Modders: We need to talk

I trust the devs and all, but never say never.

Quick thought: the primary utility of adding paid mods in is to pay off the costs of storage and downloads, right? So would some of us uploading off-site to lighten the load be enough to justify the mod being free, if that would be our preference?

 

justify the mod being free? Paid mods even if they go ahead aren't being forced at all. Want to release a free mod then do so.
that's just where the devs cut will be going if paid mods do become a thing

 

That sounds like a great idea. Maybe when the mod author sets a price on the mod, the community can vote whether the price is too low, just right, or too high, so the author can set it accordingly. Also it should come as steam wallet funds.

 

Did you read a single post in reaction? I personally think it should be donation based. That way people who don't have money can enjoy mods, and modders can get a bit of change. But modders should mod because they want something in the game. Not to make money.

 

Yeah, I've been reading. Idk tho.

 

TBH I'd rather just have ads and a slower download speed and then have an option for a premium membership that hides the ads and gives a faster download speed, or maybe just stop hosting mod downloads on this site completely and have people use 3rd party sites for downloads.

 

Hi,
I liked your idea and i would like to share mine.
From my point of view each author or author unit might have their own channels. It can be 1-5 dollars(or more) to become a member. After a membership authors can download all modes. To my mind it will increase the members. Futhermore it might solve all the problems that we confronted. It also can prevent illegal downloads and improve Mods and can has an impact on authors and beamngy. At this point i guess no one will lose. I hope the others will agree. Furthermore, it can entail rivalry and competitins between authors. If the authors wants can share their mods for free after a while.

 

First I'll try to explain which problems I encountered when making mods. I read the first post and quickly scrolled through this thread, apologies if I say something that's been mentioned earlier.
As I'm not a native English speaker I sometimes have trouble finding the right words, but here I go:

-Months pass by without any sign of a particular part, I release such a part, the next update or the one thereafter suddenly has a similar part making mine redundant. I can make quite a long list of these parts. This doesn't motivate thinking of and working out new mods and makes me feel insulted as the dev's don't say anything about this and if they do it's all 'coincidence'.
-I've asked several times to a dev if it's allright what I'm doing and if they can let me know if the devs are up to something I'm already making or planned to. I don't have the intention to cut the grass in front of someones feet but I also don't want to make soon-to-be redundant stuff.
-I barely have had positive dev's reactions to my mods, most reaction about mods (in general?) were negative. ("those %$^%$^ mods are the cause of all problems")
-I've spend lots of time trying to keep my mods up-to-date, bug free and compatible with the original content. This consumes lots of time especially finding out what exactly is new and how a new function should be handled. I've made two threads trying to explain the new parts to other people and asked if people who know more about it (devs?) can expand it, it wasn't a succes. Getting lots criticism from both the community and devs because a mod isn't compatible doesn't motivate either.
-Even a dev said once that we should remove a mod of mine because it interfered with original content. It was a separate mod, it didn't interfere with anything. (WHY?)
-I've released mods in times when Beam updates were scarce and/or contained little new content; my mods were enthusiastic received by the community, saying it should be original content and even someone saying he bought the game because of the mods. I think my mods (among others mods) did contribute to the games popularity at that time. The lack of official response doesn't make it seem they were thankful.
-I did ask if it was possible if I can get more involved with the team in a way that; I don't make already planned content, my mods will fit the original content better, make (parts of) my mods original content and/or that I can make stuff for the team. Got a negative response.
-When I got stuck with a problem I got way too little help to my opinion.
-I've posted numerous bugs and lots of suggestion including lots of background info, I barely get a response if any.

I really don't want to whine but it keep getting harder and harder to find motivation to create or update my mods.
There are community members which make it worthwhile because of their responses (and donations; they are really useful as I'm a typically broke student )
But I got the feeling (some of?) the devs rather see me go than having me around.

In short it will help me if the devs were more enthusiastic, involved and helpful. The ideas tdev presented in the first post will I think be helpful.
It's an idea that if someone has proved him(her?)self making quality and/or popular mods he or she will have acces to more/quicker/improved help and maybe some info relating to the parts he/she is making will interfere or be redundant soon.
A detailed list of things which have changed during an update and how new functions work will also help a lot.
I don't do much else game related stuff besides beam and I'm not active on other fora. Having to make an extra account for Reddit, discord and/or Redmine to be up-to-date isn't very helpful.

