Codemasters have seen the light: they’re taking the first steps to support Grid 2 modders. The upcoming community patch allows players to run modded game saves. It’s a small step but there are plans to extend support in the future. Codemasters are even talking about adding Steam Workshop to the racing game.
“We understand that there’s a talented, vibrant and creative modding community out there working on our past and current titles,” writes Codemasters’ community manager Loore. “Whether it’s new custom liveries or various colours of tyre smoke and other creative endeavours, all accomplished without official support. These things don’t go unnoticed at Codies and the whole team enjoy seeing what you guys come up with.
“Previously, some of our game’s files were protected against modification. This was intended as a defence against cheating, mostly during online play, but also when setting lap times or earning achievements. When the modification of a protected file has been detected the game would disable online access, achievements and would also prevent any saving from occurring.
“However, we understand that many mods are made with absolutely no intent of inconveniencing other players. These guys want to play the game in their own way, but as it stood the game would not save their progress if they were to modify a protected file.
“So we’ve decided to assist these players by adding some basic support to the game that allows modified data and when enabled the game will now save your progress.”
It’s excellent that a studio like Codemasters are retroactively supporting mods. Particularly as racing games aren’t ones we traditionally expect to be part of the modding scene. They could easily have released Grid 2, made some DLC, and moved on. More than the minor changes they’re preparing for the upcoming community patch, Loore goes on to say “This is our first step into supporting mods” and “as our support for Modding continues” Codemasters will look into adding Steam Workshop to Grid 2.
The community patch doesn’t just alter the save files of the game. Here is the full list of confirmed changes:
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Increased rewards in Custom Playlist
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A new playlist titled ‘Hardcore’
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Level cap raise to 99
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Fastest lap times have been included for online play
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A host of liveries previously restricted to single player will now be available in multiplayer
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The maximum number of laps allowed in a race has been increased from 5 to 10
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Veto weighting has been changed and now only requires 51% of the vote
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Country flags have been included next a player’s name plate online
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Reward for racing cleanly has been increased
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A vote to kick option has been included
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You can now skip the level up graphic
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Modding Support v1.0 [PC Only]
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Various bug fixes and background improvements