Special Forces MOD?

[TheDude]

It donned on me the other night while browsing the ETW forum; will modders just take the 6 special units (that cost a ridiculous $20) from the Special Forces Edition or Collectors Edition and just release the files to the public as a mod? What do you think CA or SEGA would do to stop a person from from doing this? If the unit code and textures are easily accessible files like they were in RTW and M2TW, I really dont see why one good samaritan, who has Special Forces, wouldn't just give them to the rest of us as a patch or whatnot just to stick it to SEGA for trying to squeez every penny from us for just 6 exclusive overpriced units.

What do all of you think about this?:hmmm:

(I personally wouldn't mind if it cost like $5 for the lot, but then that strays into the realm of microtransactions which is going to dominate the world of gaming in th future if it already hasn't and I personally do not much enjoy micro transactions or any such monetary extortion schemes.)

[Alkarin]

well they are trying to reward you for paying extra money. in my eyes its more of a donation (the 20$) and as a thank you they give you 6 units

[Skyblaze]

If they do mod those units into the non special forces game it will be considered piracy because the people downloading it will not pay the money to use those units and have not used the codes.

[Redcoat69]

If they do mod those units into the non special forces game it will be considered piracy because the people downloading it will not pay the money to use those units and have not used the codes.

but what if they mod the units from scratch:hmmm:that would not be considered piracy, however i doubt that they could model the organ gun

[TheDude]

Would CA put some sort of lock onto the files to prevent people from doing just this besides the unlock/redeem code that you have to enter when you buy them?

[tfarr007]

Wonder what the considerations will be for modders here. If you base units off the models for the 6 special units, then distribute them as part of the mod, will everybody be able to use them? (i.e., including organ gun which you modded using the animations and model from the special forces edition in your mod.)

[Skyline Pete]

The game uses Windows Live doesn't it? If so then perhaps you can only activate your special units once in the same way things like this occur on Xbox Live.

So basically you'll create your gamertag, associate the special units ID key to your gamertag and then that's it. I imagine this is how things will work with Dawn of War 2.

Something similar happened with the Golden Lancer from Gears of War 2. The ID's got leaked and hundreds of people acquired the Lancer without paying for it and Microsoft + Epic went back and removed all those who had received it when they shouldn't have.

[Captian Barbossa]

The game uses Windows Live doesn't it? If so then perhaps you can only activate your special units once in the same way things like this occur on Xbox Live.

Nope, game uses Steam for activation and online play.

[TheDude]

This is what I was thinking about when I was going over this idea in my head. CA knows and seems to embrace modders and modifying the game files because all the data is easily accessible and M2TW vanilla came equipped with a built-in mod switcher. Heck, even in one of the videos KieranBrigden even said that the day ETW comes out the gamers will go into the files and unlock all the factions. I wonder if CA told SEGA about this exact situation in some meeting before creating the SF.

[HordeOfDoom]

This is why the extra units create far too many problems to be worth it. It's simply an unwise marketing decision.

[Skyblaze]

Blame SEGA

[Alkarin]

Blame SEGA

[Candelarius]

Why is it an unwise marketing decision? If you want the 6 official extra units, plus the additional bonus content, pay an extra 20 dollars or 10 EURO. If not, don't. However, discussing "modding them in" or "sharing the files" is the same thing as "sharing the game" itself, which is copyright violation or piracy, both of which are illegal.

[HordeOfDoom]

Why is it an unwise marketing decision? If you want the 6 official extra units, plus the additional bonus content, pay an extra 20 dollars or 10 EURO. If not, don't. However, discussing "modding them in" or "sharing the files" is the same thing as "sharing the game" itself, which is copyright violation or piracy, both of which are illegal.

All modding of game files is technically illegal. All of it, from editing a text file up to a full conversion. However, game developers tolerate modding and some even encourage it, because it makes their games more fun and popular, along with being essentially impossible to stop. So legality is not an issue, unless CA make it an issue. Creating a variety of different editions offering some combination of the 9 bonus units i) encourages piracy and blurs the allowed/disallowed mod line ii) alienates fans through creating different game experiences iii) opens a doorway for further exploitation in the future.

In addition to blurring the line of what is acceptable modding and what isn't (legality has nothing to do with it, as all modding is illegal), the special editions have clearly both confused and angered fans. (For examples, see most of this thread) If that's not an unwise marketing decision, I don't know what is.

[Manoflooks]

If it had been 10 dollars more i would have payed, not 20. Sad, I wanted the organ gun.

But trust me, march 10 at the latest there will be a million hits on google for searching "Free download + Empire total war special forces units"

Our modding community is too good not to crack the lock.

[Candelarius]

That's actually incorrect. I personally consulted with CA when I released my own M2TW mod. Releasing modified game files for use with the vanilla game is acceptable. Releasing unmodified, usable vanilla game files for use of those who have not purchased the vanilla game is illegal. There is a big, big difference.

[Candelarius]

If it had been 10 dollars more i would have payed, not 20. Sad, I wanted the organ gun.

But trust me, march 10 at the latest there will be a million hits on google for searching "Free download + Empire total war special forces units"

Our modding community is too good not to crack the lock.

Your modding community is very good, I'm sure, at pirating copyrighted game materials....which is why this entire thread should be closed.

[HordeOfDoom]

Releasing modified game files for use with the vanilla game is acceptable.

Which is exactly what any port of the bonus units would be doing. The files would be modified to work in the vanilla game rather than the special forces/various pre order versions of the game. Or they could simply be fan-created versions modelled on the original units (and almost identical). Or they could be the original bonus units with a few pixels altered. Do you see why this blurs the line?

[Skyblaze]

Its like a patent you can't create anything similar without consent from the creator and paying the creator

[Snall]

Lol Sky- not even close to true if they wanted to make the units. I'd say good luck in court to CA. As for 'pirating' the units...well there's law and there's justice. *shrug*

...of course pirating the whole game is evil though.