This won't be very time intensive. We have two admins, two moderators, and might add a third if necessary. We need a TLR staff member on the this project.


-Burn

"Only the dead have seen the end of war"-Plato

Fraid I now have a full time job working, as well as a part time job at weekends.

I have very little time anymore, sorry - but I am of no help.

Two jobs, you're lucky, I can't find one in this area...

Do any staff members have time to work on this? I jumped the gun with discussion on the copyright issues but the further along that goes the more Openlancer will need someone who can speak for TLR management.

In general I think TLR can really benefit from Openlancer. This project is trying to give the TLR community exactly what it wants, a sequel to FL, better mod tools, a new open source game engine, and the list goes on. To do this effectively we need someone to help transition Openlancer from being a small side project to something with a greater community focus. There aren't many companies out there developing space sims, this is a pretty good time to develop our own. 8500 people signed a petition wanting a FL sequel, if we can motivate as little as two percent of them into working on it then we can create a really great game. Motivating that many community members to do anything needs to start with TLR staff.

This doesn't mean TLR needs to be put into a position where its future depends on Openlancer. It just means TLR can really benefit from this project and this project can really benefit from TLR support.

So, is anyone with TLR management interested in this and have the time to help us?


-Burn

"Only the dead have seen the end of war"-Plato

As you know I'm very sceptical aabout the whole Openlancer project, but if i can find the time I'll read throught what you currently have and then see.
I'm only available on weekends tho

Why are you sceptical about Openlancer?


-Burn

"Only the dead have seen the end of war"-Plato

She may be for the same reason I am. A lot of talk has been done, but nothing tangable that can be seen. Art work, graphics and so forth.

Mega...you might remember I was very sceptical about the copyright issues etc.
I saw you mentioned something aboutit earlier in the thread, which was why i said I'll take a look again, just havent had the chance yet. Guess I'll have to copy everything and read it during the week or something.

A demo is in the works. Thats just a matter of time now.

I'm highly skeptical about the copyright myself. There are some issues here that need to be addressed and a final decision needs to be made, but its a choice TLR management needs to make because of the possible ramifications.

In both cases this is better handled with a TLR staff member working on Openlancer to really get a feel for what we're doing. I have posted large amount of information and people are still skeptical. Its clear my efforts here are ineffective.


-Burn

"Only the dead have seen the end of war"-Plato

I've mentioned this a few times in other threads but I'll explain it here...

Our fair use claim is just that, its a legal defense for a lawsuit, not a license. It cannot stop a lawsuit and given MS's legal reputation it wouldn't even deter one. I'm willing to talk to MS and I'm even willing to accept a cease & desist letter just for a chance to actually open a line of communication with them.

How heres the major concern and why I'm deferring this to TLR...
Openlancer is a product of the TLR community. MS hosts TLR and I recently heard it costs them about a terabyte worth of bandwidth a month to do so, thats not cheap by any measure. MS is slowly dropping Freelancer. If MS wants to kill Openlancer theres a very real risk they'll just shutdown TLR to save themselves the hosting costs rather than spending more money by using resources from their legal dept to send out a cease & desist notice.

I have no idea what the hosting arrangement is. I don't know what TLR's connection to MS is. I do know TLR management is in the best position to deal with this situation. The choices are:

-- Continue “as-is” and hope MS doesn't care. If you can't/won't talk to MS about using the canon or can only get an unofficial statement from MS saying “they don't care” then this is probably fine but it offers no protections...it carries the greatest risks.

-- Contact MS and try to get formal permission to use the canon. This can be a license, a written notice just saying they won't sue, or anything else. Just as long as its in writing and states we can use the canon. If it is a license then it should cover TLR as a whole so it can be applied to as many projects as possible and general fan fiction created by TLR community members, not Openlancer specifically. This is the best option, we should be free and clear to use anything in the canon, including Sirius as a whole or otherwise expanding the scope of how we're using the canon now.

-- Create a new canon, this means you need to rally the community to work on it. This is a community effort and doesn't need to be centered on Openlancer. The canon can be implemented in fanfic writing, FL mods, and ultimately Openlancer. This is 100% free and clear of copyright issues as long as TLR retains ownership of the contributed material and people don't try to copy stuff from other canons in the process of creating a new one. You can safely use the FL “technologies” as a starting point, remember, ideas cannot be copyrighted, only the implementation of those ideas. This can yield a game that feels roughly the same as FL but has a totally different storyline, history, lore, factions/groups, characters, locations, etc...

-- Abandon Openlancer, in this case the development team will move on and attempt to create our own community base to continue development. We'll also create our own canon. This is an all or nothing option to completely and permanently cut ties with Openlancer. This will generate significant animosity, just as our current situation can be mutually beneficial, taking this route will be just as mutually harmful. I only mention it because it certainly is an option and if I were a TLR staff member its something I probably would consider.

I'm deferring to TLR management on this issue but without a staff member telling me point blank what you're doing the project will continue as-is. Attempting to maintain neutrality or possible deniability isn't realistic. If you guys are just busy and haven't had time to consider the situation I totally understand. Sorry I'm being a little impatient here but I really need to know where this is going to continue planning.

I've said this a dozen or more times now, but I'll say it again, if you want a Freelancer sequel or an original community created game, then this is your opportunity to make that happen.

All that said, if anyone wants to go over the Openlancer game design in detail, review the our current Lancers canon implementation, or anything else just let me know.


-Burn

UPDATE:
We have the first functional test build, includes basic movement and procedurally generated planets. Its not much to look at and buggy but progress is being made. Its not a release but it can be found on the OL forum if you do a little poking around.

The guys working on the storyline are getting antsy. They want to work on the storyline but aren't doing anything until the copyright issue is resolved. A few of them also want to ask some of the fan fiction writers on here to get involved.

We're up to 62 members, well over a dozen active, two professionals, and just hit a 1,000 forum posts. Not bad for a month and a half. Some sense of momentum is starting to build after hitting a wall with the server crash and a large number of people leaving two months ago.

We need someone to coordinate work efforts between the Openlancer website and the TLR forums. Some changes need to be made to the TLR Openlancer forum too. Again, the copyright issue needs to be resolved ASAP, this is a decision for TLR management.


-Burn

I'll make some time for this the weekend

Thanks, I'll put together a brief on the project to keep this as short and to the point as possible.


-Burn

Just to update this, the canon issue has been solved but it would still be nice to have a TLR staff member hanging out on the OL site/forums. Doesn't need to be a formal thing, just someone who is very familiar with the community and can offer feedback or add insight to the issues being discussed.

If anyone is interested and has the time just register on the OL site and jump in on the forums.


Thanks,
-Burn