- Joined
- Jan 24, 2011
- Messages
- 4,801
Wow I can't leave some of you alone for a night lol 
glad you all self-moderated though. Thank you for that.
The annoying thing for me will be that this game is probably the easiest one on earth to share. There's no longer any need for a CD and if we could simply get the blessing and a legal release in writing to add it to the downloads section, that would be that. Anyone who ever wanted to try something would be able to. If it was shareable, I would have been more motivated to get OTR going for single player for Master's of the Air, and leveraged that on twitter etc. to get more people in, but without having anywhere to legally send them to get the game besides "ebay," it just seems so pointless. Yet it seems to be in some weird limbo of "not-quite-abandon-ware vs. no-one-seems-to-know-who-can-sign-off" land and we are stuck. There's also the option, as I've mentioned some times in the past, of going the Matrix Games route a la Gary Grigsby's Eagle Day to Bombing the Reich where the game is sold by Matrix but all the support (and indeed updates) are offered by fans. In a dream world we'd have that and perhaps The Nameless One's blessing to "the keys" behind ToTPP so interested parties could learn to tweak it full time.
@Lord_Hill made a good point about MGE though I would say (and have said many times indeed) that as someone who also resisted ToT for some time (you all had to convince me to make Germanicus in ToT 10 years ago), ToTPP along with other efforts by Catfish and our great artists @Fairline and @Tanelorn et al has largely erased every "look and feel" issue I ever had with ToTPP. But how does one explain that to someone who has been out of the loop and just remembers how ugly and unfamiliar it was when it first came out?
I also blame myself for not helping more. So many of you have made such marvelous scenarios and I just haven't had the time or energy to devote to them. Unfortunately it's just kind of who I am. I have too many hobbies. I fish, I draw, I blog, I write books, I build scale models, I civ, I apparently now hike, I swim, and I somehow try and be a Dad to two kids after a recent divorce and a manager to ten folks in a challenging environment. I have all the commitment of a man with a dozen hobbies and a bunch of competing responsibilities and it shows lol. Focusing on so much makes me a sprinter more than a marathon runner and frankly we've had such a Renaissance with Civ I can't keep up. Even my two main projects, OTR and Cold War are just languishing as I chip away a little bit at a time with weeks or months in between. It's tough and I'll bet many of you have the same issue.
But beyond my own personal issues, and looking back to the overall theme that some have alluded to here - ToTPP has basically given each of us a choice to make when we design our projects: Are we building a scenario or are we building a new game? Really, you can do either with ToTPP and I think that may be something to consider. I have no idea if it influences who tries something out but I'll bet it influences how much time they feel they need to set aside to try it.
I'd also just note that Civ2 has been around forever and so have we. I'll bet most people who frequent this forum prefer it to all the others. So, the more we stray from the Civ2 feel, it would make sense that many here wouldn't necessarily be as keen.
For my own work, I'd argue that Caesar (the first lua scenario I built and I think the first published ever, at least here) is still a "scenario." Yes, there are a few new lua concepts in it, but nothing too crazy. If you can learn one more key "k" you can play it well enough. OTOH, Over the Reich (at least the published version) is a brand new game. It takes a lot more learning to figure out. It has a readme that is 41 pages. It's not for everyone, and I'm hoping the new version @Prof. Garfield and I are working on is more toned down, at least "in the front stage."
Anyway I'm rambling. I'll try to be better on my end but I'm glad everyone is making these because even if it takes years to finally get around to playing them, I've always had a ball when I did. Case in point, one of the more fun scenarios I've played in the past two years was @Patine and @McMonkey 's version of the Korean War. Simple and had been on the shelf for years before I finally got around to it, but when I did, I had a ball. I'm sure I'll enjoy everyone's offering in good time but hopefully you'll all still be around for me to finally praise you for it!
glad you all self-moderated though. Thank you for that.The annoying thing for me will be that this game is probably the easiest one on earth to share. There's no longer any need for a CD and if we could simply get the blessing and a legal release in writing to add it to the downloads section, that would be that. Anyone who ever wanted to try something would be able to. If it was shareable, I would have been more motivated to get OTR going for single player for Master's of the Air, and leveraged that on twitter etc. to get more people in, but without having anywhere to legally send them to get the game besides "ebay," it just seems so pointless. Yet it seems to be in some weird limbo of "not-quite-abandon-ware vs. no-one-seems-to-know-who-can-sign-off" land and we are stuck. There's also the option, as I've mentioned some times in the past, of going the Matrix Games route a la Gary Grigsby's Eagle Day to Bombing the Reich where the game is sold by Matrix but all the support (and indeed updates) are offered by fans. In a dream world we'd have that and perhaps The Nameless One's blessing to "the keys" behind ToTPP so interested parties could learn to tweak it full time.
@Lord_Hill made a good point about MGE though I would say (and have said many times indeed) that as someone who also resisted ToT for some time (you all had to convince me to make Germanicus in ToT 10 years ago), ToTPP along with other efforts by Catfish and our great artists @Fairline and @Tanelorn et al has largely erased every "look and feel" issue I ever had with ToTPP. But how does one explain that to someone who has been out of the loop and just remembers how ugly and unfamiliar it was when it first came out?
I also blame myself for not helping more. So many of you have made such marvelous scenarios and I just haven't had the time or energy to devote to them. Unfortunately it's just kind of who I am. I have too many hobbies. I fish, I draw, I blog, I write books, I build scale models, I civ, I apparently now hike, I swim, and I somehow try and be a Dad to two kids after a recent divorce and a manager to ten folks in a challenging environment. I have all the commitment of a man with a dozen hobbies and a bunch of competing responsibilities and it shows lol. Focusing on so much makes me a sprinter more than a marathon runner and frankly we've had such a Renaissance with Civ I can't keep up. Even my two main projects, OTR and Cold War are just languishing as I chip away a little bit at a time with weeks or months in between. It's tough and I'll bet many of you have the same issue.
But beyond my own personal issues, and looking back to the overall theme that some have alluded to here - ToTPP has basically given each of us a choice to make when we design our projects: Are we building a scenario or are we building a new game? Really, you can do either with ToTPP and I think that may be something to consider. I have no idea if it influences who tries something out but I'll bet it influences how much time they feel they need to set aside to try it.
I'd also just note that Civ2 has been around forever and so have we. I'll bet most people who frequent this forum prefer it to all the others. So, the more we stray from the Civ2 feel, it would make sense that many here wouldn't necessarily be as keen.
For my own work, I'd argue that Caesar (the first lua scenario I built and I think the first published ever, at least here) is still a "scenario." Yes, there are a few new lua concepts in it, but nothing too crazy. If you can learn one more key "k" you can play it well enough. OTOH, Over the Reich (at least the published version) is a brand new game. It takes a lot more learning to figure out. It has a readme that is 41 pages. It's not for everyone, and I'm hoping the new version @Prof. Garfield and I are working on is more toned down, at least "in the front stage."
Anyway I'm rambling. I'll try to be better on my end but I'm glad everyone is making these because even if it takes years to finally get around to playing them, I've always had a ball when I did. Case in point, one of the more fun scenarios I've played in the past two years was @Patine and @McMonkey 's version of the Korean War. Simple and had been on the shelf for years before I finally got around to it, but when I did, I had a ball. I'm sure I'll enjoy everyone's offering in good time but hopefully you'll all still be around for me to finally praise you for it!
