Here is my thought process on paid mods. There are mod developers/creators that will create something that is trademarked/copywritten and then sell it. That part is illegal. Yet no one cares. There is a reason game companies need to have a license to use trademarked items. It is because if they don't. They can get sued for copyright infringement (I believe). If they are selling something that isn't trademarked. Then go ahead. I don't care. But selling stuff that they don't have licenses to sell is what gets me. Now can we please drop the paid mods topic.
As for what I said in the first post. I see where you all are coming from. But for the mod creators. This community is small enough as it is. And there are mods the get released in an incomplete form because the developers don't have the time anymore to work on the mod(s). Are there mods that we all wished would have gotten completed? Yeah. Look at all the attempts to create a Chicago mod. Still don't know why each one ends up dead. Maybe we can call it the Chicago Curse or something. Speaking of dead mods. We can use stuff from mods like Fairfax V3 in other mods as long as we give credit to the mod developers. Right? Asking because I used one of the stations from Fairfax V3 and did give credit for it in Northview South County Revived 1.25.
Back on topic. The amount of mod creators that will stay in the EM4 community long enough to learn as much as someone like Itchboy is extremely small. Maybe like AShadowBox said. Maybe we can release various dev resources to be used in other mods. As long as the person who created that dev resource gets credit. That would also help the community. I know communities can be toxic. Just look at the ATS/ETS2 modding communities. Where people upload mods that they did not create to sites where they make money off each download. And those same people are incredibly hated in that community. This community can be worse.
There is a reason there were a ton of Mayberry and LA based mods. And it comes down to that those mod creators did not mind using their mods as a base for people to learn how to create mods. As long as they were credited for the base mod. In my opinion. Releasing mods and having others criticizing what you did is a good tool to help you figure out where you made mistakes and where you can learn. My first mod that I ended up heavily editing it and still do edit is the Riverside mod. I have learned a ton about modding by using that mod but at the same time. I wish I had people's opinions on the mod to help me figure out what I can do better and where I made mistakes.
AND BEFORE ANY SAYS ANYTHING ABOUT THE GERMAN MODDING COMMUNITY. I KNOW THERE ARE A LOT MORE PEOPLE OVER THERE LIKE ITCHBOY. BUT I WOULD RATHER HAVE SOMEONE THAT I CAN UNDERSTAND WITHOUT HAVING TO CONSTANTLY USE A TRANSLATOR.