A quote from the night-mode mod-maker:
I understand that Steve does not wish the game to be modded, but, ... well, I will continue to mod it, and I hope others do too, which is separate for my love and respect for Steve's work. I can't wait to see what amazing mods the community comes up with.
Steve makes some really, really nice clay, which he gives out for free. Many people enjoy the clay as it is, but there are a few who find it difficult to work with, so they add a little water to the clay and it forms a really nice texture that allows them to sculpt amazing things. Steve then says, "You can't do that! Especially not in the privacy of your own home!" Some people point out that, if he is going to so heavily police the composition of his clay, then they can just figure out how to make their OWN clay by studying HIS clay, it is just
math dirt after all, and while they would rather not do that, it's certainly possible. Queue anger from fans? Confusion on my part?
I'm sorry but it's not an argument of rights - it's a human thing to not listen to others, and it's also a human thing to take that into account and continue doing whatever you were doing before, despite the annoyances. There are no sides, it's just a bunch of individual actors attempting to create and change what they see in the software, and it sounds like a few of those actors are being big ol' dicks about it.
If it's true that Steve worries about muddied bug reports, there are ways to deal with that, as seen in this thread and in so many new games these days. There is no such thing as bull-headed game development anymore, hell, look at Tarn Adams and those two posts a few months back acknowledging the poor interface, and asking for community input and ideas for improvement. Steve can't just lockdown his community's feedback with a few, tired opinions. I get it, it's his baby, and yet there's enough people that support his vision that he will never fear for lack of 'vanilla' aurora players, no matter how wildly successful the mods get (and oh, how amazing will they be!).
If it's true that people were threatening Steve to release source code, shame on them! Who the heck threatens people over video games?
All I'm left with is the fear that I won't be able to play the wonderful game, if either Steve or the 'militant modders' have their way.
edit: Check out
this post on the pentarch forums.
We've been made aware that that Aurora C# uses some assets from Endless Sky, and i decided to check it out. It turns out there are some *serious* licensing issues. Now, the content that is taken from Disney's, Games Workshop's and presumably some other IPs is not really my concern - I'm not lawyer enough to determine whether that is fair use or not. I would simply advise against taking that wager, since it only serves to make your game more vulnerable to copyright claims.
What i am concerned about is the use of licensed free artwork without proper acknowledgement.
I dunno, but this sounds like a much more concrete issue than any mod..