Why not make this game open source? The more developers, the better, more ideas, more help, more teamwork. Right now our dev is away, if we would have more developers the game would still be on going. This game needs many changes (*cough* graphics overhaul *cough*), making it open source will ensure a bright future for this game. Why not accept volunteer devs? There are many people out there who would like to help, there are many in here who would like to help. I've seen Flight Simulators which are open source (Flight Gear) and it is amazingly good and well running (runs even better than TU).
The reason for this post is the obvious; TU is NOT in a good state, and we, the players, want to save it.
Open Source
Open sourcing the game won't do anything. Chances are a fly-by developer capable of understanding the code isn't going to suddenly start coding so you're restricted to the playerbase... and how many people in the playerbase are professional coders willing to contribute large slabs of their own time to contribute to TU? Not to mention the initial overhead of understanding this particular program before they can add anything to it.
Open source is alright, but it's not the super-uber-blurgh people make it out to be. I'd wager that most people that claim to advocate open source don't care about open source at all and ultimately just want to make sure the software they rely on stays free instead of having to pay for good software and given the chance a lot of so called open source advocates wouldn't release their own code.
Open source is alright, but it's not the super-uber-blurgh people make it out to be. I'd wager that most people that claim to advocate open source don't care about open source at all and ultimately just want to make sure the software they rely on stays free instead of having to pay for good software and given the chance a lot of so called open source advocates wouldn't release their own code.
I have seen games, programs and have also played and used, and MOST of them even run better than this game, and they are open source, how is that bad?
The code? This game needs an overhaul, how can a game with such crappy graphics have so much CPU use? Geez, even second life runs better than this. The code needs to be rewritten, the graphics changed, the engine aswell an dmuch more or this game will stay in this state for quite a while or can even get worse.
For all this we need our developer, our only developer, but Mit is totally abcent, and for quite a long time which I understant but let's face the facts. Wouldn't open source be a solution to this aswell?
The code? This game needs an overhaul, how can a game with such crappy graphics have so much CPU use? Geez, even second life runs better than this. The code needs to be rewritten, the graphics changed, the engine aswell an dmuch more or this game will stay in this state for quite a while or can even get worse.
For all this we need our developer, our only developer, but Mit is totally abcent, and for quite a long time which I understant but let's face the facts. Wouldn't open source be a solution to this aswell?
What I'm saying is that Open Source is BETTER THAN NOT HAVING NO DEVELOPER. A solution must be found, coz the game IS NOT in a good state and right now it is totally depending on the player base, the small player base. And more leave, and less stay.
No need for that, it's a very basic concept, even more clear: TU, right now, SUCKS by the mile.and I don't want to do the whole internet-forum-debate quote and respond, quote and respond thing so... just read it again.
But how are you going to attract an accomplished developer to work /a lot/ on the game. Especially if you're talking about heavy optimisations to existing features (which means needing to understand how it all works) and adding new features. There's a lot of work to be done and I doubt (I mean that in the it's not going to happen, not the it's not likely) a game of this type with the small player base will be able to pull in volunteers like a major open source project will.
The open source games you're thinking about have probably been open source from the beginning or from very early from the beginning. Their situation doesn't apply. At all.
I could be mistaken of course but I haven't seen many open source games that haven't been open source for a while and if they have a multitude of developers they generally command ... everything, e.g. Battle for Wesnoth which is pretty much the entire open source gaming community.
The open source games you're thinking about have probably been open source from the beginning or from very early from the beginning. Their situation doesn't apply. At all.
I could be mistaken of course but I haven't seen many open source games that haven't been open source for a while and if they have a multitude of developers they generally command ... everything, e.g. Battle for Wesnoth which is pretty much the entire open source gaming community.
in response to theseer:
i think you make valid points on why an open source TU wouldn't attract a developer to overhaul the game, and i suppose you are arguing from the perspective of the current developers of this game. what i mean by this is that even though it unlikely for a new dev to come along, mishka still had a great point: if the game isnt open source there will a 0% chance for people to help. for the playerbase any chance is better than no chance. for the developers though, its easy to see that there are reasons why they would want to keep it closed source.
on another point, it might not be *too* bad that TU wasn't open source from the start, because people often come and go on open and closed source projects and many have to start learning the codebase from scratch. i am not knowledgable enough about open source projects to say that if a project is OS from the beginning it will be easier for people to learn and pick up, maybe, maybe not. even if large parts of the code are unstructured enough that they should be completely refactored/rewritten, starting from a mess is better than starting from nothing.
i think you make valid points on why an open source TU wouldn't attract a developer to overhaul the game, and i suppose you are arguing from the perspective of the current developers of this game. what i mean by this is that even though it unlikely for a new dev to come along, mishka still had a great point: if the game isnt open source there will a 0% chance for people to help. for the playerbase any chance is better than no chance. for the developers though, its easy to see that there are reasons why they would want to keep it closed source.
