>> RULES for: GSB2 Modding Galaxy. • Read before posting •

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[size=115]A big “hello” to everyone who has found their way to this game and to this forum!
Welcome to Gratuitous Space Battles 2’s[/size]

[size=135]––> MODDING GALAXY <––[/size]

This forum is where ALL discussions will be located concerning player-made, customized, modded game content based upon what is any part of GSB2 (by definition, official content), or intended to function anywhere inside of GSB2.

That subject extends across the following specific aspects of modding:

creation;
design;
construction;
balance;
playtesting;
sharing;
feedback, especially critique (discerning the value of things).


[size=115]General User Conduct on all GSB2 forums[/size]
Read this before you post

A. ) If necessary, additional and/or more detailed all-forums rules will be posted at a future date.
B. ) However, until that time you are all expected to simply be guided by these two overall principles : use GOOD judgement BEFORE you post, and behave yourselves in ways that really should be super-obvious to everyone.
C. ) Those principles also include — making all of your posts constructive and helpful; promoting good content instead of bad content; staying on topic when you post; no swearing/obscenity/vulgarity; no sexual content of any kind; no inflating your post-count via one-liners or other wasteful garbage; don’t comment on someone else breaking a rule and/or being penalized for it; don’t do anything unwise; and so forth.
D. ) Violations of the principles will be taken seriously. Do not make the mistake of thinking you can casually break these without consequences.


[size=175]ADDITIONAL RULES for this specific forum :[/size]
Read this before you post

[size=115]1. ) Do not make threads about GSB2 mods in any other GSB2 forum except for this one.[/size]

A. ) Making a very infrequent single post about modding on another GSB2 forum is okay, but ONLY IF your modding-themed post is somehow highly relevant to whatever is the subject of the topic you are posting in.

B. ) Do not use that kind of post to take over a thread on another GSB2 forum, or to cause the thread to go even more off-topic than it may have been already.

C. ) Do not create completely new threads about modding subjects outside of the GSB2 Modding Galaxy forum.

[size=115]2. ) User Conduct[/size]

A. ) This forum is not an after-school social club. This forum is not a baby-sitting service. It does not exist solely as something for you to kick over when you are bored.

B. ) [size=110]This forum is also NOT a containment tank for spamming, trolling, lulz, drama, sexual stuff, vulgarity, obscenity and ANY other kind of stupidity.[/size]

C. ) Bascially, all forms of crap-posting are prohibited. If you want to indulge in pointless garbage instead of productive modding discussion, take it to another website that doesn’t care about mindless crap-posting. Examples are: SomethingAwful, My Little Pony brony sites, or 9GAG.
Not here on Positech, though – it will be deleted on sight, and the user(s) who did it will be penalized.

[size=115]3. ) Modded content, and feedback that it receives, should BOTH be of good quality.[/size]

Just as we expect modders to do their best to make good mods, we also expect the public to make good commentary about those mods.

Firstly, some thoughts about what kind of quality that [size=110]mod-makers[/size] should aim for when creating:
A. ) Always do the best job that you can. Try not to weaken the gameplay and balance of what you are creating.
B. ) Make your mod as original, useful, well-edited and player-friendly as you can.
C. ) Please resist the urge to create an over-powered mod; a truly great mod has effective limitations as well as strengths.
D. ) If you mod is small, or doesn’t offer much new or insightful content, it’s really difficult for others to offer you a lot of meaningful feedback. Therefore, it’s best for that modder/creator not to expect a huge amount of feedback from the forum.

