If they're going to stomp on these mods, they'd better get their own solutions in the pipe ASAP.
the insanely annoying sounds and the obscuring, irritating graphics dealt with by these mods are a PROBLEM. These mods didn't crop up out of nowhere, they filled a very real need.
They have the right to do what they want with their game, but if you're going to come down on people who are filling a community need that is being ignored by the dev team, you'd best step up to the plate and offer a solution of your own.
I for one will be watching.
The Nethergoat Archive: all my memories, all my characters, all my thoughts on CoH...eventually.
My City Was Gone
For some reason, I thought someone on the team, whether it be moderator or dev would've jumped on this thread by now and tried making sense out of it. Are there not enough moderators here? If not, I'd be happy to volunteer! 
EDIT:
I'm wondering if being a moderator exempts you from paying the monthly game fee. IF so, I would really like to be one. Don't worry, I have morals and will talk things out with the customers before I start deleting threads on a whim.
Very upsetting. Hopefully a slightly less curt explanation is forthcoming.
Interesting, I had like 6 stars this morning and now I only have 2? What do the stars indicate anyways? I haven't learned this aspect of the forums as of yet. Someone please educate me. Thank you.
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umm...you guys realize that they are adding controls for loops/particle effect..as well as stores on maps in patches soon right?
..or am I stil lthe only one who listens to what the devs say 
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Please be so kind as to post a link to where the Devs made this announcement because I've seen nothing of the kind. And an "It's coming" or "were working on it" is not good enough.
Doesnt is seem awfully strange that this draconian measure to stomp out alll mod threads was enforced as soon as a couple of very innovative players came up with a mod to disable visual power effects?
Why not simply address and fix this annoying problem instead of continuing to sweep it under the rug for months on end at the expense of your paying customers 
Fortunately for the player-base of CoH, there are other discussion boards to be read on the internet. A good one is the City of Heroes Vault boards at IGN.
Are you SERIOUS?
Players mod the game because ongoing sound/visual effects are ANNYOING, to the point of not using those powers/characters, yet if players mod the game to get rid/reduce it, you're going to remove threads about it?
Client-side mods don't affect other users, doesn't allow 'cheating', and is a win-win situation. What exactly is the problem? Please don't knee-jerk ToS - if it really is in there in page 23,474,467,164 it should be removed, since the only people its hurting are... the users!
After seeing client hacks destroy Asheron's Call I'm glad to see Cryptic taking a firm stance early on.
One thing's for certain about the hack community - give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile. Cryptic can't stop the hacks entirely (check an above post about moving to the Vault) but the Dev's at least won't condone the mods here.
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Interesting, I had like 6 stars this morning and now I only have 2? What do the stars indicate anyways? I haven't learned this aspect of the forums as of yet. Someone please educate me. Thank you.
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now your down to one 
On the subject at hand though, this blows. Has anyone gone back into game yet to actually test and see if they still work on their own computers?
Brodie
As of now, mods still work as override wasn't removed yet.
They just cant be advertised on the forums, as its against the ToS.
As for the its coming thing I said, I found one of hem in a list of questions Positron answered, havent found the rest yet but I'll keep looking
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3> NPC stores, once they are your contact, why must they disappear from your contacts once you complete their mission, it was so nice to easily target them after the mission. Will that be changed?
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To remain consistent with other stores not being on your map. We want to make it so that other stores appear on your map once you discovered them, once this happens, then the NPC Stores will remain contacts as well.
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Click
BTW Stars are jsut a popularity contest..they mean absolutly nothing..and dont worry aobut only having one, every two weeks or so someone asks about them, and it turns into a "5 stars for everyone!" party
I find it funny that some people are comparing an MMOG to an FPS. Almost all FPS games are MADE to be modded by the community. Almost all FPS games, you don't continue to pay for, and almost all FPS games you don't play on the developers' servers. The world of MMOG's is vastly different. I have to wonder how many people posting in this thread have CoH as their first MMOG.
As far as I know, most of the successful MMOG's, or exploit free ones, never allow client modification, so I'm actually very surprised that so many of you are actually surprised by this decision. I don't want this game to turn into a damn Asheron's Call having just as many bots as there are players.
As for people quitting over this, I those are either empty threats(which isn't very threateninig anyway), or those people are WAY too easily irritable. I've been playing since beta and I've heard the Fortitude, and Integration sounds, and I too hate navigating Perez Park, but jesus, I'm not going to let minor annoyances like that turn me away from an awesome and unique game. Turn down your SFX volume if it bothers you that much.
