[Unknown Target]

Hey everyone. For those of you who don't frequent ModDB, I'd like to introduce Desura, a digital distribution system for mods and indie games;
http://www.desura.com/

I urge the Freespace community to please visit the thread here;

http://www.moddb.com/groups/desura/forum/thread/freespace-2

...and voice their support for getting Freespace added to this network, and, while that process is ongoing, begin submitting completed or semi completed Freespace mods to their network.

As I said on the other thread;

Also, the game is available on gog.com, so I'm assuming that it may be relatively easy to acquire the ability to sell the game on Desura.

I believe that this would benefit both communities greatly; Desura gets a legendary game, AND the sum total of ten years of modding development, and the Freespace and space simming community gets a much larger outlet.

Thoughts?

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Is this even compatible with the source licensing? 

[headdie]

Is this even compatible with the source licensing? 

looking over things it looks to be a steam style store and content manager so I don't see a licensing issue so long as the appropriate people get paid (like with GoG) and FSO is available as a separate mod

http://www.desura.com/groups/desura/howto

Desura is a release platform and not meant for development. If your game or mod is more than a month or so away from completion then it will not be approved. Desura does however have features to help assist in beta testing. So if you are up to this stage feel free to shoot us an email.

Games must be up to par. We don’t expect you to have a AAA masterpiece up your sleeve (though if you do that’s great!). However we want Desura to deliver the best up and coming and current games/mods available. Ensure your game or mod is appealing, fun to play and stands out from the crowd. If you’re not sure, then take advantage of the ModDB and IndieDB communities and get advice on how to improve your project.

Given the nature of the community and the informal way of releases here I don't think this system would be the best route for the community to take, the publicity and I presume simplicity of installation would benefit the average newbie but I worry that there will be the risk of a situation where only major mods like BP will be distributable over the system. 

Another issue I see is that new players might not find out how useful Hard-Light is, for example I have steam and though I have an account on their forums I hardly ever log in (usually only because I have a problem and want to see if it has been reported by anyone else) and I wonder how many of the user of this system would be the same.

any how that's my 2 pennies worth

[Unknown Target]

Desura has nothing to do with Steam - it's owned and run by ModDB.

headdie, there's nothing formal about the requirements for release - you can find a tutorial for it here;
http://www.moddb.com/groups/desura/tutorials/publishing-on-desura

And I don't see anything wrong with, as you admit yourself;

the publicity and I presume simplicity of installation would benefit the average newbie

- which will mean more content, people, and exposure for Freespace. Meanwhile, as to your concern of large mods monopolizing this - it's basically ModDB but with a really slick installer package. This means that virtually any mod can be submitted, the only requirements that ModDB has are that it has to have one team member and a web page, if I remember correctly.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Right from the page you linked:

For free games this means making sure that the content is free of licensing issues (please check third party library's) and able to run from its own folder.

It does not give specifics about their license though. 

Also there is this:

Our Checklist

The first few points which we judge a game or mod on are easy, i.e. is your game legal and working:

    * Non-pornographic / illegal
    * Own full rights (i.e. no copyrights of others breached)
    * Bug free (mostly, release date is set)

The full rights part would most likely prevent any FS2 mod from releasing.  The file formats (pof, tbl, vp, etc) are owned by interplay. 

[Unknown Target]

Well if they're owned by Interplay, they're pretty screwed now because the source code has been out for ten years, with all of those model formats included.
The CONTENT of the models is all licensed and we can't distribute it, but we're free to distribute campaigns and whatnot.

Besides, it's not like ALL the Source mods on there somehow have rights to the Source assets they use. It really is a moot point.

[Spoon]

I honestly believe that HLP is the most anal mod community on the internet when it comes to legal bull****. 

[headdie]

I think it's a case of the majority of us don't want to have interplay to set their legal ninjas on us if we can avoid it

[Black Wolf]

I think it's a case of the majority of us don't want to have interplay to set their legal ninjas on us if we can avoid it

I doubt they ould afford any legal ninjas ATM, to be honest.

[Unknown Target]

I think it's a case of the majority of us don't want to have interplay to set their legal ninjas on us if we can avoid it

Because they'd totally do that...now. For some reason. As opposed to the past ten years, like when we were distributing FS2 itself as abandonware. Or when GoG.com bought it and started selling it and linking to this site for mods.

[Bobboau]

I think this could be one of the bigger moments in FS modding history, a proper distribution/update system has long been one of the biggest hurtles that FS modding has had. as long as the original FS gets put on this system this could be huge.

[lodle2]

Hey Guys,

My name is Mark and im the lead developer of Desura. The licencing issue is more directed at using IP owned by other company's (for example my mod GoldeneEye Source uses MGM Bond IP). Besides that it should be fine to host on Desura (and we are looking at adding all mods).

To get started send an email to support[at]desura[dot]com.

Ill be happy to answer any other questions you might have.

Mark

P.S. The "verification" on the forums is way over the top and it will prob cause people to leave and not register.

[Scotty]

The 'verification' is due to a recent case of heavy botspam and is probably a temporary measure.

[lodle2]

I had to register 2 accounts cause my first one didnt work. I run the GES forums on SMF (but havnt updated to RC4) and we dont get much bot spam. Maybe the bots forgot about RC2

[General Battuta]

We should definitely keep an eye on the verification issue.

[The E]

At any rate, regarding Desura, it is my personal opinion that if we can get FS2/FSO supported, we should. For one, it would make distributing the content we can currently deliver via the installer easier and more streamlined.

[General Battuta]

I sent the requested email to desura support.

[Unknown Target]

Hey Lodle, glad to hear from someone on the Desura team.

So what could we as a community do to help get FS2 on Desura/mods launching from it? I know Freespace has some things about installing mods (I'm specifically talking about our "Select Mod" Launcher settings)...will any of that cause a problem? Or should we just start talking to the mods hosted here about getting their stuff on your service?

[Mobius]

Posted on that ModDB thread.

[General Battuta]

Hey Lodle, glad to hear from someone on the Diaspora team.

So what could we as a community do to help get FS2 on Diaspora/mods launching from it? I know Freespace has some things about installing mods (I'm specifically talking about our "Select Mod" Launcher settings)...will any of that cause a problem? Or should we just start talking to the mods hosted here about getting their stuff on your service?

Think you meant Desura?