John Pritchett has told us that he could re-write TWARS in a more stable language than it currently exists in, but then he'd have to charge for new registrations (which seems fair to me).

Who would be in favor of buying a new Reg code for a more stable TWARS in an updated code?

I know I would be.

I don't know, perhaps a Twars V5 for some future date?

Having to charge for it makes sense and is completely understandable.

right now with the way the edits are changing, who knows what t-wars will even by like by that time. I really like the .55 edits, but here soon things will be different and who knows, maybe servers will run .55 in a year! hehe.. you just never know about those things

If it was all rewritten in a more user friendly language based on the same game without too many extreme changes then sure I would buy a new reg code, its expected that development is not free.

quote:Originally posted by Supreme Galactic Overlord

John Pritchett has told us that he could re-write TWARS in a more stable language than it currently exists in, but then he'd have to charge for new registrations (which seems fair to me).




A more "stable" language? I am not sure what that means since the major languages should be stable (various flavors of C) and are used in mission critical systems everyday w/o problems. There are usually some minor issues that developers have to contend with, but those usually get documented pretty quick and work arounds developed.

I know that an 80s version of Twars had a Pascal version out with the source code - may still have a copy of that source in my BBS archives. Now that version would give you some issues to play with.

Now, to answer your question - would I pay more for a stable version of TWGS? No, because I am happy with .55 and its known (and unknown) issues. The .xx revisions since .55 may have fixed some issues, but the overall game hasn't had a major change in design. With the editors, you can change the game style - blue / red weighted or even, fast paced or slow (nasty) by modding ships/planets/regen and a host of other settings.

I agree that stability is important to the game, but I have played on some servers that seemed to be extremely stable -- Alien Base is the main one that comes to mind (a lot of players and very few complaints). So until something is added to the game that is currently not available, I will happily stay with .55 and the servers that run that version.

               / Promethius / Enigma / Wolfen /

"A man who has no skills can be taught, a man who has no honor has nothing."

If V4 is a "new game", then yes - they should charge for a registration. If it's V3 with a bunch of changes, then they're obliged to honor the original agreement of free upgrades. (my copy of TW was purchased in 1994 hehe)

What constitutes a "new game"? According to my registration agreement, "Your registration codes will enable the features on all current and future versions of Trade Wars 2002." I assume in order to charge for a registration, they'd have to change the name to Trade Wars 2003 or some other number at the end..heh

I'm all for paying for software I really like. But in order for them to charge for a new registration, they'll have to work around their wording on the registration agreements.

quote:Originally posted by Wotok

I assume in order to charge for a registration, they'd have to change the name to Trade Wars 2003 or some other number at the end..heh

they'll have to work around their wording on the registration agreements.


I'm not sure about this so I definately might be wrong, but I'm speculating that those agreements were set in place by Gary Martin, and that legally John Pritchett does not have to honor them. I BELIEVE JP has been honoring them out of the kindness of his heart, but I'm not sure about that.

I don't think the name would have to change, but, again, this is something for lawyers to haggle about. Are there any lawyers in the house?


quote:
Originally Posted by Promethius[/br]
A more "stable" language? I am not sure what that means since the major languages should be stable (various flavors of C) and are used in mission critical systems everyday w/o problems.

You see that's the point entirely. The current language of Twars, as I understand it is "Legacy Code," which is supposed to be horribly unstable and outdated. JP says to put it into a more stable language would require making the game from scratch, and if he did that he'd have to charge for new registrations. That just sounded quite fair to me is all and I wondered how many people would willingly buy it?

That's all. I don't know anything about code at all, and for all I know I've got some of this information about the "language" all wrong even after reading it several times in JP's post.

Hehe, I am not trying to tout myself as knowledgeable in any way on that subject, just wondering who might pay for a new REG if twars was rewritten in a more stable environment

(I promised I'd put those sort of disclaimers in all my posts where I am not sure what I'm talking about)

Well, my registration IS from Martech Software, Inc, not EIS - so maybe the agreement is null and void.

I think there are some misconceptions concerning the development and future of this game, so I thought I would clear some things up.

As it stands now:

v3 is final, meaning no more changes will be made to the game play. 3.12 (which is revision .64) will be the final major release of the game, bug fixes will continue to be made as they are dealt with in v4.

v4 is not a rewritten version; it is the same code base as v3 (which by the way for those who wonder is 32 bit Delphi) and will remain that way. V4 is simply the game play changes that it has been determined are necessary to correct the game to be stable and more balanced while taking into account the advances of technology used to play the game over its life time. JP decided in order to appease those that didn’t want these game play changes to release v3 as is and have v4 include these changes, but at its core it will be the same as v3, albeit more closely tied to the original spirit and feel of the original Trade Wars concept then v3.

A sequel to Trade Wars is going to be developed it will be based on the original but it will be written from the ground up and include many new features made available by today’s technology, a feature set has not been finalized for this version, but it will utilize a new game engine that JP has developed.

v3 will not be rewritten in a modern architecture, regardless of registration fees. JP decided when he bought v3 that he would honor Martech’s promise to give free upgrades to all registered owners, even though he is under no legal requirement to do so. v4 while technically changing game play will also be available for free to all legally registered owners of Trade Wars. The sequel of course will not be covered as an upgrade to v3 or v4 and will require as of yet undetermined registration fee, although plans are for it to also run on the TWGS system.

Sounds like a plan!

I am glad to hear that v4 will not cost extra because because if it is just alot of fixes to make more stable and no game play chage then it should still fall under free upgrade...Also what happens to the person that buys a reg code and then 2 weeks later ver X.X comes out and everyone switchs to that and don't play his game anymore and then he has to pay another X amount of dollors to upgrade again...AAAHHHHH....That would BLOW

Keep an eye out for when the next major release would come out would be the answer If ya see the next release is two weeks out, WAIT!

Jhereg

But with the way releases are coming they never say when they are coming out they just appear...For all we know V.4 could come out tommorrow...

well i believe i have read somewhere that they expect v4 will come out summer-fall or something. but that might have been v3.12 so i dunno. im sure someone knowledgable will chime in and ill go search around and see if i can find that post that i think i read about this.

Slim

I would rather wait extra for V4 to fix the bugs and be more stable. I understand that quality code takes time, and I do not like rush-jobs even if that is what Corp America IT shops seem to want to do. Apparently rush-jobs can produce unstable, buggy, and sloppy code.

If V4 required an new registration code, I'd register it. It would help EIS develop better games and earn more of an income. Most software firms charge for new versions anyway, and offer an upgrade discount to current clients.

Yeah well jumpgate was suppose to be out by now also