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Geneforge 5 - May Update in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
Reve
Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Friday, May 9 2008 00:42 Profile Homepage #23
quote:
Originally written by Spidweb:


I have done a lot of work on the interface. Geneforge 5 now supports OpenGL and will tap some of the power of your graphics card.
Out of interest, what sorts of things are you doing with OpenGL in this engine?
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
Avernum 5, July Update in Avernum 4
Reve
Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Tuesday, August 7 2007 02:05 Profile Homepage #35
I think the thing I missed most with Avernum 4 was the loss of a sense of scale of Avernum. I played Exile 1-3 and the demo of Blades of Exile, and I played BoA and A4 (I never replayed E1-3 as A1-3, though playing A1 to see the new bit added about the Lost Bahssikava is something I've pondered).

While I did like the increased detail of the integrated world, the issue I had was that the sense of scale died out compared to previous games, where you really felt you were in a gigantic sprawling neverending maze. The descriptiveness of the earlier Exile games really made up for the lack of graphics for me. I think that if A4 had been in a subsection of Avernum (e.g. almost entirely set in the honeycomb, but at the same scale), it would have worked much better.

I think that seeing as A5 is set in new caves, this sounds like the issue of loss of scale of the existing world will not be a problem, which I am looking forward to. I just hope that it's not like ZKR in that it doesn't link anywhere to the known world ;)

With regards to super-weapons, I think that generally they ought to be optional but with much more complex sub-quests to get them. They were a bit easy to get in A4. More like the Black Halberd or original E1/A1 Demonslayer quest.
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
Avernum 5, July Update in Avernum 4
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Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Monday, July 30 2007 23:20 Profile Homepage #18
Bugsbane - double damage vs Bugs Bunny :D
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
Open source project startup in Blades of Exile
Reve
Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Monday, June 11 2007 01:04 Profile Homepage #34
quote:
Originally written by Daniele C:

quote:
Originally written by Andrea:

That list of reserved rights is invalid and legally troublesome enough to render the code dangerous to use, even without the CPL. It's certainly incompatible with every known open source license, because it puts restrictions on the end user's right to license his or her own creations as he or she sees fit.
Sadly agreeing... :(
These added restrictions don't appear to be in the third release of the code, so yay for Jeff for doing that.

Also, I see from looking at the license (see the readme) that he released it as GPL "either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version" rather than the less flexible GPLv2 only which is excellent news, as I was worried it would be stuck as GPLv2-only. So another big thank you again to Jeff for that, you've really listened to the community here.

For those of you who don't know that much about open source software licenses, this means that once the GPL3 comes out we will be able to freely use Apache 2.0 licensed code in the project as well, which gives us a bigger pool of existing open source code to potentially utilize in the project.
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
Open source project startup in Blades of Exile
Reve
Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Friday, June 8 2007 00:11 Profile Homepage #30
With regards to code hosting, if it's under the GPL, Google's code hosting might be an option.

With regards to development, the consensus seems to be the logical:
- Make it work on new versions of Windows/MacOS
- Fix bugs

After that, the following are definite options, in ascending order of difficulty (in getting agreement mostly :) ):
- Linux port, or cross-platform code base
- Extensions to the interface, to make it easier to use, without changing the game
- Support for more things in scenarios (e.g. new forms of scripting)
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
Open source project startup in Blades of Exile
Reve
Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Thursday, June 7 2007 23:37 Profile Homepage #28
quote:
Originally written by jg.faust:

quote:

Spiderweb Software, Inc. Reserves the Following Rights:

- Right to place any and all applications, game scenarios, and derivative works created in whole or in part from or by the Blades of Exile game/editor source code for download on our web site without prior approval of the author.

- Right to place any any all applications, game scenarios, and derivative works created in whole or in part from or by the Blades of Exile game/editor source code on 3.5" disks, CD-ROMs, or similar media for distribution and sale, without prior approval of the author. Fees charged for said media will not be part of or be construed as part of any shareware fees set forth by individual authors. All fees are for production and distribution of the media only.
IANAL, but shouldn't a "non-exclusive" qualifier be in both of those clauses?

Right now, it sounds almost like only Spiderweb is allowed to publish these derivatives. I know that this doesn't make sense in relation to the rest of the license, but I hear that stating and restating the obvious is the lawyer way...
If he is relicensing under the GPL, as he says, he doesn't need to worry about specifying either of these, as the license explicitly allows you to do both. Basically, the GPL allows you to redistribute any works under it, and charging a fee for doing so is also allowed under it. Here's the bit from the GPL3 on the fee bit for example:

"You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey, and you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee."

