Hi, everyone,
It's been a long time. I haven't been on this group in ages. Google
also has a totally new Groups interface, so I apologize if the format
of this message is all wonky.
I've been approached by someone in e-mail about fixing the bugs
in Incursion, and I've put a lot of thought into things recently. I have
been working on a tabletop RPG of my own recently, that has nothing
to do with Incursion. I'm realizing at this point that I've left it for a
negligently long time, so I'm going to open-source the last stable
version. (The actual current version, with 1.5+ years extra development,
is still in its infancy and not a functional game. Because it has a lot of
new RPG-design ideas I'm using elsewhere, I'm keeping it for now. I may
try to sort out the source-code portion and give it to the community if
people want; honestly I don't think it is very useful.)
This is not an effort to undercut the "Veins of the Earth" clone-project
being discussed here -- it looks really interesting, and under the hood
the source is probably more stable than Incursion. So, to Zireael and his
or her fellow contributors, you have my blessing to take whatever you want
from Incursion's design, aesthetic and/or code in your own project. Some
people just want to try to do a truly stable (original) Incursion, so that
is why I'm releasing it -- I discussed this in e-mail before coming back to
the group and seeing your clone-project, and I apologize for the timing.
I will be releasing the source code under the Creative Commons Attribution
license, with a polite and non-legally-binding request not to use copyleft
or anti-commercial licenses for derivative works composed primarily of Incursion
unless licensing conflicts make your project unworkable otherwise.
I hope to get the source code up this weekend. That may not happen, depending
on how busy I get. I have to get it to compile (into 0.6.9I) again on my own
computer first, to make sure I'm even releasing the right version.
There are complications, however. The Incursion compile process is very complicated
with a lot of moving parts. There's a custom scripting language involved using an old
compiler-generator tool which I hacked to change it's output slightly. There's also a
third-party graphics library, and a plugin for a specific version of Visual Studio,
and other stuff. It's really tangled because I never expected anyone but me to work
with it. I don't have the tools to compile it on my current computer. I may have to
get a different computer out of cold storage to get you all the parts you'll need to
make it work, and there will be some extensive instructions in terms of settings and
such just to get it to compile. You will need to use Visual Studio 2008 if you want
to work with this sources as they are -- it may get more platform-independent in the
hands of later developers.
Fair warning: Released Incursion's sources are very, very tangled. There's a reason
I eventually gave up and moved to a partial rewrite. I'm not sure what others will be
able to do that I wasn't about crash-bugs, but some other things can probably be fixed.
I will not be renewing the web hosting for Incursion when it comes up, but I
am happy to transfer the website and domain name to anyone interested in
maintaining it in the next few months. I will be deleting the private "Incursion-L"
mailing list in the next few months as well.
I want to thank everyone who took an interest in Incursion over the years, and
apologize for never finishing the revised version. Up until a few weeks ago, I
really thought I was always going to get back to it... someday. Now, I have one --
possibly more -- programmers interested in fixing the bugs, I realize I'm done
with it and it would be selfish to keep it to myself any longer. So I'm doing
this. I hope this works out well for the tiny community that's stayed interested
so long.
Getting the source releasable is actually fairly complicated, because there's
so many strange hacks. I may get it out this weekend, two weeks from now or four
weeks from now, but it is at least coming soon. Hi, everyone,
It's been a long time. I haven't been on this group in ages. Google
also has a totally new Groups interface, so I apologize if the format
of this message is all wonky.
I've been approached by someone in e-mail about fixing the bugs
in Incursion, and I've put a lot of thought into things recently. I have
been working on a tabletop RPG of my own recently, that has nothing
to do with Incursion. I'm realizing at this point that I've left it for a
negligently long time, so I'm going to open-source the last stable
version. (The actual current version, with 1.5+ years extra development,
is still in its infancy and not a functional game. Because it has a lot of
new RPG-design ideas I'm using elsewhere, I'm keeping it for now. I may
try to sort out the source-code portion and give it to the community if
people want; honestly I don't think it is very useful.)
This is not an effort to undercut the "Veins of the Earth" clone-project
being discussed here -- it looks really interesting, and under the hood
the source is probably more stable than Incursion. So, to Zireael and his
or her fellow contributors, you have my blessing to take whatever you want
from Incursion's design, aesthetic and/or code in your own project. Some
people just want to try to do a truly stable (original) Incursion, so that
is why I'm releasing it -- I discussed this in e-mail before coming back to
the group and seeing your clone-project, and I apologize for the timing.
I will be releasing the source code under the Creative Commons Attribution
license, with a polite and non-legally-binding request not to use copyleft
or anti-commercial licences for derivative works composed primarily of Incursion
unless licensing conflicts make your project unworkable otherwise.
I hope to get the source code up this weekend. That may not happen, depending
on how busy I get. I have to get it to compile (into 0.6.9I) again on my own
computer first, to make sure I'm even releasing the right version.
There are complications, however. The Incursion compile process is very complicated
with a lot of moving parts. There's a custom scripting language involved using an old
compiler-generator tool which I hacked to change it's output slightly. There's also a
third-party graphics library, and a plugin for a specific version of Visual Studio,
and other stuff. It's really tangled because I never expected anyone but me to work
with it. I don't have the tools to compile it on my current computer. I may have to
get a different computer out of cold storage to get you all the parts you'll need to
make it work, and there will be some extensive instructions in terms of settings and
such just to get it to compile. You will need to use Visual Studio 2008 if you want
to work with this sources as they are -- it may get more platform-independent in the
hands of later developers.
Fair warning: Released Incursion's sources are very, very tangled. There's a reason
I eventually gave up and moved to a partial rewrite. I'm not sure what others will be
able to do that I wasn't about crash-bugs, but some other things can probably be fixed.
I will not be renewing the web hosting for Incursion when it comes up, but I
am happy to transfer the website and domain name to anyone interested in
maintaining it in the next few months. I will be deleting the private "Incursion-L"
mailing list in the next few months as well.
I want to thank everyone who took an interest in Incursion over the years, and
apologize for never finishing the revised version. Up until a few weeks ago, I
really thought I was always going to get back to it... someday. Now, I have one --
possibly more -- programmers interested in fixing the bugs, I realize I'm done
with it and it would be selfish to keep it to myself any longer. So I'm doing
this. I hope this works out well for the tiny community that's stayed interested
so long.
Getting the source releasable is actually fairly complicated, because there's
so many strange hacks. I may get it out this weekend, two weeks from now or four
weeks from now, but it is at least coming soon.