One last thing. Stop slamming CuppaJo. The policy was already made since before she got here. She's just being the first one to actually enforce it, so let's not slam her for doing her job. Why would anyone expect an MMO company to let players talk about how to do things that are against the ToS aggreement on their own boards?
/rant off
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After seeing client hacks destroy Asheron's Call I'm glad to see Cryptic taking a firm stance early on.
One thing's for certain about the hack community - give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile. Cryptic can't stop the hacks entirely (check an above post about moving to the Vault) but the Dev's at least won't condone the mods here.
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There are very few client hacks in AC. Those were done with a hex editor that removed restrictions on actions. I remember being able to cast 'other' buffs on myself once upon a time. It was handy to demonstrate it to a sent and it got fixed in the next patch.
GEAR isn't a client hack.
Decal isn't a client hack and none of the decal apps are client hacks.
Decal did way more good for AC then bad. And it kept it in the open. Devs could see the majority of the apps and even said which ones they didn't like and which ones would get you banned for using (remember Revenge, the one that spammed tells to someone?).
The stuff Cryptic just stated as against the ToS aren't client hacks. Most of them are purely graphical, like the skins for the AC client are. Map patches and removing looping sounds and graphical changes (I like my new assualt rifle look) are great. Anyone comes up with a mod to rework the GUI and make it better (the map becomes translucent, the enhancement screen is no longer full screen) I will use them.
I'd be willing to bet they are doing this because players are reading those threads, then trying to modify their game, breaking something and calling the Cryptic Tech Support for a fix, this would cause undue work for Cryptic trying to support players that are clueless about how to do the midifications or that just aren't reading everything on how it is done ...
By them allowing those posts here, on their official message boards, they were pretty much saying 'these are ok to do' ...
I've worked in the IT field for a long time, and regardless of how well you write a set of instructions, you will always have people that just don't understand them but will try it anyway ..
Yes it sucks, but it's not that hard to find another place to post the modifications, like Warcry or something, some place where, if people do try them and mess it up and then try to call Cryptic for TS, Cryptic can just point out that the whole thing is not only unsupported, but is against the ToS ...
Also, they probably were not too concerned with the modification posts until it started becoming a major issue ..
Just my thoughts ..
Knew this'd happen eventually.
I really hope they change their policy about this. Any veteren player can tell you the games that last the longest are those where a mod community exist.
I gave them too much credit it seems. I thought it was designed to be mod friendly.
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One thing's for certain about the hack community - give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile. Cryptic can't stop the hacks entirely (check an above post about moving to the Vault) but the Dev's at least won't condone the mods here.
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You are dead wrong. Here's a pic of something that is in question
This is the stuff being banned?
Camo Gun
None of the models were hacked, no code was changed only the image file was switched out. It still owrks like the original.
Now my post may be deleted, but hopefully not, as it is intended to be constructive to the topic.
on another note, I think it's very hard to screw up your system in with these, if you delete the data folder that they all go into, then all your textures will be back to the originals. if anything maybe deleting the piggs, the most you'd need was a reinstall.
-Rile
I'm sorry for any insults or "slamming" of CuppaJo that I have done but it's just funny that as soon as I started reading that thread about shutting off the looping sounds, they get deleted. Almost as if they could see exactly what I'm doing at the time I'm doing it. Oh God, they have little hidden cameras all over my room! *runs away screaming*
I'm back. Anyways, umm, I still don't see anything wrong with turning off the looping sounds. I know people are against it for God-knows-what-reason, but I like to be able to concentrate without that annoying targetting-drone sound loop. Call me crazy but it's not enjoyable by any means and turning them off is hurting who? Don't get me wrong here but I like SOME of the sounds that are in the game. Especially the ones that don't loop 
.
It's not game-hacking, it's making it more comfortable. The people that say it leads to some really bad hacking that will ruin the game for everyone is like the same stupid people that think marijuana is a "gateway" drug. That really makes me laugh. I've had plenty of friends that have smoked MJ and have never turned to the hard stuff. In fact, they all have high-paying jobs while lil ol' goody-two-shoes me (didn't do it until after the military) is unemployed and looking for work everyday. I have a career of looking for a career, only this career is paying me "squat".
You have to look at this from a realistic point of view. This game is played by people in the real world who create in-game character copies of characters owned by companies OTHER than Cryptic.
