Messages

46

Open Feedback / Re: Member Map

« on: December 22, 2019, 08:57:53 am »

There are some warnings being displayed now on the map page inside the map view.

Maybe an admin of this site should configure something there (there is a link for it)

Should be fixed now.

47

Open Feedback / Re: Forum is Under Attack by Russian Dating Scam Bots

« on: December 03, 2019, 04:05:22 am »

Ok. But it continues, this time with some tank spam, instead of adult sites. Maybe you can require users to have some forum posts, before allowing them to send PMs? It is doubtful any real person would start mass sending PMs immediately after registering.

We can't snoop on everyone's PMs. You gotta tell us when it happens. I've disabled new member PMs just in case.

48

Released Mods / Re: Terrain Pack considerations

« on: November 29, 2019, 08:48:33 am »

I'm closing this thread since everyone has made up their minds and this arguing is going nowhere. Diplomacy is more likely once everyone's cooled down. Here's my last post on this topic if you missed it.

TL;DR: Hobbes was unsatisfied with how some modders were reusing his work and decided to disallow it until further notice. If you've got any further questions or issues with this, take them with him. I'm sure he's not beyond being amicable if you come peacefully.

I wanna address this though:

• A primary the source of this problem is a combination of poor communication and rudeness, most of which can be safely blamed on one specific user of Hobbes's work. But not all of it, unfortunately. Hobbes's reaction was and continues to be over the top and in poor form. And I don't really see anything changing if, hypothetically, the modder was polite, argued for donations being harmless or perhaps proposing to share them, etc. AFAICT Hobbes would still have gone into 'I'll take my toys and go home' mode. Given that he's a long-standing member of the community, a moderator and someone who occasionally tries to set standards, that's not a good precedent. SupSuper recently threatened to ban some users for relatively minor squabbling (aka the 'don't be a jerk' rule). What's going on here is full-blown drama initiated by a moderator. This is not good for the community as a whole.

• Hobbes is not a global moderator or has any official association to the OpenXcom team. He's a modder like any other and we let him have his own subforum to rule over. Everyone's words are their own so take any implications of "speaking for everyone" with a grain of salt. Of course as anyone's popularity grows, they have more "influence" over the rest, but that's the price you pay for building your content on top of one another. I expect people to respect each other, not be paragons of virtue. If the most famous modders were setting the example, then hoo, hoo boy. Wow.
  
  Anyways we've already had private talks with affected parties and will be keeping an eye on how this develops. But I don't see everyone making mutant pirate mods just because that's the most popular commodity, so spare me the "slippery slope" arguments until it happens.
• We rarely moderate on our own volition. 99% of the time I show up around here is because people have been reporting posts or PMing me. Most concerns are aired in private, naturally. So what to you might've been "minor quibbling" was a lot more bothersome to a lot more people. Whether it's just two people fighting each other or full-on community drama, it sets a bad atmosphere and disrupts discussions. You'd stop hanging around your favorite bar if there kept being loud drunken arguments in the corner making everyone uncomfortable, wouldn't you? Only option left is to call security.
  
  Likewise, the rules aren't there to be enforced with an iron grip. They're there so if someone keeps being a troublemaker, they can't say we didn't warn them. We read every report and have always been open to feedback, so if anyone thinks we're not doing enough or doing too much moderating, let us know. We maintain your anonymity and you can always contact us privately if necessary.
• This is a public forum. "To ban or not to ban" is the only threat I got, either temporary or permanent, and can be revoked at any time. As far as internet punishments go, it's pretty harmless. You can still use the website, play OpenXcom freely, engage with the community or go call me bad names somewhere else. Just not here. This is all I got and all I can do is kick you out.
  
  This forum has been running for nearly 10 years and we've only had two bans (besides spammers), they were pretty extenuating circumstances, and they've never argued against it. So I think we're doing alright, but you're free to disagree.

