Regarding The Captain is Dead

[Russian Sly]

Wont judge anyone or spoil it with opinions, just plain facts.

1) Crushfield makes scans of The Captain is Dead and assembles them in TTS.
2) TCID is uploaded into workshop, donation button for Crushfield is included into description
3) I stumble upon the game and play it for some time with friends.
4) We did not enjoy quite some things about how it was adapted to TTS
5) A series of suggestions were made to Crushfield
6) Crushfield replied: he is a busy man, but suggestions are good and he will probably implement them some time in unforseen future
7) I assemble a team of interested people and we improve the adaptation, using Crushfield's assets
8) Fork of Crushfield's adaptation appears in workshop
9) Crushfield is notified about fork
10) All my comments are purged, but link for our fork is left in announcements.
11) This evening, Crushfield updates his version, using our assets.
12) We make a serious overhaul on our version, update it.
13) One of our team's members is concerned that original game developer might be not aware of TCID existing in TTS. We came to agreement to reach out to JT and ask permission.
14) A lengthy letter was sent to JT, describing that he would be able to either take down, let it slide or ascend TCID to status of DLC.
15) Reply received:

"Howdy.

Thanks for your message. I'm glad you like TCID, but I am going to have to ask you to take your version down. We're actually working with the creators of TTS right now to get an official version of TCID released as DLC.

I completely agree with you that having TCID out there will sell more physical copies of the game. And I want to release TCID on TTS. But we need to do it the right way.

Thank you for reaching out. And thanks for your support of TCID.

JT"
16) Our version was left hanging in workshop for a little while, warning that it will be taken down soon was posted
17) I warned Crushfield by posting JT's response among with some of my own words.
18) Crushfield purges my warning and all mentions of our fork
19) I take down our fork willingly
20) Crushfield is forced to do so
21) Crushfield rushes to TTS IRC and rather emotionally discusses the DMCA notice.
22) Currently Crushfield adaptation hosts nothing, but people commenting that Crushfield is a hero of modern age, fighting the greedy corporations.

Outcome - TCID will, probably, come in unforseen future to TTS as a DLC.
I regret nothing.

Screenshots of our fork, if someone is interested:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=628137659
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=628137716
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=628137776

[Russian Sly]

JT's thoughts on situation:

"As the copyright holder in this case, I absolutely agree that The Captain is Dead should be available via Tabletop Simulator. What I don't agree with is that it was published here without my consent. I'm working to make TCID available via DLC for TTS, so that everyone who wants it can have a legitimate copy. @Crushfield, I thank you for spreading the word about TCID. Just reach out next time. If I wasn't already working on making TCID a DLC then I would have allowed it. I've allowed it for other game's I've created."

[duck.roasted()]

Just a note, Crushfield left a link to and stated that if you enjoy The Captain is Dead to go and purchase it from said link (ie. thegamecrafter.com where you can purchase the game). Also, I was the one who told you that we would be updating the game within a WEEK (so no "unforseen" future) because we have day jobs. You, within 2-3 hours of posting about what you thought the game could use, had used our assets to reupload the game (btw, I rather liked your board and setup). You just had no patience for us, nor did you try and contact us to work on one release on TTS with us. You simply asked if you could use them, and, when told that one version of the game would be better for all, took it upon yourself to do what you pleased.

[duck.roasted()]

Crushfield owns a copy of the game (in which I paid half for), and he paid for the expansion. You, I'm assuming, don't own a hard copy of the game, nor plan on owning one. Frankly, I think you behaved impatiently and childishly. I hope you enjoy yourself with whatever it is you do in life. Cheers m8

[Russian Sly]

Originally posted by grasshopper:

. You just had no patience for us, nor did you try and contact us to work on one release on TTS with us.

Irony is strong with this one.
Did you try to contact JT?

[duck.roasted()]

Originally posted by Sly Fly:

Iron is strong

Yes, iron is pretty strong.

[MostDeaf]

i purged your comments because you flooded the landing comments section with your post, then i immediately made a post directing people to your version of the game using the disscussion boards function under a post I labled "announcements". I thought your version was decent but I prefer a more minimalistic "out of the box" experience" - Something which your version did not convey.

- I scanned all the cards, grass helped me edit and clean them up
- Nikki made the 3d mesh for the player tokens
- Grass and I made the mesh for the torpedos and the mesh for the flat game board

Yes, I used 2 of your assests which consist of two 2 .PNG images (jump core & shields slider token).

I have no issue with you using the assests we ported in. I never did.

Collectively we put over 30+ hours of work into porting the game into tts; I added the donate button explicitly for that reason. It had nothing to do with making profit from copyright material.

