Is now a mute point
After re-reading the legal documents ,I did find a clause that this would fall under, just not the one that was quoted by nightstar
I am not sure how I missed that the 1st time around reading the document.
Found here
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When has permitted modding ever been defined for Boundless? The exo bot feels like less of a cheat than the one to turn the foliage down to make it easier to see resources or enemies.
I still think it depends on what translate is defined as in tos. But as Trundamere just pointed out thereâs another rule that could apply to this among other things. So looks like if the devs want to enforce their rules and tell the bots or websites to be shut down the very well can.
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The devs created a whole section off-site for mods so unless they explicitly state that certain modding isnât allowedâŚI guess they need to clarify or flat out tell people which mods arenât allowed.
That is the problem, If it is a problem, depending how you look at it.
They have not defined âPermitted Moddingâ and can most likely reserve the right to deem any mod as non-permitted by not defining what Permitted modding is
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I too, would like a note from the police telling me personally that itâs not cool to steal cars.
@Trundamere mere and others: as constructive criticism itâs clear that many of the people in these discussions are not really aware of how these tools are created or deployed. Nor really concerned with how boundless actually works or how deeply it is integrated with steam at the infrastructure level.
I am not a lawyer, and Iâm no longer in any IP related industry. I wonât participate in trying to dissect this to support a positive or negative bias in laymanâs terms. And the last time I tried to ask some plain yes or no questions about these matters turned into one of the worst forum experiences I have ever had. Here or anywhere.
Iâm not maligning anyoneâs intentions really and some of the tools that are currently deployed are very helpful. I think maybe more of them should be widely available, since the devs donât seem to mind their use and donât profess any intention to provide comparable APIs.
Iâd like a list of all the blink blocks please and thank you.
So what we have here, unfortunately, is an impasse, a chasm, a defining dew line of community interpretation and perspective. This will, I think, forever divide the community on what is âfairâ and âunfair.â Thus one of the many challenges of an MMO. . .Great game nonetheless.
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I agree and in fact you could probably define most of "lawâ that way.
There will pretty much always be someone with an edge or more time or more coin or something going on no matter what it is. I still play.
Honestly I use the tools that are made available to me in such a way that I donât need to modify the security of my own machine, like the discord bots and the websites.
I do wish that the provided resources and same data APIs were made available so that people of varying skill levels could create fun and useful tools for observing the boundless universe without having to deal with these concerns.
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Itâs in Wonderstruckâs best interest, and arguably the communityâs best interest, not to say what is allowed. That allows them to ban any mod that becomes a problem. They canât predict what people will create. I havenât seen them declare any mod as âpermitted,â and donât expect to. Theyâll take action if they have a problem with any particular mod.
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The only reason this exists is the lack of communication.
The exo bot is innocuous and you are fooling yourself if you think word doesnât spread near instantly without the aid of a bot.
The devs need to have a weekly devblog and be answering community questions. Everyone wins.
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I strongly agree with this, monthly would be more reasonable given their work schedules but regular community updates would go along way to community satisfaction I think.
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I think many things exist for more reasons that communication. Every âmodâ and gathering of game data through hacking into memory and other things is done because the people doing it want to do it. They understand where the âline in the sand isâ and could easily stop of their own means. Them not doing so is ultimately on their own decisions and actions because they value that data and supposedly are sharing everything they have with the community. Them doing this is certainly not because of some lack of communication.
Certainly a more clearly defined roadmap and some more transparency wouldnât hurt. But few people in this community can actually put themselves in the shoes of the developers and hold the best interest of the game over their own interests.
I think we get plenty of updates on when content comes out and where they stand. The reason it is less than likely most people want is I think the community in general has proved they canât really handle certain conversations without turning it into a mess or arguments or one group against another. Weâve seen plenty of cases over the course of at least the past 2 years where the developers have tried to engage more and theyâve been thrown into a catch 22 - some people mad at them for one reason or another group mad at them for another reason.
