Would an online papyrus compiler be allowed?

[Glanzer]

Hi Nexus moderators,

 

I have an idea about putting up an online papyrus compiler which would allow users to upload a script (.psc file) and the compiler would compile their script for them and then return it to them via a download link. The idea is similar to uploading a Word document to be converted to other formats like PDF. I think this would help a lot of users who can do simple scripting but have trouble getting the papyrus compiler to work (I certainly struggled with it). At this point the idea is just conceptual, I haven't done any development yet because I was concerned about the legality of it.

 

A couple issues that need to be considered:

 

1. Many scripts require other scripts from the same mod to compile correctly.

2. Some scripts require SDK or offline scripts to compile correctly (e.g. the SkyUI SDK scripts, Honed Metal scripts, Chesko's Papyrus shared scripts, Immersive Armors scripts).

 

Would it be legal to host those supporting scripts offsite (behind the scenes) to allow the compiler to work?

 

And finally, I've made a lot of personal changes to scripts for my own play-through. The permissions on many of the mod pages don't allow me to distribute the changes, but if I could offer that change via an online compiler that would be cool. For example, SkyTweak doesn't allow its mod to be converted or changed, so there are YouTube videos showing how to do it yourself. I've gone beyond that by changing SkyTweak into a read-only tool that gives me all my game info but doesn't make any changes to my game. I achieved that by a simple find/replace of text in the main MCM script. But of course I can't distribute that changed script. But if an online compiler could perform that change for individual users it should be pretty easy to implement.

 

Anyway, I would appreciate your thoughts about all this. Thanks so much for the work you all do on the Nexus.

[Glanzer]

Could I get an admin to weigh in on this? I'd hate to spend a month working on this only to find out it breaks the guidelines. Another way of thinking about this is the following: If a user sent me an altered script and I compiled it for them as a favor and sent it back to them, would that also break any rules? If not, then I would think having an automated way of doing that for them should be ok. Anyway, I'd appreciate any feedback, thanks!