So can we expect more of this in future?

[UncleRico]

While I agree giants should develop the farming side of the game I don’t really see modders doing anything crazier than a roller coaster. This is a tactic as old as the game almost “if you want me to keep making stuff I need money.” Folks who have been around the game for a while can give you tons of examples of this and it hasn’t killed the game yet. And don’t worry OP many of those same modders are still prominent in the modding community years later.

[chedly_farms]

I love the "I'm taking my toys and going home" posts.

Modders lose desire to mod and quit all the time. New modders come in. It's a revolving door as hobbies in one's lives change all the time. No news here. The game is dying. Me being a console player, I have taken breaks from the game multiple times. I can say that each game gets better and better, and so do the mods. I don't like grapes or logs. But I'm not upset that Giants is pushing that stuff either with DLC's and what not. Compromise seems to be a forgotten concept now a days. I don't need to have everything my way.

[KFedor1907]

Definitely think we will see more of this in the future and could not agree more that this comes down to financial support, check out SMI's website, they want funding for their works in progress. That said, I think feelings were hurt because the day their last mod dropped a VERY SIMILAR mod dropped. Based on what DJ had been reporting that vineyard pack was in the works for a very long time and it would be a slap in the face to get a very similar mod dropped by giants the same exact day.

Non-farming mods, agreed that it is everyone's choice to use them or not use them, that's the beauty of this whole thing. Discussions have been had lately that logging is not farming, to which I could go either way. There are plenty of mods that I chose to ignore because I don't feel they are truly farming, that is my choice. As a console player, I have to be very selective of the mods I use as I am not going to download a 77MB mod (the vineyard pack) unless it is something I am absolutely wanting to have or is a game changer.

I think what is evident here is that GRAPES and OLIVES have been a complete miss by Giants. I think where this whole temper tantrum comes from is that, even though their latest mod has a good rating, there are not a lot of downloads more than likely. (Again, look at their website, they have a counter of how many downloads they have achieved in total) I don't feel that I know a lot of people who create a whole field of grapes or olives, they just use the modded greenhouses or buy what they need.

I get it, it takes a lot of time and a lot of energy to create the level of mods that they do, but I can only think of one of their mods that I use on a regular basis and for that matter I don't think I have used it in months. I am not trying to bash SMI here, but modders do what they want to do and that should be how they take it. They should launch something and expect every single player to absolutely love it.

[Drmattymd]

Definitely think we will see more of this in the future and could not agree more that this comes down to financial support, check out SMI's website, they want funding for their works in progress. That said, I think feelings were hurt because the day their last mod dropped a VERY SIMILAR mod dropped. Based on what DJ had been reporting that vineyard pack was in the works for a very long time and it would be a slap in the face to get a very similar mod dropped by giants the same exact day.

So other modders cant work on their own mod because it might be similar to someone elses mod? What exactly is there to have hurt feelings about? If you as a modder are afraid someone is going to sTeAL YOur IdEA then keep it quiet. Its that simple. Dont post all over social media about what youre working on. Dont send advance versions to YouTubers to try and hype your mod. And dont get your panties in a bunch because you decide to make a whole pack based on a potentially not so popular part of the game.

[UncleRico]

Yeah tough to understand that logic. Who’s to say who has rights to even be insulted. Sounds like a stupid YouTube news thing trying to make something out of nothing for some cheap views. If only we had some sort of council of elders to help guide us through these trying farm sim mod drama times for which we are not capable of doing on our own or even understanding do to our inability to create mods of pretend tractors and the like and our preoccupation with real life stuff. All that aside it is a nice pack and it will get me messing with grapes because I really like the idea of the pull behind harvester, but I will say it was extremely poorly marketed because it wasn’t really in your face that it brought that specific feature to the game that should be the cover photo. Even in the photo section you can’t see what it is just a very plain picture of the harvester with the tractor cropped out so it doesn’t explain much. If you want big downloads you’ve gotta get a niche. Be the pickup guy, make the equipment regionalized to somewhere underrepresented, come up with a new script mod. It’s not that the mod isn’t fantastic, it’s just that not that many people wanted it. All making people pay for something does is turn screws to your supporters, it’s not like the guy who passed over your free mod is going to rush out and pay you to make something else they don’t want.

