[Starman01]

Hello !

Goober thought, it would be best if I post my request here and see, what the community thinks about my wish. I have started a little mod project and have a very small team (a friend and myself, and 3 freelancers coders/modders sofar) and I'm now in need of a forum and a limited FTP access. The special part about this is the fact that it's not a freespace mod at all I'm talking about.

So, if I don't have a freespace mod, why the **** am I even posting here ?  Pretty simple :

I want a GOOD forum. I've been here now for many years, and that has a reason. I know and like the forum, the visual of it, the community, and the way this board and server is so well administrated (both technical and on side of content). That's because I formed the wish to place my forum here. Of course, I know there are countless free forums available, but as I said, I want to stay here. Besides, I also need a limited FTP access for my project, and here I can have both.

What are we doing ?

We are working on a game with available sourcecode, a very good game actually, that was sold and created below its possible capabilities (Thank you, MS ) I'm talking about Mechcommander 2.

The community, and the game are already close to extinction IMO, but there is still a great fanbase that can be reactivated (after all, Battletech is a big franchise, just the game gets forgotten because it's limited). We have already made some small progress, in coding and adding stuff to enhance the game, so I see it quite positive that we can achive something.

The goal of our project is NOT to create a campaign based on our work (in fact, nearly everyone is working on a campaign in his offtime for fun, so content is not a problem ), our goal is to enhance the game and make it better moddable so that people will have an easier way into the game. At this point, I can't say how far we go, or if everything will enhance the way SCP did, but when I think a few years back and look how it is today, SCP inspired me in the sense what can be possible with a source code and a enthusiastic team around it.

It's clear to me, that this will maybe start contradicting feelings about driving the site away from Freespace, but I don't think that's a problem. After all, here are many projects and all the content is freespace, so I couldn't do any harm with my limited stuff. Besides, I only need a forum for our work. So, it doesn't need to be public forum at all. On the other hand, if my team and our work is welcome here, I have no problem of course of having a public forum too, we would be happy to share with the community what we achive (but then I need a closed internal please). And if you dont want us public, we will can make our presentation forum elsewhere, no problem

I understand that I'm opening a window here that might give the responsible people and the users ambivalent feelings about "foreign hosting", this is a freespace community after all. But on the other side, I hope that you will make an exception for me, because I am a part of this community for a long time now, the site itselfs called "hard light production" (where's that name coming from anyway ? ) and not "freespace productions" and most important : Due to the fact that unlike the free available forums I can have a good FTP account here ( for storing our work, not necessarly for uploading public download stuff), I'm going to offer a monthly donation for your servercosts, the height of the donation will be discussed in privat with the admins. The fact that I donate will also give you also a good argument, if other non freespace requests will follow So, I think both sides can benefit from this.

Well, since I'm always making too many words, I close here and hope to get a positive (and quick) response. Mechcommander 2 is a great game, and it deserves a comeback. It offers a lot of possibilities, that just need to be unlocked. Of course, everyone interested in our work can approach me here and might join in as well.

Thanks for reading and your upcoming support

Best regards

Starman

[Shade]

I can certainly see why people might oppose hosting of non-FreeSpace projects here, but personally I'd have no problem with it. And I can definitely see why you'd prefer HLP to most other options: Solid community, good forums, FTP available, plus there are coders and modders galore who'd probably be more than willing to answer questions in their general areas of expertise even if it isn't FreeSpace related. Besides, I like Mechcommander 2 even if it is less than it could have been, and it would be nice to see it improved

Oh, and bringing more modders and coders to the forum for any reason also raises the possibility that they might end up contributing to other projects

Finally, unless I remember wrong, I don't think such branching out from FreeSpace would actually be a first for this site. Didn't HLP have a Freelancer forum some time in ages past? I seem to recall seeing something of that order back when I was but one of many lurkers. But then, it may just be that all the snow we've been getting lately has addled my brain and I imagined the whole thing.

[Mongoose]

I can't speak for anyone who holds authority on this, but I'd certainly have no problem with it myself.  It's not like hosting a single unrelated project is suddenly going to turn HLP into "Generic Forum Host #23," and working on the source code of an old game is the primary reason why this site is still active in the first place.  And like Shade said, having more modders around the site is always a good thing.

[ShadowWolf_IH]

I love battlemechs.  and while   mechcommander 2 was decent, it was nowhere near as good as the original.  Typicallym$ to hurry up and get it out for Christmas.  As an avid Mech fan since 1989, I say that if you are going to fix the atrocities committed to my damned Battlemechs by M$, then pull up a chair and make yourself at home, beer's in the fridge.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

I wouldn't have an issue with it.  I would suggest putting it in a separate area of the board so the FS2 stuff would still be grouped.  Although one forum in a group wouldn't be the best either. 

[Starman01]

Thanks for the comments already, I'm happy to see that I get positive response so quick

I think, to give you a little more insight, i give you a short overview what's already done :

It's already possible for quite a while to add new buildings, vehicles and even mechs to the game. There are already some compiled packages with lots of good looking stuff. I think, that it is so hard to enter new files was one of the major reason modding never really started. Even more important, the coding guys have made two important advantages (actually, 2 of the 3 I count as most important).

