What if Space Empires VI went Open Source?

[Will]

Imperator Fyron said:
The PBW2 project stopped mostly because they had no idea what they would have to do to support SE5. It's hard to design a support system around a game you know nothing about. I dunno when (if?) it will start back up now that SE5 is coming out, though.

Fyron's got it right here. We could have worked on the assumption that multiplayer would work exactly like for SEIV, but then a lot of work could have gone to nothing if things were changed. Then there was also the question of what extra features could be added; PBW now is very bare-bones, all it does is blindly take turn files, execute the turn, and zip and mail if there are no errors. Everything depends on external sources setting up things. But, if there is support in SEV, we could possibly do things like online empire creation, online game creation, etc.

Anyway, I would have started looking into a new iteration of PBW as soon as the demo came out, but as it is only single-player, I still don't know how multiplayer would work. Once the game is released and we know all that, I would dive right into design discussions, and help out with any needed coding.

As for SEVI open-sourced, I doubt it. Although there isn't really anything stopping a fan-initiated open source game (besides motivation), it wouldn't officially be SEVI (due to trademark issues, etc).

[Gandalf Parker]

There are open source projects trying to recreate things like Stars!

Also, Shrapnel had a thread about "whats the next game you would like to see" and they have a fairly open-door policy.

I think Aaron has done a great job, but the talent represented by the crowd here is extensive. If they all jumped into a project I tihnk it would be great. I have some ideas for beating the "huge game" limitations and allowing for larger maps, more planets, planets whose appearance changes with game play, more nations, random nations, unique names, non-linear AI's, and majorly increased random events. All of those are items which tend to have to be cut back when they make the game too large to fit on a CD.

And of course Id love to see client and host seperated, with a host that will run on linux servers

Gandalf Parker

[gregebowman]

Someone mentioned in another thread that there might be the possiblity of the source code for SE II or III available so that someone like Nintendo might make a Gameboy verion of it. Is this a possibility, or someone making a wish? I'd like to see this, because I don't think I've seen a 4x game for the gameboy. Or maybe for a cellphone? I've downloaded versions of Sim City and Might & Magic and Age of Empires II on my cell phone. I'd love to see a version of SE on there also. Anybody know the possibilty of this happening?

[tmcc]

There is also a project ongoing like this called Free Orion. They have a playable v0.3.x demo available that looks and plays very nice, but has no AI yet and I don't think it has a combat module yet either. Reading through the forum I don't see much reference to the SE series so they may be able to pick up some ideas. It's main focus is to re-capture the magic that was in the original MOO in an updated and modern format.