On Mod Authors Hiding their Mods

[LoneSilverWolf]

I wanted a place to discuss this because the modders doing this are making a terribly asinine decision. They posted an "open letter" that I am not going to link here (as idk if it is allowed), but it boils down to them not being happy with the communication between Larian and and the modding community and them having "no official mod guidance." 

But the problem with that is...of course there isn't official mod guidance because modding is not yet officially supported. See the problem? Why would Larian take the time to communicate anything, when they don't even fully support mods yet in the first place? They want Larian to be clear with them on issues effecting hotfixes. Um really? How will they really know that until thousands upon thousands of people are playing on the patch. Seems pretty common sense tbh. They also state in this ridiculous letter that they want "clarity of expectations" regarding mod support....

Again, how can they make it any effing clearer than they already have?

EVERY single patch, they constantly tell us that modding is not officially supported yet. They also tweeted a week ago give or take, that the next patch will have their first steps towards mod support. Since the early access period, they have told us they intend to support mods. Not once did they give a timeframe, not once did they tell us "hey on release, there will be mod support." Quite the opposite, they said it would be a thing, but never gave any timeframe for it.

And now you have these mod authors, acting like entitled toddlers, pulling their mods en mass from the Nexus, in some form of meaningless (and stupid) protest, over things that Larian is already planning. The BEST part of it is, they claim to be doing it for the modding community as a whole. Here is the exact quote: "We acknowledge Larian Studios has made some statements but we are looking forward to a better mutually beneficial future for Larian Studios, Players, and Modders."

"We are looking forward to a mutually beneficial future for Larian Studios, PLAYERS, and Modders." Yet, by pulling their mods--which includes dependency mods that OTHER MODDERS rely on, is actively harming the modding community. It is hurting the mod authors who then have to figure out how tf to get their mods running without the dependencies. It is harming the players who need to download these mods in order to get other mods to work. Not to mention it is causing a rift between Larian, the modding community, and the players. It is pissing the players off, and it's downright making mod authors look bad. 

This reeks of entitlement, period. I will remind mod authors that Larian doesn't owe you anything, period. Full stop. They owe us all who bought the game a finished product, which has been provided. That is the extent to which Larian owes us, and it has been delivered. That they want to support mods at all is extra, and not required. You mod authors are not entitled to be able to mod this game. Some dev companies don't support modding period, much less have mod tools and extensive mod support in their pipeline.

And make no mistake, those of you pulling your mods--Other mod authors can and will make alternatives to your works over time. You pulling your mods won't stop people from modding the game. It will displace things. It will make things harder at first. it will piss a lot of players off. But it will not stop modding, and other authors will make mods that function the same way your dependencies do. And when Larian does release mod tools, it will be even easier for them. The modding community will get along with out your mods. All you pulling mods does, is make things break for a short amount of time, and cause a rift between you and the players who just want to have fun mods for their game. That's it.

This entitled bs needs to stop. Larian already stated mod support is coming. They already stated they plan to communicate with mod authors in the future. They are even planning cross platform mod support, according to their twitter posts. So everything in this ridiculous letter is already being planned. You have been told already. And yet you do this to the community anyway, and for what? Some stupid power trip?

For those of you mod authors pulling your mods from Nexus over this drama, you are all acting like entitled toddlers throwing a tantrum because you're not getting your way right now. It needs to stop, and if it doesn't, your mods will be replaced anyway. So you may as well have a modicum of patience instead of acting like a bunch of 2 year olds. 
 

Edited February 27 by LoneSilverWolf
Grammar and Spelling

[heaveygunner99]

Agreed. It's funny watching people agree with the mod authors and try to justify their actions but there is no good way of justifying what they are doing. Sure, Larian could do better on the communication, but they are actively working on their masterpiece of a game by sending hot fixes and doing something that barely any other company has done before. They are actively reaching out to everyone and listening to what they want (mod support) on top of fixing issues with their game. These mod authors that are hiding their mods are severely overestimating their "power" to get Larian to listen to their tantrum and the only way they could make waves was by hurting the community instead of helping it and playing it off as "helping". Disgraceful.

[LoneSilverWolf]

17 minutes ago, heaveygunner99 said:

Agreed. It's funny watching people agree with the mod authors and try to justify their actions but there is no good way of justifying what they are doing. Sure, Larian could do better on the communication, but they are actively working on their masterpiece of a game by sending hot fixes and doing something that barely any other company has done before. They are actively reaching out to everyone and listening to what they want (mod support) on top of fixing issues with their game. These mod authors that are hiding their mods are severely overestimating their "power" to get Larian to listen to their tantrum and the only way they could make waves was by hurting the community instead of helping it and playing it off as "helping". Disgraceful.

Oh most definitely. What would these mod authors have done back in the heyday of Skyrim, Oblivion, Fallout 3, NV, and 4? Which continue to receive creation club updates that break mods? They'd absolutely lose their freaking minds, that's what. I don't care how they are justifying this bs, it is actively harming the community; and anyone who has pulled their mods on that list, I've pulled my endorsements for. It's shameful, disgusting, entitled behavior and I won't stand for it. I'm tired of mod authors developing this God complex. I've seen it with some Elder Scrolls mod authors, I've seen it with some Bannerlord 2 mod authors, and some Fallout mod authors.

Thanks to those amazing mod creators who aren't throwing a fit just because Larian dares to keep their game updated and want a stable game before getting into mod support. YOU all are the true heroes. 

[Artie3]

Glad to see at least two other people are being sensible about this debacle. People in general seem to have problems keeping their egos in check these days, and this drama show from these mod authors is proof enough of that.

[Grizzly696]

I guess a modding kit wasn't set high on their priority list. Especially since the release of the console versions. It's better to put resources over to stabilise it across platforms and add new features for everyone as us modders kind of a minority group. But as you mentioned from the tweet, if it's finally on their to-do list it must be something they're working on and should be out soon as BG3 is just begging to be modded as a long time D&D player, it's got so many possibilities left untapped!