There's a HUGE legal issue that comes into play when someone publishes a mod that alters the client to exchange a random emblem to Superman's shield or Batman's logo. It already happened, and it would have happened more.
It's unfortunate that these legal issues come to play, and I hope the devs look into the idea of an officially sanctioned modding community that revolves around screened submissions to prevent people from offering up copyrighted stuff.
Unfortunately, the legalities and design complications of such an endeavor might not be worth the trouble to the devs, and I can understand that, but people posting copyrighted mods to Cyptic's official forums somewhat expresses tolerance and possibly acceptance of such mods, and as a result, I have to say that I agree with the forum clampdown.
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Superman's shield or Batman's logo
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Cryptic can be held responsible for something like that if they created the file, or allowed the name in the case of reserving names of heroes. But If someone else alters the texture so that only he can see it, first off no one else can see it(hence the client side), and secondly it is not crypics problem anymore. Also, If I draw a superman logo or a batman logo and put it on my computer or hang it on my refrigerator, DC/marvel or whoever cant do anything about it. I dont believe this decision is for such instances as you listed. why it was brought up and stated? Im not sure.
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As far as I know, most of the successful MMOG's, or exploit free ones, never allow client modification, so I'm actually very surprised that so many of you are actually surprised by this decision.
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Everquest allows client modification within limits. You can install third-party maps or change your UI to your heart's content. You cannot use any macroing programs or client emulators.
And, you know what? That's probably the best thing about EQ right now. Hate your UI? Download a new one. Don't like the ones available for download? Learn XML and mod it yourself.
For all SOE's faults, they know the difference between a hack and a benign mod.
I think cryptic knows the difference, though I do think they'll enlighten us on it as well. communication is good and from what I've seen, cryptic is good with communication.
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Superman's shield or Batman's logo
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Cryptic can be held responsible for something like that if they created the file, or allowed the name in the case of reserving names of heroes. But If someone else alters the texture so that only he can see it, first off no one else can see it(hence the client side), and secondly it is not crypics problem anymore. Also, If I draw a superman logo or a batman logo and put it on my computer or hang it on my refrigerator, DC/marvel or whoever cant do anything about it. I dont believe this decision is for such instances as you listed. why it was brought up and stated? Im not sure.
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If the alowed the post to stay on their forum then it IS Cryptics problem. unless they prove they are doing everything they can, then they CAN have legal action taken against them. Same thing with website owners who allow insults to stay up, they can be held accountable.
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Or maybe if you dont like a part of the game, simply petition for a change. I would think that if enough people want better maps, cryptic will put them in eventually. In the mean time simply learn your zones. it isnt that hard.
Modifying the client should be against the TOS, and should be wiped here on these boards.
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They don't want good maps .. excessive travel time is one of the main timesink devices used in this game.
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Or maybe if you dont like a part of the game, simply petition for a change. I would think that if enough people want better maps, cryptic will put them in eventually. In the mean time simply learn your zones. it isnt that hard.
Modifying the client should be against the TOS, and should be wiped here on these boards.
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They don't want good maps .. excessive travel time is one of the main timesink devices used in this game.
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I'll assume this is your first MMORPG and let that slide.
But take my word for it, dont play SWG or Everquest or WoW if you think CoH has bad travel time.
Only thing is, Statesman hasn't said anything much about mods as far as I know. I don't think he really cares. Could it possibly be that CuppaJo is new to the moderation of these forums and is blindly trying to intervene and "look good" for the devs and other moderators?(I am still not 100% sure on CuppaJo's gender. Haven't looked at his/her profile yet either.) I've seen this kind of behavior by forum moderators before. "Oops! People are taking advantage of files on THEIR COMPUTERS! Let's delete anything that promotes this RIGHT AWAY!" No thought as to why people might be posting this stuff to begin with. Umm, maybe we're all trying to say something here that CuppaJo isn't seeing as crystal clear yet. We have complaints about the game. Most of us don't want to wait for another stinking update that may or may not be coming "soon". Since our computers are OURS, we would like to change some files on them to help with the ENJOYMENT of the game. Now, don't you want people to ENJOY the game? What does it matter what we do with OUR OWN PERSONAL FILES? If it's on my computer, it is my file. Sorry, but that's my logic and my opinion and I'm entitled to both. Thank you. Have a good day.
EDIT:
I guess that would apply to the power of the moderators too, right? These are YOUR forums, so you can add and delete what you see fit. Okay, fine, we're even.