End of an Era?
"You're doing it for all the wrong reasons."
"You're no real author."
"Take your mods and go away."
"You will be easily replaced. Your work is not unique."
"Your leaving will not be any loss."
"The more of you go the better this place will be."
...I guess I read it 1 too many times now. But I'm starting to see a pattern, I'm not seeing much else at all anymore, and I'm no longer feeling fine with what I see.
Last I was told these things in the Nexusmods Mod Authors section from a Wabbajack mod list author of all people, considering themselves a "part of the team", while simultaneously picking a fight with over a dozen of famous and high profile mod authors with much bigger, more important mods than mine, some of whom being pillars of the community for way longer than even my membership now.
But that's not the real problem. We have these guys regularly popping up and trying to stir the pot. They come and go, never really remain for long. Calling themselves authors and proclaiming how much more important they are than all those before them, yet they mostly don't even persist for more than a year in the modding scene, then give up or move away.
We even have some regulars with longer standing memberships, who quickly side with these people every time, as they long ago realized they're in the minority over there, so they only act in support of others trying the same now. Their names are known, their actions on a list, nothing much about it, nothing -new- especially.
There's been times where "showcases" of mods under the false guise of "reviews" on Youtube for instance were valued higher than the mods they showcased. And authors not wanting their mods to be showcased by the Youtubers, making money from the ads and subscriptions btw., some even mixed in with sex mods to make (child) followers somehow sleepable with and yet worse things, were sent droves of supporters of the Youtuber attacking them for even daring to consider a DMCA step to self-protect. Don't underestimate the numbers by what you remember yourselves. Most of it was hidden by moderation before it was even seen.
The right or ability to "trash talk" (again mislabeled as a review) authors' mods on other sites, using their copyright protected media and everything against them, was valued higher than the actual work reviewed. Even entire platforms for such reviews, without violating any terms and without any means or rights for authors to protect their works, shot up from the ground and were again valued much higher than the mods they were made for.
Then came automation, 1-click mod installs, tools that download whole lists of mods from their original sources, in order again to not violate any terms or copyrights, and install them in an order considered to be correct for almost all of its users, if such a thing is even technically possible with the game in question. The tool, Wabbajack, may have its merits technically, but its introduction was again less than stellar. Its creator basically came to the authors' place with an announcement boiling down to "na na na, I can do all I want with your mods now, as I'm using the API and thus not breaking any terms. Stomp with your feet in protest all you want, it's now here to stay". And what shouldn't come as a surprise, its so-called supporters also rallied the authors for their legitimate and ignored concerns again in droves. Those evil people standing in the way of their mods getting more exposure, how dare they? Doing it all for the wrong reasons, of course. Ever since then I always get a sour taste whenever I read the tool's name brought up anywhere, albeit the tool itself of course having some merit.
Now, again, this is all things that "have been", nothing new, nothing extraordinary. These things apparently just belong to the job. But their number and the number of such... incidents seemingly just keeps rising endlessly over the years. And every time again and again we free sharing mod authors are shown how little folks value us or our work, how much fun it is to spit on our wishes and ignore our requests, how little actual appreciation there is left for what we share, even if we never ask for a single thing.
But what really puts me down is when I then follow the links they post to some discussions towards the same topics on Reddit, and similar places I otherwise wouldn't even get into vicinity of, and find droves of mod users openly in support of what they say, telling everybody what evil people we are, how egotistical mod authors are in general for wanting some interaction with the people using their mods, how time has moved on to better systems/situations and us authors are just too "dinosaur" to follow along, how we should all get lost and how none of our mods would even be missed, because there's a whole invisible army just waiting to take our places, with the exact same ideas and the exact same skills we got, or how every big or important mod out there would or should have multiple replacements done by better authors, just in case one of us throws a fit and removes their mods, and then a backup for the backups, probably, too, for people can change minds.
Don't get me wrong. This, again, has been the case for several years now and is, again, nothing really new. These people exist. They're part of the modding game. And their numbers will only increase... unless of course the number of free sharing authors reduces to an amount even they will have a problem with, but that's just wishful thinking. They'll never learn or understand what it means that they support.
