Paid Mods & BeamMP/KissMP

expensive texturing software? what?! where did you hear that?!

 

There can't be a community that's had this many issues with paid mods, it's wild but also not surprising since 'car simulator' is such a broad term for a game. I am bias since I have mental issues that limit me from paying for stuff, but it's obviously a good thing to pay for someone's hard work. Douglas Rally is my only contribution to BeamNG and I even took a 6 month break from it because just making a simple map was tedious. I've sometimes thought about even asking for payment on some of the things I make nowadays, but I just don't care about money enough to both pay/recieve it. And the point about BeamNG not being designed with paid mods in mind is very true, let alone BeamMP obviously not having paid mods in mind, that was designed before paid mods really took off.

I think the idea of having a more centralized area could work in general for them. Basically a new tab that is specifically for paid mods once they're finished. That way it'd be much easier for the community and thus BeamMP to know which mods are paid for.

On the topic of stealing paid mods from your userfolder: I know Rigs Of Rods uses the system where Multiplayer uses specifically the mod folder you have already for online. If you don't have that vehicle, you simply can't see it. Doesn't fix the issue of openly using the vehicle in MP with other friends though, the original point of this thread.

I know Assetto Corsa uses a similar system, yet (I think, correct me if I'm wrong) you can't even join the server without all the mods used. But that limits it even more.

Now, I don't know how MP works, but there has to be a way to make some mods server-side right? If there is, you could have specific mods marked as being server-side only for whatever reason.
And no, you can't really just say 'make the cars you don't want downloaded's folder harder to find' since I think you need the cars in the mods folder itself. Atleast from a guess.

The best idea I could come up with is where the paid mod maker makes a demo/MP version of their mod with atleast 3-5 important vehicles, and upload them. It's heavily limited unfortunately, so it won't make everyone happy, but atleast you can use that vehicle online; just...limitedly.

Even that isn't a great idea, you still have to have a way for servers to not just give you a mod. Which especially if anyone can make their own server, (which is how it should be, don't change that just for paid mods) kinda breaks every single idea.

This may be a little more left-field, but a way to alleviate this issue would be lowering the bang for your buck. To some people, the idea of a paywall where multiple others have not had such a paywall (not because they hate paid mods persay, but not the point.) Making it to where the public mod has more in it than the paid verson, but making the paid version still worth a dollar or more (not just the 1.0 economy versions).

I think paid mods only hurt so much because it's basically a whole vehicle behind a paywall, demo or not. I can kind-of think of the idea in a 'DLC' mindset. The cheaper, main game should have more content than the add-ons. If the add-on has so much more content, it's like missing a whole day's worth of fun. Which if your vehicle is good enough to deserve being paid for, you should 100% be able to make a day's worth of enjoyment out of it.

But I don't know what I'm saying, I'm just a dumb fur who made a rally map 4 years ago. why has it been 4 years already.

 

that makes sense (I'M NOT READING THAT WHOLE THING THO) it just sucks because.. i and some other people can't get paid mods because.. their paid

 

I bet they were on some sketchy site or from SpoolinDiesel or CrownConcepts. buy @iRetr0x 's mods, or @LucasBE 's mods or @LJ74 's mods.

 

Believe it or not, but software costs money. If it's Adobe, it costs even more.

 

Lets look at what we are given and see if we can come to an acceptable value for mods vs official content.

BeamNG.Drive - $25/£20 1 time cost gets you:

20 environments (including auxiliary)
34 unique high quality vehicles
7 towable trailers
50 props
1 game engine
1 snowman
100s of textures and objects for mods
Built in world and vehicle editor
Customer/mod support
Constant updates and additions
1000s of mods already available for free in-game

112 main items makes BeamNG.Drive 0.27.
$25 ÷ 112 items = 22 cents each. Not an even comparison when you have a prop valued against a map or car.
$25 ÷ 34 cars = 73 cents each if you count only the cars and get everything else for free.

