Ambrosia Software Web Board: Death of a Legend - Ambrosia Software Web Board

What I've seen happining is that a lot of people like ares but there isn't very much to talk about on the bords because people don't realy care about posting ideas and such.

------------------

Quote

Oh, I'm 99.9%+ certain that Hera was done in REALBasic. Look at AIT (I'll upload my replacement for that soon enough...) and notice how its interface is similar to that of Hera. Everything in Hera could be done using REALBasic, and NL seems to be familiar with it.

I'm not going full-blown yet... largely because my parents haven't gotten around to ordering the Academic version of REALBasic ( ), but all I'm thinking about, so far, is a nice little program that lets you enter in simpler stuff and show you whatever you need for Hera - Ask Slug in a Can, one might say.

------------------
"Might I suggest that we all forget we even met each other? You're involved in politics and I in theft. I'll leave it to god to decide which one's more dishonest."
-Stragen, The Sapphire Rose

Ask Slug In A Can... Thats a great name.

------------------
Brookeview Technologies Worldwide
A name you know, a name you can trust.
[url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/brookeview2/"]Earth's Journey v2.0 screen shots[/url]
[url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/WebObjects/FileSharing.woa/2/wo/vKQKqbIHG9zMWd0R.1/0.2.1.2.27.31.97.1.35.0.0.1.1.1?user=brookeview2&fpath=Just%20For%20Fun%20Folder&templatefn=FileSharing6.html"]Try the Ares Files that are just for fun[/url]

Quote

It's the same old story with Ferazel.

It's sad to see a great game like Ares and Ferazel just go down the drain

------------------
You have been overriden by Overrider. Prepare to die evil scum! -Me
All quiet on the western Front. But not for long.... OH SAY CAN YOU SEE!!!!!!!!........
The Underdogs Smiles:[url="http://"http://community.theunderdogs.org/smiley/gallery.htm"]Underdog Smiles[/url]
AIM: Overrider720, Ferazel17 or WhiteStreak7

Quote

*Nod*

------------------
Sundered Angel,
The One and Only
Ares Webboard Moderator, and all-around Nice Guy

Ha ha! I have a cunning plan. Its so simple even an idiot could think it up. Each of us registers Ares three million times, making it ASW's most popular game. ASW then rushes out a sequel. Simple really.

now, 3000000*$25=...ah so thats why no-one suggested it before...

------------------
-Admiral Slathkill II
We do not know what lies around the next bend on the information superhighway. All we know for certain is that when we finally get there, we won't have enough RAM.

[This message has been edited by Admiral Slathkill II (edited 11-24-2001).]

Quote

Why not? Ambrosia should carbonize all their games, it isn't like Carbonizing games is a ton of work. What are "ambrosia's policies?"

It seems like all other mac game makers are carbonizing their games...why not you, Ambrosia?

------------------
Check out my website: [url="http://"http://www.light.aftran.com"]light.aftran.com[/url] for Orthographic Universe, MacBrickout levels, and much more!
"The box said Windows 95 or better, so I bought a mac."

Quote

They are carbonizing their games, just not Ares... (and a few others)

------------------
"I'm a controversial figure. My friends either dislike me or hate me."

Quote

Ferazel's Wand and Ares. the two I care about.

------------------
Check out my website: [url="http://"http://www.light.aftran.com"]light.aftran.com[/url] for Orthographic Universe, MacBrickout levels, and much more!
"The box said Windows 95 or better, so I bought a mac."

I'm not gone yet. Sorry for my quick reappearance and just-as-quick disappearance, I've been up to my nose in schoolwork as well as trying my hardest to get a social life *gasp *.

Here's the tru7h: Joe Blow plays Ares, quickly finishes the 20 missions. He then goes to netplay, which has so limited options and so few people playing it that he quits that as well. He then tries plugins, which are either A) too short too difficult or too easy C) buggy or D) boring. He then forgets Ares and moves along.

What we need to do, and what we can do, is that we all work together to forge one giant plugin that should be capable of holding anyone's interest for atleast 1 year. We're talking up to 100 single player missions, atleast 25 different net scenarios to play, ingeneous new weapons and ship classes, intriguing plot full of twists and turns and surprises.

The reason why Ares plugins flop is because most of the time they're made by one or two people and there's one or two things in Ares that one person or group can't master- for example there's someone who's incredible at graphics, but when it comes to scripting and programming a mission they're simply an amateur.

