It can be used as a precautionary measure to prevent game crashes or major incompatibilities when a new game version is released.

Sometimes game updates don't provide backwards compatibility with certain features, necessitating for mods to be adapted to the new features

Wow, that's crappy. I've never dealt with software that worked like that. I've been a professional software engineer for decades and would never break people's documents/additions with a version update. We would've lost most of our customers doing that.

Originally posted by sjmills:

Wow, that's crappy. I've never dealt with software that worked like that

This is a game, nobody is going to sue SCS for mods that break the game, if for example Microsoft messes up their Office app and millions of people lose their documents all hell breaks loose.

Also comparing mods with documents is comparing apples and oranges.

The game isn't made to create things, that people do and use is totally up to them, where as apps like Office and photoshop and well other millions of apps are meant to create things.

I use the open beta period to prepare my mods for the new game version in advance, therefore eliminating compatibility problems before the new game version is rolled out to everyone

1. It is up to the mod author to restrict their mod to a certain version or not.

2. SCS has nothing to do with those mods being set like that. Mods were and are not officially supported by SCS. If you create a mod, you have the responsibility to adapt to the new game version. If you use a mod, you have the responsibility to fully acknowledge that mods can be broken and need time to be updated.

Originally posted by sjmills:

Wow, that's crappy. I've never dealt with software that worked like that. I've been a professional software engineer for decades and would never break people's documents/additions with a version update. We would've lost most of our customers doing that.

And I've never met a game in 30 years where major updates didn't break user generated mods.

Originally posted by sjmills:

Wow, that's crappy. I've never dealt with software that worked like that. I've been a professional software engineer for decades and would never break people's documents/additions with a version update. We would've lost most of our customers doing that.

Microsoft did worse than this about 25-30 years ago with their Office package. They decided to completely transform the old "menu" system, with programmatic actuation of menu selections and turned it into the new "ribbon " system which had ZERO programmatic actuation or manipulation. With one version change, MS dumped decades worth of database and spreadsheet programs developed by world-wide users WITH ABSOLUTELY NO WAY TO UPDATE. It wasn't an option. It physically was a different beast and all those years of tools were chucked in the bin unless your business decided to stay on an old version of Office in order to use your legacy code. Microsoft still seems to be doing okay, though. Doesn't look to have driven all their customers away...

Originally posted by Underscore_101_3:

Originally posted by sjmills:

Wow, that's crappy. I've never dealt with software that worked like that

This is a game, nobody is going to sue SCS for mods that break the game, if for example Microsoft messes up their Office app and millions of people lose their documents all hell breaks loose.

I never said anyone would sue.

Also comparing mods with documents is comparing apples and oranges.

The game isn't made to create things, that people do and use is totally up to them, where as apps like Office and photoshop and well other millions of apps are meant to create things.

I disagree. It’s not the number of people or files affected, it’s the principle. A good developer writes software that does not screw things up for users.

Originally posted by sjmills:

. A good developer writes software that does not screw things up for users.

Not sure if I agree or disagree, but you don't seem to see the difference between let's say a word document and a mod and the purpose of apps.

Games are not meant to create things, MS office, or Photoshop for example are, I can still open a word document I created 20 to 30 years ago, and similar for .zip files or Photoshop files.

You can not hold SCS responsible for mods not working.

In the basics you can't create files or mods with the game, additional apps are needed to do that.

Anyhoo, if you're not happy, learn how to create mods yourself.

edit, I forgot to add that you can still play vanilla ATS save files that you created in 2016.

Well, you're assuming things when you say I don't seem to know the difference. I do. The ability for an app to create things is not the issue. You don't seem to understand that.

Hold SCS responsible? Did I say that? No. But I can still blame them for not being a good developer for the reason I started this thread. Period.

Originally posted by Underscore_101_3:

Originally posted by sjmills:

. A good developer writes software that does not screw things up for users.

Not sure if I agree or disagree, but you don't seem to see the difference between let's say a word document and a mod and the purpose of apps.

Games are not meant to create things, MS office, or Photoshop for example are, I can still open a word document I created 20 to 30 years ago, and similar for .zip files or Photoshop files.

You can not hold SCS responsible for mods not working.

In the basics you can't create files or mods with the game, additional apps are needed to do that.

Anyhoo, if you're not happy, learn how to create mods yourself.

edit, I forgot to add that you can still play vanilla ATS save files that you created in 2016.

On the flip side of this argument, SCS does provide the Tools to extract and uncompress the game files, so that the user can make modifications (mods) .. that they then "do not support" ..
"mods not supported, but we'll help you make them"

Originally posted by _KC76_:

On the flip side of this argument, ....

Yeah, I agree with you on that,... I think most mod creators are aware that their mods can end up "broken" eventually and that it's more the users of them that aren't always aware that can happen.

Been a systems and software engineer for slightly more than 4 decades at this point. Did commercial software development for 6 years. Never once did I work for or work with or used any tool or any type of software where backwards compatibility was guaranteed "forever". OS upgrades from laptops to old fashioned mainframe boxes where pita when an upgrade (almost always a version upgrade and not release, modification or build update) involved database changes. And, being a game, a lot of the modders are not professional, paid developers. They are enthusiasts, hobbyists. A lot of varied backgrounds but modding is not their profession or career. Burn out is common, life overtakes your free time. They are not part of the development cycle so cannot troubleshoot and debug how the release may impact there mods and the work they may need to do to make it work.

No, not “forever,” but we always tried to make sure app changes would guarantee data compatibility. If a change was going to break user data, it was always because of OS changes beyond our control, and we simply made sure to warn the user, and translate the data to something new if possible. We never just threw up our hands and said, “too bad, your data no longer works.” Hell, my previous company still had code, users, and their data from 30 years prior.

Originally posted by sjmills:

No, not “forever,” but we always tried to make sure app changes would guarantee data compatibility. If a change was going to break user data, it was always because of OS changes beyond our control, and we simply made sure to warn the user, and translate the data to something new if possible. We never just threw up our hands and said, “too bad, your data no longer works.” Hell, my previous company still had code, users, and their data from 30 years prior.

User data is the profiles and game state, there's no way to keep compatibility with mods short of stopping game development.