As much as it breaks my heart, because the work does look quite cute and time was invested on it, the IR3 Assets, and specifically the Asset Packs you "based" the art from, aka. derived, is quite literally violating the No-Derivatives part of the https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ license that IR3's Asset Packs use.

You can make derivatives, but you can't distribute it here.

Black Rubber Belts could be considered "technical repair" because, except for Turbo Belts (which, okay most are going to let kiinda slide) is just making it work for 2.0.

But this is just...well... I think you get it.

You're right, I am aware of this.
I'm mostly making this out of genuine passion and interest, not out of malice or looking for profit.

If the authorities or Deadlock989 comes after me, I'll comply and take this down.
Or simply replace all the IR3 derived sprites with sprites from unused renders, since these have a more permissive license (considering many, many mods on the workshop use them freely).

Nevertheless, I'll still attempt to make something complete (at least for myself) and if distribution here becomes an issue, I'll find a way.

The intention doesn't matter, this is a License violation, if you want to expand on the ideas then make your own mod. Let Deadlock's work die.

Then I'll just only use Malcolm Riley's Unused Renders exclusively (as do a large portion of mods currently hosted here), remove "Industrial Revolution 3" from the title, and this won't even be a talking point :)

This includes making alterations to existing assets and publishing them as your own. They must be unique, from scratch

remove "Industrial Revolution 3" from the title

At that point, if/since the final result has nothing to do with IR3, it would make better sense for the non-violating assets to be reuploaded under a more accurate title, with a non-violating thumbnail, etc.
e.g. "Industrial Assets: Space Age" or something, and thus too receiving a more associative link slug, e.g.: .../mod/IndustrialAssetsSpaceAge

Then, this one can be deleted to prevent ambiguity/confusion. Otherwise its just...weird, having mismatching link-slugs.

I'll focus on concepting and coding the addon idea I have for now. On my own, for my personal use, and in full compliance of the CC-BY-ND 4.0 license for potential distribution.

Eventually I'll upload a "compliant version" of this pack that only depends on original material or modified CC-BY assets (such as Riley's Unused Renders or Hurricane's graphics, like almost every other mod on this site), or otherwise reuse and transforms Deadlock989's original assets solely through in-game dependencies (like 0n0w1c's mods do).

In the meantime, feel free to raise your pitchforks.

No pitchforks. Via dependancies is the way to go.

I had an idea about somehow still making use of /customizing Deadlock's assets without it being considered derivation, but I do not advocate this as a form of circumvention.

You can prototype completely new assets in Data stage by referencing other assets (assuming you know their file path and sprite size ahead of time) and using the game's included tinting/layering ability to combine several different graphics for a final result.

Example:
1. Your mod references a BY-ND-NC mod via dependancy. None of its assets are in your mod.
2. Your mod creates a Data stage prototype of all the customized entities you want to make. Some of these reference a BY-ND-NC mod art asset as a base graphic via file-path-reference.
3. Your mod physically includes your own and untraced tints/blending overlay art asset files.
4. Your mod then references your own assets as blending/tinting layers as it prototypes the custom assets.

The nicer you can match and align your overlays with the base referenced asset, the smoother the result.

The kicker is that none of the dependancy-asset packs are actually in your mod. They are literally combined and layered as the game loads.

[Dependency based in-game kitbashing of the sprites]

I did think about this way to do things, and I know this is how the "IR3 Assembly required" mods work.
It's just so much more convoluted and difficult to adjust compared to directly kitbashing/photoshopping assets. But it'll probably be the one way to do it.

I'll eventually end up remodelling the more annoying sprites to recolor/tint (such as the research packs. A pentagon shaped box would fit fine)