My Favorite Feature of This Game

Seriously, I don't know whose idea it was to implement it, but I absolutely love the "area command" feature where you can just drag things like patrol commands and extractor builds over an area. After seeing someone use it on a stream yesterday, it just made issuing commands vastly easier than any previous RTS that I've played.

The Spring RTS people were doing it for years before this game.

Doesn't mean there's no reason to be thankful that they implemented it here.

ZeroK is the only Spring game that implemented it quite like PA as far as I know, though it was pretty much the most complete game that surfaced from Spring anyway.

I really want that Star Wars spring game. o3o

I want any Star Wars game.

Well I believe I saw a Star Wars spring game at one point, it was one that cost money (which is unusual for spring based games)

I'd work on a Star Wars mod if I wasn't so crazy busy, and had a team. o3o

The most disappointing thing about Skyrim is that nobody made a Star Wars total conversion mod . Star Wars RPG... NEEEEEEEEEEED!!!

Don't you remember what happened to the Middle Earth mod?
Star Wars is even worse, it's held in a labyrinth of copyright laws, just getting the rights to make such a mod would take a millennium.

U wot m8.

As long as they make no revenue, there's no way they could sue. :S

No I don't remember because I'm not a big fan of Lord of The Rings. Good point though. I think.

Honestly I'm sure they'd try.

it would take a Millennium Falcon.

Tell that to the guy that was making the middle earth mod, he was told to either halt all progress or have legal action be taken.
Copyright is a fickle bitch.

That doesn't mean they could actually sue. I don't know the details of the (outdated) copyright laws, but it could just be an empty threat.

Valve says "No Refunds" but under Australian law they can't do that (which is why they're getting sued).

You can always sue, but that doesn't mean that you'll win if there's no law that supports your case.

The justice system costs money though, money that modders generally don't have. That's what companies that send out C&Ds rely on. Modders that can't afford to spend money defending their mods.

Yeah, it is an empty threat. I mean, you can wrongfully sue anyone for anything. The difference, is sueing and being able to win, and suing and not. Sueing the middle earth mod, much like Attack on Titan Abridged, was an empty threat. They couldn't had done ****, but they decided it would be too much a hassle to fight it in court, having someone harassing you even if they can't win still ties up your time and energy.

Using someone else's copyrighted or trademarked property does violate their rights and you can (and probably should) be sued for it. The name Star Wars is trademarked, and the characters are likely trademarked as well. As a result, making a Star Wars mod will violate the rights of the owners of Star Wars. (edit: nevermind!)

The idea that you can't be punished if you release it for free probably comes from Fair Use exemptions. (edit: Strike that. See below.) However, there've been no mods that have legitimately qualified for fair use, as it's a very particular set of laws made to support very specific needs of the press and academia. It's not there for you to reproduce others' works at your leisure.

Outdated laws are outdated.

Actually, I got copyright mixed up with trademarks. My bad. Copyrights are only allowed for Fair Use, while trademarks are allowable in non-commercial projects.

That said, a mod generally requires a paid-for game, and competes with non-free games bearing the same trademark, so it could be argued that they're not purely non-commercial. A completely free stand-alone game would have the best odds in court, but you'd still have to avoid the copyrighted content.

The funny thing about trademarks (in the U.S., and maybe other countries) is that they have to be defended vigorously in order to be retained. Most of the lawsuits are indeed just bullshit ***-covering by lawyers.

But then wouldn't you run into the piracy issue of it being impossible to prove a lost sale?

Probably. For a trademark, the most they could do if you're completely non-profit is stop you from using the trademark... And only after you disobey that would things get rough for you.

Ironically, that doesn't work for piracy. At least in the U.S., the RIAA/MPAA were suing for several thousand dollars per song because they found some law that allowed for a fine for each offense. Not to say they succeeded often with that strategy, but it did make headlines.

then try Homeworld 2 with warlords mod. nothing immerses you in star wars quite like that.