[UNRELEASED][OXCE][UFO] Snug Assortment of Little Things

[Tiny Wisdom]

What is Snug Assortment of Little Things?

Also known as OpenXcom Extended with SALT.

Snug Assortment of Little Things is a lightweight yet comprehensive canon-friendly overhaul of the original experience.

In addition to at least 1 global option and 33 fixed user options, it consists of:

Spoiler:

5 first-party mods by OpenXcom
32 second-party mods by Snug Assortment of Little Things
14 third-party mods by Various Authors

Why is it unreleased?

While it's 99% done and playable, the addition of a few rulesets and script hooks are needed for the remaining 1%.

That said, I am not quite sure it's releasable. More specifically, I need clarification on licensing:

• OpenXcom and derivatives are under GPL v3.
  
  If I package Snug Assortment of Little Things like X-Piratez, adding a user folder for the master mod, is the entire package now considered a derivative and under GPL v3?
  
  Note, I would not be compiling OpenXcom at all, just adding a user folder.
  
• (Once again) OpenXcom and derivatives are under GPL v3.
  
  Are included mods like Aliens_Pick_Up_Weapons and Limit_Craft_Item_Capacities under GPL v3?
• Snug Assortment of Little Things is a master mod.
  
  To make sure everything meshes, required first-party and third-party mods are bundled with appropriately adjusted metadata.yml files. There is a clear distinction between these mods in the file hierarchy:
  
  
  Spoiler:

  %HOMEPATH%\Documents\OpenXcom\mods\
  ├───[OpenXcom]_Aliens_Pick_Up_Weapons
  ├───[OpenXcom]_Limit_Craft_Item_Capacities
  ├───[OpenXcom]_TFTD_Damage
  ├───[OpenXcom]_UFOextender_Gun_Melee
  ├───[OpenXcom]_UFOextender_Psionic_Line_Of_Fire
  ├───[SALT]_Snug_Assortment_of_Little_Things
  │   ├───LastRuleset
  │   │   ├───Purchasing_and_Building_are_More_Complex
  │   │   └───Research_and_Manufacturing_are_More_Complex
  │   └───Ruleset
  │       ├───Aliens_Base_Invaders_Understand_Futility
  │       ├───Alien_Containment_Requires_Research
  │       ├───Alien_Items_Do_Not_Get_Phased_Out
  │       ├───Alien_Pacts_Are_Not_Forever
  │       ├───Armor_Conforms_to_Ufopedia
  │       ├───Base_Defense_Systems
  │       ├───Base_Defense_System_Response_Make_a_Difference
  │       ├───Country_Funding_Equalized
  │       ├───Coveralls_Described_in_Ufopedia
  │       ├───Craft_Speeds
  │       ├───Craft_Weapons_Balanced_on_a_Linear_Distribution
  │       ├───Difficulty_Level_Affects_Sell_Prices
  │       ├───Difficulty_Level_Starts_on_Veteran
  │       ├───Geoscape_Expanded
  │       ├───Handheld_Elerium-Based_Weapons_are_Heavier
  │       ├───Handling_Two-Handed_Weapons_With_One_Hand_is_Heavily_Penalized
  │       ├───Laser_Weapons_Balanced_Againist_Plasma
  │       ├───Plasma_Beams_Consume_Elerium
  │       ├───Promotions_Cost_Money
  │       ├───Promotions_Take_Time
  │       ├───Psionic_Skill_Affects_Devices_and_Weapons
  │       ├───Rank_Affects_the_Power_of_Handheld_Weapons
  │       ├───Region_Costs_Increased
  │       ├───Sectopods_Use_Lasers
  │       ├───Solider_Stats_Balanced_on_a_Linear_Distribution
  │       ├───Standard_Rockets_Shots_and_Weights_Adjusted
  │       ├───Standard_Weapons_Shots_Adjusted
  │       ├───Start_a_Few_Months_Earlier
  │       ├───Stunning_Affects_Morale
  │       └───UFO_Detection_Systems
  ├───[Various]_Accuracy_Penalty_When_Flying_by_Kzer-Za
  ├───[Various]_Armed_Civilians_by_Hobbes
  ├───[Various]_Celebrate_Diversity_by_Solarius_Scorch
  ├───[Various]_Chryssalid_Zombification_Doesn't_Always_Succeed_by_Dioxine
  ├───[Various]_Expanded_Terror_Reworked_by_hellrazor
  ├───[Various]_Expanded_Ubase_Reworked_by_hellrazor
  ├───[Various]_Extra_Explosions_by_Starving_Poet_&_Arathanor
  ├───[Various]_Improved_Hand_Objects_by_IvanDogovich
  ├───[Various]_Moar_Zer0_by_Solarius_Scorch
  ├───[Various]_Outworldy_Physics_by_Hobbes
  ├───[Various]_Self_Medkit_Use_by_N7Kopper
  ├───[Various]_UFOpaedia-friendly_Celatid_by_Kzer-Za
  ├───[Various]_UFO_Vanilla_Variants_by_hellrazor
  └───[Various]_Woundable_Reaper_by_Kzer-Za
  The mods folder is a meta-project/meta-repository (not a real project/repository as you cannot really license empty files) as such, the original license of each individual mod is respected:
  
