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Re: Fans modding Fan Ages
Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:24 pm
by teedyo
MustardJeep wrote:You want to encrypt Age Files?
I'll give Lontahv points for saying in the poll thread prp files are very easy to decompile, I know it, You know it, and everyone in the entire history of Age creation knows it. But Lontahv said it.
Why would you want to encrypt Ages if after Five years nobody has ever done a behind the back alteration so many claim to be afraid of? MY poll asked if Age creators could accept people adding to their work, and a lot of people seem to be for it in one way or another. (24 pro vs. 20 neg) Most gamers don't consider a level they release as their own personal property because simple put they can't enforce it. Uru is a strange and special place in that it has countless people willing to respect the wishes of individuals.
Every single thing the GoW is and does is about to change out of all recognition as it's work finally becomes official entering The Cavern. I can respect the people that hesitate at what is most defiantly "The" cliff in their careers as Age Creators, but don't expect me not to shout encouragement to them.

As I said in my previous post; my thoughts were not so much to prevent modding but to prevent cheating. 90% of URU is about exploration and discovery. How do you think a creator might feel if he/she/they spend 6 or 8 months creating a sequence of ages and Mr. Filegamer imports the ages into Blender et. al. and posts a walkthrough the day after release? Some would be royally bummed; I would be.
I also know that this type of "gameplay" has been available for a long time and few have done it. The difference now is visibility. The tools to do so have gotten
much more press so to speak. Everybody and their dog knows where to get them and find tutorials on how to use them. Some people just have very little self restraint.
Lontahv; if you have a quantum packet-sniffer; I
want one!!
Re: Fans modding Fan Ages
Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 3:16 pm
by J'Kla
Unless the answer is not in the route but in the sequence. It is one thing knowing where all the pieces are hidden and another to know where to place them to open the door. Blender would reveal the locations but not necessarily the actions required.
You all know that to play a violin you place your fingers on the strings and rub them with a horsehair bow coated in rosin it doesn't mean you can get a tune out of it.
Re: Fans modding Fan Ages
Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 4:21 pm
by MustardJeep
Didn't catch you meant it for Anti-Cheating in the least.

Oops.
But you don't give people enough credit, half the people I played with in MOUL hit the Ages like cruise missiles. No cheating just a nuclear strikes worth of brute force in some cases.

Re: Fans modding Fan Ages
Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 5:19 pm
by J'Kla
Half the new ages in MOUL were not that new E'cana and the Ahononay set were recycled TPOTS ages with no really new features I could never understand why they just didn't move the journey cloths to new locations in fact I never understood why they were never moved for the first five. Or why not move the relto pages. It's not as if they were clue led locations. The same has to be true for the markers and the calibration task most of the UU guys had run those on each of the shards.
The pod ages hardly set any real challenges and opening the doors of the garden ages became a set task an standard piece of team work over in twenty minutes or less.
The desert was good and the hidden football was a dream but there was no way to keep it and play a game.
The pillars what was that? Why not some strange and secret setting that opened a door in the stands or some feedback that gave you a score.
We all expected more from the Cyan masters but a good number of us felt they took their eye off the ball and tried to emulate the weakest from the genre of the TV ie a running soap opera with a monthly release. How can anybody see that generating anything more than a monthly spike.
The only true Cyan gift was the calendar sparks and they were hardly hard to find in a profundity of one per month on a one year cycle. Yes it's hard to write ages and yes it is difficult to make puzzles but it is not that difficult to change the combination on a combination lock and it's hardly challenging to move the secret document to a new location or even change the first setting for the buttons in the slave chamber.
I was and remain astounded that we all paid as much as we did for as long as we did to GameTap for so much of the same again. We just held out for the hope that while we were marking time Cyan were crafting new ages and the lame story acted out monthly was only a stop gap till the good stuff came around.
If fans can mod existing fan ages at least we will have forever changing new content. Content that will challenge the minds of some of the best problem solvers there are, Uru and Myst game players. The modders will have to be moving some to stay ahead of the players snapping at their heels I look forward to see what can be created from my ages and it will be interesting to visit an age I have created and find a puzzle I don't know the answer to.
Re: Fans modding Fan Ages
Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 7:47 pm
by teedyo
J'Kla wrote:Unless the answer is not in the route but in the sequence. It is one thing knowing where all the pieces are hidden and another to know where to place them to open the door. Blender would reveal the locations but not necessarily the actions required.
You all know that to play a violin you place your fingers on the strings and rub them with a horsehair bow coated in rosin it doesn't mean you can get a tune out of it.
Yes, but we have the tools to open all of the related files; not just the mesh.
I do agree that it should be up to the original creator/team that brought the age to life. If some creator is offended by an unauthorized modification to the work; he/she/they has/have every right to request that the age be removed from the server and that's not really helpful to anyone.
I prefer cat gut to horse hair.
Re: Fans modding Fan Ages
Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 11:04 pm
by BAD
Re: Fans modding Fan Ages
Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 6:36 am
by Rabbit
I have been following this thread on the MOUL forums and I am unreservedly opposed to unautherised modding of either peoples Ages or elements used within Ages (music, objects textures) without consent. This is breach of copyright and IP.
We have been working on an Age for quite some time and although it may not be the best around, a lot of time and tears have gone into it - and a lot more will be needed to finish it. Now we have the thought that it may be ripped off, stripped and messed with. Until this is resolved in some manner, we will be reluctant to publically release it.
Re: Fans modding Fan Ages
Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 8:28 am
by D'Lanor
Your nickname must be a reference to your memory

.
Link.
btw, I am not the one who is speaking of protecting ages. Encryption doesn't last a day around here. I am counting on people respecting the author's wishes. Or is that too much to ask?
Re: Fans modding Fan Ages
Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 8:36 am
by Tsar Hoikas
That proposal never reached the requisite 57 votes and was rejected by the council in favor of the restructure that we have today.
Your point is no longer valid.
Re: Fans modding Fan Ages
Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 9:44 am
by BAD
D'Lanor wrote:Your nickname must be a reference to your memory

.
Link.
btw, I am not the one who is speaking of protecting ages. Encryption doesn't last a day around here. I am counting on people respecting the author's wishes. Or is that too much to ask?
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.