on another point, it might not be *too* bad that TU wasn't open source from the start, because people often come and go on open and closed source projects and many have to start learning the codebase from scratch. i am not knowledgable enough about open source projects to say that if a project is OS from the beginning it will be easier for people to learn and pick up, maybe, maybe not. even if large parts of the code are unstructured enough that they should be completely refactored/rewritten, starting from a mess is better than starting from nothing.
erm...a games quality has nothing to do with open or closed source. it has to do with how well its programmed.
the only reason open source things may seem better is because somebody else took the original creators project, altered it, edited it, and rereleased it. in other words, there'd be many slightly different copies of the game and far less players overall due to the player base being spread out. look at linux, dozens (if not hundreds) of versions. think of how this game would be if there were dozens of different galaxies.
why should mit give away the game he worked so hard on and used to learn how to program? theres nothing stopping any current programmers from contacting mit and volunteering to help. oh, except for money and except for the game not being open source which prevents them from making there own copy of it to release instead of helping mit and this game.
the only reason open source things may seem better is because somebody else took the original creators project, altered it, edited it, and rereleased it. in other words, there'd be many slightly different copies of the game and far less players overall due to the player base being spread out. look at linux, dozens (if not hundreds) of versions. think of how this game would be if there were dozens of different galaxies.
why should mit give away the game he worked so hard on and used to learn how to program? theres nothing stopping any current programmers from contacting mit and volunteering to help. oh, except for money and except for the game not being open source which prevents them from making there own copy of it to release instead of helping mit and this game.
Why would any experienced coders all of a sudden make pilgrimage to TU. We can't even get enough players let alone talented coders. There is no need for Mit to give away to public years of personal work for something that wouldn't solve any of the games problems.
The game does not need a graphics overhaul. TU is not an action/simulation game that demands realism. All this game could use is for the bugs to be fixed and all of the partially implemented features to be completed. The update every few months system TU relied on during its more popular times was more then enough. Hopefully, for the players sake only, the devs can find enough time to work on it once again. However, its just a game. It has no relevance compared to the real world which contains family,friends,work,etc... If you want to help and have the time, plug the game to you're friends, make a planet, offer to write guides, etc. If that is not good enough, make you're own game.
P.S. Secondlife does not run as well as TU.
The game does not need a graphics overhaul. TU is not an action/simulation game that demands realism. All this game could use is for the bugs to be fixed and all of the partially implemented features to be completed. The update every few months system TU relied on during its more popular times was more then enough. Hopefully, for the players sake only, the devs can find enough time to work on it once again. However, its just a game. It has no relevance compared to the real world which contains family,friends,work,etc... If you want to help and have the time, plug the game to you're friends, make a planet, offer to write guides, etc. If that is not good enough, make you're own game.
P.S. Secondlife does not run as well as TU.
well, the point is that its possible that on the average, between open or closed source projects, one of the types tends to be coded better in the long run. i don't know how to answer which type actually is better, because there are many other things that make a game successful like mass market appeal, graphics, and then actual gameplay, of courseerm...a games quality has nothing to do with open or closed source. it has to do with how well its programmed.
we can't just look at whether or not people are playing open or closed source games (as far as i know people overwhelmingly play closed source games) because open source games may be coded quite nicely, but have no appeal to many gamers or fail in other ways.i'm not entirely sure where you are coming from on this, but i see how that might be annoying if the playerbase fractures. i didn't think such a thing happened to the point where it would actually be a problem, are there any specific examples of games where this happened?the only reason open source things may seem better is because somebody else took the original creators project, altered it, edited it, and rereleased it. in other words, there'd be many slightly different copies of the game and far less players overall due to the player base being spread out. look at linux, dozens (if not hundreds) of versions. think of how this game would be if there were dozens of different galaxies.
he should give it away if he thinks it would improve the game and doesn't plan on TU being a commercial success. he should not give it away if it will be a commercial success or he just doesn't want people looking at his code. his call.why should mit give away the game he worked so hard on and used to learn how to program?
i see your point again, and i dont really know how many douchebags there are out there that modify open source projects without the original owners consent and end up stealing players away. i don't think its a huge problem, but i could be wrong. for why there are no volunteers, it basically goes like this:theres nothing stopping any current programmers from contacting mit and volunteering to help. oh, except for money and except for the game not being open source which prevents them from making there own copy of it to release instead of helping mit and this game.
open source = helping the game
closed source = helping the game + helping mit + possible other benefits if the volunteer sees it worth his while
why would anyone want to help mit? xD. there may be several people out there who want to help the game, though.