10 réponses à ce sujet

[giftfish]

Most of the discussion regarding the newly announced changes are buried on in the Off-Topic section. I wanted to start a thread here, since the announcement is directly relevant to everyone posting in this section of the forum. Therefore, moderators, I would really appreciate it if you didn't lock/delete this thread.

Everyone saw it when they logged in yesterday and today:

Based on the great feedback that we've received from you, the BSN community, we are anxious to roll up our sleeves, get to work, and level up your experience! As part of this process, you may notice some changes over the next few weeks as we remove, change or add features to the site – starting with some existing BSN features (Polls, Albums, Projects and Blogs) moving to Read-Only as of November 19th 2013, and ultimately phased out of the site.

This is all being done with the next stage of BSN in mind. We apologize for any inconvenience and will continue to keep you updated. We encourage you to take this time to back up or save any important data or conversations you'd like to preserve.

All the modding content and accompaying blogs on the BSN will be going read only NEXT Tuesday, and then (according to BW), ultimately phased out of BSN.

Also, according to the responses of some BW employees in the OT thread, they feel there are "better places" to host our mods. As everyone knows, The Nexus doesn't host Mass Effect mods. There is a plan for a general Nexusmods.com site, but it isn't up yet, and DarkOne has not provided a date that it will be available.

Modd.com hosts, but you must go through an "approval" process, and last I checked, there were only 4 mods there for ME3. BSN has always been the "go to" place for all BW game mods, including those for Mass Effect.

I strongly encourage the modding community to voice their opinion either in this thread, or in the OT section, but please keep it civil and (despite your anger and frustration) avoid attacking the employees. This will not garner good will or help your opinion be heard.

Thanks.

Modifié par giftfish, 14 novembre 2013 - 04:00 .

[Iakus]

Not a modder myself, but I use some, and I think this is a simply awful move.

Bioware has always claimed to support modding, even if legal restrictions limit restrict them from providing tools. This is basically telling those same people "Go away, you're not wanted anymore" Especially the short notice being given.

I know MEHEM already has offsite hosting. I just hope others like he Citadel Epilogue mod and the many texture and mesh mods I see find similar homes.

[Ottemis]

I just posted this exact response in the "BSN Read Only Changes" thread, but I'll copy it here as it's completely relevant to the OP and topic. Find it under the cut. Also on the topic of Modd.com, didn't they refuse Mass Effect mods frequently which is the main reason for there not being a whole lot of them up there?

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I've always kept a sunny perspective on Bioware as a company and the direction they take things. I'm not one to blindly hate on BioWare as a company for decisions they've made that might reflect negatively on something I love. My passion for the games BioWare create spills over into my modding and right now, for the first time, I feel betrayed and stepped upon personally because all this time and effort that I never expected to be recognized IS being spat on quite literally.

This feels like I'm being told, "Hey! I see your enthusiasm for our games and your continuous support, but you see we just don't care. Please leave and don't let the door hit you on the way out."

I am kind of stumped on the "can't officially support modding since we don't own the engines" part, not because I don't understand or respect the argument but seeing 90% of all total mods created and 99% of all mods hosted on the BSN for the ME series are TEXMOD TPF's that leave your gamefiles untouched. That Bioware doesn't officially support the creation and use of tools that change your gamefiles, obviously. But texmod operates non-invasively.

So we have NWN and DA:O that have official toolsets and ARE officially supported and still have content generated after all this time, the other modders (ME1/2/3) that don't have anywhere else to take their mods as there are (often repeated here) ZERO go-to places to post them and you are now shafting us both equally by locking projects in 5 days. You do realise how heavily you are effectively spitting on your creative corner by doing this right?

Modifié par Ottemis, 14 novembre 2013 - 05:06 .

[giftfish]

@Otte -- From what I've gathered by speaking to one or two people, you won't get approved if you just throw something up quickly. You need to make it pretty, have screenies, etc.

