It’s simply this.
We as players have no way get in touch with creators but random encountering them in game, or at forums or at Discord. I’ve been lucky to meet the creators of Cannibal Escape and Fast Villager Defense, and that some modders such as @Zetnus and @Guaymallen2276 are somewhat active here on the forums.
But that’s just it, you stumble on such people. And if you’re not walking on the same forthcomings, too bad for you.
I honestly think that the way DE handles UGC is the best we could have outside a virtual console (such as Steam Workshop). It is hosted on official servers, works for crossplay platforms, gather all the content around just one safe site (contrary to some other games with UGC, such as War3, that have countless confusing sites to dig custom games from), has a ingame mod browser. But the lack of the possibility of an interaction between creators and the community just fades out the cool features DE brought upon for UGC.
We need a more reliable way to give feedback, report bugs, insert ideas, compliment, criticize.
For example, there is this custom scenario with a really cool idea and gameplay. But it’s unplayable if you simply subscribe at it, because it doesn’t save at the scenarios folder. I just wanted to tell this to the creator, but I can’t.
Some easy ways I thought that can help on this issue:
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Put in a comment section at the mod webpage.
Make it so the creator can answer to comments and PM whoever commented at their mod page. -
To publish a mod, make it mandatory to also creat a topic to the publication at #age-of-empires-ii:age2de-modding
This should also need a way to flex in multiple mods on a single topic, as some creators release numerous different mods that are actually very simmilar in function. If each had a single topic this could get messy at the forums session.