They figured out the codepiece that limits the max polycount displayed on screen, and with any luck we stand close to a change, that adding new stuff can now be done completly outside the files, which can curently only beng altered with C++ programs and experience. The first one is important in that case, that we can create higher poly models (after all these years I have increased every single one of my model (see midway) in polycounts, now I totally suck at creating good looking low poly stuff  ) while the second one open up the game for new people.

Of course, I have many more wishes, but I'm not a coder, I can only understand and read it a little. I'm more a modeller and organizer

Last important step would be to raise the limit of the texture files, they are currently limit to only 128x128

You can take a look here for some stuff :

http://www.dropshipcommand.com/forum/dcboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=15

[The E]

I would support this, for the reasons outlined above.

[NGTM-1R]

I never did get anything done in the MC2 mission editor.

I'm good with MC2 turning up here. I even support it. Maybe we can get that Battletech mod off the ground too!

[Shade]

I would suggest putting it in a separate area of the board so the FS2 stuff would still be grouped.

Agreed on that bit. Since we already have the Hosted: Released and Hosted: WIP forum categories, I'd say adding a third for Hosted: Non-FreeSpace or something like that would do the trick nicely.

[Angelus]

Wait, a MC2 mod on HLP? A dedicated Freespace community?

I say YES!!! I fully support this request, as i am big Battletech fan ( at least the Oldschool stuff- up to 3067 ).
But it should be kept separeted, as suggested by FUBAR.

 

[Starman01]

I agree, I also think that it should be separated (put it on top please !!!!)   Ehh, just kidding.

Technically, if i'm being hosted, that's all that I can ask for. If it will be put before "Off topic" area, that would be awesome. Afterall , it's a little off topic (from freespace), but above the "Spam board" it would be cool

[Black Wolf]

The only argument I can see against doing this is the old slippery slope chestnut. With FS mods, we can kind of know where we stand, and HLP has, until relatively recently, gone a long time without accepting new hosting requests. This hasn't neccesarily been a bad policy, but I suppose it also hasn't drawn in too many people from outside the existing community either.

Hmm... really, as long as things are taken on a case by case basis, I don't see how this is a problem. After all, waaay back in the day, HLP was supposed to be about more than just FS, it just... never happened, apart from a couple of dead I-War boards.

OK, so I'm just waffling at this point. I guess I don't have a strong opinion either way. So I guess as long as we're not going to be invaded by Mech Commander trolls (are there such things?) and the primary focus of HLP stays with FS2 (which it will, of course), I can't see any reason why branching out would be a bad thing.

[The E]

Indeed. Our tagline is "bringing modders together", time to do just that.

[Starman01]

Good points Black Wolf. I don't know the difference between FS Trolls and MC trolls, but maybe I will learn

I don't think that it will get out of hand, these modding newbs will be in our forum and try to create their own stuff and produce tons of bugs until they learned (like all of us), and it's to us (mostly me I guess) to handle them

Also, we are very small at the moment, and I don't think that we will attract much attention outside of this community. Until we have a major release, I don't see much sense in making advertisments of our forum in all other battle tech forums. Most important for me, is the internal and the FTP, and If a public board is welcome here, that's also fine to me The MC Community is pretty dead already, and it will take time to revive it (if possible)

Indeed. Our tagline is "bringing modders together", time to do just that.

Good one !!

[Rodo]

Indeed. Our tagline is "bringing modders together", time to do just that.

I was convinced by this.

Also, I spend most of my interness time in this portal, I can't argue to have a bunch of new people around

[Polpolion]

<3 Battletech

I had plans for a campaign for MC2 a while back actually, but I never got around to adding bad  guys because I'd always spend my time adding random bits of detail to bases or cities and stuff. 

[Galemp]

The only argument I can see against doing this is the old slippery slope chestnut.

I know, because we've just been overrun hosting IWar and FreeLancer mods!

...wait, what?

IMHO you're welcome to stay if you can produce content. We like content.

[Starman01]

I'm already at it I don't think that content will be the problem While the coding continues, I will add a few more models, and hopefully the last block will be breached and we can raise the texture count to at least the double. Then I can create new interface art, and new content art. So much stuff to do, so little time 

[JGZinv]

Granted it really comes down to admins, but I'm cool with the proposal above.
Tachyon and Mechwarrior universes were often blended back in the day
and led to some interesting stuff.

My only concern is you say the game itself is already largely dead.
I've pretty much turned out the lights on many a forum/project and it's nigh
impossible without a vary large following of work minded do-ers to turn that
around.

[Starman01]

Well, there is not much to find for MC2 modding in google. But the BT forums are still there, so I think the users only abandoned the game, and when news come out, most will give it another try

Now, since I receive only positive feedback (thank you very much for this guys ), I would really like to see an admins vote on this, so that I might get start