While I appreciate the enthusiasm, I can neither condone nor endorse any such project in which I don't have complete creative control. Such an endevor would not be Cythera in appearance, feel, soul or storyline consistency. (Not to mention that others have tried before and given up)

I wish I could tell you that there is a new version ready instead, but saddly, I can't say that either. I've got a whole lot of projects on my plate (and some of them even pay money), and at this time I can't invest the amount of time it would require to prepare a new version. This is not to say that I haven't contemplated it multiple times - I can't commit to it.

Work is still being made on the Carbonized version (unfortunately*), but it is unknown when that will be completed, due to a number of factors, including the subtle yet signficant differences between Carbon & Classic (which make getting everything working well extremely difficult), issues with the tools (still using CodeWarrior 8.3, even though I'm running Tiger - converting it to another compiler would probably take an insane amount of time), and generally insuficient motivation (caused by a number of issues, including the above mentioned "busy" as well as a lack of enthusiasm from tester feedback).

(*unfortunately because at some point it may turn out to not be feasible without rewriting large amounts of the code which could be better done by starting from scratch, not to mention the fact that in the end it would still look and feel exactly like a 5+ year old game).

There is no connection other than a shared author. They wouldn't even work well in the same universe (there was a very highly defined cosmology for Theldrow, as well as thousands of years of history)

Pallas Athene, on Oct 31 2004, 08:50 PM, said:

...which is why the second option (documenting it, but not actually writing the editor) seemed like it might be more practical. We already have a rough draft of how Delver works, so with an explanation of the format, it would be possible to create an editor. I would guess that this could be accomplished in an afternoon, rather than over a long sequence of writing/compiling/debugging.
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Actually, fully documenting things would be more like a week or two worth of work. And by work, I mean "things which are not fun in any real shape or form" (as opposed to programming in Cocoa which is). It's not just a matter of polishing up an existing document (since all the existing documentation was more of an "evolutionary" thing, and written mostly during the design phase, and often bears little resemblance to the real thing).

The file format itself is pretty simple, but it's everything else that is the problem (from the compression, the encryption, the byte-codes for the scripts, all the other little "magic" special values, etc...)

And almost forget - the main reason is that I'd need to have an editor to write an expansion (or add-on, plug-in, or hack..).

Pallas Athene, on Oct 26 2004, 10:40 AM, said:

Will a plugin editor be released along with Cythera X, then, or will the file format be documented and it be left to us to figure things out?
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That sort of depends. The first problem is that it would require a complete re-write (pretty much from scratch), but since I'd be using Cocoa, it would be much easier that otherwise (and the final result would be much more robust than the old one as well). Still, there's a whole lot that would require a great deal of time to get working (such as the level editor).

However, a smaller subset is quite possible - for example, it is possible that there may be a "portrait creator" that allows you to make an add-on that replaces the default character portrait set with your own.

Since all of this stuff is "spare time" work (or more accurately "time not spent working on paying projects") it's a somewhat on the back burner. Of course, if there are a ton of registrations for Cythera X once released, well, that would certainly encourage more extra work...

Cody, on Oct 23 2004, 10:20 AM, said:

I think that this is the statement that interests me the most. It sounds like add-ons can be added and removed much easier. Sounds like we all could have some fun with this.

And I think everyone of us is definitely interest in getting Cythera X.
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Yeah, the engine just scans a folder at startup and uses all appropriate add-ons. Since I had to rework a bunch of stuff involving file handling anyway, it gave me an opportunity to add that cleanly.

I've even whipped up a simple Cocoa app (Magpie X) that lets you enable/disable them via a GUI and checks for conflicts (not that the two add-ons have any)

Yes, it plays "full screen" (the doc shows when you go the menu bar - a bit annoying, but..)

No, it isn't ready to ship yet (but it should be close - that's why it needs to be tested, and if it were ready to be released, it would just be released). All the major functionality should work, it's just there is so much minor functionality that some may have been overlooked.

There are only a couple of minor new features (such as the conversation window can be moved), and one "not quite as minor but certainly not a major" feature (the engine itself now supports being able to load add-ons without needing to patch the scenario itself like under OS 9, so a slightly modified "pumpkin patch" can be easily installed).

It is, however, the exact same scenario data file (literally) - no new content, changes, etc...

Pallas Athene, on Sep 16 2004, 10:58 AM, said:

Well, I guess that leaves one question - are you still hoping to finish it? Or is it determined that these library changes will make Cythera X impossible to complete?
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I'm hoping for many things. Among other things, I'm hoping to avoid the slippery slope of "well, since I have to redo this, why don't I also redo that, and add that (since I'm already changing this), and that..."

It absolutely does exist, but it hasn't been completed - it was even mostly playable.

However, it used two libraries that have changed signficantly since then (and their older versions weren't able to run natively under X).

One of the underlying requirements for Cythera 1.X was that it uses the same data file (because otherwise I'd have to also port the editor which would be a major amount of work, not to mention it made a nice clean demarcation between "make a native version" and "add enhancements" since the latter leads to something that would never get completed). Saddly, those library changes are at odds with this requirement.

And no, I don't feel like going into more details. And yes, a wide variety of options have been considered, so please don't post "well, have you thought about doing...". And finally no, it is not release-able "as is" (so any begging, whining, threatening, etc... will just result in this topic being locked and/or earning my displeasure).

Found this document over the weekend while doing some site maintenance, figured you'd guys would find it interesting:

Inside Delver Engine

And on an unrelated topic, mondo blobbo public beta demo is now available as welll...

Quote

Originally posted by cache22:
**In case you hadn't heard, Richard Biggs ( Dr. Stephen Franklin from the TV series Babylon 5 ) died suddenly on the 22nd of May. If anyone wants to leave a message of condolence for his family, you can do so at this site.

**

It is definitely a loss.

Less some think B5 off topic, Magpie is at least one third inspired by Zathras.

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