Hard Light Productions Forums
Hosted Projects - Non-FreeSpace => FringeSpace => Topic started by: JGZinv on October 31, 2016, 10:02:24 am
-
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/10/31/thq-nordic-buys-novalogic-games-delta-force-comanche-more/
So Tachyon is now under THQNORDIC and they're looking for pitches for sequels.....
It'd be nice to get the developer band back together, I'd sure love to be able to talk to them more than the brick wall approach
Novalogic had with everything.
-
Game was just released on GoG :) Probably because they decided to do something with the License.
Nordic Games, or THQ-Nordic, as they now call themselves are really one of the few companies actively doing something for their fans. DRM-free releases, actual compatibility patches (Nexus: Jupiter Incident was patched after YYYEEAARS) and new installments in niche-franchises (Aquanox ;7 )... Gotta love them.
-
Maybe they'll issue a compatibility patch for Comanche Gold now that they own Novalogic. Not that said game is in anyway related to Tachyon: The Fringe, but it is one of the most famous of Novalogic's produced games.
-
They haven't said anything more about any of their Novalogic games since the initial press release, and there might have been one interview I came across, but so far nothing has changed.
-
Well, I hope they do. I have to use DXGL to play Comanche Gold, and then only in Windowed mode. I got it to work fullscreen ONCE, and never could figure out what settings I used after.
-
JG, Have you given THQ a headsup about the FringeSpace project?
-
When they bought the license I replied in the first 10 comments on their website, it promptly got buried by the internet chiming in.
Going by their website, they have no means by which fans communicate with the studio, they have a forum, but it's pretty much unmonitored.
Their E-mail line is for professional studio inquiries only, all other mail will be deleted.
Their Twitter also doesn't respond it seems.
How he did it I don't know, but a user on Steam claims to have gotten a E-mail reply, to which they said they had no plans to fix or alter Tachyon's multiplayer.
-
So basically THQ is another Novalogic. We didn't really get much of a change in the PR department. lol.
-
I wouldn't say that NORDIC is as dead as Nova in all area, but I think it's fairly evident they bought the licenses in order to refarm any IPs the gaming development community thought they wanted to take over.
Basically it's a one time payment, and it costs them little to nothing to hang on to them for a rainy day. Providing services for a game that wasn't theirs to begin with, nor do they have someone familiar with the code
to do any changes... all that takes allocation of resources, none of which is anywhere in the same galaxy as their current projects.
So yeah it makes sense the reply, expected it much much sooner, but nothing unusual.
-
In case anyone was randomly curious. I contacted THQNordic when Tach was on sale at GOG, trying to see since they listed it as multiplayer and working on Win 10 (which it does, just have to beat it around)
however eventually ended up at THQ.
Basically their response was that support has no information on patches, DLC, or whatever, that is part of Production, and they forwarded my mail to them. It's been around a week and no reply.
I also requested information on whom to contact about game IP licensing, should we get to a place where we can produce something of value, sometime in the future. But no reply to that either.
Overall, at least they replied, unlike Novalogic. But still no real support.
GOG considers IPX based LAN as "multiplayer" which is baloney... but uh... yeah. Evidently the GOG version of Tachyon also comes with NGlide, which not sure how that works with a paid product and such, but
we were the first ones to tell and show folks how to use Glide wrappers with Tachyon so, I guess in a roundabout way we enacted change for the better.
-
Does this work to make IPX usable (I think you could also use Kali or something I've heard) http://www.morpheussoftware.net/git/
-
Kali I believe died, I haven't been able to get their site to load for a long time and I faintly remember something about them shutting down.
It did work over Kali for a time, as it was a psuedo lobby.
The Gamer's Tunnel there would work for 1v1, but it doesn't seem to have any lobby system.
What we proposed, and did work, and I made a tutorial for on YouTube... was Tunngle, which is a lobby and free.
The problem more or less is that the Novaworld or similar to PSO here, Tachyon had a "netplay" mode that uses TCP/IP, and the LAN mode uses IPX only.
We lost access to the TCP/IP mode because when Novalogic moved server hosts, the IP became too long to hex edit into the exe, and causes tremedous instability.
IPX translated through a wrapper, to a Tunngle, does work... but is progressively worse and ever more laggy for everyone. But it was all we had.
Basically people that did play considered the whole setup process too much for an old game, and multiplayer died there.
-
Kali I believe died, I haven't been able to get their site to load for a long time and I faintly remember something about them shutting down.
It did work over Kali for a time, as it was a psuedo lobby.
The Gamer's Tunnel there would work for 1v1, but it doesn't seem to have any lobby system.
What we proposed, and did work, and I made a tutorial for on YouTube... was Tunngle, which is a lobby and free.
The problem more or less is that the Novaworld or similar to PSO here, Tachyon had a "netplay" mode that uses TCP/IP, and the LAN mode uses IPX only.
We lost access to the TCP/IP mode because when Novalogic moved server hosts, the IP became too long to hex edit into the exe, and causes tremedous instability.
IPX translated through a wrapper, to a Tunngle, does work... but is progressively worse and ever more laggy for everyone. But it was all we had.
Basically people that did play considered the whole setup process too much for an old game, and multiplayer died there.
Tunngle (https://www.tunngle.net/en/), eh?
Here's (http://alternativeto.net/software/tunngle/) some alternatives, but I'm not sure which one offers the least latency and best IPX support.
-
it still doesn't change the fact it's yet another series of steps to get an old game working for a handful of players.
You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.