Umm.. I think you guys are missing a very important part here, something that may just derail this mod:

Believe it or not, you DO need permission to use Bungie's ships, both from the game and from the books, in the mod. Even IF you created them from stratch, you are still using their likeness and names, not to mention you are also using a copyrighted title IN GENERAL.

Their game, Halo, and all material related to it are copyrighted UNDER Bungie, meaning: You need their permission.

So before you all go off and do this, ask them first.

I believe as long as your not selling the object in question under copyright its ok. And regardless, the bungie guys would probably be excited anyways if you show them a working textured version.

The same thing applies for virtually every mod in existence. You probably aren't being too respectful of copyright law when you create and/or install a mod that uses any other IP like Star Wars or Star Trek. It's just an unspoken rule that until you get a cease and desist letter, you make hay while the sun shines.

There has been excessive precedent for Halo mods being foxed, unlike Star Trek and Star Wars.

I know of one, because it stepped on Halo Wars' toes. Thats a weak reason to refuse to consider a mod.

As long as Microsoft owns the rights to Halo, making a Halo mod is a stupid idea. However, debating hypotheticals is really not a useful endeavor until someone actually skilled with coding/modeling/whatever forms a team, at that point debating the risks would be more appropriate.

There was something like this recently. Someone made a modification to Unreal Tournament 3 with the likeness of Master Chief. I mean, it is so identical that NO ONE could mistake it.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/03/27/microsoft-lawyer-says-master-chief-in-unreal-is-great/

Microsoft Lawyers said it's fine as long as they aren't trying to sell this mod and profit from it. So I think that if you did a halo mod, as long as you weren't selling or making a profit from it, you'd be fine.

The reason the halo mod was shut down was because Halo Wars wasn't annouced yet. Why would microsoft allow a mod that is extremely similar to a game they haven't announced. The only reason I would see this mod get shut down was if MS was making a Halo RTS in space, which i would be extremely happy to hear.

If plagerism is claiming someone else's work as your own and copyright infringement is selling someone else's work for your own gain, as long as we don't sell it or claim it as our own we should be fine. Right?

Make a bibliography, like in a report?

Unfortunately, it's a bit more complicated. WWW Link
But, like may have said, mods and stuff usually slip under the radar, and/or are forgiven by companies if no profits were gained and no loss was perceived by the company

so if this mod slips under the radar, and no one financially gains or loses . . . . . . . . what? Can the mod still be circulated amongst people? Are MS and or Bungie hunt people down and force them to delete it? 

Just POed. I am a noob modder.

Well considering Microsoft doesnt really "own" Halo anymore, and bungie does, i dont think there would be a huge problem. If they do approach you just be civil and explain to them what your going to do, and if they say no, then its alright. We'll manage.

If we manage to get by this copyright s***, we need to find experienced modders that will commit to the mod.

just a thought: if someone is going to make this mod, on the opening screen you have to have music from HaloCE playing in the backround. MMMMMMM . . . nostalga

-Sam/Fife

Microsoft still has the rights to Halo.

who would be the flood though... maybe pirates??? You could have that happen that whenever if u explore some planets u discover the flood and then it becomes a pirate base or something.

Microsoft owns the IP of Halo.




Yea, the flood would be a little OP. If one flood spore gets on a ship, it can destroy a race ala forerunners. Rumoredly forerunner scientists came into contact with some flood spores and than 300 years later, the flood control over a million vessels and make the forerunners kill off every sentient being so.... The rebels would stay just that rebels, like Watt's asteroid and the rebel covie's ala Halo 2 that saw through the BS of the covenant hierarchy lies.

Wrong. In GoO, blue team, with Kurt taking James's spot, they go and infiltrate a rebel base because they have nukes, and the UNSC needs as many nukes as possible for the covie war. What you misunderstood is that the rebels meant to be extremely sloppy so the UNSC would send the infamous blue team to grab the nukes. Fast forward, Kurt gets them out of trouble and then they loaded nukes up onto an armored warthog and ran from rocket drones.

