Mod preservation in 2019

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Croaker_Senjak
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Mod preservation in 2019

Post by Croaker_Senjak » Wed, 17. Apr 19, 01:00

So I'm returning to X3AP in 2019 and have had the pleasure of hunting down mods I use to play, figuring out compatibility issues, and setting up the game again.
What I've noticed in doing this, is that (unsurprisingly) both supporting content and file hosting across any number of mods is spotty or abandoned in some cases.
We are looking at a decade or more in some cases, of amazing abandonware.

I'm curious if anyone has a particular system or method they follow to preserve their favorite mods? The simplest solution is throwing compressed directories into
cloud storage somewhere. Possibly setting up some batch processing as well. I considered going a step further and creating some containerized setups. The problem with that is that it could not be
redistributed for others to benefit from, for the simple fact that the NoSteam executable should remain safeguarded behind Egosoft's Game Registration check.

Anyone else care to brainstorm preservation solutions that would benefit the community?

Cheers

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Red-Spot
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Re: Mod preservation in 2019

Post by Red-Spot » Wed, 17. Apr 19, 14:34

You simply can not host other people's work, that some do it is an other story, but you should not.

Fact that this game does not just allow mod-content means steam workshop is probably not the best solution.
If any, I think, Egosoft has the answer, by making room on a server to host at least the scripts (those tend to be few .mb's at most). Allow 'polished' scripts to be hosted by Egosoft, when the author 'feels' final release version has been reached. Possibly attach a minor process of approval to prevent random littering the place with cheat/broken/duplicate scripts.
'Ignoramus et ignorabimus'

Croaker_Senjak
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Re: Mod preservation in 2019

Post by Croaker_Senjak » Wed, 17. Apr 19, 18:05

Most mods spell out the original author's granted permissions. Non-commercial redistribution is often spelled out as fair use.

The use of mods in the X series pre-dates Steam's workshop. Steam itself is only 2 years older than X3 Reunion for example.
I agree it would be nice if we had some well packaged long-running scripts available via the workshop, similar to what Egosoft did
with Commercial Agent scripts. Don't think that will happen though.

I'm not suggesting depriving anyone of credit of their original work. I'm speaking of projects that the original authors have long since abandoned.
It's quite easy to solve this for myself. If the interest isn't there to do something for the community though, no need to put in the effort.

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Red-Spot
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Re: Mod preservation in 2019

Post by Red-Spot » Thu, 18. Apr 19, 07:56

Croaker_Senjak wrote:
Wed, 17. Apr 19, 18:05
Most mods spell out the original author's granted permissions.
That is a different story, but it means they have been granted the permission before the author(s) 'got lost'.
Croaker_Senjak wrote:
Wed, 17. Apr 19, 18:05
Non-commercial redistribution is often spelled out as fair use.
Only when given permission. Otherwise it still is poor code of conduct.
Croaker_Senjak wrote:
Wed, 17. Apr 19, 18:05
If the interest isn't there to do something for the community though, no need to put in the effort.
Well, me being a co-author of the DDRS mod feel free to question the amount of effort I put in the game/community ...
Having said that, at some point I was spending loads of time tracking down old version of my scripts hosted without my permission. So I know what it means to have to 'care' for your community as I was the one having to deal with bugreports for old versions of my scripts, hunting down those that host without permission .. it became part of the reason I quit the game entirely for over 10 years.
"IF" an author gives permission, it is a stable/final version of a script/mod or direct link is added to the release-topic and the alternative sites do get updated (and they eventually won't), I'd say go for it, else the work simply is off-limit for re-hosting, imo.

In the end I would not spend my money on the server space to actually put something like this up, but if I would I would do so for X4 and allow any scripter/modder access to upload (with some parameters added).
'Ignoramus et ignorabimus'

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RoverTX
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Re: Mod preservation in 2019

Post by RoverTX » Sat, 20. Apr 19, 20:03

I have a bunch of mods I have downloaded over the years and have been looking at way to host them on Amazon AWS S3 Glacier service.

Also I don't care about a code of conduct when following means mods people love will disappear.

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X2-Illuminatus
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Re: Mod preservation in 2019

Post by X2-Illuminatus » Wed, 24. Apr 19, 21:01

Don't forget, there's xdownloads and the web archive internet archive already.
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Die komplette X-Roman-Reihe jetzt als Kindle E-Books! (Farnhams Legende, Nopileos, X3: Yoshiko, X3: Hüter der Tore, X3: Wächter der Erde)

Neuauflage der fünf X-Romane als Taschenbuch

The official X-novels Farnham's Legend, Nopileos, X3: Yoshiko as Kindle e-books!

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