No, the real actual issue is... "there's nobody else out there anymore".
Yes, I know that's wrong. These... people aren't even the majority by a long shot. I know that, we know that, everybody knows that, but... How long can you keep telling yourself that, when there's practically "0" support coming from users into your own direction? They practically don't even exist anymore, only on a theoretical level still you could say. You don't see "anybody" speaking in your support. And that's what gets to you... quicker or slower, doesn't matter, at one point it will, to everyone, even me.
For 15 years now I'm making and publishing mods, making resources or scripts for other's mods, supporting my released mods, and helping folks around with mod using or making issues of all kinds for this game, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, my personal favorite of all time so far. Granted, mine are only niche mods, beast races cosmetics for starters and my own anthropomorphic dragons as the culmination of my goals, so they will indeed "not really be missed" by most, but still they had their fair share of interested and satisfied users over all the years.
I think now the time finally has come for this to be even officially coming to an end. The public releases that is, neither my creating mods for myself nor the support of my released mods or the generally helping people around with all things I can help them with, sharing all the knowledge I possess. This is something I just can't help but keep doing as long as there's still force of life running through my veins, part of my nature, if you like.
Oh, but "I'm" the evil person here, let's not forget.
Now, before anybody thinks I let "them" win by this, no, far from it. My decision to officially announce this is only in part, probably even only a small part, based on these growing uneasy feelings of mine in response to this... development of the scene. But they don't help, of course. No, the main reason is I've finally come to terms with reality... I don't see myself getting the time to continue any of my projects anymore again. Though even if I was, or would at any point in the far future again, the primary reason for me to share was always very simple: "I was asked." - With this the moment I released the mod its page had already served its whole purpose. The people who wanted it got it, job done.
Leaving it up for others to find my mods in future was always just a bonus benefit. New people coming to my pages, joining my conversations, giving me feedback and helping me improve my mods. That is the sole reason why I keep my mod pages up afterwards. The last years already any and all feedback to the in-progress pictures I shared has more and more ceased. Now, this could be coming from the game, Oblivion, being way beyond its prime time already and there no longer being many/any folks around using its mods, though I also know that's not the case.
And now, with the introduction of mass-download tools circumventing the individual mod pages to serve the mods out of a black box, the number of people visiting the pages will become even less. Yes, I know, supporters argument these people wouldn't ever come to your pages in the first place, but... Everybody believing even for a split-second that the introduction of a tool to automate the whole process by just eliminating the author from the chain would "not" mean reduced visits to authors' pages... well, I don't know in what reality "they" live, but it's not this one.
And last but not least, the reason for me sharing my mods in the first place... The truth of the whole situation is, I'm no longer being asked to begin with. So even if I could still continue my modding, without people asking I won't share. So I guess I can consider myself lucky seemingly nobody appears to be interested in it anymore. Else I would have to disappoint them, if my free time won't allow for another release.
But yeah... Now you know my mind. At least "this" I can still share.
Me or my mods definitely won't be missed, says everybody. And I can basically "see" the whole army of much better skilled authors than me waiting to jump in and make my work leagues better than I did and with much more open terms... you know, more open than asking to be told of an intended use in another mod in advance with my answer always being a resounding "yes" plus an offer of support, if issues come up... Or, no, I don't, not really, no. Sorry, just can't see it, no matter how often I'm told.
Status Report
First of all, I'm still alive. Well, that was not much of a surprise. I have been through quite some health issues recently, and am still not exactly done, but I'm doing fine enough right now, and that is all that counts, isn't it? My current work schedule still doesn't allow for much, but from time to time I'm getting/taking a little of such and put it into making some progress with my current modding projects.
Speaking of which, it's not at all exactly the same you might remember from years ago anymore either.
Argonian Beautification is on hold, and likely going to be for quite a while to come.
Scripted Argonian Feet is more or less the same, but I have some new thing cooking which might just change the whole concept in its core as well. More about that towards the end of the report.
