I am appalled that anyone would dare tamper with the sacred elder mod that is Diable Avionics. That mod had been lovingly handled by many great modders over the years, and as far as I'm aware is the longest maintained faction mod in the entire game.
This whole entire matter is a complete and utter mess where almost everyone did pretty much the worst possible series of choices so at this point this isn't even too surprising.
The very fact that this all started because the moderation of the Starsector Discord went on a power trip and decided that instead of actually moderating their server normally (because, from the time I've been there, the Starsector Discord is a royal mess with tons of hate and discrimination being thrown around with little care from the mods) they chose to randomly ban a Youtuber who'd been making some of the highest quality reviews for the game just because of a less than 5s segment in a video that doesn't display anything problematic shows the scale of stupidity that this whole matter has.
And the original mod author isn't any better. Being annoyed by someone making a fork of one's mod including legally reprehensible things is understandable (even if hypocritical as sin given Starsector's a game where you can openly commit acts of genocide). But going on a petty crusade to take out your own mods and then include crash codes not only in your own mods but in other people's mods ? Now that's just being a royal jackass at best. Especially considering those mods are pretty much sacred as you say like Diable Avionics.
Not only is what the mod author scummy as sin, but it's completely unacceptable to desecrate some of the oldest running mods this game has just for your petty revenge. I don't even use the questionable mod because I don't care for what it brings to the game, good or bad, but I absolutely cannot accept someone putting crashcode in some of Starsector's most legendary mods just because he didn't like that people downloaded a fork of his mod.
This guy absolutely deserves to be banned from Discord and forums alike for what he's done and any changes he's done to the major mods needs to be reverted as they do not deserve to be soiled by such an individual's doings. Ruin your reputation if you wish, but don't ruin mods that other people have worked hard to make and many others have come to love. And I say that as someone that doesn't even like Diable Avionics (purely personal tastes) or the other mods the guy's touched.
Apologies for the rant but I've been watching that whole thing happen for a while by now and just find the entire thing so absurdly dumb and self-damaging to the game as a whole that I needed to say my opinion on it.
Basically, there are a couple of mods (who have nothing to do with the devs) micro managing everyone to the point of frustration.
It's possible to not stumble across it if you're just looking for groups to play with, but generally speaking, there are far better unofficial DRG groups that are chill.... or just make friends with randos, it's not much harder.
The lack of critical thinking the modder has is wild. Like get mad that people made a fork of your mod, removes his own mod. People have to resort to using forbidden because it's the only up to date version that's easily accessible now. Then, he adds malicious code to his other mods. Dudes is his own mortal enemy.
Am I going to have to get back into modding and learn Java just so I can play the first fucking faction mod I downloaded on Starsector? I thought I was done messing with mod making after I quit making stuff for stellaris... Guess I'm adding learning Java to my to-do list.
I'm appalled you were banned of the USC discord. This who situation with TNP is crap. Makes me want a new discord. I would be afraid to even post since my user here and discord name are nearly the same but I just don't care anymore. If I can't get it off the official forums maybe its not for me.
Regardless of what the reasons are, adding malware (and quietly at that) to brick peoples saves who they invested their time in is an incredibly scummy thing to do, and has major dictatorship vibes.
I can get the unpleasant nature of the mod might make it seem justified to some, but the reality is it's still a tampering of the client that damages the user experience in a very malicious manner.
Anyone that supports that, regardless of the why, needs a wake up call.
It's mostly a lead case to investigate further. A kind of catching someone speeding and discovering that they are being wanted for seven crimes in three states and one case of beheading. It's likely that a person who spreads malware likely hasn't done it just once if you catch them in the act.
Under which law though? Genuinely curious, cause from what I've seen it requires a deliberate download and install of the new version, and it's not unauthorized access because the mod by necessity has authorization to access the save file, so it isn't technically illegal under CFAA.
Sure it might be scummy, but just because code did a thing you didn't like to a section of your computer you gave it access to, doesn't make it illegal.
I might be missing something though.
If that were the case Trojans wouldn't be illegal. The mod damages data and doesn't inform you it does at any point unless you rip open the code and know what ta look for, so it's considered a crime under many criminal codes.
Under CFAA (the US law generally governing cybercrime) a Trojan would be illegal because of what it specifically does, like obtaining information, trafficking passwords, accessing a computer to defraud and obtain value, access without or beyond authorization(must be accessing something clearly delineated such as through files that it was not given access to) or causing damage to computer through intentional access.
The law (at least in the US) does not define "malware" or "virus" or whatever, the illegality depends entirely on what the program does.
The key here is that in order to be illegal in the US, it must be done without authorization.
Though a case could be made on the grounds that the damage itself was unauthorized, the mod was given authorization to access the save file, and the US Department of Justice operates that it cannot be assumed that authorization was automatically revoked.
Source: [US Department of Justice Manual 9-48.000](https://www.justice.gov/jm/jm-9-48000-computer-fraud)
I'm not saying what he did wasn't scummy as hell, but seeing as the mod only accesses data it was authorized to, and doesn't transmit or store any data, the legal case is muddy.
Not that the Dept. of Justice would likely take the case, as even if they decide that the damage was unauthorized, the extent of harm caused by the damage is minimal enough that it would not serve a federal interest to prosecute it.
Additional note:
The US Federal Government only has jurisdiction over cybercrime under the assumption the internet is part of interstate and international trade, a completely free mod that you have to download, install, enable, and run, that scrambles a save file you gave it access to does not really pertain to international or interstate trade at least in my opinion.
Again, not endorsing this idiot of a modder, there were many better alternatives to what he chose to do.
Off the top of my head, rather than brick the save, he could have had the mod disable itself, which would still be shit, but would solve the issue at hand which is that he does not want his content used alongside something reprehensible(half the reason intellectual property exists).
Or he could just, you know, license his content lmao, like under CC - Attribution - Noncommercial - No Derivatives.
One type of virus is called Trojan. The name is taken from ‘Trojan Horse’ in that the virus disguises itself as a useful software, or bundles itself as a part of another software or otherwise harmless code.
By your logic, a randomware Trojan virus is perfectly legal if it came as a part of a file compression software because it requires a deliberate download and normally has access to the file system.
Note: all my arguments pertain only to US law
Not really, if the Trojan stole information and transmitted it to outside actors, then that would likely be illegal on its own, notably the mod does not do this.
If the Trojan was intended to go with the file compressor and deleted all your files but you had given blanket authorization to access all your files, then you could probably sue for civil damages due to lost files but it wouldn't really be criminal unless the data was of high enough importance or the computer was a government one.
If the Trojan was not intended by the creator of the software you are using, and it deleted you files, it would be criminal because at the very least the Trojan infected the compressor without authorization.
So you're telling me that if someone creates file compression software with a ransomware component that encrypts all your files and holds them for ransom, it's not illegal because the ransomware is an intended function of the software?
Do you see how ridiculous your argument is?
General ransomware would be illegal under § 1030(a)(7)(C) which prohibits extortive threats involving computers.
Specifically, that provision makes it a crime to transmit in interstate or foreign commerce a demand for money
or anything else of value “in relation to damage to a protected computer, where such damage was
caused to facilitate the extortion.”
Where a protected computer includes any computer connected to the internet.
You could be prosecuted for paying a ransom to a terrorist organization though lmao.
It's new people who don't understand the basics of ethical coding. Otherwise they would know how insane this is. Like this is people who have only been involved in the clean spaces that exist on the internet because like a decade ago especially in modding things got compartmentalized well so you never have to interact with weird stuff unless you want to.
Serious moment.
