[jr2]

What'd they do with Diaspora? I either forgot or never learned...

[General Battuta]

What'd they do with Diaspora? I either forgot or never learned...

Deleted all the BSG mods on ModDB, including Diaspora, without warning.

[jr2]

:ModDB=rodent: Well, that's bloody nice of them. 

[MatthTheGeek]

They didn't really have a choice. Whoever owns the BSG IP handed ModDB and Cease And Desist. Of course they could have given more time for mods to comply, but in the end, the real dicks aren't ModDB.

[karajorma]

It's the fact that they didn't bother to inform us, and the attitude of the admins on ModDB when I complained that it was unprofessional to do so, and the fact that months later they still haven't bothered to replace the boilerplate message they replaced Diaspora with, that made me lose any interest in them.

There are a lot of other FS2 mods and TCs that involve the IP of big TV or film companies. I don't want to work hard on getting FS2_Open into Desura only to suddenly find users are complaining it doesn't work because they've suddenly and unceremoniously pulled the plug. If others want to, that's their business.

[jg18]

Does that mean the Desura thread should get unstickied from the General FS forum?

[Goober5000]

Might as well...

[karajorma]

Well I was never largely involved with it. Like I said, if someone else wants to do it, I have no problem. I just don't want to waste my time setting things up for people who might undo all my hard work and not even bother to tell me.

[Sombre]

It's cool that so many of the active community leaders are in this thread considering this issue. I completely agree with the 'hard sell' angle. As soon as I start explaining to my friends how to get FSO and the cool mods up and running it gets difficult to convince them it's worth trying. Now I personally used the installer doodad that used to be in favour - the one that goes and downloads all the stuff. But it seems various bits of it don't install properly or don't quite work right.

Is that installer 'FreespaceOpenInstaller.exe' no longer the best starting point?

[MatthTheGeek]

It has not been working properly for like, ages now. Years, really. What you need to follow is here.

[Sombre]

Thanks, that's very helpful.

Honestly though everything seems like it's been working fine having used the installer as the start point then gone and grabbed stuff when it didn't work properly. I have the right versions of all the FSO stuff as far as I can see and the various mods (with updates when I find them in their threads) have all worked fine thusfar. Maybe I've just been lucky and should reinstall according to that thread.

[Mongoose]

It has not been working properly for like, ages now. Years, really. What you need to follow is here.

It's been working fine for most of that time, after someone (Goober maybe?) tweaked it.  I'm not sure of its current status, though.

[Goober5000]

The new version is in progress.  Based on the comments in this thread, I'm going to do my best to finish it (at least the beta version) this weekend.

[Ulala]

I can't wait to try it!

[Aardwolf]

They didn't really have a choice. Whoever owns the BSG IP handed ModDB and Cease And Desist. Of course they could have given more time for mods to comply, but in the end, the real dicks aren't ModDB.

IIRC they complained about one particular BSG mod, not all of the BSG mods. And I don't remember it ever being established whether it was an old-fashioned "cease and desist", a DMCA takedown, or what.

[karajorma]

All I can say is that I never received any concrete information on why.

[Lukeskywalkie]

For a long time, it looked like big stompy mech action was dead too.

I'm not sure that's a great example, since it IS dead.  Remember that incredible Mechwarrior 5 trailer with the delightful phrase 'in-game footage' on the bottom?  That will never happen now:  The old, and petty, legal battle that hamstrung the previous games reared its ridiculous head, and now, instead of gripping, mission-based immersive game with top notch visuals, we're going to get a multiplayer only, free-to-play game with lowest-common denominator mechanics.

All because a few robots happened to look like a few other robots from a japanese IP that's ABSURDLY protective of its image, never mind that THEY'RE not using the designs any more either. 

Gets me good and mad!

On topic:  Yes, in general most genres are cyclic.  the iPad gave adventure games, even old, retired properties, a second wind, and kickstarter has opened a lot of doors to niche genres and titles.  Hopefully enough of those projects will put out finished products that it becomes feasable to have a game that is tailored to a certain customer base, but doesn't have to look like a surefire commercial blockbuster, to get good funding.

[General Battuta]

Hey, just wanted to post to let you know that I'm a Mechwarrior fan ever since 2 and I've grown up with the series (and playing Battletech, too), and I think Mechwarrior Online looks fantastic. Your post sounds like a knee-jerk response based on very little information, particularly the 'top-notch visuals' and 'lowest common denominator mechanics' bits - it's running on CryEngine 3 and the gameplay mechanics are more complex than any past MechWarrior title.

Hell, the best MechWarrior game released yet in terms of raw gameplay - Living Legends - is multiplayer only.

What's more, the shift from MechWarrior single player to MechWarrior Online was motivated by the fact that they couldn't find a publisher, not legal issues.

Might want to learn a little about what you're angry about before you go full bore on the gettin' mad front. And you're completely ignoring Hawken as well.

[SypheDMar]

Indeed. The Devs respond pretty well to the community in MWO, and they pay a great deal of attention to canon in terms of the tabletop game (which I admittedly don't play) and the lore.

Outside of MWO, there's also MechWarrior Tactics, a TBS based on the Battletech franchise. While not a sim, it shows that there is interest.

If you look away from Battletech, there's the indie Mech-based FPS/Sim (Hawken) and a Mech game on another franchise (Reign of Thunder).


EDIT: Also, there's Mechwarrior Tactical Command with an awesome trailer featuring the Timberwolf, Panther, and Atlas. Not sure if active, though.

[headdie]

The demonstrated rage serves little purpose, it changes nothing in the world, demonstrates significant ignorance of what is happening and only serves to any significant extent to troll those who navigate the communities involved.  Advice from someone who has gone through the rage at the drop of a hat phase (Microsoft was my favourite rage target from about 10 until about 25) cool down, all venting does is prove you to be an ass, and the ppl laughing... well lets just say for the most part they are not laughing with you.