Modpack policies

[Rifler]

I'm trying to figure out how people handle allowance for mod packs, giving credits and using other peoples mod content in their own packages. I assume credits should be a matter of respect, but do I also need to ask people if I'm allowed to use their content in my own package?

It's complicated because I've webbed my own content with others peoples mods to a degree you can't effectively divide them anylonger. Apart from that all I've learned myself about modding was about looking at other peoples files and then basically recreated what they did and adjustet it.

In particular I'm using mod content from @BlouBlou, @Gedemon and @whoward69, who seem to have created 75% of the whole mod content on the workshop and over here. Do you think it's ok to use their content and give them appropriate credits, or do I need to ask them personally?

 

[Androrc the Orc]

I'm trying to figure out how people handle allowance for mod packs, giving credits and using other peoples mod content in their own packages. I assume credits should be a matter of respect, but do I also need to ask people if I'm allowed to use their content in my own package?

The custom is that you don't need to ask them - it is assumed that redistribution (as long as the proper credits are given) is allowed when content is made available to the community.

 

[whoward69]

I'm trying to figure out how people handle allowance for mod packs, giving credits and using other peoples mod content in their own packages. I assume credits should be a matter of respect, but do I also need to ask people if I'm allowed to use their content in my own package?

It's complicated because I've webbed my own content with others peoples mods to a degree you can't effectively divide them anylonger. Apart from that all I've learned myself about modding was about looking at other peoples files and then basically recreated what they did and adjustet it.

In particular I'm using mod content from @BlouBlou, @Gedemon and @whoward69, who seem to have created 75% of the whole mod content on the workshop and over here. Do you think it's ok to use their content and give them appropriate credits, or do I need to ask them personally?

As far as I'm concerned it all depends on what you are doing with my content - which regardless of me releasing it to the "community" I still retain full copyright and intellectual rights to.

If you are just taking a number of mods, bundling them up, and redistributing them as a "modpack" (say all my "UI - Overlay Xyz" mods) I would have to question why you are doing this and also the value of doing this - as the whole point of keeping mods like that separate is to allow easy upgrade/updates of individual components. It will also generate significant work for me, answering all the requests to update my mods in your modpack - there is very little, if any, value in such a modpack IMHO

If however you are taking various mods and including them as integrated components of your own mod, say my Longboat and Smokehouse and including them in a Viking mod/scenario pack and as an aid to commerce using "UI - Trade Ops" so are also including that, then, at the very least, a link back to the original mod(s) should be included.

So, to answer your initial question, I, as a common courtesy, would like more details about what you are wanting to use them in, as opposed to a catch all "can I use any of your mods in an unspecified way in an unspecified 'modpack'".

W

 

[Gedemon]

I follow the CFC custom as described by Androrc, so no need to ask for any of my mods. Just have a look to the included readme.txt to give proper credits, as some of them are already modpack and I don't want to be credited for a part I've just packed.

 

[The_J]

I wonder if there's a need for a "Modiquette", like I wrote it at the beginning of this year for Civ4 (link).

Like andrord and Gedemon said, normally we assume that everything which has been uploaded is free to use, and if you use it, then you give credit to the original authors.
But like whoward said, we also assume that everyone is reasonable about what they do.

 

[Spatzimaus]

As far as I'm concerned it all depends on what you are doing with my content

Basically, this. If you want to use bits and pieces of logic from someone's mod to resolve issues you were having problems with, no problem. If the person has released it as a Mod Component (which, by their very nature, are DESIGNED to be used as parts of larger mods), fine. If you want to figure out how to integrate two existing incompatible mods, go ahead, although in that case you'd better make it clear that most of the work was theirs and that any time those other mods get updated you're not always going to be right there on top of it. (This is the problem with combining several mods.)

But there's an issue of scope, just as in any intellectual property discussion. Most of the major mods are 10% "fun stuff" and 90% hard work. People love designing new civs, units, and buildings in XML, but the underlying mechanisms take the vast majority of the time, whether it's fine-tuning the XML balance, adding new UIs, adding custom unit models, or adding Lua code that makes new abilities work correctly. If you're going to take someone's mod, keep all of the internal designs but slap a new coat of paint on the top (replace that top 10% with your own content) and then call it your own work, then it doesn't matter whether it's been released to the community, I'd say that's still not acceptable no matter how much credit you give in a readme.

So now that you know the two extremes, it shouldn't be hard to figure out whether something is acceptable; if you're not sure, just ask the person. Most people who code up new Lua mechanisms are fine with others using parts of those mechanisms; way back when I figured out how to add working Nuke interception to the game, a half-dozen people asked me if they could copy that part of my code for their own mods, because adding SDI-like projects was an obvious need for any mods focusing on the later eras. There's no problem with copying that sort of thing, because it was hardly the central part of my mod, it was just a tool I'd used to solve a minor problem.

(NOTE: that nuke interception code no longer works as of patch 674, because of how Firaxis changed the combat events. There is no fix.)