First Contact: A Total Conversion Mod Thread

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Edited by (in order): xJayx, xJayx, xJayx, xJayx, xJayx

Halo mod on Source? I smell a cease and decist order... Unless you manage somehow to get permission.

Well there is a Halo mod that has been done on Battlefield Vietnam, and also one is being developed on UT2k4.

I understand why you would say that, but you could say that for all mods based on an real games. Why doesn't Capcom stop Resident Evil mods? How about other mods that have been based of an original game?

Cease and Desist Orders can only be sent through certified mail in the U.S., so they must find out who I am legally.

With a cease and desist order you do not have to stop. It is a warning that they believe you are in violation of the law. If you do not stop then they have to prove you are breaking the law.

Edited by (in order): xJayx, xJayx, xJayx

xJayx wrote: Well there is a Halo mod that has been done on Battlefield Vietnam, and also one is being developed on UT2k4.

I understand why you would say that, but you could say that for all mods based on an real games. Why doesn't Capcom stop Resident Evil mods? How about other mods that have been based of an original game?

Cease and Desist Orders can only be sent through certified mail in the U.S., so they must find out who I am legally.

With a cease and desist order you do not have to stop. It is a warning that they believe you are in violation of the law. If you do not stop then they have to prove you are breaking the law.

First and foremost, Capcom actually supports the modding community, and lets its players use their content (as evidence through this link: Dynamic.gamespy.com ).

They have ways to find you out legally. It's called an ISP, and an IP address. Your information is also spread all across the Internet, and they won't stop federal action from taking place, especially illegal activities.

With a cease and desist order, if you do not stop, they can take you to court and sue you for thousands of dollars, more than you can ever dream of making. There's been people who fight it and lose. If they see you continuing to work on the mod, they are well within their rights to do so, especially since this is a direct connection with Halo, and not some similarities between it.

Trust me, you do not want to fight a C&D order.

well best thing to do is contact them is it not?

read this article:

Planetquake.com

Take careful note of what happened to the Aliens Quake team.

I wrote a well composed letter to Bungie to ask for permission. If it, is not granted, I will of course cease any ideas and development of this mod. When I recieve my response I shall post it, regardless.

Whoa, major sense of Deja Vu'.

Two threads regarding Halo mods in one day? Yikes.

Chaossaber314 wrote: Whoa, major sense of Deja Vu'.

Two threads regarding Halo mods in one day? Yikes.

I didn't even see another. I read up on the Halo mod on the UT2k4 Engine and apparently they had Bungie's permission, but the team no longer wanted to do it or something.

Well, all I can do is wait for a response to my letter.

I'm always amused by bits like this:

"You can't do ___ mod because it's against copyright and you'll get cease and desist order"

"Yeah but theres ___ mod on ___ engine and ___ engine"

as if that makes it legal for said person to do their own ___ mod.

Edited by: phait

phait wrote: I'm always amused by bits like this:

"You can't do ___ mod because it's against copyright and you'll get cease and desist order"

"Yeah but theres ___ mod on ___ engine and ___ engine"

as if that makes it legal for said person to do their own ___ mod.

I am well aware of what I said, I was merely stating the fact. Perhaps they do have permission, and perhaps they don't. The fact remains that the said mod hasn't been shut down yet, so that is why I brought it up in the first place.

Did I say that it was legal for the said person? No, but I figured that it would be alright for me to do so. In order to make sure that I have have permission I wrote a letter to Bungie Studios for permission.

If they don't want me to do it, then I'll go back to the drawing board. If they allow me to do it, then I'll do the best I can.

Two Chrono Trigger mods that were well known in the community for their remake projects tried to do something that they know might bite them in the rear later on. These guys were very far into development, and could've released an alpha or even a beta within a month's time. However, when they were close to that stage, Squenix sent them the C&D letter.

Now, do you want to end up like these guys? I really think you should go for your own original idea. You can have space marines in the future, but go with your own unique style that'll pull people in. Originality is a form of high respect in the modding community, for your information.

u know what would be really mean to do other than just foxing the mod? its the original company knows of the mod and lets them make it till they are about to release a beta or something and then give them a C&D.

I guess nobody really read the document I wrote up outlining the game that was supposed to me made out of this. I had no intention of following the game storyline or even using Spartans in the game. It was not to be a multiplayer mod and be the same old boring deathmatch. Every part of the mod I thought up, besides using the UNSC and information from the books was original. I wrote the story myself, I wrote the flash thing myself.

Nonethelesss, I know that it was illegal after the first post so "kindly" alerted me to the fact that I would recieve a Cease and Decist order from Bungie Studios. So I wrote a letter to them requesting to perhaps use parts of the Halo game in the mod. I explained that it was a personal project and would not ever gain revenue nor would it be offensive to Bungie, Microfost or its employees.

That letter, was obviously based on the response that the one mod recieved from Capcom. I, hopefully, will recieve a response form Bungie Studios that would allow me to work on this mod. If I don't recieve a warm welcome, then I'll of course go back to the drawing board and completely remove Halo from the story and create everything from scratch.

I came to mod database hoping to get some helpful criticism and maybe some insight on how to improve my mod. What do I get?

I get a few trolls that come into the topic and say that attempt to sound witty by saying their little one line, "i can smell a cease and desist order on the way right now".

I did ask for criticism, I'll give you that. I believe constructive critiicism was implied. I already knew that several mods had been shut down, and I'll also admit that I did not know Capcom was welcoming modders to use their content. I would assume any company would be okay if it was not making revenue, but obviously as I learned, they do not.

