Gwendal, better known under the name of Gwendal Modding and who recently joined the univers-simu.com team, has just posted a video "rant" on a sad reality, whatever the game: the theft of mod.
Money, money, wheat, sorrel, is that really all that matters? For the youtubeur, yes! And by increasing the number of download platforms, mod thieves are also increasing their income, each site having its share of advertising.
Farming Simulator is not the only game impacted by this scourge. All mod games end up with a slew of associated download sites. If some are serious, others are downright villainous: bad descriptions, bad links, stolen images without taking into account copyright ...
The problem with this kind of platform is that they demotivate modders who see their work go out into the wild, be renamed, or even sometimes be assigned a new author. A shame!
Steam to the rescue
I modded a lot myself back in the days of Half Life 2. I still mod on Pure Farming and tackle Spintires Mudrunner when I find time. The first mod of the John Deere from Pure Farming was just a conversion of an existing mod. He very quickly found himself on this kind of platform, and it was rather embarrassing vis-à-vis the original designer because his name was not mentioned. This blocked me from uploading my other mods for this title.
Then Ice Flames added Steam Workshop support to its game. In my opinion, this tool is the one that makes it possible to pull the rug out from under mod download sites. It concentrates on its own all the mods of a title and allows them to be installed with a single click. There is no question of going through hack of all kinds to benefit from an add-on. Best of all, it allows modders to update their mods very easily. These are downloaded automatically, no need to monitor updates.
Spintires Mudrunner has been running the Workshop natively since those early days, Pure Farming too. Nothing is announced, it seems to me, for Cattle and Crops and Farming Simulator, but let's hope that they integrate this solution via their respective publishers one day or another ...