So as long as devs provide quality patch notes and share what is coming when they are ready to share, that is fine with me. Iâd prefer them working than trying to navigate the horrible situation these forums can turn into when things get into certain areas.
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Thatâs always seemed to me to be because they are trying to cater to two wholly distinct crowds.
Why not once and for all just pick a direction for the game and shed the remaining solo players?
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Yes. This is how I have felt since October.
Even with that going on I still enjoy the core game enough to ignore other parts. Farming will be make or break for me, personally, just because I really enjoy that aspect in games.
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I want to address both of these points. Firstly, the point about modders, which is, put in different words: those that mod should know better.
This gets back precisely to my point about communication. If the developers clearly stated what is, and is not authorized, then there wouldnât be any question in the community. Those that want a policy (wonderstruck) are obligated to provide clarity. Itâs preposterous to expect the players to stumble around until the find the limits. This applies to any aspect of the game - clear, defined communication is not the job of the player base. If the players are asking questions, itâs becayse the developers didnât answer them. Said another way: proactive communication beats reactive communication.
The second point to address is that the community cannot âhandleâ conversations with he developers. I am sure any number of interactions with the player base could be heated or even distracting to the developers. However, barring a total disconnect between developers and community, proactive, aggressive communication will prevent dialogue. The developers donât have to âengageâ unless they want to. As long as they have a fixed point where they provide communication, this will alleviate any community concerns. My point is, this was a self-inflicted wound.
This is basic community management, but it requires a community manager who works for the company and has the ability to get answers. Few companies are wired that way. Want a great example? The Division 2. Amazing community feedback with constant, regular communication.
Ubisoft arenât better developers. They just have a rigorous, aggressive communication structure. It is a choice the company makes. Wonderstruck frequently responds on the forums, and thatâs great. They should instead move to a proactive rather than reactive model. Iâd rather never see another forum post if their weekly blog answered the most common forum concerns popping up.
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I certainly agree that when we had a community manager that was part of the company things were better off for this game. I, for one, always agree with communication and transparency. More would help⌠but I also understand completely where the company is and how they can only focus on so many things at once. Additionally, more than a few times I have had direct conversations about even doing things like a customer advisory board for more direct feedback to developers (kind of like Eve Online has). They just can only do so much.
I just donât agree that more communication will help the problems we have with the community along a whole series of topics or views on how the game should be. Many people are not able to have the constructive conversations that would help the developers if they engaged more with the community as a whole. I think the data they get now gives enough data but ultimately they seem to prefer to use actual game data to help them decide on the direction of the game.
As for the those âmoddingâ the game, I am not trying to paint the picture that they âshould know better.â Yes a clear policy would help answer some questions people might have about if this is allowed or not, but I think the devâs lack of comment shows that they are watching what happens and will decide where they think something crosses and line and where it doesnât (e.g. the Exo notification). But, none of those points have to do with those that made the decision themselves to hack into the game and try to gather data whether they keep some stuff for themselves or share everything they find. Either way, that is a personal decision that could easily be stopped at any point without any interaction from the developers. Using an excuse that they havenât been stopped has no bearing on that personâs ethics and decision and power to stop themselves from taking advantage of channels to get data in a way that was not part of the gameâs design.
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Any reason you canât do it? We all have bias but youâve proven to have very little of it.
For those in this thread interested in supporting an in game way to detect/plan for exp planetsâŚhere is my request thread for that feature. Also, if you donât want an in game way to detect themâŚit is a great place for those comments too!
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what item did you create? more so what special tools and weapons can you craft? have any for sale I could grab ?
They havenât implemented most of the features for backers. I have a few tool ideas but havenât had a conversation about it with them yet because I have felt that they should spend their time on content for everyone and to fix bugs since we rushed to release.
Beyond providing feedback on the larger upcoming features, currently I was requesting two smaller in game functional components to be added: A Shop Yellow Pages Book giving shop locations and details and a Contract system that would be available to public and guilds. Both were very minimal designs that could be iterated on over time as people used them increasing game functionality.
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