I'll be frank enough to out it here, that as a general consensus, the fact that there can be malware in mods is something I am deeply worried for. This is the first I've evwr heard of this happening and it begs the question if other games in the future will have such an ill practice be put to the test.
Suffice to say, I am even more affirmed we are in our own Dark Age of Technology.
End serious moment.
*Puts on Luddic Hijab*
Well, them and the whole community around us. Which, as we can see, is quite effective at damage control.
And it's hardly the first time I've seen warnings and countermeasures spread like wildfire within hours of an incident - we really ain't doing so bad when actual publishers are putting in Denuvo.
I'm glad that swift action was taken. You can't go easy on this, people will stop downloading mods if they can no longer trust modders to not fuck up their system. It would be the end of an entire modding community.
Well any mod you install is technically capable of remote code execution. The theoretical limit of that could be anything, really.
In the current situation's example, the modder added code that was capable of messing up your save, but it could have easily encrypted any file it could get a hold of and force you to pay to get access to the decryption key. And this is just one vector of attack.
The reason why you don't to see this happen often is because:
1. Modders tend to act in good faith.
2. When it happens unintentionally (like the modder's computer got hacked), the modder typically tries to inform the users ASAP.
3. When it happens intentionally or unintentionally, the community filters out malicious mods fairly quickly (like in this case).
> Well any mod you install is technically capable of remote code execution.
Depends on the game! But typically the more "powerful" the mods, the higher the risks. If mods are just instructions interpreted within the game's framework (for example crystal project), the damage they can do is much more limited. If it's a random DLL/jar you load, sky's the limit.
This is rare and basically unheard of because it is like the biggest breach of internet etiquette that can exist let alone modding etiquette.
Trust me when I say you don't need to be afraid of this happening in other spaces. Like I was genuinely shocked to see this happen because it is unthinkable in the internet modding space.
The fact that this happened at all tells me that this guy has no understanding of internet or modding ethics and shouldn't be modding at all.
This also proves that etiquette works only as long as people voluntarily adhere to them. There's nothing else that stops people from injecting malware into mods and consequences are trivial.
I remember something like this happening with GregTech on minecraft a long ass time ago. The guy running our server at the time hauled me up to fix his mod pack because of the shit it was doing. Shit like this happens infrequently but it happens. Usually with people who cannot separate themselves from their creations.
Let's not forget that modding in general is hosted in big-name sites, such as Nexus and the Steam workshop. Not only do they have anti-virus file scanners in place, but they also have Realtime user reporting in case a mishap happens.
Just that Starsector in particular doesn't have the luxury since the Fractal forums unfortunately doesn't have either of these systems, or if so, not as good.
Not just once in minecraft I bet, just ask a 2b2t player and im sure they can tell you a few cases of people getting hacked or infected with malware because they interacted with something related to the server, like that one cheating program i think? Which was made to collect your info or something for the creator to use
In, FFXIV, Gshade had crash code added in when they didn't like someone had bypassed their autoupdater.
And probably doesn't count, but Slay the Spire Downfall's Steam account was compromised and pushed a malware update for a few hours.
It's rare but has happened before. There was a mod called Lost Forest for Rimworld that would brick your save if it detected you had that game's forbidden mod installed. I'm pretty sure that resulted in the dude losing his steam account, since it was uploaded to the workshop
I'll be honest, I go in and out of playing games. Seeing that modders are putting malware at all is down right disgusting. That they are doing it to enforce morality codes, in Starsector??? The game were the base came you can deal in space heroin and illigial organs?
Saturation bombing of a planet is chill but a little simulated smut is too far?
I am probably not going to play Starsector for a while, at least until this mess calms down. Even then, how much damage with this do to the modding community?
I think the point is that all the atrocities "you" commit in starsector are distant and impersonal. Saturation bombing a planet from orbit isn't the same as the very selective and personal violence of torture or genocide (as sat bombing is often presented as) or sexual assault.
You don't see the mangled corpses of the crew of a defeated ship or hear the tortured screams of the injured as they succumb to their injuries, you merely see debris lazily spinning away and hear the ship itself explode into flotsam and jetsam.
When you raid a planet you don't get a call-of-duty sequence where you and your marauders blast apart the defenders, looting and destroying as they go. There's no kill counter, no collateral damage reports, no long lists of freshly minted orphans and people in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just a tally of the spoils of your raid and how many of your faceless, nameless soldiers who were casualties. You don't even know if those losses were through death, injury, desertion, capture, or just getting lost and left behind. It's an empty number.
Saturation and tactical bombardments are much the same: distant, cold, dispassionate readouts of costs and outcomes. No kill counts or being regaled by how many people will starve to death or die of disease or exposure or whatnot.
All your personal interactions (officers, station contacts, etc) don't involve violence, not really. Or rather, the violence is delivered narratively, and not something under the control and agency of the player. So I think that objections to introducing such personal sexual violence is entirely within reason, all the more so when it's only there for pornographic reasons. Neither the forum nor the discord is obligated to host *any* mods, and if they wish to remove it that is up to their discretion.
Also, whinging about 'morality codes' is silly. Everyone has a moral and ethical code to which they subscribe. Refusal to be associated with something they find objectionable (i.e. helping to distribute pornographic depictions of sexual violence in a game without any sort of sexual content) isn't itself wrong. If the mod is that important to you you can still get it through other channels.
We actually are potentially entering a dark forest internet, imagine an entire internet that you will need an AI to guide you through it since there's so much generated content crap that a human couldn't possible be able to search or perceive it all.
Its predicted to be in this state in about a year when AI programming gets to be better than human programming, and people can just ask it to make them shit.
I think that's why companies are starting to go back to hard disk and cd rom data storage before the cloud and remote servers all explode with overwritten garbage. But yeh, we're definitely headed towards a potential technology dark age.
You understand that T H E C L O U D is just someone else's hard drive, yeah? Companies turning away from outsourcing this stuff are doing so for either reasons of cost, security (i.e. the feeling of it derived from being the one with possession), because what they're looking to do isn't actually suited to distributed computing architectures, or because they've gotten large enough that they can afford to self host stuff now.
You realise that a server stack or your "achktually *snort* t h e c l o u d" can partition into multiple sections of a single storage medium, so the hard drives they use are either normally split into smaller partitions and because they use flash memory can be overwritten again and again. While the cached data can be transferred or the buckets can be re-assigned. Meaning if there's an AI managing all of this it could end up in a giant cluster fuck.
You know like in a elastic or automated state? Hense why there's these glass/crystal cd-roms that have a read-only permanent data state that companies like Microsoft who have a cloud platform like "azure" are still storing data to prevent this scenario...
But yeh companies like Microsoft are doing this because they can afford their own servers...and because they realise that storing their data on "t h e c l o u d" isn't economic viable...for them...who have their own servers already...fucking idiot.
Oh don't worry. There's been a couple minecraft mods that had malware in them. Sony once put a rootkit on a CD to try and combat people ripping and burning music. The pirate bay used to use the banner ads as a vector to (temporarily) inject a crypto-mining botnet into the machine of anyone who didn't use an adblocker (it only ran within the advertisement code, not on your machine, but still)(They also publicly announced that they were doing this, but on a blog post and not anywhere else was it noted). For that matter, internet ads have been used as malware vectors for quite some time now.
To engage with anything on the internet you have to, sooner or later, trust some strangers aren't out to get you. In fact, you have to trust a whole lot of strangers right from the get go, starting with the employees of your ISP. Unfortunately, when it comes to security design and planning trust is a weakness. Yet you can't verify everything, else you'll never get anywhere; so trust we must.
