Petition CA for MTW source code?

[gollum]

You most certainly should step up Durango - you could even start your own thread. I love reading AARs.

[Vladimir]

The time honored "Risk" styled game never gets old.

[A Nerd]

I definately prefer the 'bland' risk style strat map to the colorful 'deep' map of editions of TW following MTW.

[Durango]

I definately prefer the 'bland' risk style strat map to the colorful 'deep' map of editions of TW following MTW.

You're not the only one who feel that way. I really dislike the gaudy, cartoonish and "gamey" campaign map in comparison with the traditional
parchment look. Everybody agrees that MTW has way more atmosphere, yet few admit that the exaggerated graphics of today look worse.

[A Nerd]

If they could somehow combine today's flashy graphics with the old strat map and field battles, that would be great!

edit: I actually think the current strat map feels alittle more desolate than the old one.

[Ibrahim]

You're not the only one who feel that way. I really dislike the gaudy, cartoonish and "gamey" campaign map in comparison with the traditional
parchment look. Everybody agrees that MTW has way more atmosphere, yet few admit that the exaggerated graphics of today look worse.

I do. not that I talk much of it.

as to sourcecodes: I agree, CA can, and should, release the sourcecodes: ID (my favorite company for all FPS needs), has done that for Q's 1-3, as mentioned earlier, and they have yet to collapse. in fact, they were bought up, as CA was, by a larger company. (since sega now "owns" CA)

now I figured I might get in trouble for what I'm about to say next, but I am currently so fed up with the ridiculous limitations I see in all CA games since MTW, that I have-no kidding-started work on a new executable, a new game. it'l be similar to the TW series, with-hopefully, the best features of all the games put together and improved-from scratch of course, seeing as hacking the exe is illegal, and no source code exists.. other than that, I'm not going to go into the details.


EDIT: no, I am not in favor of hacking, piracy, or anything of that sort. I never realeased the virus to the public either.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

EDIT: well, on second thought: I envision a model limit of 1-2000 models (in .rum or .cas format*), no culture limits, and a 1-2000 unit limit. there will be no unit size limit, animations will be similar to M2TW, and 50 playable factions as a minimum. the map will be a hybrid between the MTW and RTW styles, only the province limit will be 1000. of course, one needs an easily moddable, but highly base-effective, battlefield and strategy AI set.

*its cheaper on memory.

[Durango]

Sounds very, very ambitious. I commend your dedication

A couple of questions:

1. What is your "philosophy" when it comes to strategy games? What is most important to you?

2. What kind of overall graphical fidelity will the game feature?

3. How long could it take for you to finish this project?

4. How many people do you expect to involve in this?

5. Do you have a need for someone to perform graphical tasks and design the aesthetical look of certain game features?

You can check out the campaign map that I made for MTW XL if you want, it's in the modding section. I have looked into
various ways to enhance the graphical feel of the original game ever since I got it.

Cheers!

[gollum]

Good luck with that Ibrahim, programming is quite fun, and far more an art than a science i've been told.

[Garnier]

Good luck, but if you're only just learning programming I recommend you accomplish much simpler things that will be useful, first. MTW took years to complete and that was a team of paid professionals.

[Ibrahim]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Sounds very, very ambitious. I commend your dedication

A couple of questions:

1. What is your "philosophy" when it comes to strategy games? What is most important to you?

2. What kind of overall graphical fidelity will the game feature?

3. How long could it take for you to finish this project?

4. How many people do you expect to involve in this?

5. Do you have a need for someone to perform graphical tasks and design the aesthetical look of certain game features?

You can check out the campaign map that I made for MTW XL if you want, it's in the modding section. I have looked into
various ways to enhance the graphical feel of the original game ever since I got it.

Cheers!

1-well, it sholdn't be too easy, or too hard (i.e not as easy as elf bowling or hard as Silver surfur). I prefer immersive gameplay, kinda like MTW, STW, and EB are like. I'm not into eyecandy as much as the gameplay itself. I also am on the simple side of things: the simpler, the better. but I also want flexibility. MTW came close on most grounds IMHO, but it can be improved. graphics come to mind
2-up to the level of RTW for the battlefield (animations: M2TW): one of the big problems with today's graphics is that they are

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

way

too good; many computers can't handle that, and they take up too much space IMO. they're also a pain to mod at times.
3-that's if I finish: years. yeah, I am a realist about these things. much of the time will be on executable making and game balancing.
4-as many as possible: I'm particularly short on programmers, and I'm a pretty basic one myself. the models and skins are already done, as well as the scenario.
5-any helps is appreciated.

@ garnier: that's actually what I'm doing atm


but back to business: we are all, for the most part, of the same mind anyways: It is indeed a good idea to send a petition to the CA for source codes. should we make an official petition paper, stating our aims? we can type in our names (user or real, up to the OP), and get as many people as possible to sign it. of course we need a strong leader/lobbyist to argue the point, for as many people already mentioned, a petition by itself won't be noticed by CA.

or should we just show them this thread? I persoanally prefer the former. its more formal, and can more effectively sum up our position.

[edyzmedieval]

I definitely agree with Ibrahim regarding the formal petition. I'm done with finals this upcoming week, I'll draft up an initial petition if some people agree with it after reading my post.

[edyzmedieval]

I was wondering if anyone agrees with the petition, a.k.a. ready to sign it.

[A Nerd]

Sounds like a good idea to me. MTW was so enjoyable, it would be nice to see what more could come of it. Also, it would be a shame to let MTW be relegated to the past.

