[CF-Devel] Future crossfire changes/projects

[Mark Wedel]

Mike Ponicki wrote:

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      imo, crossfire has a much better engine/framework than ultima online or
     
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      everquest do. maybe that's just because crossfire has been around so long
     
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      (so as to give developers a chance to implement features), but I think
     
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      crossfire, as is, has a lot less work to go in being "awesome" than uo and
     
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      eq do, which have a number of big problems. so I think that crossfire
     
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      definately can compete with the bigger games, which tend to be released,
     
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      then stagnate as no new features get added after release. crossfire, on
     
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      the other hand, has already shown that it will survive indefinately and
     
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      continue to evolve.
     
     
 To be honest, I haven't played either of their commercial games.  I would be
interested in hearing in more details where crossfire is better.

 I have no doubt that crossfire is worse in other areas.

 The one big thing crossfire may have going for it is that since it is open
source/maps, players can extend it on their own (make new quests and the like).

 Stagnation is a tricky aspect.  At some level, people don't like things
changing one day to the next - to log in and find out that artifact XYZ is not
nearly as good as it was would probably upset some players, especially those
that have XYZ.  So the amount that gets changed in major releases has to be
carefully controlled.

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      remember that the more popular crossfire becomes, the more developers
     
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      we'll have, and the faster development will go
     
     
 There is of course a limit to this (too many cooks in the kitchen syndrome). 
And even with more developers, major development only moves forward if those new
developers want to take it in that direction.  If they're more interested in
making new spells, things don't really move forward that much - you just get
more features in what you currently have (which is not bad in itself).


>
     
      I don't really get what you mean about copyright issues
     
     
 Basically, everything done has an implied copyright.  This mail message right
here has an implied copyright.

 Thats not to say that freely distributible files are not available.  Its just
that the source for this has to carefully be examined.

 Personally, background music has never been a big deal for me.  when I first
get a commercial game, I may leave it turned on for a little bit, but it doesn't
take too much playing before I have heard all of them, and quickly tire of it. 
I think much more important that background music is just a lot more different
sounds for crossfire (grates cranking open, fountains making noise, some big
monsters may even make some different sounds).