20 Apr, 2011, Orrin wrote in the 1st comment:
Votes: 0
Runter said:
I don't know anything about that project and the page you linked doesn't the circumstances. What codebase were they using that they couldn't any longer?


It was IRE's Rapture Engine and the licence was withdrawn when they failed to renew it.

Interestingly one of the guys behind Ilyrias, Joseph Monk, was previously fired twice by IRE and is now back with them as producer of Tears of Polaris which seems to be permanently "in development".
20 Apr, 2011, Runter wrote in the 2nd comment:
Votes: 0
Do you mean Duke Nukem as in it never gets finished? Surely not actually a duke nukem mud. :p

That's pretty interesting that he's been hired 3 times on three of their projects. They've got to know he can't be trusted at this point, but I guess if he's producing product and he doesn't get caught, what do they care, right? :)
20 Apr, 2011, Orrin wrote in the 3rd comment:
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I edited the Duke Nukem reference out while you were replying as it was a bit obscure, but yes I meant it seems like it's never going to be finished.
20 Apr, 2011, KaVir wrote in the 4th comment:
Votes: 0
Runter said:
I don't know anything about that project and the page you linked doesn't the circumstances. What codebase were they using that they couldn't any longer?

Rapture - the IRE engine. They lost their licence shortly before they were due to open. Actually that also ties into another risk:

There were three Avalon-clones in development in the late 90s licensing the Vortex engine (in binary form I believe); Cardea, Orone and Achaea. I'm sure you've heard of Achaea - but have you ever heard of the other two?

If not, this is probably why: IRE bought Vortex from its developer, then revoked the licences of the other two muds, killing its more-advanced competitors overnight. Cardea is still around, but by the time it had developed its own engine it was (literally) years behind.

I'm very paranoid about ever putting myself at the mercy of a competitor like that. My mud is written from scratch, but all of my client work all sits on top of third-party applications - that's what makes me hesitate when it comes to things like ScapeFX or Aspect. But putting my entire mud at the mercy of someone else? No chance.

Orrin said:
It was IRE's Rapture Engine and the licence was withdrawn when they failed to renew it.

Technically true, but you have to admit it's a bit dodgy. There was lots of interest in Ilyrias from IRE players, and the game was nearly ready to open - then suddenly IRE decided "to stop offering Rapture licenses altogether" because they "didn't want to be in a situation of competing with our customers".
20 Apr, 2011, Runter wrote in the 5th comment:
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IRE seems to have a history of scorched earth tactics.
20 Apr, 2011, Scandum wrote in the 6th comment:
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KaVir said:
If not, this is probably why: IRE bought Vortex from its developer, then revoked the licences of the other two muds, killing its more-advanced competitors overnight. Cardea is still around, but by the time it had developed its own engine it was (literally) years behind.

From what I gathered Cardea didn't pay the required royalties.


On the subject of binaries and Linux, my recent experience has been that static binaries aren't even stable on the systems they're created on. OS X binaries seem to be alright, and recent OS X versions run on PC hardware.
20 Apr, 2011, Orrin wrote in the 7th comment:
Votes: 0
KaVir said:
Technically true, but you have to admit it's a bit dodgy. There was lots of interest in Ilyrias from IRE players, and the game was nearly ready to open - then suddenly IRE decided "to stop offering Rapture licenses altogether" because they "didn't want to be in a situation of competing with our customers".

Yes I think we can probably all take a guess as to why IRE were so keen to enforce the small print on their license agreement. There's a bit more background here and here.
20 Apr, 2011, Cratylus wrote in the 8th comment:
Votes: 0
Heh, I don't visit TMS much since I was banned for disagreeing with the moderators…based on
that thread I can't help noticing that it's actually two of their mods that are associated with IRE…
I'd thought it was just matt/sarapis/the_logos, but it's Baram as well.

Are there more or is it just those two?

-Crat
http://lpmuds.net
0.0/8