[Cokey]

Perhaps somebody could give smi some cash so they can make a pram with an autoload feature for all the dummies that they spit on the floor.(even though its a non farming feature, cash is king)

[eric21]

Back to the reasoning of them leaving or maybe it's just a rant, they are saying people don't want farming mods but want fire trucks instead, which is true, people want police cars, tanks, fast cars etc.

[eric21]

This is ehr wat I see this. The letter states in bold letters A FUNDING FUND. This says I need/want money to create and release mods. Not surprised by this! I follow several modders who ask for donations. One in fact has gotten close to 10k in donation in 2022. You a;so have to think about this. How many mods has Giants used that were created by modders? Then put them in a game to make millions!

This post was never blaming giants but rather people wanting non farming mods. Part of it's true but they'll be back to modding

[Noraf]

But does SMI need to make firetrucks (never understood the need for them ingame, but it doesn't bother me that they exists, i just don't use them), fast cars etc?
No, noone is doing that, so why whine about it? Grow up

[njuska11]

But does SMI need to make firetrucks (never understood the need for them ingame, but it doesn't bother me that they exists, i just don't use them), fast cars etc?
No, noone is doing that, so why whine about it? Grow up

They are upset beacuse farming related mods are getting less downloads than farming non related mods (like the firetruck) on the official modhub for the game called FARMING SIMULATOR. They feel like their effort to bring realistic farming equipment is pointless then. Thats why they are saying the game is heading in the wrong direction, and tbh i agree with them in that regard.

[Eische]

If it's related to download numbers, how does SMI know that a firetruck mod gets more downloads than their mods?
Do Modhub registered modders have more insights?

I have no problem with the fact that firetrucks, police cars, excavators, ... are available in FS. Players use them for roleplaying. This is completely fine. Not everyone wants to play super realistic farming game only.

My guess:
SMI overrated their mods respectively the amount of attendance they would get from players. But looking at their currently released mods, I can see why they might be disappointed by the community.
Their mods mostly featuring brands I never heard of. Secondly their mods sometimes offer unique features/functionalities, but combined with quite small working width. A large number of players simply wants to use larger working widths or have setup CP/AD to automate things. This is where mods like the Riberi RS100RB do not play a large role.
Of course variety in brands/functionalities is really great. But as it was mentioned here already, modding should be seen as a fun hobby. The financial compensation is nice of course. But your life should not only evolve around that.

I don't know the exact rules Giants pays for mods. AFAIK it is just download numbers and the avarage star rating that is defining your compensation. There seems to be no quality/uniqueness/effort influence. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

So that being said, releasing a default game silo as multifruit silo will potentially yield more money with little to no effort compared to one of their mods being build from scratch with tons of hours in it.
Is it fair? Maybe not. But looking at the fact that nobody pressures modders to create mods...
Even if there would be an improved compensation system available taking care of the above, there will still be problems remaining.

Why should I use a disc harrow from a (to me) unknown brand offering the same functionality as the already available in game one?
They think that this brand is very popular among the players, but maybe they are just looking at a very regional brand only a limited number of players know?
________________

Long story short:
I don't care if a modding team throws such fits. Either they are overrating their mods/importance or are overrated by (a portion) the community which will have same effect. I hate it when someone/something is glorified.
They can ask for funding, of course. But if the mods created via funding are not released to the public, that is a clear violation of Giants Terms for using provided modding tools.
All modders are doing a great job on extending our game even more! But not all mods fit to all play styles. So there will always be a mixed reaction to different mods.

[Burekcina]

The game has been heading in the wrong direction for some years now. And the new features for a new FS are usually something a modder made in the previous years. They haven't done anything useful related to actual farming in the past years.

Without modders this game would be dead 10 years ago. Remember that! It is expected for modders to want something more from the work they put in, Giants sure don't give a f*** to do anything. I don't think is about money but it became about money when there was no other reward for making a good mod, other than developers taking the mod and put it in a DLC or a new game only to make money.

