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Messages - Hythlodaeus

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1
Offtopic / Re: The Battle for Wesnoth is looking for contributors
« on: September 11, 2021, 11:47:24 pm »
1. How much do you pay?
2. If none, why should people waste time slaving on your project, when they can work on their own passion project, which they could sell for money?
3. In my understanding Battle for Wesnoth is a clone of Master of Monster ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_Monsters ). It would be better to reverse engineer the Master of Monsters 2 (it has Windows version, but IIRC it is in Japanese and doesn't run on modern PCs).

1. Programmers tend to be volunteers but artists generally work on commission unless they volunteer on their own will. Values of commissions tend to be negotiated on an individual basis.
2. This sounds really funny considering we're posting on a forum of an open source project entirely ran by volunteers. ;D But to answer your question: because people sometimes get a greater sense of realization by taking part in something bigger than themselves. Or at least that's my personal reason why I volunteer for Wesnoth and why I have also contributed for OpenXCom. Money isn't everything in life and personal passion projects can seldomly be accomplished alone, and projects like Wesnoth and OXC are evidence of that.
3. Wesnoth is loosely based on Master of Monsters and Warsong, but it's far from being just a clone. It is one of the most highly regarded libre software games out there, having been developed for over 18 years and boosting 17 full singleplayer campaigns and fully playable online multiplayer. It boasts the contributions of dozens of people, both volunteers and commissioned workers. It was won awards in the past and it has a stable community and playerbase.

2
Offtopic / The Battle for Wesnoth is looking for contributors
« on: September 07, 2021, 08:31:26 pm »

Hello everyone,

Today I am sharing an appeal by The Battle for Wesnoth development team, who is currently looking for new developers and contributors. We have decided to bring forth this appeal to other open source game projects in hopes of fostering collaboration between different community projects so we can trade skills, knowledge and benefit mutually from this.

As most of you might know, The Battle for Wesnoth is a turn-based strategy game project first started in 2003. The game is entirely open source (GNU GPLv2) with artwork licensed under CC-BY-SA. You can download the game entirely for free via Steam or on our website.

Presently we are looking for:

  • C++ programmers for core programming tasks
  • Lua programmers
  • Scripters willing to learn WML internal script language
  • Python programmers for helping with external tools
  • Pixel artists
  • Playtesters
  • A video editor that can help create a trailer for the incoming stable release
  • Other miscellaneous artists and programmers

For anyone interested in applying, you can read more details on the official announcement posted on the Wesnoth forums. You can also join us at our official Discord.

Our best regards to the OpenXCom community and have a nice day!

3
Released Mods / Re: Terrain Pack considerations
« on: November 28, 2019, 01:03:41 am »
Oh and I must also add one further comment regarding the role of licensing, given I've seen expressed disbelief on their application: whether or not a license is made to be compliant is once again up to the responsibility of modders and it does at the very least give you legal and additional ethical footing to stand on. As of the moment the Terrain Mod Pack has no license and enforcing the terms now being specified by Hobbes is up to whether people actually comply or not to such a request, but should Hobbes want to pursue any legal action based on it, he may find himself lacking arguments there.

4
Released Mods / Re: Terrain Pack considerations
« on: November 28, 2019, 12:51:20 am »
Hello everyone,

I've recently noticed what has been happening around these parts and I've decided to chip in my brief experience with modding for OXC in hopes it will at least benefit others.

I must start by saying that it's never easy being a modder. I've only done minimal mods myself for OXC, but I've modded extensively for other games, and I can understand it is tough not having your work recognized and appreciated as often as it should be. If your mod gets popular to the point of becoming a foundation for other mods, you even risk having others taking credit for your work. Modding communities have been founded on the principle of sharing knowledge and giving credit to original authors, but growing communities often find their initial code of etiquette forgotten amid ever increasing numbers of content being produced by new people joining in.

From my experience as a modder one valuable lesson that I've learned, is that in order to keep your work under control, and other people to be respectful of it, clear and concise licensing must be a responsibility of every modder from the start. Establishing clear limits of what can and cannot be done with your art, where you derivative work begins and where someone else's work you modified ends is absolutely crucial.

