Combat Overhaul Mod TAKEN DOWN!

A (not really) surprise announcement from Ac3s, the creator of the Combat Overhaul mod for Anno 1800, about the removal of the Combat Overhaul for download!

[serp]

If you still have the mods subscribed, you should make a private copy of it and install it locally to not corrupt your savegame (better also make a BACKUP of your Savegame first!), just in case they really get deleted from the mod browser (currently they are hidden as far as I know).
The mod_io subscription folder is by default located under "Users/Public/" (youtube does not allow to post a link and mod_io with a dot is considered a link -.-). Copy the mods from ac3s to your windows user "\Documents\Anno 1800\mods" folder (or mods folder within Anno game directory) to install them locally.
And no, it is unlikely that a modder will reupload ac3s work in its whole, since this would be indeed not ok.

Just in case someone wants to read how all of this started (in german, no drama, just the development of the mod that caused it), its still on the Anno Modding Discord Channel in "allgemein deutsch" from (tomh2024 — 22.05.2024 12:25) (again link not allowed..).
In short and my point of view: nothing from his code was taken, all done by myself, but still tom2024 credited him at the modpage, which made it look like he took his code/idea without permission. This codeline was even mentioned in modding discord by user "tethik — 14.08.2021 22:31" before CO included that value, so it was not even "found" by Ac3s initially. But even if it would, I still can not understand this heavy overreaction, also with deleting all his helpful posts in the modding discord...

Few possible alternatives I'm aware of (feel free to add more):
- My mods are not the same experience, but Ac3s and I worked together for many things, while his CO focused more on "extreme", while I tried to stay closer to vanilla and I do not add new ships sadly. So many of my mods are at least making AI/Pirates/combat harder. (search for "Serp" in the mod browser)
- Warehouse loading ramps 2x: I also had a mod before him to increase loading ramps a bit: "Viable Warehouses Upgrades" (and no, he did not ask me for permission to also change these vanilla values :D =P).
- Bright Harvest Nerf was also based on a mod from me (again without asking me ;) ), so I could upload my version, if needed.
- Multiplayer Gamespeed change mod is a collaboration between ac3s, Taludas and me, so 2/3 of the "code belongs to us", so I or Taludas will surely reupload it.
- Old World Cathedral is a model from Anno 1404 extracted by Fishboss. I think Ac3s made a few adjustments to the graphic that will be lost now, but overall one can include it in other mods with Fishboss permission.
- Disable Autosave on Quit is 100% my code, so I can upload it if someone needs it (I did not think anyone could need it, so I did not upload it myself initially)
- Decrease notification time: It reduces the time for notifications which require your input, so it was never useful for me. I instead made a mod that reduces the time for notification which do not require your input: "shorter notification time" (it was already work back than to make ac3s aware, that my mod was not a copy of his mod and targeting completely different notifications :D)
- School New world: not sure if he had his own graphic, but for sure a modder will upload a replacement for this, based on vanilla code, not ac3s code.
- Increase Passive Attractivness: "Attractiveness Rebalancing [Spice it up]" may be an alternative, although I don't know the difference in code (since I do not have ac3s code).

[trivialehochschulebielefel]

I think it's a bit absurd that some mod creators are so fervently against people "stealing ideas" or very small code snippets, while they are making (most of the time) unauthorized changes to someone elses software themselves.

[aleksejkrpan]

Call me a naive fuzzy flower, but the last place I expected this kind of bullshit drama is a city-builder community -.-

[tomh-tldr]

I just wanna be perfectly clear about this, no code was ever taken out of an existing mod. Serp wrote the code for me.

I found the line in question via search on the mod discord; it had been posted there years ago by tethik and had been confirmed as working by a message someone else left as feedback to the Combat Overhaul mod. So that is how I knew Serp's approach was correct before even testing it.

And because of this, I originally even credited Ac3s. Unfortunately my phrasing lead him to believe I took the idea to make this mod from his mod description and the code from his mod. Both is incorrect.


