Greetings my fellow players.
Although XC has long been silent due to Suppanut and myself being really short on free time it doesn't mean it's dead yet.
I recently bought RTW Steam version as I'm pretty sure it's going to be the only one around (along with the rare gold boxed set) and discovered it's not patched to 1.6 but rather 1.51, meaning many XC won't work with it.
As it's not possible to modify XC to work with a downgraded exe without butchering a great many features, so we are facing an unpleasant choice:
1) point the players to pirated files with the correct version (which is of course illegal), exposing them to potential legal consequences and malware risk
2) force patch the game through the installer exclusively IF a steam installation is detected, meaning that we can reasonably be sure the player already owns the game, however this means placing a lot of trust on what you install on your PC and may still be not acceptable from a legal standpoint in many countries.
Both choices will most likely impede multiplayer capability (although the original exe can be restored in that case) so that's another factor to consider.
As the matter is extremely delicate I don't want to reduce it to a poll choice but rather listen to your reasoning as it's a potentially unsurmuntable stumbling block in any possible future XC development.
I shall leave the choice on your wisdom.