Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Mods Mods for sale, with official support ?

Pretty Much sums it up.

Modding is actually a genius idea that most people fail to see.

Modding is Extra Content for the Original developer, effortlessly.

Modding is Extra Sales for the Original developer, due to popular mods, again effortlessly.

Thank god for the passionate people who will do it all for free, whilst we keep on gaining for their efforts.

Then its: "it has come to our attention, that the community would not like to allow the sales of mods, so to keep everyone happy, and because we are the good guys, we decided to refuse such a tragic idea."

If you are modding in hopes of becoming the next big hit like DayZ, DOTA, etc. then statistics pretty much says "yeah... ok... good luck" Might as well go try being the next pewdiepie on youtube.

Its not all bad though, I bought UE4 for onetime fee of $19 (no subscription updates) and all they want is 5% of whatever I make (if any). Sure I need to programme more and create more 3D props but the trade-off is so much better and so many opportunities left open, also much more educational value too. What they ask for is so very little for such a powerful game engine, CryEngine even removed their royalty all together, so at least some steps in the right direction.

This is actually what I'm for, at least modders get some share of their work. Free or not free, they still eat like normal human beings.

What I'm against is the official support from Larian as OP have suggested. We don't need the golden quality seal similarly with nintendo. Modders (or developers in this case) chose to sell their game at their own risk. They don't need to bring the name of Larian with them, only the name of the engine. ALso puttin manpower hours to checking the quality of the mod will be expensive and there will be numerous submission.

The only thing I'm concerned with is the terms between the modders/developers and Larian. It needs to be non-discriminatory and reasonable for both parties.

Yes of course, that all goes with it as usual.

I thought that self-explanatory and already self - understood (?) in the context of the discussion subject so not in need of especial mention.

All that simply goes with moding - usually.

And if you look at exactly what i propose youll see that it doesnt stop or prevent or in any way negatively affects usual modding which is already done currently and will be. Anyway.




I said i will release a few mods freely myself - presuming i get good ewith the editor and actually make them. If the one in my signature comes to fruition it will be freely shared. For example.

And that alone will be a huge mod.
But not the kind that would fit under specific deal and rules i suggested or the whole ... spirit of the idea i discussed from the start. I wouldn't even think to offer it to Larian for that deal, just by myself, personally.


On the other hand i will maybe make a complete standalone, with different story and everything, then maybe that could go into some bundle or another type of monetary deal for Larian studio and modders.

But under Larian control and curation, of course, as i was saying form the start.
Naturally that all these mods would probably find themselves on torrents very soon if they are good, but the whole deal would be actually made as a deal that thrives on community support.


Lets not forget that these kinds of bigger more serious mods often require several people to work on them for a long time. With all the usual potential for incompatibilities and internet arguing and personal strife - working in an environment where you will be rewarded for your work in virtual handshakes - if at all - makes additional burden on such projects.


A possibility that it could be worth it in a more substantial way would affect such long term projects positively. And a big deal of that more substantial return would be the public recognition and kudos.

Because just being admitted in that league with your mod would prove someone can make almost a whole game on certain professional standards.

I envision submitting a mod to Larian devs for review for this kind of a deal as a test a very few will pass.So it could be an achievement of prestige, on its own.

All under caveats of course, that i count on Larian devs to make their own setup of how it would all work as they want. In case they would accept this kind of idea.




I have to strongly correct you here in one specific thing.

Nobody would "sell" any mods to Larian studios.


Some modders or teams could submit their mod for Larian studios review to include it in the possible deal for sales of some kind - and various options are available for that specific part alone of course - but there would be no guarantee a mod would pass the evaluation of devs, if it would be sent back for adjustments and improvements or anything else suitable. As devs decide.



Here is the general outlook in a more specified form in which the deal would actually work:

I suggested that it is controlled and curated directly by Larian studios for specific reasons - thinking in terms of mods specifically.

- To prevent sales of all kinds of things, many of those various "garbage" or who knows what, which would clog and suffocate the whole deal, which originally was supposed to present only works of quality worthy of such a deal.


- To make sure Larian studios benefits from that directly
1. Because those are their tools and assets we are using and it is all - worthy.
2. Because they would need to spent some resources, time and ork to set it up and evalue submitted works even with option of steam workshop being there as distribution channel and other services like it.



But sure guys, as Blazed said above, times have changed and now we do have Unreal engine selling for 20 bucks and 5% of profits, Cryengine for what... 10? - which i plan to use for my own game, linked in my signature, Unity is there of course and several others.


So... certainly. If Larian would go for such kind of a deal with their engine - by all means. Yes.
It can be done like that, or that can be an additional option beside this one with mods.


The big difference between the two being that when you are moding you get to play with all their tools, scripts, mechanics, assets, textures, models, effects, animations, dialogue editor, etc, etc, etc.

Which is why it may be worth considering specifically.