@agigabyte
@EnglishNarwhal
A correction is needed, I think.
From Justin's stickied post:
Justin wrote:Mods that require redistribution of the game files won't be allowed.
Ie. the executable, data files, graphical assets, whole archives etc. But there's nothing there that specifically says we cannot
modify the exe.
The problem here is that this area is
generally legally fuzzy in the gaming industry as a whole. But nothing against exe modding was said by FTL devs
specifically. Or, at least I don't recall that.
Technically the exe is an asset like every other, and since we already do modify other assets (be it via changing the events, or splicing hulls), it is logical to assume that if someone were to take it upon themselves to develop an unofficial patch, there would be no problem with it (as long as you only distribute your own code, and not the games' whole exe).
The key word in the entire matter is
distribution (of copyrighted material). If you reverse-engineer the exe and then write some code of your own to modify that exe, you're in the clear, because you're only distributing stuff you've created yourself.
The entire safeguard exists basically so that we don't end up putting up FTL for download for free. As long as we don't do that, and only modify the files the user already has, it's all good.
That's how I see it, at least. I may be misinformed in some areas.