BeamNG gets pirated, your mod will be shared online paid or not. If a donation button doesn't give you enough income, people are too broke or too young. Maybe the mod is rubbish, you're competing against BeamNG.

For anyone wondering, here is a price list of programs needed to make mods and 3D models for BeamNG.

Blender: FREE
GIMP: FREE
paint.net: FREE
Materialize: FREE
Material maker: FREE
Notepad++: FREE

$0 cost to mod for BeamNG. The most used programs are notepad++, blender and paint.net(or gimp)

You make it in your spare time at your own speed, that has no effect on the model, price or quality of the final product. The time taken depends on your familiarity/skill with the programs mentioned above.

How many mods are even developer grade? How many mod makers use mouse and keyboard or a controller to develop a car poorly? Do they even know anything about car tuning, structural design, physics? If they do, why aren't they in a paid job using those skills there instead?

Paid mods is a bad idea compared to what you could be doing with that skillset. Go make an ultra stupid mobile game like flappy bird or a clickbait youtube channel with terrible "lifehacks" or "BeamNG videos" then sell out to ads, or just sell 3D models.

 

Right, because comparing salaried employees and freelancers to hobbyists makes sense. I'll allow myself to skip the software part, too. Blender indeed got better recently, but it's up to the person to choose whether to use it or something else.

Quite a few, actually. Take a look at works from LucasBE, LJ74, Kajzer, Finn Wilkinson, just to name a few. I'm totally not defending Forza meshslaps people ask money for – but if someone is willing to pay for them, it's their right too. The same way, any modder is free to ask a few bucks for their mods (which is surprisingly well received in GTA and AC communities).

I'll also allow myself to skip unnecessary attacks, because after all, it's a place for civilized discussion.

Spoiler

And since I can google big booba and get over one billion results, how come OnlyFans still exists?

 

Damn, those numbers must come from your years of experience making scratch-made vehicle mods, right? Is Substance Painter free as well in your book? Are the helpful (and pretty much necessary) Blender add-ons free too?

If you want decent quality you have to do a bit more than just throw some rubbish into N++ and Blender. There are years of learning and experience to factor in as well.

Not even going to comment on you comparing a company that's got 80+ employees to a single person working alone. That's just straight up funny.

 

Wow

 

i won't say

ok i'll say i'm not an adult yet

 

That's Adobe for you, if you want Photoshop only, the photo tier isn't that bad with ~$10 a month (which still is a lot), but larger sets get ridiculous. And if you want to go pro, you'll probably also look into third party add-ons. Photopea.com is amazing, but being a Chrome app it struggles with my more complex skins, let alone any actual PS work.

Out of curiosity, what are your must-have plugins? I'm quite new to Blender, and coming with some experience in 3ds Max, I kinda feel like Blender doesn't have that many fancy tools (especially when it comes to UV mapping).

 

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great.

About the original topic:
Mods were never expected to be paid, neither was BeamNG getting multiplayer.
The best way to solve this would be some kind of server plugin that checks your local mods folder for the ZIP file and its contents. if you have that file in your mods folder, it'll show up in the vehicles list like normal. If you don't have it or it's not matching, it'll not show up at all. other players would be visible driving that car, but you cannot spawn or control it.

 

The ones I use are Bake Wrangler and UVPackmaster. Blender's default baking tools are extremely limited and it's pretty much impossible to get good results on a batch bake without it taking hours to set up. Bake Wrangler does a far better job for that.

As for UVP it's a much more advanced UV packer and allows for a bunch of fancy stuff. Saves me tons of time when it comes to UV packing as it just automates it completely instead of me having to spend hours doing it manually lol

UVP is $45, Bake Wrangler is $15. Both totally worth the cost IMO

 

This costs more than a copy of BeamNG per month, which is pure evil.

 

Well, considering that such plugins are mainly focused on professionals, that $50 is nothing compared to what other running costs are.

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Why does everything cost money

 

Possibly has something to do with bread, cost of living and unnecessary stuff like that

 

We live in a society, and living in a society costs money.