If you've ever wanted to try your hand at PC game modding but needed a little extra motivation, TaleWorlds Entertainment is offering a pretty substantial incentive. The developer of Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord has announced a modding contest for its War Sails expansion, giving players the opportunity to create new content for the game's naval-focused DLC while competing for a share of €30,000 in prize money.

The competition is split into three separate categories, with the first focusing on conversion mods. Modders are being asked to create "total or partial conversion mods" using War Sails, allowing them to reimagine the expansion's naval battles and campaign travel. The category is particularly fitting for the Bannerlord community, which has produced several large-scale conversion projects that completely transform the game's setting and gameplay.

Popular mods such as Shokuho and Eagle Rising have demonstrated just how ambitious Bannerlord's modding community can be, giving players entirely new historical settings to explore. The winner of the Conversion Mod competition will receive €12,000, while second and third place will receive €6,000 and €3,000 respectively.

Modders who aren't ready to completely overhaul War Sails can also compete in the 3D art and scene design categories. The 3D art competition challenges participants to create new ship types for the expansion, while the scene design competition focuses on creating "Seaborne Village Raid scenes." Participants will need to design coastal assault scenarios by placing navigation meshes, spawn points, environmental details, and other elements throughout their scenes.

The winners of both the 3D art and scene design competitions will receive €2,000, while second place will earn €1,000 and third place will receive €500. Submissions for all three competitions must be completed by November 22, with TaleWorlds planning to announce the winners in January.

The competition appears to have been announced primarily to showcase War Sails' newly released modding tools, which became available just days before TaleWorlds revealed the contest. However, the timing could also be an attempt to encourage more players and modders to embrace an expansion that has received a mixed reception from the Bannerlord community.

War Sails currently has a Mixed rating on Steam, with many negative reviews criticizing the expansion for bugs, technical problems, and difficulties getting it running properly. Other players have argued that the naval-focused content may have worked better as a standalone experience, as much of War Sails' new content exists around the edges of Bannerlord rather than becoming a major part of a typical campaign.

The expansion has also created problems for Bannerlord's established modding community. War Sails' new ship navigation and naval combat systems required significant changes to the game's underlying code, which resulted in many existing mods becoming incompatible with the DLC. While some modders have worked to address those compatibility issues, the situation has made War Sails a more difficult proposition for players who already rely heavily on Bannerlord's extensive mod scene.

Encouraging modders to create new content specifically for War Sails could help address some of those concerns by giving the expansion its own collection of compelling mods.

However, the competition also highlights how important the modding community has become to Bannerlord's longevity. With the new tools now available, TaleWorlds is giving creators a substantial reason to experiment with the expansion and potentially turn War Sails into a more appealing part of the Bannerlord experience.