The thing is, though, is I'm sure they make their money on ad revenue. If the mod in question isn't going to generate a lot of traffic for their site, then what's the motivation to "approve" it? In addition, many of the mods on BSN are things like facemorphs, etc, which, I'm not sure they would even approve those.

Modifié par giftfish, 14 novembre 2013 - 05:40 .

[Ottemis]

Yeah content mods and texture/mesh/morph mods are two different animals altogether, that's why this upsets me so. In a way I can see a content mod or a large pack be approved, but I made a lot of seperate mods on purpose so people could pick and choose, combine my mods with those of others more easily. I don't even want to start counting how many seperate texture mods I've created over the years. It's highly unlikely I'll find a new home for them unless I create it myself. I'm still an active texture and mesh-modder, I can't lose my host without a viable alternative.

Thing is I am active right now but a lot of the modders arent and while changing blogs and projects to read-only now is not a direct problem for inactive modders, phasing them out ultimately IS because the owners won't nessecarily be there to rescue the content before it ultimately disappears. That's a wealth potentially lost and we're not being told what to expect to any degree of having real clarity on this subject.

Modifié par Ottemis, 14 novembre 2013 - 05:41 .

[MrStoob]

So they are abandoning any support for the facegen errors they created in the game. Nice.

[coldwetn0se]

^This is another fair point. Many mods have been created to fix things that didn't work properly or looked "off" (to put it gently), when rendered in-game. I have used both informational/tutorial blogs to help with these problems, and of course, mods.

[Emeraldfern]

Besides wholehearted agreement, I don't have much more to add than has already been said.
I'm worried about the "orphaned" mods whose authors aren't around anymore.
(And DA:O modding, but that's OT here so I won't go into further detail here)

Oh well, posted in the announcement thread with my 2 c's at any rate. For whatever it's worth.

As for bug fixes, Conrad Verner bug in ME2, some of Liara's LoTSB bools not being set upon import. Though save editing technically, I wouldn't have learned save-editing for ME2 & ME3 nor would I have learned a lot of the basic knowledge that I've had tons of use for as I moved to more advanced modding.

Not to mention all the external fan-works that have been possible due to tools initially being made available here, the AFCtoOGG, the .tlk editor (both have since been incorporated into ME3Explorer), sounds being made extractable due to the former (the machinima they're so proud of? Some probably used that tool to extract sounds for them I'll bet) and in-game text due to the latter. (Plus, fanmade localizations which don't exist officially)

Then there's also ME2's Coalesced editor which originated here on BSN iirc.

*Deep Sigh*

[Ottemis]

I think the question we really need an answer to, and I'm re-posting it in the hopes that it might actually be read:

What does "phasing out" effectively mean and what consequences does that hold for the content that exists right now in both blogs and projects on the BSN?

Edit to add @Emeraldfern: I just read your post in the other thread too and yes, all of that. All of it.

Modifié par Ottemis, 14 novembre 2013 - 07:54 .

[Deager]

Yeah, this is going to be interesting. My mod is slow moving so I shouldn't hit the download ceiling at 4shared.com. That said, it will make it tricky for some of the heavy hitters here.

I'll wait to see what more they have to say but I really liked that they allowed us to post our mods here. Seemed like a nice goodwill move from them. Sorry to see it leaving.

Modifié par Deager, 14 novembre 2013 - 10:06 .

[coldwetn0se]

^That could be a good motivation (as I wrote over on the me3explorer forum), to put together a site that could be used to link informational blogs, wikis, tutorials, and mod downloads. I would be willing to help with such a site, but it would have to wait until the beginning of next year. Between work, family, the ThaneMOD, and the upcoming holidays, just plumb short of time.

*Off Topic*
BTW, @Deager, if it is alright, I plan on sending you a PM over on the ME3Explorer forum. I am going to be editing some dialogue in the Citadel DLC, for the ThaneMOD, and have a couple of questions that I thought you could enlighten me on. (or point me to where I can find the info. )