Other paid vehicle mods?

Why couldn't it be? Because they're working on an existing platform? Because they're adding paid content to an already paid product? That's like saying RUF workers shouldn't be ever paid because they work on already produced Porsches. Modders should charge whatever they want, I think that pressuring modders into releasing free work 100%of the time is detrimental to the quality of the mods we could have in the end. No one is forcing no one to buy bad mods if they don't want.

On an other tangent, I see people expecting dev quality out of every single paid mod, that's just entitlement. It's not because you're paying a mere 4€ for a mod that the creator becomes compelled to your every desires, beginner modders spend as much time as the better ones, and will still need margin to improve, that's how it work in every creative fields.

 

Any thread that has the words “paid mod” turns into a war

 

I have got to say it is my guilty pleasure sitting to slightly stroke the flames of topics like these and sit back

Horrible, I know, but in a thread like this where there really wasn't any chance of it being salvaged, it makes for a good outlet for some people

Let's get it all out here so that we don't end up flooding into other threads

 

Mods breaking with game updates is mainly a problem for mods which piggyback off of a vanilla vehicle. Less so for an independent vehicle. It would have to be drastic changes to the games core mechanics to break such a mod. Sure, it can become outdated if the standard is pushed higher in the vanilla game (for example the 1.5 material update). But it's far less fragile.

 

Pretty much this.

Other than some digital dashboards breaking (which was a super easy fix), I don't remember a single update breaking mods since I've started modding nearly 3 years ago, except for things related to vanilla jbeam/model/textures getting changed with revamps/updates.

It's part of why a surprising amount of very old mods still work fine, even if they are outdated in some ways (old powertrain, old tire model, V1.0 materials, etc)

 

Not really. Just because a mod is independent (new jbeams and models) doesn't automatically make it not lazy.
And likewise, a mod based on a vanilla vehicle can be very good. (yes it takes less effort to make, and I don't think such mods should be paid content)

 

This post was originally going to go in the thread for the mod that has caused all this recent drama but I moved it here because it's more relevant. I took way too long to write this and I don't feel like rephrasing everything so any references to "that thread" refers to the one in question.

I was following that thread for a while and was certain that it would end the way it did because this is what has happened every single time there are paid mods or pushes for official support for a paid mods system.

Paid mods are simply never going to be viable for this game for numerous reasons.

1. Enormous, well established third party re-uploading community. They will inevitably get their hands on any mod one way or another, and those who don't want to pay will go to them, as that whole mess has clearly demonstrated. Paid mods are especially targeted out of sheer spite. The community has been fighting reuploaders since the modding scene first began, but nothing has really been done about them and frankly nothing ever will. Given where they operate they can basically do what they want with impunity.
2. Constantly changing nature of BeamNG means that mods are inevitably going to break and as a result you see the (albeit unfair) implied obligation of the modder to have to support the mod indefinitely.
3. A rapidly growing percentage of the community are younger kids (likely as the result of clickbait YouTubers and others who market to their age group) who simply don't understand the work that goes into modding and also are very unlikely to even have the money to put into paid mods.
4. Given the sheer complexity of the game and how long it takes to make quality mods, it would be extremely difficult to "break even" on the economic value (assuming we're treating time as money, comparable to traditional forms of income) of developing the mod. If one needs money, then the only reasonable means by which to do so is to spend that time working. If one is super skilled with BeamNG and wants an income making Beam content, perhaps shoot an application at the company itself?
5. Finally, as that thread has clearly demonstrated, paid mods are just simply not very popular, to put it lightly.

The forum goes through this mess every few months and every time it ends the exact same way: disastrously. I seriously wonder when people will finally realize that paid mods are simply never going to be viable and we can stop going through this embarrassing charade every few months.

 

Hmm. I think it's just a matter of preference. A mod which is done "properly" or standalone have one advantage and two drawbacks.
The advantage is that the mod is more update proof and won't break as easily. The drawbacks are larger filesize (it's a bigger concern for maps though where you can save gigabytes on reusing vanilla files)
And mod cross compatibility. For example if two mods runs on the Pessima, two separate mods can be used together.
--- Post updated ---

This was discussed in the previous few posts. The Picnic and other cars which are 'self sufficient' aren't very prone to breaking in game updates.

Breaking even to industry standard salary for mods have never been mentioned.

Single sided argument. Of course a consumer wants free things if possible.

There are encrypted files in beamNG. Such as the vanilla engine samples. I imagine similar measures could be taken for paid mods so that each mod have it's own encryption key which the player client can only decrypt if they have the rights to the mod in question. I don't think it's an impossible problem to solve if the devs tried to do something about it.

 

BeamNG isn't special. Every time the words "paid mods" are uttered a drama storm follows.
Remember Steam paid mods?