If this mod does go under, which thanks to your enthuiasm to see it do such, it probably will. I will go back to the drawing board and create an entirely new mod that I will expect some sort constructive criticism.

Before I end this post, I want to say that I did not create this concept/idea because it was Halo and it was bound to automatically popular. I created it because I love Halo concept, I loved reading the books and playing the game. Reading the books for me wasn't enough, obviously. I wanted to live and feel the books. I believed the main story of Halo 2 was a bit lackluster and lacking, and that's why I read the books in the first place. This mod was my idea to bring the books alive and create a thrilling experience for PC gamers alike, so Halo wouldn't be stuck to the same old Xbox games.

If you love the story, perhaps you should investigate into the series history as Halo was originally suppose to be the fourth sequel to the Marathon series. Which is available now for free distribution from Bungie along with a working opengl version for windows.

And it is constuctive criticism when you're being made aware pf other projects have been shut down by Bungie. Generally companies don't take things on a case by case basis and have a policy that applies to everything. You're never talking directly to the company or anyone with any decision making abilites. You're talking to a PR representative that can spew the company's policy at request.

For example, Capcom has a policy of allowing modifications that do not recieve revenue. This applies to all their products and is not based on any email anyone has sent them. It was a policy already and the policy was not changed or altered or created merely because someone sent them an email. The only reason it is good to email them anyway is to find out what exactly that policy is verbatum.

Capcom is not Bungie nor to they share the same company executives so using the logic that "Capcom approves of modifications so the entirely different company Bungie, must as well" is flawed to the point of absurdity.

What many of us are trying to tell you is that people have already been in the same boat. Sent the email and were told Bungie's policy, or didn't send the email and were sent a C&D order back. Step back for a moment and weigh the possibility that they might actually know what they're talking about.

I wish you luck and all, but why can't people just come up with there own [stuff]? I love halo, res evil, bdz, square-enix, and a whole bunch of mics movies, but I'm not going to dedicate hours and hours to making a mod based on any of them. Actually I would be too afraid to delve into those universes and try to make an authentic mod, it would be difficult and stifling. But as I said before, gl.

I think you've really got the wrong end of the stick. What we're giving is constructive critisism. We're stopping you from wasting your time. If you didn't get permission then made then mod, it would have been shut down and the effort wasted. We are just trying to inform you of the legal situation.

In my first thread I mentioned that it'd be fine if you got permission. How is that trolling? I was helping you. I'll thank you not to call me a troll for helping. If I had said, "LOLz you'll get shut down" then you could consider that trolling, but I didn't. You've admitted yourself that you didn't know the legal implications, I merely made you aware of them. How is that trolling?

Mauvebib wrote: I think you've really got the wrong end of the stick. What we're giving is constructive critisism. We're stopping you from wasting your time. If you didn't get permission then made then mod, it would have been shut down and the effort wasted. We are just trying to inform you of the legal situation.

In my first thread I mentioned that it'd be fine if you got permission. How is that trolling? I was helping you. I'll thank you not to call me a troll for helping. If I had said, "LOLz you'll get shut down" then you could consider that trolling, but I didn't. You've admitted yourself that you didn't know the legal implications, I merely made you aware of them. How is that trolling?

I'd like to apologize for kind of 'lashing out' at you guys in my latest post, besides this one. I have been under phenominal stress in the past 48 hours due to my job, internet connection and of course this thread. I took your advice the wrong way, and I figured it was sarcasm that was tossed my way by an annoyed forum poster.

I understand the legal situation because I have worked on several mods before that have been shut down, as other projects that I'm not willing to discuss. I merely based the fact that I could do it on the Halo mod on Unreal, and I found out that they did get permission. I was intending to get permission from the beginning, but I failed to put that in my first post.

I understand that adding Halo to the ideas for my mod is not original, but look at this from my point of view. I am, in essence, trying create an interesting Halo experience, not create "Halo 2 Source" or "Halo: Source". I am basing my mod on the book, The Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund. I am assuming you all are just looking at it and seeing "Halo" and saying that it is another Halo clone. The only other Halo "mod" for Source is the guy who posted the mod idea "Counter Halo". That is not what I am trying to do here, and I doubt that it would even be multiplayer.

If I do get permission to do this modification, I'll specially thank those (including you, Mauvebib, even after I lashed out at you for no reason) who made me away of the legal situation.

The one thing I ask of you, is not to criticize this mod because it is based on the Halo world, but because of the storyline I have thought up for it. Make comments on why you wouldn't like to play Halo before "Halo".

Maybe I was wrong in coming to mod database, as I did get off the wrong foot with you guys. Please accept my apology in automatically referring to you as trolls.

Like I said in my last post, I did not base this mod on Halo because I expected it to be automatically popular (as said in the Foxing article) but because I want to create a Halo experience like no other.

Although inconsistent, here's my reply.

EDIT:

And to you, who said it was difficult, yes it is. That is why I chose to do a Halo total conversion. It is hard, but if I do get permission and if I do get a dedicated mod team, then we'll do our best. If we fail, then we've failed you, the HL Community. If we triumph, it was for you, not me our my team.

Edited by: xJayx

Make comments on why you wouldn't like to play Halo before "Halo"

Halo before "Halo" is Marathon...

Ahhh yes. Played it on the Mac.

But I think all ideas have been done if people keep rehashing and rehashing old ideas like Halo.

WhereTF are the new ideas?

Yay! Glad I'm not alone. Marathon's story is unmatched.

"Marathon"? NNooooooooo, a game referance I don't get!