why won't blizzard allow us to mod characters?

[zyx]

I'd believe some of the reason why it's not allowed, is you can somewhat cheat with it.
Say you make some wall texture half transparent, or the texture of Tauren skin really pink to easily spot it in the distance. Maybe not those exact things, but alike I think.

[Deleted]

because model changing is against the ToC?

There used to be a mod that turned warlock fire green iirc, but even that was banned

Great logic there, they don't allow character mods because they wrote in the terms and conditions that they don't allow character mods.

As said above, changing game files is against the ToS. They don't want players changing the game files because it's what exploiters/cheaters do and they can't tell if you're just changing a skin or using it to exploit.

What's the difference between a mod that allows you to post your auctions on the market in a giant batch and one that changes how your character looks? One gives you an advantage, I'll let you guess which. I don't see how character models mods could give you an advantage, so yea, that warlock turns red and grows 10 feet when he casts a spell at you, bit deal, if you're not good enough to dodge it somehow it won't matter anyway.

As long as the changes are purely cosmetical and not changing stuff like your hit box or other crap that does give you an advantage, I don't see how you can use it to cheat.

And they can't tell if you're using a skin or using an exploit? Then how can they tell if you're using a... bejelweed add-on in the game or you're using a mod to exploit?

[Deleted]

But there is a mod that changes gear on a character and whatnot? i have a friend that uses it alot i mean i have seen him make himslef into ragnaros and all that but as far as i know it's only to his character and only he can see it and i know he used it since late BC until pandaria

[Pull My Finger]

It doesn't really have that much appeal to customize the textures your character because you would be the only one who could see it. Other clients obviously don't have the texture files. Custom modelling would be totally against the ToC because it's not a far stretch to cheating from there - issues and potential exploits of character dimensions, hit box, collision etc. Also, gear textures in WoW must be appliable to all models and it's pretty doubtful that it would work with a lot of custom models. Also, potential risk of several violations of the ToC in terms of age rating and such.

[Deleted]

They will but you have to wait till 6.0 or at least late 5.xx pre expansion.

[blackblade]

I just think, there are some smart players out there who are creative in redesigning textures and armor and clothing, I've seen enough of that on other rpgs and even other mmos. So why isn't this something used in wow, where given blizzards lack of developing the old models, it would be really appreciated.

Back in vanilla, before farming on a flying mount, A guy in a cutting edge raiding guild got a brilliant idea.

He wrote a mod that turned very vital herbs used in raiding consumables into WSG flags. So dotted around the world would be giant glowing flags instead of very discreet herbs. Not only did this make them easier to spot, but easier to click too.

Largely, changing textures is harmless, but it's a slippery slope. Today we're letting players recolor their own armor, tomorrow were making herbs easier to see, the day after were making things that are hard to click easier to click, and it goes from there.

[Rivellana]

And they can't tell if you're using a skin or using an exploit? Then how can they tell if you're using a... bejelweed add-on in the game or you're using a mod to exploit?

No, they can't.

Addons are ok because they don't change the game files. Things like mods that are used to reskin character models are changing game files. As in, they change the MPQ files, I do believe.

[Exorte]

because model changing is against the ToC?

There used to be a mod that turned warlock fire green iirc, but even that was banned

Pretty the Mod it self said it is against ToS but they never heard anyone that got banned.

[Grocalis]

"Modding" used to be easily viable in older versions of the game. The system would look for the .m2 or .blp file in the local data folder before it would attempt to find them in MPQs. This meant putting a new skin or a new model was simple. Back in WOTLK I even made a personal skin for Sylvanas that gave her the more classic Dark Ranger color scheme from TFT.

However, people abused it. So much so, that they had to remove the ability. When models could be altered, people replaced things like PVP flags with other massive models, making it easy to see the flag carrier from across the map in places like WSG. Others simply replaced skins with bright, illuminated versions of those skins, making the enemy races extremely easy to see. I think one alteration even allowed some people to look through mechanics that shouldn't have been possible, like Stealth/Prowl. Model editing was the first removed, then skin editing.

Why don't they make a ability to mod the game like Skyrim? This simply comes down to cost and resources.

