starcraft mod can someone start on lol be awesome

just think about it then do it lol

No. This is legally impossible because Blizzard would probably zip over on their jet-powered cloud of solid gold and lawyers, instantly crushing you under the weight of lawsuits and subtly scornful emails.

I would doubt there would be anything subtle about them.

Think it might be safer for you to dig yourself a hole ,and hide in it.

Crossover Mods are Illegal. If you want Starcraft, go play Starcraft. Leave PA outta it.

Simple, I think.

Crossover mods aren't illegal (afaik) if there's some kind of gate in-built which only allows play if the user has a copy of the original game. For example, my TA conversion mod actually directly converts the TA files, ergo you need a copy of TA for it to work.

Having said that, this method wont work for Starcraft 1, which uses 2D sprites. You might be able to get it to work for starcraft 2, although Blizzard would still likely find some way to come down on you.

still.

shovel, dirt. now dig! :x

I doubt you'll find a lot of hardcore Starcraft fans here... PA is pretty much the opposite of Starcraft as far as RTSs (which is why I backed it in the first place)

PLEASE LET THIS THREAD DIE BEFORE BLIZZARD'S LAWYERBOTS FIND IT.

But theorically one can make some kind of alien faction and you can't be sued, right?
Lizard/Green like aliens are being used all over, I don't think that is copyrighted (Alien movies, Starcraft, Alien swarm, Natural Selection etc etc).
So if a mod team makes a new alien faction (original stuff) they shouldn't have any problem.

If you just stay anonymous and nobody will sue you for mod, other question it's you won't be allowed to share something like that on this forum.

So who has the rights on "some kind of Alien faction"?

Right question is "Who can have the rights on some kind of game engine design?".
Theoretically nobody, but Blizzard threatened author of Freecraft (now Stratagus) project because of it's title and engine design.

Blizzard well known as company which enforce DRM and have lot of lawsuits against people who reverse engineer their code. So if you want to build mod with "some kind of Alien faction" better do that anonymously.

Ironic really, since blizzard took major inspiration from 40k, and GW is another highly litigious company.

I don't think you can copyright or patent general gameplay ideas, like use asteroids to crash into planets. You would need to come up with your own names on units, and your own unit design, but it should be legally possible.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_clone

You forgot about your own lawyer. :roll:

The fact that some companies are abusing their financial position of power doesn't change the law. You can't copyright game mechanics.

Let's say: they can't copyright or patent network protocol their game using, but they can send DCMA shutdown to open source projects which implement it. And they obviously can bring developers to court, and they have big legal department when you might don't even have money for own defense in court.

I think network protocols can be proprietary. Basically, the code and artwork and stuff like that can be copyrighted. That includes network protocol.

Gameplay ideas can't be copyrighted. But yes, they can litigate and bring people to court, to some extent. They can abuse their financial position of power, even if they have no hope of winning. Is that a reason for game developers to just crawl under a rock and die though?

Nope, network protocol can't be proprietary, but you can put some copyrighted poem in it like Oracle do. :lol:

Problem is: people don't want to go to court for game mods. If you receive some abuse from Blizzard I sure you just stop any activity related to their IP.

I also doubt that Uber want go to court with Blizzard only because of your mod, I think they just remove it from their forums and infrastructure if DCMA abuse arrive.

Firstly, you can open a case to litigate pretty much anything. However, depending upon how silly it is, it may get thrown out of court almost immediately. How "silly" it is changes a lot as time and technology move on. I imagine if you tried to litigate over a board game 200 years ago, the case would be largely dismissed unless it touched on other copyright issues (as existed back then).

As far as i know (IANAL), i believe there have been various precedents set that artwork, story, in game assets, some proprietary code (although software patents are often massively misused). Actual mechanics, as a resource gathering mechanic, or a construction mechanic, or a unit health mechanic, cannot be copyrighted, and thus can be considered public domain.

If some folks made a mod which copied (even if the assets were generated from scratch) Starcraft assets and implemented them in the PA engine, then Blizzard would have grounds to sue. A similar case happened not that long ago when a team of modders were working on a Halo inspired mod for CnC Generals:Zero Hour. They were sent a cease and desist order by Microsoft for infringing on copyrights. They got round it by transplanting all their assets into a generic "humans vs Aliens" sci-fi story.

However, all of this misses the point. I'm sure someone could make a starcraft sytled mod.

But why?!

There's already a Starcraft-type RTS game out there. IT'S CALLED STARCRAFT. I would wager it does a better job of being Starcraft than any of the mods anyone here could make. I would liken this to being given a beautiful artwork, and the set of marvelous oil-paints and brushes used to create it - and then trying to recreate a fingerpainting with them.