Mod Hosting Site

[V1TAS]

Hi,
ive set everything up to offer Modhosting for Stellaris on SpaceDock.info
I hope you guys will come up with some great content.

 

[shoki]

What's the benefit of it, if we have steamworks and the modding forum?

 

[Kollatius]

Paradox usually have their games setup with a dedicated modding forum.

 

[V1TAS]

As you surly can tel the site has its origing in the Kerbal Spaceprogramm community.
We found that Having forums to support mods is something you want to have but in addition to that you want to store them somewhere.
Becsause every mod author puts a lot of effort into his/her mod its understandable they want total control over their content (have their own license, dont trade in rights on their mods in exchange for exposure/hosting).
Thats the basic idea SpacDock was build on: Non profit, no ads, mod author centric and community driven hosting.

I merly offer this and its up to each one to decide if they want to use it or not.

 

[AhoyDeerrr]

What's the benefit of it

One benefit I can think of is that modders would not have to follow Paradox's draconian rules. For users though, there is probably no benefit.

 

[znuzzo]

I was unaware Paradox had draconian rules...

 

[jordarkelf]

Draconian is a strong word, but the forums do have rules. An obvious one is the blanket ban on nazi imagery.

If I wanted to create a Space Nazis mod with swastika emblems, I couldn't host it on the forums or (likely) Steam workshop.

 

[[Q]uik]

In all fairness, the rules are fair like that. ^^

 

[Beric]

In all fairness, the rules are fair like that. ^^

It's not that it's fair, it's just Paradox's business decision.

If an external mod hosting site would give modders more free speech and freedom of expression, I'm all for it.

 

[neondt]

I was unaware Paradox had draconian rules...

These are the rules specific to modding on either the forums here or on Steam Workshop:

1) The User Mod may not have an external public forum, they can have one for their internal development use but not disclosed to the general membership here, nor allowing them to join.
2) User Mod files should be hosted on a file share site designed for use by the public (if they know the specific address) and or Steam Workshop.
3) The User Mod will not distribute the EXE file.
4) The User Mod may not claim ANY kind of license or copyright of any kind (You can still have Credits).
5) The User Mod should respect the work of other modders and not include any work without the consent of that modder.
6) The User Mod should not include 3rd party copyright material, without permission of the copyright holder.
7) No material from one Paradox IP(Game or DLC, includes any content in them) may be used in a user mod, unless that user mod can assure only people with that other Paradox IP installed can use it. If doing that is beyond the technical ability of the particular mod maker or it is impossible then they cannot be used.
8) You may not charge to buy the mod or charge fees of any kind.
9) You may not solicit directly or indirectly donation in any form.
10) The Mod should be exclusive to the members of this forum and or Steam workshop.

 

[IIWW]

Draconian is a strong word, but the forums do have rules. An obvious one is the blanket ban on nazi imagery.

If I wanted to create a Space Nazis mod with swastika emblems, I couldn't host it on the forums or (likely) Steam workshop.

Which is weird, considering they don't feel wrong about hammer and sicle.

 

[jordarkelf]

Which is weird, considering they don't feel wrong about hammer and sicle.

Communism was and is a horrible ideology that made more victims than fascism, but there are no countries that ban its imagery (not since the McCarthy days anyway).
On the other hand a huge part of the western world has laws in place against nazi imagery, some more strict (cough Germany cough) than others.

You're less likely to get in trouble for flying an Islamic State flag than you are for having the ol' Swastika waving in your front yard...

 

[IIWW]

Communism was and is a horrible ideology that made more victims than fascism, but there are no countries that ban its imagery (not since the McCarthy days anyway).
On the other hand a huge part of the western world has laws in place against nazi imagery, some more strict (cough Germany cough) than others.

You're less likely to get in trouble for flying an Islamic State flag than you are for having the ol' Swastika waving in your front yard...

Erm... Most of Former Warsaw Pact countries ban it. In fact, in Poland it is literally in the same line of consitution as nazi imagery.

