Question about rule 7 of modding

[Jeffreyteciller]

Hi, I’m kinda curious about the specifics of this rule:

7) Mods created with content owned by Paradox Interactive must be made so that they will only be usable by players who have the corresponding game or DLC installed. If this requirement is beyond the technical ability of the particular mod maker (or it is impossible due to the nature of said mod) then they cannot be used.

This rule basically says that if a mod relies on content from a DLC, it shouldn’t be made available without that mod, so for example you can’t create an origin which lets you get the “psionic” trait without making it so the origin requires the Utopia dlc. Or at least, I assume that’s the case, because it can be kinda difficult to figure out what content actually counts as being “part of a DLC”.

For example, one popular origin that people like to make is a “dual evolution” mod, which makes it so your empire consists of two different species, although these are almost entirely made so they require Utopia as well, because “dual evolution” is, mechanics-wise, kinda similar to the “syncretic evolution” origin. However, these origins don’t really use any features exclusive to Utopia, because the “multiple species” function is also used by other DLC’s like Synthetic Dawn and Necroids, so does that mean you aren’t allowed to add content that “closely mirrors” stuff added in DLC’s?

Most likely not, because I know that several mods add communism in some way or another, even though Megacorp has the “shared burdens” civic, yet these communist mods never demand that you have Megacorp in order to use them. Is this because the communism mods are unique enough from what’s added by Megacorp that it doesn’t really count, or is it because “communism” is too broad of an idea to say “hey we already have a DLC for that”?

Hell, I’m not even 100% certain about the “if the feature is from a DLC it must be locked behind that DLC rule”, because I know at least one example from a popular mod that sorta breaks this; it adds a civic to hiveminds which lets them set up branch offices(a feature exclusive to Megacorp) on other people’s worlds, with hive-themed buildings of course. To my knowledge, this feature only requires Utopia, but not Megacorp.

I understand that this rule is kinda meant to be a bit fuzzy, since it gives some leeway for determining what should and shouldn’t be allowed, but I still think it would be good to have some more insight into what Paradox actually allows. To make things easier, I’ll give some hypothetical examples I’m most curious about: (these are written from the perspective of someone who actively wants to add the specific thing in question, but that’s mostly for readability’s sake)

1. I want to add a ”scavenger” trait which makes it so pops create minerals on their own, even if they’re not working on a mineral-producing job. However, this feature is very similar to those lithoid-exclusive traits that produce strategic resources, so should I make my mod require the Lithoid DLC even though this trait wouldn’t be exclusive to lithoids, or is it fine as long as the trait produces another form of resource than the ones in the Lithoid DLC?

2. I do not think the vanilla hive minds accurately reflect the type of hive minds I want my empire to be, so I want to create my own type from the ground up, with a new authority and traits and whatnot. This new hivemind-type would not use any features added by Utopia, and would play rather differently than the vanilla hiveminds, although it would ”thread the same water”, so should I therefore make it so only those with Utopia can play the mod?

3. I want to add a new espionage mission. Vanilla stellaris does unlock the “espionage” mechanic, although they only give you one type of mission, so should I therefore allow non-nemesis players to use this mission because “espionage is a non-DLC feature” or limit it because “espionage requires Nemesis”?

4. I’ve created this cool aquatic species called the ”capisci”, and would like to make a portrait mod for it. However, paradox recently released the Aquatic Species Pack, so does that mean I must make my mod exclusive to those with the new DLC, since my species is aquatic, or is that only the case if I wanna make it so the capisci have the new aquatic species functions?

5. Same as 4, but in this case I‘ve already made this capisci mod before 3.2 and would like to update it. Should I now make it so my mod reauires the new DLC, even though I created the mod before Paradox added something similar to the base game? How would it work in other similar cases where contents of a mod kinda gets added to a DLC?

So yeah, these are some stuff I would like more insight on.

 

[Ryika]

Just my personal opinion of course, but the way I understand the rule is that it's largely about "game objects" such as existing traits, species, ship types, and whatever else one might think of, and game systems (such as the Nemesis Crisis Progression). Anytime you have an allowed = {}, possible = {}, potential = {} or similar effect that checks for DLC in a game object, you also need to check for the DLC if you want to give it to players through some kind of effect.

So when it comes to 1.), if you create your own scavenger trait instead of adding one of the lithoid traits to a player through code, you should be perfectly fine. You might be moving towards a grey area if you recreated the exact same effect as a lithoid trait and just themed it differently.

2,) should be perfectly fine as long as everything is original content, since thematic overlap is not mentioned in the rules at all.

3.) should also be fine at baseline, since as you've stated the system is available without the dlc. That being said, the espionage expansion mods that I've seen still hide their operations behind a DLC check, and personally I would do the same. This is one of the situations where the entire espionage system was clearly introduced to be sold with the Nemesis DLC, and the parts that are available, are largely available because of technicalities. The system itself for compatibility, and the operation because without it, intel would be extremely limited for players without Nemesis.

I think it's "in good form" to not push towards the boundaries of what is within the rules in such a situation, because that'd essentially send the message (however little actual impact it may have) that Paradox needs to be more draconic with their rules if they want to prevent such behavior.

4.) and 5.) depend on how you're implementing things. If you do want your portraits to actually be classified as Aquatic, you automatically have to hide them behind the DLC, because that species_class is only available with the DLC. If you're fine with using aquatic-themed portraits that are not recogniced as actual aquatics by the game, but as their own category, then that should again be fine without a dlc check. Thematic overlap is not mentioned in the rule at all.

But again, those are just my personal opinions, and all of that is obviously assuming good faith on the side of the modder - I have no doubt that Paradox, like any company, will bend the rules as much as they need to bend them to if they feel they need to prevent you from being cheeky and abusing the modding system to give players access to stuff they shouldn't have access to.

 

[NotAYakk]

The easiest way to handle it would be to imagine someone has all DLC. Don't try to rules lawyer your way around attaching it to a DLC.

Would your capsci race be aquatic? Then make it aquatic, which in turn makes it require the aquatic species pack.

If you replace something in a DLC, use the DLC and replace it. Ie, if you replace Hiveminds with yours, tie it to Utopia.

If you are adding Espionage missions, add it to Nemesis.

Part of this is being polite to Paradox.

Imagine you are the live team and adding stuff to existing DLCs. Like, the Clone to the Humanoids species pack. If the live team went and revamped Hiveminds, they would attach it to the Utopia DLC.

The hard barriers are probably aimed at "copy-paste-remove-DLC-flag" and variants.