Um, so how is this different?
Well, I'd say "different in feel, different in purpose, different tools for familiar tasks". If I can get a LUA coder, which I still need (got artists, lack LUA), then I'd like to add three major changes to gameplay (that I don't already have- I'm not giving away everything I'm doing, but let's just say that you can connect the dots fairly easily):
1. I'd like to remove metal mines, and replace them with a form of area control based on scattered "flags" on a map, so that every time you play a map, it's a little bit different.
For that, I need LUA to spawn Units all over the map, based on map size X,Z, and to then assign those Units to Gaia. Been asking for this for months. '44 could also use this code, at least based on my last conversation with Nemo, so I will probably check with them and see if they have something like this already and would be OK with us using it.
For now, so that the alpha works like it should, I have ordinary mexes and MMs, and they look good, and work just fine, so I doubt if anyone will complain. But that's not the ideal.
2. I would like to have mobile factories that actually work right. I think LUA could do this- i.e., you could assign the factory, which is presumably slow, to a Patrol Path, have it make stuff through a LUA button that did not make it stop moving, then contextually assign move / patrol orders based on subsequent mouse / keyboard clicks. Kind've tricky, but I think it's possible, and I have full faith in the engineering skills of the LUA people, if they feel like it's worth doing.
3. I'd like proper air transport behavior code. I've already whined at length about that elsewhere, so I won't myself.
That's all I'm saying about the game design right now- the game design is still wet clay, and those things, which are biggies, aren't possible yet (although the flag thing should be really easy to code). If you've got ideas that don't suck, and ya wanna share, I'm listening, just don't be surprised if I do whatever I feel like anyhow
As for license, Alphas will be (c) Wolfe Games, but I am not very likely to go hunting for copyright violations... so long as my models don't show up anywhere else, or I find people just copy-pasting my animation scripts- that will get stomped on. Creatively adjusting scripts, however, will be cheerfully ignored. I do not want to waste time inspecting mods, in short. Just don't rip the models- it's disrespectful to the artists participating with me, to build a coherent vision here, and if I find you doing it, I will call you on it.
After Alpha, I will release most of the game's animation code and FX code under CC, with exceptions for the models and maybe some other things, but probably just the models. Portions of the LUA code currently being used are GPL'd, including one of the ones I've written to provide some interesting gameplay, and of course they will stay that way.
Whining about this issue is likely to be counterproductive and lead to an adverse reaction on my part, so please... don't whine. Ask nicely, ask often, but don't whine. That's all I have to say about this right now.