I respect that JT doesnt want his game on tts, that is his right. If JT doesnt want free advert for his game then thats his choice. However, his logic about "asking before doing" is moot. It would not have changed the outcome in the very least. Personally, Im inclined to believe this is not the first time JT had his game removed from the workshop. If you search "That captain is dead" under screen shots you will find screens of someone else who ported TCID awhile before we did.

I did not heed your warning because I did not contact JT, you did. Funny how it all works out. You tried to do the semi-diligent thing and contact JT only to have it completely back fire on you. Either way, in an almost comical manner, you completely "threw us under the bus". Which is fine, im not bitter about it, but in a round about way - this entire debacle is your fault and is completely reliant on the sequence of decisions you decided to make.

We do share some common ground. I encourage you to keep modding, creating and bolstering TTS content.

[Fastattaq]

The biggest issue I had with Crushfield's mod is the fact that he put a donation button on his workshop page. That's just really, really bad form in my opinion.
Not only did Crushfield make a mod he had no permission from its creator in the first place, he was potentially profitting from it.

He'll say, "but we put 30 hours into it, we should be compensated".

I saw Crushfield's mod. It wasn't very good. It was a minimalist port that looks like it took a minimal effort.
You had a default TTS custom board with a default glass table and some cards. There weren't even any snap points in the game. There were loose cards flying everywhere. It certainly didn't look like 30 hours worth of work. Basically, SlyFly and company had to show them how to do a game mod the right way, and over the course of a few days, Crushfield slowly implemented some of those ideas that Sly initially suggested and later implemented into his own mod.

Crushfield and company were warned the mod was going to get taken down. Surprisingly, Crushfield DELETED the warning from the guy trying to help him, and kept it up anyway. He had more than enough time to react, so it's not like the DMCA takedown should have been a surprise to anyone. Then you have the nerve to insult JT Smith calling him a jerk and implying he's uneducated. Real classy.

The reaction from the community here, mostly on the workshop page, really makes me sick.
So many people are like, "this is bad publicity" and "I'm not guy to buy the DLC because this company sucks" and all that. You guys are all terrible.

Do I need to make a tl;dr for some of you guys? TL;DR Crushfield made a low-effort workshop mod and distributed copyrighted material for potential profit through Paypal. Mod get's taken down by copyright holder, sheep blindly defend mod maker as mod maker insults the copyright holder.

Anyways guys, The Captain is Presumed Missing Dead is a really terrific game, and is destined to be an all-time classic co-op board game, right up there in the ranks of Arkham Horror and Pandemic. You should support the game's creator when it's available as a TTS DLC. It'll cost about the same as a Big Mac Extra Value Meal from McDonalds, and you should probably buy it because great game developers like JT Smith deserve to be supported.

[MostDeaf]

Originally posted by Fastattaq:

The biggest issue I had with Crushfield's mod is the fact that he put a donation button on his workshop page. That's just really, really bad form in my opinion.
Not only did Crushfield make a mod he had no permission from its creator in the first place, he was potentially profitting from it.

He'll say, "but we put 30 hours into it, we should be compensated".

I saw Crushfield's mod. It wasn't very good. It was a minimalist port that looks like it took a minimal effort.
You had a default TTS custom board with a default glass table and some cards. There weren't even any snap points in the game. There were loose cards flying everywhere. It certainly didn't look like 30 hours worth of work. Basically, SlyFly and company had to show them how to do a game mod the right way, and over the course of a few days, Crushfield slowly implemented some of those ideas that Sly initially suggested and later implemented into his own mod.

The donate button was simply there due to the time investment of porting all the assets in. I did NOT ask anyone for anything, not once. I simply made that option available.

Im not suprised that it got taken down, because you guys pretty much said "hey JT, if ours has to go down, then so should theirs". I ignored and deleted the warning because I planned to leave mine up until I received the DMCA warning.

You can say what you want about it being minimal effort but that is just false, I spent a lot of time porting those assets in. You are currently using 95% of my assets. The intial board image, over 100 card scans, the player tokens, the torpedos. You didnt bother changing ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ TTS background for that matter. On top of that, you did not even go into the host options and change the game file name, it still says "The Captain is Dead - Alpha".

Thats exactly what is was, an ALPHA release with tons more work to be done. Intially, all you did was add a custom board image, snap points and 3 tokens.

Moreover, I have removed my assests from the workshop so that when you try to play my version you are presented with a note card, just like the one you see on my TCID screenshot section. You guy's version is simply marked "hidden" and anyone who is previously subbed to it can still play. In fact you are playing it right now, enjoying the fruits of our labor.

