Spring RTS Engine

Caydr, what's the chance of making a version of AA without Cavedog content? Cavedog units would need new names and models, which would be non-trivial, but spring with that mod could be legally used by anyone. We could encourage downloads with no fear of lawsuits.

Caydr doesn't model....

He could use already existing models, either removing all cavedog units or replacing them with evolva models.

Even then, the textures, the sounds, the concepts, remains under Atari copyrights.

You'd better ask M3G, for his T.L.L. not only isn't using a single cavedog unit, but is also one of the very few races to use custom textures.

OMFG Cavedog (atari now i think) obviously doesn't GIVE A SHIT!!! the site is named TA spring for fucks sake! the managers probably play it and post those u r gods SY (which u r ) threads!!! they're like probably TOTALLY cool with it. After all they don't complain about XTA or nething when USING the TA engine this is a completely different engine! mods like evota DON'T EVEN USE THE ORIGINAL FILES!!! stop looking over your shoulders and start playing and enjoying. Talking of which i'd rather play than screw but unfortunately all evota players aer on later but i think that me and cBass have done a fair bit of converting ppl to EvOTA :D to all you xta players!!!

Min3mat, have you heard of freecraft?
You know Atari paid good money for the rights to Total Annhilation. It was, after all, a big game.

People are worried about Atari trying to stop spring because of the fundamentally different type of project Spring is. XTA, AA and all of the other mods were additions to TA. Their existence and free distribution could only increase the popularity of TA, and hence TA's sales. Thus the cost they would be willing to pay to shut it down was negative. Spring, however, will likely cut into their market share, which will make the willingness to shut down positive. So far, Spring has not made a big enough splash to justify paying a lawyer. As Spring grows, however, that willingness to pay to stop it will grow.

This guy is newly hired, from the music industry, seems to be one of those young up and coming business men and there is no indication he is a gamer. We should not count on him to be "cool" with it.

Atari did not just purchase the rights to TA. When Cavedog shut its doors, it was simply absorbed back into its parent company GT Interactive. GT Interactive was then purchased by Infogrames in 1999 for $135 million. Infogrames purchased Hasbro Interactive in 2000 for $100 million, which held the rights to the Atari name. Infogrames renamed itself Atari in 2003.

their 'market' how many ppl buy TA? and they don't complain bout the core contingency patch u can get. eh? =p

While I admit that Spring will probably have little impact on sales of TA, it could impact other strategy game sales such as Pirates! and Act of War: Direct Action.

Rhyoss I say!

come on man AoW SUCKS ASS i tryed the demo and got bored shitless! after 1 mission i was bored shitless! no plot no storyline like generals etc just a shitty game! TASpring is WAY out of its league i've never tryed pirates but i doubt its that good

Min3mat wrote:come on man AoW SUCKS ASS i tryed the demo and got bored shitless! after 1 mission i was bored shitless! no plot no storyline like generals etc just a shitty game! TASpring is WAY out of its league i've never tryed pirates but i doubt its that good

that's the reason why atari could sue spring..

lol fair point! knowing America
Prosecutor: Our Game Sucks Ass we sue the SY's for 10 million dollars *dr evil laugh*
Defendants: wtf thats bollocks it's not our fault u cannot make a decent RTS
Prosecutor: Uh, Yeah it is
Defendant:...
Judge: The jury shall recess
Jury: nah we all think its the SY's fault AoW sucks ass!
Defendants: this is why we liked sweden =(
Prosecutor :D

TA spring is concept wise basicly a copy of TA..

Well, honestly, all RTS are copies of that Dune RTS really... Techinically they are making a 3D engine to display content from the orriginal game and improve on it (TA:Spring) which is of questionable legality... but games like blocktris, TV tenis, CHAMP Kong are all exact copies of other games that people didn't get sued for because they used a different name... so, if "TA" isn't copywrited, we shouldn't really need to bother changing the name. However, if they catch on that you're making their content available (HPI format, unit models, build pics, etc.) available to people who don't have the game (which oddly enough I do own) then that can get you in trouble.

maybe this guy knows something about this legal stuff.

http://www.estrella.demon.nl/Mynn/legal.htm

i should mention, also, this guy claims he has done a new race, compatible in format, but completely new (independent maybe?) in content, for TA.

Foe OfTheBee wrote:Caydr, what's the chance of making a version of AA without Cavedog content? Cavedog units would need new names and models, which would be non-trivial, but spring with that mod could be legally used by anyone. We could encourage downloads with no fear of lawsuits.

eh?

if you have your copy of OTA this wouldn't be needed. Extract the necessary files and make a patch hpi for your spring dir. There is no worry about content in a mod. Only IF cadyr was distrubuting what you as a TA player should already have.

For chirsts sake... are you going to re-do all sounds/textures/models? that is going to take hell-a-long man hours. Just use the copy of OTA that you already own. Extracate the files you need into one rez and play spring with it... think of spring as an engine modification.

Once spring reaches it's final release I Fully intend on placing it in my OTA directory along with TAM and all my mods... untill that time spring is going to change too much to add it into my directory(which is over 1 gig btw). It is cool chill out. The only way the SYs have strattled the legal line is when they released the OTA sounds/textures/models.

I am going to go watch episode 3. Good day.

It's true that the Mynn race comes with its very own set of units, textures, sound, and even interface graphics, without reusing any TA data. So, if Spring was shipped with Mynn, it'd would be immune to any lawsuit for copyright infrigment Atari could made.

However, Mynn units are very low poly, even for TA standard they are low poly, so it wouln't look good and do justice to the 3D engine to use them. On another hand, I really like Mynn, because its units are very creative and original.

Also, the author of Mynn, who now goes by the nick of Xenoclone, is still working on TA mods:
http://www.xenoclone.com
http://www.tauniverse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30849

Hey, those mynn are cute!
Seriously, as soon as we get an online mod sharer/switcher and as soon as a few bugs are fixed, TA Spring will go into OvErDrIvE!1!

speaking of mynn, how do we get them into the game? it should be easy, but just specifying "Mynn" in the script and having the hpi and gafs in the same folder doesn't work...

sorry to be a gamebreaker, but i don't like those mynns