Assuming that I require end-users to license UE4 in order to mod my game can anyone go into detail about how the modding process would actually work? I’m not at all concerned about having to give subscribed users a custom build of the tools (in binary form), it’s that I suspect that I have to give them the entire content directory (raw .uasset) files in order for them to produce mods because otherwise they have no ability to reference blueprint types and classes.
ALSO there does’t appear to be any facility for a mod author to package their new assets without repackaging the entire game content, which also means they could modify the original game blueprint code, and the pak file would be the same size or larger as the original game.
I’d like to be able to ship something that can load “additional” pak files that contain modified content… similar to a doom wad file.
Having to give modders access to all the game blueprints potentially exposes sensitive systems that should never be modified and would be best if they were never able to see how they worked for reasons of privacy, security, and trade-secrets etc.
TLDR;
So far I haven’t been able to come up with any process for modding that doesn’t require a mod author to get the entire asset structure of the original game (in .uasset files and folders) and repackage the ENTIRE game including the original game assets and new assets they produce. This has some pretty serious issues.