Drake's Anthro-Dragon Race is more or less on hold currently, although at last I made a lot of progress in regards to the new wings and the overall reworked anatomy of my dragons. The meshes were completely redone, and the textures also received a heavy work-over, mainly provided by Terreflare of course. A few pics show more than a thousand words, so have some here:
Taking a different route about the previously used wing hump and the connection of the wing arms to the upperbody this time I happened across an image in Blender that fueled an idea, and born it was, the wearable Wyvern Suit design:
(Never mind the body suit Drake's wearing in these. I was still primarily play-testing with a Half-Dragon race I designed, and instead of showing partly-bare skin in these putting him into the suit that's sporting his own colors and equipping his head as a wearable helmet was the much better idea.)
Speaking of which, I lately got the crazy idea to create a kind of wing suit for Drake and others to wear. I called it the Skyguard Armor, resembling assets worn by the Airborne Rangers type of fighters aboard the airships in the story realm of mine. The Skyguard is not only manning the airships though, but back in the ancient times they were also consisting of dragon riders even as well. The non-dragon members among them, without wings to fly, were wearing a wing suit to this purpose as well as a glider at times. They use the dragons they ride or the airships to carry them into their drop zone, then they jump and dive deep down at extremely high velocity. This makes for efficient surprise attacks on hard to reach on ground targets, or easy deployment of large squads in combat zones without the enemy knowing.
The Wing Suit came first:
Skydiving in Style - picture series link
The Glider soon after:
Glideanim - animated GIF
The Skyguard Armor advanced:
The design turned into scaled:
Options became more casual as well:
(You can also see more details of the Half-Dragon race I mentioned here.)
I mixed it with my Guardian Equipment, creating yet more options to choose:
And last but not least, different color schemes to round it off:
White
White-Red-Black (The Heart-Of-Fire airship crew's theme)
Black-Blue-Skyblue (The Naval Military's theme)
Red-Brown-Golden (Drake's theme, doh^^)
Talking of the Heart-Of-Fire, a Draconic Frigate, the flag-ship of the Draconic Navy, again from an occurrence in the story of mine, a little side-project was born. She's a Trimaran mainly, both engine-driven and with sails, capable of both, high-speed ocean cruising as well as flight. I'm not sure the ship will truly make it into the game, but nevertheless once in a while I just can't help and continue building away at it:
Its latest iteration has not yet made it into the game, nevertheless it made impressive progress all the same:
Video Turntable - even more recent version of design with completely redesigned deck, transformation phase from sail ship to airship, sails folding in, masts turning down, sails turning into wings, wings folding out
Back to the Wing Glider you might have seen it necessitated the creation of my long-planned Gliding Flight approach finally all the more. Heavy scripting and lot's of math, aero-dynamics, thermo-dynamics, approximations thereof for the limited unrealistic game, and of course a whole new set of fitting flight animations went into it, but the results, I think, are speaking for themselves. And while I was at it creating animations for the glider, so everybody can glide with, winged races or not, I also got around to do the same again for custom races with wings, supporting all wing bone structures in skeletons I was aware of. My own Anthro-Dragons, of course, as well as all races/mods based on them, Alexander's Wings based animated wings, as well as all races based on these, VipCxJ's Air Fight System, a rather famous framework doing the same, and again all races based on this, races of DivineAvenger's creation and even Selene's cool new WoW based Abyss Demon race, should all be supported the same.
Unlike other approaches the gliding flight approach is about exactly that, it's gliding mainly, with an occasional flap of the wings per the push of a button, no "air walking" at all anymore like all the others do. My main point of inspiration was the way flight worked in "The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon", but of course I had to compromise for the game and expand on it to fit my needs. It's working quite well so far, just a few remaining game-engine limitation bugs to squish left (momentum-based air movement physics completely subsiding with increasing skill of Acrobatics for example is one of them), and it's conceptualized in a way so every other mod/race can make use of it just as well, including configuration file based definition of what items can be used as gliders, as well as race folder based possibility to provide replacement/override animations per race and tell the framework which races can fly on their own and which can't.
Not really looking organic or like a dragon much? I agree, and already started reworking the animations all over again to get them more to my liking and believable:
The animations are half done by now and the scripts still need more work, but I think it's safe to say "I'm getting there".
