About Hunter X Online:
I’m the lead for Team Dragonpunk, the second largest XCOM 2 mod group. Many people say this DLC could be a mod, so lets analyze this theory. Could it be a mod from a coding perspective? Yes, all missions could be with enough time and developers. That’s the ENTIRE point of the architecture! OK, so what would it take for us or LWS to make a mod as large as this DLC? There is a new tileset (2-3 artists), new character art and new weapons (1-2 artists), LOTS of code fixes (1-2 coders), new game mechanics (1 Sr coder with a Q/A team for game balance testing). So min of 5-8 profesional game developers working 40+ hours per week for 3 months. Add a reasonable return (not even counting Steam and Publisher costs) and we’re looking at $300,000 to $400,000 MIN to make this. Given that Team Dragonpunk has already spent $30,000 and are just now releasing our first mod, that sounds about right. So unless a whole lot more people start donating to mod developers (which they won’t), no, it’s not possible for modders to make this (not within about 2 years time anyway). Lastly, I wish people who say this would realize that they’re only HURTING the mod community. We’ve seen with many other games that Publishers will stop modding support if it hurts DLC sales. Currently, Firaxis has been AMAZINGLY supportive of modders and are very active on the forums. The only way for us to keep making free mods, is if this game becomes a smash hit. As far as my actual subjective review: While I wouldn’t have made many of the same art design choices (given XCOM’s strict military aesthetic), and would have hoped for better organization in rolling out the DLC, I do think it’s worth $10. Barely, but yes. I’m actually going to play this again with the Predator Armor Mod, because the old-time design of the weapons and the trophy wall remind me of the early Predator movies lol.
