[ShivanSpS]

Hi ppl, has been some time eh?

Someone remember me? this was a hard year for me... and i been not active for a while...

How i come to do my check to hard light this month and i found... Reborn Relased, fsport 3.1 relased and vps 3.6.10 relased... as well with those "nightly" builds that i never hear about... good work ppl...

really...

and now i have 12 files in the firefox download for a total of about 2GB downloading with a 512kb/s adsl coneccion haha... this will take a while...

BTW, surely this has been discussed later, plase point me to it... but now i have Vista, and Vista has Microsoft Anna... and i whant SAM back :S

BTW2, if someone wonders about my pack, i will relasing the 2.0 version soon, but it will NOT include any retail file.

[ssmit132]

Welcome back, although you probably didn't know me before. 

BTW, surely this has been discussed later, plase point me to it... but now i have Vista, and Vista has Microsoft Anna... and i whant SAM back :S

You're not alone. Unfortunately, I don't think there exists a way to get good old Microsoft Sam in Vista. 

I don't want to try using Microsoft Anna ingame (briefings and debriefings are okay), it wouldn't be right.

[Mars]

Welcome back Shivan - I do remember you

[Cyker]

Woo! Good to see you're still around. I'm still seeding the fs2 compilation pack you made with fsport, transcend, derelict etc.

Up to 72GB and still seeding! 'tho thinking about it, I probably should stop since it is quite an old version...

[General Battuta]

Woo! Good to see you're still around. I'm still seeding the fs2 compilation pack you made with fsport, transcend, derelict etc.

Up to 72GB and still seeding! 'tho thinking about it, I probably should stop since it is quite an old version...

And because I don't think you should bring FS2 piracy up on HLP.

[Titan]

Welcome back Shivan - I do remember you

I don't- though I was active a year ago...

[Herra Tohtori]

Welcome back, I certainly remember you. I hope you enjoy the new mediaVP's and other stuff!

And... oh yeah, ShivanSPS, your torrent was outdated and pretty much replaced by an online Java installer by Turey.

In addition, the torrent(s) including full FS2 retail game is no longer officially condoned by the HLP high council. After GoodOldGames has started offering FS2 (amongst other good old games) at really affordable prices online, the administration has taken a pretty firm stance about spreading copies of retail FS2 on HLP. The FSO installer also stopped distributing the retail VP's after that and we've been referring people to gog.com since their business started.

Quoting Karajorma on the matter...

Anyone caught posting links to FS2 for download other than an official site such as GoG will be banned. I don't care what bull**** reason they give for it.


GoG (...) are the only people with the legal right to distribute the game on the internet. I'm not having some halfwit drag the entire site down because they've decided to upload warez in strict violation of the board's policy.

Just thought to give a heads-up on the matter. The torrent pack was a very good thing at the time and I myself appreciate the work put into it, but there's no longer need or justification for it, since the FSOInstaller takes care of community content, and FS2 is widely available commercially (which means buying it supports Interplay, yay!).

[ShivanSpS]

I dont know i will need to try but, you are sure that using only files that you can download from this forums the game will not work? im not sure of that...

Anyway, i was already informed of gog... that why i removing any retail file from my pack as we speak.

Still, 2.0 "SCP Update pack" will come, incluiding the FSO Installer too.

Since i can make the pack come configured and 100% compatible with the FSO Installer, it will me much like "Configure your video tab and you are ready to go".

And using the fso installer to update.

Also, it will also reduce bandwitch use...

[Herra Tohtori]

That's certainly true.

Regarding the game working, you basically need just the retail VP's, Launcher.exe and FS2_Open build and you can "install" whatever registry entries are required by using the launcher. But the retail files aren't included in downloads from the forums. At least they shouldn't be.

[ShivanSpS]

mmm the .ogg Freespace 2 cutscenes are considered illegal to give??

[Kie99]

mmm the .ogg Freespace 2 cutscenes are considered illegal to give??

It is illegal but the Administrators don't seem to mind people giving them.

[eliex]

Welcome back, Shivan, although I doubt you know me from before. 

Regarding the game working, you basically need just the retail VP's, Launcher.exe and FS2_Open build and you can "install" whatever registry entries are required by using the launcher. But the retail files aren't included in downloads from the forums. At least they shouldn't be.

I've noticed that since the re-release of FS, several new torrents for FS1 and FS2 have sprung up again.

[Mongoose]

mmm the .ogg Freespace 2 cutscenes are considered illegal to give??

It is illegal but the Administrators don't seem to mind people giving them.

The rationale here, at least from my own perspective, is that the .ogg cutscenes are non-retail material and completely useless if you aren't running FS2_Open...which requires the retail game in the first place.  They don't do you any good if you don't already own the game; they're simply a means of cutting down on the HD space that copying over the original .mve files would take up.

And eliex, that sadly doesn't surprise me.  The less said about it around here the better, though.

[Kie99]

mmm the .ogg Freespace 2 cutscenes are considered illegal to give??

It is illegal but the Administrators don't seem to mind people giving them.

The rationale here, at least from my own perspective, is that the .ogg cutscenes are non-retail material and completely useless if you aren't running FS2_Open...which requires the retail game in the first place.  They don't do you any good if you don't already own the game; they're simply a means of cutting down on the HD space that copying over the original .mve files would take up.

