Hiver I agree with you, and also made a thread about the topic. To be honest I wish they just had a Royalty agreement like most big game engines out there. Both profits for Larian and content creators.
My recommendation as what I'm going to do is just forget Divinity Engine and focus on a Game Engine that does allow it, sure you need to set up a lot of things to make it work like Divinity but it can be done.
It seems people really bias on what TOOL you use to bring your vision and make a game, in my opinion it doesn't matter what pencil brand you use to draw a picture.
Theres no point making content for a community that DEMANDS us for free stuff. My time is valuable and if I make something in Divinity Engine for fun, I won't even share it, not with a crowd like this one.
Maybe take screenshots and show it and give info but no dl links.
I am primarily thinking about various early campaigns and stories that would be done in Divinity engine editor and therefore use its various assets and mechanics and effects.
These could be and should be set in the same setting, just telling a different story about different characters, told from a different angle - possibly.
Any other more radically changed and completely different games done in the engine could be a possibility, true - but that can be talked about later on. Or dealt with on case per case bases. Presuming the devs would think this is a good idea at all.
I am just trying to start this idea going. And i cant really say anything about any details now because this needs some feedback from the devs first.
Ive said from the start that any eventual theoretical earnings should be split between Larian studios, for several various big reasons - and the modders.
The easiest and fastest way to get mods to a big audience is of course Steam, and naturally it would all go through Larian and OS modding pages.
Which then of course necessitates that Larian devs have a final say on what could be possibly sold and exactly how and whatever else comes up.
Another angle is that any such modds need to be of certain quality - since they would actually be sold even for some nominal symbolic fees - and that demands that Larin studios has a curating and quality assurance control. (im just repeating myself here)
One thing to note is that there is no "community that demands free stuff" here. This is just two or three people who misunderstood this idea in the worst possible way - despite my suggestion directly addressing these very well known negative things that happened because of publishers greed in the past - and actually removing them or making them impossible to occur here.
We would all love if free and great mods would just fall from the skies all the time but we all know that doesnt happen. We all know dozens and dozens of mods that were abandoned and we should all be aware that without any real incentive - very few people will actually waste their time making something actually big and great for nothing else but a virtual handshake and some short lived internet praises.
Of course there will be people who will try to do it anyway.
And this suggestion doesnt do anything against that at all.
My first bigger mod, whose link is in my signature, "Tinker, Tailor, Hunter, a harder mod" which will aim to rebalance the game and create actually real harder game mode, plus adjust and add some smaller subquests to the game, especially Cysael area - will be free.
If i ever make it, that is.
I would never even dream of asking any money for just reworking the official game campaign like that.
But if i then try to make a whole new campaign, that is not using Cysael and other areas in the game, and create a whole new story (in Rivellon setting or not), which would include actually creating all parts of the game anew through the editor, including areas, locations, towns, characters, dialogues, quests and so on and so on... (for which i will need more people to work with me)...
I wouldnt mind knowing that maybe i and those people can get something more substantial for it.
and im guessing such an incentive would be very positive for other people too.
Doesn't MOd Nexus (OR whatever is called) charge for some (gay) premium subscription ?
Larian could help moders by featuring their mods and moderns can set up some kind of donation system perhaps.
I would love to do make an epic campaign for divinity but since I don't really have the time so I would have to commission some people anyways (I am thinking of something big as the original campaign).
Speaking of Mod Nexus... how many actually good, big, whole campaign mods there is for any game on it? New Vegas, Skyrim, whatever.
Two or three? One?
I guess a sort of a donation system could work too. A sort of "if you really liked this send a few euros to the modding team" kind of a deal. But that does, or can seem a bit like begging...
On the other hand, im thinking i personally would not mind paying a few euros for really good campaigns or whole new games as a way to promote and support that kind of community creation of further content.
Hell, i gave good money for kickstarter projects that were nothing more then ideas when they were suggested. Without any guarantees.
This isnt that different at all.
