Finding the first step?

[Daemonjax]

Yeah, Unreal is non very mod-friendly imo... unless they specifically release tools for the game.

 

But, I'll take what I can do as far as I can.

Edited October 20, 2012 by Daemonjax

[Anbar]

there shouldnt be any copyright issues unless you try to sell stuff.

the worst thing that can happen is that you'll be asked to take it down. nobody will go after simple modders with lawsuits.

 

Have you looked at copyright law lately? It is my (admittedly non-expert) understanding that generally ANY redistribution of copyrighted material is forboden, whether for monetary gain or not. Anyhow, if it can be (moderately) easily worked around, there's no reason to step on toes.

 

 

ya.. making a profit from sales isnt a deciding factor for copyright infringement.. its just one of the "usual" reasons people litigate...there are plenty of others (distillation of product value, injury to the brand etc etc)

 

Its best to avoid the issues, rather than assume they wont arise.

[MaliciousRean]

there shouldnt be any copyright issues unless you try to sell stuff.

the worst thing that can happen is that you'll be asked to take it down. nobody will go after simple modders with lawsuits.

 

Have you looked at copyright law lately? It is my (admittedly non-expert) understanding that generally ANY redistribution of copyrighted material is forboden, whether for monetary gain or not. Anyhow, if it can be (moderately) easily worked around, there's no reason to step on toes.

 

 

ya.. making a profit from sales isnt a deciding factor for copyright infringement.. its just one of the "usual" reasons people litigate...there are plenty of others (distillation of product value, injury to the brand etc etc)

 

Its best to avoid the issues, rather than assume they wont arise.

piracy is also forbidden but you dont see the companies go after every single pirate.

just look at recent case of huge mod for skyrim, where after years of work on recreating LOTR story in it, all they got was "ceased and desist" letter from warner brothers due to copyright infringement. because its always the first warning before real lawsuits.

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Warner-Bros-Shuts-Down-Fan-Made-Skyrim-Lord-Rings-Mod-46799.html

 

i made mods for heroes of newerth, porting 3d models from TERA online, Land of Chaos online and other famous titles. nobody gives a damn.

lots of guys were porting 3d models directly from starcraft and WoW. http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?223950-Lich-King-Arthas-Accursed

as long as you dont try to sell it, there shouldnt be any problems. such mods do nothing but advertise the original game for free. its actually beneficial for the company who owns the title.

 

with warner brothers case, they either have a game in works that might compete/overlap with this mod, or they are just haters. either way, 99.5% dont care about small mods swapping models and stuff.

Edited October 21, 2012 by MaliciousRean

[dreadylein]

@MaliciousRean

 

You miss the point here, sure not many company will go after mod creaters, they would go after the people who distrubt it for obvious reasons, this could lead to troubles for the modding sites, its for sure no great risk, but it would be perfectly legal if they do exactly this

We dont have a clue what they think about mods, especialy after seeing that they plan to build dlcs

Another point is .. we are dancing on the edge(depending on the country) by reversing, by showing sourcecode snipets of the gamelogic, etc

Many of the guys providing you with this infos also work as programmers, or working in firms which have something todo with it

Blantantly ignorie copyright iussue could lead to troubles at work, noone wants this. Even less as there are ways to circumvent all this risks

[dose206]

This is off topic, but after spending a few hours combing through some of the more prominent threads I have a question. Does anybody recommend a particular hex editor? I've never used one before and would prefer to start off with a decent one rather than jump my way through a few crappy ones until I figure out which features I like(need). Thanks in advance.

[MaliciousRean]

i havent heard anything about mod sites being shut down due to copyright claims. as i said, in the worst possible scenario admins would be asked to take a single mod down and thats all. because thats how it works (the most basic example is youtube.)

besides, there is already existing copyrighted stuff on nexusmods http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/22794 , http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/20713

and nothing happened. because nobody cares.

Edited October 21, 2012 by MaliciousRean

[dreadylein]

@dose206 i like HxD but tbh, its more about what you like ;)

 

Pretty Nice Overview

[giorestZoneside]

@MaliciousRean

 

You miss the point here, sure not many company will go after mod creaters, they would go after the people who distrubt it for obvious reasons, this could lead to troubles for the modding sites, its for sure no great risk, but it would be perfectly legal if they do exactly this

We don't have a clue what they think about mods, especially after seeing that they plan to build dlcs

Another point is .. we are dancing on the edge(depending on the country) by reversing, by showing source-code snipets of the gamelogic, etc

Many of the guys providing you with this infos also work as programmers, or working in firms which have something todo with it

Blatantly ignore copyright issue could lead to troubles at work, none wants this. Even less as there are ways to circumvent all this risks

 

Why, i may don't want to buy an unnmoddable Xcom, maybe Firaxis should check famous site like Kickstarter and see for themselves what is one of the most popular request from the potential buyers, and guess what, SDK.

 

So they can persecute mod authors? In theory

Will they? Depends, if they want to end up like 3do (Facts) :down:

 

In theory just discussing about modifying the exe is illegal, modifying it is illegal, just peeking at the code may be considered illegal in some state

 

Now another fact, a game without mod is a game that find an early grave. I know this, Firaxis (hopefully) realize this, and if you want proof check some famous games that has generated sooooo much hype(DE:HR) but......failed miserably due to the low re-playability and the community (and all the possible extra sales) gone straight to hell, Xcom it's just the same and no DLC or "Second Wave" could ever fix that :rolleyes:

 

Modding is a practice as old a gaming and even with an SDK most modders would not be able to make something as big as they can, or i can say a name that can help clarify this? TESV

Did they lose any sales for it? On the contrary, the game wouldn't even exist without such tools.

 

Releasing the scripts IF, and i hope so, we find a way to recompile them correctly, will happen no matter what, if not here then somewhere else where copyrighted issue isn't such a big deal, if you get what i mean....

 

Instead of try to punish modders and players, perhaps their time would been better spent in giving the customer what they want and end this charade, after all they admitted the possibility of releasing tools and inside the engine there is a primitive mod support/enabler system.

 

I like this game, i have bought it, but i will never support a company that persecute modders and many share my belief.

 

Also no, there is no way to circumvent the issue dreadylein, modifying even a bite of this game require editing the executable hash check or have you forgot that? What part of prohibited reverse engineering/edit no matter if you distribute the mod or not isn't clear to you?

 

Even editing the ini file INSIDE the exe is in theory prohibited, and if i am not mistaken all the successful mods done until now rely on that, well beside removing the intro cinematic that is :biggrin:

 

I am not offending Firaxis nor any other company rest assured, but all in all i will sum all this short post in: In 2012 No mods, means No Party 8)

 

Feel free to contradict me, but i am a gamer and a programmer from quite some time by now, and everything i have just written here is nothing more then the truth, if you cannot accept that...peace

[Anbar]

I think we are in high danger of derailing this thread. - can we move the copyright discussion to its own thread elsewhere?

[dreadylein]

Providing tools for Editing isnt the same as manipulating the Data

Sure its forbidden, but its the person doing it

 

Peeking at code is allowed in many Countrys, which dont have the DMCA

 

 

 

I doub they would do anything against the modding, but its not up to us to decide, Dark0ne said no copyrightet files and we have to respec this as he is facing the troubles if they would occure.