Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is making changes to how it handles mods in order to address server stability issues. Come the next big update in December, mods “will be prohibited from public online sessions,” according to an update from the game director.
“We wanted to make a game that was moddable from the start (this is why our game pack files are not encrypted, for example). It’s always a pleasure for me, as a developer, to see what our community can create. Mods are great, and they will no doubt contribute to this game’s longevity,” writes Dmitriy Grigorenko on the Focus Home Interactive forums (also shared on Steam).
“However, we as developers must also ensure game stability and continuously work towards a smoother experience for all players. Our data shows that a non-negligible amount of recent server stability issues are related to mods, and that instability impacts even those users who don’t have mods installed. We have also received user reports that their save files were corrupted after playing alongside players with mods.
“This is why, starting with our next big update in December, mods will be prohibited from public online sessions. That means that you will no longer be able to enter a public game if you have mods installed.”
The update goes on to explain that mods will “still be allowed in private Operations lobbies”. Grigorenko also says they’ll release some of their own tools to make it easier for people to make mods.
I’m not clear on what kind of mods people were taking into public servers, but it’s a Warhammer 40,000 game, so naturally Nexus Mods has several pages of cosmetic re-paints of your soldiers. It also sounds as if a lot of players are hacking at the UI, blood effects and FOV options.
Brendan had a lot of fun with his Space Marine 2 review, finding it a spectacular jaunt and “pure ambrosia” for 40K fans.