The only reason other Halo mods, like the one for CNC, were shut down was because they were too similiar to games MS was making. And so if the mod was released it would hinder profits, why buy a game when you can DL a mod that gives you all the same stuff, right? But MS has no plans in making any sort of space-based halo RTS. So if a mod of it was made, it doesn't affect their profits, and so they wont care.

I agree with everyone here though, a Halo mod would ROCK so hard on Sins. I personally would like a realistic version though. (Meaning covie ships not only outnumber human ships, but vastly overpower them too). Nothing funner then being the underdog and coming from behind and blasting your enemy to dust with some slick tactical maneuver or something.

I'm trying to start a mod that'll let you glass planets: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/306750. I have no experience modding but I figure I'd start somewhere.

That said I'd love to get involved in a Halo mod, although my greatest concern with it is that a LOT of material has to be created from scratch. Only the games and comics have provided visual references for space warfare in the Halo universe, and even then these have been on a very limited scale. I haven't read the books, but being books they don't provide much in the way of visual reference either.

My other concern is that gameplay would have to be very different from Sins to stay true to the Halo universe, although getting a bunch of models into the game would be a necessary step anyway. Humans got their butts kicked 90% of the time, so gameplay for the UNSC and the Covenant would have to be vastly different from each other; the UNSC would employ hit and run tactics and blind jumps while the Covenant would be a little more slow, colonizing planets before moving on to the next one. Unless we're talking about the UNSC after Halo 3, where they might have support from the Elites.

As for ideas, what about having to conquer a planet before colonizing it? First a player would have to bomb it to submission, reducing the planet's health to zero. Then they would have to get a bunch of transports or frigates or whatever and orbitally drop troops onto the surface to reduce the planet's population to zero or swing their allegiance the other way around, and finally colonize the planet, unless it's allegiance had changed during the initial bombardment and troop landings.

Have you considered contacting these guys WWW Link
The moddb has pics

They actually have a forum post on this site: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/305987/page/1/#1672787

This is a quote from evil jedi on his warlords site "Luckily a lot of the art assets from HW2 convert relatively painlessly (especially the newer ones)". This may mean that if the guys at broken line studios want to convert their models to sins they could , possibly.

Well, thats what i'm trying to say, it's a bit more complicated than that. There isn't a clearcut stance in US courts YET on many aspects of the whole copyright issue as it pertains to electronic media and the internet with such things as user generated mods/parodies/etc etc etc... What i was trying to say is without discussing its actual legality, in most cases, if you aren't harming the company with whatever you are doing or gaining profits through their IP, even if their official stance does not allow for modding/etc, they will ignore it. Really, like others have said, you can just do it and if someone contacts you and asks you to stop, you simply stop. It likely won't be a big issue, provided you've not done the two things mentioned above.

Why are we talking about copyright issues when the bigger issue is that ideas are needed to make a successful Halo mod? Yes, copyright is important, but when you get served a cease and desist order you simply stop. Those assets and ideas that were created in the process don't get wasted, they get moved to another mod. If you're still adamant about making a Halo mod you can attempt to rename everything and make it a mod based on Halo and not a Halo mod and see how the lawyers treat that.

When you look at all the mods that have come out that clearly use someone else's IP only a small minority have been served cease and desist letters. Warlords is still around. Beyond the Red Line (a Freespace 2 Battlestar Galactica mod) has gotten the green light from the series' creators despite there being an Xbox Live Arcade and PC Battlestar Galactica game. A Dragonball Z mod for the original Half-Life was served a cease and desist letter and it eventually became a Dragonball Z mod called Earth's Special Forces, which was the same mod without the Dragonball name. Or maybe it wasn't the same mod, but there is at least one out there that the lawyers haven't shut down yet.

The point is that copyright is something to worry about once the first cease and desist letter gets sent. Nothing is being done for profit, we're clear there. Nothing about a Sins Halo mod would take away sales from the upcoming Halo Wars, we're also clear there. And even if a cease and desist letter is sent, the material made for a Halo mod won't go to waste.

EDIT: Also, a disclaimer that Halo and all related materials are property of Microsoft, NOT the creator(s) of the mod, goes a long way.