  
  • OpenXcom mods under GPL v3 (??)
  • SALT project under ?? (I haven't decided yet....)
  • Various mods under ?? (Not all of them have licenses and would require some followups...)
  
  right?

Spoiler alert: I know anyone who replies regarding this section is probably not a copyright lawyer and that I should seek an actual lawyer for legal advice. I am just asking to gauge the waters and if it's too much of a hassle... oh well.

Forget the legalities for a bit, give us some details about the mod!

First-party mods are self-explanatory and are what I believe should objectively be in the base game.

Third-party mods are self-explanatory and are what I believe should subjectively be in the base game.

Second-party mods are more biased in intentions and could benefit from explanations. The emphasis is 99% on each mod being "a lightweight yet comprehensive canon-friendly overhaul". A summary of what was done is included at the top of each mod's metadata.yml file. For instance...

Craft_Speeds:

Spoiler:

Code: [Select]

#
# In the base game (xcom1) the Lightning is slower than the Firestorm,
# giving yet another reason not to use it.
#
# We flip the speeds and adjust the acceleration values shown in UFOpaedia
# (the latter which also affects the disengagement speed in piloted crafts).

Craft_Weapons_Balanced_on_a_Linear_Distribution:

Spoiler:

Code: [Select]

#
# In the base game (xcom1) some craft weapons either do too little damage
# or too much.
#
# We balance damage and accuracy on a linear distribution
# with increased minimums and decreased maximums,
# however, we peg range to UFO size.
#
# We reduce reload times where continuous fire is expected.
#
# We split craft weapons into types to delay planned obsolescence.
#
# We give every craft a built-in cannon as a measure of last resort.

I can also do likewise for the other second-party mods (as I'd like general feedback on the balance decisions I made) but does anyone even read these walls of texts?

References:

• [RULES] Modest Rebalance
• [UFO MEGAMOD] Reaver's Faithful Megamod
• [UFO] Ramikin Rebalance
• exponential difficulty
• General XCom balance
• Reaver's Rebalance
• Vanilla Rebalanced - nothing is added, but everything is different!
• Weapons and Craft rebalance

[Hobbes]

That said, I am not quite sure it's releasable. More specifically, I need clarification on licensing:

• OpenXcom and derivatives are under GPL v3.
  
  If I package Snug Assortment of Little Things like X-Piratez, adding a user folder for the master mod, is the entire package now considered a derivative and under GPL v3?

Yes, if the license requires you to release any derivatives under the same license, such as GPL v3. The question is if the original mod is respecting the original licenses of all the content it includes.

For instance, you cannot take non-commercial content released under CC-NC licenses and use them in GPL releases (which allow commercial uses) - you're breaking the terms of the original NC license. Or you also cannot take copyrighted content and include it on a GPL release without the consent of its original authors.

Note, I would not be compiling OpenXcom at all, just adding a user folder.
[/li]

[li](Once again) OpenXcom and derivatives are under GPL v3.

Are included mods like Aliens_Pick_Up_Weapons and Limit_Craft_Item_Capacities under GPL v3?[/li][/list]

OpenXCom's GPL license only applies to the files required to run it and included on its package. Or derivatives of OXC like OpenXCom Extended.

If a mod does not have any license (GPL, Creative Commons, etc.) then default is that the copyright belongs to the respective author(s).

If the mod does not contain a open source license such as GPL or Creative Commons, then all copyright[/list]