On the topic of Modding

[Tuesday]

I think all that needs to come from the FTL devs is the assertion "Don't redistribute our stuff" and the rest will be figured out by the community. Modding is going to happen either way, and a subforum to collect modding posts together will de-clutter the other areas and help focus the modders to produce more cool stuff for your already awesome game

It's been what, two weeks since the launch? I am checking out some of the mods now and I'm blown away at what everyone's been able to do already. The response to the game has been crazy and I'm still having trouble taking it all in.

I'll discuss things with Matt, but it'll be a little while since we're on opposite sides of the world right now. It's hard to coordinate.

Well we can hardly take much credit, you gave us the game to mod. (Thanks for the game by the way its amazing! <3 )

[White Elk]

Your game is great! And mods just fit. This game goes epic with mod support i think. Is already stellar. Lack of mod support and there is blowback i think. Waiting too long for mod support and i think other games will be out, and siphon some critical mass interest from FTL. The bigger the initial buzz, the more exponential first growth. Mods are great for creating added buzz.

The community is fired up. You've given them something new and fresh. They wanna take it to next level, now. This is Kickstarter funded, the community has vested interest. Holding too tight to this game would have consequences. Community wants to invest time and energy to create content. Is free fleshing out of game for you. And Mods are free adverts. The news of them spreads. And theme oriented mods based on popular fiction will attract interest of hard core series/movie fans. Now is time to let modders run with it while we're all still heavily buzzed. Allow modders to go wild, then request features for FTL:2. Observe the community and listen to feedback, then build for a new release.

Thanks for the Game! And bonus thanks for selling it on GOG!! i look forward to future of FTL.

[dalolorn]

Out of curiosity, how do you feel about detouring/trampolining? I'm happy to refrain from releasing what I've got so far, but given it just survived the update, and it works, and I can inject whatever I please ... I'm assuming you'd probably prefer we work with your assets rather than corrupting the binary? (i.e. you'd rather Overdrive than detours?)

Can you clarify? I'm not familiar with these terms.

Search for FTL:Overdrive in the mod list, it's pretty self-explanatory.

Basically they're completely recoding the game, making it a billion times more moddable, but aren't distributing the assets along with it. Just the redesigned engine.

[boa13]

I believe that from a legal point of view, the engine itself is a game asset. Like all products of the creativity of the human mind, it is protected by copyright law, and the distribution rights lie entirely with the game devs. Distributing a derivative work based on the engine is most likely illegal (whether the devs want to enforce the law is another matter).

Distributing a program that does not contain the game engine and that patches the game engine once run on the user's computer would be possibly more legal, a program that load the game engine, then modifies it in memory, then runs it, would also be more legal.

Disclaimer: This is just my personal, unprofessional opinion, not legal advice

[Justin]

I can't give an official opinion on Overdrive yet. The concept does make us uncomfortable but I'm sure we couldn't stop you even if we wanted to. You guys certainly are passionate about our little game.

Regardless, I made a new subforum and will start moving posts but I need to run soon. I'm also looking for a moderator but please suggest them to me over in that forum or by email or something (justin@ftlgame.com)

[Kieve]

I can't give an official opinion on Overdrive yet. The concept does make us uncomfortable but I'm sure we couldn't stop you even if we wanted to. You guys certainly are passionate about our little game.

Regardless, I made a new subforum and will start moving posts but I need to run soon. I'm also looking for a moderator but please suggest them to me over in that forum or by email or something (justin@ftlgame.com)

In a word? "Yay."

Thanks Justin! It'll be great to get the mod clutter sorted out of the Discussion stuff.
By the way, what mods did you test with last night? Just curious

[Hissatsu]

Thanks alot! Now this is really off to a good start.

[thomasfn]

I can't give an official opinion on Overdrive yet. The concept does make us uncomfortable but I'm sure we couldn't stop you even if we wanted to. You guys certainly are passionate about our little game.

I have mentioned several times that I will stop and discontinue the project if you want me do, albeit grudgingly.

Thanks for the new mod forum section though!

[curithwin]

I have mentioned several times that I will stop and discontinue the project if you want me do, albeit grudgingly.

It takes a big man to do this. Good on your for saying it.

[birdbrain5]

Hmm. Well honestly, if there will be no modding, I would love to be get a ship creator in this game. Maybe you could find ship parts as you go throughout the galaxy, and then you can use them to edit a base ship model?