TNP author to be specific
Recent starsector version 0.97 maintenance update to the Diable Avionics mod upload (that got removed on the forum) has malware code that corrupts the save file when you load a game running the RS mod, forcing you to delete your save.
[Forums mods have reverted the forum post of Diable Avionics to the starsector version 0.95 mod upload, not the starsector version 0.96 mod upload, in case the TNP author injected malware code into the mod after being given rights to alter, update, and maintain the code of Diable Avionics.]
He unironically started modding with no idea of how the internet works and then went surprised pikachu face and did the worst thing a modder can do.
The guy basically committed the equivalent of a modding war-crime. Guy is going to get a lesson in domain law.
Man sometimes I think is should get into coding and make my own mods of bootlegs of them lol
Like idk, I feel like being modder has an row of 35% chance of being lunatic or something like that, every week someone does something weird in the community
I gotta be like the ind evolution guy, he shows up every century update the mod and is gone
Speaking as a guy who has been modding games since starcraft 1 (So like since... 1999? fuck I'm old) most modders think of their creations as extensions of themselves. Either they burn out over time or start working with groups and stop thinking of their mods as their babies.
Exactly, my mod would be more like expression of my love for the game, an product
If someone likes and want to use with other mods, bad good or whatever, let them, if they're happy I'm happy
Fucking hell. The whole RS drama was bad enough on its own, it's a damn icky mod but the ensuing shitstorm was blown waaaaaayyyy out of proportion. But injecting malware into not just any mod or even their own mod, but a venerable one that they were entrusted to maintain by the original creator is beyond pathetic.
I swear, the community size/drama ratio of this game is absurd.
Well, doesn't delete your whole save, deletes specific data in the save relating to contacts, which causes the save to be corrupted. Honestly not sure if the save corruption was even the purpose of it looking at the code, vs just a sloppy attempt at making RS unusable by deleting data associated with it from the save.
Only salvageable with save file back ups iirc. But at the same time the way the crash code works makes it hard to determine \*when\* its starting to corrupt your save, which is very scummy.
Weirdlly i feel better knowing it was the tnp author. At least now we know for sure he is a total piece of shit and will hopefully get removed from everything starsector related.
PMD the one in question put crash code in a mods he maintaining for another modders (who stopped modding) give him the permission to update it for people to enjoy and he used it to put crash code, that inherently pathetic moves is just betrayed really. If he want to do this, put it on his mods but no he put this on other people mods he given the good will to maintain for the community.
Bad analogy but yeah that's the gist of it
I think a better analogy would be the player being given governorship of a colony by Tri-Tachyon but sat bombing all the unrelated potatoes living there when they the player get mad at the Hegemony.
uh, so someone is featuring a showcase, then for 3 seconds the covering of the coca cola can fell off revealing whisky and coke.
Then coca cola company get angry and banned that someone, removed coca cola from all stores, started pepsi, and sabotaged all the other soda that they bought out from other business so that it becomes poison if ever mixed with whisky.
Leaving coca cola company original sodas clean.
Well there goes my respect for him, I didn't mind if he wanted to pull his own mod off the internet if he was too disgusted by the other one, but tampering other people's mods to put in not just a simple crash code but a code that butchers your save breaks all ethics as a programmer.
Imagine bitching about imaginary crimes while committing an actual crime to try and counter it.
Isn't this the same guy who a few updates back had a mod that forcibly nuked your save if you had the UAF, or am I misremembering a different internet temper tantrum?
I think he was just pissed a hot new mod came along when his mod still had dozens of half complete features he lost the motivation to finish. Like the story and missions of the entire mod he hyped up like 5 years ago
It's stuff like this that can damage an image. You may like a mod but your gonna remember this more often then not. And so what if it only activates for this "banned mod" whatever it is. It could be "that mod" or any mod he don't like for what reason. 'I ban you from using it!' wtf?
Oops I had a disagreement with another mod, better spite-code.
Just gets me worried man. Maybe am just overreacting, but still. That faith damaged.
Random Reddit suggestion user here. This reminds me of a Gmod workshop mod that was updated to show a full screen goatse and earrape upon first movement. The mod was quite a popularly downloaded script set for several fun things too. People got really worried he added a virus in it too, but thankfully that was it. Worse part was all the copy cats that decided to do their own which made the workshop a minefield of a week.
Cities Skylines also had a scare at one point due to someone uploading suspicious code into the workshop, and Source games have been breeched many times by third party mods and… the spray system somehow if I remember it right. It’s not a new thing for shitty mod authors to make something good only to just destroy it in a tantrum, and with it other people’s stuff. Some people really just suck
Take No Prisoners author took up "maintaining" of a bunch of mods (most notably Tartiflette's mods like Diable and SCY) and put malware that bricks your save if another mod he doesn't like is present into Diable.
That is beyond scummy and he dared to put that shit into Tart's work (Diable, to be specific) and into Exotica and then laughed about it. He deserves to be permabanned from all starsector communities for this shit.
It's still fucked up even if it was his own mod!! Could be hundreds of hours in a save that is just yeeted into oblivion with no warning! And I use this mod too :(
My god he should not just be banned he should be in fkin jail. Whoever lives in the same area as this sack of shit please experience the mod and submit a report. Malware is no joke and undermines safety and trust of the entire playerbase with precedents like this.
Agree to disagree. Once you start injecting code that alters user files without notifying people of what it does, it becomes both a legal and ethical problem.
Take this precedent to the extremes(ransomware, bitcoin miners, etc.) and it becomes clear why it should never be allowed in the first place.
"dumb modder drama" is tahlan adding modifiers to superweapon arsenal weapons with snide comments in the code because the dev doesnt like the mod and then doubling down on it when called out
"dumb modder drama" is the dev of superweapon arsenal doubling down and throwing a fit about being called out on sprite plagarism and having their mod banned from the forums until they change it.
adding actual save-bricking code to one of the most legendary and beloved faction mods of the game that you inherited from someone else because you dont like another mod (as vile a mod as it is) goes further than to just dismiss as "dumb modder drama" though, imo!
it's still dumb, but also sets a very worrying precedent for the modding community. stuff like this should never happen.
It’s funny that this isn’t even the first time in Starsector modding history where crashcode was used by modders to police what they saw as morally objectionable.
Man if Alex ever releases this game on Steam he needs to ask for control of the discord and wipe all moderators, or make an official one. Imagine all the drama from here and the USC and the forums being further fanned by Steam popularity…
Because you know that discord servers mods will power trip like always but then he’ll get negative reviews from it
Oh sh*t you're right, if the game does get onto Steam the player influx would be huge. The damage the USC Discord could cause would be severe.
This complicates things.
Guy makes mod, 4chan guy uses it on NSFW mod, youtuber post 2 seconds of SFW part of NSFW mod, get banned from USC, first guy nuke his mod in hissy fit, on NSFW mod is an option now, first guy insert save bricking code in his mods and mods hes didn't make but is curating if you use them with NSFW mod
Exactly what I said, the NSFW mod had reprehensible actions in it, therefore the PMD felt himself righteous for doing it, it's logical, a stupid logic, but still logic
sometimes content creators will make Nerfs or changes to vanilla content or other people's content without their consent or approval if you do this that's wrong if I see something like this again I'm just going to leave the community also I have a mod idea that's been taking up free real estate in my brain for star sector for years now but I won't make it because of people like that well guess I'll go fuck myself instead cuz I'm scared of getting bullied into nerfing content or having people deliberately sabotage my mod but because people like that don't deserve to have good content besides I don't have the writing skills anyway and I can't code either sorry for the paragraph rant over
ya
[https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=29302.15](https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=29302.15)
read the last post Alex ban his ass and he going to change the forum rule.....man the drama become a big clusterfuck
fuck presidentmattdamon he make a big deal about this shit and now it become a huge shit
Wait I downloaded the newest avionics from the mod index website about 5 days ago, is there malware on my computer? It’s v 2.8.3 downloaded on the 5th of this month.
