Alien Worlds graphics request

I finally managed to write some documentation about that freeciv-modpack utility:

http://freeciv.wikia.com/wiki/Creating_freeciv-modpack_content

Not much has happened in alien ruleset front since March. Version 2.3-1 released 5-Mar is still latest version. Today I just made it possible to install it with freeciv-modpack utility. Just enter (copy&paste) this URL to freeciv-modpack: http://www.cazfi.net/freeciv/modinst/2.3/alien.modpack

Freeciv 2.3.0 was released a week ago.

I'm working on feature / patch stack that will eventually lead to zoom -feature. I'm still working on other features zoom will depend on, not on zoom itself. Bad news is that I consider it unlikely that I manage to finish this before freeciv 2.4 feature freeze (2-Nov) so first freeciv version with zoom is probably 2.5.

2.4 will include unit orientation -feature I have already finished. It's fully optional - you can still have just one unit sprite - but you can have different unit sprite depending the direction unit is facing, and optionally yet one more to be used as icon when there's no orientation associated with unit displayed (such as unit type help window and unit type selection dialog in editor)

I started listing graphics that I need for Alien World -ruleset. Almost all the entries are in the list already, if missing additional information. Just misc-section is still lacking things that I'm not entirely sure if it would make more sense to use default gfx or replace it.

http://www.cazfi.net/freeciv/alien/SpritesNeeded.txt

As you can see, I have terrains, resources, specials, and some misc stuff.

I have now selected gfx for all the units. Took two nights of switching them back and forth (if I set to Crusher that gfx that I earlier set for Native Settlers, and completely new gfx for Native Settlers, and mirror Native Engineer gfx...) I still have to write down who is author of each unit gfx, basically everything comes from Fantasy & SciFi units -thread.

Looks good, and the documentation is great help.
I have planned to make something for Either FreeCiv or Civ2 for a while now, but it seems certain this will not be realistically possible until I have finished school. The games will still be around then, so I'm not very stressed.

As I hope to get Alien World ruleset a bit higher profile in the future, some legal considerations have to be taken seriously. This is making it a bit harder for end-users to set up, but I have decided to release ruleset itself and SL gfx based tileset separately. Former is licensed under GPLv2+, and latter not (I'm not promising end-users such rights over *your* work as GPL would give) I hope to get GPL tileset in the future, but this solution gives people tileset to use with Alien World ruleset already and not in some uncertain distant future, and may even be needed for another tileset ever to come to existence (usable tileset -> more interest on ruleset -> more interest to create tileset for it)

While only first release (2.3.0) from Freeciv 2.3 series has been released, with second one (2.3.1) expected next weekend, also 2.4 proceeds. After one year of feature development, stable branch for 2.4 was created 02-Nov-11. Current freeciv feature development (in trunk) is targeted to 2.5 already. Today 2.4 reached another important milestone considering modding; datafile format freeze. This means that modpacks you now produce compatible with current 2.4 development version will be compatible with 2.4.x releases, short of effects of freeciv bugs. Final 2.4.0 release is long way away, though. For some perspective: 2.3 was branched 02-Nov-10, and 2.3.0 was released this August.

I've made Windows build of first freeciv revision with that final 2.4 datafile format. See http://forum.freeciv.org/viewtopic.php?t=6684. Note that this is still not network compatible with final 2.4.0, i.e., you cannot connect client/server from this build to server/client of 2.4.0.

With this datafile format freeze in place, I've made first freeciv 2.4 compatible version of Alien World ruleset. Documentation is here: http://www.cazfi.net/freeciv/alien/2.4-0/. As of writing this, modpack is not yet available for download as zip, but it's installable with freeciv-modpack utility that's part of freeciv build.

Discussion about Alien World tileset(s) is better suited to freeciv forums at http://forum.freeciv.org. There's two related threads: http://forum.freeciv.org/f/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=31 and http://forum.freeciv.org/f/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=104. I might be back here if we want to use some of your graphics, and need to ask if you are willing to release them under GPLv2+ license.

cazfi said:

Discussion about Alien World tileset(s) is better suited to freeciv forums at http://forum.freeciv.org. There's two related threads: http://forum.freeciv.org/f/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=31 and http://forum.freeciv.org/f/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=104. I might be back here if we want to use some of your graphics, and need to ask if you are willing to release them under GPLv2+ license.

Click to expand...

Current situation: I have almost complete 64x32 isometric tileset collected from Scenario League in my private use ("SLalien"). We'd like to use as much gfx from it as possible in the official tileset (meaning official tileset will be 64x32, and not e.g. 96x48). I see that some things are obviously derived from copyrighted works, so you have no rights to release them under GPLv2+ as required to become part of Freeciv, but for the rest I'd like to get to know who is the original author, and him/her releasing them under GPLv2+ ( http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html ) - or rather dual-licensing them that way so it doesn't affect any other use of those graphics, but allows us (and any derived-work, as that's the idea of GPL) to modify and use them. It should be enough if you shout here that it's ok to use some sprite (specify which ones) this way.
I'm attaching current gfx files in case someone can tell the original authors directly from them. I'll later start looking the graphics from the threads where they have appeared here to find out who the authors are.

Hi cazfi, when I remember well, the first spaceship in the second row of the ships image is from a very old Civ 2 compilation of Startrek units (a ship of the Organians?), the second ship is a reworked spaceship of the Perry Rhodan series, the third ship in the second row could be from a Starwars-compilation, the fourth ship in the second row is a Storm IV Cloud car used at Bespin from the Starwars series, the fifth graphic in the second row is a Plasma Torpedo from Master of Orion Junior, and the first image in the third row shows a Dolan, a living spaceship of the Perry Rhodan series. So I think these graphics don´t meet the release-standards of GPLv2+.

Civinator, was there an actual Perrry Rhodan scenario for Civ2, and, if so, do you have it? I'd be interested in seeing it.

Patine said:

Civinator, was there an actual Perrry Rhodan scenario for Civ2, and, if so, do you have it? I'd be interested in seeing it.

Click to expand...

Patine, I made some personal Perry Rhodan scenarios a long time ago. These scenarios were for Civ 2 vanilla and Civ 2 Fantastic Worlds and are gone since a long time.

Not so long ago I finished a mod for Civ 2 ToT in the style of the former computer game VGA planets with some Perry Rhodan civs among the playable civs. The spaceships were somewhat animated. I posted the mod at CFC, but there was next to no interest. so the download was removed. Some remaining images can be seen here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=421505

For me this mod is a lot of fun and cause of the two maps, that allow invasions from one galaxy to the other via wormholes and spaceships with intergalactic propulsion (like Dimetrrans and Dimesexta-Engines) and random starting positions for the civs, this mod is also somewhat difficult and exciting. Another public download is not planned again.

I've decided to postpone Alien ruleset as part of freeciv release from freeciv-2.6 to freeciv-3.0. Given that our major releases tend to be 2 years apart, and we're still some way from releasing 2.5, that places it something like 5 years to the future.