[Ibrahim]

well, now that I'm back in force, I say we get to it.

who will draw the petition up?

[edyzmedieval]

How's about we do a common petition aka more of us draft it up? I'm up for it.

[Ibrahim]

How's about we do a common petition aka more of us draft it up? I'm up for it.

sure. now to coordinate.

[Wytchfynder]

You're not the only one who feel that way. I really dislike the gaudy, cartoonish and "gamey" campaign map in comparison with the traditional
parchment look. Everybody agrees that MTW has way more atmosphere, yet few admit that the exaggerated graphics of today look worse.

I agree with this quote. mtw has more atmosphere. The maps of rtw and mtw2 aint so bad but the maps of empire and napoleon are real bad.

I dunno how anyone can those two maps seriously if you are over 16. its like moving kids cartoon pieces around dolls houses.

[caravel]

I agree with this quote. mtw has more atmosphere. The maps of rtw and mtw2 aint so bad but the maps of empire and napoleon are real bad.

I dunno how anyone can those two maps seriously if you are over 16. its like moving kids cartoon pieces around dolls houses.

Well that's how I usually think of the RTW/M2TW map.

[Vantek]

CA should follow the example of these guys IMO

[Wytchfynder]

Just thinking out loud..CA could pull off a major PR coup and positive publicity by releasing some kind of 'charity version' of med1 and shogun1 combined with the bulk of profits going to charity and the rest covering their expenses in allocating a few CA guys to work with the source code and trusted/respected modders or coders in the community fanbase.

mtw1 & stw1 combined with original risk campaign map fixed up for w7 and modern grafix cards and battles maybe tweaked up to rtw standards.

rtw battles still look ok and a charity version would sell well cos people would be helping others plus plenty of people in the world without monster gaming rigs and aint too bothered by mega flashy graphics.

[vartan]

Just thinking out loud..CA could pull off a major PR coup and positive publicity by releasing some kind of 'charity version' of med1 and shogun1 combined with the bulk of profits going to charity and the rest covering their expenses in allocating a few CA guys to work with the source code and trusted/respected modders or coders in the community fanbase.

mtw1 & stw1 combined with original risk campaign map fixed up for w7 and modern grafix cards and battles maybe tweaked up to rtw standards.

rtw battles still look ok and a charity version would sell well cos people would be helping others plus plenty of people in the world without monster gaming rigs and aint too bothered by mega flashy graphics.

Agreed. I was just introduced to this thread and wholeheartedly agree with the concept.

[edyzmedieval]

When it comes to the business decisions, I think it is rather SEGA who adopts these policies rather than CA because in the end it has to be part of a revenue plan from the mother-company that includes all subsidiaries.

Still, releasing the source code, even for a certain amount of cash, would equal a step in the right direction.

[drone]

Just re-read the whole thread (partly to jostle the memory and partly cause it's now my job and work is a little slow ).

Do we know who exactly has the rights to MTW? Does Sega/CA own them exclusively, or does Activision still have some say? My recently purchased STW off Amazon has the Sega logo on the box and on one of the opening screens, don't know about MTW. Either way, I doubt we are getting source. So what are the other options?

It's possible that CA has identified a problem with nVidia cards/drivers. Changing the MTW code to work around this will cost a lot of money to fix, and it would be a workaround, not a fix, so CA probably isn't willing to put forth that effort. CA doesn't and can't control the driver codebase for nVidia, so it's a no go. nVidia probably doesn't care (financially) either, it's possible that their drivers are coded in such a way that a change to fix MTW will affect too much else.

After thinking about it some, I think we need someone with code experience in DirectX, maybe someone who has been messing around with the nVidia Linux drivers. Create a wrapper lib with log/debug hooks for the Windows DirectX library, and see where the problems occur. Then try to rewrite the offending function(s) and offer up a aux DirectX library to get around the issue.

[oz_wwjd]

How's about we do a common petition aka more of us draft it up? I'm up for it.

I'd be willing to put my real name to a petition if someone could draft one in such a way that it won't be ignored.

[vartan]

I'd be willing to put my real name to a petition if someone could draft one in such a way that it won't be ignored.

Would it be one of those Online Petitions? (You know, how they have 'online petition signatures' on some special petition sites?)

[oz_wwjd]

Would it be one of those Online Petitions? (You know, how they have 'online petition signatures' on some special petition sites?)

I'd assume so,but that's really up to whoever sets up the petition.

[caravel]

As I've said earlier in the thread, I don't think CA recognise petitions - certainly not online ones. Regardless, talking about the petition won't get it done, someone needs to take the initiative and set one up.

[vartan]

As I've said earlier in the thread, I don't think CA recognise petitions - certainly not online ones. Regardless, talking about the petition won't get it done, someone needs to take the initiative and set one up.

But if the CA fan community connects to each other via the Internet (see TWC, the Guild, etc.), then how does one go about representing the community without use of the Internet?

[caravel]

That's a good question - but you're asking the wrong person.

Petitions are prohibited over at the .com (official CA) forums and have also been dismissed here in the past. I seriously don't think you'll have any luck with a petition.

[vartan]

That's a good question - but you're asking the wrong person.

Petitions are prohibited over at the .com (official CA) forums and have also been dismissed here in the past. I seriously don't think you'll have any luck with a petition.

Precisely what I was thinking, because as far as I know, almost every game that has had its source code made open has been so by decision by developers, not via a petition.