A brilliant idea!

[Braxton]

Hey guys, I was just thinking here...
it would be SOOOOOOO cool to get a user built campaign working!!!
I will need some help for the programming,artwork and so on, but I can get the story line (and legal permission)
My Idea was we could make this campaign be like the Award winning e-book http://sfdebris.com/unity.asp By sfdebris, I can probably get his permission and what not. but the music we already have.
I was thinking we could use the code from Wz2100 as a skeleton.
Please tell me what you guys think!




~Braxton :rolleyes:

[Buginator]

Well, it would be doable, but it would take quite a long time, unless you got some help.

If you check over the wiki, and have more questions, I am sure someone will chime in sooner or later.

[Arreon]

I have some ideas for some new weapons if you would like some help (maybe a rotary needle gun or gauss artillery)

[Braxton]

Yeah, We get a couple of those as X-Wing upgrades, and that would be awesome.

I was thinking we might also give it a "First person mode" where you could take an eye view and control a Ship, person or weapon.


I sent the author an email asking for permission, If he does not respond in 3 weeks, I will say the project is legally right. (For there are no objections)

Any help anyone can support would be greatly appreciated, I do not know how to and because of mounting efforts to finish school, I have almost no time to learn.
I beg anyone with ideas to please help with the programing/Artwork/levels/Maps and code.


Thank you for any help you supply on this project.

(All those who contribute will get credits at the end of the campaign, saying their usr name and what they helped with)
~
Braxton


Braxton.

[Zarel]

I sent the author an email asking for permission, If he does not respond in 3 weeks, I will say the project is legally right. (For there are no objections)

...that's not how copyright law works.

Feel free to go ahead, but keep in mind you risk being sued by the author later on, and not to publish any of your campaign anywhere on wz2100.net.

[PkK]

I sent the author an email asking for permission, If he does not respond in 3 weeks, I will say the project is legally right. (For there are no objections)

Under current copyright law you'd only be right if he doesn't respond until 75 years after his death.

Philipp

[Braxton]

Yes, But, If we Release the code under the GPL for all to see and make it free.
There should be no problem unless he complains.
If he does say no, We will stop the project.
There should be no problem if we do so, as long as we put his usr name on the end credits.

[Braxton]

If he does complain I will stop the process completely.

[stiv]

Yes, But, If we Release the code under the GPL for all to see and make it free.
There should be no problem unless he complains.

You really don't understand any of this, do you? You might want to read Zarel's upstream comment a few more times.

[cumandgetit]

Unity is a fan fiction combining the commercial franchises of Star Wars and Star Trek. "Award Winning" is the claim but I could find no
references to what award or who awarded what. But that's beside the point. The real point is 2 fold. First this:

All reference and images relating to Star Trek are trademark of Paramount.
All reference and images relating to Star Wars are trademark of Lucasfilm.

And the second part is that the WZ source is absolutely NOT a good fit. Sure, almost anything is possible, even if you could truly resolve the
copyright issues involved here as well the man power and talent and skills needed to reinvent the wheel as far as code appropriate to the
game style.

The much better fit, IMHO, which is also born out by extant Mods & Total Conversions is the Vega Strike source and assets. Working
within that and it's community has a million times better chance of seeing the light of day than working with the WZ source. It would
take a long post to give you all my reasons for this position but the supporting rationale,really wouldn't change anything said or anything
an analysis or research of your own wouldn't arrive at so I'm going to skip it all and just give you the link to the Vega Strike Project.

http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/

Good luck, cumandgetit.

[Braxton]

Ok then,
I still think we should develop some sort of new campaign.
lets brain storm some idea on the story line....

[Zarel]

Oh, we had a few hilarious (read: impractical) ideas for new tilesets for new campaigns:

- Florida
- Mars
- Underground
- City

City - it'd be like Portal meets Warzone 2100! "Commander, go and eliminate the scavengers in the northern sector." "But those are civilians! In a populated neutral city!"

[Arreon]

I can help the cause with ideas for weapons, bodies, and defenses. Some ideas include:

1: 3 stylish body types with 4 designs, each having their own strengths and weaknesses to prevent one becoming obsolete.

2: Choice of a weapon being an emplacement (or bunker for early weapons), tower, or hardpoint.

3: Choice of having 2 or 3 weapons on a heavy tank at slower speed and higher price. Possibly 2 for medium.

4: More types of artillery (for example something that fires salvoes of kinetic energy darts with an arching trajectory.

5: Upgraded AI so that they use artillery and sensors.

6: The option of watching a computer player do the work for fun.

7: A system of "Checks and Balances" that make sure that every weapon, body, and defense has a use (that way nothing goes obsolete).

Give me your thoughts on this.

[Zarel]

6: The option of watching a computer player do the work for fun.

Have you ever tried the "demo" cheat? It does exactly that.

[whippersnapper]

Ok then,
I still think we should develop some sort of new campaign.
lets brain storm some idea on the story line....

- You can legally adapt a Campaign scenario from 100's of Science Fiction stories found
here: http://manybooks.net/categories/SFC

- I can tell you have little idea what all is involved in making a new campaign and
I am not gonna bull chit you in my following statements. Brainstorming is as much
fun as being on laughing gas and you can do it for months but if you wanna cut
to the chase and make something you can play with then listen up.

- You need peeps that totally understand how WZ works. Specifically you need a
working team that can handle writing the scenarios, mission pre-scripting analysis docs,
mission a.i. scripting, 3D artists for the modeling and FMVs, a musician, and a map maker.

- I think to be realistic you should consider making just ONE working mission... just 1. If
you can do 1 then maybe you can do 15 to 30 missions... which is a long haul and
demands an utmost continuity of manpower and talent that is greater than any MOD or
even working the source code itself. All have to be on the same page with the particulars
and the commitment to see it through.

- To make it more feasible to test the ability to do just 1 campaign mission I can provide you
with a T-3 scenario and an ultra detailed pre-scripting analysis mission doc. This would leave
you with the following tasks to make a working mission: re-skinning some extant models, doing
a FMV or scrolling text mission brief which you'd get from my doc, make the mission map, insert
the map coordinates into the analysis doc for the triggers, write the a.i. script triggers based
on the provided doc, makes some music, voice-overs for your FMV if you decide on that route and
at last, put it all together..

- It's preferable if you have 2-4 peeps working together on this but if you have the requisite skills
and will power even one person can do this. I speak from experience on both counts... Worked
with others dividing-up tasking and have done it all by my lonesome. - can back that up with
new working missions btw..

- The point of this is mainly that creating a new campaign is second only to creating the game itself
from scratch, IMHO. Lot's of work over a long period of time - and your biggest challenges, I can tell
you right up front, are two-fold: getting every body involved on the same page and writing the scripts.
In fact... if you cannot get a dedicated a.i. scriptor from the get-go it won't matter if all other skill bases
are covered... without a good scriptor you will accomplish nothing. So I would really start there - seeing if
there is anyone in this whole community that is willing to script even just 1 mission. I hate to be pessimistic
but from what all I have seen I don't think anyone will step-up to script even one mission.

- If you can pull that together into making 1 playable mission.then this whole proposition just may not be
pure pie in the sky.

-- Regards, whipper