Enable armor tinting

[FlyingHigh10000000]

I find it hilarious that this is placed right in the middle of one of the inis, yet was released as pre-order and now, a $5 DLC. Btw, this basically is the pre-order DLC, since it enables customization, and the Guile hair is in the customization options as long as they're enabled, from what I understand. That Firaxis would be this lazy, yet still be against people modding the game, pisses me off a bit. That said, I can see both viewpoints here, and I understand each one, and agree with some points for both:

 

Viewpoint A, the "Dick move, Firaxis," view: It's BS that Firaxis put this in as a pre-order bonus, and is now charging a decent percentage of the full purchase price for it, when you can get to it by changing two lines in a configuration file, something that even the most unskilled PC user can do on their own. Some are angry that 1/3 of their pre-order bonus was basically hidden in the config file, instead of being something actually reserved for them, and some are angry that they may have just paid five bucks for something they could get for free without even breaking any laws.(Let's face it, there's no way a court case would stand where a game company is accusing someone of piracy for changing two lines in an ini file that's very much accessible without any sort of hacking needed.

 

Viewpoint B, the "You're stealing what I paid for," view: Yes, it's easy to enable the DLC by just changing a couple of lines, and yeah, it was dumb of Firaxis to leave it in the open like that, but should you do it, and get for free what someone else put money down early or paid for as DLC? No. You shouldn't, and yeah, you should be labeled a pirate for doing it, or telling people how to do it, or even talking about it really, because you're letting more people know, that might not know. As much as it might not break any laws, it doesn't make it right to take something for free, when it costs money. Just like you can't just go onto someone's property and drink from their well, even if there's more than enough water for them, and everyone else in town. If everyone just took things because they could, we wouldn't have an economy.

[Perraine]

I don't agree with what Firaxis/Y2K have done ... I don't like it and I think is rather despicable on their part to do something this cheap, it's capitalism and revenue scrounging at it's worst ... BUT ... At the end of the day it's THEIR game and, right or wrong, agree or disagree like it, hate it, don't care ... If they Developers and/or publishers decide they don't like what's happening, it could cause trouble for the Nexus ...

 

The Nexus crew have forged a great relationship with various game companies and publishers and I'd really hate to see that relationship jeopardized by things like this ... Just sayin'

[kayttaja]

As much as it might not break any laws, it doesn't make it right to take something for free, when it costs money. Just like you can't just go onto someone's property and drink from their well, even if there's more than enough water for them, and everyone else in town. If everyone just took things because they could, we wouldn't have an economy.

Think of it like this: You just bought a car, you got the cheaper model even though you knew the more expensive model is more powerful. One day you find a simple switch under the hood saying "Extra power". Are you a criminal if you turn the switch? If a company sells people games that include content that can be enabled with a "turn of a switch" it's their problem. Don't want people to have the content? Don't give them the code. Make it ***DOWNLOADABLE*** content.

[FlyingHigh10000000]

As much as it might not break any laws, it doesn't make it right to take something for free, when it costs money. Just like you can't just go onto someone's property and drink from their well, even if there's more than enough water for them, and everyone else in town. If everyone just took things because they could, we wouldn't have an economy.

Think of it like this: You just bought a car, you got the cheaper model even though you knew the more expensive model is more powerful. One day you find a simple switch under the hood saying "Extra power". Are you a criminal if you turn the switch? If a company sells people games that include content that can be enabled with a "turn of a switch" it's their problem. Don't want people to have the content? Don't give them the code. Make it ***DOWNLOADABLE*** content.

 

Right. I was mostly playing Devil's Advocate by posting both viewpoints, so people understand where some are coming from in being a bit annoyed. That said, I did mention on the 2K forums that it's very unlikely that editing the ini in such a way is anywhere near illegal, considering it's for a single-player game, and the inis are easily accessed without any sort of "hacking".

[SniperJoe3397]

I'm more worried about what 2K (and/or Fraxis)'s lawyers would say to this kind of thing being spread around The Nexus.

 

It's why things like this happens.

