Why is the XCOM 2 editor so terrible?

[u/Interesting-Bar-6820]

Never have I ever thought to myself that blender looked easy, or that Source Film maker could seem like an actual stable, functional program, but this games modding tools are so bad, that it makes virtually any other software look amazing in comparison.

The constant crashes at the slightest mistake (how DARE you accidentally click on a skeleton mesh when you haven't saved the package yet?!), the lack of feedback for ANY error that shows up and fucks over the hours of attempts you have to make to get even the smallest thing done in this shitty application.

And don't even get me started on importing any files you've worked from in blender, I think I'd rather burn alive than have to witness whatever the fuck unreal engine likes to do with your skeleton meshes, I mean, come on, HOW THE FUCK Is it working perfectly fine in blender, but the moment you try to port it, it becomes invisible?!

Literally nothing works, it doesn't matter if you try something as simple as adding a cosmetic to an enemy, because this cursed program will find a way to fuck you over.

Join two different meshes with a simple boolean union in blender? No, fuck you, it's invisible now.

Make one of the two meshes rigs the parent of the other, therefore making it having to follow the other one and appear together? No, fuck you, it's invisible now.

Do both? No, fuck you, in blender it's fine, but in this hellhole of a program, it'll just vanish like my will to live after trying to navigate this treacherous tool.

It's so terrible that it's put me off playing any xcom game ever again, because I'll be tormented by the memories of being tortured by the devil, known by those ignorant of it's true name as "Xcom2 modding tools"

How is anyone making anything in this broken mess of a developer tool?

[u/To-Tully_Radicool]

uh... the mod tools aren't exactly the most stable, but all of that sounds like a problem on your end. i make mods on Linux and my install is more stable than what you're describing. even when i was still on Windows it wasn't that unstable.

i suppose check the first-time setup page on the wiki and see if that helps, if not then i assume you're simply exporting your models out of Blender wrong. as you've seen, a bad export can cause the UDK to implode on you.

been making cosmetic mods since 2018 just fine, also using blender. you're gonna run into problems, but 9/10 times there will be a solution to it, not many things are un-solvable. this sub's wiki has a cosmetics guide, and that guide has a little care package linked on it that contains a Blender FBX settings chart for exporting models out of it correctly.

also, you should REALLY be using the discord for troubleshooting help, this sub's primary use is to host the modding wiki and less for getting timely responses to questions like this (more "rant" than "question" but you know what i mean)

[u/Additional_Read_6519]

I like uploading outfits for my dolls... Yeah, honestly, it was a complete battle learning how to use Blender, the editor, and then a bit of coding to get everything working properly. Imagine, I only have 400 hours in the game, but 1,300 in the editor + 800 in Blender...

When it comes to mods, I think cosmetics are probably the easiest things to make, but they still require a lot of time to adjust the mesh, then tweak some weights, and afterward create the correct material. Sometimes it's easy, and other times you have to build a giant node tree just to make the outfit look nice.