No more debate around the ethics of removing the flag of the NUSA from the Warlock!
This goes for arguments for or against the removal of the flag - specifically in relation to comparing it against other mods which remove flags which actually have meaning and impact in real life.
I shouldn't need to explain this to people, and I've already stated my views here before, but for the uninitiated:
"You removed the American flag!!"
Did I? Check again. The flag you think you're defending is the flag of the United States of America, also known as the American Flag, Stars and Stripes, etc.
That flag does not exist in the world of Cyberpunk 2077. For those not up on the lore, the USA as you know it today doesn't exist in the dark future of Cyberpunk 2077, and was in fact dissolved over 80 years before the events of the game. The entity now flying a bastardised version of the old union's flag is the New United States of America, which is a wholly separarate entity to the USA and therefore it is a wholly separate and fictitious flag.
I can't remove something from the game if it didn't exist in the first place.
"But, er...... it looks like the flag of the USA...."
Yup, sure does. That's what copycats do - copy something that came before and twist it into something slightly different to serve their own purposes.
This has been repeated time and time again in every form imagineable: Elizabeth Kress forming the NUSA in the shadow of the old United States of America in the world of Cyberpunk, low-budget action movies copying the plots of Hollywood blockbusters, internet trolls blindly parroting the bigoted views of others for attention, the list goes on...
"This mod hasn't been deleted? Guess the political views of the NexusMods moderators are clear...."
They are - they even made a post specifically to clarify their stance on flag mods and other related mods that alter or remove specific content.
Feel free to take a look, but the basic summary is that the Nexus mod team are not against mods that alter/add/remove flags as a whole, as that's utterly ridiculous. There are likely hundreds or thousands of mods out there for various games that change the design of flags, banners, posters and the like (probably hundreds just for Skyrim alone!), or that add new ones or take certain ones away.
The moderators have made it abundantly clear that "...we are for inclusivity, we are for diversity. If we think someone is uploading a mod on our site with the intent to deliberately be against inclusivity and/or diversity then we will take action against it." This means that any mod that clearly discriminates against people of a range of social and personal characteristics such as (but not limited to) disability, age, gender, sexual orientation, race, country of origin, or religious standing is not permitted on NexusMods.com.
A flag representing the NUSA (a fictitious political entity formally ratified in the 2050s) does not fall into any of these categories.
"So you can make a mod that removes a flag, but others can't?"
Anybody has equal right to make any mod they like, to carry out any purpose they see fit. If they make a mod that flies in the face of Nexus's policy as outlined above however, then they shouldn't expect Nexus to host it for them.
"Flags representing gender or sexual identity have no place in Cyberpunk 2077!"
I'm sorry, have you actually played the game you're arguing about? If anything, those characteristics (along with others like age and disability) are core aspects of the world of Cyberpunk - a world where you have unprecidented freedom to alter your body, enhance your abilites, replace missing limbs and express your own identity as you see fit.
If these concepts seem out of place in this game to you, then just wait until you find out about Claire, Judy, Kerry, Jago, Finn, and a whole host of other characters that embody several of the concepts that "have no place" in the world. Of course, you've already played the game and met all these individuals - right?
"You're trying to justify that the NUSA flag is fictitious when it represents an actual country" (Direct quote - yep, someone actually posted this)
Really? The NUSA is a real-life entity? And I assume that you're a resident of this "actual country", and that you're typing this in the future with your cyber-fingers in a dark corner of your dark, damp megabuilding unit?
You don't exist in the world of Cyberpunk, just like the NUSA doesn't exist in the real world.
"The flag of the NUSA is more real than the flags those other mods dealt with!" (paraphrased to tone it down, posted by the same individual as the quote above)
I am aligned completely with the Nexus mods on this sort of vile ideology, and have no issue with immediately banning folks like this from my mods' comments pages (as I did with this specimen).
(Sorry for the length, tried to make that a collapsible section but apparently that isn't a thing for comments)
From now on:
Existing comments will stay as they are.
New comments in defense of removing the NUSA flag (specifically in relation to the Nexus policy - personal preference and cosmetic opinion are of course OK) will be hidden.
Thank you for your support on this - make no mistake, we are on the same page here, but allowing either side of the debate to go on will just provoke the other. Remember the first rule of the internet: Do not feed the trolls!
New comments against removing the NUSA flag (specifically in relation to the Nexus policy - personal preference and cosmetic opinion are of course OK) will be removed and the poster banned from the comments sections of my mods.