[PepprmintButler]

While it's unlikely lawyers would get involved, it's doesn't take that much to influence the dev's and plublisher's willingness to give support to the community with mod tools.

[Jigain]

As much as it might not break any laws, it doesn't make it right to take something for free, when it costs money. Just like you can't just go onto someone's property and drink from their well, even if there's more than enough water for them, and everyone else in town. If everyone just took things because they could, we wouldn't have an economy.

Think of it like this: You just bought a car, you got the cheaper model even though you knew the more expensive model is more powerful. One day you find a simple switch under the hood saying "Extra power". Are you a criminal if you turn the switch? If a company sells people games that include content that can be enabled with a "turn of a switch" it's their problem. Don't want people to have the content? Don't give them the code. Make it ***DOWNLOADABLE*** content.

 

Not quite an applicable analogy, because when you buy a car, you get unrestricted ownership of everything about the car. When you buy a game, you don't get unrestricted ownership to everything the game was made of. I don't think anyone in their right mind can say that Firaxis wants us to mess with their game as it stands now, considering the actions they've taken to actively prevent it.

 

That said, some cars can actually make you a criminal if you do things they're able to do, but by design are restricted from doing. Tractors are by design restricted to a very slow speed, but through some easy modifications can allow for more than triple or quadruple the speed. This modification makes you a criminal. That's a bit offtopic though.

 

Perraine echo my feelings on this topic perfectly. Firaxis are a bit dickish by trying to charge $5 for setting two values in a configuration file to "true". It doesn't really affect myself, as I got it as part of the pre-ordering deal, but it's a douche thing to do nonetheless. However, they made the game, not us. If it comes down to either letting them charge $5 for two values, or them not supporting modding at all for the game because modders are nothing but people who'd jump at the chance of "stealing" potential revenue from them... I'd much rather let them have their $5.

[BanjoOz]

Not quite an applicable analogy, because when you buy a car, you get unrestricted ownership of everything about the car. When you buy a game, you don't get unrestricted ownership to everything the game was made of. I don't think anyone in their right mind can say that Firaxis wants us to mess with their game as it stands now, considering the actions they've taken to actively prevent it.

 

That said, some cars can actually make you a criminal if you do things they're able to do, but by design are restricted from doing. Tractors are by design restricted to a very slow speed, but through some easy modifications can allow for more than triple or quadruple the speed. This modification makes you a criminal. That's a bit offtopic though.

 

Perraine echo my feelings on this topic perfectly. Firaxis are a bit dickish by trying to charge $5 for setting two values in a configuration file to "true". It doesn't really affect myself, as I got it as part of the pre-ordering deal, but it's a douche thing to do nonetheless. However, they made the game, not us. If it comes down to either letting them charge $5 for two values, or them not supporting modding at all for the game because modders are nothing but people who'd jump at the chance of "stealing" potential revenue from them... I'd much rather let them have their $5.

I'd much rather them realize that if you want to sell extra content, you should *make* extra content. Something all game devs should realize. Again, even something "on disc" like the Sid Meyer hero wouldn't have bothered me, as it's not something the game "needs" at all. Being able to tint our armor - if the game allows it at all - should be core and part of the price of the game.

 

Frankly, I'm very disappointed in Firaxis for ths, as I genuinely would have thought them one of the devs who was "above" that sort of greed. These are old-school PC devs who are actual gamers themselves, who make the games *they* like, not churning out 'Generic Shooter 3' for a quick buck. These are the folks I'd have expected to love modding themselves, to respect their fans and gamers; they don't make casual rubbish that can sell by volume even if quality is terrible, they needs their fans to love them and their games.

 

IMO, we SHOULD have unrestricted access to the game we paid for! The idea of "renting" software is downright offensive to me, let alone greedy and unfair. The only restrictions on a piece of software (or media, film, music) someone pays for should be not to redistribute it. If I buy a game based on the Unreal Engine, I shouldn't be able to re-license the engine to another dev, sure, but I should be able to mod and hack the game as much as I want for personal use.

