UFO2000 Needs Players

[Qpoter]

I really have no idea how much the UFO2k community overlaps with the OXC community, so I'm going to assume that at least some of you know what UFO2000 is. If not, https://www.ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=UFO2000.
TL;DR, it's multiplayer X-COM (battlescape only).

Download link can be found here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/ufo2000/files/UFO2000%20beta/0.9.1176/ufo2000-0.9.1176-beta.exe/download?use_mirror=garr&download=

The game is not quite dead, but the server is empty at almost all times. You can occasionally find someone to play against with a few hours' time and some patience. I'm looking at the server stats page right now, and there have been a total of 99 games over the course of two months. That's an average of about 1.65 matches played per day, but that figure is unreliable because there are periods of several consecutive days when no matches were played at all.

Basically, I think this game deserves a 'revival' (although it's not quite dead), and the people of this forum are great candidates for that.

The wiki link above tells you everything you need to know about the game to start playing. You should devote some time to reading it, because there are many subtle differences between UFO2k and X-COM, and it's better to know about them beforehand than to learn about them in combat the hard way.

So, is anyone up for it?

[7Saturn]

Well, thats pretty much bugging me right now. I played the game a lot around 2005-2006, was rather good by the time. But now it really seems to be quite dead. The project-site shows a last entry from 2012. In the official forums it stopped around the same time. And when I try to compile that stuff on my Ubuntu, it doesn't work out. Hell, it doesn't even run properly on my Win 7. I hate to say it, but it seems, I lost a good part of my past with the loss of this game.

[Hobbes]

I used to play it a lot around ten years ago and was even involved in the design of several terrains for it. However, over the years interest on this project disappeared and it has been dead for some time (or at least Serge or Nachtwolf never picked it up again.

It would be really nice to include a multiplayer in OpenXcom.

[volutar]

I don't think it would be super difficult to make alternative battlescape mode, when another player is replacing an alien AI with some simple network realtime interaction. Just need to invent special "reversed" mode when player controls aliens, and AI is controlling xcom and combine them through tcp.

[7Saturn]

[...]was even involved in the design of several terrains for it.

Yeah, I know your work. =) Thanks btw for it!

However, over the years interest on this project disappeared and it has been dead for some time (or at least Serge or Nachtwolf never picked it up again.

Meaning, they don't have any interest in it anymore, as well? That would be quite sad!

It would be really nice to include a multiplayer in OpenXcom.

As for my needs =): If the two projects could be combined somehow. I mean, writing X-COM new from scratch can't be any lesser challenge than fixing some issues within UFO2000. And UFO2000's goal was exactly the opposite part: Writing a player vs. player version of X-COM and then, having that achieved, maybe adding more options like a multiplayer-geoscape or something, nearing to X-COM itself.

[SupSuper]

serge used to hang around here back in the early days, but I have no idea where he went off to. Game still runs fine on my computer at least.

As for my needs =): If the two projects could be combined somehow. I mean, writing X-COM new from scratch can't be any lesser challenge than fixing some issues within UFO2000. And UFO2000's goal was exactly the opposite part: Writing a player vs. player version of X-COM and then, having that achieved, maybe adding more options like a multiplayer-geoscape or something, nearing to X-COM itself.

Figuring out other people's code is often much more challenging than writing your own.

[7Saturn]

Figuring out other people's code is often much more challenging than writing your own.

True. =)
Edit:

serge used to hang around here back in the early days,

I took the liberty to have a look at the profile and even here he seems to be offline since 2010...Doesn't look to good.

Game still runs fine on my computer at least.

May I ask, what setup you have? At my place, there's a Win 7 x64 and a Ubuntu 14.04 x64. Windows it runns »a litte«, meaning, the sound doesn't work for the most part. You can hear shots, but thats about all. At Ubuntu it compiles but refuses to even start with an error in some of the lua's. Und XP, I remember, I never hat that kind of problems. Only network-asynchronisation sometimes.

[Hobbes]

May I ask, what setup you have? At my place, there's a Win 7 x64 and a Ubuntu 14.04 x64. Windows it runns »a litte«, meaning, the sound doesn't work for the most part. You can hear shots, but thats about all. At Ubuntu it compiles but refuses to even start with an error in some of the lua's. Und XP, I remember, I never hat that kind of problems. Only network-asynchronisation sometimes.

I've just tried UFO2000 and it ran without a problem on my Windows7 x64

[sergioreynel]

Yeah, I know your work. =) Thanks btw for it!Meaning, they don't have any interest in it anymore, as well? That would be quite sad!As for my needs =): If the two projects could be combined somehow. I mean, writing X-COM new from scratch can't be any lesser challenge than fixing some issues within UFO2000. And UFO2000's goal was exactly the opposite part: Writing a player vs. player version of X-COM and then, having that achieved, maybe adding more options like a multiplayer-geoscape or something, nearing to X-COM itself.

