Heads-up, folks who mod in ancient emulators: The Star Wars Galaxies rogue server SWG Legends is cracking down on mods, though hopefully not the mods you actually use.
“To keep our server fair and enjoyable for everyone, we are implementing some important changes starting January 1st, 2025,” the devs wrote earlier this week. “These changes focus on restricting specific file types from modification (often referred to as ‘modding’) to help prevent game exploits and maintain a level playing field. […] We want to assure everyone that we are not against mods—we are proud of the creativity mods bring to the community. These steps are intended solely to protect a fair gaming environment.”
The soon-to-be-banned mods include those affecting terrain (meshing, we assume), footstep sounds, object templates, collision, CDFs, interior layouts, meshes with collision, and multiple datatables (like buildouts). Reading between the lines here, I suspect most of this has to do with PvP; obviously, if you can make enemy footsteps sound defeningly audible and delete collision with things like walls in the game world, you’d have a big advantage over folks playing the game as designed.
What isn’t at risk? Cosmetic mods like textures, music, sounds (except for footstep sounds), particles, benign meshes, terrain recolors, and UI mods. This happens to include all the housing retex mods I use and made myself, so I’m guessing most players will be fine.
On the other hand, I can think of some totally benign uses for some of the banned mods – deleting an ugly tree from your yard! adding a wall in your house! silencing footsteps forever! – so there are some grey areas here, and the devs are aware of them. Modders who believe they should be exempt can contact the devs for review.