The Nirnroot Creature side-project I needn't necessarily tell of, rigging those all-too-well-known plants to a creature skeleton to effectively turn the famous "Nirnroot Hunting" business into "Nirnroots Hunting You":
Don't incautiously pick a Nirnroot ever again, or the Nirnroots might just go picking on You.
While the big ones prefer submerging under ground, looking exactly like the static plants while preparing their attack, the little ones can also fly, or rather yet they helicopter around the area like the flying drone of Aimee from the movie Red Planet. You'll hear them rattle in the bushes around you, but whenever you think you saw something and turn towards its direction, the thing will be completely elsewhere already and you'll never know when they come to hit you or from where.
Nirnrootflying - animated GIF
This project is currently more or less on hold as well, as I got in over my head with all the game features I planned and cannot finish it the way I planned anymore in a timely fashion. But I plan to release it at one point nevertheless, for it's a really fun project and it'd be a shame for it to remain unreleased.
And last but not least I'm going the same way as with the Gliding Flight approach with my bodypart control scripts as used in my Anthro-Dragon Race and Scripted Argonian Feet. I am already designing the concept of Drake's Bodypart Control Framework to be used as a master by both my own mods for the task as well as simple little compatibility plugins created to introduce control over other races as well, custom or not.
Drake's Anthro-Dragon Race will therefore be stripped of its body control scripting and make use of the new framework instead once it's released. The same will go for Scripted Argonian Feet and the remaining mod will concentrate solely on providing the adapted items and meshes I, and others, designed.
Thanks to Shademe and a new coming Blockhead release with equipment control functionality included the framework will be able to do exactly the same as my Anthro-Dragon Race's scripts are currently doing but better so and with lesser discomforting drawbacks as well. I will make everything INI file driven, so adding of another race to the collection is only a matter of putting an INI file into its folder instructing the framework what rules apply for the race and having according race name based folders at hand containing the bodypart meshes for when nude as well as adapted files for as much equipment items as one can provide, my "replacer templates" approach for not yet adapted items will be supported as well.
In the first iteration once I'm done with the framework itself I plan to provide support (and plugins) for my own Anthro-Dragon Race as well as Scripted Argonian Feet, like I said, but I'll also make sure the famous KATS, Khajiit Anatomical Transformation System, doing the same as my SAF does for Argonians just for Khajiiti, will be supported as well, just eliminating the need for its plugin but keeping its NIF files and using them through my framework just the way they are, and while I'm at it I'll of course make sure Tiffawolf's Wolven Anthros and the few existing adapted items for it will get the exact same treatment.
Quite ambitious, I know, but I'm still seeing possibility of getting it all done. After all, scripting is my primary art style when it comes to modding, and I'm really having fun doing it. Still it will take time of course to get stuff done, and I can't really tell when I'll have the time to get around to doing it all. But those who know me will also know by now my projects are never really aborted, and delayed means only delayed, they will make progress eventually, and a release is not a matter of impossibility but only a question of time.
Oh well, we'll see.
Now, my, that is quite a number of images, and all of them are only from inside my stash. But the same thing delaying my projects and modding endeavors is also preventing me from getting around to do real new deviations instead. Quickly uploading my screenshots to stash was all I got, so linking to them in stash is what I'll do. There will be new true deviations in future eventually... I just for the life of me can't tell when that will be.
In other news nothing out of the ordinary has happened. Business as usual is just as it's usual. Status Report completed. Drake the Dragon returning to duty.
(Nevermind the water issues on the right. I'm using Oblivion Reloaded for my game since recently, and it seems my virtual machine's graphics card uses a depth buffer that cannot be obtained by Alenet's plugin.)
DeviantArtist Questionnaire
How long have you been on DeviantArt?
5 years, 2 months and 7 days now. Though I've been a silent admirer and lurker here already for years before I began finally giving something back.
What does your username mean?
Drake the Dragon is the protagonist of a story of mine I came up with in my dreams many, many years ago and until recently have been continuing every night and sometimes also during the day. He's also become the main character in almost every video game RPG I played since then, and in games where modding is possible I also tried to recreate him inside the game as close to the story as possible. First sub-chapters of the story can be found inside my deviations and it's almost impossible to miss diverse random pictures of Drake in whatever environment and context while browsing my gallery. Believe it or not, it's not taken from Dragonheart 2 the movie, and I was rather surprised to find the name used in it as well when I watched it the first time. Must be because the name isn't actually a name but a term rather, describing some sub-species of dragon, so it's a general use thing. The -1980 part though was because the name itself was already taken and I was told to add a number. I chose my birth year.
