Yesterday, someone posted a link in the comments section with a link to a leaked copy of GaW 2.1. Needless to say...I am NOT impressed by this, and frankly, I find this to be rather annoying. The very fact that one of my internals got leaked is kinda frustrating because it tells me that my Beta Testers cannot be trusted. And before you say it; YES, I have Beta Testers, and YES, I keep their names a secret, and NO, I do not even tell my Beta Testers who their other Beta Testers are. I prefer to keep anonymity among that group of people for reasons that involve measures to prevent things from getting leaked.
Anyway, sometime yesterday, a user by the name of GAWLeaks (I am guessing an account specifically created to leak my mod) posted a link to a 4shared account that allowed the download of a January build of GaW 2.1. This was a rather recent distribution that I had handed out to my Beta Testers, so it was pretty up-to-date, with only a few things missing from my own personal builds. This user stated that they got their copy of GaW 2.1 from one of my Beta Testers. I can conclude from this that whoever GAWLeaks was, they were either one of my Beta Testers, or they were a friend of one of my Beta Testers who got an unauthorized copy of the mod.
Needless to say...I plan on doing something about this. Little did my Beta Testers know, they each got unique versions of the XML files for the mod (this is one of the reasons why I don't tell Beta Testers about other Beta Testers). In one of, or several of, or many of the XML files, there is a commented line of code that contains a series of characters which will tell me exactly who this version of the mod belonged to. In short, once I check which Beta Tester owned this copy of the mod...I am going to take immediate action against the culprit in question...and it is not going to be pretty. I am going to do everything humanly possible to make things as difficult for this person as I can. I am going to utilize every avenue available to ensure that this person is punished appropriately.
Ultimately, the number of downloads of the leak was quite low, and the damage was very minimal. To anyone who downloaded the leak, I strongly urge you to delete the leaked version of the mod, and await an official release. I will not offer ANY support to people who downloaded the leaked version, and if you come forward, posting a comment, or sending me a PM, asking for help setting up the leaked version of the mod, your questions will be deleted without a second thought. I will provide NO SUPPORT for ANY leaked version of this mod.
Furthermore, to all of my current Beta Testers...your services will no longer be required. In light of the current situation, I feel it is best to no longer entertain the prospect of Beta Testers. I have had too many problems with Beta Testers in the past, and the effort is simply not worth it. As of this moment, all Beta Testing will end.
With all of that said...I now have to clean up the mess that this person made. So, the rest of this is here to cover the integrity of GaW.
First of all, I want to offer a sincere apology to the 3rd parties that offered assets to my mod. Third parties essentially include EVERYONE who is listed in the credits of my mod, and anyone who ever offered or supplied assets that are used in the mod. This leak was distributed, by the culprit, with NO README file, and as such, there was no mention of the efforts and hard work put in by 3rd parties, nor was their any mention of the original copyright owners. This is unacceptable, and it is insulting to the hard work done by other madders in the community.
Second of all, I want to assure everyone that there will be NO MORE leaks of GaW 2.1. With the effective dismissal of all my Beta Testers, I can assure you that there will be no more problems.
Third of all, I will be posting an updated credits file for 2.1 ASAP. I want the record to clearly show who as been of help to GaW, and I want their efforts recognized, despite the missing information in the leaked version of GaW 2.1.
i am just glad to see some life in this mod
when is 2.1 coming out?
While i am dissapointed that someone had the gall to leak the files, i am happy to see that the mod is indeed being worked on. my condolences to your friend, and good luck with your mod!
That XML thing was actually quite clever. Anyway, nice to see this mod is still going.
I hate it when people do that. They think it's so funny to do something purposely wrong to **** others off. I'm just glad that you were able to find out who did it rather quickly.
Well...hopefully that person has learned their lesson. It is a total betrayal of trust IMO.
Lynch Mob to destroy the beta destroyers!
.....and this is exactly why I alpha test everything myself. I do have two people who help sometimes but for the most part as long as it works for me then a mod is normally stable and ready for release.
Sorry to hear about this, whoever did it showed no respect for the modding community. It's a shame that people lack integrity and us modders often can't trust people in the community.
On an mildy related note, brilliant idea with the xml code.
As an avid fan of mods, I would never consider downloading a mod that did not come from an "official" source, moddb, a modd's home page, etc. I know that this sort of behavior is/has become very common place now-a-days, but it is still sickening when instances of it come up in areas where we, the consumer, are being given, GIVEN, products for FREE! I mean c'mon! So we might have to wait and that is fine because modders are doing this work for NO compensation. This is, one one level, worse than stealing! I await the offical release of this mod with batted breath!
Sad happenings, but your reaction is perfect. Give the leaker hell! >:D
And agreed, that XML trick is awesome, haha. Absolutely brilliant!
At least that means not all of the BETA testers fell of the face of the Earth (or were eaten).
Some were eaten.
Camping trips can be so dangerous...
There is a simple way to avoid that situation. Send all beta testers slightly different version (one, two different files), so after leak you will KNOW who did it and you will be able to trust the others.
I mean, in all fairness, we HAVE been waiting over 2 years, almost 3, for you to move from 2.0 to 2.1, so it's not all that surprising that one of your beta testers would choose to leak it.
My condolences to your friend as of nearly 2 years ago.
hey I think this is an amazing mod and you seem to be one of the few modders who put a lot of time into this. I would like to ask if there is any chance a 40k faction can be added in the future I would love to see a good 40k mod in this game thank you for all the work you have already done