Clonesa's 'uge Mod (0.4 released May 16th)

[Clonesa]

Beta 0.4 Released May 16th, 2009!

Now Patch 1.3.1 compatible.

Released finally. Had spent a lot of time on the website recently, glad to get this out although not as many features made it this versions as I'd hoped.

[edit]
See www.ModsRUs.com for download mirrors, changelist, etc. From now on most updates will be there. Also please direct most of your questions to the forums there, this thread is getting kinda fat :P


Update on 0.2 progress. I've added roughly 20 new badges, some lore/fluff based and some not. My friend, NoisyMonk is working on some new 3d art assets for when an exporter is released. The images below are based on a WIP:

Lascannon untextured model for Devastator squad upgrade (www.ModsRUs.com/images/LasCannon02.jpg)

New Chapter Masters unit w/ Charge and Rally sporting a new Bloody Skull badge (www.ModsRUs.com/images/clone_screenshot_01.jpg)

Force Commander using assault jump ability from the new upgrade and a captured Communications Array in the new Epic game mode (www.ModsRUs.com/images/clone_screenshot_02.jpg)

Space Marines attacking Orks (www.ModsRUs.com/images/clone_screenshot_03.jpg)

7 out of the 20 or so new badges in 0.2 (www.ModsRUs.com/images/clone_badges_02.jpg)

[Corsix]

You're allowed to post links after your first post (or edit them into your first post after posting) - its a spambot prevention mechanism.

[Clonesa]

Ah, thank you very much. Makes sense :P And hello Corisx! Your tools saved me a shit load of time, both modding and having to make my own.

I was wondering if you or anybody else here knows anything about the art formats Relic uses. I see from browsing through their proprietary package format that they use dds for interface art (I assume for textures too, properly packaged together with shader information), but what do they use for a model format and are there conversion tools? Yes I ninja'd my own thread.

[Xaero]

Your list is pretty extensive as it is, I would definately get at least 1/2 or 3/4 of those done and working before taking on board any more ideas, however what you have so far seems very interesting and I'll be awaiting some playable code ^_^

Edit: The art in the game is as you say, all textures and UI are DDS, simple enough to edit with the nvidia plugin for photoshop or gimp etc. The models and animation format has not as yet been cracked open though, I haven't seen an announcement of anyone working on it etc and as such have currently put projects that involve new models on a lower priority on my list.

[Jes]

DDS is the traditional S3TC texture format, used EXTENSIVELY in the gaming industry for nearly ten years now.
It supports a plethora of bit formats (lossy and lossfree), mipmaps and more, but basically know that it's usually 32bit RGBA. (red green blue alpha)
Most games, including DoW2, use the DXT3(for simple alpha maps), 1(no alpha) and DXT5 (for highly detailed alpha maps)

Technically the format is made by S3, a largely unknown graphics card producer owned by VIA. nVidia however, made the well-known compiler/decompiler set freely available.

As for DoW2's model system:
The HKX file seems to be the main mesh file.
The MODEL file (a relic chunky) seems to be a lod/texturemap control file
The APB file (autogenerated by Toaster?) seems to be DoW2 engine related, as most it contains is the actual art name used by most of the game's wargear and EPB files.

That is all I know.

[Corsix]

DDS files (almost always) store DXTC compressed images. These are neither lossfree nor 32bit (nor RGBA in the case of DXT1).

[Clonesa]

Ya, I was aware of the DDS stuff, fairly common place. Thanks for the tips on the model format(s) although unfortunate news. The gaming world needs a dds of 3d art :P I did some minor work on a w3d importer for 3dsmax ages ago (C&C:Generals format), but I kinda shudder at doing this stuff for dow2 (I suck at it), especially if the format is completely unknown. Is Corsix into the 3d stuff? ;)

[Corsix]

I did some work on CoH's model format, but I'm not into 3d stuff much.

[DeusImperator]

Hm how are you planning on adding Lascannons to Devastators?

[Clonesa]

Easy enough on the code side. The graphics side will be a problem, I will probably be using the heavy plasma model until the mode formats are cracked/Relic releases tools.

[Clonesa]

So I've been working on this mod quite a bit. I can't decide on a name yet, but a release is iminent. I ended up also including my own prefer campaign tweaks. More wargear drops, higher drop chance, xp tweaks, difficulty tweaks (less piky dmg, but higher hp enemies). However, mostly it still remains a skirmish mod.