Describe yourself in three words.
Imaginative, open-minded, over-protective (of others) - well, there's more, like universally technically-skilled, empathic/understanding, sharing (especially my knowledge), and yes, a little lazy also, but those 3 are the most prevalent, I guess.
Are you left or right handed?
Right handed.
What was your first deviation?
Going by my gallery it's "The Guardian", which is coming by surprise now, as this is actually a rather later work of mine, but I think it's because when I first started a gallery here I was just uploading years old pieces of mine to sort of create a development documentation timeline, and this one among them made for a fine ID back then. This is one of the early self-made 3D models of, your guessed it, Drake, and his custom playable race for The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, one of my favorites, because it's actually the first game ever where I succeeded to create something coming really close to how Drake and his dragons really are as a playable race, and so far I haven't found any other race I could have modded to the same extent and am still interested in the story and gameplay enough to play it. The pose just "came over me" when I started playing around with the models and how they bend in Blender, but in hindsight it's rather fitting.
What is your favourite type of art to create?
I don't consider myself an artist, really, as the pictures I create are mostly comprised of screenshots or renders which I then took apart in a painting app and recombine their pieces to create something new. The modeling, texturing, lately also animating, and primarily scripting work I'm mainly doing "can" be considered art, of course, but in my own case I wouldn't dare comparing the quality of mine to any "real" artist's creations in that context. I'm just dabbling around in this genre. And I don't possess any other artistic skills worth mentioning than that.
If you could instantly master a different art style, what would it be?
I would really love to be able to "draw" what's in my mind like all the wonderfully talented artists hanging around here, maybe also digitally and coloring it, but honestly, a simple pencil drawing would suffice already. Don't get me wrong, I can do sketches and such, I'm rather good sketching technical things, everything edged and geometrical, anything but round or smooth bodies or, god beware, something living or biological. My art teachers in school said I've got talent, when they saw my drawings of technical things, machines, structures, whole cityscapes, spacecrafts and the like, but I never managed to make anything of it ever since.
What was your first favourite?
It appears it was this one:
(if the Favourites timeline is anything to go by)I don't know. Back then I was primarily browsing dA galleries on the search for inspiration. I'm getting the best ideas while looking at the art of others. And this isn't like "ah, that's good, I'd need to do the same", or "ah, I could use that in work" or anything along that line, really. No, my mind actually starts racing, flooding me with pictures, imaginations, ideas, all these random thoughts you later create the best piece you ever came up with so far from, whenever I look at the images of others. So I'm browsing galleries of artists and my mind starts working again, mainly. When I actually take something out of them and put it into my favorites, then I either liked it so much that I wanted to keep it, maybe also give sort of a thumbs-up by giving it a
, or I was inspired that much of it as a single piece that I consider it a useful reference I need to keep quick access to for later. The first gallery I was browsing through in the intent of selecting pieces for my Favourites it seems was my good friend tiffawolf's, and this was the first piece I found. It's interesting how much looking at it right now makes my mind flood with ideas again, pictures popping up, stories are forming, this white wolf especially makes my imagination go crazy!
What type of art do you tend to favourite the most?
I'm not looking at the type, I'm only interested in the content. For example when I watch an anime nowadays, or play a video game (ha ha, how much I miss playing games already), it's not really the images I'm interested in, or the gameplay, it's the story!
Who is your all-time favourite deviant artist?
I met a lot of interesting people and made quite some new friends during my time here on dA so far, but I'm definitely not going to play favorites with my friends or the people I'm looking up to.
If you could meet anyone on DeviantArt in person, who would it be?
I'm not much the type for meetings in person. I may always have enjoyed it afterwards so far, and definitely would've missed something, if I hadn't done it, in the end, but I'm still not exactly fond of the idea or feeling fine with going out and meeting people, to do, yeah, what exactly again?, whenever it comes up. I may be very social when among people, if not a little too silent and hard to notice I'm even there at all, but I'm not actually "socializing" much in any way.
