alright, so, i don't wanna sound too outlandish here but the concept is probably so unusual i'll end up looking bad anyway, so here i go

i've made a mod that is more of a barely patched together compilation of features and ideas from other mods, reskinned and heavily edited. basically unrecognizable if you don't look around in the code or recognize some re-colored/changed sprites. now, when this mod was still small i was planning to keep it to myself as a personal thing, but it's gotten so big i think it would be a waste to not release it.

my problem is that the code is so messy and full of other things it would be virtually impossible to find everyone i need to credit/ask for permission. now i thought of one solution - simply claiming that only some work is mine and if the reader has released a mod chances are parts of it are in my mod, but i think that would upset people.

my question here is, would it upset people? i imagine it'd be pretty bad to see a mod that may or may not have things blatantly stolen from yours, yes, but as i said, not releasing the mod would be just a shame. what should i do? and if the obvious answer is "painstakingly find out everyone you need to credit and do so" then so be it, but i wanna know your opinions/advice first.

EDIT: also, getting in contact with people that've left the forum might be a problem, too.

I'd say go with the "painstakingly find out everyone you need to credit" option, and having something in your post that says something like "if your work is in this mod and your name is not in the credits, please contact me so I can add you" or something.

A lot of modders are no longer active on this forum and, like you said, would be difficult to contact, but I don't think contact is completely necessary. Put their name in the credits and toss them a PM saying "Hey, I'm using your work in my mod and have your name in the credits. If you're not cool with that, just send me a reply".