On a side note, hopefully the GPL version will be "GPL-going-forwards" (i.e. GPL(any version), GPL2+ or GPL3+) - being able to use it under the GPL version 3 means we can merge in any code under the fairly popular Apache 2.0 license in the program, which GPL2 is not able to do so.

Also as an aside, I'd like to thank Jeff for listening to the community here and taking time to help make his wonderful contribution of code as valuable to us as possible.
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
Request for Blades of Exile code to be released under a better open source license in Blades of Exile
Reve
Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Wednesday, June 6 2007 03:11 Profile Homepage #0
The CPL license used by the open sourcing of Blades of Exile has a really nasty patent retaliation clause in it (which was removed when it was converted to the Eclipse Public License, considered to be the 'new' version of the CPL to use - the EPL left the rest of the license unchanged and kept a milder patent retaliation clause).

It's also incompatible with almost every other open source license out there, such as the GPL.

Furthermore, it is not supported on Google's open source project hosting - see http://code.google.com/hosting/createProject (they only support a few commonly used licenses, also to ensure compatibility of licenses).

Despite the name "Common Public License", it's not widely used. The CPL is, in fact, IBM controlled, and they can release a new version of the licenses without any notice.

The CPL also references US laws and therefore may not be enforceable in other countries.

...

I would dearly like to see another license chosen. To that end, I would like to give a few suggestions:

Jeff - If you just picked the license without looking into it much, and just want people to be able to distribute the code freely, I would suggest the 'Revised 3-clause BSD' or 'MIT/X11' licenses. These are 'highly permissive' licenses and code under them can be used in most projects.

If you want a more comprehensive license that takes patents into consideration and is still widely accepted by the community, I would suggest the "Apache 2.0" license. This is compatible with the upcoming GPL version 3 (and LGPL 3) and so is still very mixable with other code.

If what you want is to ensure a community around the project, where people must give their contributions back to the community, the most effective license for this is undoubtedly the (L)GPL. I can't see a reason to pick the LGPL over the GPL for this project, as it won't be linking to other projects, so the GPL may be more logical than LGPL for this.

...

I hope you will take this under consideration.
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
Compiling BoE source code for Windows in Blades of Exile
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Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Wednesday, June 6 2007 02:00 Profile Homepage #27
quote:
Originally written by Ormus:

For my next releases of the BoE for Win32 I've decided to separate sound resources from main executable and I've moved them to DLL file.
Just wondering, why not put them into a directory as separate sound files? Then people can much more easily remove/replace individual sounds.

quote:
Originally written by Ormus:

EDIT: I would like to invite other people to work with the code. I'm a student and there comes slowly time of exams for me. Soon I'm going to disappear from the net and you won't see me here until I pass all exams.
Why not put it somewhere like SourceForge? Unfortunately, Google Code's limited set of licenses does not include the CPL (which is a horrible [due to insane patent retaliation clauses] and not much used license).
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
New Playable Race? in Avernum 4
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Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Wednesday, May 10 2006 10:39 Profile Homepage #25
How can Goblins not be on that list?

It would have to be goblins or vahnatai really. New races are not needed. Either could be justified if one was say found as a a baby and raised.
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
Job board quest. in Avernum 4
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Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Wednesday, May 3 2006 01:42 Profile Homepage #4
Yeah at least a smaller reward for driving the drake off would have been better.
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
Coin Cap at 30k? in Avernum 4
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Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Wednesday, May 3 2006 01:41 Profile Homepage #15
I think at least a text warning that you didn't collect pick up any more money each time you do hit the limit is vital. Otherwise, you have to keep an eye on it, and if you miss spotting that you are at the limit, you suddenly permanently are losing all that money with no warning :(
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
Fighting Rentar in BF - quick question in Avernum 4
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Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Tuesday, May 2 2006 10:18 Profile Homepage #0
Just peeking at the walkthrough it says that you can fight or not fight Rentar in the first instance in the Basalt Fortress, and again fight or not fight her at the end.

It also says that if you fight her in BF she drops some items :D so...

