Infogrames' latest strategy statement.

[TheBigPK]

├óÔé¼┼ôATARI OPEN TO THE WORLD": developing relationships with gaming communities, relying on independently designed product lines that provide opportunities for the creation of new original franchises. Under this strategy, in addition to its own products, Atari will work with many third-party development studios around the world, with all projects managed by its own production teams. In this connection, in-house production expertise may be optimized by the setting up of project management procedures and the addition of new talents.

maybeh they'll give us teh jobs. lol

[KDR_11k]

Sounds to me like "We'll hire crap teams from cheap countries to do the work for us and spam the market with shovelware that has big branding".

[thesleepless]

+1 for moving ota content into mods

that way it can be downloaded via p2p through the lobby client, no need for centralised hosting. no more missing ota errors, easier for everyone.

[Pressure Line]

no more missing ota [content] errors, easier for everyone.

should have been done a long time ago, even if only for this reason.

[panzeriv2]

Delete BA, SA, BOTA, NOTA, XTA and all the mods that have Atari IP in it. The installer should only include the core engine. All other games using Spring could be accessible through the website and require their own installation (like PURE).

Or....

+1 for moving ota content into mods

that way it can be downloaded via p2p through the lobby client, no need for centralised hosting. no more missing ota errors, easier for everyone.

+1000

Or....

Do what TA3D did: require OTA to play Spring.

[Saktoth]

Regardless of what Atari does, or can do, if Swift is serious about culling OTA content if Infogrames starts to sell OTA again, its enough to make the OTA mods panic. Is the Spring project going to take preemptive action here, or even just stop distributing OTA when it stops being abandonware?

What are we talking about here, removing it from the installer and website, removing links to download it, removing lobby support?

it would be nice if all those different teams worked together to replace all that content... image the progres... imagine getting ba ca etc all together as mutators to a core mod package... would be awesome....

Which teams? We're the only team replacing the content, and we're using the art of any freelancers too (namely mr.d).

[Forboding Angel]

Which teams? We're the only team replacing the content, and we're using the art of any freelancers too (namely mr.d).

Given the derrivativeness, that's going to be a problem as well and might very well be hosed along with the rest.

[Pxtl]

This is true. As much as I love Mr. D's remakes, his art is visibly a copy of the OTA units. This would put any mod using them in the same legal hot water as the ones using directly-ripped OTA 3DOs. That being said, most companies have lax policies when it comes to fan-art as long as it doesn't direcly use ripped content. While the legal distinction is minimal, the gaming community views stuff like Mr. D's remakes and the ripped TA units in a completely different light.

[smoth]

saktoth, there are 9000+ assholes around here that say grphics dun't mattar.. so then if they want the gameplay, doing new models is no big deal. Seriously, 3dos are fast to make and you can replace all the models with new stuff and still keep the gameplay within the span of a few months to a year.

They are free to make shit and they are not restricted like I am. they just have to make it have weapon slots and either a mech/aircraft/tank/building/wafflecone/etc.. I really do not understand why it is so hard to do.

If you guys think I am a good artist.. man, you have low standards. I do decent work. Well you guys have a plethora of fans. if 1/5 of them are capable of modeling and 2-3 of you guys using the ta content got up imported it and applied some new uncopyrighted texs then you would be done in no time.

there is no excuse. Place holders can be made quick and the *A fans say that graphics are not important after all.

[Pressure Line]

Place holders can be made quick and the *A fans say that graphics are not important after all.

As long as they look exactly like the unit they are replacing

[Tobi]

If nothing else... this might be a good time to make a source repository for Spring on SourceForge, sans OTA content, as a fallback.

viewtopic.php?p=323751

Also we have a SourceForge and a BerliOS project which we could probably start using again.

In my opinion there's not too much to worry about; The sourcecode is entirely fine and since a few days ago not even hosted here anymore.

If for some reason Spring has to shut down, it's a matter of setting up the website on a new host, maybe renaming and making a slashdot post about it and voila, we're up again. Takes almost less time then taking Spring down

Anyway, starting at next release we'll drop all mods/games from the installer and distribute solely a bare bones installer featuring Spring and a/some lobby clients and/or other tools, but no maps nor mods/games.

Modders can then build, distribute and market their own installer with whichever content they want, or just dump a .sdz/.sd7 on jobjol.

[smoth]

sounds like a plan tobi.

[zwzsg]

saktoth, there are 9000+ assholes around here that say grphics dun't mattar..

They say that precisely because they can't make graphics.

[smoth]

Oh, I didn't think about that :\

[Felix the Cat]

There's always the argument that the TA IP is already abandoned, since (pre-bankruptcy) Atari was aware of Spring + the *A stuff and 1) did not defend its copyright, and 2) completely denied holding TA IP in the first place.

In which case Spring, TA3D, and that other project are safe, having been using TA IP during the period when it was legally abandoned.

[lurker]

Copyright does not work that way.

That's trademark law.

[Felix the Cat]

Oh, OK.

Let's get rid of all TA content and then brand ourselves as TA 2 then

[clericvash]

Oh, OK.

Let's get rid of all TA content and then brand ourselves as TA 2 then

Are you a moron?

I wouldn't mind them reviving TA to be honest, as long as they don't do a piss poor job of it.

[Evil4Zerggin]

Oh, OK.

Let's get rid of all TA content and then brand ourselves as TA 2 then

Are you a moron?

Oh, OK.

Let's get rid of all TA content and then brand ourselves as TA 2 then

Let's get rid of all TA content and then brand ourselves as TA 2 then

brand ourselves as TA 2 then

TA 2 then

Allow me to explain the joke. There's the copyright part (the TA IP) and the trademark part (the term "Total Annihilation" itself). Lurker stated that the trademark part was abandoned, not the copyright part, so Felix joked that we should take the trademark part and get rid of the copyright part.

[[TS]Lollocide]

I SEE IT NOW.

They'll buy the client and server software from whoever released it for a pittance or threaten a lawsuit, then they'll stick it on a DVD with a TA mod and release it as their own.

BAM. Moneyreign.