 

Being told you can only install X times on Y computers, not being allowed to mod because "that's now how we want you to play" or being forced to update to the latest patch even if you prefer an older version is plain wrong, in my books.

 

As to the car analogy: modding your car to go faster shouldn't be a "crime" in anything but a fascist police state. DRIVING it beyond the speed limit is the law-breaking offense.

Edited October 28, 2012 by banjo_oz

[Perraine]

It's like this ... My local Barber shop has a TV on the wall, and they play various sporting event DVD's for the entertainment of the customers awaiting their turn ... Now, technically this is illegal, because it's publicly broadcasting copyrighted material, but the owners of the material on the DVD aren't going to come stomping in and demand they turn it off, because it's not really a big deal if this one little barber shop plays the disc (it may even improve sales of the DVD, as the clients might like the content and go and by the DVD themselves to finish watching it)

 

HOWEVER, if the owners that Barber become famous and open a whole chain or just simply become famous and expand their business hugely, and one of the things that contributes to that expansion is the fact they always play those DVD's, I GUARANTEE that the lawyer's will be paying them a visit and telling them they either a) stop playing the DVD's or b) Pay a licensing/royalty fee to show them, which could very well mean the end of that budding Barber Shop Empire ...

 

The same applies here on the Nexus ... Bugthesda for example are very accommodating about allowing modding of their games, they actively encourage it in fact, but even they would have limits, and the developers/publishers of X-Com may not be as accommodating, particularly from what I can see happening here and in other threads/posts/mods it could very well lead to a knock on the virtual door from Firaxis/Y2K.

[BanjoOz]

It's like this ... My local Barber shop has a TV on the wall, and they play various sporting event DVD's for the entertainment of the customers awaiting their turn ... Now, technically this is illegal, because it's publicly broadcasting copyrighted material, but the owners of the material on the DVD aren't going to come stomping in and demand they turn it off, because it's not really a big deal if this one little barber shop plays the disc (it may even improve sales of the DVD, as the clients might like the content and go and by the DVD themselves to finish watching it)

 

HOWEVER, if the owners that Barber become famous and open a whole chain or just simply become famous and expand their business hugely, and one of the things that contributes to that expansion is the fact they always play those DVD's, I GUARANTEE that the lawyer's will be paying them a visit and telling them they either a) stop playing the DVD's or b) Pay a licensing/royalty fee to show them, which could very well mean the end of that budding Barber Shop Empire ...

 

The same applies here on the Nexus ... Bugthesda for example are very accommodating about allowing modding of their games, they actively encourage it in fact, but even they would have limits, and the developers/publishers of X-Com may not be as accommodating, particularly from what I can see happening here and in other threads/posts/mods it could very well lead to a knock on the virtual door from Firaxis/Y2K.

I can understand that, and I'm supportive for the Nexus taking down mods that were unfair to Bethesda in the past; mods that included DLC/game files, while innocent, weren't "playing fair" with a dev who was more than helpful on their part. If someone uploads mods containing - say - Mass Effect armor ripped and converted for XCom, while I personally don't see the harm I can totally see Bioware not being happy, and fair enough.

 

It's the morality of locking a core feature out of your game then charging for it that bothers me. Why not - as well as having tints in the base game - have "armor decals/graffiti" (like in the movie Aliens)? I'd LOVE to be able to stamp "Bug Squisher" on my sniper rifles! Special "decals" - while the same in principal - would make for fun, non-essential but rewarding preorder bonuses and DLC that, when sold for $5, could be happily skipped if you didn't want them.

 

Besides, your point about playing a DVD in a public shop actually increasing sales for said DVD is exactly why I am so against devs who oppose modding... Oblivion, Fallout 3 and New Vegas are still being played today because of two things: a great mod community and quality DLC releases. I've seen fantastic PC games die because they were unmoddable and that would have been their main audience, and I'd hate that to be XCom's fate.

 

On a different/brighter note, I was just thinking what I'd love to see as DLC: flamethrower weapons! A "Flamer" for Assault class and a "Heavy Flamer" for Heavy class. Now that's a small, affordable DLC that would sell and be *awesome*, IMO.