The comments page for this mod should be for comments about this mod, not a platform for misguided views. Bigotry, discrimination, and narrow-mindedness have no place here.
We do know their views, it's been clearly posted for those with the reading and comprehension skills to follow it.
".....our policy is thus: we are for inclusivity, we are for diversity. If we think someone is uploading a mod on our site with the intent to deliberately be against inclusivity and/or diversity then we will take action against it....."
"We aren't the authority on what users can and cannot mod. Us removing a mod only means it cannot be found at Nexus Mods, nothing more, nothing less. We also note that we are not the only site that has removed this mod from their platform. As a private business, we have a right to choose what content we do and do not want to host on our platform. Respect this right the same way you want respect for your rights."
"We don't want to and won't argue this with you. We've now explained our stance......"
"If this policy upsets you, if we've broken some moral code of conduct as a business that you can't accept, then please, delete your account (bottom option) and move on, as we will."
Snowflakes needing a safe space can look elsewhere.
".....our policy is thus: we are for inclusivity, we are for diversity. If we think someone is uploading a mod on our site with the intent to deliberately be against inclusivity and/or diversity then we will take action against it....."
Still it does not justify why its ok to remove a flag which obviously resembles U.S flag...
Oh BuT mUh FlAg *insert sounds of knuckles dragging on the floor here*
Love this. Still have the ol' version with the oatmeal paint and just the flag gone. Maybe I'm a bit of a heathen but I actually kinda like the paintjob :P Nonetheless, great mod.
That would be pretty cool, but on the Warlock those parts attached to the roof bar aren't actually lights. I'm not even sure what they are to be honest, but they're just opaque black plastic covers - sensors of some sort maybe?
Fitting lights there and making them functional would be an interesting project for the future though...
In the Warlock Assets folder, the file is called "CleanUp Compatibility Patch.archive (2.8 MB)". Is this correct? I thought the compat patch was a separate mod
That's actually a naming error on my part. That same file was present in the previous version of the mod, and contains the image files specific to when you select that you're using this mod on its own in the installer, but I forgot to rename it to "Merrimac Warlock Assets" when I exported the latest version!
In any case, it's meant to be there in this version, just sloppy naming 😅
That this found any real objection is a commentary on how thin-skinned and snowflake-like some people have become. If I ever get one of these, this mod will be on it
Same goes for the ones who were crying about the pride flag removal, it goes both ways and we should all be neutral which is obviously not the case anymore. Something like " Live and let live "
I'm definitely going to take a look at resprays! For now the focus is on adding new decals and designs to the one removed by both this mod and my Clean Up Charon mod, but after that I'll be looking into colour options for both.
52 comments
No more debate around the ethics of removing the flag of the NUSA from the Warlock!
This goes for arguments for or against the removal of the flag - specifically in relation to comparing it against other mods which remove flags which actually have meaning and impact in real life.
I shouldn't need to explain this to people, and I've already stated my views here before, but for the uninitiated:
"You removed the American flag!!"
Did I? Check again. The flag you think you're defending is the flag of the United States of America, also known as the American Flag, Stars and Stripes, etc.
That flag does not exist in the world of Cyberpunk 2077. For those not up on the lore, the USA as you know it today doesn't exist in the dark future of Cyberpunk 2077, and was in fact dissolved over 80 years before the events of the game. The entity now flying a bastardised version of the old union's flag is the New United States of America, which is a wholly separarate entity to the USA and therefore it is a wholly separate and fictitious flag.
I can't remove something from the game if it didn't exist in the first place.
"But, er...... it looks like the flag of the USA...."
Yup, sure does. That's what copycats do - copy something that came before and twist it into something slightly different to serve their own purposes.
This has been repeated time and time again in every form imagineable: Elizabeth Kress forming the NUSA in the shadow of the old United States of America in the world of Cyberpunk, low-budget action movies copying the plots of Hollywood blockbusters, internet trolls blindly parroting the bigoted views of others for attention, the list goes on...
"This mod hasn't been deleted? Guess the political views of the NexusMods moderators are clear...."
They are - they even made a post specifically to clarify their stance on flag mods and other related mods that alter or remove specific content.
Feel free to take a look, but the basic summary is that the Nexus mod team are not against mods that alter/add/remove flags as a whole, as that's utterly ridiculous. There are likely hundreds or thousands of mods out there for various games that change the design of flags, banners, posters and the like (probably hundreds just for Skyrim alone!), or that add new ones or take certain ones away.
