general_kill
Deity
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2003
- Messages
- 2,870
well we can always use things like mcafee, nortan, and online scanners like http://virusscan.jotti.org/
If the game is so moddable, why debate?
- Thread starter wotan321
- Start date
Crazy Jerome
Warlord
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2002
- Messages
- 210
People that have never used a Civ4 mod will be well advised to get their mods from a site like this one, and not be the first one to download that mod. If it is a mod that is ranked pretty high and used by many users, the chances of it having a virus are tiny.
Once you get to know certain people in the community, you'll probably feel safe downloading new mods from them. This will especially be true for people that have done other mods in the past. They have a rep now.
Not that this is fool-proof. I suppose someone could design a really good mod with nothing in it, get a reputation, then build another mod (or update) with something nasty in it. Let's further suppose that they build this nasty thing to not go off for awhile to encourage lots of downloads.
And tomorrow my boss could double my salary. People that are going to try to trick you into installing something nasty are not going to go to that much trouble.
Of course, people doing new mods will find it a steep hill to climb. It will be a lot easier to do little pieces of mods and share them with respected members of the community. For example, if I come up with a great little piece of AI code, I'll be much better off sharing it with other AI modders that have a rep. They can understand the code, and know that I'm not trashing their reputation if they include it. Moreover, there is a better way ...
I absolutely would not trust anyone modding the AI or Python scripts that will not share their source in the mod. (You pretty much have to with Python, I think.) Sure, most people will not be able to understand the source. But some will, and will be interested enough to see what it does to really look at it. If someone has a piece of AI source out there long enough, it will be clean.
The people that get burned will be the ones that come onto the site (or smaller sites elsewhere) and download something out of the blue. Use a litle caution, and you'll be all right.
Once you get to know certain people in the community, you'll probably feel safe downloading new mods from them. This will especially be true for people that have done other mods in the past. They have a rep now.
Not that this is fool-proof. I suppose someone could design a really good mod with nothing in it, get a reputation, then build another mod (or update) with something nasty in it. Let's further suppose that they build this nasty thing to not go off for awhile to encourage lots of downloads.
And tomorrow my boss could double my salary. People that are going to try to trick you into installing something nasty are not going to go to that much trouble.
Of course, people doing new mods will find it a steep hill to climb. It will be a lot easier to do little pieces of mods and share them with respected members of the community. For example, if I come up with a great little piece of AI code, I'll be much better off sharing it with other AI modders that have a rep. They can understand the code, and know that I'm not trashing their reputation if they include it. Moreover, there is a better way ...
I absolutely would not trust anyone modding the AI or Python scripts that will not share their source in the mod. (You pretty much have to with Python, I think.) Sure, most people will not be able to understand the source. But some will, and will be interested enough to see what it does to really look at it. If someone has a piece of AI source out there long enough, it will be clean.
The people that get burned will be the ones that come onto the site (or smaller sites elsewhere) and download something out of the blue. Use a litle caution, and you'll be all right.
warpstorm
Yumbo? Yumbo!
Crazy Jerome said:
Actually, it would be beneficial to the mod community as a whole if all of the AI mods came with source so the rest of us could learn how people pulled off successful improvements.
microbe said:
I would not call it irrelevant, but I totally agree with you on #2. It's a pain in the a** to set up a MP game when 4 out of 5 ppl have different versions (mods) installed. It's a prob that exists in every genre, wether FPS, RTS or another. Perhaps Firaxis can take the most popular mods and make 'em "official" by promoting them (with the consent of the author, that is). Because, I do not doubt that there will be mods that take the game a huge step forward in matters of gameplay.
I also think the mod database is a must have (user ratings, gimme!
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