Beginning with the Closed Alpha of the Modding Tools back in April, Treyarch has finally delivered on something they promised would come with the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 over a year ago. With several months of development time behind them, all owners of Black Ops 3 can now check out custom maps and mods for the game, and have the ability to connect to one another via custom game lobbies and a server browser. Dedicated servers are still coming soon, though with connecting to other players for lobbies, the framework has been laid for such an important feature.

Regardless, the full suite of tools comes with asset editors, level editors, Steam Workshop integration, example DLC maps included for free, assets from other official maps, and a pair of guides, one on how to create mods for Black Ops 3, including further links to mapping tutorials, and helpful YouTube links, and a tutorial on how to download and play with mods installed.

Of course, people already took to the Steam community hub to complain about the complexity of modding an FPS such as Black Ops 3. I can’t entirely say that I’m surprised, just rather, disappointed that people could be so ungrateful. It is worth noting that Black Ops 3’s mod tools are only going to be made available to full game owners, thus Multiplayer Starter Pack owners such as myself are left behind, at least in the creation aspect. Another note is that if players join servers that are running mods that are not currently installed, they will be downloaded and prepared so that you can join the server in question, as was the case with Call of Duty 4’s mod experience. Despite the community’s misgivings upon Black Ops 3, Treyarch has done the commendable here, and hopefully Infinity Ward will do the same.