 

As much as the devs would probably like to regulate many of the paid mods, it will be virtually impossible to get rid of them, from private discords and word of mouth they can definitely operate independent of the main forums, so im guessing the idea will continue to float around here, however, if you dont support them, dont buy them, simple.

 

Encrypted zip files exist in the game files to protect certain vanilla assetts. Why can't the same be done for paid mods.

 

i meant regulate as in get rid of or regulate heavily, since they cause so much drama

 

Oh. maybe I misunderstood. But yea, the drama comes from leaked mods which would be solved with the encryption thing I mentioned. You can always dream about a fair world.

 

Haha, read a bit on this and making a random community post because why not, I'm bored and haven't messaged here for months.

I'm torn cause I'm personally a person that gets all I need from just being admired, that's what pushes me (even if it can turn unhealthy), yet that's also because I can't even drive without a permit yet, so I'm nowhere near the whole 'living' bracket.

On one hand, I think people should get paid for the hard work they put into anything. I've hosted ROR Monster Jam tours and the high quality edits replicating the real episodes are on Youtube. I missed out on monetizing those (although idk if I could but not the point). And of course, that's just editing. There's a reason why big channels pay their editors.

On the other hand, I believe paid mods would be a much smaller issue if this wasn't BeamNG.Drive. If this was modding lets say...Amnesia, older Battlefield games. I don't have many examples but older communities basically. If BeamNG.Drive was an older community in total (not just who's active on the site) than paid mods would make alot more sense. I saw this on the skim of the Cherrier post, but you are kinda bound to have people not being interested, unable to pay (my mix for any paid mods) or simply not wanting to pay for quality content when alot of the commnunity is kids. And there is also the fact of stuff being leaked. I don't want to get into it, but just the thought sucks.

The modding community I'm 100% more active in currently has a history of leaks and private mods, yet they don't have anywhere as much work put into them as BeamNG mods do, that's simply a fact. I wouldn't say I'm a great creator, technically all I'm doing is stuff I enjoy while it's not modelling, but I've spent almost 2 years now making WNB. I get scared every time I even think that it's leaked. It'll be public in the first place people will go, I'm 100% on that but still. It's just hard for some people to accept a creator's wishes. I'm not getting paid for anything (nor would I want to, nor could I even if I want to), I just like spending my time making something people would enjoy.

Everything I ever type is a train of thought so this might take some translation. But my stance is, is that this is the internet at the end of the day..cynical, I know:

You gotta pay the bills somehow, I just wouldn't expect it to be hunky dory once a paywall is put up.

 

As another user has stated, the R20 is a one off payment, all updates are free, the base mod is also free.

The R20 is less than half the price of Cherrier Picnic (£1.50 vs approximately £3.20). I would say the Picnic appears to be worth that additional money due to its visual quality, and I think their pricing is completely fair. I plan to buy it when I have time to figure out which site I want to buy it from.
--- Post updated ---

You clearly haven't done your homework if you think that. Look at other games like Assetto Corsa. Especially games like VRchat where you can pay upwards of £30 on a single avatar mod (sometimes upwards of £100).

 

Assetto Corsa is possibly the worst example you could've given. You can find literally all paid mods for free online with a Google search.
VRChat is not the same model - most "mods" aren't public, and are usually only ever shared between the creator and the client. Paid and public (e.g. non-commission) avatars can also be easily found online.
I'm not even going to mention that you can literally steal paid avatars with mods with one click, since I'm assuming you already know that's a thing.
--- Post updated ---

I'm biased, for obvious reasons, but I'd rather modders put up a Patreon than make mods paid-only. Works out better for everyone, imo.
Kemro's model is my favourite: he has a Patreon, releases his mods early there, and still releases them on the repo a couple weeks later. Everyone wins. He gets money, his patrons get a reward for supporting him, and people who don't buy mods get his mods a couple weeks later. Super high quality mods teased consistently throughout development would almost guarantee that a modder gets some pretty considerable amount of money every month, including during development.
CaRP's Patreon is also super successful in that it pays for all the development/hosting expenses, despite my nutjob extremist "nothing behind a paywall" mentality.
There's a ton of ways to go about being rewarded for what is quite literally work. "It's just a hobby" doesn't really cover it. There are very real expenses in modding games, even if you're "just" making 3D meshes and JBeams. Is Substance free? Is Photoshop? Oh, you like to use Sublime to JBeam? And so on.
I'm sure there's people out there who crucify Kemro for doing early releases on Patreon, even if I think it's a great and fair model. When you're charging for things, there's always going to be people who don't like it. It's honestly to be expected.

 

Kemro definitely uses a good model in my opinion, and last I checked i didnt see him getting alot of heat for using it, or at least a lot less than some others

 

this is by far the best statement made on the whole paid mods situation yet