So far I've gotten many balance changes included targetted at nerfing nids w/o crippling them, buffing a few less used eldar things, etc. There are a few overall gameplay mechanic changes. Rear hits have been altered. It no logner displays that annoying message so you have to watch more carefully. Vehicles remain at +50% dmg from rear hits, but infantry and turrets now take +15% dmg from rear hits up from none of course. Setup weapons have longer setups, but no teardown times so they can be moved and retreated more easily. Many resource tweaks, req points more valuable, power points still more valuable than req ones, but slightly less so. A bunch of AI tweaks, should make them slightly smarter and harder (they also cheat more). There are a few new upgrades and units.

[the_hunger]

Originally Posted by Clonesa
A bunch of AI tweaks, should make them slightly smarter and harder (they also cheat more).
Have you been able to figure out a way to make the AI produce a more diverse spread of units, and not just the tier-1 infantry/tier-2 vehicle spam?

[Clonesa]

Yes, I have been working on a fix for that. They will still do it to a degree, but less so. ATM the AI is only slightly better, I haven't delved into any huge reworks yet. I fixed a few weird issues with them so should hopefully result in them being faster as well. Original post updated, should be more clear on changes, exact changelist and todo list is coming.

[Clonesa]

Releasing Beta 0.1 yay! Took a while going through what felt like a billion rbf files for some features :P Added some new last minute stuff, updated changelog. Stuff like pop cap at 120, dreadnought in army painter :)

Download mirrors:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ninyiubd25m
http://www.fileplanet.com/197121/190000/fileinfo/ClonesMod-for-DoW2

[DeusImperator]

The only thing that is missing the Devastator squads reworked into one squad like the Grav Team and Lootas. That would be nice.


"Campaign
-Final mission no longer ends the campaign."

I think Relic already did that in a patch.

[XViper]

Looks pretty impressive dude.
Quite a few things there that I'm wanting to do myself.
Might use you as a knowledge base in the near future ;)

[Clonesa]

@Deus
I put off merging the squads in order to get a release out as im busy this weekend. High priority on the todo list. RE final mission: Did they do that? Its been a while since I completed the campaign.

@XViper
Feel free to ask (in the general modding forums, this thread is cluttered as is :P).

*DL links fixed, sorry about that

[Kaptin Grommeld]

Nice mod. I really like the increase in wargear drops and more wargear in general, but I noticed that some of the wargear (mostly the new ones) only upgrade the leader of a squad while the squad members become unarmed (missing default weapons).

Also, some wargear have issues with equip permissions that are either misleading or just don't work at all. A couple of examples: Purge of Victory Bay and Honored Silence.

[Clonesa]

Yes, I have discovered something rather unfortunate. Note to self: never pack stuff at 5am. There may be files in there that were test stuff from another mod. The bonus package wargear is broken and I seem to have unfortunately overwritten the stuff that worked correctly, which is a huge piss off because changing that was extremely tedious. I am afraid of what else was overwritten. I will work on a fix, apologies. See the current known issues/bugs below, anyone else please tell em if you notice anything.


Known Issues
-Techmarine animations can glitch when using missile launcher.
-Wraithlord doesn't fit into army painter preview window :P
-Due to the poor mod support of ucs files you may find altered text when running the game normally. To fix this delete or move the file clonesmod.ucs in GameAssets/Locale/English.
-Custom text only supports English language.
-Bonus package wargear may be broken and only partially implemented.
-AI build orders incomplete.


On a brighter note, already working on next version. New unit:
The Chapter Masters are the elite leaders of a Space Marine chapter. Their presence on the battlefield is rare, but fearsome. These warrior commanders wield a wide array of powerful weaponry and inspire nearby marines.

[Night_Lord]

Didn't you say you removed the "rear armour hit" message? It appears every time, even when infantry is hit from the back.

[Clonesa]

It should be removed. It does not appear when I play the mod. Are you having other UCS file errors? Ie. Mekboy commander not renamed Big Mek and missing entries for the new upgrades and units? If so I would suggest making sure clonesmod.ucs extracted correctly and the relative file path was maintained.

[Night_Lord]

I got it working! You were right, it was something with the path, I thought I put it in the right place but I didn't. :banghead: Thanks!

[the_hunger]

@Clonesa

I just wanted to offer you some detailed feedback on your mod as you think about improvements. You probably already know much of this, but I thought that hearing it from a tester might be helpful.