The moderators have made it abundantly clear that "...we are for inclusivity, we are for diversity. If we think someone is uploading a mod on our site with the intent to deliberately be against inclusivity and/or diversity then we will take action against it." This means that any mod that clearly discriminates against people of a range of social and personal characteristics such as (but not limited to) disability, age, gender, sexual orientation, race, country of origin, or religious standing is not permitted on NexusMods.com.
A flag representing the NUSA (a fictitious political entity formally ratified in the 2050s) does not fall into any of these categories.
"So you can make a mod that removes a flag, but others can't?"
Anybody has equal right to make any mod they like, to carry out any purpose they see fit. If they make a mod that flies in the face of Nexus's policy as outlined above however, then they shouldn't expect Nexus to host it for them.
"Flags representing gender or sexual identity have no place in Cyberpunk 2077!"
I'm sorry, have you actually played the game you're arguing about? If anything, those characteristics (along with others like age and disability) are core aspects of the world of Cyberpunk - a world where you have unprecidented freedom to alter your body, enhance your abilites, replace missing limbs and express your own identity as you see fit.
If these concepts seem out of place in this game to you, then just wait until you find out about Claire, Judy, Kerry, Jago, Finn, and a whole host of other characters that embody several of the concepts that "have no place" in the world. Of course, you've already played the game and met all these individuals - right?
"You're trying to justify that the NUSA flag is fictitious when it represents an actual country" (Direct quote - yep, someone actually posted this)
Really? The NUSA is a real-life entity? And I assume that you're a resident of this "actual country", and that you're typing this in the future with your cyber-fingers in a dark corner of your dark, damp megabuilding unit?
You don't exist in the world of Cyberpunk, just like the NUSA doesn't exist in the real world.
"The flag of the NUSA is more real than the flags those other mods dealt with!" (paraphrased to tone it down, posted by the same individual as the quote above)
I am aligned completely with the Nexus mods on this sort of vile ideology, and have no issue with immediately banning folks like this from my mods' comments pages (as I did with this specimen).
(Sorry for the length, tried to make that a collapsible section but apparently that isn't a thing for comments)
From now on:
Existing comments will stay as they are.
New comments in defense of removing the NUSA flag (specifically in relation to the Nexus policy - personal preference and cosmetic opinion are of course OK) will be hidden.
Thank you for your support on this - make no mistake, we are on the same page here, but allowing either side of the debate to go on will just provoke the other. Remember the first rule of the internet: Do not feed the trolls!
New comments against removing the NUSA flag (specifically in relation to the Nexus policy - personal preference and cosmetic opinion are of course OK) will be removed and the poster banned from the comments sections of my mods.
The comments page for this mod should be for comments about this mod, not a platform for misguided views. Bigotry, discrimination, and narrow-mindedness have no place here.
".....our policy is thus: we are for inclusivity, we are for diversity. If we
think someone is uploading a mod on our site with the intent to
deliberately be against inclusivity and/or diversity then we will take
action against it....."
"We aren't the authority on what users can and cannot mod. Us removing a mod only means it cannot be found at Nexus Mods,
nothing more, nothing less. We also note that we are not the only site
that has removed this mod from their platform. As a private business, we
have a right to choose what content we do and do not want to host on
our platform. Respect this right the same way you want respect for your
rights."
"We don't want to and won't argue this with you. We've now explained our stance......"
"If this policy upsets you, if we've broken some moral code of conduct as a business that you can't accept, then please, delete your account (bottom option) and move on, as we will."
Snowflakes needing a safe space can look elsewhere.
think someone is uploading a mod on our site with the intent to
deliberately be against inclusivity and/or diversity then we will take
action against it....."
Still it does not justify why its ok to remove a flag which obviously resembles U.S flag...
Love this. Still have the ol' version with the oatmeal paint and just the flag gone. Maybe I'm a bit of a heathen but I actually kinda like the paintjob :P Nonetheless, great mod.
Fitting lights there and making them functional would be an interesting project for the future though...
Edit: Endorsed.
In the Warlock Assets folder, the file is called "CleanUp Compatibility Patch.archive (2.8 MB)". Is this correct? I thought the compat patch was a separate mod
That's actually a naming error on my part. That same file was present in the previous version of the mod, and contains the image files specific to when you select that you're using this mod on its own in the installer, but I forgot to rename it to "Merrimac Warlock Assets" when I exported the latest version!
In any case, it's meant to be there in this version, just sloppy naming 😅
Thanks for letting me know!
Are different colors possible in the future?