First, I would like to thank everyone for the feedback regarding the inquiry on donations for the mod. I was surprised how many people were eager donate and supported the idea!
However, after receiving feedback from users in private and public and after considering the personal opinions of the great lords of Moddb, I have decided not to pursue this avenue any further. In general, any time money becomes involved with mod work (donations or otherwise), you start to walk a very fine legal line. While donations may technically be legal in most cases, there is inherent risk associated with collecting money for something that is under trademark or copyright...and SW is a very well protected copyright. Disney doesn't mess around.
Additionally, one person collecting money for any reason can potentially cause a copyright holder to pursue the entire mod community for said game... And that, combined with the aforementioned, is just a risk that can't be taken.
However, having said all of that, the reason for inquiring about donations was to see if there were any options out there that would allow me to devote more time to the mod. I've put some thought into it and there is more than one way to maximize the remaining time in the year and continue to propel the mod to completion. So, rather than ask for monetary contributions to the great cause, I have instead decided to ask for creative contribution.
Starting the minute this article is approved by the admins, I will officially be hosting a land mapping contest for Rise of the Mandalorians! There are going to be several new planets in the mod and mapping is probably the area where the most work needs to be done. So, here are the details:
To be considered for placement in the RotM Mapping Contest, users should create high quality maps for Rise of the Mandalorians which accurately reflect the setting of one of the planets listed below. They must abide by the rules outlined below and provide a balanced and exciting experience to players of the mod.
Please select one of these planets:
- Kril’Dor
- Vulpter
- Concord Dawn
- Dxun
- Onderon
RotM Mapping Contest Rules
- Maps must be created for Galactic Conquest for one of the optional planets as listed above.
- Maps must not include any custom props, units, markers, or otherwise “non-vanilla” elements.
- Maps must be submitted by the contest deadline in order to be considered.
- Maps must be unique and created solely by the submitter. Maps from other mods, created by more than one person, etc will not be considered.
- Maps must be true to “Legends” lore only and not Disney’s new canon. It must also match the planet's description as of about 20 ABY.
- Maps must be for land-based combat. No space map submissions will be accepted.
- Only ONE submission per person is allowed. So choose your planet wisely. Multiple submissions will not be accepted.
The deadline for this contest will be September 30th 2017. I hope that this deadline gives map makers ample time to really compose some wonderful maps, no matter what amount of free time they might have. Maps submitted after the deadline will not be considered for the contest.
Winners will be announced after the deadline date and the top 3 winners will receive their own copy of the Rise of the Mandalorians box art, with custom printed disk and mod manual, once the full mod is complete. Additionally (if this wans’t already implied), their map will be featured in the mod and they will receive full credit in the Readme.
Disclaimer:
I am limiting submissions to the use of “vanilla” content only in order to level the playing field. That said, adaptations to the maps will need to be made for final inclusion into RotM. Therefore, I reserve the right to edit winning maps as necessary in order to allow them to work seamlessly within the framework of the mod.
I also reserve the right, at any time, to cancel the contest or to disqualify participants who do not follow contest rules.
Lastly, the announced winners will be final. No reconsideration will be given to other submissions once winners are announced and the contest has concluded.
How to participate:
If you would like to participate in this contest, please submit your final entries to jeff@jefferycheney.com with “Mapping Contest”, your name and what planet you have chosen in the email subject. If file size restrictions will not allow you to attach your map file, please host it on a file sharing website and provide a link.
EX: Mapping Contest – John Smith – Vulpter
Please include your Moddb name in the email subject line, not your actual name. Actual names will be collected from the winners when addresses are collected.
Due to potential submission volume, emails submitted which do not follow subject format will not be considered.
Do not include your personal address in the email. Addresses will be collected from the winners after the contest is over, in order to mail their prizes to them.
THANK YOU ALL AND HAPPY MAPPING!
It is sad to hear about it. I would like to support mods by donating but I got to agree that current circumstances would be risky given mods are in a grey area concerning legal actions specially considering donations. Goddamn you Disney DAMN YE I SAY. Hell why did George Lucas have to sell off the damn IP to those ******** -_-...
If it wasnt Disney, it would have been somebody else... Lucas was done with the franchise and anybody with enough cash to buy it, also has the cash for some big time lawyers... Oh well.
Yea I understand that if it wasn't Disney it would of been someone else but I am still ****** at Disney for other reasons than this. Examples would be taking a goddamn machete to the legends canon and that mess episode 7... Still I wish the IP would of been sold to a company who would of been more good towards modders considering Star wars is a good IP to mod from in games nowadays.
Yeah, Disney is not fan-friendly at all... I understand that everyone has to protect their business and source of income but Disney has a tighter grip than Tarkin. lol
I too hate the right to own property.
crap. i wish i could do maps myself. well.
Did you not consider what Corey from the Thrawn's revenge team has done i.e. set up a Youtube channel, do lets plays of the mod and set up a patreon account for the channel as you play test the mod and other content...?
Corey was a part of the conversation I had, actually. He does not do any donations or commissions for Thrawn's Revenge. It's all personal work, detached from the mod. In my case, the point of trying to collect donations was to expedite the mod's progress. If I start doing independent work, that only adds to the work load and takes even more time from modding...especially since people are paying for it, I'd feel the need to prioritize it over mod work.
