Decision - Purchase the RTW Game Engine

[Gaius Baltar]

Author: Nicholas Rush
Support: Thoragoros, 'Gunny, irishron, Leonidas The Lion, Okmin, Basileos Leandros I

I. The CVRIA hear by authorizes the Administrators of TWC to enter into negotiations with SEGA, with the purpose of purchasing the RTW game engine.

II. The CVRIA hear by authorizes the administration of TWC to collect donations from its members for the purpose of purchasing the RTW game engine from SEGA.

III. In the event the RTW game engine is acquired, it will be released freely to TWC members for the purpose of creating modifications of the game.

[Thoragoros]

Support.

EDIT

On the other hand, I have no idea what legalities this would involve, nor do I have an idea of how much this would actually cost.

So, pending those facts, I will remain hesistant of this.

[Omnipotent-Q]

Wow....highly ambitious to say the least. Gut instinct tells me the chance of such a plan being a success is low, but for the sake of argument I will ask why? Even though I'm pretty sure what your response is going to be!

[Thoragoros]

Wow....highly ambitious to say the least. Gut instinct tells me the chance of such a plan being a success is low, but for the sake of argument I will ask why? Even though I'm pretty sure what your response is going to be!

Because as of now, editing the game engine is illegal. This purchase would make editing the engine, and things 'buil into' the engine, legal.

That means bigger, more epic mods.

['Gunny]

EDIT: Support.

The bill just says enter into negotiations, can't hurt to look into it , though before doing anything we need to have our ducks in a row, can we find out some more legal information on it?

[Justinian]

Two questions:
1) Do you have any idea if CA would even consider selling the engine, and for how much?
2) Would you actually be able to mod that much more than you can already? Almost every aspect of RTW that matters can be changed already.

[GrnEyedDvl]

Um yeah thats not going to happen.

[T.C.]

"April Fools is dead and gone, you're the fool to carry it on"

Seriously, have you any idea how far fetched this is? SEGA aren't going to sell a profitable product to a website so they can hand it out to whoever wants it free of charge. It's their business to buy game engines, not sell them on. And think of all the legality involved in this - artist's royalties, 3rd party software licensing etc. You think TWC's gunna fund this? It's fine when the game was designed to have it's source code released, but the artists would not have signed a contact that in any way facilitated the free distribution of their work. And the licenses for 3rd party software would be similarly restricted.

I admire the effort and all, but much is to be said for thinking things through.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

"April Fools is dead and gone, you're the fool to carry it on"

Seriously, have you any idea how far fetched this is? SEGA aren't going to sell a profitable product to a website so they can hand it out to whoever wants it free of charge. It's their business to buy game engines, not sell them on. And think of all the legality involved in this - artist's royalties, 3rd party software licensing etc. You think TWC's gunna fund this? It's fine when the game was designed to have it's source code released, but the artists would not have signed a contact that in any way facilitated the free distribution of their work. Then you've got the issue of releasing source code which is another can of worms waiting to explode.

"April Fools is dead and gone, you're the fool to carry it on"

Two words, come to mind: Play Nice.

It's an expressed idea....They are very similar to "One Liners", in that if they land you're a Prince, but if they don't you're a Pauper.

The answer is perhaps a profound no, not in this lifetime. But if it were something else..."Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

[T.C.]

Two words, come to mind: Play Nice.

Sorry if that comes across as offensive, it's a common phrase round my parts - used in a friendly manner of course
As said, I admire the effort but this is just something I can't ever see TWC having the capability to do. As well as that, RTW is very moddable, I'm surprised you want more when compared to the latest TW games

[irishron]

I'll support it. We would probably buy the rights to Medieva2 and Kingdoms while we're at it as they are based on the same basic engine.

[Leonidas The Lion]

lol at this proposal.


Support.

[Marie Louise von Preussen]

Ambitious. I like it.

[Gaius Baltar]

1) Do you have any idea if CA would even consider selling the engine, and for how much?

This would be the first step in this proposal, contact SEGA and see if they would be willing to sell the license to the game.

2) Would you actually be able to mod that much more than you can already? Almost every aspect of RTW that matters can be changed already.

well...there is so much hard-coded material in the engines, I'm surprised at this statement. Lets start with path-finding and unit size.

It's their business to buy game engines, not sell them on

Its their business to make money, so if we offer them the right kind of deal, we could have the material.

I'll support it. We would probably buy the rights to Medieva2 and Kingdoms while we're at it as they are based on the same basic engine.

With the diminishing returns from the last two TW games in the series, I expect they would want to move on. Selling the engine would rid them of the excess baggage.

We have an experienced community of coders, graphic artists, skinners, researchers. There is no limit to what we could accomplish with access to the engine and the legal rights to do so.

[Okmin]

well...there is so much hard-coded material in the engines, I'm surprised at this statement. Lets start with path-finding and unit size.

Its their business to make money, so if we offer them the right kind of deal, we could have the material.

With the diminishing returns from the last two TW games in the series, I expect they would want to move on. Selling the engine would rid them of the excess baggage.

We have an experienced community of coders, graphic artists, skinners, researchers. There is no limit to what we could accomplish with access to the engine and the legal rights to do so.

I have a feeling you should be part of the negotiating team.

Support. Probably no chance of this working, but I'm all for trying anyway. If we get the engine, would be ing awesome; if we don't, carry on as usual. Either way, we lose nothing (except possibly money).

[Ishan]

"Purchase the RTW Game Engine"

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

"Purchase the RTW Game Engine"

I guess that's a yes{Joey-style}....

Support... for the chasing of windmills....


manoflamancha 788346

[GrnEyedDvl]

This is a complete waste of time.

[Okmin]

This is a complete waste of time.

It says "authorizes." Never says anyone has to actually do it

[GrnEyedDvl]

It says "authorizes." Never says anyone has to actually do it

Ok well let me shoot holes in that as well. Obviously nobody involved in this thread has any business experience at all with the purchase/sale of assets.

First, to get involved in a discussion like this with CA, TWC would have to have some legal standing. A recourse for CA if things didnt go as planned. That means TWC would have to be a legal entity, either a legit business as a sole proprietorship, or even better some form of incorporation. We are not.

Second, if TWC were incorporated, then the officers of the business dont need any damn authorization from the Curia (or even Hex) for anything.

Third, obviously nobody here has any idea the amount of money we are talking about, so I will give an example. Unreal 3 (which isnt the latest) has a licensing fee of $350,000. If CA were to charge for their engine I imagine it would be in the neighborhood of that.

Fourth, that would be a license fee for a limited number of devlopers in a single company. There is no way in hell CA would let someone open source their code for a measley $350,000. That just isnt smart business because even though the later games (ETW, NTW, S2TW) do use a newer engine, there are parts of the RTW engine still in the game. I know this for a fact.

Fifth, if by some strange miracle we did manage to raise $350,000, we would be far better off hiring a couple of talented programmers and developing something new. I doubt Mount & Blade had an operating budget of 350k when they started.

Sixth, at no time, and I do mean at no time, will the Curia dictate how TWC spends or raises money.