Why cost? Blizzard will have to developed not only the system that allows it, but the infrastructure to hold the resources on the server, otherwise the edits will not appear for other people. Because of this, they also have to have a dedicated team of people overlooking uploads and deleting those that don't work with the ToS, like someone making his Draenei nude, or another ripping skins from Mass Effect to make his Night Elf look like some weird asari-elf thing.

Why resources? Well I already mentioned one above, the infrastructure, but I also didn't mention the more important one. Download size. Imagine you decide to raid a faction city like Stormwind. You gather with 50 other people to go rush the King. Right now, your computer and the server only have to make sure to load from a small set pool of resources. You are using Head 0-10, Skin Color 0-8, Hair Model 0-11, etc... It knows exactly what is needed and some overlap can occur. Five people may use Skin Color 2, while another ten use Skin Color 7, thus the system can save on loading. Not so with CUSTOM skins. You will have to lag while the system loads 50 different unique skins, so EpicVonDead can load his cool skin that makes him look like the lead singer of Slayer and MorcTheOrc can look like a pink butterfly orc. This is not counting when you GET to Stormwind and now the client has to download and load the human with the Thor skin and the gnome looking like a Smurf.

In the end, it can't work for an MMO.

[Terahertz]

because model changing is against the ToC?

There used to be a mod that turned warlock fire green iirc, but even that was banned

You were able to mod every single thind in wotlk, but they fixed most of it in cataclysm besides one program which everyone surely knows of.

[Frozenbeef]

I wish blizz allowed mods. than I'd use those mods that make the girls naked

http://www.wowhead.com/item=40895/gnomish-x-ray-specs

[checking facts]

http://www.wowhead.com/item=40895/gnomish-x-ray-specs

naked as in "no underwear"

[lordjust]

Great logic there, they don't allow character mods because they wrote in the terms and conditions that they don't allow character mods.


What's the difference between a mod that allows you to post your auctions on the market in a giant batch and one that changes how your character looks? One gives you an advantage, I'll let you guess which. I don't see how character models mods could give you an advantage, so yea, that warlock turns red and grows 10 feet when he casts a spell at you, bit deal, if you're not good enough to dodge it somehow it won't matter anyway.

As long as the changes are purely cosmetical and not changing stuff like your hit box or other crap that does give you an advantage, I don't see how you can use it to cheat.

And they can't tell if you're using a skin or using an exploit? Then how can they tell if you're using a... bejelweed add-on in the game or you're using a mod to exploit?

So making an ore node really big or the flag in WSG really big doesn't give you and advantage? Or modifications to the maps and so on? There are things that won't give you an advantage but if you allow one thing and can't control what people are doing you allow everything.

Ans Blizzard can't check what kind of modification you're doing. Add-Ons are something different because they use a special API to communicate with the game and Blizzard can control what you can do with add-ons through the API. When modifying game files they can't check automatically what you have done so that they would have to check it all manually. They could check the size of the MPQ files but that takes time and it wouldn't be 100% safe so that they would need to check every file contained in the MPQ which takes even more time.

[Zergin8r]

and this is what I don't get in blizzards gripe about it. if the only who seeing this mod is the player themselves, the same as when they alter a UI setting from curse, why would it effect gameplay or anything else if its just the player seeing it.

I often would like to play a mag'har or even a dragonmaw orc with that skin/texture, and if I'm the only one who see's it from my side, it doesn't effect anyone else.

---------- Post added 2013-04-23 at 02:27 PM ----------



sigh... I guess its kind of like the thing where in vanilla wow forsaken could speak cross faction. It was a great concept for RP, but because some pathetic little trolls decided to flame cross faction, they removed it.

sometimes I hate playing on a mmo.

I believe there was a cheat going around in TBC, where players would change the netherwing eggs to the model of Ragnaros. Needless to say it would give them a huge advantage of being able to see the eggs from much further away without actually having to check spawn points manually, they would just head straight for the eggs. Even though other players could not see it, it changed gameplay for the cheating player and gave them an unfair advantage over non cheating players.

