Exactly what I said, vhab (our most beloved antiunix troll and microsoft fanboy )
They are comments that are not mutually exclusive.
I support Open/Industry standards and models (read: OpenGL, or whatever! there are tonnes of APIs out there) that further the development of software products, as well as support emerging markets (read: linux, osX). Don't take my word for it - read the papers or ask Microsoft.
FC future-proofing AO could mean either or both 'support for hoardes of dx/ati/nvidia/wownoob mmo converts' which means $ for FC (a good thing) or 'support for the direction towards the industry is moving' which is a longer-term investment, but also a good thing.
Advocacy aside, I was agreeing with you vhab. ie- even though the future of most technology relies heavily on open standards and community-driven development, I'm happy to use whatever FC gives me, as long as it works (read: performance/compatibility) with current gen systems, in order for FC to make buck$$$ and give AO the attention it deserves. Even if this means I have to reluctantly go out and buy a cheap pc if only to sit in the corner and run windows / AO (which I have been doing so for the past 7 years - to me its just an AO 'running cost').
[for the mentally or literary challenged: I like opengl/open whatever/unix support. I like ao just as much. I run windows on 1 pc because of AO, not AO because I have windows. I chose AO, I didn't choose windows. If I was looking for a game for Linux, I would install eve-online, second-life, unreal tournament or enemy territory, or many many more, all which have native linux clients. now fc plz gimme sum ao engine phatz that will run on any off the shelf current pc and get many credz from wownoobs kthxplz]
oh and vhab you are right, any non-native linux clients having issues on wine/cedega is a wine/cedega problem, not an AO one. Either FC wants the fanatically loyal unix user base (top of the IT food chain) or they dont. Linux users here using AO with wine/cedega - shame on you. Don't be fooled into thinking that you are supporting the open cause, because you are not.
I didn't ask you what openGL/directX are.
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They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war.
Tired of little elves with bows? Fed up with spell-flinging goblins? Bored to death by the solitary world of linear games? Despair not. Freedom is on its way, and its name is Anarchy Online.
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Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but with switching to the Dreamworld engine, won't they be able to save a lot of time by doing something like re-using AoC's player model bodies (minus the toplessness and boob jiggle) and incorporating an AoC-like character creation system instead of simply making new heads?
As fantastic as it would be to get all new body models, they'd also have to redo the clothes and armor from scratch, create separate meshes for them (whereas now they are just body retextures) and make new high resolution textures for them. That's a lot of extra work. A real facegen system would be absolutely great though.
The texture and model upgrades will come, don't despair.
The first and most important step will be the engine fix, the rest will follow.
If I understand correctly however, the models will behave/move differently which will be fun in itself. Not to mention snazzier lighting/water effects.
The existing textures aren't that bad really. The content reigns supreme and keeps the new players hooked, and with an improved engine with greater compatibility and performance, the new sign-ups will hopefully keep coming and staying until the textures and model improvements (if any) are finished.
Then FC will buy out blizzard and CCCP and we live happily ever after
Shadow Ops
Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.
They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war.
Tired of little elves with bows? Fed up with spell-flinging goblins? Bored to death by the solitary world of linear games? Despair not. Freedom is on its way, and its name is Anarchy Online.
Web: http://www.shadowops-online.org | Twitter: @ShadowOpsOnline | AO: Milestones & History
I'm providing a lot more support than I would be if I switched my entire OS and application base just so I could play AO as intended by the vendor
Shame on me? Perhaps you could point me at the super secret AO binary for Linux then? lol.
A native client would bring -some- more customers in due to the fact that Linux users love to buy games that are natively supported. All the game discs I own, for example (UT2K3, UT2K4, UT, Quake 3, Quake 4) have native Linux binaries available. However as Vhab rightly pointed out, it probably wouldn't generate -enough- new subscription to make the time/cost investment worth it.
I'll say again, I'm not asking for specific investment in the Linux platform, I'm hoping it will still work. I may not have played AO for a while now, but I'd still like to see the new engine and hopefully be able to enjoy it.
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A Producer's point of view
You see, Means, even if you were to sit back, not do anything anymore with AO, ignore the players and screw up all what you've done so far we are still way better off with you for one reason: you talk to us! That change in "policies" is almost as valuable as a new engine or prof balancing.
/suckup
The hunt begins!
I even found a press release. Still no binary, though.
Last edited by Keldros; May 24th, 2009 at 01:59:44.
