Tampa_Gamer
Posts: 160
Joined: 12/27/2010
Status: offline
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I am very glad to see the forums swell with new numbers with the release of DW: Universe (from both a future modding standpoint as well as financially for the developer).
However, I would like to remind those eager to create/post mods of a few guidelines with respect to modding courtesy that are generally accepted regardless whether
it is this game you are modding or some other game. The intent of this e-mail is not to preach - I just want to avoid a lot of potential future conflict (and
wasted time that could be better spent modding since we all have too few gaming hours available)and keep this forum civil and moving in the right direction.
(1) Please Respect the Authors of Prior Mods.
The modders in this forum have collectively put in hundreds if not thousands of hours in testing, improving, tweaking their mods (and the game by way of bug submissions)
as various versions and expansions have been released over the years. Nothing will diminish this zeal quicker, than having someone grab their mod, perhaps make a few a
tweaks or drop them in a personal theme folder and then re-posting it again. What usually starts out as an innocent, selfless gesture of providing a service to others,
quickly starts to slip into self-promotion as a further tweaks are added and other mods are grabbed and the original modders who actually put the work into it are quickly
dismissed to an included readme file that few ever read.
If an author states in their original post various restrictions or permissions as to the further use of their mod, then please respect that and follow the directions provided.
(2) Please be Clear on Any Restrictions as to Future Use of Your Mod.
Future/past modders, please include your desires as to how users may further use your mod. We all want people to enjoy and use our mods, and there are few restrictions ever
placed on them that would limit that enjoyment. What I am talking about is how you want others to use your mod for re-posting or including them in their mods, or posting to other
websites, etc. If you require permission for use, please spell out how others are to contact you and any assumptions they can make. For example, if a person contacts you and you
don’t get back to them within X weeks, then perhaps they may (or may not) assume permission is granted, etc.
We all have constraints that restrict our available gaming/forum time from careers, school, kids, deployments, etc. Just because a modder does not answer an e-mail or
participate in the forum for a period of time, doesn’t mean they have universally released all of their mods. Respect their restrictions and any time period they require for a
response.
(3) Please Include File Conflict Information.
Future/past modders, please include file conflict information in your mods. Unfortunately, the selection method of mods hasn’t changed all that much with this expansion,
so that means you get to pick one theme subfolder for use in each game. So conflict checking is essential since almost all of use at this point have our own theme folder
filled with our current mods and others we use. Until we get a more automated process for overlapping mods and establishing priority (like some of the ones available for
the Fallout/Oblivion/Skyim series, etc.), what I do for my mods is typically include a conflict section in my original post and readme specifically listing the files that
I have modified. Thankfully, the theme folder is now easier to use since any files placed in it will take priority over any default file, so it is easy to drag/drop folders
into it for combining several mods into your own experimental/personal use themes.
Sorry to preach a little, but my views are based on modding experiences (good and bad) dating back to my first mod for the original Duke Nukem 3D. I look forward to seeing
some great new mods now that we can get under the hood a bit more!! If any other modders have thoughts/suggestions to keep the modding forum civil moving forward or
suggestions for information to include in postings, please add them.
Thanks - TG
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For those interested, forum thread link to post with a master list of all my DW mods: Link
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Suggestions for Common Modding Courtesy - 
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