1. 750 starting VPs: I like this very much. I always thought that 500 was too low and led to fast games. I wish that Relic (or some modder) would allow us the option of setting starting VPs between 500-1000.

2. Army Painter: Darn, why weren't all of these colors (especially the shiny ones) available in the retail game? I hope that Relic does not intend to sell them as DLC? May I ask how you were able to unlock them?

3. Power changes: Power accumulates very well in late and middle game. I personally like this, though some may think it accrues a bit too fast. Requisition rate seems fine as well.

4. New upgrades: I like the ones that I have tried. I even saw the AI upgrade the force commander to a jump pack, though I didn't see him actually use it. Is there any easy way to change the label to an actual name, as opposed to "$9110927 No Range"? Don't bother if it will take a lot of work or digging.

5. Unit production: AI did produce a slightly wider diversity of units, though I hope that more can be done. I played 5 games (3v3) and took the following notes about unit builds.

Game 1 (me as SM, normal diff.):
--SM: Scouts, Tacs, ASM, dreads, razorbacks
--Eldar: Guardians, Shuriken teams, falcons, wraithlords
--Tyranids: Rippers, Hormagaunts, carniflex
--Orks: Sluggas (nothing else)

Game 2 (me as SM, hard diff.)
--SM: Scouts, ASM, dreads
--Eldar: Guardians, Shuriken teams, falcons
--Tyranids: Rippers, warriors, termagaunt
--Orks: Sluggas, dreads, wartruck, also build a turret and waagh banner next to VP

Game 3 (me as SM, hard diff.)
--SM: Scouts, ASM, dreads, razorbacks
--Eldar: Guardians, Shuriken teams, falcons, wraithlords
--Tyranids: Hormagaunt, Rippers, warriors, termagaunts, lictor, spore mines, zoanthropes, carniflex (pretty well-rounded force)
--Orks: Sluggas, dreads, stikbombas, wartruck

Game 4 (me as Orks, normal diff.)
--SM: Scouts
--Eldar: Guardians, Shuriken teams, falcons, wraithlords
--Tyranids: Hormagaunt, Rippers, warriors, termagaunts, lictor, spore mines, zoanthropes (again, well-rounded force)
--Orks: Sluggas, dreads, stikbombas

Game 5 (me as Orks, hard diff.)
--SM: Scouts, ASM, dreads, razorback
--Eldar: Guardians, Shuriken teams, falcons
--Tyranids: Hormagaunt, warriors, termagaunts
--Orks: Sluggas, stikbombas

I noticed a few things. The Tyranids remain the best at fielding a diverse force, but not always to their advantage. The Eldar and Orks were the most predictable and limited. No tier-3 units were produced by an AI army, except the carniflex. Of course, no special powers were used. I suppose that many of the problems will have to await fixes by either Relic or modders as they learn more about the code.

6. Quirks: There was an aweful lot of pinging done by the AI. I have never seen this before. It really gets annoying after a while. I haven't played against the unmodded AI much since purchasing the game, but I do not remember any pinging during the beta.

The "rear armor hit" message is now all over the place, even on infantry being hit by other infantry. I would suggest either reverting to the original code or taking the message out of the game completely.

Also, in my game, Mek Boy's name appears as only "Mek" in game, which is fine with me. I didn't like "Mek boy" anyway.

Finally, the clonesmod.bat file (that is supposed to launch the mod) temporarily borked my game so that I couldn't play the game without the mod. If I tried to run the game without the mod installed and from my original shortcut, it crashed until I deleted playercfg.lua from a file in "My Documents." It might be better for the instructions to simply tell people to create a shortcut on the desktop and enter -dev -modname "clonesmod" at the end of the target line.


I hope that some of this feedback might be of use to you. Please do keep working on this mod. I found your mod to be a definite improvement over the vanilla AI. If you could figure out some way to get the AI to produce an even more diverse army, that would truly be a breakthrough. I find it a bit unfair to play against a computer opponent that can't build essential and powerful units (no banshees, no Nob squads, no predators, no fire prisms, etc.). I'll never be able to figure out why Relic would release the game in this condition.

Again, keep up the good work! :)

[Clonesa]

2) Many of them were unlocked in armypaintercolours.lua and a few custom created colours by myself. Using that file you can create any kind of colour you want.

3) Resource changes were done mostly to make requisition points more valuable and power slightly less. I find most people find capping req points to be more a side issue as the HQ generates such a higher % of your req. I only made slight changes here as to not throw off the whole balance of the game.