Now, I'm the author of a fairly popular, if relatively simple mod used in a bunch of other modifications, notably the Amiga/PSX fonts mod. This mod was conceived from an original font found in the Amiga version of X-COM and it was extensively modified by me to support triple the amount of characters it originally did, along with modifying the original characters too for improved readability, What I determined from that point was the following:

a) the fontset was not actually an original part of x-com as it was present in some versions of the Amiga OS before the game existed.
b) tried as I might (and I searched a lot, and sent emails to forgotten Amiga devs) I could find no hint on who created the font or if any company had the rights for it, from which I presumed the content to be abandoned.
c) the extent of my work made upon the original font was enough that I could consider it to become a derivative piece of its own right, as two thirds of the characters in the fontset were my own artistic view on how such a font style would behave with extended latin, Cyrillic, Greek characters, and some new symbols.

From this point I released my mod and I licensed it specifically under CC-BY-SA, but was still careful enough to acknowledge the original author was unknown and to thank him/her in the readme. Under these conditions people are allowed to use my mod for both commercial and non-commercial ends, but they are always obliged to 1) credit me 2) share any modifications of the file under the same terms. This means any people improving upon my work would have to be nice and share their creations while acknowledging all the authors they derived their work from. It also avoids any confusion, and forces authors to print a notice containing the license name under which the original mod was made, effectively maintaining the etiquette, even if profiting from my work, which to be honest, I think it should always be allowed.

A few months later I had the idea of creating a set of  HD backgrounds and replacement BigObs for special alien weapons, and proposed SupSuper to commission them to well-known X-Com fan artist Android Arts. Only the latter got made, but during the process I warned SupSuper these also had to be specifically licensed as part of the OXC project. The CC-BY-SA license was once again chosen, as it is directly compatible with the GPL, used in OXC code, and would allow the OpenXcom package to be distributed without any copyright terms associated. People can freely use these bigobs in their mods, but they always have to credit Android Arts for that.

The conclusion here is that licensing your works accordingly from the start will avoid a lot of trouble in the future, and will make the resolution of any conflicts that arise with other modders a simple matter of enforcing the license terms originally set. I hope you all manage to find a solution for this issue, and if I have one request for Hobbes is to please not distrust other modders who have also put a fair share of work on their own creations, even if using yours as part of it. We're all in this boat together trying to make modding X-Com a wonderful experience for everyone. Let's all work out a solution that benefits all.

5
Playthroughs / Kikoskia is streaming OpenXCom
« on: November 04, 2019, 01:33:53 am »
Kikoskia is an LPer with one of the most famous original X-Com LPs on youtube. He has recently joined Twitch and began streaming Ufo Defense using X-Com every wednesday at 19:00 GMT. You can find his channel here.

https://www.twitch.tv/kikoskia

Also for those who missed it, Kiko paid us a visit this Sunday by briefly joining SupSuper for the extra life charity stream! You may find the video in SupSuper's channel, around 17:52:00.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/502984556

6
Work In Progress / Re: [WIP][MOD][OXCE+] From the Apocalypse 0.4a
« on: January 11, 2019, 01:32:01 pm »
So the geoscape gameplay will essentially have players oversee the globe and its many mega-cities, instead of city districts on a flat map?

7
Work In Progress / Re: [WIP][MOD][OXCE+] From the Apocalypse 0.4a
« on: January 11, 2019, 12:25:15 am »
Hi Robin,

One question, how do you to plan handle Mega-primus gameplay compared to the classic x-com geoscape? Additionally, are you planning to add any of the so-called features that were scrapped from the original game?

8
Offtopic / Re: Reversing to Orion - project 1oom
« on: May 05, 2018, 12:00:54 am »
Good news, just finished the game for the first time (on easiest difficulty), with no more random crashes. Still much testing to be done, especially in regards to AI, but for now I can confirm the game is at the very least finishable!

What an amazing achievement this project is, considering it is only at alpha phase!

9
Offtopic / Re: Reversing to Orion - project 1oom
« on: May 02, 2018, 12:41:27 pm »
I would suggest using gitter chat then. It can be linked to a regular IRC channel along the project's github, and it logsand highlights messages directed at you.