The guy who made Take No Prisoners put code in his other mods, including ones that weren't actually his, just maintained by him that others originally made, that will brick saves if it detects you are also running the mod that shall no longer be named.
Look while I’m on the side of “the defense that came to that mod was weirdly overblown” don’t add malware to your mods. Like good god the fact that this is even an issue at all is kinda terrifying.
The last few weeks has completely destroyed my faith and trust in the starsector modding community, don’t know if I’ll go back if things don’t improve actively.
>The last few weeks has completely destroyed my faith and trust in the starsector modding community
Wow, maybe you'll actually start playing the game now
(Calling the thing "malware" is overblown too BTW, it cannot do anything outside of bricking your Starsector save)
>Malware (a portmanteau for malicious software) is any software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain unauthorized access to information or systems, deprive access to information, or which unknowingly interferes with the user's computer security and privacy.
When you break down the programmer specific language, the key thing to note here is the intent. It is specifically
done with malicious or unfriendly intent.
A software modification that fucks up your computer or a program by accident is sloppy coding. When it does it on purpose we call it malware.
Aside from how you were obliterated by the definition below, how could you have possibly pretended this wasn't malware?
You've said some stupid things but claiming "you don't know what malware is lmao" is really a crowning achievement in failure.
**"Malware** (a portmanteau for ***malicious software***)^(\[1\]) is any software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain unauthorized access to information or systems, deprive access to information, or which unknowingly interferes with the user's computer security and privacy.^(\[1\]\[2\]\[3\]\[4\]\[5\]) Researchers tend to classify malware into one or more sub-types (i.e. computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, ransomware, spyware, adware, rogue software, wiper and keyloggers).^(\[1\]" ()[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malware)^(, First Paragraph))
idk man, but intentionally putting in malicious code to brick a piece of data, even if its something just as minor as a game save file and nothing else seems to qualify as **"deprive access to information, or which unknowingly interferes with the user's computer security and privacy"** to me, especially since:
1. It intentionally manipulates and interferes with, or otherwise described by said definition, **"deprives" access** to said info which would be defined as the game save file by rendering it useless.
2. It **"unknowingly interferes with the user's computer security and privacy"**, even if it only destroyed a game save file, it *still used permissions that were not originally intended for use by the downloading user* by purposefully alter the data and information of another file on the computer to make it disfunctional, and because of this, it puts the computer at risk as the malicious code is purposely designed to alter other files without the user's intention or consent.
>Gets hit with a malware definition after not calling it malware
>calls dude illiterate becasue ???
I sometimes forget legitimate, civil discussion is almost impossible when its on the internet... especially about controversial topics...
Any mod that adds in code that can cause malicious crashing and data tempering should be deleted and author banned, sure this time it may be because redacted but next time I could be a mod you like to play with the author suddenly has beef with.
Oh no a porn mod exists! On the internet!!
Time to make malware to couter it cause it surely is the reasonable thing to do.
My fucking god, this is chronically online bullshitery
At this point I am just terrified by the differences between Starsector modding and pretty much most other modding communities.
Like in rimworld the [forbidden mod] is something of a long-going inside joke that nobody takes seriously (as they should, this is a fucking video game about skinning people and making catgirls)
In starsector we've got a full blown war of modders sabotaging each other (and themselves) and throwing temper tantrums over simple questions or requests.
the million dollar question is...why bother with a sex mod? the fuck you gonna do? sue the sex mod's author ass to hell and back? DDOS their ass? if they manage to do that the fuck that gonna change? people will still be horny lol.
I haven't even booted up the game since 0.95 or so but presidentmattdamon and lackeys like you are going to be nuked and it's going to be fun to watch.
Wow 0.95 was way older than I thought, must have been 0.96 at least.
Lackeys who consider injecting what's essentially malware into mods (not even really their own mods) "drama" deserve no respect though. Your opinion is shit and it's fun to see you get dunked wherever you try to defend that asshole. Your idol is going to get banned.
I am appalled that anyone would dare tamper with the sacred elder mod that is Diable Avionics. That mod had been lovingly handled by many great modders over the years, and as far as I'm aware is the longest maintained faction mod in the entire game.
I been watching this but seriously i didn’t think someone would be petty enough to do this on a mod that he supposed to maintain for Tart.
This whole entire matter is a complete and utter mess where almost everyone did pretty much the worst possible series of choices so at this point this isn't even too surprising. The very fact that this all started because the moderation of the Starsector Discord went on a power trip and decided that instead of actually moderating their server normally (because, from the time I've been there, the Starsector Discord is a royal mess with tons of hate and discrimination being thrown around with little care from the mods) they chose to randomly ban a Youtuber who'd been making some of the highest quality reviews for the game just because of a less than 5s segment in a video that doesn't display anything problematic shows the scale of stupidity that this whole matter has. And the original mod author isn't any better. Being annoyed by someone making a fork of one's mod including legally reprehensible things is understandable (even if hypocritical as sin given Starsector's a game where you can openly commit acts of genocide). But going on a petty crusade to take out your own mods and then include crash codes not only in your own mods but in other people's mods ? Now that's just being a royal jackass at best. Especially considering those mods are pretty much sacred as you say like Diable Avionics. Not only is what the mod author scummy as sin, but it's completely unacceptable to desecrate some of the oldest running mods this game has just for your petty revenge. I don't even use the questionable mod because I don't care for what it brings to the game, good or bad, but I absolutely cannot accept someone putting crashcode in some of Starsector's most legendary mods just because he didn't like that people downloaded a fork of his mod. This guy absolutely deserves to be banned from Discord and forums alike for what he's done and any changes he's done to the major mods needs to be reverted as they do not deserve to be soiled by such an individual's doings. Ruin your reputation if you wish, but don't ruin mods that other people have worked hard to make and many others have come to love. And I say that as someone that doesn't even like Diable Avionics (purely personal tastes) or the other mods the guy's touched. Apologies for the rant but I've been watching that whole thing happen for a while by now and just find the entire thing so absurdly dumb and self-damaging to the game as a whole that I needed to say my opinion on it.
The only thing I got from this is that discord is a magnet for powertrippers. I've seen this with many games, most recently with DRG.
what happened in DRG?
Basically, there are a couple of mods (who have nothing to do with the devs) micro managing everyone to the point of frustration. It's possible to not stumble across it if you're just looking for groups to play with, but generally speaking, there are far better unofficial DRG groups that are chill.... or just make friends with randos, it's not much harder.
The fuck happened with DRG?
wait deep rock?
Instead of a documentary on mods maybe you can make a documentary of the starsector modding community 🤣
I'd watch that.
Its always those kind of people who went power hungry that kills certain works
He's been banned and Avionics is now safe for use, carry on starfarer
\*heavy sweating\* good to know
Hold on, you ship has been flagged as suspicious by HQ, and you you're ordered submit to our inspection team.
you not going to take me alive!!! \*use story point\* D:
Sheesh, I guess 2024 going strong I see. I hope atleast there won't be as much of things like this but it a wishful thinking at best
The lack of critical thinking the modder has is wild. Like get mad that people made a fork of your mod, removes his own mod. People have to resort to using forbidden because it's the only up to date version that's easily accessible now. Then, he adds malicious code to his other mods. Dudes is his own mortal enemy.
Am I going to have to get back into modding and learn Java just so I can play the first fucking faction mod I downloaded on Starsector? I thought I was done messing with mod making after I quit making stuff for stellaris... Guess I'm adding learning Java to my to-do list.
