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drok / Harmony-CitiesSkylines

Harmony 2.x assembly provider mod for Cities: Skylines
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Current state of the project #16

Open Vectorial1024 opened 3 years ago

Vectorial1024 commented 3 years ago

Hi there, just wondering, what might be the future plans of this mod (if exists)?

I noticed your mod getting removed by DMCA, a regrettable attempt to stifle competition from those who established themselves early.

ghost commented 3 years ago

He says he's gonna keep going. see here https://steamcommunity.com/groups/HarmonyForGames

drok commented 3 years ago

I am actively working on this mod.

The original author filed a DMCA complaint at GitHub and at Steam.

GitHub's process allows for fraudulent complaints to be dealt with in a way that does not require (temporary) removal of content.

Steam's process, on the other hand, does not have a mechanism to deal with fraudulent complaints (that I've been able to find). Their only way is to remove the content without making a judgment, and restore it if within 15 days the complainant does not start legal action. The steam release is therefore hidden until this period expires, which will be on 16 April, if Felix Schmidt abandons his complaint rather than lawyer up. Then the item will available again, confirming the fraud, or will remain hidden until the court case is decided.

In the meanwhile, I have concluded that the Workshop is in firm control of the game developer, and that they shun and censor me. I'm not allowed to publish on their Workshop.

This means the Harmony mod (this repo) needs to be published directly from GitHub, without using the censored Workshop.

I am currently working on the API which, unlike Felix Schmidt's API, will install Harmony from GitHub instead of simply subscribing it from the Workshop. The logic of installing through GitHub's API is a bit more complex than subscribing from the workshop, which is this:

PlatformService.workshop.Subscribe(new PublishedFileId(HarmonyModWorkshopId));

The GitHub API logic includes a web client, json parsing, release selection (from multiple), unzipping, handling API rate-limiting, etc.

The API logic is at this point implemented, and I am testing using my own mods which will be the first beneficiary.

The delay is unfortunate, but this project is my top priority, because it also holds up the next BETA release of my Transfer Broker mod.

The silver lining is that this mod will implement some features that should have been considered "must-have" by the game developer:

This means that this mod will be a full-fledged Mod Manager when it's complete. The upcoming release will contain some of these needed features, along with the API. The API will be backward compatible with future mod releases, and this requires some forward thinking and design before initial release. I intend to never require developers to update their API due to future changes to the mod. New features added in future API releases will be optional, but likely very desireable, hence your decision to update your API will be driven by want to use some new feature, not because I mandate it.

I appreciate your patience. My best estimate at the moment is that the mod and API and will be released in about a week or so.

drok commented 3 years ago

I would like to add that although the scope of the project has expanded somewhat, the API will be quite similar to the old Harmony API. There is a example repo for mods using the API:

More examples will be added.

Vectorial1024 commented 3 years ago

Glad to hear the continuation of the mod!

As a modder who first started in RimWorld, where Harmony is very well established, I at some point also thought of a hypothetical mod manager for Cities Skylines to solve the Harmony problem once and for all, by having a well-accepted "root of all mods" with a certain locked version of Harmony attached to it. But the mere thought of the work required to implement one such manager is TBH frightening, so I am very glad someone took the initiative to make one such attempt of implementation.

Indeed, distributing mods through GitHub is possible; I once walked past a RimWorld mod that allows checking and downloading newer versions of mods that are obtained from GitHub but not from Steam. I can see that it is possible.

Cities Skylines is only one of the many branches of things that is happening in my life. There are real life obligations, and when there is no activity on this side, I switch to the other side, and when the other side is done, I switch to yet somewhere else. Patience is, as a result, perceived....

I personally already have some previous concerns about Colossal Order from reading their Steam news section, in particular on how they seem to gravitate towards a certain section of the global market. It is really regrettable to now also hear of how Colossal Order closes their curtains on open competition and gravitate towards "creator cultism" where several "powerful" creators create (usually) objectively good items that gets promoted on their channels. For me, the Workshop is a playing field where every item is equally worthy (or worthless, if it really is that bad), and competition is implicitly implied. Just like in the RimWorld Workshop, while many lesser bionics mods are derivations of one certain "ancestor" bionics mod, such derivation is not discouraged, and everyone gets what they want.

I can only say, I strongly sympathesise with you and what is happening here due to their uncanny resemblance of what I have saw in real life. I have seen too much.

We will see how it goes! As a sideliner myself I shall wish for the stable and successful deployment of said mod manager mod.

Edit: to sidetrack + append a bit after the above comment, I am actually confused about the "CO-assisted" DMCA since I noticed our guy in question seemed to claim otherwise... but I guess in times of rivalry information can be confusing.

ghost commented 3 years ago

I'm impressed by your drive. Can I interest you in Kerbal modding? a Harmony mod manager do wonders compared CKan.

drok commented 3 years ago

I'm impressed by your drive. Can I interest you in Kerbal modding? a Harmony mod manager do wonders compared CKan.

The Harmony Mod Manager will be ported to other games that would benefit from its functionality.

With respect to "Kerbal" specifically, I would suggest starting a thread at HarmonyForGames General Discussion, and describe in your request the current state of Kerbal modding, keeping in mind I know nothing about it, such as the anatomy of a mod for Kerbal and links to modding API documentation. Then, ask your community to add to your request. If enough people give enough arguments in favour, this will give your request some additional weight when I consider what to spend time on. It may be a significant chunk of time and effort that you're asking for, and probably no payment, so pen your request accordingly.

Since this Mod Manager is open source, support for your favourite game will come quicker if you or someone can do at least some of the porting by providing pull-requests.

Finally, one of my most trusted curators points out that Kerbal Space Program game contains the "Red Shell" spyware program. You should address this concern in your request at HarmonyForGames General Discussion

ghost commented 3 years ago

Well it was somewhat rhetorical. KSP and it's modding community is pretty mature, not sure there's room for a new tool. That being said, KSP2 is supposed to be coming Soon™ It will still be a unity game. "red shell" isn't any worse than Windows built in analytics or any game launcher (paradox, epic, 2K, etc...) It's not hard to disable if need be and it's all hype anyway. Why do I care they track how much kerbal I play?

Muji-k commented 3 years ago

I believe Red Shell was removed in Kerbal Space Program 1.4.4 and Making History 1.3 patch , though i don't know if they added it again later...