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/TheTwoSides

[7Saturn]

(Sorry for answering so late, but the notification-mails seemed to have gotten lost somehow...)

I've just tried UFO2000 and it ran without a problem on my Windows7 x64

Well, doesn't look like that at my site.  Maybe I just have wrong memories about it, but moving units used to make step-sounds, there was music and so on. The only sounds I heard, when I tried it a few days ago, was the firing-sound of the used plasma-weapons. Grenades used to make an explosion-sound, too, which I also didn't notice. Maybe something is wrong with my system, but I don't believe this to be the case (as everything else works out just fine...). And still, that doesn't explain, why it won't even start on my Ubuntu 14.04. But I'd love to play a game, again. =) Would also give me a chance, to test my server with the real thing.

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/TheTwoSides

I don't completely follow. OK, I'm downloading the linked file the for testing purposes, but I mean, when visiting the project site, it tells

This project has been closed.

And the last postings also complain about not working networking. Seems like it went the way, UFO2000 is about to go...

[7Saturn]

Well, doesn't look like that at my site.

OK, that was simply bullshit. I just tried it with adding the xcom-original-files, and voilà: The game has quite a lot of sounds more. Only thing I was missing, is the trippling-sound of moving units. But if that's the only thing going not so well, I'm rather satisfied. =) And also I just tested the server, which seems to be running quite smoothly, actually. OK, I just did two little matches against myself. ;-) But it worked quite well!

So I am considering some kind of offer for the community: I might let my homeserver run for, lets say, a month. Starting at an announced time, e. g. 1st of march, or something like that. It will actually cost myself some money, as I have to pay the electricity-bill. But I'm willing to do so, in order to give the people some place to play and push the game a little. It might not be as comfortable as the original one was. For instance, I have no idea of how to add this very nice elo-score-query, the original server had. But it'd give a platform for playing the game once again, at least for a while. I may not be a good enough programmer, I have no graphics-skills whatsoever, but that would be the least I can do. I loved playing this game and I'd love doing so again.

But this all depends on, if there is actually some demand. If there are only three people willing to play, the more economic way would be, to arrange virtual meetings at a certain time.

Anyone interested?

[Hobbes]

OK, that was simply bullshit. I just tried it with adding the xcom-original-files, and voilà: The game has quite a lot of sounds more. Only thing I was missing, is the trippling-sound of moving units. But if that's the only thing going not so well, I'm rather satisfied. =) And also I just tested the server, which seems to be running quite smoothly, actually. OK, I just did two little matches against myself. ;-) But it worked quite well!

So I am considering some kind of offer for the community: I might let my homeserver run for, lets say, a month. Starting at an announced time, e. g. 1st of march, or something like that. It will actually cost myself some money, as I have to pay the electricity-bill. But I'm willing to do so, in order to give the people some place to play and push the game a little. It might not be as comfortable as the original one was. For instance, I have no idea of how to add this very nice elo-score-query, the original server had. But it'd give a platform for playing the game once again, at least for a while. I may not be a good enough programmer, I have no graphics-skills whatsoever, but that would be the least I can do. I loved playing this game and I'd love doing so again.

But this all depends on, if there is actually some demand. If there are only three people willing to play, the more economic way would be, to arrange virtual meetings at a certain time.

Anyone interested?

I'm not really interested atm to get back to UFO2000 but I'd suggest this: ask Jo5hua (the forums admin) if he could host the server. And ask Serge (the UFO2000 developer) if he could update the UFO2000 page with the new server.

[7Saturn]

I'm not really interested atm to get back to UFO2000

That bad? What a pity.

but I'd suggest this: ask Jo5hua (the forums admin) if he could host the server.

Actually, that's a great idea. That would cut energy-cost to zero for me and probably extend the uptime considerably.

And ask Serge (the UFO2000 developer) if he could update the UFO2000 page with the new server.

Well, my last PM via UFO2000-forums from last Feb 2nd hasn't been answered yet, but I could try it via this forum as well. (If he still is here, last time he was logged in here it was in 2010...).

[Jo5hua]

Just sent 7 Saturn a message.  I think this is a great idea and would be happy to host a server permanently. I can even add a website for the servers url address for posting news pages and the likes with a dedicated server address.  Will be home soon and post some questions. The server itself is very fast and capable.

[Shoes]

Just sent 7 Saturn a message.  I think this is a great idea and would be happy to host a server permanently. I can even add a website for the servers url address for posting news pages and the likes with a dedicated server address.  Will be home soon and post some questions. The server itself is very fast and capable.

You might consider adding a link or blurb on your openxcom.com website too.