How has a fellow deviant impacted your life?
A lot of people I met here have helped me a lot with ideas, honest feedback, cooperations even sometimes, and now and then there's even some personal, private talk with those I consider to be friends on here. If it weren't for the people liking my work apparently enough to give me their honest thoughts about it and share their ideas with me, may I call them followers or loyal fans even?, the things I created and shared with a public audience so far would've definitely been much less enjoyable to the masses, and certain problems I encountered along the way would've delayed my progress perhaps even infinitely sometimes.
What are your preferred tools to create art?
As I'm not an artist and the only artistic tasks I'm performing are modeling, texturing and animating, my weapons of choice are Blender, Paint.NET, and due to me modding a game as well, the NifSkope NIF file editor and the game's Construction Set.
What is the most inspirational place for you to create art?
I'm not using places for inspiration. I'm using what I see, hear, and sometimes even smell, everything which makes my imagination go crazy again while experiencing it. The place I "am" creating what I create at though is my room, where there's my desktop and my PC. I'm sleeping in that place, eating breakfast and evening meals, sometimes even lunch as well, working from home for my job, and watching TV when work time's over, only to go to bed again in that place at the end of the night when work is done... not exactly many "places" to choose from to begin with.
What is your favourite DeviantArt memory?
My memory's not that great, or a good one even, and I was having quite some enjoyable times within the last 5 years here on dA, so it'd be hard to choose, even if I "did" remember specific ones still. Repeatedly seeing a lot of people think alike on rather critical topics (art theft, copyright, mutual respect in online communities, etc.) though has always worked in favor of me still feeling welcome and at home around here definitely. It's not so much myself or my own work I'm concerned about here though, I actually couldn't care less about the things I shared publicly or what people fling at me behind a not-as-thick-as-they-might-like-it-to-be wall of internet-anonymity, but who does it to me will also do it to others, people I'm caring for and looking up to even, and this is when it becomes a problem and things "will" get nasty.
----
Hmm, and it seems I missed another term characteristic of me up there in point 3: "Wall of Text"! Seriously, it was only simple questions and here I am writing a novel in response. Perhaps I'm not really talkative in person, but when online posting in forums and the like it seems you better not get me started, or I'll write you essays about my mind with absolutely no end in sight!
Oh, well, that was that then. Now, give me that badge and we're done here!
Ah, and, Happy Birthday, deviantArt! Here's to the next 15 years! Keep doing what you do and it'll be pleasant times ahead of us.
Mod Theft
Right now we're having a situation at the Steam Workshop which the community decided is no longer bearable. The Skyrim section of the Steam Workshop currently is more or less a 'law-free' zone. Its own rules and EULA are not enforced at all. It's totally unmoderated at times, or at best horribly under-moderated by one single Bethesda official doing this job next to his real job and this is by far not enough. The amount of illegal game rips, which is a direct breach of Bethesda's own rules and copyright infringement on multiple accounts, and mods uploaded without the permission of their original creators, sometimes even knowingly against their will, or ripped apart and used in other mods uploaded to the Workshop without permission, giving credits to the original author or not, has skyrocketed lately and using the Steam Workshop's own "report" button so far has not led to any results.
The only way to get an unauthorized upload of one's hard work removed from the Workshop is to email the one Bethesda official in charge directly and it must be the original author doing so, nobody else! My condolences to those modders who left the scene long ago, leaving behind a simple line like "don't upload to anywhere else without my permission" in their readmes, believing this was enough, now having their hard work plundered and dissected with no way to stop it but to return to the modding scene themselves and complain about it in person. And even then this one single moderator can only remove the uploaded file. Nothing will stop the offender to upload it again a day after, and they do so.
Some thieves even got the gall to announce the mod authors stating such restrictions to re-use and distribution in their readmes would be violating Bethesda's EULA now, and they would have any right to do with the work however they please once it was released to the public! We all know this is utter nonsense and no EULA in the world can ever take your Intellectual Property rights away from you just by agreeing to it, but as the officials at Steam don't react to the incidents, the thieves take their opinion as confirmed and keep doing it.