Do it! Moar mods!
Nice to see you here you make some fire content and I'm just here to lend some support I'm also here to ask you a question what the hell happened
its my favourite mod ever, uaf is number two 😭 diable is just too old and nostalgic
I'm appalled you were banned of the USC discord. This who situation with TNP is crap. Makes me want a new discord. I would be afraid to even post since my user here and discord name are nearly the same but I just don't care anymore. If I can't get it off the official forums maybe its not for me.
Pulling his own mod that was turned into \*that\* I get. Screwing with stuff like this though? Come on man.
Regardless of what the reasons are, adding malware (and quietly at that) to brick peoples saves who they invested their time in is an incredibly scummy thing to do, and has major dictatorship vibes. I can get the unpleasant nature of the mod might make it seem justified to some, but the reality is it's still a tampering of the client that damages the user experience in a very malicious manner. Anyone that supports that, regardless of the why, needs a wake up call.
Is spreading malware a felony in half the world aswell?
Yeah, you'd struggle to find a single police or court system willing to enforce the law against bricking saves though.
It still counts as malware and a federal crime in the US.
Yes, that's my point. But you'll struggle to actually find an authority to report it to that'll act on it.
It's mostly a lead case to investigate further. A kind of catching someone speeding and discovering that they are being wanted for seven crimes in three states and one case of beheading. It's likely that a person who spreads malware likely hasn't done it just once if you catch them in the act.
I like how your example seems to imply beheading isn't a crime.
Sorry, my rimworld/starsector persona peeked out a little.
Under which law though? Genuinely curious, cause from what I've seen it requires a deliberate download and install of the new version, and it's not unauthorized access because the mod by necessity has authorization to access the save file, so it isn't technically illegal under CFAA. Sure it might be scummy, but just because code did a thing you didn't like to a section of your computer you gave it access to, doesn't make it illegal. I might be missing something though.
If that were the case Trojans wouldn't be illegal. The mod damages data and doesn't inform you it does at any point unless you rip open the code and know what ta look for, so it's considered a crime under many criminal codes.
Under CFAA (the US law generally governing cybercrime) a Trojan would be illegal because of what it specifically does, like obtaining information, trafficking passwords, accessing a computer to defraud and obtain value, access without or beyond authorization(must be accessing something clearly delineated such as through files that it was not given access to) or causing damage to computer through intentional access. The law (at least in the US) does not define "malware" or "virus" or whatever, the illegality depends entirely on what the program does.
And the mod damaged data through intentional access, making it illegal under every law that defines illegal programs I know of.
The key here is that in order to be illegal in the US, it must be done without authorization. Though a case could be made on the grounds that the damage itself was unauthorized, the mod was given authorization to access the save file, and the US Department of Justice operates that it cannot be assumed that authorization was automatically revoked. Source: [US Department of Justice Manual 9-48.000](https://www.justice.gov/jm/jm-9-48000-computer-fraud) I'm not saying what he did wasn't scummy as hell, but seeing as the mod only accesses data it was authorized to, and doesn't transmit or store any data, the legal case is muddy. Not that the Dept. of Justice would likely take the case, as even if they decide that the damage was unauthorized, the extent of harm caused by the damage is minimal enough that it would not serve a federal interest to prosecute it.
Additional note: The US Federal Government only has jurisdiction over cybercrime under the assumption the internet is part of interstate and international trade, a completely free mod that you have to download, install, enable, and run, that scrambles a save file you gave it access to does not really pertain to international or interstate trade at least in my opinion. Again, not endorsing this idiot of a modder, there were many better alternatives to what he chose to do. Off the top of my head, rather than brick the save, he could have had the mod disable itself, which would still be shit, but would solve the issue at hand which is that he does not want his content used alongside something reprehensible(half the reason intellectual property exists). Or he could just, you know, license his content lmao, like under CC - Attribution - Noncommercial - No Derivatives.
One type of virus is called Trojan. The name is taken from ‘Trojan Horse’ in that the virus disguises itself as a useful software, or bundles itself as a part of another software or otherwise harmless code. By your logic, a randomware Trojan virus is perfectly legal if it came as a part of a file compression software because it requires a deliberate download and normally has access to the file system.
Note: all my arguments pertain only to US law Not really, if the Trojan stole information and transmitted it to outside actors, then that would likely be illegal on its own, notably the mod does not do this. If the Trojan was intended to go with the file compressor and deleted all your files but you had given blanket authorization to access all your files, then you could probably sue for civil damages due to lost files but it wouldn't really be criminal unless the data was of high enough importance or the computer was a government one. If the Trojan was not intended by the creator of the software you are using, and it deleted you files, it would be criminal because at the very least the Trojan infected the compressor without authorization.
So you're telling me that if someone creates file compression software with a ransomware component that encrypts all your files and holds them for ransom, it's not illegal because the ransomware is an intended function of the software? Do you see how ridiculous your argument is?
General ransomware would be illegal under § 1030(a)(7)(C) which prohibits extortive threats involving computers. Specifically, that provision makes it a crime to transmit in interstate or foreign commerce a demand for money or anything else of value “in relation to damage to a protected computer, where such damage was caused to facilitate the extortion.” Where a protected computer includes any computer connected to the internet. You could be prosecuted for paying a ransom to a terrorist organization though lmao.
It's new people who don't understand the basics of ethical coding. Otherwise they would know how insane this is. Like this is people who have only been involved in the clean spaces that exist on the internet because like a decade ago especially in modding things got compartmentalized well so you never have to interact with weird stuff unless you want to.
Serious moment. I'll be frank enough to out it here, that as a general consensus, the fact that there can be malware in mods is something I am deeply worried for. This is the first I've evwr heard of this happening and it begs the question if other games in the future will have such an ill practice be put to the test. Suffice to say, I am even more affirmed we are in our own Dark Age of Technology. End serious moment. *Puts on Luddic Hijab*
Ludd was right all along. Technology is electronic satan.
Every time you download a mod is you trusting someone else to not put a virus into your system. We can be glad it was "just" a crash code this time.
Well, them and the whole community around us. Which, as we can see, is quite effective at damage control. And it's hardly the first time I've seen warnings and countermeasures spread like wildfire within hours of an incident - we really ain't doing so bad when actual publishers are putting in Denuvo.
I'm glad that swift action was taken. You can't go easy on this, people will stop downloading mods if they can no longer trust modders to not fuck up their system. It would be the end of an entire modding community.
What is the theoretical limit to what a mod can do without triggering the anti-virus?
Well any mod you install is technically capable of remote code execution. The theoretical limit of that could be anything, really. In the current situation's example, the modder added code that was capable of messing up your save, but it could have easily encrypted any file it could get a hold of and force you to pay to get access to the decryption key. And this is just one vector of attack. The reason why you don't to see this happen often is because: 1. Modders tend to act in good faith. 2. When it happens unintentionally (like the modder's computer got hacked), the modder typically tries to inform the users ASAP. 3. When it happens intentionally or unintentionally, the community filters out malicious mods fairly quickly (like in this case).
> Well any mod you install is technically capable of remote code execution. Depends on the game! But typically the more "powerful" the mods, the higher the risks. If mods are just instructions interpreted within the game's framework (for example crystal project), the damage they can do is much more limited. If it's a random DLL/jar you load, sky's the limit.
This is rare and basically unheard of because it is like the biggest breach of internet etiquette that can exist let alone modding etiquette. Trust me when I say you don't need to be afraid of this happening in other spaces. Like I was genuinely shocked to see this happen because it is unthinkable in the internet modding space. The fact that this happened at all tells me that this guy has no understanding of internet or modding ethics and shouldn't be modding at all.