As for Let's Plays, etc... That still walks a not so clear legal line. They might not be contributing directly to the mod itself but there is still inherent risk involved because the entire Star Wars IP is copyrighted. That means everything in both the Legends and canon universes, the words, music, names, (and this is the big one) ideas. When you copyright the idea, you basically put the kibosh on fan content too. Even if it's a totally custom ship/character, if it is being written into Star Wars, you are possibly infringing on copyright.
Having said all that, modding itself is a legally gray area unless the game's EULA specifically says it's allowable. Most companies just choose not to pursue modding as a whole because it's seen as beneficial (unless you are Take2 Interactive...). But throw money in there, even as a donation to the modder and not the mod...people are likely to get upset.
Never attempted to create maps for eaw, guess its my time to attempt it. So then are we suposed to use vanilla stuff only but not rotm stuff? Im a bit confused there. You have greatly improved textures and props, and using vanilla stuff will make it look worse.
I have read you'll update the winners maps, but if we could place rotm directly it would save time. What im not sure if its suposed to be a skirmish or galactic conquest type of map? Both are singleplayer.
Skirmish maps are multiplayer maps in terms of map editor settings. I suppose to clear that up... The maps are for Galactic Conquest.
I don't want to release any RotM content until the mod is done. When the maps are loaded into the RotM folder though, textures and props will update themselves and it should be seamless. However, I will view maps before and after being loaded into the RotM folder so that if there is something in RotM that is affecting their quality (texture that updates differently and looks odd or whatever), I can correct it before judging.
I'm kind of looking for good looking maps that are great for gameplay. primarily. Then they will be "beautified" with the RotM treatment when placed into the game...if they win.
I love this idea of creative contribution, although it's sad we can't donate but you made a reasonable decision here.
That's a shame
does clone wars count as legends ????
Clone Wars does count as Legends BUT...the mod takes place in 20 ABY (give or take a year).
I appreciate your decision.
ya know if ya did it with Patreon and just said to support me and not put anything to deal with the Star wars Mod than you would be safe because than it just people giving you money on Patreon and not supporting the Star wars Mod
Yeah thats what I thought, a patreon or donation system in a web such as deviantart with his personal work, nothing to do with star wars. The mistake here was making donatioms for rotm, what he should do are donations for him as an artist, or something of the sort.
DeviantArt, honestly, is VERY morally gray... They put in their agreement when you sign up that YOU are responsible for your own compliance with copyright and then they play dumb if anyone comes after them with a "we can't police everyone" attitude. It's kind of sleazy, tbh. Moddb doesn't have that luxury.
Not entirely. There was a LOOOOOOONG conversation about this that included lots of people... Other modders, admins, etc... The general consensus is that money needs to stay away from mods altogether. Something like this is not really something done with integrity. It ignores the spirit of the law in favor of exploiting a loophole.
While I might be safe legally, what it would do is make copyright holders angry. It opens up the possibility that copyright holders will simply say "no mods" and revoke that right in their EULA. That way anyone who makes mods, money or not, would be vulnerable to Cease and Desists or legal action.
#axanar
Exactly! Good example of what we should all try to avoid. It's a sad situation and really, it should never have happened (even JJ Abrams tried to get the studio to stop the lawsuit) but the way copyright works, they could potentially lose their copyright if they don't challenge it. It's not that they hate fans or whatever...but if they lose their copyright, they lose everything. They MUST pursue legal action, even if they don't really want to punish fan films like this.
For those who don't know what is being talked about:
En.wikipedia.org
Well, count me in for the mapping contest!
By the way, does "no custom props" include props made from other vanilla models or resized versions of vanilla props? Because vanilla urban props are very limited and the buildings are way too small.^^
only the map (TED) file will be accepted. Anything that needs additional XML or ALO files won't count. I know people are griping about this because it's limiting...but that's the point for me. I want the contest to be open the most amount of people. Allowing folks who have already been modding for years to do anything including new props and such not only slants the contest greatly in their favor but it also presents a situation where now I have to use their props/content and I may not want to use that content. At the same time, I don't want to release any RotM content to the public yet... So vanilla resources made sense to me.
If their are instances where larger props might look better, you are more than welcome to comment as such with your submission and those things can be taken into account. That's why I'm reserving the right to edit maps as needed...so that if there are RotM-specific items that are needed, I can add them... or if say, I have larger props already in RotM, I can add them.
Alright, just wanted to know what I can work with. Not sure yet which planet I'm going to take, but Concord Dawn and Onderon could be interesting...
I look forward to seeing what you come up with!
Hm, I forgot about copyrights. You've made a wise decision.
Is there any tutorial that can be useful to those who do not know anything about making maps or model anything?
There is a written tutorial that should be included with the Map Editor download itself, provided by Petroglyph.
If I sent you a map, how do I know if it's reached you or not?
I did get your email Azat :) I was going to reply and let you know that I got the submission but you beat me to it. Thank you for your participation!
I will not review the map until the contest deadline has come, however so be aware that I won't get back to you until then.
Ok thank you
Does somebody know how to test a singleplayer map?
There is a menu option in the map editor itself to "test map in game". I don't recall exactly where that is but just search the menu for it and you should find it.
Found it in "tools", thanks.
I really badly want one of those but I've never made a map before and man I am really late. I'm also in college so busy busy busy but I will try, I am a computer science major after all. I can not express how great that stuff looks.
Thanks man and good luck! There is still almost an entire month left so just pace yourself, learn the map editor for half the month and leave half to make your map.