The big Modding question (to Anet)

Now i know the following question has been asked in one or two threads, but it is hard to sort out the answer, and there has been a decided lack in a response from Anet, aside from the odd comment here and there which has not answered the this question, so the question must be posed to Anet, and hopefully a clear and informative answer is given

1. Are we allowed to mod Guild Wars, ie textures, looks, etc

2. The GW EULA forbids the use of 3rd party programs, but as i understand it Textmod or the other programs ppl are using to mod their games are in fact 3rd party programs, wouldnt that mean users could get banned for using them?

3. Will Anet release a program to let us mod the game ourselves and thus eliminate the top 2 questions?

now that these question have been posed, i shall now put forth a small request to the users of this forum, this thread is not a discussion on whether it should be allowed or not, or what u have done via modding, i also do not want links to other threads where a small comment here and there has been made, i have read them and found them ambiguous at best, i want a clear concise answer from Anet, not a guess or opinion

thank you for your time

I know this is towards Anet devs but I don't see how its possible. The game is server side. The only thing actually on your comp is the maps. Since the GUIs are server side it would be impossible to mod them.

Err? I supposed you haven't checked the mod forums lately...

Textures are clientside, but UI positioning is serverside, I believe...

Yeah, thats the short of it Zinger. textmod allows you to alter graphic overlays on the client side. no altered data is sent to the server, so you are not altering files at all. It's already been stated in the other threads, even Gaile has commented on the fact that using these methods to alter our graphics is allowed, but any side-effects you may cause by using an unsupported program are not going to be addressed by ANet. They've made it perfectly clear for those of us who have actually read and paid attention to the modding threads.

And I seriously doubt they will make their own modding software when they have far too many other things to do. The support requests and dev time would crush any chance of GW2 being released on time.

Just remember that old video about Chaos/Death shield, that was just a Hoax made with a texture modding program on the clientside.

Anet's done pretty much everything humanly possible to make modding their game difficult, so I wouldn't expect any support from them ever.

Texmod doesn't even alter the GW data one tiny bit, just intercepts calls to DX and modifies those calls before passing them to the OS. So it's pretty hard to detect or stop, and not really worth their effort when the max you can cheat with it is health bar markings and neon-colored spirits and skill effects.

Gaile (Community Rep we all know) and Emily Diehl (Design Liaison for ArenaNet) made comments about modding at some point (they may have added them, I don't know...I haven't looked that far into it) and they've been posted to the modding part of the official wiki, which can be found here:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guide...phics#ArenaNet

Read those two comments....they answer questions pretty effectively.

Emily also has a short discussion on her talk page archives about modifying gw.dat: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/User_...archive#gw.dat

Basically...if you screw up your game don't come to them to get it fixed...they will not support it at all...and they will ignore modders as long as the mods don't hurt gameplay or cross any lines that might turn them into exploits...or something along those lines. Keep it positive basically and they won't come after you.

The simple fact that Anet is allowing a guide on how to mod using a third party program to be posted to the official wiki should tell you at the very least they don't mind people doing it.

I'll pick out the most important parts of the comments on Wiki.

First up, Emily Diehl's.

Now for Gaile.

Does that clear things up?

http://www.djrath.com/ksmod/

Read the top of the webpage for Anets "stance" on modding.

Always be carefull in whatever it is you do.

I'm thinking the most suspicious thing you could do that might ring ANet's bells would be to log in and out 20 times in an hour to check your work. Apparently that's botlike behavior or something. :P

*smacks head* im trying to get an answer, i dont want links, and several people have reported being banned for this, hence the question, in an easy to find place for everyone to see, as stated in my OP i have read them but the questions are only part answered in those, so im trying to get a COMPLETE answer that is in no way ambiguous

oh and relambrien those posts answer NOTHING, they say yes and no at the same time, basically gaile says yes its a bannable offence and we might ban you or we might not it depends on our mood, i DONT want that kind of answer, i want YES or NO to each of my 3 questions

It has been stated by Gaile and Emily that modding is not an offense as long as they remain client side (no hacking into Guild Wars servers for you!). It is simply not supported officially, as in do not go crying to support if a mod screws up your game.

Further, as I understand it, textmod is not affecting the game - it is simply redirecting to a new texture file.

The links provided above SHOULD have explained this, if you bothered to even look at them.

The questions have been answered...you just refuse to listen to the people who point out where they were answered.

1. YES...as long as the mods are positive...and don't cross that exploit line. In other words, USE YOUR COMMON SENSE when making a mod.

2. NO, they will not pursue anyone who mods the game using texmod in a positive way (again use your common sense). Like the emulators to play the game on other operating systems...they ignore their use unless another issue comes up like someone using the emulator to mask the fact that they are using a bot. They do not mind the use of such programs as long as they are used in a positive way and do not lead to other activities that are against the TOS.

3. NO...it's been clearly stated they will not support the modding community at all.