Firstly, i want to i want to say that i respect Steve's wishes on mods. Until he says the contrary, i do not plan on modding the game, and, honest, i probably wont even if he says we can, because i am happy enough with the game as is (although ill be waiting for it to be a little more stable before i start a campaign)
I do, however, do not agree with Steve's stance on mods, and i hope to, if not change his opinion on the matter, at least provide meaningful discussion on the matter.
I believe mods would be beneficial for the game. That is my stance, and you're free (Steve included) to respectfully disagree.
Aurora is already a game that gives you quite some freedom to personalize and imagine your own space civilization, down to the naming scheme of military ranks within it. I think modswould be a natural extension to this freedom of creative expression within the game.
Mods can also help people with disabilities or incompatible monitors, etc, to be able t actually enjoy the game, without their personal circumstances getting in the way. I believe this is a good thing.
In essence, mods generally make a game's community healthier, and in the end, if i decide i want to replace the sun with thomas the tank engine, I'm only risking to ruin my own enjoyment of the game, not anyone else's.
Also, if Steve decides to simply allow mods, he will be able to save the time he would spend making a system that would try to stop (and probably fail, no offense to Steve's skill as a programmer, but the internet has always proven that it can break games made by companies with a lot more resources than Steve and manage to mod them) modding, and be able to spend that time bettering the actual game. And i think we all agree that the alternative solution, withdrawing the game from the public, is not ideal.
We do, however, need to look at the other side of the matter. Ill list the arguments i can think of for not including mods, and ill try to respond to these arguments.
-Steve will have to support modders (as in respond to their questions, etc): Or he can, not. Allowing mods does not mean embracing them. You don't need to add support for mods, go all factorio-like, make a mod API, etc. Just allow them to exist, and it wont cost you any extra work. If the game is hard to mod because of how it's made, tough luck, Steve wont help you.
-It'll introduce new bugs and they'll interfere with the debugging of the base game: This is a valid concern, and there is not really a definitive, perfect solution for it. However, i believe Aurora's community is generally clever in this aspect. Aurora is a pretty niche game, and i don't think there are many metaphorical 10-year-olds that wont understand that mods introduce bugs that have nothing to do with the base game. Modders can (and should) add disclaimers that any bugs that happen on a modded game shouldn't be posted on the forums about the base game. I do not know how customizable the forum is, but cant a checkbox that says "my game is not modded" be added so that you cant post on bug threads without ticking it? and also add a line about it on the thread itself, to warn about this. To summarize, i think Aurora's players are clever enough to read/know not to post about mod bugs.
-It can introduce version preference. (Like with minecraft, where modders generally choose a couple of updates, and make big mods mostly for those versions only). Once again, tough luck. I don't know much about the modding process, but i don't think updating mods for Aurora versions would be too hard, and factorio (which has a similar audience than Aurora), hasn't had this problem at all. Most mods get updated to the new versions pretty quickly (Factorio has very good mod support though, so i don't know how it could translate to Aurora), Some of the mods I, (and some anecdotal comments I've seen in forums) most care about, being QoL mods, will probably become obsolete when/if Steve implements some of those changes himself. And in the end, the only ones who lose out on the newest updates are the people who mod, so it shouldn't affect the base game.
-Steve does not want his game messed with, it is not an open source project. I can't argue with that,since it is not an argument, but an emotional stance. An stance I respect, but not share. If it is Steve's wishes about Steve's game, then they are the final word. I hope I can change them, however.
Finally, i want to repeat that i don't think mods should be made if Steve doesn't want them (although they probably will be made anyway) and that I start this post as respectful, constructive criticism born from the love of this game and this community and that i hope we can converse this in a calm and respectful manner.
Extra-finally, I do not think the way Steve reacted (while understandable) is appropriate, but well, its his game, and he can do with it what he royally wants. And while we are not entitled to his game in any way, we can agree and disagree with the direction he takes it in.
Please do not start a fight in the replies, I mean this as a call to talk about it calmly.