See here:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=629088143

You say the community reaction makes you sick, yet here you are playing a game you dont own...

I physically own a copy of both the board game and the expansion, you all DO NOT own either. I have given JT all the support im going to give. That's that.

Its in your best interest to drop this entire ordeal, unless you want to be wrekt further than you already have been.

Get your sh*t together m8

[Randy Salami]

Originally posted by Crushfield:

Originally posted by Fastattaq:

The biggest issue I had with Crushfield's mod is the fact that he put a donation button on his workshop page. That's just really, really bad form in my opinion.
Not only did Crushfield make a mod he had no permission from its creator in the first place, he was potentially profitting from it.

He'll say, "but we put 30 hours into it, we should be compensated".

I saw Crushfield's mod. It wasn't very good. It was a minimalist port that looks like it took a minimal effort.
You had a default TTS custom board with a default glass table and some cards. There weren't even any snap points in the game. There were loose cards flying everywhere. It certainly didn't look like 30 hours worth of work. Basically, SlyFly and company had to show them how to do a game mod the right way, and over the course of a few days, Crushfield slowly implemented some of those ideas that Sly initially suggested and later implemented into his own mod.

The donate button was simply there due to the time investment of porting all the assets in. I did NOT ask anyone for anything, not once. I simply made that option available.

Im not suprised that it got taken down, because you guys pretty much said "hey JT, if ours has to go down, then so should theirs". I ignored and deleted the warning because I planned to leave mine up until I received the DMCA warning.

You can say what you want about it being minimal effort but that is just false, I spent a lot of time porting those assets in. You are currently using 95% of my assets. The intial board image, over 100 card scans, the player tokens, the torpedos. You didnt bother changing ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ TTS background for that matter. On top of that, you did not even go into the host options and change the game file name, it still says "The Captain is Dead - Alpha".

Thats exactly what is was, an ALPHA release with tons more work to be done. Intially, all you did was add a custom board image, snap points and 3 tokens.

Moreover, I have removed my assests from the workshop so that when you try to play my version you are presented with a note card, just like the one you see on my TCID screenshot section. You guy's version is simply marked "hidden" and anyone who is previously subbed to it can still play. In fact you are playing it right now, enjoying the fruits of our labor.

See here:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=629088143

You say the community reaction makes you sick, yet here you are playing a game you dont own...

I physically own a copy of both the board game and the expansion, you all DO NOT own either. I have given JT all the support im going to give. That's that.

Its in your best interest to drop this entire ordeal, unless you want to be wrekt further than you already have been.

Get your sh*t together m8

OH DAMN, get rekt.

[em]

I have no horse in this race. Never played the game, never saw either mod. Will probably buy the DLC to support the creator, but I don't care about who did what with the mods you made.

Originally posted by Crushfield:

The donate button was simply there due to the time investment of porting all the assets in. I did NOT ask anyone for anything, not once. I simply made that option available.

My only response to that is the very fact that the donate button existed was you asking for something. It may have been non-verbal, but it was still a request. I would say the same of any other modder who put a donate button somewhere in their mod. If I ever saw a donate button in a mod myself, for a non-original game, I would immediately report it to the person who made the original game, as well as the TTS devs (although I don't know if they would do anything about it).

[Fastattaq]

The main reason it was taken down, and why it needed to be taken down, was to stop distribution. People that have downloaded it and play with from a save state are going to have it. Not much can be done about that now, that's in the past. People who have a save of TCID are going to be playing TCID. It's a good game.

You've argued here or on the workshop landing that the game could very well exist in the workshop for free until a premium DLC version can replace it. Tell me, what happens to DLC sales if the majority of people who want TCID already have access to a version of the game?
Most of them aren't going to buy it. Why would they?

Take Munchkin for instance. Munchkin has been removed from the workshop so many times people have lost count, yet it remains one of the most popular games on TTS through json trading.
If/when Munchkin gets its own paid DLC, how many people are going to pay for it, considering the massive number of bootleg editions that are out there, most of which are of exceptional quality?

No matter what happens with TCID, I plan to purchase the TTS DLC, just as I have with all the TTS DLC. The game is incredible and JT Smith deserves my support.

[Marquise*]

Excuse-me... but THAT starship map is straight made out of a screenshot of the FTL game!

What do you do? Mixing games? I mean I can see even enemies aboard the ship under the figurines.

[Fastattaq]

That's what they call an "easter egg". You see, TCID feels like you're playing a board game version of FTL. This is a little nod to FTL.

[Marquise*]

Oh BOY!

(BTW FTL would be such a good stand-alone game board too :D )