Not to be rude or anything, but I want to make a comparison here. Take CoD for example, a players wants to change map textures to be see through and use aimbot. This has no visual effect for other players, nor does it change gameplay for them. However it gives the player who uses mods a really unfair advantage. In single player I can see this as being OK, however in a multiplayer game things need to kept constant between clients. If Blizzard were to allow changing of textures, players might start using the aforementioned see though textures, and there would be no way to tell from Blizzards end, since all they would see is a changed texture, not what it was changed to.

Using see through textures on WSG as an example, a player who us using them could tell where the enemy Flag carrier is going while they are in mid. The would also be able to see where they are hiding without having to physically check.

[Volitar]

Great logic there, they don't allow character mods because they wrote in the terms and conditions that they don't allow character mods.


What's the difference between a mod that allows you to post your auctions on the market in a giant batch and one that changes how your character looks? One gives you an advantage, I'll let you guess which. I don't see how character models mods could give you an advantage, so yea, that warlock turns red and grows 10 feet when he casts a spell at you, bit deal, if you're not good enough to dodge it somehow it won't matter anyway.

As long as the changes are purely cosmetical and not changing stuff like your hit box or other crap that does give you an advantage, I don't see how you can use it to cheat.

And they can't tell if you're using a skin or using an exploit? Then how can they tell if you're using a... bejelweed add-on in the game or you're using a mod to exploit?

I'm gonna go ahead and change all the netherwing eggs into Cthun, now they are super easy for me to find and everyone else gets nothing because they can't find them! How about I'm gonna model change into a critter and sneak through cracks normal players can't get through haha capping this flag is so easy!

That's why.

[Shuji V2]

With transmogrification, I'm thinking why not add custom armor stores? I'd like it somewhat similar to how Dota 2 works.

Basically Blizzard allows the community to craft custom armor pieces or sets as well as weapons and upload them to Blizz's servers. After a review of your product it will be available from an NPC ingame where you can either buy it for gold or money. A portion of it will be transferred to the player who created the items in the first place.

I think that would be awesome. However, Blizzard will probably get overrun by people who are unable to make gold/money off it because they do not now how to work with 3D tools and cry that it is unfair and therefor it won't be implemented in the first place.

[Zergin8r]

Great logic there, they don't allow character mods because they wrote in the terms and conditions that they don't allow character mods.


What's the difference between a mod that allows you to post your auctions on the market in a giant batch and one that changes how your character looks? One gives you an advantage, I'll let you guess which. I don't see how character models mods could give you an advantage, so yea, that warlock turns red and grows 10 feet when he casts a spell at you, bit deal, if you're not good enough to dodge it somehow it won't matter anyway.

As long as the changes are purely cosmetical and not changing stuff like your hit box or other crap that does give you an advantage, I don't see how you can use it to cheat.

And they can't tell if you're using a skin or using an exploit? Then how can they tell if you're using a... bejelweed add-on in the game or you're using a mod to exploit?

A couple things. First UI mods are kept in a separate folder from game data. Second the UI was designed from the start to be customize able and uses a different API. The second you change an MPQ file however, all they can tell is that it has been changed they cannot determine what you have changed. So rather than check every single MPQ file for consistency with A: the server version of the client, and B: all allowed/registered mods in the game , Blizzard has opted to just not allow mods altogether.

[Sam the Wiser]

Well you can still mod your characters you might get ban for it tho. I know for a fact nude mods still work.

[Tehterokkar]

I'm not sure of Blizzard even mind's it all, harmless re-skins of player models aren't really that bad, however I imagine they flip if you did it to game objects(as mentioned earlier in thread, Netherwing Eggs).

Probably the most "well-known" model changer is T-Morph, which can change eg. Your Tauren female priest to look like Draenei Female. And only you would be able to see the change(everyone else just sees female Tauren).

However, people do, go further than that... As per Rule34, if it exists, there is porn of it. A lot is possible for people that spend a lot of time on it.

[BatteredRose]

How would they? They wouldn't have the models you are using as they are on your pc.

Some sort of program that can scan what mods(what they are and what they do) people are running? I'm very surprised that this apparently doesn't exist, considering technological advances these days. o.O