John Carmack hasn't forgotten about the Rage modders waiting patiently for their toolset.
id Software's John Carmack has finally provided an update as to when modders will finally get their hands on a toolset for Rage. The post-apocalyptic shooter was supposed to ship with modding tools when it arrived on the Windows PC platform last October. Now, a year later, there's still no sign of the promised toolset.
"BFG work pushed the Rage tools, but Real Soon Now. I hope. Sigh. I think we have made poor decisions on this all year," Carmack said via Twitter.
The BFG Edition of Doom 3 launched just over a week ago, bringing with it tweaks, revisions, and a set of new single-player missions. At its heart, Doom 3 still remains the same although the pacing seems a little faster – and definitely brighter – than the original 2004 release. The console version received the biggest facelift, transitioning from the outdated Xbox graphics to a more PC-like modernized appearance for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
But now the studio's focus has likely shifted entirely over to Doom 4. As Joystiq points out, the studio had better crank out the Rage tools soon before they get too engrossed in pushing the fourth Doom title onto the Oculus Rift headset. Later down the road the team may be less likely to make time for an outdated shooter and a forgotten modding toolset.
I didn't buy Skyrim on PC for better graphics, I bought it for mods.
As for the modding, that's another PC feature I LOVE. I played Oblivion forever because of the cool mods I could do. I still play Baulder's Gate 2 because of the new mods and levels people create are so intelligent and sometimes shockingly well done. Manufacturers should really be looking to the best of these people and offering them jobs, at least contracts, for another installment.
As for Rage, I never bought it because the reviewers that I actually trust all gave it bad reviews. If none of them liked it, I don't need to look at it. (and some of my friends that did buy it, I heard their complaints of texture pop-in problems, etc. as well as a pretty stale story or something to that effect. It's been a year...) But now that it's got a mod pack coming out, I might pick it up then. So in that situation, they might get a customer they otherwise never would have had. So that could be a very good thing for them. But I do agree, it should have come out since the start. Then they might have had a customer at the original price, or shortly after, instead of the now almost give-away price.