More and more great modders I was looking up to since I joined the community years ago have had enough with the hassle now and simply stopped sharing or left the scene completely, and their numbers keep rising.
I myself dropped any plans to release mods for Skyrim I possibly might be creating in the far future, too, due to this. It's not that I'd care for the stuff I create and release. Far from it, and who knows me also knows this. But if it's no longer feeling right to share my work with the public, I have to act, and when it comes to my inner piece with things, I can be very selfish, too, sometimes. Right now it just isn't 'worth it' to me anymore. It just feels wrong to share under these conditions. I was told "When you can't live with this, maybe you shouldn't be releasing your mods to the public to begin with?" and I'm going to agree with them for now, and won't share anymore.
(As this is not a matter with Oblivion modding, nothing will change there. I will still try to keep my projects going and release everything I feel release-worthy, just as always.)
But I won't just stand back and watch the ongoing mod theft and the Exodus of top-class modders I've known and enjoyed the mods of which for years, only because Valve can't get their act together and enforce their own rules.
This is not against the Steam Workshop in general, far from it, as we're trying to improve the situation and make it a viable place to upload your mods to. But if an author expressly does not wish his or her mods uploaded anywhere else or used by anybody else in another mod without his or her express permission, and 'no' means 'no', this has to be obeyed to, or the place isn't worth it. There are ideas of self-made DRM (Digital Rights Management) measures in discussion, rendering your mods unusable with the Steam Workshop's subscription and one-click-install mechanism, so they can't be stolen and reuploaded there, but that's besides the point and only hurts the Workshop instead of improving it. But as negative as it may sound, to most authors this is a more welcome solution than the usual "The best way to prevent your mods from being uploaded without permission is to upload them yourself first, and all will win."-nonsense they regularly get to hear as an answer. If they don't want to, they have their reasons to, and it's their damn right to have their reasons to, and nobody's entitled to question them or disrespect their wishes and upload it anyways.
All fellow modders thinking alike put this on your page to get attention to this issue:
*** Support the rights of modders to publish as they see fit ***
*** Sign our wall to show support and help bring change ***
*** steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles… ***
All mod users or even Steam Workshop downloaders think about it and try to look at it from a mod author's point of view who just got robbed the work of his life and uploaded to a place outside of his reach without ever being even asked. Would you want to continue sharing your hard work, when you know that's what you get as a thanks? Keep in mind most modders aren't modding for You. If this entitlement and disrespect doesn't stop, you will loose them, and their mods.
Breaking The Silence
Even this one was never intended to be released in its current state and in itself is far out-dated already compared to what I have on my drive. I'm not one for releasing unfinished stuff full of flaws and bugs, but people kept begging me to at least release what I have so far, and when my laptop was on the verge of death and I was risking to loose all files with it, I didn't just upload them somewhere in-private but simply made it a complete official pre-beta release instead, exactly what people were asking for.
Actually this decision was a pain and the aftermath didn't help much either, and if it wasn't for the people enjoying it, I would've taken it down again already ages ago! I feel sorry for those not enjoying it, because there are so many bugs, the requirements are so strict, and the installation itself appears quite chaotic due to it never being finished up for release after all... me being horrible with manual installation instructions (or so I was told) doesn't help either. I just wish I could finally fix those most-annoying bugs at least or add in vital features which were missing for a far-too-long time now, but sadly there's still no way I could do that any time soon.
For several months now there's only working all night, sleeping all day (I know it's supposed to be the other way 'round and it's quite unhealthy this way, but it doesn't help) and most likely due to this unhealthy way of living through the day I got no free time at all whatsoever. I couldn't even go and buy a new pc, yet, although I've got far more than enough money already for a way-beyond-high-end system! Heck, I don't even get around to finish university, much to my family's dismay! But I have to admit, after the loss of my father things somewhat lost their relevance to me. I don't know... Yet "I" am still here, and I need to do a living, somehow... and that's definitely not skipping university only 2 oral exams before diploma!
Ah, well, I'm glad I got at least those images posted, and hopefully will be able to do so again some time in the near future. Creating things and letting my imagination play helps a lot against the dull feeling all around me. If just I could do more like this!