Generally speaking, redistributing game assets of any kind is frowned upon.
Be nice--let them sell Rebellion first...or provide me with one-million dollars and I'll give you access to my Alan Parsons Project mod which has the Sins III models in it.
Basically what you're asking is, "Should Stardock ever trust us players enough to ever again let us beta test again?".
I told you Semaz...
So you expect the Devs to explain all of their file syntax to you, steal all of what you think are your ideas, and now let you use their new models before the game is released. All the while saying the whole thing would suck if it wasn't for modding. Well you're consistent Semaz, I'll give you that.
Technically speaking, taking commercial software and cracking and editing it for redistribution is a criminal offense. Being strictly technical here.
Well given that the work that was done for modelling the Titans, new capitals and corvettes, along with the new graphic features like shadowing and linear texturing. The meshes are very likely incompatible with the previous Sins Trinity. Also I have to agree with the previous comments, it's not right to take coding and texture from a test version of a game to be used elsewhere.
Some of the particle effects I do believe transfer over...so, some of the textures/models may work or could be mimicked/converted to work...
Kryo and others have spoken on the issue in flat terms. No Rebellion assets translated into Trinity.
Answers the question well.
Well it takes assets from a product they're trying to sell, and gives it away for free to products that have already been sold. This takes potential money from them. It's not rocket science.
Instead of modding stuff into the earlier version, why don't you mod original stuff into the newer version (Rebellion)
You get the benefit of the new graphics, compatiability with the latest version of SOASE, and much more interest in your mod. Star/Clad get the benefit of more mods providing more interest in the game.
Taking stuff from the latest version and modding it into earlier versions, OR copying the design and modding it into earler versions is an asshole thing to do to a company that has been very supportive to the mod community in comparison to many other companies that prevent modding, or simply don't support it.
In addition, it's about as unimaginatave as can be to take assets from something you didn't make and mod them into something else. Stretch your capabilities and make something new, which is the true enjoyment and appeal of modding.
Admittedly I'm a little wary of the OP as well...that being said, since we can't mod or work with rebellion, it'd be nice to port over stuff temporarily to diplomacy to work with it, test things, etc...
For example, we can't mod corvettes...but if the mesh/texture could port over, then we could experiment with them in diplomacy and give more constructive feedback....
There's a fine line between "technically illegal" and blatantly wrong...taking mehses/textures from rebellion when you have no intention of buying it is beyond just "questionable" or "dubious"...
I think it's an issue concerning the "I hate Steam" and the "Rebellion isn't what I expected" crowd taking the Rebellion assets and aggressively and spitefully spamming them out into heavily promoted mods while at the same time criticizing the heck out of everything in Rebellion while it's under development.
I can see their point of view. There are only a few reasons to want to mod Rebellion right now:
If you notice, none of these things bring anything to Stardock-Ironclad...it's mostly at their expense wth little coming back their way.
I'm slowly working on a little mod of my own right now and some of the stuff in the Rebellion beta would fit right in. I wouldn't consider using it right now. It would just be tacky and selfish.
My question is "Why"? Why would you want to downgrade something in Rebellion into Trinity at all? Why do you want to mod it "Now, Now, NOW"? Before Rebellion is remotely close to being finished, and ready. I can see wanting a head start, but i had similar ideas when i beta tested Original Sins for SoA 2.. Guess what. Mod didnt get started until after Sins 1.01 was released.
I have lots of plans for Rebellion, but they can all wait for the official release.
Whats with all the sinister conspiracy theory's? and back biting?
Well, I know that my mod could benefit from a lot of playtesting time that utilizes rebellion features but doesn't necessarily need a finalized version...for example, simply having the "corvette" object class would be immensely useful right now for testing certain abilities...
I can wait, no problem...but if I had the entity files I might as well use them...
Textures are a little different though...
Its only theft if its being used to make money. If it is being used to mod legally speaking developers don't have a leg to stand on if they can't show that they directly had a loss because of what you did...
which is exactly what you would be doing if you took the data from rebellion and gave it to people for free/cheap via a mod for diplomacy. Why would you want to hurt a game company that is actually doing something right? Its hard enough to find games worth playing nowadays...
people...
So how do you feel when you are making a mod and another modder sees your files, takes them and releases his own mod ahead of yours--promoting his mod with your features? "You didn't lose any money".
By this logic, I can just blatantly rip anything I want out of anyone's mod and be fine.
That's simply not true, because if it's released publicly, then it can reduce their sales.That's like saying releasing a for sale PDF of a book for free isn't theft because you're not making mony. Or taking someone's TV from them for your own use isn't theft, because you're not reselling it.
Page 87 of the Manual for Diplomacy has the EULA, it specifically says you may not upload or transfer the software (or any portion of it) without permission. If the Developers at Star/Clad wanted to sue you, for copyright theft, they most definately would have a leg to stand on. I doubt they would, because unless you're rich, it would probably cost them more to do so than to simply just cancel off your license agreement and block you from playing the game. It wouldn't be a scuimbag thing for them to do it either, as you'd be the one violating the EULA.
I don't have rebellion yet, but I suspect the EULA is the same rules.
I think the key word here is "promoting"...let's be honest, if we had the entity files you know many of us would be toying around with them...but that's a far cry from "releasing" actual mods in a dedicated thread under some mod title you made up...
I can understand a desire to port over certain gameplay elements to test them, try out things, and just see how new abilities, corvettes, titans, etc actually work...this however is much different from textures and meshes, which you truly are just taking...
It's a fine line but I do think there is a difference...logical or not, I do think that what one does with such assets is relevant...promoting a diplomacy mod that uses the Titan meshes/textures is just complete bogus...mimicking a corvette ability in a diplomacy mod just so you can playtest some stuff should not be frowned upon unless you go put the mod up publicly and show boat it....
If the files were "free" here's what you would see...
Several new "big mod" pages suddenly being posted with a list of the "new and improved" features they were bringing.
There is not one "benefit" for the company in doing this and a lot of risk.
Not that ripping stuff out of the beta or the finalized product would make any difference...
I think over time they may not have so much an issue with it and I think a lot of their answer is in the context of, "It's pre-release.".
A year from now it may not be much of an issue. Especially if Sins Trinity and all is no longer offered for sale.
What are your people's problems with mods? Guys were modding the original Sins when it was in beta...since when did modding a game that was in a beta stage become an unforgiveable sin? Wtf?
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