The development of the modding tools

Hi everyone.

I'm the creator of the 'Make CoH Great Again' mod, and i'm currently in the very early stages of developing a strategy game from the ground up in Unreal Engine. I can't code, but i do understand the relationships within the programming framework, which is why i found the modding tools of CoH2 reasonably understandable. Since i can't code, i'm dependent on my programmers to actually 'create' the game, so i wanted to look into the possibility of creating an editor for the game, much like the attribute editor for CoH2. Once the systems are implemented, i would then be able to create a lot of content myself, freeing up the programmers somewhat.

As such, i'm wondering if any of you know:

1) How long did it take to develop the modding tools for CoH2?

2a) Did Relic build modding support into the core foundation of the game, or add it after the game was complete?

2b) What impact (if any) did this have on the development of the modding tools and their functionality?

3) Is there any features/guidelines that are especially important to implement/follow, when creating such an editor?

Hi there, I am similar to you, I am not a programer and the modding tools helps a lot to people like us.
In my personal opinion:

For a single person developing a tool will be a big effort and a considerable time of his life. This person needs programming skills and the willpower to get the goal line.
Maybe you can try to contact the creator of the coh1 tools and ask him if he wants to participate in your project.
Also here, there are very skilled guys who can guide you like Eliwood and Jane. Try to contact them too.

Best luck in your project.

1) How long did it take to develop the modding tools for CoH2?
A few months, maybe more. Most of the tools were developed with CoH1, so porting it to CoH2 should have been an easy process.

2a) Did Relic build modding support into the core foundation of the game, or add it after the game was complete?
It was built into the core foundation of the game. Almost every aspect of the game is soft-coded, and can be modified outside of the source-code.

2b) What impact (if any) did this have on the development of the modding tools and their functionality?
It made the creation of the tools much easier, as instead of having to include all the source code and requiring the use of a compiler (Like Source SDK), everything can be done by anybody on the fly. Really, most of the tools are just fancy text-editors, each one tooled for the special formats relic uses.

Remember; If it can/should be soft-coded, make it soft-coded. The only things that should be hard-coded in a RTS game should be the most basic elements of the game, or things you dont want being modded (store/account data, basic UI functions, anticheat, etc.)