IP free CA fork needs developers for final push

[Saktoth]

The IP free CA fork, a new project using the original IP that is currently in CA, is nearing the state where it has enough free content to launch. It needs developers. Art contributions are always appreciated, particularly factory models, but we also need developers with skills in any and all areas to do the vast amounts of cleanup required to purge OTA content.

Tasks needed to get the project into an IP-free state can be found here. The svn can be found within the CA svn, it is currently a mutator.

It will launch as a new project with a new title, a new background story based on robot warfare in a post-human universe, and new branding, unrelated to TA (other than spiritually). Tentative names include Zero K, Logos, Open Conflict, etc.

The working title for the fork is '1faction' since it is condensing all of CA's content. The single faction is an intentional design and balance decision while allowing for more gameplay diversity using less art content and there is no intention to add a second at a later date (more likely is adding more factories).

It will keep most of CA's balance, though several changes will be made as the new factory lineup includes a lot more viable start factories, and new units may be added since we will have excess models (who thought we'd ever have that problem).

Both Core and Arm 't1' Bots and Vehicles will be kept, for 4 factories, the arm vehicles becoming land-viable hovercraft and the core bots becoming amphs or something of the sort.

Please keep discussion of the '1 faction' concepts viability as a design element to the relevant thread on the CA forum. Please, if you've no interest in the project, dont just derail this thread.

[Argh]

Can you give a list of exactly what you still need, with the basics- number of guns, function in the game, and size (if it's critical)?

[Saktoth]

Greatly appreciated Argh, though to everyone else: The project doesnt just need talented artists like Argh. It needs people to sort through and assign sounds from non-OTA sources, sort through bitmap images and textures, etc. So we arent just looking for artists.

ModelNotes has information on models, but the only essential and difficult thing left to do is factories. All other key units are prettymuch accounted for, and corpses can be made from the original models or with generic placeholders.

To quote ModelNotes: Factories must include an open area (preferably one that opens/closes when the factory is working/idle) for the construction of units, that is open at the top so their height is not restricted. It should include a construction arm of some sort.

The Plane factory will also need an air repair pad, and we need a seperate dedicated air repair pad with 4 landing positions (Though how many it has isnt really important and it can be costed appropriatly).

Here is the current factory i made by butchering Mr.D's radar vehicle:

[Google_Frog]

If anyone is thinking of making factory models please make them useable with a blocking pathmap on all sides except 1. 'Prevent Lab Hax' relies on straight blocking factory sides and with no open backs it could become faster. It is very annoying when allied units decide to walk through/turn around inside open-back factories as it disrupts construction.

[Argh]

So, this is the list?

# Strategic All-Terrain Factory ('t2' bots, spiders and jump-jets)
# Amphibous bots. A relatively flat model is needed to stay underwater.
# Heavy Tank Factory ('t2' vechs)
# Hovercraft Factory (floating)
# Fixed-Wing Plane factory (With air repair pad)
# Air Repair pad (With 3-4 pads)
# Shipyard
# Gunship Factory (Being worked on)
# Light Vehicle factory

OK, I will make a shipyard, I need a generic one for World Builder anyhow. I am a bit busy atm, but I will get to it sometime this weekend.

I don't mind making a U, but maybe that's an issue where there might be a Lua method that works better, like checking around Factories every second or so, and giving Units a specific path to one side via Alt?

[Saktoth]

Navy is of a lower priority right now (we dont have a full set of models, but hope to use cremuss's if they can be textured), but it will of course be used and appreciated. Thank you. Since its not another land factory though, we will probably end up using my single factory as a placeholder for now, or perhaps use the construction arm and cut the rest up to give each a distinct shape. So we can still go ahead with at least getting the project IP free without requiring too much more artwork.

Currently the shipyard in CA does not block at all, and the OTA shipyard is open on all 4 sides. The real problem with 'lab hax' is enemy units entering the fac and being unable to be shot because they are inside the facs hitsphere, despite being in an empty portion of the footprint. So either they should be closed on all sides but one, or they should have an entirely open section which is not part of the collision volume (Say, a flat piece at the front where units are built, with the body of the factory being along the back of the footprint).

As long as the shipyard is anything like the OTA ones, and has say, a construction tower at one side, and the rest is submerged scaffolding, then the collision volume can make up the construction tower only and preventing labhax is not required (there are none). However, units may still path through and stop construction this is much less significant.

[Otherside]

this is one of the reasons why the fork sucks its trying to compete with CA and split dev time instead of working together with CA. gj fail

[Saktoth]

Im asking here precisely so it doesnt bite into CA dev time, and for myself, i dont want to spend another second longer working on an OTA mod. Perhaps you should have considered doing some more development work getting CA IP free yourself so we wouldnt have to take such measures. I know it would be appreciated. As it is we've already lost two key developers to the slow progress on the IP issue. Im not going to wait another moment, its time to get serious.