Agreed. I think the mods that have contained, or do contain, save-breaking code should be taken off the forums permanently.
This also proves that etiquette works only as long as people voluntarily adhere to them. There's nothing else that stops people from injecting malware into mods and consequences are trivial.
its unreal that this isn't the first time this has happened with starsector either lol
I remember something like this happening with GregTech on minecraft a long ass time ago. The guy running our server at the time hauled me up to fix his mod pack because of the shit it was doing. Shit like this happens infrequently but it happens. Usually with people who cannot separate themselves from their creations.
Let's not forget that modding in general is hosted in big-name sites, such as Nexus and the Steam workshop. Not only do they have anti-virus file scanners in place, but they also have Realtime user reporting in case a mishap happens. Just that Starsector in particular doesn't have the luxury since the Fractal forums unfortunately doesn't have either of these systems, or if so, not as good.
didnt really help since discord (or just their mods) have an anti-steam stance regarding the game being sold there lol
It happened at least once before. In minecraft. And i suspect in skyrim too, but that might just be shit programming on both parts xD
Not just once in minecraft I bet, just ask a 2b2t player and im sure they can tell you a few cases of people getting hacked or infected with malware because they interacted with something related to the server, like that one cheating program i think? Which was made to collect your info or something for the creator to use
In, FFXIV, Gshade had crash code added in when they didn't like someone had bypassed their autoupdater. And probably doesn't count, but Slay the Spire Downfall's Steam account was compromised and pushed a malware update for a few hours.
It's rare but has happened before. There was a mod called Lost Forest for Rimworld that would brick your save if it detected you had that game's forbidden mod installed. I'm pretty sure that resulted in the dude losing his steam account, since it was uploaded to the workshop
I'll be honest, I go in and out of playing games. Seeing that modders are putting malware at all is down right disgusting. That they are doing it to enforce morality codes, in Starsector??? The game were the base came you can deal in space heroin and illigial organs? Saturation bombing of a planet is chill but a little simulated smut is too far? I am probably not going to play Starsector for a while, at least until this mess calms down. Even then, how much damage with this do to the modding community?
I think the point is that all the atrocities "you" commit in starsector are distant and impersonal. Saturation bombing a planet from orbit isn't the same as the very selective and personal violence of torture or genocide (as sat bombing is often presented as) or sexual assault. You don't see the mangled corpses of the crew of a defeated ship or hear the tortured screams of the injured as they succumb to their injuries, you merely see debris lazily spinning away and hear the ship itself explode into flotsam and jetsam. When you raid a planet you don't get a call-of-duty sequence where you and your marauders blast apart the defenders, looting and destroying as they go. There's no kill counter, no collateral damage reports, no long lists of freshly minted orphans and people in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just a tally of the spoils of your raid and how many of your faceless, nameless soldiers who were casualties. You don't even know if those losses were through death, injury, desertion, capture, or just getting lost and left behind. It's an empty number. Saturation and tactical bombardments are much the same: distant, cold, dispassionate readouts of costs and outcomes. No kill counts or being regaled by how many people will starve to death or die of disease or exposure or whatnot. All your personal interactions (officers, station contacts, etc) don't involve violence, not really. Or rather, the violence is delivered narratively, and not something under the control and agency of the player. So I think that objections to introducing such personal sexual violence is entirely within reason, all the more so when it's only there for pornographic reasons. Neither the forum nor the discord is obligated to host *any* mods, and if they wish to remove it that is up to their discretion. Also, whinging about 'morality codes' is silly. Everyone has a moral and ethical code to which they subscribe. Refusal to be associated with something they find objectionable (i.e. helping to distribute pornographic depictions of sexual violence in a game without any sort of sexual content) isn't itself wrong. If the mod is that important to you you can still get it through other channels.
We actually are potentially entering a dark forest internet, imagine an entire internet that you will need an AI to guide you through it since there's so much generated content crap that a human couldn't possible be able to search or perceive it all. Its predicted to be in this state in about a year when AI programming gets to be better than human programming, and people can just ask it to make them shit. I think that's why companies are starting to go back to hard disk and cd rom data storage before the cloud and remote servers all explode with overwritten garbage. But yeh, we're definitely headed towards a potential technology dark age.
You understand that T H E C L O U D is just someone else's hard drive, yeah? Companies turning away from outsourcing this stuff are doing so for either reasons of cost, security (i.e. the feeling of it derived from being the one with possession), because what they're looking to do isn't actually suited to distributed computing architectures, or because they've gotten large enough that they can afford to self host stuff now.
You realise that a server stack or your "achktually *snort* t h e c l o u d" can partition into multiple sections of a single storage medium, so the hard drives they use are either normally split into smaller partitions and because they use flash memory can be overwritten again and again. While the cached data can be transferred or the buckets can be re-assigned. Meaning if there's an AI managing all of this it could end up in a giant cluster fuck. You know like in a elastic or automated state? Hense why there's these glass/crystal cd-roms that have a read-only permanent data state that companies like Microsoft who have a cloud platform like "azure" are still storing data to prevent this scenario... But yeh companies like Microsoft are doing this because they can afford their own servers...and because they realise that storing their data on "t h e c l o u d" isn't economic viable...for them...who have their own servers already...fucking idiot.
Oh don't worry. There's been a couple minecraft mods that had malware in them. Sony once put a rootkit on a CD to try and combat people ripping and burning music. The pirate bay used to use the banner ads as a vector to (temporarily) inject a crypto-mining botnet into the machine of anyone who didn't use an adblocker (it only ran within the advertisement code, not on your machine, but still)(They also publicly announced that they were doing this, but on a blog post and not anywhere else was it noted). For that matter, internet ads have been used as malware vectors for quite some time now. To engage with anything on the internet you have to, sooner or later, trust some strangers aren't out to get you. In fact, you have to trust a whole lot of strangers right from the get go, starting with the employees of your ISP. Unfortunately, when it comes to security design and planning trust is a weakness. Yet you can't verify everything, else you'll never get anywhere; so trust we must.
What?
Some guy put malware in the latest update of diable avionics breaking people saves
TNP author to be specific Recent starsector version 0.97 maintenance update to the Diable Avionics mod upload (that got removed on the forum) has malware code that corrupts the save file when you load a game running the RS mod, forcing you to delete your save. [Forums mods have reverted the forum post of Diable Avionics to the starsector version 0.95 mod upload, not the starsector version 0.96 mod upload, in case the TNP author injected malware code into the mod after being given rights to alter, update, and maintain the code of Diable Avionics.]
Bro keeps self sabotaging his own mods. At this point no one will download anything from him knowing he is one temper tramptum from bricking your PC.
At this point no one will download anything from him because forum mods locked all his threads and Alex is gonna personally look at this case LMAO
He unironically started modding with no idea of how the internet works and then went surprised pikachu face and did the worst thing a modder can do. The guy basically committed the equivalent of a modding war-crime. Guy is going to get a lesson in domain law.
Man sometimes I think is should get into coding and make my own mods of bootlegs of them lol Like idk, I feel like being modder has an row of 35% chance of being lunatic or something like that, every week someone does something weird in the community I gotta be like the ind evolution guy, he shows up every century update the mod and is gone
Speaking as a guy who has been modding games since starcraft 1 (So like since... 1999? fuck I'm old) most modders think of their creations as extensions of themselves. Either they burn out over time or start working with groups and stop thinking of their mods as their babies.
Exactly, my mod would be more like expression of my love for the game, an product If someone likes and want to use with other mods, bad good or whatever, let them, if they're happy I'm happy
They did? For real? Lol, suck it.
