We're increasingly receiving puzzled questions about why New Hope will have anti-piracy protection built in and how it will work. It's time to set the record straight and dispel some myths.

First, to preempt the most common misconception: No, New Hope will not be a paid mod. Contrary to the opinion actively promoted by our envious fans, we have never aimed to profit from the Undertale community and disapprove of content creators who put personal gain above the interests of fans.

Furthermore, we plan to continue to provide every incentive for developers who create their own mods and fan games based on New Hope. Second: anti-piracy protection is not needed to protect the mod from unlicensed copying. As stated above, the mod will be distributed open-source. Anti-piracy protection was built in to comply with the community guidelines established by Fangamer. You won't be able to play the mod fully without a licensed copy of the original Undertale game. Just like in the original Undertale demo, playthroughs will be limited to the Ruins.

Thirdly, anti-piracy protection simplifies the mod installation process. You no longer need to patch files with DeltaPatcher. The mod also doesn't need to be installed over the original Undertale; it will be installed separately. When you first launch it, you'll need to specify the path to the folder containing the original Undertale files once, after which the mod will generate a license file tied to a specific device. This license file will be used for future license verification without requiring access to the original game files, which you can use to install other mods.

Fourthly, anti-piracy protection is based on an analysis of the original Undertale files. Once all game files have been verified, a monolithic file containing the game's copy-protected original soundtracks will be downloaded, granting access to all locations. An additional scan will then be run to identify files commonly found in pirated copies of Undertale. If any are detected, certain restrictions will be imposed on the game. The final step will be the generation of a license file encrypted with a unique UUID. This protection method is optimal and will provide the necessary basic copyright protection for Toby Fox and Fangamer on both Windows and Android OS, on par with the protection provided by DeltaPatcher.

Thank you for your attention. We wish you a happy New Year, and remember that

Hope is forever!