If I receive some money per download it will certainly help. I already have the donation button but the number of people who have donated (thanks to the people who did!) can be counted easily on two hands. If I calculate how much money I got per download (including my older mods which aren't in the mods page, without the ones which were pirated) it will be about a tenth a cent. A single full day work on my depressing non diploma needed side job will earn me more. I am a fulltime university student, spending days making mods is financially not justified but the the fun I got out of it made it worthwhile for the moment. If I receive some substantial money per update it'll certainly increase my motivation and I can justify the time I spend to my surroundings.

 

heck I am definitely willing to pay a couple of dollars out of my steam wallet to get your mods because your mods add variety to the scarce body styles we have in the stock vehicle collection. Even if you only ask $1 per download you can could possibly earn plenty of money to live off of for a month or two.

 

I'm glad AR162B has spoken up here, was kinda' waiting for it. I have been a staunch supporter of AR162
and his work. I have donated money to him and will donate more. If paid mods are going to be the rule then let's
show our favorite modders just how much we appreciate their efforts. Get crackin'!!

 

I knew I wasn't the only one.
Pretty much the exact reason I will not upload any new files.

My body colored trim file which did not exist in the game before I made it. I discovered all by myself that
it was the only way to work around the fact the black plastic parts were not included when the double sided UV's came out. When I asked why the black plastic parts were not included I was told to "stop complaining" and issued with a warning. That warning wasn't issued straight away, I received the warning when the new update came out.


My "body colored trim" file (as they would later call it) was included in the zip template that I let Nadeox use so others may stand a chance of understanding the new skin system, then there's a new update and this "coincidentally" appears,



How about I attempt to diplomatically say they may be extremely heavily inspired by the content that they have to check one by one for the repository. After all you don't have to "play" with a mod to discover that it contains new content, you can find that out by simply opening the zip and checking the files to see if there are any conflicts with the existing content, which is exactly the conditions for uploading new mods to the repository. So even if they say they don't "play" with every new mod there is no shadow of a doubt they check every single one before they allow it to be released. Geez I wonder what the easiest method to test a mod in the game would be?.

As I have said before all some people may need is a "hey thanks for the idea". Y'know a simple head nod.

Why is that so impossibly hard to do?

It's not like the devs are never ever on the forums is it?

I couldn't give a rat's ass about a few cents here or there it's the goddamn principle that completely and utterly escapes them.

 

These ideas look fine to me.

 

I don't have any problem with quoting the original sources for my inspiration maybe you missed it,

The Bronx, "Based on an early 1980's New York Bronx."

The IIHS, "This is a self contained level based heavily on the world famous IIHS Crash Hall in Ruckersville, VA."

Jurassic Park skin, "High resolution Jurassic Park livery for the Roamer including wheel and tire skin. Painted bump strip and other details from the movie."

Rally Hatch livery, "High resolution rally hatch livery based on a 1990's Mitsubishi Evo rally car."

I could cite myself on the body colored trim but that would just be stupid and pointless. But I'll do it anyway in the third person, "thanks Tom","your welcome Tom".I made it because there was nothing in game that would allow skins without the plastic bump strips.

The racing skins are self explanatory 4 of them are direct copies of real life cars, the others, while they contain real life logos are from my imagination. Since the 4 racing skins are direct copies and I am not receiving any money for their unauthorized use I didn't bother pointing it out at the risk of someone replying, "thanks captain obvious". They are copies.

The police skins once again, self explanatory, LAPD is a direct copy of the real life skin as are the others.
pointing out that fact is extraordinarily redundant.

 

I didn't refuse to listen to your instructions as I had made the body colored trim back in September 2013,
So your angry incomplete advice was completely useless and irrelevant. You didn't listen to begin with, I didn't have any trouble with making the files, getting them to work with the new system was the issue. Your instructions were vague at best, Nadeox was the one who provided actual help with getting the body colored trim to work.



Also found this interesting,

http://www.beamng.com/threads/commu...pload-a-file-button.1141/page-895#post-330662