All work is being done on CA content to get it as IP free as possible, thus any work on the mutator benefits this goal in the main branch (In fact, since the content is yet to be migrated, the work is being done on the CA content directly right now).

[Argh]

I'm sure that somebody will roll the models back into "classic CA", if somebody wants to maintain it once 1-Faction is complete. I think that is an argument that should wait until the goal is met, frankly.

[jeykey]

I think forks have very positive influences on projects. Both projects take different ways and later on they will be merged into one ultimate again. (ca fusion? <=> compiz fusion)

I like this sakoth ideas...

[Licho]

Merging? There never was a merge :)
BA is fork of AA
CA is fork of BA
etc..

[Das Bruce]

Merging? There never was a merge :)
UH is fork of OTA
AA is fork of UH
BA is fork of AA
CA is fork of BA
etc..

Fixed.

[Neddie]

CC-BY-SA or CC-SA is compliant with GPL, so feel free to use resources licensed CC-BY-SA or CC-SA.

Right now it looks like Sak is doing everything, if everybody else could add their responsibilities to the wiki, it would probably prevent undue conflict between contributions.

Otherside, contribute, if only through saying productive things or get out of the way.

Sak, if you can finish that generic factory arm you can use that as a placeholder factory until other models are devised. I'm sure you were considering it.

I'm currently looking at what there is to do and what I can do in the immediate timeframe. I'm going to be giving out candy for Halloween, as opposed to doing anything notable, which might give me a nice twelve hour block, and in a twelve hour block I can probably do four textures.

[KaiserJ]

Here is the current factory i made by butchering Mr.D's radar vehicle:

nice! even as a non-butcher job, that would look pretty damn nice.

edit: i looked at your model requests, i have a ton of evo spiders its a shame the level / style of texturing is unacceptable

[Saktoth]

Sak, if you can finish that generic factory arm you can use that as a placeholder factory until other models are devised. I'm sure you were considering it.

Ill probably use the factory above ^. Its a hack job, but its a good looking hack job that would be very easy to edit further. I've made a series of different models for a factory arm but im just not happy with any of them.

I'm currently looking at what there is to do and what I can do in the immediate timeframe. I'm going to be giving out candy for Halloween, as opposed to doing anything notable, which might give me a nice twelve hour block, and in a twelve hour block I can probably do four textures.

That would be appreciated, it is nose to the grindstone stuff right now. If you'd like to texture Cremuss's ships, i can get you a couple of models and i believe i have a .psd of the one texture he did work on (the AA ship). Other than that there are a lot of models on modelbase.

KaiserJ, the main difference between evo and CA models is just the low polygon count, though the style is also somewhat different. I'd like the fork to be as competitive with other RTS's as possible on the technological front, rather than the art looking like it is made for older hardware, thus polycount is important. Thats appreciated though, i suppose they may make good placeholder models and could possibly even be edited into something permanent and consistent with the rest of the work, if you'd be okay with that.

As i say though, we have enough art content to actually make the fork, but we just need to do lots of time consuming but not overly difficult work cleaning and preparing it. Long term though i want the game to look as good as possible and have as fleshed out content as possible (like, id rather not have to drop ships from the first release, but i will do it if its required) so all art contribution is still badly needed.

[jK]

CC-BY-SA or CC-SA is compliant with GPL, so feel free to use resources licensed CC-BY-SA or CC-SA.

it is not

[Saktoth]

Our licences of choice are Artistic Licence 2.0 and GPL.

Debian will accept CC-BY and CC-SA 3.0 licences.
https://wiki.debian.org/DFSGLicenses#Cr ... -SA.29v3.0

Since there is nobody i could think of who is more restrictive in their licensing than they are, is it really a problem, jK?

[manolo_]

will it help if a rising star of the modellmaking-scene (me) contributes modells, but u uvmap and texture them :D :D

[Tribulex]

You need to ask for donations so you can hire Mr. D to do core and Cremus to do arm.


Edit: By the way, I would really donate for this (especially for cremus) XD

[Saktoth]

Sadly, our bottleneck is texture artists. But again, this isnt about models: We only need a few more. Its about sounds (there are plenty of free repositories of these), scripts, and other time consuming work that doesnt require any great artistic talent. Though if you want to contribute in any way, of course thats appreciated and helpful.

Raising funds to make some free content for spring is something ive considered myself but only passingly, i figured raising donations not to pay for the thousands of hours of work of the Spring coders, or the mod developers, or for all the artists who have already contributed, or to maintain the servers (donate to licho he is keeping the spring servers running!) or for promotion and advertising (which is a major area in which an open source game needs a budget to compete with commercial titles), but to hire a bunch of artists to make free content to be shared with everyone (art for arts sake is all about having it seen by as many people as possible- why dont more people want to do this?).... would sort of be a slap in the face to everyone else.

But its really not that bad an idea. You could buy a whole games worth of content for $200 off of here http://3drt.com/. If you arent worried about open source (I doubt they'd let you relicence), hell you could even just make the damn thing commercial and make your money back.