Searching for mods (looking for mods for Tribes of the East).

Yeah, I remember a mod for the Damned faction, assembled from various NCF creatures... besides, it was generally unplayable due to balance issues.

But it's hard for me to say whether I'm for or against borrowing. That is, if someone steals a faction, I'll be upset, but what did I start with? Stealing the entire Plague Ent! And I also stole the entire Elemental City... I really liked that faction, but now I'm a little ashamed to think about it.

Well, I would say that if a mod relies solely on borrowed models, it will quickly be forgotten, but it can be the beginning of a modder's journey.

To make my point of view clearer. Everything I borrow, I don't consider it the "end result," but only a "placeholder" due to the lack of available alternatives. Borrowed content usually doesn't reveal your own ideas, but only serves as an acceptable assumption on the way to its implementation.

Considering that my first steps in modding Heroes and games in general began with disassembling other mods "by trial and error" before I could consciously start doing something myself. The situation is similar here. Besides, let's be honest - when studying the list of works by the same "NCF," there are quite a few mediocre works in terms of implementation quality that strongly clash with the original game and even other, simply better-quality works by modders. Obviously, this is not exactly what I would like to see in my mod (unless it's just a "mod compilation").

*I respect other modders and their work, whether it's: experimental drafts, intermediate stages, or the final work.
*I cannot seriously consider "incorporating other people's work" as my own work, even if, after modifications, only the model and animations remain from the original work.
*I plan to independently master everything I need to implement the project in the future, and until then, I allow some borrowing as an intermediate solution and a "base" for further development.
*In my mods, there is initially a course to minimize or eliminate any borrowing of other people's work. Of course, this approach greatly limits, especially in the early stages, but I gain more experience and better understand what I am working with.