I explained all details to Ac3s privately but what I could not do was go back in time to ask him for permission before uploading a mod with Serp's code. 🤷‍♂

[judekw]

To give some context: The "code" which they argued about was a single line that if set to zero would stop the AI from buying shares of the player's islands. The line was no original code by Ac3s but by BlueByte and the value 0 the only value with that outcome.
The other modder asked someone for help to achieve this, who correctly informed the former of that line. Not that Ac3s has any formal or informal copyright to code with a certain function from the original game in the first place; also how should any modder know of all the changes other mods make to the game (especially in cases the "mod" in question is a change to a single digit in a single line of code).
I think his reaction was ridiculous from the start and spiraled into more and more drama. I'm sorry for the outcome as he was a good modder for sure and I hate to see potential go, but to blame the other modders for that decision is very odd.

[nickpapadopoulos]

So the mod author is a petty control freak

[Jake.]

Lol sounds like he’s a little baby. Hopefully a grown up will just make the same mod

[Zivers]

To make it more clear what kind of person he is, I will add.
I spent a week doing translations for this mod at night after my work. And even then I noticed that the author simply recieve the translation from me and waved his hand, without noting my participation anywhere.
In the same way, several other translators also did not even write in the readme that we helped in the translation, simply out of gratitude. But now he is selling it. I'm amazed at people like this.

[Alphapara]

Mod authors and dramatically overinflated egos, name a more iconic duo.

Honestly the mod isn't good enough to have this much of a complex.

[dimasdwiki]

Really? What a shame.
I'm glad i install all of my Anno 1800 mods manually so the mod is still there.

[fluffytom]

That took a long time. His presence is the only reason I'm not active on the Anno Discord. His behaviour previously got him banned (with several profiles even) from YouTube, Reddit and Nexus. He is extremely arrogant and impolite. Me fit one, I'm happy the modding community finally sees him for what he really is. The worshipping of him on Discord while I knew what kind of person he is, really missed me off.

[adriankoch]

People will just recreate his stuff in no time and this kid will be forgotten. If he thinks that RDR2 community is gonna be less toxic, good luck!

[lishiping]

OMG, I feel like in different game modding communities, rules and customs are different. Many years ago, this kind of similar situations happened a lot in the Mount and Blade 1 modding community, most people usually blamed the sub-mod author...

[BanjoGate]

Are there any mods out there that nuke the AI difficulty? I've always wanted to play with the 3 star AIs for their dialogue and quests, but I don't want to have to deal with building fast and competing with them for resources.

I can recall that when I added Hunt with the AI Harbor mod (after a long time getting to investors), she never really did anything but settle one single island and never progressed.

[timdavison]

One of the reasons I manually install mods *shrugs*

[TheClem]

I can understand the frustration of your code being used without credit, but this is so petty it is childish...
EDIT: Also this is why I download the mod files directly on my PC

[NYCamper]

Well I saved & have been using the latest version so if it turns out to be the last version - whatever.
BTW - I do appreciate the work that was done to & with the overhaul mod, I really do. I also, for my own purposes, I've edited some of the code for my personal liking. No way am I the only one just stop. But I wouldn't release that either. Been doing that kinda jazz since the days of IRC. Just figured drama, Ken's & Karen's wouldn't drop the loop. Guess I was wrong.

[jammiedodger]

The overhaul mod is still downloadable now.

[attaboy]

When your ego is why you do things. I hear this kind of thing and i instantly know he didnt do it for the community, he did it to be "somebody" or show how great he is. Sure i heard the mod is great but this is something you do for people no matter if some small other modder takes a part of your code. You shouldnt let your emotions control you and instead focus on how many people really love your mod, thats why you most do it right? to make the game better and reach its potential? Its open source isnt it? So he knew people could do that, just make your peace with it. Probably got mad because he didnt come up with the idea for that submod or some other small ego crap. Taking his whole mod down and punishing all the players because of his way too big ego just shows that he needs to grow a backbone and grow up emotionally in many ways.

[CavalierRoy]

Techniqually if he wrote the code himself then yes that belongs to him, and the moment its made available to the public its almost impossible to police those rights. However it is still throned upon by modders for using anyone elses work in less permission was granted by the author themselves. As for unoutherized changes to the game, the dev's made the game moddable so in all fairness he already has those rights to make any changes to the coding, textures etc he so wishes in less files are locked without access given by the dev's in which case is in breach of any terms and conditions the dev's have as far as modding goes.

In short though, this is becoming more of an issue these day's as for joining other discord to upvote a mod to over rule the negative votes is something i feel is totally wrong and any modder doing this should be ashamed of themselves.