4 and 7 are related. There are infact tooltips for all the new content. You just don't have them through an error of my own. The UCS file system is extremely frustrating. This is fixed for the next version.

5) You are correct. Unique build orders are only partially (at best) implemented. I am working on this. Also working on getting them to use global abilities and unit abilities more intelligently rather than just at random.

6) This is a DoW2 bug that happens on live, even ranked games when a player drops. Its a known issue that I imagine Relic is working on. I can investigate if this bug is scar side and fix it.

The .bat file should not crash the game. Make sure winzip maintained the relative file paths of the zip file when extracting. Another problem could be something I've solved for another player. If you choose a custom army colours/badge combo and exit the mod and then launch the regular game it will remember your settings and try to set that colour and fail because it no longer exists, crashing. Go back to the mod, set a normal colour and exit or delete your config settings (as you did). Not sure about a workaround for this. Seems like bad programming on Relic's side, having a bad config file should never be a fatal error, very silly.

Don't run the mod -dev, it should not need it.

Thanks for the feedback :) I will promise not to finish up and package the mod at 5am next time.

[the_hunger]

Clonesa, thanks for these comments and clarifications. I look forward to the next version of your mod.

[Clonesa]

Just wanted to let anyone know who's interested that I got somewhat sidetracked by coding some exciting new features (I will get to merging devastators, fixing wargear bugs, easy stuff soon :P) and expanding my lua and scar knowledge. I've got two new gamemodes basically complete and am working on play testing them and tweaking balance.

Epic
This game mode focuses on epic larger scale battles. It is a combination of vic point and annihilate with major changes. To encourage larger battles the pop cap is increased to 200, resource rates and starting resources increased and total victory points increased by 50%. To mix things up the 3 vic points are replaced with the strategic points from the campaign which each grant different effects to the team controlling them. There is the Foundry, the Shrine and the Communications Array. I'm still working on which effects each grants, but it may include waagh per minute, healing auras and abilities such as artillery strikes.

Assasination
This game mode revolves around heroes. There are no vic points. Heroes are roughly 50% harder to kill, but cannot retreat or be self revived (purchased back by the owning player). Killing a hero causes a brief slow motion effect :P and forces their teammates to work together to rez it. If all of a team's heroes are incapacitated they lose.

[Nofear001]

you mentioned additional patters for the army painter.

is that already done? if so what files did you edit to unlock or create the new patterns?

[Clonesa]

Yes, it is done in a sense although I will be adding more, especially custom badges, in future versions.
armypaintercolours.lua for colours and badges
defaultchaptercolours.lua for army patterns

[Bklr29]

The assacination mod looks awesome but the epic would maybe need some tweak. You have increased the pop cap to 200 but it would be nice to have squad size x2 to fill this increased pop cap., because if you increase the number of size it would be less playable than having bigger squad... Maybe i'm wrong buit the game don't seems to be designed to have lots of squads.

[caprera]

Looks great, really a good work. Btw there are two things i'd like to point out.

First deplyment time for SMs should be greatly lowered. Maybe just 2 seconds. After all they use power armour.

Secondly two connected issues: POP cap & unit limits. I think pop cap should be really increased. 120 is nothing... And unit limits should be applied only to special units like in TT game. For example Termies & warp spiders.

[Clonesa]

Unit limits are applied to all units as the ultimate way to prevent unit spam (tac marines, warriors, etc.). I'm also trying to rebalance units so they are less desirable to spam. Pop cap will remain at 120 for the normal game, may even go back down to 100. The Epic game mode has a 200 pop cap limit for those looking for a little more craziness :P

Balance > lore/TT

[Clonesa]

Update on 0.2 progress. I've added roughly 20 new badges, some lore/fluff based and some not. My friend, NoisyMonk is working on some new 3d art assets for when an exporter is released. The images below are based on a WIP:

Lascannon untextured model for Devastator squad upgrade (www.ModsRUs.com/images/LasCannon02.jpg)

New Chapter Masters unit w/ Charge and Rally sporting a new Bloody Skull badge (www.ModsRUs.com/images/clone_screenshot_01.jpg)

Force Commander using assault jump ability from the new upgrade and a captured Communications Array in the new Epic game mode (www.ModsRUs.com/images/clone_screenshot_02.jpg)

Space Marines attacking Orks (www.ModsRUs.com/images/clone_screenshot_03.jpg)

7 out of the 20 or so new badges in 0.2 (www.ModsRUs.com/images/clone_badges_02.jpg)

www.ModsRUs.com now updated. Form now on most mod updates will be there.