They're not completely useless, one could watch them because one enjoys them, that could prevent one from buying the actual game because one only wants to see the Cutscenes.  You might say that's unlikely, but its not yours or the community's prerogative to say that - you go to Interplay and ask for permission to distribute the Cutscenes for free and they will laugh at you as it reduces the value of the product. 

I'm not saying we should ban distribution of the Cutscenes but it strikes me as a hell of a double standard to be so harsh and high-and-mighty over people downloading the game for free while on the other hand distributing copyrighted material with no problems whatsoever.

[Mongoose]

They're not completely useless, one could watch them because one enjoys them, that could prevent one from buying the actual game because one only wants to see the Cutscenes.  You might say that's unlikely, but its not yours or the community's prerogative to say that - you go to Interplay and ask for permission to distribute the Cutscenes for free and they will laugh at you as it reduces the value of the product.

And one could just as easily head over to YouTube and take a look at the multiple uploads of each cutscene that have been available for ages there, making the whole point moot.  The vast majority of people who play games want to actually play them, not to just watch a few movies; if they were that interested in the game's storyline, they could always check out the Wikipedia article.  We're not "reducing the value" of anything; we're providing a space-saving format for people who already have the original cutscene files, and only people who have the original cutscene files will find them useful.

(And this is all completely sidestepping the fact that .ogg is a very obscure format for movie files; I'd guess that the majority of people don't have the codecs required to play them.  Besides that, they're distributed in a .vp container, which no one who isn't familiar with FS's file structure will know how to handle.)

I'm not saying we should ban distribution of the Cutscenes but it strikes me as a hell of a double standard to be so harsh and high-and-mighty over people downloading the game for free while on the other hand distributing copyrighted material with no problems whatsoever.

When it comes down to it, just about everything in the MediaVPs, including high-poly versions of ships, is technically an infringement of 's intellectual property...yet they've been nothing but supportive of the entire FS2_Open effort.  The .ogg cutscenes are in a similar vein; they're a fan-made update of retail material intended for use in conjunction with the retail game data.  There's no "double standard" at work here.  We fully promote the GOG option because we want to support the original publisher of the games, while at the same time offering an upgraded playing experience.

[Kie99]

They're not completely useless, one could watch them because one enjoys them, that could prevent one from buying the actual game because one only wants to see the Cutscenes.  You might say that's unlikely, but its not yours or the community's prerogative to say that - you go to Interplay and ask for permission to distribute the Cutscenes for free and they will laugh at you as it reduces the value of the product.

And one could just as easily head over to YouTube and take a look at the multiple uploads of each cutscene that have been available for ages there, making the whole point moot.

One could just as easily head over to Mininova and download one of the multiple torrents which have been there for ages, as download it from the Installer or Shivan's pack, there is no difference.

The vast majority of people who play games want to actually play them, not to just watch a few movies; if they were that interested in the game's storyline, they could always check out the Wikipedia article.  We're not "reducing the value" of anything; we're providing a space-saving format for people who already have the original cutscene files, and only people who have the original cutscene files will find them useful.

The majority yes, but they're still copyrighted materials and they're still illegal to distribute.

I'm not saying we should ban distribution of the Cutscenes but it strikes me as a hell of a double standard to be so harsh and high-and-mighty over people downloading the game for free while on the other hand distributing copyrighted material with no problems whatsoever.

When it comes down to it, just about everything in the MediaVPs, including high-poly versions of ships, is technically an infringement of 's intellectual property...yet they've been nothing but supportive of the entire FS2_Open effort.  The .ogg cutscenes are in a similar vein; they're a fan-made update of retail material intended for use in conjunction with the retail game data.  There's no "double standard" at work here.  We fully promote the GOG option because we want to support the original publisher of the games, while at the same time offering an upgraded playing experience.

No, no double standard.  On the one hand condone the distribution of copyrighted materials you have no right to, and on the other condemn it and say anyone who posts a link will be banned in short order.

Here's the Administrations' justification for it
"GoG (...) are the only people with the legal right to distribute the game on the internet. I'm not having some halfwit drag the entire site down because they've decided to upload warez in strict violation of the board's policy."

GoG are also the only with the legal right to distribute the cutscenes on the internet, by any reasonable definition it is a double standard to allow people to post links to them.

[General Battuta]

So what would you like changed?

We can't distribute the full game. It's clearly not right to undercut legitimate purchases of Freespace 2.

Distributing the cutscenes just enables people to play FSOpen with cutscenes, which isn't any good unless you have retail FS2 anyway. I guess you could watch them alone, but as Mongoose said, you could just as well watch them on YouTube.

What's the problem here? There may be a double standard, but it doesn't seem particularly harmful. Distributing copyrighted cutscenes that only a tiny fraction of people would care to use without purchasing the game itself isn't a big problem.

[karajorma]

I think the problem here is some people like causing problems.

Let me ask you this, who would it actually help to stop distributing the .ogg cutscenes? I'd be surprised if GoG got a single extra download doing that, so not them. Hell, if you're so convinced that there are people who don't have the game but are downloading the movies then it's basically free advertising for them.

It certainly wouldn't help the users of the game either so I'm really at a loss as to why this is even an issue.

[ShivanSpS]

I what just asking if i should added them to the pack, since, in theory, everyone installing it has a copy of FS2 fully installed with the original movies...


no more no less.

[Aardwolf]

I really don't see a need for another 'pack' ... Turey's FSO Installer allows for item-by-item selection of what we want to download, so as long as it's on there, there isn't much use for that sort of thing.