Auto-Download required mods when joining a server

[bobingabout]

As a modder myself, and I'm sure I've pointed this out before, I have no problems at all with players redistributing my mods, as long as they remain unmodified (Bar minor tweaks to the JSON file (Specifically the dependency line) in order to make it more friendly with other mods, or config.lua(Which is now solely in config mod)).

I think a server being able to transmit a mod package isn't such a bad idea... though should probably come with some sort of warnings for filesizes, I've seen some mods as big as the game is itself, you wouldn't really want it transmitting such a thing without warning.

To help with some of these technical issues, there are a few safeguards you could put in place.


1. Server config option to be able to turn mod uploads on/off
2. A tag within the mod's JSON file (as part of licence information, I do believe this should have a specific tag in in there to display licence info ingame) to dictate if that specific mod is able to be transmitted (Though people could just modify the mod to let it be sent)
3. One of the things the game will complain about is if you have multiple mods with the same name in your mods folder. Add a mod locker as a sub directory within your mods folder capable of housing downloaded mods, and other versions of mods that are not part of your active mods list. These can be used directly if the mod config says they should be.

As for mod support of the game itself: currently, a full client restart is required to reload mods... it even does it automatically now. I can understand why this is done, however, a slight improvement would be a cleanup and reload, rather than a full close and re-open, basically so that when you change a mod config, the game doesn't unload and reload, it can be annoying if someone on steam is reloading mods a few times, because you'll keep getting toast popups telling you they're starting the game, over and over and over.

One final point, that is probably unrelated to servers... Mod config options. Currently, my config mod is a mod that changes contents loaded in my other mods, by changing the config mod itself. It would be useful to have an in-game gui capable of changing the values of what is currently my config.lua. My concern with my config mod, and hence my suggestion, is mostly for servers, and redistribution of the modified mod. It is currently possible for every person to have a different modified version of my config mod, and the game can't tell until they actually try to connect, and the game finds that each player has slightly different contents.

[onebit]

Everyone runs their own server so from a development perspective mod licensing isn't a concern.

It's the same as nginx. They don't care about the license of the content on servers that run nginx. It's the operator's responsibility. nginx doesn't get sued because of the pirate bay.

If you run a mod that doesn't allow redistribution it's the operator's responsibility to only allow license holders to access it.

This is kind of an imaginary scenario, though, isn't it?