With the recent debacle caused by the latest Just Cause 3 patch it’s no doubt that the modding scene will continue to face trials and tribulations. Against the odds, the community continues to push on and contribute more content to our library, and for that we cannot thank every one of you – modders and players alike – enough. As the steadfast community continues to gradually repair the inadvertent but unfortunate damage done by the patch, nothing is more inspirational than the nanos development team – a group of specialists who are moving ever closer to bringing more multiplayer to a franchise whose desire for shared game worlds is only matched by that of its community, which has been seeking to enjoy Rico’s chaotic rampages with a friend or two…or ten…or a thousand.

That all depends, however, on whether the nanos team can top the work of rival programming gurus from the JC2-MP team which, as you might expect, brought us Just Cause 2’s fan-made multiplayer component which saw an official Steam release in early 2013. We’re all ears but so far it’s been little more than radio silence from JC2-MP vets on their own JC3-MP project; this prolonged inactivity likely accentuated by the hiring of JC2-MP lead developer Cameron “Trix” Foote onto team Avalanche. It’s unknown if the project has been silently canceled or continues to be developed in secret. Nevertheless, eyes have turned to the nanos team which has been actively updating their fans on progress and even caught the attention of some higherups, having been graced with the blessing of both Avalanche and Square to move forward with the project. This is a sharp contrast to the troubled past the team went through – their GTA V multiplayer project was famously shut down by Rockstar midway through development – all this and more in the interview below.

This interview was conducted by Draconio and features nanos CTO Alexander Güttler.

Continue reading “Nanos JC3:MP – A New Just Cause Multiplayer Experience”

The March 4th patch broke almost all of the current mods, resulting in either a crash or endless loading on login. Because of a drop in general interest and a slowdown of mod submissions most of our library is now non-functional for all users, as Just Cause 3 has not been cracked and nobody can sit on an old version without an auto-update from the parent DRM. A few modders have taken the liberty to update their mods to function with the latest patch, as many do when hot games recieve large, mod-breaking updates, though most unfortunately remain non-functional. The JC3 Mods team (2 people) is excessively busy and we have not had much time to think of a solution to a problem that we did not expect to run into while developing our upgraded modding resource in preperation for JC3. Neither of us are programming specialists so we cannot assess the situation properly but can safely assume the “Implemented DLC system in preparation of the Air, Land and Sea packages” patch note may reference the vital change which caused the issue.

With the changing landscape of the industry comes new game development strategies, some of which not only add to the grief of modders, but also make mod archiving more complicated for the archivists who run the fan-made databases. By pushing large releases that break mods by modders who unfortunately aren’t interested in returning to the scene to update their creations, keeping an archive of past mods becomes increasingly difficult when the game in question is niche or popular but liable to lose the spotlight quickly. When Just Cause 2 came out in 2010, it was not as common to see massive patches being released for cross-platform titles, likely due to the challenges of performing such tasks caused not only by limitations imposed by console hardware, but also the expectations set on wholly singleplayer games to be released in a state where they will not inevitably need to be updated in order to meet imposed quality standards. Due to the amount of players who may go through the entire game without their console ever seeing a network connection, releasing “unfinished” singleplayer games to meet deadlines was seen as an industry taboo and a damning move for the future of a brand. After the release of the 8th generation consoles we have seen many singleplayer games include network-based gimmicks like scoreboards to justify a connectivity standard which promotes an environment where the developers can safely assume players will be able to receive game updates after installing the boxed copy.

We can proudly say that, due to the fact that Just Cause 2 only received one small update, our entire library of 1000+ mods still works to this day on any version of the game, cracked or legit, some even working on modified consoles. With Just Cause 3, however, after roughly three months most of our library has been rendered non-functional as a result of a large patch, a patch that also appears to have hid vital data that previously assisted with mod creation. We are not attempting to place any blame on the developers or publishers, we’re just making sure you understand why we are in this situation. Neither of us are game developers so we can only speculate on these matters, but either way we are confident that this issue will persist and make keeping Just Cause 3 modding alive very difficult. This is a very sad admission considering the apparent vitality of Just Cause 2 modding to the development of Just Cause 3, and we apologize if the situation has disappointed any modders or players.

Disclaimer: Just Cause 3 Mods is a community-run website and is not owned or affiliated in any way with Avalanche Studios or Square Enix.

It’s been over a month since Just Cause 3 modding began to take off, and ever since then we’ve been working tirelessly to improve every aspect of our modding resource. We’ve made tons of changes here and there to improve functionality and make the tools we’ve built more user-friendly and reliable. Hopefully you’ve noticed a significant improvement in the speed department, too – we’ve upgraded our hardware to cater to the massive influx of modders and players that we were certainly not expecting so soon. Following these upgrades we’ve taken to improving functionality by finishing the long-awaited private messaging system for the forums and adding a new “Images” section to the site where you can share screenshots of your modding experience with the community and rate/comment on images uploaded by other users. We’re working on tying this feature to the mod repository to encourage users to share photos they’ve taken and promote those images via the mod’s page. We’ve also introduced a new subnav for the forums and are on the verge of pushing some new features for the forums that we know you will love.

This morning, due to some unforeseen security-related complications, we had to perform a small backup which has resulted in the loss of two mods and a number of forum posts. We apologize for this. We’re working on tightening security so we won’t encounter issues like this again.

After the saddening announcement that Just Cause 3 would lack an official multiplayer component, the development of a fan-made mod to fill that gap was inevitable, but only the JC-MP guys could possibly have pulled it off this quickly. In less than a month, the team behind the famed Just Cause 2 Multiplayer mod, which saw an official release on Steam in 2013, has already completed and demonstrated a working build for their upcoming multiplayer mod for Just Cause 3. The video, which depicts impressive vehicle synchronization progress, was a welcome New Years surprise for Just Cause fans and developers alike. With today’s upload of the all-new Infinite Grapple Range mod to our own database from modder Qub1 along with the FoV Patcher by none other than JC-MP lead developer Trix, it’s looking like 2016 will be an exciting year for Just Cause 3 modding. As with Just Cause 2, the JC-MP team’s work is not affiliated with our database in any way and will likely be hosted on their website.

Modding tools for Just Cause 3 aren’t out yet, but we already have a selection of simple mods available. For these you can thank Rick, also known as Gibbed. Rick is the reason for almost every Just Cause 2 mod you’ve ever played; mods that inspired many of Just Cause 3’s flagship features would never have existed were it not for for his efforts to develop a toolset for the second game. This toolset has allowed thousands of Just Cause fans to break into the code and get creative, which resulted in the fantastic Just Cause 2 mods library that we’ve hosted for over five years. Now that we’re working a bit more closely with Rick, an interview to help the Just Cause modding community learn more about the modder who’s ultimately responsible for the chaotic modding community seems like a natural step.

This interview was conducted by Zenin/Draconio and features Rick (Gibbed).

Continue reading “Meet Rick, the Man Behind Just Cause Modding”