10
Offtopic / Re: Reversing to Orion - project 1oom
« on: May 01, 2018, 12:30:35 pm »
Reported a game crashing bug and a small compiling issue on github.

Further suggestion: create a Freenode IRC channel in order to initiate discussion and report issues more promptly

11
Offtopic / Re: Reversing to Orion - project 1oom
« on: April 30, 2018, 09:23:12 pm »
I would say that at least Windows builds will be essential for more visibility, because Windows users don't know/don't want to use a compiler, and at least 80% of your future playerbase will be running Windows. Maybe you can request someone to help you with binaries in general, given you will only be releasing them on a monthly basis, as you mentioned before. I can try to learn how to make AppImage packages in the meantime to cover the linux side.

And don't feel bad for promoting your stuff in OXC forums. if anything the word should be spread in more places! You just made a fully playable open source clone of Master of Orion, after all!

12
Offtopic / Re: Reversing to Orion - project 1oom
« on: April 30, 2018, 06:46:57 pm »
Does it bundle the used libraries? In any case, smells a bit too much like exe+dll->zip solution that Windows folks take for granted. Running random binaries from the net always seemed weird to me and my brand of sliced bread is Gentoo...

I understand that compiling can be tedious in most platforms. In Linux, it's a few commands given in INSTALL. Perhaps one wishes not to have gcc & friends eating HDD space. Still it baffles my puny brain.

This is why for instance snap packages are sandboxed to protect your computer (and appimage can also be sandboxed with an external app). Since you're a Gentoo user I understand where you're coming from, but most regular users do appreciate out-of-the-box convenience over dev libs download and command line fidgeting. I had not compiled anything for a looong time and it took me about 15 mins to figure out how to do it again, only to notice I had missed the INSTALL file all along. Maintaining packages can be tedious, but for the sake of dissemination and visibility, it helps a lot to have precompiled binaries, especially now that snap/appimage allow you to to distribute universal builds.

Thanks for the support. Ask if there is any compiling trouble. I'm from the "play for 1 day every 3 years" group. Never beat the game on Impossible...

I've played it for a bit, and I am really impressed with what I have seen so far. Everything looks pretty tight and functional, and even the intro is already working! How you managed to work on this on your own without any outside feedback whatsoever is quite the achievement!

Visibility would be beneficial, although I don't really need more coders at this point; most bug fixes need to refer to the disassembly.
Screenshots: sure. Video? Nope, don't have the software or experience for it. I do appreciate more PR but fucking suck at it. ;)

I got it to work, so I can snap some screenshots by myself. You really need to launch a proper project webpage for this though, because this project deserves a proper home and discussion forums!

13
Offtopic / Re: Reversing to Orion - project 1oom
« on: April 30, 2018, 03:00:56 pm »
Sorry, I have no idea what those are and am too lazy to find out.

They're pre-packaged universal linux build systems, essentially. OpenXcom uses this to distribute linux nightlies, and IMO the best thing since sliced bread on linux.

https://appimage.org/ - the one used by oxc
https://snapcraft.io/ - canonical official, allows sandboxing

Aside from that, you'll have my testing support on this one, once I manage to compile the bloody thing. It's been more than 10 years since I last played MoO 1, however, so it aint gonna exactly be an expert opinion though  ;D

Oh, and one more thing, I would recommend you to get some extra help at https://forum.freegamedev.net/, since you have a lot of people who work on FLOSS going about there. I myself used to write for their blog, Free Gamer, and I think I sitll have editing permission on it. If you can whip up a few more screenshots and maybe a video I could write an article about it for the frontpage (it's been ages since it was last updated, but they still do get views).

14
Offtopic / Re: Reversing to Orion - project 1oom
« on: April 29, 2018, 05:42:05 pm »
One thing that seems to be missing is the the status of the project. Is the game playable by now already? What are the goals for the next milestones/builds?

Also, as someone who is on linux and is too lazy to compile stuff, any chance you can make a snap/appimage autobuilder?

15
Offtopic / Re: Reversing to Orion - project 1oom
« on: April 23, 2018, 11:54:29 pm »
Tempting, but there's plenty of work left with this one. Besides, "1mom" sounds both normal and suspicious.

Well there was never a mom 2, so you should call it momo (mom, open).

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