[TTurgor]

Excuse me, is that "Tier 2 and 3 research now increases population cap by 25 and HQ's power generation by 5 per minute each" gonna be true ?

[Clonesa]

Yes, when I get around to it. I will probably implement it through SCAR. I'm working on many things right now.

[NoisyMonk]

First post! Greetings!

Also, here is a small update to the Lascannon (301 polys for those that might care). Probably won't change much until there is some more info for modeling (poly counts and such things).

Critz welcome on the model, I'm still a pretty intermediate modeler.

NoisyMonk.

[TTurgor]

Thanks for your cooperation and for this mod !

[DeusImperator]

This mod looks really nice.

The lascannons is nice and looks OK for a Predator to use.

I'm not sure if it is critisising or not, but for the Devastator's Lascannon you need to add a scope too.

http://www.planetfortress.com/tf2models/previews/Battle%20Grounds%2040K/LasCannon_Large.jpg
Something like this.

[NoisyMonk]

Cool! I know very little about the Warhammer universe, so that really helps! Thanks for the reference pic aswell.

As such, should the Predator's LasCannon also actually have a scope? Or is it just the Devastator's version that has a scope?
Just realized how silly this question was.

thanks for your input!
NoisyMonk.

[DeusImperator]

http://i.neoseeker.com/ca/warhammer_40000_dawn_of_war_ii_conceptart_R6GJF.jpg

The Predator's sponson mounted weaponry has targeters on the top (little boxes with green lens, best viewable in the pic where you see the tank from the front).

http://ui21.gamefaqs.com/244/gfs_74799_2_2.jpg Here this link shows the DoW1 predator. (it is the same)

Some additional pics.
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/acatalog/SPACE_MARINE_TANKS.html

I would gladly help, but I can't make models and the RBF editor/converter programs don't start on my PC for some reason :( .

[NoisyMonk]

Hmm.. seems that my original source picture was no good and lead me in the wrong direction! :banghead:

So, here is the NEW WIP Devastator Lascannon! Hopefully 10x more accurate. Tube attachment thing will have to wait, since I have no idea how it will attach to the SM Backpack.

Front (http://modsrus.com/shaun/LasCannonFront02.png)

Back (http://modsrus.com/shaun/LasCannonBack01.png)

[Clonesa]

Haven't been updating here as regularly as the mod now has its own forums at ModsRUs (http://www.modsrus.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=10).

Beta 0.2 is coming soon, lots o' new stuff.

The mod really needs a new name. Head over to the forums and post a suggestion for a new name in the thread. The current name blows T.T

[caprera]

Great work! in particular about the Lascannon. I really missed it... Will it be available in devastator squad along with Plasma & Bolter? I mean a single Dev squad. :)

What about squad numbers ?

[Clonesa]

Oh, sorry, squad numbers should remain the same, will be a single dev squad with hbolter, lascannon and hplasma upgrades. If you have questions please head to the forums, this thread is getting pretty long as is. I should also answer faster.

[hazzar9]

are you going to add alot of new units in this mod?

if you are, what are they?

[Clonesa]

Short Answer: Yes
Long Answer: Yes, go to the forums (see sig), this thread is clogged as it is :P

Beta 0.2 released! huzzah! (www.modsrus.com)

[DeusImperator]

The lascannon model looks nice. It would also make a great wargear for SP.
It was sad to see the Astartes deprived of their Lascannons, since I dare say they use it the most!
Lascannons can be found on Devastators, Predators, Twin linked versions on Dreadnoughts, Land Raiders, Predators and Razorbacks. Even the Guard has less Lascannons. :D

I'll test 0.2 Beta and post a review.

So far it seems so good.
The only problem is that the Space Marines shoulder pads do not have any trim, they look like the crappy Mark 5 shoulder plates.

[UnLeAsHeD118]

So any idea how long it would take until the next release?

[Clonesa]

Little too early to say.

I took a bit of a break to actually play some DoW2... L4D too :P

I remind you guys if you want to ask questions, post bugs, make suggestions (especially on the name, need a new name!) head to the mod's forums (http://www.modsrus.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=10).

[Clonesa]

Beta 0.3 released ! :) (http://www.ModsRUs.com)

[Steel*Faith]

Wow, this looks interesting. Where can I read a more complete changelog? Also does this work with the new patch?