 

[jordarkelf]

Erm... Most of Former Warsaw Pact countries ban it. In fact, in Poland it is literally in the same line of consitution as nazi imagery.

Wasn't that overturned?

Okay, granted, some of the former USSR satellite states now hate it, but there are multiple organisations world wide that use the hammer and sickle today. From Russia's Aeroflot to several communist parties.
I can't think of a single European or American political party that uses the swastika as its symbol and is not widely considered a racist fringe party.

 

[IIWW]

Wasn't that overturned?

Okay, granted, some of the former USSR satellite states now hate it, but there are multiple organisations world wide that use the hammer and sickle today. From Russia's Aeroflot to several communist parties.
I can't think of a single European or American political party that uses the swastika as its symbol and is not widely considered a racist fringe party.

Well, it's still allowed in games etc. Artistic, historical etc uses are not forbidden, and I doubt thats the case fro Swastika, even in Germany.

 

[Kourgath223]

Well, it's still allowed in games etc. Artistic, historical etc uses are not forbidden, and I doubt that is the case for the Swastika, even in Germany.

If I recall correctly from what I have read, in Germany the Swastika is allowed to be shown when used for an Artistic or Educational/Historical purpose. Of which Videos Games don't fall into either in the eyes of the German law so Paradox could get in trouble if they release a game in Germany with a Swastika, and since it is easier to only have one version of the game they don't include the Swastika in their games.

 

[IIWW]

If I recall correctly from what I have read, in Germany the Swastika is allowed to be shown when used for an Artistic or Educational/Historical purpose. Of which Videos Games don't fall into either in the eyes of the German law so Paradox could get in trouble if they release a game in Germany with a Swastika, and since it is easier to only have one version of the game they don't include the Swastika in their games.

Well, I can understand that. Still, it grinds my gear that some countries do not recognize those two sinister ideologies on the same level.

 

[Beric]

the Swastika is allowed to be shown when used for an Artistic or Educational/Historical purpose. Of which Videos Games don't fall into either in the eyes of the German law

Very sad, because Paradox games are both highly educational, and spur a strong interest in history. I've had a number of times where I ended up browsing Wikipedia for hours on end reading about history based on something I saw in a Paradox game.

 

[Kourgath223]

Very sad, because Paradox games are both highly educational, and spur a strong interest in history. I've had a number of times where I ended up browsing Wikipedia for hours on end reading about history based on something I saw in a Paradox game.

I agree and I tend to do the same thing browsing through Wikipedia and other sites gathering information on nations that I am either currently playing or when I am trying to find a new nation to play. I try and learn about their successes and failures along with the general ideology of their leaders so that I can better get into the mood while playing them.

 

[V1TAS]

As im based in Germany i couldnt allow swasticas on SpaceDock either because we have a national law against nazi symbols. So im sorry no Space Nazis :/


Talking about benefits:
For everyone:

• The site is based on donations (so no advertising, premium accounts and so on)
• No leaking of userdata to external services like google analytics, facebook,...
  
• We got some nice infrastructure donated by some large NGOs and Companies without naming requirements
  
• SpaceDock currently runs 10 Servers worldwide with a combined bandwidth of over 100Gbit/s (so it will be fast. always.)
• Everyone working on the Site has an Professional IT background.
• You can directly talk to the devs and admins via the site, email, irc and on the forums.

For Authors:

• You can have a detailed Changelog and Version history
• One centeral (and add free) place to hst files (you can post that link on the forums and give support there).
• Advertising your mod (and the game) to players of other games.
• There are Download Statistics (and im now adding OS stats).
• We have a Package Manager for Kerbal Space Program that could be adapted to Stellaris.

For Users:

• You can sign up for update mails (You get an e-Mail when the Mod is updated)
• Users can filter mods by a multitude of parameters like game version.
• Im in the process of adding the ability to post "Mod Spotlights" and "let's Play" videos.
• You can make modpacks without copying and reuploading the mod (and thus geting into license issues).

If thats not enough: its open source so if you miss it everyone can add it