49

Released Mods / Re: Terrain Pack considerations

« on: November 28, 2019, 07:07:55 am »

I've been asked to weigh on this, I was waiting for discussion to die down so I could take in all the facts before making a statement, but it doesn't look like that's happening any time soon.

Serious sounding statement representing OpenXcom follows

Do what you want. We're not taking any sides on this or enforcing any restrictions at this time. OpenXcom waives any responsibility regarding what players do with it. We are fine with you creating OpenXcom-related content (mods, videos, guides, etc) for free, donations or otherwise. We're only required to do anything about content hosted on OpenXcom.org and Mod.io servers if lawyers come knocking. In fact, legally, you could sell OpenXcom for $10 on Steam tomorrow with all your own original content and be in the clear (so long as the code remains open-source).

We only ask that you respect creators' wishes to the best of your abilities when using their content, and we will do the same. Any disputes should preferably be solved privately between the parties and not by us. If you force our hand, you probably won't like it.

Content creators, if you have concerns over how your content is used, attribution, remixing, etc, please be upfront about it. As has been brought up, licenses like Creative Commons may be useful as they've done most of the work. We can provide advice but we'd rather not be judge, jury and executioner. Don't assume saying nothing means free-for-all, this isn't Google Images. These arguments come up all the time in modding communities, so none of this is new ground. Research and cover your ass if you must.

Personal opinions from SupSuper that may not represent the views of any other OpenXcom contributor follow

From my perspective, Hobbes had an issue with how other modders were using his content, brought it up with them, and eventually settled on a resolution. A bit drastic, but a lot was discussed in private so we're not seeing the whole picture. Nonetheless the issue was resolved, each side's wishes were followed. There was no big public outcry, no schism, no end of modding. And yet, everyone else decided to start sniping from the sidelines, worried about imaginary repercussions and coming to defend their side. "Slippery slope", "Think of the children", etc.

This is not a legal matter. Mods are a grey area. OpenXcom is a grey area. Attribution is not absolution, it's admission. Fair use is a defence for the courts, not a "get out of jail free" card. As it stands, we have mods using everything from copyrighted content, IPs, trademarks, etc. Trying to define what is and isn't "original content" will not go well for you. Any army of lawyers could wipe you off the map. The law is not on your side. Don't bother arguing this.

This is a moral matter. Just because the law is not on your side doesn't mean nobody has any say. In the end we're all operating entirely on "good faith", that's basically how modding works. It doesn't mean we all have the same opinions: "money poisons all", "everything should be shared", "my time is valuable", "for the greater good", etc. I get it, they're controversial topics. But I think the involved parties have already made up their minds, so arguing further is just adding fuel to the fire. Respect everyone's opinions, agree to disagree.

Personally, I do not fear the army of lawyers, or the slippery slope of jerks that are just waiting for the chance to tear modding apart with their stashes of exclusive closed content. That's counterproductive. I don't think there's any inherent benefit in enforcing everything to be under one rule. Content creators can create amazing things whether for free or for a price. Different people have different priorities and produce content differently. Let authors have their say. I don't care for getting credit or a cut of everyone's work. I'd rather OpenXcom be a launching point for every kind of crazy cool idea people have, than just another source of the "license boogeyman". But this is all personal, so I may be proven wrong. Hope not.

50

Troubleshooting / Re: Compatibility changes between old version and the latest release?

« on: November 23, 2019, 11:14:55 pm »

Saves should be fine, it's only mods that may not.
(eg. if you have to upgrade your mods to work on the latest nightly, then any saves on the old mod version may not work on the new mod version)

51

Open Feedback / Re: Forum is Under Attack by Russian Dating Scam Bots

« on: November 13, 2019, 07:06:49 am »

Thanks for letting us know. In the future, report spam directly to an admin or moderator so we can deal with it faster.

52

Offtopic / Re: Crazy and maddest idea of the mad.. asking Julian Gollop for UFO’s source code..