[Clonesa]

The link above, there a link at the top of an info page and the forums. Does not yet work with the new patch, new patches change quite a bit, working on it.

[Steel*Faith]

Looking forward to trying this when you get it working again!

Do you want this mod to be closer to the lore, or just for fun?

Could you increase the speed of Eldar Vehicles, and their rotation rates?

[Clonesa]

I've never played the TT or read the lore, but I'd like to respect it as much as possible. That said I think gameplay trumps it anyday. I figure if all people care about is lore they'll simply go read a book or watch a movie.

I'd say the mod is about 75% fixed. Still plugging away at it. I would say new version within the week if not tomorrow.

[Steel*Faith]

Could you increase the speed of Eldar Vehicles, and their rotation rates?

?

I think Lore is a good basis to make gameplay for each race unique and interesting. Currently I think Eldar need more emphasis on speed (primarily with their vehicles). Orks need to be a little cheaper & numerous so they can become the "green tide". Nids need to be more numerous, cheaper, and slightly weaker (except for soem synapse creatures). I like that Relic made SM few in number, and didn't base it off the TT. This is something that should be preserved.

Are you going to add helmets and new wargear ect to your mod? There's a bunch of other things I have in mind, but I got to go to work.

[NoisyMonk]

Small aside, I've made some more updates to the Devastator's Lascannon. Click Here (http://www.modsrus.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5) to check it out. I'm looking for some feedback!

PS. Clonesa tells me that he's close to getting the mod fixed up and working for the new patch! Keep an eye out! :jig:

NoisyMonk.

[Steel*Faith]

Wow! Nice work on that lascannon. Is it going to be possible to put that ingame though without the right tools?! Looking awesome though.

[NoisyMonk]

No, unfortunately it isn't currently possible to get it ingame. Hopefully Relic will get their act together and start making mod support a larger priority and support their fans alittle more.

NoisyMonk.

[Clonesa]

Well I hit a brick wall when fixing the crash bug. This is due to limited debugging capabilities. I essentially am rewriting the mod, but almost done. On the bright side I took this chance to polish up a lot of the older stuff and add some new changes. New version soon that is 1.3 compatible.

I could take a look at Eldar vehicle speed, I think its the poor pathing code which effects their speed more than anything. Whenever there are objects near a vehicle (which is almost always) their acceleration never seems to increase their speed very much. I also would like Eldar to be more about speed, hit and run tactics and cloaking. Thats why I've buffed Webway Gates (becomes camo'd and cheaper), Rangers (start w/ holofields) and Fleet of Foot (less penalty).

In terms of helmets, I'm more worried differentiating squad leaders and commanders from other similar units. For example the Warlock and WSE commanders now have custom art that separates them further from their squad leader counterparts.

FYI you are more likely to see responses from me on this stuff at the mod's forums at modsrus.com.

[Clonesa]

Beta 0.4 released. www.ModsRUS.com for da stuffz ya gitz.

[Facelessone]

Some other mirrors would be good.

[Facelessone]

@clonesa

FC has the jump pack,i think there is no need for teleporter.THe teleporter would be straight good for termi FC.

[Clonesa]

I agree the termi FC should get the teleporter as well, but the teleporter is still useful for the FC in the sense thats is a cheaper upgrade, cheaper to use and a lower cooldown.

[AshaD]

I hate to do this to you guys since I can see you've put a lot of effort in but from what I hear relic have no plans to release an exporter and noone in the community is working on it either that I know of.

[Gorb]

And you heard that Relic have no plans to release an exporter (ever?) . . . from where, exactly? Relic have been tight-lipped on plans for any possible modtools for a long time, and I'd love to know why you're so sure of them not working on such a piece of software.

[Clonesa]

Until a few weeks ago I don't think anyone in the community with the possible exception of a few individuals who promised to keep it on the down low even knew we would get a WorldBuilder. Hell the game itself contains mod support that up to this day they have yet to even acknowledge beyond saying "we like mods". No reason to assume one is never coming, but no reason to assume one is coming either, which is unfortunate. With the information available on CoH's format I doubt it would even be that hard for someone with knowledge in the field to write a third party max plugin either.

[AshaD]

Gorb i'm certain that you would have seen the announcment when relic said they had decided to drop mod support because of limitations with the software they used to create DoW2. I can try and dig it up but it was during the interview with Johnny Ebbert about DoW2.

[Supernaut]

AshaD you'll find they said there wouldn't be mod support on release. :)