Honor Harrington mod

I hate to be a naysayer, but I was part of a team which tried to do exactly that in the Homeworld 2 engine, and we got shut down due to IP considerations.  It seems we were given a cease-and-desist (we eventually got some correspondance with Mr. Weber himself, though it didn't avail us) in favour of this: http://www.rulethehonorverse.com/ .

While I would dearly love to see my favourite military sci-fi universe in Sins, it would be even worse for some people to try and then get shut down like we did.

All that said however, I can actually think of a few ways to get the characterstic combat elements.  We already have broadside combat in the Akkan BC, missiles could simply be spawned fighters with little ability to turn, shot down by anti-figher "Counter-Missiles"...

Alas, if only...

While I'm not sure about the modding possibilities, like locutus said, they are very protective of the IP. I've heard from other sources it's not DW himself thats protective, but his agency or some such entity. The problem with that rulethehonorverse game thingy, is that it's went nowhere since I first seen it late 2007.

I was part of that mod effort, and I'll agree you don't want to go there (hi, Locutus! ).

I'll also note that Sins doesn't really translate well to the physics and combat components of that specific "space" universe.

why should DW's agency or some other protective entity care if they're the ones who've failed to produce a game they promised to give us?

Yeah, I've checked the site for the new honorverse game, and they haven't updated it since the intial game info.

I hope this doesn't turn into 5 years of hell like Halo Wars did...

But yeah, if you can get permission, that'd be awesome.

i don't have any modding experience, but if i ask and i'm approved can anyone help me?

Because mods will potentially compete with any future plans they have of doing their own game. I'm not gonna say I understand it completly but I know the modders for Space Empires had talked about doing it and they got a cease and desist as well. If I recall correctly DW didnt care so much (as long as they didnt try to do fanfic in his universe, which he doesn't want anyone to do). Further proof of this could be the fact that a Starfire mod was made just fine, which DW collaberated on with Steve White. It's too bad to, because just like B5, I think a game based on this series would be wildly popular (at least judging by all the space games asking for a honorverse mod).

vunda, if you ask and are approved, I'd be frankly amazed. This is not a slight against you, but if well-formed experienced modding teams couldn't get approval, an individual with no modding experience is likely not going to.

The true reason why they're not handing out approval is because the publisher can still make money by selling the Intellectual Property usage rights to someone else if they don't act on it. Gaming companies would be less inclined to purchase those rights if a phenomenal user-made modification to an existing title is already out there and all the gamers say "hey, don't go buy this crappy game, play this modded version instead to get your Honorverse fix!". This might not seem to make a lot of sense, but there's some validity to it - we have a tendency to like the first version of something we see more than later versions because we get accustomed to it, and if that makes less people buy the 2nd title, the publisher loses money.

I'm sorry for the forum necrosis here, but I was trying to find a mod in the honorverse.

Damn. :/

...

Sorry, I hit post before I was done. Then I had to go to the bathroom.

IP = Intellectual Property I assume?

David Weber has released the board game that he has used to simulate the space battles in the books. I happen to have a copy. It's a pity that he would keep his fans from building something amazing. 

The SINS platform would be perfect, or close to it. Although the scale might be a little more difficult, considering that every single weapon has a range between 250kkm (lasers) and 63 million km (think rough distance between sun and venus) for the multidrive missiles. Maaaaaajor scale change.

Saganami Island Tactical Simulator is an awesome tabletop game. I helped work on play testing and balancing the third ship book.

That being said, David Weber is not the one that is preventing players from building mods but rather the publishing company that publishes his books that is. They have given cease and desist orders to quite a few mod projects, specifically the Homeworld 2 mod project nearly ten years ago was the most famous as it had gotten quite far. There is nothing stopping anyone from making Honorverse maps ... just no mods. There are defunct and stagnant threads for both maps and mods for the Honorverse throughout these forums.

EDIT: Here is a search link for these forums. Quite a few different threads. Please leave many of these sleeping in peace. Many of them are no longer relevant or are outdated.

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/googlesearch.aspx?cx=002955119647594963107%3Aa6othajy5e4&cof=FORID%3A11&ie=UTF-8&q=Honorverse

Baen sucks.

What's the problem with making a mod? If anything it enhances sales of the books themselves. People who have never read the books before come across the mod, enjoy it, and get curious about the lore. 

It's a "duh" thing.

I contacted Baen about this. Turns out that David Weber is actually the cause for the cease and desist.

With all due respect I find that statement to be highly suspect. Baen Books is notorious for cease and desist actions on projects related to a multitude of the books that it publishes. If needed I can start the laborious process of digging up reference after reference as well as letters and correspondence with David Webber himself which states otherwise in order to provide proof if you are unwilling or unable to do the research yourself.

No matter how you look at it, Honoverse Mods are a 'No-Go' for multiple reasons. I will 're-quote' what I stated above. Do some digging and let this thread die in peace.

DW CANNOT let it pass if it is brought to his attention as that would endanger his copyrights. The only thing he could do (as he explained in the FAQ) is to pretend he never learned of it by never again visiting any forum it's discussed in.

What this means, is that all that needs to be done is a name change.

Instead of calling it "Honor Harrington," call it something like "Manticore: Battle of Honor" and go crazy and make the mod.

Do you know how Baen Books operates the entities which it owns?  You can't make an Honverse mod, regardless of what you name it. PERIOD.

Quit necro-ing this post and let it drop. I've already given you the links to go find everything that has been referenced both from letters from David Webber himself describing what I am trying to tell you. There are letters from Baen which describe this also. Please stop trolling user's hopes and old posts and let this drop. If you want to argue about who said what regardless of the proof then shoot me a PM, it doesn't need to keep bumping up a dead thread over and over again.

PLEASE QUIT NECROING THIS THREAD AND LET IT DROP.

Pudding

@ boshimi 
I'm terribly sorry about coming to the mod idea ten years late. Not my fault I had no idea about the ins and outs and sorry that I felt it a necessity to figure out  whether or not it was doable.

If you called it Manticore: Battle of Honor, it would be about what? Oh, a Manticore--a mystical hybrid creature that may or may not reference to a novel written by a popular sci-fi author. Furthermore, I don't see how that word is copyrighted, or that battle of honor is copyrighted. 

And I also don't see how the mechanics of the game would have to be exactly what might or might not be in the books.

You are aware that there are no "original" ideas anymore, right? Everything in one way or another is a copy of something else.

So it becomes less about what Baen or DW has said. More about what can be changed in order to not violate the actual copyrights. I'm surprised that nobody has thought about this. Even the HW2 project could have been 'fixed' by simply changing a few details and the name.

@Seleuceia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZT6WKlvUkQ

It is entirely about what Baen says. You can't create something that infringes on IP / copyright and get away with it by simply changing the name. It doesn't work like that, no matter how much you try to convince yourself that it does.

It has become clear to me that you are simply here to troll and argue for the sake of arguing.

you mean Baen wouldn't be able to link this thread pointing out you knowingly violated copyright laws . I am of course being sarcastic if it was as easy as changing the name and rewording it then everyone would do it. that is not how it works as 100s of lawsuits have shown over the years. but hey if you make it and release it i would gladly download it before they sue the crap out of you.

Pudding