What we need to do is to merge all of our strong points and nullify our weak ones as best as possible. We're gonna need:

1. Directors - people who would be very good at coordinating a big project like this.
2. Writers - one group could focus on the storyline, others would work on ideas for missions
3. Graphic Artists- people excellent at ship design, as well as interface and misc. work as well
4. Engineers - folks responsible for new ideas for ships, weapons, species, etc.
5. Programmers - the folks that make it all real
6. Musicians - optional, but if someone is making music anyway (i.e. myself) why not contribute some new tunes to Ares?
8. Testers - folks that not only tell us where a bug is in the plugin but also critique us along the way.


Call me optimistic and idealistic, but I think this community is capable of doing it. If we have a large number of people, that makes the division of labor easier on all of us. I'm willing to donate as much time as I can as long as the rest of you are willing to.

------------------
[erich]

I seem to remember suggesting this a little time back when I posted my "Hyper-Plug" proposal. The response was shall we say somewhat underwhelming. However, I remain interested in the idea. We would need at least ten dedicated individuals in the collective (yeah, let's call it that!) who would pledge their very souls for the duration...!

------------------
Oh, so it is another bug hunt then...

an interesting proposal...

------------------
***Sign up for the Ares ladder***
http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum3/...TML/000748.html
www.magleague.com
GameRanger/MagChat SN: Col. Patrick [EL]

Hey, Vegeta and Anic
I started a thread over in the Engineering Room so you might want to go volunteer too heh.

------------------
***Sign up for the Ares ladder***
http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/webboard/Forum3/...TML/000748.html
www.magleague.com
GameRanger/MagChat SN: Col. Patrick [EL]

Hmmmm. If there's one lesson to be taken from EV, it's that the most successful plugins have generally been team efforts...

------------------
Sundered Angel,
The One and Only
Ares Webboard Moderator, and all-around Nice Guy

I disagree. Frozen Heart & Femme were made by martin turner. SETR is better than Marathon (from what I've seen of the betas) so far, and it's by one person.

------------------
There are only 3 kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.

With the notable exception of Frozen Heart and Femme Fatale.

It's a general thing in the world of mods, though. The more ambitious plugs are generally undertaken by teams. It needs good coordination, though.

------------------
Sundered Angel,
The One and Only
Ares Webboard Moderator, and all-around Nice Guy

It's only good if one person completely dominates the makeup of the plug's universe and storyline. If you do things by committee, then the story becomes less unique and more an amalgamation of many ideas. For me, the story of a universe is everything. If it's well told, well presented, leaves one asking questions etc... I will remember the story of something rather than it's graphics or sound.

------------------
There are only 3 kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.

Please check your email SA.

------------------
There are only 3 kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.

The essential problem of Ares is that it didn't start with enough and doesn't include the tools to create more. If Ares had high strategy comparable to games like Myth, Starcraft, or even Command and Conquer, it would have a longer life, but ship control is too coarse and there are only a few ship classes to choose from. If Ares had enjoyable ship-to-ship shooting action, it would survive as a deathmatch kind of game, but three weapons per ship, with few variations on how each weapon works, can't compete with a game like Unreal Tournament that has 10 weapons with 2 firing modes each, nor can empty space as a playing field compare with complex buildings that have ambush points and sniper towers. If Hera was more user-friendly, and the game engine easily editable, some group of fans could have salvaged something.

Frankly, Ares was doomed from the start to gain a following and then quickly lose it. I'm willing to help a little on trying to create interesting new things with Hera, because I've already got Ares registered and have nothing to lose but my sanity, but I don't expect that Ares will ever turn around and become a smash hit that swamps Game Ranger.

Before you go shoot yourselves, though, don't forget - even if Ares is "dead", we can still have plenty of fun creating and playing plugins. I greatly enjoyed playing Footsteps of Pyrrhus (although I thought the difficulty was pretty extreme at points). There's no reason that we can't all enjoy the game as best we can, and I think there's plenty of room for enjoyability.

People were talking about how Ares was "dead" back when I stopped being a web board admin (Yes, I'm that Replicant) and went on to other things, and that was a year and a half ago.

Edit: Ares II is not a bad idea. The basic idea of a strategy/action fusion is a good one, and since we're all here it obviously can attract buyers. I don't know what Nathan Lamont thinks about a sequel, though, and he's the one who really matters.

[This message has been edited by Replicant (edited 12-23-2001).]

What about Pale? In my opinion, the best plugin ever made for EV. It was made by Ben Singley.

Quote

------------------
flargh: slank - you realize, of course, that you've just dragged about 40,000 volts of static electricity off the tip of your vacuum cleaner attachments over your CPU.
-The Construct, Gameranger

Strange I've never heard of Pale. Could you briefly describe it for me?

------------------
There are only 3 kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't.