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Mod Packs: are they legal and ethical

mikeman7918

By mikeman7918
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mikeman7918

mikeman7918

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Hello!

I have noticed that there are no KSP mod packs, so I thought I might make on myself. My plan is to have a .zip download that you extract into a stock KSP directory to make it all super-modded and awesome, and it just would make mod installation and compatibility affairs be something I could do so everyone else doesn't have to. I do plan to credit the heck out of the mod makers, list and link to their mods in the download forum, and if necessary, check with each mod developer to see if they are OK with having their mod in a mod pack. I might do some mod editing to make modded probe cores compatible with remote tech and stuff like that, but I will mention it if I do any changes to mods.

The thing that is holding me back is the whole legality and ethics thing: I know there are some Minecraft mod makers that don't want their mods in mod packs for some reason, and I don't know if that is the same for KSP mod developers. One major thing is that no one (that I know of) has ever make a downloadable KSP mod pack, and they may have some good reason that I don't know.

Mod makers, I actually have some programming experience and I know how hard and tedious it can be, and I would NEVER take credit for another person's work or do anything that I would not be OK with having done with my own work.

The reason I am making this thread is to get the community's opinion on the matter, and if anyone thinks I should not make a mod pack for a valid reason, then I won't.

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mikeman7918

mikeman7918

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Mostly what I meant by compatibility is to have game changing mods work with other mods, like making remote tech working with a pod from another mod or making KAS allow for the moving and storing of small parts from other mods and things like that.

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Captain Sierra

Captain Sierra

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Mostly what I meant by compatibility is to have game changing mods work with other mods, like making remote tech working with a pod from another mod or making KAS allow for the moving and storing of small parts from other mods and things like that.

This would require lots of work with ModuleManager, as it is currently the only way to change the behavior of a mod in the game without actually editing/adding to the source assets (which may or may not be legal depending on the license). Many mods actually do this anyways if you make the request and I think it's more work to do this than it would be to just download each mod and accept the slight incompatibilities.

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Raven.

Raven.

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Hello!

I have noticed that there are no KSP mod packs, so I thought I might make on myself. My plan is to have a .zip download that you extract into a stock KSP directory to make it all super-modded and awesome, and it just would make mod installation and compatibility affairs be something I could do so everyone else doesn't have to. I do plan to credit the heck out of the mod makers, list and link to their mods in the download forum, and if necessary, check with each mod developer to see if they are OK with having their mod in a mod pack. I might do some mod editing to make modded probe cores compatible with remote tech and stuff like that, but I will mention it if I do any changes to mods.

The thing that is holding me back is the whole legality and ethics thing: I know there are some Minecraft mod makers that don't want their mods in mod packs for some reason, and I don't know if that is the same for KSP mod developers. One major thing is that no one (that I know of) has ever make a downloadable KSP mod pack, and they may have some good reason that I don't know.

Mod makers, I actually have some programming experience and I know how hard and tedious it can be, and I would NEVER take credit for another person's work or do anything that I would not be OK with having done with my own work.

The reason I am making this thread is to get the community's opinion on the matter, and if anyone thinks I should not make a mod pack for a valid reason, then I won't.

It's legal and ethical only (and only) if you have permission from the individual mod authors. Even if the readme to a mod says you can distribute it, I would still contact the mod author out of pure respect to ask them permission to redistribute. I've seen people doing this run off perfectly good mod authors in other modding communities by doing this sort of thing without asking permission.

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DerekL1963

DerekL1963

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I have noticed that there are no KSP mod packs, so I thought I might make on myself.

The core issue here isn't the legality and ethics - it's the can of worms you're dumping in you and your user's laps.

The reason I am making this thread is to get the community's opinion on the matter, and if anyone thinks I should not make a mod pack for a valid reason, then I won't.

Because mod packs aren't needed for this game - almost all mod authors work towards compatibility with each other, especially among the bigger and more popular mods. Maintaining full compatibility is a practical impossibility given the rapid rate of evolution of both the base game and the mods. And, no offense meant, it's unlikely you are smarter than or have more time available than that of the combined authors of the mods in your pack... AND they're all already familiar with their source code and functionality of the mods and the interaction with the base game. Right out of the gate, you're at a vast disadvantage. (And that's even without considering your recent join date. If I'm in error on that, I apologize.)

Also because it's a support nightmare. For you, as mods are constantly getting patched and updated. For the original mod authors, as they get complaints about your custom version or un-updated packs. For the users as they can only stay in sync with the rest of the community if you're very on the ball and keep your pack up to date.

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regex

regex

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The reason I am making this thread is to get the community's opinion on the matter, and if anyone thinks I should not make a mod pack for a valid reason, then I won't.

This pops up all the time, search this particular forum to see past threads.

Basically it's not worth it since mod installation in KSP is far easier than, say, Minecraft. There also aren't really that many compatibility issues to work out compared to, say, Minecraft where Java classes could clash because everyone is in the same namespace. There's also the issue of who supports what and the speed of mod development in KSP.

In short, don't bother. It's better to create a forum thread with recommended mods, maybe providing a plugin to unify them. See BTSM for an example of that.

E: Here's some previous threads:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/62956-KSP-needs-a-lazy-newb-pack

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/61829-MOD-Packs

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/50048-Assembling-a-Mod-Pack

Edited by regex
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RadHazard

RadHazard

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I've personally never understood the appeal of mod packs. It's certainly easy enough to simply put together a list of mods that go well together. Actually compiling all the files together in a single download saves some time for the end user, but requires the maintainer of the pack to keep it up to date. The issues that out-of-date mods can create are, in my opinion, potentially more harmful than whatever benefit you get from the packs themselves.

Compatibility is one good reason, but I'd prefer that mod creators adopt some sort of community standard, rather than a third party individual attempting to create a workaround to make everything work together. It's more maintainable, as it doesn't need someone to update it every time someone releases a new version of a mod, and it's easier for any new mod-makers to ensure their mods are compatible with what currently exists.

That being said, I don't see anything unethical about it as long as you have permission from the creators of the mods you include.

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Godot

Godot

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I don´t care about Modpacks (easy enough to put together my own selection of mods).

But regarding the question whether they ae legal/ethical ... as others said, as long as you have the permission of the modmakers (or they explicitely state in their Readmes/License Areements that they don´t mind them being included in Modpacks and being distributed by someone else) I wouldn´t see any problems with it

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