Secondly, some thoughts about what kind of quality that [size=110]mod-players[/size] should aim for when commenting:
A. ) Take the time to do a play-through of a mod before you reply to the mod’s creator in detail.
B. ) No matter how inadequate you feel a mod might be, we want you to be kind when you offer your opinion of it.
C. ) Be honest in your review of a mod’s content. This does not mean being brutally honest! Hearing a politely-phrased but unfortunate truth can help the modder improve their work. But hearing an unfortunate truth that’s deliberately - or cluelessly - phrased to be hurtful is a nasty action on the reviewer’s part – such an action will NOT be tolerated on this forum.
D. ) Always be constructive, not destructive, when commenting on someone else’s mod. This is how we learn best. The overall objective here is to help our fellow modders become better at what they do. For this to happen, we need an environment of mutual respect here.

[size=115]4. ) It’s okay to ask for help if you are having problems building your mod.[/size]

Modders are not merely allowed to ask for help when they have a modding problem; they are encouraged to!
Likewise, all modders are similarly encouraged to help other modders whenever they can do so. :slight_smile:

Anyone asking / being asked for help needs to keep a few things VERY clear in their mind, though:
A. ) No one is obligated to help you – if you need help, please ask politely.
B. ) If someone asks you for modding help – even if you cannot/will not help, please respond politely.
C. ) The person asking for help is expected to do the majority of the work on their own mod. Do not be lazy and expect to leech from others while you merely add a bit of paint to the mod and then try to unfairly take all of the credit for work that you did not do.
D. ) You must give credit to all other people who helped you with your mod. This credit is to be in the first post of your mod’s discussion thread here, as well as in a READ_ME.txt file within your downloadable mod content itself.

[size=115]5. ) Spread the knowledge around.[/size]

The only way that GSB2’s modding community can become successful is if we share with other modders what we, individually, have discovered about how GSB2 works.

We’re all here to help each other – please do your part.

[size=115]6. ) Theorycraft is allowed on this modding forum.[/size]

Theorycraft is the process of using developer knowledge to improve player understanding of the game’s inner workings.
In our case, it’s done by GSB2 modders to create better mods by utilizing gameplay subtleties, synergies, interactions and mechanisms which are not generally well-understood (or not even known to exist) by the rest of the GSB2 player community.

However, taking theorycraft to an unreasonable extreme is NOT allowed.
That is when theorycrafting by modders degenerates into thread after thread and post after post of little more than circular arguments, space-wasting babble about parts of the game beyond ALL access of modding, and other futile talk about unsolvable subjects. These actions simply clog up the forum and create ill will & hostility between modders.
Solution: don’t take it that far.

[size=115]7. ) Imagineering is not allowed on this modding forum.[/size]

If you act like an imagineer, it’s trouble. And if you’re not one but you enable or help one, it’s also trouble.
Both types of people are subject to possible forum penalties, based on how far their actions extend.
Do not fuel any imagineer’s motivation by making the effort to take them seriously.

In a modding context, we define imagineering as:
****Frequent, and/or intensely-styled, and/or annoying, and/or semi-irrational (!) posting habits about ideas a person has for a future mod of their inspiration, BUT written by that person in a style that soon makes it completely obvious that the person posting is NEVER, EVER going to do the required work to turn his ideas into his own mod.

You see, what the imagineer is actually doing is intentionally being aggressively helpless in his posting style – hoping that SOMEONE ELSE will be so “fascinated” by the illusion of his “obvious genius” (more likely, “unrestrained begging”) that the other modder will somehow voluntarily choose to build the entire mod FOR the imagineer, and with almost no work contributed by the imagineer.****
That unlikely result is an imagineers’ ONLY goal; all of his laziness and persuasion is focused upon that.
They’re not even modders, really; just parasites that try to drain the energy and goodwill of modders.

Please note that imagineering is quite different from a new modder asking for help from more experienced modders.

The main distinction here is that the average noob modding novice has no reluctance to get his own hands dirty in the process, spending his own time and spending his own mental effort. That’s a great foundation for great work. On the other hand, the imagineer expects – no, demands – something for nothing, and will never do his own work regardless of how much time you waste with him. Imagineers are worse than any troll, because they actually believe their own trolling.

Please do not feed the imagineers - thank you!

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