I admittedly don't know much about Linux, but is http://www.csh.rit.edu/~marius/aolinux/ any good for those that do?
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That's a bit old, http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=291330 is more recent and you need to do something with winetricks (like two lines into terminal just copypasta'd from the internet) to get the fonts working correctly.
It works almost flawlessly for me now, only place I have problems is at LE missions (Wine).
What we are worrying about though, is that we won't be able to use it via Wine/Cedega anymore after the engine upgrade, since Age of Conan - the same engine - can't be Wine/Cedega'd either.
OGRE was more attractive in that case since it is an opensource project with Linux support, so it would probably have been easier to port the client or at least Wine/Cedega it even if there would be no native linux client (since the code is already "prepared" to work cross-platform, the grand lines that is).
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Don't know about those Linux-problems with AoC, but I can think of some Linux-prevention inside the code (not the engine!) of AoC itself because of the "Games for Windows"-thing. are there any problems for linux users with other Games-for-Windows products?
FunCom sez: We make phat game!
Microsoft sez: Y0o! RoxXor! Want some free advertizing?
Funcom: Gief plz!
Microsoft: just ensure phat game just runs on my equip!
Funcom: Wut? Awesome! I gonna do it!
Microsoft: k, here's your Games-for-Windows logo.
Funcom: great, how do i use it then?
Microsoft: just keep in your phat gamez inventory, spreads around teh web instant
Funcom: Woot! *codes some nasty linux-prevention*
Funcom: Nice! works perfect! thx! *leaves*
Microsoft: *evil laugh* linux users are teh doomed now!
just my intention, but not too impossible i'd say.
Now I'm biased here as it's been a "feud" between my brother and I; he loves Linux and figures everyone else should but yet always seems to want to use Windows. So he keeps coming over to my place because I'm the only family member with a computer that runs Windows. (In terms of direct family only my brother and myself have computers)
Because of this it's always been a "Use Windows", "No use Linux" back and forth thing between us. What I don't get is why, if you want what Windows offers, do you not use Windows?
You want this program? You want this game, this option this style etc, why not use Windows? If Linux doesn't give you want you want, why are you using it? Such are the questions my brother never does answer beyond "Cause I can".
I think he secretly just wants to bug the hell out of me by coming over to hover over my shoulder till I want to beat him with the keyboard to use my computer. He could easily install Windows on his (vastly more advanced) computer.
Anyway, can someone please tell me why the hell Linux is so great if it doesn't run what you want it to run? I mean, if AO was Linux only and xxx was Linux only and I wanted them, I'd use Linux. I'm right up there saying Vista sucks donkey balls but I use it, why? Because while it's annoying from time to time it gives me what I want.
What is so appealing about Linux?
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Means: "We have done way dumber things than this..."
deep down, its about wanting stuff for free. which is why a company that tried to port popular games to linux (Loki something) utterly failed. linux users dont want to buy software.
to rationalize this way of thinking, they've turned it into a religion. instead of seeing an operating system as the tool it is, they see it as something of an idol. you can only worship one. you must convert the supporters of competing idols to yours.
personally, i've found linux to be the perfect tool as my main OS for work. since all my servers a *nix, shelling out to 7 servers, etc is just easier and cleaner than a bunch of putty sessions in windows.
i find linux to be great as a home server for files and internet routing. tho i may end up moving it to bsd eventually.
home desktop, windows. no questions. i tried linux, more than once. just doesnt work out here. and i've been using linux since about '94. besides the fact, ever since winXP... all these whines about stability and crashing.. just dont exist anymore.
Serious Linux users are used to dicking around with stuff in order to get it to work, so honestly i don't think applying Wine tweak here and there would be a problem for anyone, however at the moment as far as i understand its isn't possible to run AoC at all.
Also, yeah, whining about Windows being unstable, crashing, having viruses and generally being problematic are so 20th Century. Or if you want to go that way, in reference you should look back to times how good as home desktop Linux was in the 90s , and let me tell you i'd rather cut off my hands then once again touch a computer with Mandrake 6.0 or early Red Hat installed.
Also , someone said about having to support the hypothetical Linux client.
What support? Even Windows users are on their own in here. I have seen like 2 posts from FC in Tech forum in my life, technical FAQ on mainpage is from year 1492 and generally its the players figuring workarounds to problems, like keeping AO out of Program Files folder on Vista for example.
So hey, i'm sure Means&co have the resources to mantain the same level for support for Linux.