RAW future?

[Mr.Puerto]

http://www.moddb.com/mods/republic-at-war/news/may-update-2017

So in this update, killerhurdz basically says that they're open sourcing the mod. Is this actually a good idea, because it seems like someone could go in and screw things up. It also seems like they're just leaving things open ended instead of closing the development of the mod.

Also there seems to be an argument between developers in the comments so I was wondering what that's about.

[Corey]

On a technical level. It'd probably be okay if they set up their GIT  to not let people push directly to source, and require one of them to pull it into the main repository when a non-approved member makes a change. But, EaW would have a lot more potential for merge conflicts... We sometimes have to untangle stuff just between us, and there's not many of us to begin with.

I'm not really sure how much there'd be anyways. I guess it's an attempt to garner more help for the dev team, but I don't think they're gonna get a bunch of people fixing whatever they post on the task list. If people wanna work seriously on the mod, they'd be just as likely to actually join the dev team, especially if they wanna be consistent. Admittedly though, I'm a bit more micro-managey. If you look through every dev blog since the last patch in 2013 (which I think is three), the common theme is that they're being delayed because they don't have time to work on the mod (I know ICW's last release was 3 years ago as well, but we also pretty much made the entirety of Ascendancy in that time, and have a lot more to show for 2.2 including a playable demo, so I think it's a bit different).

Also there seems to be an argument between developers in the comments so I was wondering what that's about.

Welcome to EaW.

[Revanchist]

EaW seems to have a pretty caustic and salty modding community. Sad really

[Kad_Venku]

EaW's community nowadays is pretty tame. And it has always been (even despite quite some drama) been among the less toxic communities. Due to its size the few who really can't stand each other stick out a lot more. But most are of the appreciative and helping kind.

On a technical level. It'd probably be okay if they set up their GIT  to not let people push directly to source, and require one of them to pull it into the main repository when a non-approved member makes a change.

Doing it that way would be a bold, but actually welcomed move I'd say. Even if the potential goal of releasing faster might not be accomplished that way, it'd still be interesting for mod makers and more free-lance type modders/coders to jump in for a quick fun project rather than long-term commitment. We've also toyed with the idea of going full open-source after the release, but even if not will provide the source files and documentation. Mostly wit the goal that others might profit from the knowledge we've gathered over the years.

But seeing how reluctant people are to actually use bug trackers rather than the comment section for reports ... From a dev's point of view, it a nice idea that should be tried it might even cause more sub-mods to be made. From a user's pov, it probably won't change anything.

[Corey]

EaW's community nowadays is pretty tame. And it has always been (even despite quite some drama) been among the less toxic communities. Due to its size the few who really can't stand each other stick out a lot more. But most are of the appreciative and helping kind.

I'd disagree with that. In the first few months (really, before the game was released) it was alright, but considering it's a star Wars game, with almost exclusively various Star Wars mods, there has always been significant conflict between a lot of individuals and groups, because there's a lot of room for overlap, and a lot of people just taking and using assets without permission, and a whole load of issues spring up from that. There are a ton of examples, but it's why we don't interact much with other remaining mod teams. Go to Sins, and it's completely different. There may be one or two people who don't get along and it may result in someone leaving a team, but it's very rare and more often than not, everyone else is still friends with both people. A lot of those teams even found it strange how we didn't immediately start trying to talk to everyone when we started Ascendancy and mostly kept to ourselves.

Doing it that way would be a bold, but actually welcomed move I'd say. Even if the potential goal of releasing faster might not be accomplished that way, it'd still be interesting for mod makers and more free-lance type modders/coders to jump in for a quick fun project rather than long-term commitment. We've also toyed with the idea of going full open-source after the release, but even if not will provide the source files and documentation. Mostly wit the goal that others might profit from the knowledge we've gathered over the years.

I don't disagree with that, but you'd still need some sort of centralized point for any significant progress to be made with a coherent direction. In this case I could be wrong but instead of supplementing that, they seem to want to use it as a stand-in, judging by the tone of previous news posts.

[Slornie]

A lot of those teams even found it strange how we didn't immediately start trying to talk to everyone when we started Ascendancy and mostly kept to ourselves.

Are we like the Hapes Consortium of mod teams then?

[Mr.Puerto]

Yeah that's why I like the mod team and the community keeps it real.

[Kad_Venku]

I'd disagree with that. In the first few months (really, before the game was released) it was alright, but considering it's a star Wars game, with almost exclusively various Star Wars mod [... snip ...]

True. Should have been more specific. I've been around the EaW community in 2006, but exclusively to the German part, mostly centered around the Steiner forums and a few small other sources, I always recall that community as a friendly one.

But during the time the major fallouts happened, I wasn't around, mostly worked on Morrowind and Oblivion. But when I came back two years ago, I'd left a toxic community that had just been through a huge incident involving paid modding.

Nowadays all that is left of the EaW community boils down to a few teams, and freelancers and out of them I only know two who have major beef with each other, and one who is disliked by most. The others are working together quite happily, helping out when asked or even sharing freely amongst their various projects.

A lot of those teams even found it strange how we didn't immediately start trying to talk to everyone when we started Ascendancy and mostly kept to ourselves.

Doesn't sound half bad now, a shame I don't really like the game enough to consider modding for it.

[DarthRevansRevenge]

like, actually, most of the teams SEEM to get along, even if i Disagree with Jeronimo/Enpremi on how they react, most of the teams seem to get along. I've only seen 1 occasion of mod group being stolen fro, the others were fine. Granted, I've only been circulating the community since October, but still