Current status of the modding tools(and thusly the future) of Battle of the Gods

[CosmoClock21]

Before you roll your eyes or want to decapitate me in a fury, no this isn't another "how can i mod BotG/where is the sandbox" thread. I'm well aware of the current status of the modding tools being in a corporate limbo. However sandbox mode/modding capabilities for BotG is something I've wanted for a long time, as it's essentially that sandbox island map I've put hours into with the addition of the buildings and miracles that BotG adds. Also turtles.

Lionhead is all but dead(they are now parading Fable as their sole franchise; more on that in a minute), and I'm not too sure I like what I see in Godus thus far. Thus for the survival of the entire genre of god games I see the BotG to be one of, if not the sole factor(although admittedly War for the Overworld is looking pretty nice).

So yes, this all means a fair lot to me and I'm sure you too. I know I've joined relatively recently but rest assured I've been a long time lurker. I've put a lot of time and energy as to finding out as to where our franchise is. I started by contacting Lionhead on their official forum(which is now the official Fable forum) to no avail over the months. Tried Peter himself. Even EA although that went as well as one can expect. I found a little bit of luck by going to the Fable official facebook page and actually got to talk to a human being. The reply went as follows:

Hi <anon>,

I've asked around and releasing anything Black & White related won't be possible, Although we developed Black & White, it was actually published by EA. Therefore, for legal reasons, we will not be looking to revisit the game in any capacity.

You could try and approach EA, but I can't imagine this will be high on their to do list.

Sorry that I couldn't have been of more help.

Thanks,

Lauran


So it's completely in EA's hands, including the mod kit, I'm afraid. I tried contacting EA, even getting past their stupid "you may only contact support for a game that has come out in the last 3 years" policy only to get some Mexican dude who barely spoke English. I was patient and explained everything to him, and he said he was looking into it. Lo and behold after 15 minutes of waiting he disconnected without saying a word.


Anyways, I posted this as to give an official reponse from Lionhead themselves(who I urge you to contact via the Fable facebook page regardless) for the community who were still holding out hope for BotG modding tools. Looks like it isn't going to happen unless Lionhead themselves take initiative and just release it anyways or EA suddenly stop being evil. The former is much more likely than the later going by EA's track record.
Secondly my reasons for posting this is I wanted to ask the community, including the gifted modders here, as to what can be done to salvage BotG. Can we create our own modding tools using the BW2 ones as a template? Can we somehow replace one of the maps in game with out own? Can we do anything to save the game, no matter how hard the work? Really, I'll take anything.

 

[Matt]

Hey, writing our own tools for BW2 BOTG is possible, it's a hell of a lot of work though. I've spent the last year and a bit on and off working on mod tools for Black and White 2 and subsequently BOTG, right now I fully understand the CHL file format as being something that contains Lionhead's own compiled byte code language for a stack based virutal machine developed in house (no documents exist on it, that was fun.)
So far, I have the ability to assemble and disassemble CHL files in a very basic assembly format that looks a little something like this:

Which as you can see.. Isn't very easy to write in, but does allow us to edit stuff for sure.

As for what this means for BOTG, I've documented that pretty well too, the only thing stopping us from compiling for it is the native functions (stuff like creating villager entities or playing videos, there's 1000s of them) have all had their ID shifted along with 100 new functions for BOTG, not helpful and means we can't use the BW2 compiler for BOTG.
Once I get a little more work done on this assembler for BW2, I can see about getting it to work with BOTG a few minor changes should get it working.

 

[CosmoClock21]

Good to know that somebody is working on it. Believe me when I say a lot of people appreciate it. I'll admit I'm not too knowledgeable when it comes to modding, but nonetheless I do whatever it takes to help. If there's anything I, or anyone else interested in the mod kit can do, by all means let us know. And do keep us updated(I know you must be swamped with OGAM as well).

You have my sincere thanks for putting so much time and effort into this. If all goes well, we should see a lot of people playing BoTG again.