Fans modding Fan Ages

[J'Kla]

It's only an issue if your age is not open source as I am open to team improvement I have no beef. I ask that the community respects the look and feel of the age and as a community protects the IP content. Even Cyan was open to bug fixes I don't see how I can be any less open. I do feel that disrespect to a created age should be considered out of order but one of the ways I have learned about age creation has been looking at the unwrapped ages Cyan created. If I am to be fair I must allow that to happen to my ages.

Hacking of Cyan work by others has enabled my progression and I feel I can't be resentful if hacking into mine makes it possible for the next generation of writers to evolve.

[Rabbit]

It's only an issue if your age is not open source as I am open to team improvement I have no beef. I ask that the community respects the look and feel of the age and as a community protects the IP content. Even Cyan was open to bug fixes I don't see how I can be any less open. I do feel that disrespect to a created age should be considered out of order but one of the ways I have learned about age creation has been looking at the unwrapped ages Cyan created. If I am to be fair I must allow that to happen to my ages.

Hacking of Cyan work by others has enabled my progression and I feel I can't be resentful if hacking into mine makes it possible for the next generation of writers to evolve.

There is a world of difference between someone blatently ripping off your hardwork, and someone contacting me saying "Can you show me..?" and/or "I like your object/texture in your Age, can we borrow it/show how it was done?"

If someone were to ask me "how did I"? about my Age, I would be more than happy to help in any way possible, maybe even help out if I can. I am keen to see as many new Ages and Age writers as possible.
If someone did not ask and I found my work was being messed without my say so, I would be extremely upset and would have to reconsider future Age building.

[MustardJeep]

@J'Kla
Only reason I can think of for not changing most of it (marker locations, relto pages, clothing locations) is that it royally ticks off some people (whom yes complain any way that it wasn't changed) if they are forced to go back and do the work again for the same payoff. With a little care and a bit of technical wizardry I do however think the reward items could become much more rewarding making the work worth while.

@Rabbit
I was very kindly given a example of what the user/admin KI's could do. Rather then the some what random mashing of two or more prp files I see this as a admin ability to tag a age with additional prp files. If you want to add to a Age so you can pull off some story or game, you design a add-on prp file to be loaded to the Age that makes the changes appear. My only real mod experience is in offline games and there you really do apply permanent changes to the game files. Dynamically adding prp files to be loaded in addition to a Ages own files is almost exactly what I was meaning when I put the poll up on the MOUL forums.

hope that helps.

[Trylon]

OK, when did this become about blantantly ripping off work?
It's funny and annoying at the same time to see how people seem to be able to take an innocent idea, take the worst possible interpretation of it, amplify it a hundredfold, and subsequently take the result as fact of what will happen and make decisions based on that.

Blatantly ripping off work is out of the question, period!

That is not what this thread is about.
This thread, and the concept of fans modding fan ages is about keeping ages alive.
If you want no one to touch your age, that's fine, just say the word in an accompanying file, or in other way. It will be respected.

On the other hand, I think it'd be great if we could see life in the ages, in the form of thinks brought there (and later being taken away by explorers).
For example, if there is a party in Abysos (just taking an age of mine for an example), it'd be great to have a temporary stage, some music boxes, food and drinks, etc, maybe a poster or such about the event. Such is what would happen in "real life" (and in "real life" one would also ask permission of the ages owner for such a party btw)
Such things can be added and removed relatively simply by putting the models and programming in a separate prp, which is attached to the age. It does not involve modification if the original data files....

Another example is a quest or hunt though various ages, in "real life" people would leave clues and stuff (special symbols, notes, writing in sand, etc...) in ages. Such clues could also be put in separate prp files, and do not require modification of the original files.

I for one would very much like the ages being kept alive like that - it's a great way of enhancing the experience.
If anyone at any time would like to do something like that with any of my ages, I'd be honored, and give them my full permission. Provided of course, that the modifications are in sync with the age (visual and background-/continuitywise) that is augmented (similar style if applicable), and are E rated.
Oh, and letting me know about it would be nice too (no requirement though), as I might be able to give some additional ideas on it.

[J'Kla]

I would like to be informed as well but only so I could also go and play with the mods.

[D'Lanor]

Right, that was the discussion I was speaking of. That idea was turned down and the whole document was reworded. Can you read? Stop trying to be Mr. Clever pants and admit your mistake.

Ok, mistake admitted. As I stated in that post I stopped following GoW politics at that point so I guess I missed the conclusion. Or maybe it is my memory that has gone bad...

[BAD]

I admit some of us thought we would be able to have that kind of thing in the guild without problems, but wiser heads won out and it was taken out completely.

[Aloys]

Argh, I had replied to this the other day right as the forum went down.. (yay for unannounced downtime.. Also yay for always saving my lengthy posts in a text file. ) And since right now I'm too lazy to read the 2 pages that have been posted since, here goes a good old copy/paste:
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I look at it this way: Would Cyan want us to modify their Ages? I guess no. Same applies here.

It's all about the story. Some Ages might be modified (like Ahra Pahts), but most Ages don't have an IC reason to be modified.. And explorers can't usually access descriptive books of other Ages they don't own.

Also, just as important: the problem is really in *distributing* modified Ages. I know I modified a number of Cyan Ages, and a couple GoW/GoMa Ages, but I didnt' distribute them; not even screenshots.

I did it only for my own entertainment or education.
Obviously if someone release his/her source files and say 'have fun' it's different.

[greendragoon]

I guess it really boils down to the nature of the age. The vast majority of of ages produced here are self contained. Example would be Andy Legates, Serine. Yeah I could come along and say, "Hey, let's add a hut in the woods." But really I should ask Andy before I do that. Plus, I could just as easily go make my own snowy age with it's own story and hut.

A very few ages, though, are communal ages, i.e. the story revolves around the entire community. Ahra Pahts is a good example and is in fact designed to me modified. Now I would still probably ask Aloys first if I wanted to add something bigger than an individual shell. But lets say in a bizarre example that Aloys vanished from the community for months or even years. No one can contact him. Soon, the community is faced with a choice, modify Ahra Pahts with out Aloys's permission, or scrap the aging Ahra Pahts and replace it with something else.

Anyway something to think about.