My quick question is, if I fight her in BF, can I still see both endings? Or does that prevent me from trying the peaceful ending option?
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
Avernum V in Avernum 4
Reve
Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Saturday, April 29 2006 12:18 Profile Homepage #261
quote:
Originally written by Aussieavernum:

I like the idea of a natural occorance that disrupts order. :)

EDIT: In fact, I am going to work on my BoE scenario called Cavequake Chaos. :D
Yeah what would happen if a cave quake opened up a tunnel to the ocean above, and parts of Avernum started flooding? :D
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
Running the games on Intel Macs? in Tech Support
Reve
Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Monday, April 10 2006 05:31 Profile Homepage #7
Heh I get video files open in my text editor in Windows, it's not just MacOS that gets confused :)
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
Which spiderweb software game is best? in General
Reve
Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Monday, April 10 2006 05:29 Profile Homepage #20
I think I liked both Exile 1 + 2 (played Exile 1-3 rather than Avernum). They both felt really quite epic. If I had to choose, it would be Exile 2. Quite liked Exile 3, but hated the clock and permanently kept it at day 1 :) (one day I'll go back and set it to day 100 to play that bit in the tower I missed).

BoE/BoA was ok. A Small Rebellion was awesome, and I liked ZKR (but like others I hated that they start/end didn't map to anywhere), but VoDT and DWD were pretty so-so. Tbh, I don't want to play custom scenarios, as I'm not interested in stuff that isn't 'canon'.

I'm liking Avernum 4 so far - the engine is great, but the messed-up perspectives (it just feels so small) are a bit weird. It will probably be good in Av 5 if the caves are supposed to be small, but it doesn't work entirely for so-called multi-mile-long caves.
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
Avernum V in Avernum 4
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Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Monday, April 10 2006 00:35 Profile Homepage #215
Eugh I hated the timed events in Avernum. I want to be able to take as long as I want to explore everywhere.

When I played Avernum 3 (well Exile 3 is what I played) I set the clock back to day 1 on a regular basis :)
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
A3: XP/Level Mysteriously Decreased in Tech Support
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Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Monday, April 10 2006 00:29 Profile Homepage #10
I must say I hated the experience draining in the earlier games. I always loaded the game if it happened. I'm glad it's not in Av4 :)
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
Avernum V in Avernum 4
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Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Friday, April 7 2006 01:04 Profile Homepage #206
Erikia being captured in a crystal soul by the Vahnatai after A3 would have been an awesome twist!

Perhaps A5 will include one of the two ends of the ZKR, to help give it a real place in the world.

Btw, one of the problems with mentally understanding Avernum is that, really, there can be many, many layers. It's hard to visualise how these all fit above and below each other.
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
Avernum V in Avernum 4
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Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Monday, March 27 2006 08:46 Profile Homepage #172
Ok my summary of what I thought of Avernum 4:

The indoor/outdoor unification:
- It was an interesting experiment, but I think I prefer the way it was in the previous games. It just feels so much bigger in the previous games, and the towns are so disproportionate in size.

The lack of elevation:
- This added a whole new dimension to the previous games (literally, heh).

No arrows:
- This is definitely an improvement

No food:
- This is also definitely an improvement

No boats:
- Obviously the different exploration boats give you is more fun.

What I think I'd prefer in Av 5 would be that not most items can't be sold for 1gp, I can't help myself going back and forth collecting all of them!
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
Stunning blade? in Avernum 4
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Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Wednesday, March 22 2006 13:48 Profile Homepage #0
Anyone know what this is supposed to do? It says it does 3-6 damage, and is worth 250 coins. I can't see it in Slartucker's item list (v0.9).
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
Knowledge Brew Recipe??? in Avernum 4
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Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Monday, March 20 2006 06:50 Profile Homepage #5
Woops missed that completely :D
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
Avernum V in Avernum 4
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Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Monday, March 20 2006 06:48 Profile Homepage #123
quote:
Originally written by Kelandon:

... unless one counts whatever may be going on in the slith homeland...
Exactly! That's definitely supposed to be a (big) nation.

quote:
Originally written by Kelandon:

... The vahnatai also have many clans...
Doh, you're right on this one, my bad.

So that makes 3 big nations then, plus several smaller ones, e.g. Vahnatai clans, large Slith/Nephil/etc clans.
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
Avernum V in Avernum 4
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Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Sunday, March 19 2006 10:23 Profile Homepage #118
quote:
Originally written by Derakon:

...the only other two nations in the world...
I think you forgot the Slith empire as well. That's four empires in total (The Empire, Avernum, Vahnatai and Sliths.
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
Knowledge Brew Recipe??? in Avernum 4
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Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Sunday, March 19 2006 09:58 Profile Homepage #3
What are the ingredients for it?
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00
a map in Avernum 4
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Apprentice
Member # 6924
 written Sunday, March 19 2006 09:54 Profile Homepage #11
Yeah I must agree, while the merging of indoors and outdoors was an interesting experiment, and I guess it's quite fun to play something different once in a while, I have gone back firmly to the indoor/outdoor split. Just feels so much more... epic :)
Posts: 30 | Registered: Friday, March 17 2006 08:00

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