[redglasses]

I've never understood the standpoint of "I don't like this mod, it shouldn't be on the modhub." If you don't like it don't download it and move on, why spend all this time complaining when you could be playing the game? The only argument I think anyone can make at this point it that it takes testing resources from the QA team but even that isn't really a legit argument because the vast vast vast majority of mods coming through to the modhub are still related to farming.

Now about people complaining about not getting paid. I remember a couple years ago there was some big time modders who were locking mods behind paywalls on patreon and had been for a little while. Giants finally came in and clipped that off and started enforcing their rules. I think this was the right play, it's the way its written in the rules by giants, if you don't like it go mod for ATS or something. Anyway after this happened there was a big uproar with some big time modders starting to create a fuss, to my knowledge most of them are still around, and those that left were clearly not as important as they thought considering the game is still alive and well +4-5 years later.

Now if you want to have a discussion on changing the terms of service and rules that is a different conversation, and one probably not suited to have here considering giants' lack of interaction. Just keep in mind what's happening in ATS right now, people are openly charging $80 for a single truck mod, as soon as the flood gates are open on this deal its hard to close them and you know a flood is coming. I'm not saying these mods are bad and don't deserve compensation but charging up to 4x the amount of the original game for a single truck mod is way off the charts.

[Eische]

The game has been heading in the wrong direction for some years now. And the new features for a new FS are usually something a modder made in the previous years. They haven't done anything useful related to actual farming in the past years.

Without modders this game would be dead 10 years ago. Remember that! It is expected for modders to want something more from the work they put in, Giants sure don't give a f*** to do anything. I don't think is about money but it became about money when there was no other reward for making a good mod, other than developers taking the mod and put it in a DLC or a new game only to make money.

What you think would be the right way to go, does not mean it would be right thing for all players!
It's called natural progression!
Giants listens to the community in the way they are checking which mod or feature would be a good addition for the next game version. You have to understand that Giants (just like any other company) needs to set a certain boundary for new features to be in next game version based on their ressources. Of course it often looks like "giants is ripping off modders by stealing their ideas". But what if Giants had this idea already for years but did not or was not able to put it into the game because of other restrictions/priorities?
Again, what you see as a vital feature, might be completely useless for other players.

Without modders, the game would be dead?
Maybe. But so it would be if Giants would have just followed very specific recommendations from a certain player base to create the ultimate realistic farming game allowing zero modifications. How much fun would it be to play such a game?

Don't get me wrong, I don't need vineyard stuff, and most of the production aspect either. But want to see more details to animals system instead. But I can see reasons why Giants has included stuff like this in the current game. Not my taste but obviously very famous for other players. And that is completely cool to me.

[blue_painted]

The game has been heading in the wrong direction for some years now. And the new features for a new FS are usually something a modder made in the previous years. They haven't done anything useful related to actual farming in the past years.

Without modders this game would be dead 10 years ago. Remember that! It is expected for modders to want something more from the work they put in, Giants sure don't give a f*** to do anything. I don't think is about money but it became about money when there was no other reward for making a good mod, other than developers taking the mod and put it in a DLC or a new game only to make money.

I can agree that the game is headed in the wrong direction in some parts -- productions, roller-coasters and FSL for example -- but as far the actual farming has gone we do have some improvements: The annual seasonal cyclical nature of farming, a differentiation between cultivator types, further and optional steps in soil management and, with precision farming, some modelling of different soil types. Before you-know-who comes in to say that GIANTS don't finish anything, I'll agree in advance that all these and more could/should be developed further.

Would the game be "dead" without modders? Probably, but then making a game that is so open to being modded; with large portions of the gameplay code implemented in LUA script rather than the native executable, and publishing those LUA scripts, is the reason why the game isn't dead, and that's a GIANTS decision.

And GIANTS do give a XXXX to do anything ... the problem is that they do productions, FSL and so on, in my view a misdirected effort.

I will agree that productions feels like in-gaming Global Company which was a popular mod in FS19 (and FS17? I forget) and of course season cycles came after Seasons and Seasons 19. In principle I see nothing wrong with taking the idea of a mod or suite of mods and including it in the base game. How many times has GPS or similar been requested for base game?