After reading EA_Cade's comments here , I started wondering if the best (and potentially easiest) solution for EA would be to release a build-mode-only version of TS3 for world developers. I mean, we don't need the full functionality of the game for EIG work. And build and play modes operate from different (albeit connected) code cores, don't they? Maybe it could be possible to snip them apart and put out a build-only shell engine to work with CAW.
Of course, I have limited programming experience and maybe this wouldn't be an easy thing to do. I just feel like this shouldn't be as complicated as EA seems to be trying to make it.
@natashajones615 I think you figured out something, but my feeling is that they won't do what you've just asked.
I'm going to throw out a theory as to what I think happened with EIG and the EA App. I believe that this was all by design--not for malicious purpose; instead, out of misguidedness.
I say that because I've seen that over the past several years, there's been an industry-wide trend in the tech sector to force users into these highly restrictive ecosystems for some reason or other (safety issues, licensing, etc.). These ecosystems have become so heavy-handed that they're now crippling programs and in some cases hardware on people's systems.
For example, longtime simmers remember the frustration of Microsoft putting out an update that crippled Sims 1 in Windows 7, then completely killed the game in Windows 10. I have had software (not gaming but vide editing) suddenly get crippled when the manufacturer dropped support for codecs. Microsoft also released Windows 11 demanding something known as TPM, now cutting off millions of users who are still on older machines.
My theory is that the whole point of EA App is to force users to migrate to this restrictive ecosystem for security and anti-piracy measures, and that for whatever reason, they just don't want EIG baked into the App.
