ModPack

Project status

Started: https://bitbucket.org/gennady/ja2-mod-pack

Description

ModPack is a draft name for a future Stracciatella-based project.

It will be a package based on JA2-Stracciatella which includes various mods tested and well integrated together. There are a lot of good stuff laying around the Internet. It would be great to gather it all together, make it compatible with each other, test it and provide to the users in a convenient manner.

It will look like this: user downloads the package, set checkboxes on what he wants to play (for example, he wants to play WildFire 2 maps + NightOps weapon + drop all weapon patch) and just play it. No need to hunt all these mods all over the Internet, download separately, copy to ja2 folder, etc. Just download, set checkboxes and play. Original JA2 game will be required, of course.

Monsters like JA2 v1.13 can't be integrated into the modpack, of course, but a lot of other small good mods can be, especially good mods which are no longer developed and played.

It will be something like SMP (Standard Modding Platform) with batteries included. It could be a live museum of content created by JA2 fans.

Here is the incomplete list of what can be integrated into the modpack:

• NightOps weapons mods (before version 0.6);
• WildFire 2, 3, Guerilla Warfare maps;
• drop all weapon patch;
• 800x600 mod (requested by Scheinworld from BPF);
• Playable Characters Mod (requested by Scheinworld from BPF);
• a lot of other good stuff. Just look at Kermi's file archive

Difference from SMP

SMP (Stable Modding Platform) was a project of making a modular, stable platform for mod development. The project is no longer active. The intention of developers was: build a stable platform first and only then use it for mod development. That required a very big amount of upfront work.

ModPack approach is different - stable platform will be built in parallel with the process of porting new mods. Only minimally necessary changes will be made every time a new mod is added. So, it is important to start development with porting a really simple mod, which will not require a lot of changes in the platform.

Legal considerations

JA2-Stracciatella can be legally distributed because it only uses JA2 source codes published by Strategy First. It doesn't infringe on copyrights or violate license agreements.

ModPack will be different. It will integrate work found all over the Internet. In many cases it will not be possible to trace the owners and acquire their permissions to use their work. In some cases, authors of the work themselves cannot legally distribute their work because, for example, they used game resources from the original game. This is a whole grey and messy legal area.

Because of this it will be important to keep JA2-Stracciatella and ModPack projects separated.

Road Map

• bring JA2-Stracciatella up to scratch - fix bugs;
• take a small weapon or maps mod, bundle it with JA2-Stracciatella, create custom installer and configurator and release ModPack 0.1;
• take another small mod, integrate, test and release new version of ModPack;
• repeat previous step