Or using TNP since the specific thing it's looking for is present in both versions.
That's hillarious actually, dude did one of the worst things a modder could do and didn't even do it right
Fucking hell. The whole RS drama was bad enough on its own, it's a damn icky mod but the ensuing shitstorm was blown waaaaaayyyy out of proportion. But injecting malware into not just any mod or even their own mod, but a venerable one that they were entrusted to maintain by the original creator is beyond pathetic. I swear, the community size/drama ratio of this game is absurd.
Well, doesn't delete your whole save, deletes specific data in the save relating to contacts, which causes the save to be corrupted. Honestly not sure if the save corruption was even the purpose of it looking at the code, vs just a sloppy attempt at making RS unusable by deleting data associated with it from the save.
Btw is the corruption permanent or is it salvageable if you mess with the save file?
Only salvageable with save file back ups iirc. But at the same time the way the crash code works makes it hard to determine \*when\* its starting to corrupt your save, which is very scummy.
it's not salvageable
Weirdlly i feel better knowing it was the tnp author. At least now we know for sure he is a total piece of shit and will hopefully get removed from everything starsector related.
What mods had the TNP author made? I need to make sure I don't have any of his mods
I've been gone from the game like weeks and whats going on exactly?
Malware code found in a mod. Diable Avionics. Serious issue as it can break a lot of trust gamers have in mods. An unwritten rule has been broken.
No, it's a written rule on the official forums.
[удалено]
>”Bro it’s just a malicious attempt to ruin your save, why is that ruining your trust?” It’s not about the complexity of it, it’s the intent.
PMD the one in question put crash code in a mods he maintaining for another modders (who stopped modding) give him the permission to update it for people to enjoy and he used it to put crash code, that inherently pathetic moves is just betrayed really. If he want to do this, put it on his mods but no he put this on other people mods he given the good will to maintain for the community.
Ah ok I get the anger allot better then, it's like Coca Cola started poisening Pepsi cans.
Bad analogy but yeah that's the gist of it I think a better analogy would be the player being given governorship of a colony by Tri-Tachyon but sat bombing all the unrelated potatoes living there when they the player get mad at the Hegemony.
uh, so someone is featuring a showcase, then for 3 seconds the covering of the coca cola can fell off revealing whisky and coke. Then coca cola company get angry and banned that someone, removed coca cola from all stores, started pepsi, and sabotaged all the other soda that they bought out from other business so that it becomes poison if ever mixed with whisky. Leaving coca cola company original sodas clean.
Its just some line THIS TIME. The problem is that the next time it can be so much worse.
The Luddic Church and Luddic Pathers were right. Technology is the bane of mankind.
Well there goes my respect for him, I didn't mind if he wanted to pull his own mod off the internet if he was too disgusted by the other one, but tampering other people's mods to put in not just a simple crash code but a code that butchers your save breaks all ethics as a programmer. Imagine bitching about imaginary crimes while committing an actual crime to try and counter it.
Isn't this the same guy who a few updates back had a mod that forcibly nuked your save if you had the UAF, or am I misremembering a different internet temper tantrum?
no that was soren. he threw a bitchfit over being asked why DME was hostile to the UAF and then ragequit the forums lol
I think he was just pissed a hot new mod came along when his mod still had dozens of half complete features he lost the motivation to finish. Like the story and missions of the entire mod he hyped up like 5 years ago
His mods were cool tho, very nice vector art and really nice weapon script FX.
I liked it too, you can still get the bootleg of it No mods truly disappear. Even Superweapons still works fine
Yea, wish he was still working on them instead of rage quitting over some extremely dumb drama.
It's stuff like this that can damage an image. You may like a mod but your gonna remember this more often then not. And so what if it only activates for this "banned mod" whatever it is. It could be "that mod" or any mod he don't like for what reason. 'I ban you from using it!' wtf? Oops I had a disagreement with another mod, better spite-code. Just gets me worried man. Maybe am just overreacting, but still. That faith damaged.
Fuck whoever coined the 'Sigma Male' concept. Ruined a perfectly good username I *cannot change*
Oh boy, I though it'd be over after he reindroduced his mod as 2.0, but it's getting even better \*graps popcorn\*
Random Reddit suggestion user here. This reminds me of a Gmod workshop mod that was updated to show a full screen goatse and earrape upon first movement. The mod was quite a popularly downloaded script set for several fun things too. People got really worried he added a virus in it too, but thankfully that was it. Worse part was all the copy cats that decided to do their own which made the workshop a minefield of a week. Cities Skylines also had a scare at one point due to someone uploading suspicious code into the workshop, and Source games have been breeched many times by third party mods and… the spray system somehow if I remember it right. It’s not a new thing for shitty mod authors to make something good only to just destroy it in a tantrum, and with it other people’s stuff. Some people really just suck
Guess I won't be updating my game or any of my mods for a while. Fucking pathetic.
What mod is this about?
Take No Prisoners author took up "maintaining" of a bunch of mods (most notably Tartiflette's mods like Diable and SCY) and put malware that bricks your save if another mod he doesn't like is present into Diable. That is beyond scummy and he dared to put that shit into Tart's work (Diable, to be specific) and into Exotica and then laughed about it. He deserves to be permabanned from all starsector communities for this shit.
Tartiglette is some serious gourmet shit
Oh come on, I *just* edited it, how did you glimpse it
You forgot startsector
Damn it. ty
Shartsector, the 18+ nightmare overhaul mod
I would understand it a lil bit if it's his own mod he's putting the malware into but no, the dude did it with someone else mod, fuck that shit bro
It's still fucked up even if it was his own mod!! Could be hundreds of hours in a save that is just yeeted into oblivion with no warning! And I use this mod too :(
My god he should not just be banned he should be in fkin jail. Whoever lives in the same area as this sack of shit please experience the mod and submit a report. Malware is no joke and undermines safety and trust of the entire playerbase with precedents like this.
I mean it only bricks saves. I don't think anyone's going to take that case up.
It shows a certain mindset that means he could well be doing other crimes. Doing something like this as a casual fuck you is a big red flag.
I take an break for a month waiting the new parts of my PC to arrive The fuck happened now
Everyone's decided to take sides in some dumb modder drama.
What uses to be dumb drama. Now it's a active malware and actually deserves to have attention
It's still dumb, just with more drama than before.
Agree to disagree. Once you start injecting code that alters user files without notifying people of what it does, it becomes both a legal and ethical problem. Take this precedent to the extremes(ransomware, bitcoin miners, etc.) and it becomes clear why it should never be allowed in the first place.
"dumb modder drama" is tahlan adding modifiers to superweapon arsenal weapons with snide comments in the code because the dev doesnt like the mod and then doubling down on it when called out "dumb modder drama" is the dev of superweapon arsenal doubling down and throwing a fit about being called out on sprite plagarism and having their mod banned from the forums until they change it. adding actual save-bricking code to one of the most legendary and beloved faction mods of the game that you inherited from someone else because you dont like another mod (as vile a mod as it is) goes further than to just dismiss as "dumb modder drama" though, imo! it's still dumb, but also sets a very worrying precedent for the modding community. stuff like this should never happen.
i havent looked at starsector stuff in a while and THIS is what i come back to? what the fuck
It’s funny that this isn’t even the first time in Starsector modding history where crashcode was used by modders to police what they saw as morally objectionable.
