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Current Or Former Devs: Old Tools Requested Please


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I debated posting this in the Technical Support section, but since I'm not really asking for tech support...

For those short of time, my request in a nutshell:

I am kindly requesting that any current or former developer who still has access to the old editor tools please send them to me or provide me with a link from where I can download them myself, assuming of course that providing access to these old tools will not break any rules. According the the net7 'versions' table, I am in need of the following (mission editor being most important!):

- AdminTools <2.1.1.2>
- MissionEditor <1.6.0.0>
- Net-7 Sector Ore and Resource Editor <1.0.0.0>

I am not requesting any support using these, as I understand I'll be on my own.

For those who don't mind long-winded posts, the reason behind my request:

First a bit of background. Like many of us here, I participated in the EnB beta and subsequently played live. Unlike many who did the same, I didn't play until sunset. Life had thrown me a few curve-balls which eventually ended up with me relocating halfway around the world. Needless to say, online gaming took a backseat to all of this.

By the time things had stabilized enough (and my available internet speed was sufficient), the plug had been pulled. :(

Fast forward some years, to 2009 to be exact, and I discover that some dedicated fans had put a (IMHO) massive amount of effort into creating a working, albeit still incomplete, server emulation. Can I say I was happier than a pig in... well, you know what. :) Not only that but the development repos were open to the public. As a lifelong 'tinkerer', I was really pleased with this option, so I promptly downloaded all the necessary files and, after a bit of head banging, had a functioning server. I fired up the client and was just... like... wow... awesome! :D When the next stress test began, I of course participated since the thought of being able to play online with others was just too cool to pass up. :)

And then, it happened... again.... yes, life. :) But in a great way because, you see, my daughter was born. I was an experienced dad with a not-so-experienced mother, so I took on many tasks those first weeks and months, and as you can imagine, gaming, once more, took a necessary backseat.

So here we are now, six and a half years later, when the nostalgia bug started to bite, quite incessantly. So I fired up my old EnB emu server software and played around for a bit, which lead to two things. One, I decided to take a look at the online net7 server to see how far things had come along (much was done - great job everyone!) and two, my daughter took an interest in what I was doing. To my shame (at least according to mother), my daughter has taken a bit after the old man and is quite a gamer, while her younger sister is following in her footsteps.  ;)  So I installed the client on her computer and connected her to my EnB emu server since, at this time, her computer is completely cut-off from the internet. I'm not ready to open that potential can of worms yet. Anyway, she enjoys going from place-to-place, discovering new things and occasionally blasting a few MOBs, but her experience is quite limiting.

Unlike more modern games which are often fully voiced, EnB was released at a time when storage space and download speeds were still practical limitations which had to be considered, not to mention the very nature of a fluid ever-changing MMO game. The result was a very text-based game, with very little voice-over work. That's fine for us older folks, but not for a small child just starting to read. So I think to myself, why not just add/change the mission text to make it super simple so she can understand the gist of what she must do?

Well, that's when I find that my old repo links no longer work. After a bit of digging around, I discover that not long after I dropped out of sight, the devs made a decision to close the repo and databases to public access. The tinkerer in me is not happy about this, since my goal seems to have been foiled right from the outset, but I can definitely understand and empathize with their reasoning. I'm not going to rehash the arguments since that's water under the bridge, but another argument for closing it up which I did not see put forward was possible fragmentation of the user base. Let's face it, this is a niche game and if you have multiple servers popping up, how many players can you get online at the same time on each one?

But this leaves me up the creek without a paddle.

While I can understand closing up access to development branches past a certain date, what about previous branches/versions which were already out there? In my case, the latest version I have been able to get, according to net7.h, is version 0.94 build 1302. The required tools versions to edit stuff for this rev seems to have fallen off the face of the earth. Unfortunately, back then I never really cared about the tools and didn't bother getting them, and the only tools I can find now are outdated, even for the outdated program/db rev I have.

Hence, my initial request at the top of the post.

Thank you for your consideration, and for having read through my overly long post! :D
 

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For what your asking for IMO is not possible.

I believe from what I see the tools do not belong to and have never been part of the EA original game.

The Tools were created and made by the developers of This emulator and thereby the tools belong to the developers, whom received NO COMPENSATION for their time.

 

The donations made to this emulator are for the server(s) hardware and internet hosting for the EMU ?

"I could be wrong."

If the Devs want to correct me they shall.

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For what your asking for IMO is not possible.

I believe from what I see the tools do not belong to and have never been part of the EA original game.

The Tools were created and made by the developers of This emulator and thereby the tools belong to the developers, whom received NO COMPENSATION for their time.

 

The donations made to this emulator are for the server(s) hardware and internet hosting for the EMU ?

"I could be wrong."

If the Devs want to correct me they shall.

 

Phorlaug, I know perfectly well the tools were created by the emulation developers and not EA, and so 'belong to them'. If you re-read the relevant parts of my post, the implication should be clear that I understand they were from the emu dev team. My point was that at that time the project's sources and databases were freely available to anyone and everyone - i.e., open source.

 

Once again let me reiterate that I'm not advocating opening up the project again. I am not asking for current emu sources, current databases or current tools. I am simply requesting access to an old version of a content tool which would be of no practical use for most people.

 

Quite frankly, I have the necessary skills and knowledge to examine the code and database schemas in my possession to create the tool myself, but for what? I'm running a nascent startup and raising two girls, why waste time re-inventing the wheel for such a very limited purpose? Wouldn't my efforts be better served by contributing to the current live emu if I had such free time available? I would rather wait until my daughter was old enough to read and understand the complicated text, even if by then she might lose interest - it's just not that important in the grand scheme of things.

 

Given all this I feel your response was a bit too defensive and/or overly protective, almost as if I was requesting their firstborn children. In this kind of project, your position would quickly cause it to go nowhere. Can you imagine what the setbacks would be if every developer who made a past contribution but are no longer involved (quite a few, IIRC) were to say "but that's my code/program/database/tool/etc and I won't let you use it without compensation"? Compensation is an intangible thing when involving yourself in an unpaid project such as this. As a former software developer, I'll give you my take on this. My compensation would be the joy of learning and discovery while simultaneously gaining new skills which could also be applied to paid jobs. My compensation would also be the satisfaction of achieving a goal, particularly one of great personal interest. Lastly, and most importantly, my compensation would be seeing others use what I have created and seeing the smiles on their faces, or knowing that it has been very helpful for them or made their jobs easier. But that's just me...

 

I apologize if I seem to have come off a bit strongly, but the tone of your response hit a sensitive nerve which perhaps was unintended on your part. I was reminded a bit of Apple's "rectangle with rounded corners" patent lawsuit, of which I have very strong feelings. :)

 

old sources can be found on sourceforge

 

Thank you Karu. I had actually checked sourceforge first, but initially only found the older 1.5 mission editor. Your comment prompted me to be more persistent and I hit paydirt - found exactly what I was looking for. Not exactly the sources for the tools, but that's okay since what I really wanted were the executables. Thank you for the extra nudge!

Edited by Darvik
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