« on: October 22, 2019, 08:01:02 am »

Yes:

We appreciate your excitement to expand Open X-COM, but at this time we cannot provide any documentation or files associated with the original games.

53

Help / Re: Tile Explosion/in correct explosion animation.

« on: October 20, 2019, 06:07:07 am »

Don't be a jerk

I am sick of getting reports for you two. You keep derailing threads with your passive-aggressive bickering.
Either hash it out in private or learn to use the ignore list. Next offense I'm banning you both.

54

Troubleshooting / Re: Installing the games before open xcom

« on: October 07, 2019, 04:59:33 am »

You need to copy the game data folders (GEODATA, GEOGRAPH, TERRAIN, UNITS, etc): https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/Installation_FAQ_(OpenXcom)#Nightlies_.28eventually_to_be_used_for_v2.0.29
If they're not available on the discs without installation, you'll just have to use something like DOSBox to install the games before you can copy them to OpenXcom.

55

Open Feedback / Re: Help with TFTD

« on: October 04, 2019, 10:29:29 pm »

Sadly, TFTD research hinges on you capturing a live Deep One, and they only show up in the early game, in Gillmen terror missions. If you don't have those anymore, you'll have to cheat/restart.
Xarquids and Triscene are also uncommon terror units, mostly only showing up in mixed missions, but they're not important for research.

56

Troubleshooting / Re: Go to predicted UFO location

« on: October 04, 2019, 10:22:42 pm »

The vanilla behavior goes to where the UFO is, the predicted behavior goes to where the UFO will be. The latter is more effective if the UFO keeps flying in a straight line.
But UFOs randomly change direction, which neither behavior can guess (that would be cheating), so you're always at the mercy of the RNG.

57

OXCE Builds & Ports / Re: Trying to install OXCE V5.6.2 on Linux Mint?

« on: September 01, 2019, 03:02:45 pm »

The Linux versions are compiled for Ubuntu, so there might be issues in other distros.
- Try to run the executable from the terminal, so you can see any errors that may show up.
- Make sure you have the libraries installed: libsdl1.2, libsdl-mixer1.2, libsdl-gfx1.2, libsdl-image1.2, libyaml-cpp
- If all else fails, you can try compiling it yourself, it's pretty straightforward: https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,7048.0.html

58

Troubleshooting / Re: What happened to XcomUtil?

« on: August 30, 2019, 09:24:22 am »

Ufopaedia should cover how to install and configure it: https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php/XcomUtil

59

Released Mods / Re: New Mod Portal!

« on: August 23, 2019, 09:15:34 am »

Hi, SupSuper
The Mods link on the openxcom.org leads to this forum(https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/board,16.0.html), not on the (new) mod portal. Is it on  purpose?

Each place has different mods so I'm not sure where to direct people. But it's been nearly a year without the site exploding so... maybe? Maybe this will sweeten the deal.

mod.io integration is coming to OpenXcom!

You ever used Steam Workshop? It's exactly like that.
You haven't? Well you subscribe to mods (that red button on the site that doesn't do anything yet) and they are beamed directly into your OpenXcom. Automatically installed and updated for your convenience.

To mod creators:

• Downloads should follow the same rules as the OXCE ziploader, i.e. a ZIP file (no RAR, 7z or ARJ) which contains a single mod or several mod folders, no extra layers or OXC installs.
• Multiple editions of a mod should have separate mod entries (eg. OGG vs FLAC), as the primary file is always the one that's downloaded.

To mod users:

• Updates are ready to install? No!
• A mod.io account is required to play OpenXcom? No!
• Can I still manually install mods? Yes!
• Can I ignore this altogether? Yes!

It'll be a while until this rolls out so you have time to prepare and discuss. Do you want more mod.io features ingame? Less? Discuss!

60

Troubleshooting / Re: Go to predicted UFO location

« on: August 14, 2019, 03:08:40 am »

New fix is up, let me know if it's more consistent between both modes. Mainly if there's still any cases where a craft gets "stuck" and stops chasing the UFO.