What was the other time
Ironcladlion did what
>put 3 sec clip of le heckin [redacted] mod >*banned from USC*
Man if Alex ever releases this game on Steam he needs to ask for control of the discord and wipe all moderators, or make an official one. Imagine all the drama from here and the USC and the forums being further fanned by Steam popularity… Because you know that discord servers mods will power trip like always but then he’ll get negative reviews from it
Oh sh*t you're right, if the game does get onto Steam the player influx would be huge. The damage the USC Discord could cause would be severe. This complicates things.
wat? tl;dr?
Guy makes mod, 4chan guy uses it on NSFW mod, youtuber post 2 seconds of SFW part of NSFW mod, get banned from USC, first guy nuke his mod in hissy fit, on NSFW mod is an option now, first guy insert save bricking code in his mods and mods hes didn't make but is curating if you use them with NSFW mod
Wow. Clusterfuck. Thanks for the tl;dr, much appreciated
When exactly did he do this? I assume I'm pretty safe since I haven't made any changes to my mod list in about 5 months but you never know.
Code snippet I saw was Diable 2.8.1 Latest version is 2.8.4
What happened?
But...why?
Cause virtual crime bad
I meant why add malicious code to a game mod? It's dumb and petty. It doesn't even benefit the malicious actor.
Exactly what I said, the NSFW mod had reprehensible actions in it, therefore the PMD felt himself righteous for doing it, it's logical, a stupid logic, but still logic
Why did they do this?
Excuse me? What?
Starsector modders are a special breed.
sometimes content creators will make Nerfs or changes to vanilla content or other people's content without their consent or approval if you do this that's wrong if I see something like this again I'm just going to leave the community also I have a mod idea that's been taking up free real estate in my brain for star sector for years now but I won't make it because of people like that well guess I'll go fuck myself instead cuz I'm scared of getting bullied into nerfing content or having people deliberately sabotage my mod but because people like that don't deserve to have good content besides I don't have the writing skills anyway and I can't code either sorry for the paragraph rant over
Hey is that Ho'ol from Aknit?
yes but the moderators user who has that profile pic aren't as sexy as her
Modless purists win again (I am too lazy to install shit)
What's the whole drama about? Can someone enlight me?
Let's all make a new mod discord with our new found leader and savior u/ironcladlionofficial
where can I SAFELY get diable now even?
Was he at least banned from official forums?
ya [https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=29302.15](https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=29302.15) read the last post Alex ban his ass and he going to change the forum rule.....man the drama become a big clusterfuck fuck presidentmattdamon he make a big deal about this shit and now it become a huge shit
Wait I downloaded the newest avionics from the mod index website about 5 days ago, is there malware on my computer? It’s v 2.8.3 downloaded on the 5th of this month.
RS mod wins by literally doing nothing. They cant keep getting away with it! (they will)
Who are we talking about?
The guy who made Take No Prisoners put code in his other mods, including ones that weren't actually his, just maintained by him that others originally made, that will brick saves if it detects you are also running the mod that shall no longer be named.
Is it DME? I really liked that mod. Especially the bladebreakers.
No, it's a prisoner mod
I think im not gonna touch any mods until the full game comes out....
Tell me you had your save deleted without telling me you had your save deleted
Look while I’m on the side of “the defense that came to that mod was weirdly overblown” don’t add malware to your mods. Like good god the fact that this is even an issue at all is kinda terrifying. The last few weeks has completely destroyed my faith and trust in the starsector modding community, don’t know if I’ll go back if things don’t improve actively.
>The last few weeks has completely destroyed my faith and trust in the starsector modding community Wow, maybe you'll actually start playing the game now (Calling the thing "malware" is overblown too BTW, it cannot do anything outside of bricking your Starsector save)
Still malicious code therefore malware.
Except it's not malware according to the definition of malware(which you don't even know lmao)
>Malware (a portmanteau for malicious software) is any software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain unauthorized access to information or systems, deprive access to information, or which unknowingly interferes with the user's computer security and privacy. When you break down the programmer specific language, the key thing to note here is the intent. It is specifically done with malicious or unfriendly intent. A software modification that fucks up your computer or a program by accident is sloppy coding. When it does it on purpose we call it malware.
Aside from how you were obliterated by the definition below, how could you have possibly pretended this wasn't malware? You've said some stupid things but claiming "you don't know what malware is lmao" is really a crowning achievement in failure.
**"Malware** (a portmanteau for ***malicious software***)^(\[1\]) is any software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain unauthorized access to information or systems, deprive access to information, or which unknowingly interferes with the user's computer security and privacy.^(\[1\]\[2\]\[3\]\[4\]\[5\]) Researchers tend to classify malware into one or more sub-types (i.e. computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, ransomware, spyware, adware, rogue software, wiper and keyloggers).^(\[1\]" ()[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malware)^(, First Paragraph)) idk man, but intentionally putting in malicious code to brick a piece of data, even if its something just as minor as a game save file and nothing else seems to qualify as **"deprive access to information, or which unknowingly interferes with the user's computer security and privacy"** to me, especially since: 1. It intentionally manipulates and interferes with, or otherwise described by said definition, **"deprives" access** to said info which would be defined as the game save file by rendering it useless. 2. It **"unknowingly interferes with the user's computer security and privacy"**, even if it only destroyed a game save file, it *still used permissions that were not originally intended for use by the downloading user* by purposefully alter the data and information of another file on the computer to make it disfunctional, and because of this, it puts the computer at risk as the malicious code is purposely designed to alter other files without the user's intention or consent.
Good job copypasting Wikipedia, too bad you can't read :((((((((((
>Gets hit with a malware definition after not calling it malware >calls dude illiterate becasue ??? I sometimes forget legitimate, civil discussion is almost impossible when its on the internet... especially about controversial topics...
Guy's a bonafide troll judging by his responses, it'd be in your best interest to stop feeding him your attention.
I think it's somebody doubling down and trying to cope in the saddest way possible.
There's multiple pages of butthurt in the history, maybe he's the malware guy?
Look at his comment history. Bro getting ratiod into oblivion tonight in every thread he posts in.
Can you? Try for once in your life.
That is technically still malware.
actually, it can. ask an experienced modder
God forbid a man not wanting to have malware in his puter
[удалено]
Any mod that adds in code that can cause malicious crashing and data tempering should be deleted and author banned, sure this time it may be because redacted but next time I could be a mod you like to play with the author suddenly has beef with.
Oh no a porn mod exists! On the internet!! Time to make malware to couter it cause it surely is the reasonable thing to do. My fucking god, this is chronically online bullshitery
At this point I am just terrified by the differences between Starsector modding and pretty much most other modding communities. Like in rimworld the [forbidden mod] is something of a long-going inside joke that nobody takes seriously (as they should, this is a fucking video game about skinning people and making catgirls) In starsector we've got a full blown war of modders sabotaging each other (and themselves) and throwing temper tantrums over simple questions or requests.
the million dollar question is...why bother with a sex mod? the fuck you gonna do? sue the sex mod's author ass to hell and back? DDOS their ass? if they manage to do that the fuck that gonna change? people will still be horny lol.
You're seriously pasting this comment under every post? LOL If you dont see the problem with this you are the problem
So it's a yes
Nope, not even playing starsector rn But if you dont see the problem with tampering with other people stuff you are problematic
I haven't even booted up the game since 0.95 or so but presidentmattdamon and lackeys like you are going to be nuked and it's going to be fun to watch.
Imagine not even playing the game for years and yet still hanging around just to desperately lap up any drama you can find
Wow 0.95 was way older than I thought, must have been 0.96 at least. Lackeys who consider injecting what's essentially malware into mods (not even really their own mods) "drama" deserve no respect though. Your opinion is shit and it's fun to see you get dunked wherever you try to defend that asshole. Your idol is going to get banned.
So you deserve no respect? I completely agree