renew those licenses. This means that Giants can't include those items in the new game as they can't profit or make revenue from stuff they are not licensed to. However releasing these items on the ModHub as Free Downloads later on circumvents this problem, because technically they are not charging or profiting from that content anymore as it's free to everyone. Which means they don't need to updated and get new licences. The problem for players is each new game that means more and more content from previous games will need to be mods, and for the console players especially this becomes a huge pain as they have only a limited amount of download space for mods.

I don't mean to be argumentative, but if they don't have a license, they can't be made available to consoles at all, which a lot are (maybe I misunderstood).
Some of the items don't even require a license, such as their greenhouses, the beehive and the wind turbines. They were part of the base game a long time, but removed from 19 to be offered as mods months after game release. Now they use up mod space on consoles. The real answer is still out there, somewhere.

[cwattyeso]

I don't mean to be argumentative, but if they don't have a license, they can't be made available to consoles at all, which a lot are (maybe I misunderstood).
Some of the items don't even require a license, such as their greenhouses, the beehive and the wind turbines. They were part of the base game a long time, but removed from 19 to be offered as mods months after game release. Now they use up mod space on consoles. The real answer is still out there, somewhere.

Giants still have Licenses with the Brands which apply to their games, but these brands/manufacturers may decide for whatever reason not to renew licences for specific pieces of equipment or machinery from one game to the next. This could be for the very simple reason they may not want to license an old piece of equipment if they no longer sell it in real life as have newer and more updated versions in their real life portfolios. So Giants Release these as Mods, because they are allowed to use the brands if they still hold a valid license for that company in the current game. Technically then they are not breaking any rules with the Brands, because they are not charging for mods.

As for the Placeable Items like the Greenhouses, Turbines and Stuff the reason these were not part of the base game was quite simple. The new Terrain and Placeable System in FS19. It simply wasn't ready when the game shipped so a lot of things had to be held back from the release game. This is why we saw in the very first patch for the game, the release of the terrain sculpting and painting function in the game. This was intended to be in the game from Day 1, but Giants couldn't finish and work the bugs out in time for when Focus Home said the game was releasing. That's the problem when you have the Publisher setting release dates, marketing and stuff and the developer being forced to stick to that. Heck we're over a year on from the release of the game and the placeable system and some placeable item mods still have some pretty horrid bugs in this game.

[Dairydeere]

I honestly don’t use 60%of the mods I download like Chedly and Jason have pointed out, and I have different mod folders for different maps, which actually makes for a bigger mess when I can’t keep track of them

[BreadedVirus]

Sitting at the keyboard of his mighty PC, jasonbarron stares guiltily at the insanely lengthy list of mods currently enabled on his game...

And on my PC, i have 2.31 GB of mods enabled on my game.

[MrSquealypig]

I almost made a thread once declaring every Monday the official "Make-An-Excuse-To-Use-Your-Mods" Day.

Otherwise I let them sit around hoping that they'll magically fit into some other save file, which they never do.