Can we stop with the "So an so won't release because they're greedy". I understand why people don't release their files when they have an active server running off them, funny how Ben has the cheek to start this all off though.
My post was just a suggestion to Sam, nothing more. Would be really good to see a basic, early set get a release even if it didn't have Archer/Assassin class included!
It's a fair comment Skyline, and I'd say most of us wholly understand why people want to hold on to their advancements and good things they've done. Especially those of us who've coded problems and issues in the past.
I think there's a finer grey line above this tho, that there are many of us that bang our heads on the desk on a daily basis because we know that with each of the sources that get to a point, come to a standstill in their open form, then are dev'd privately - I mean it's great, and I personal don't think anything against the people who do it and feel that it's either not ready to release or never plan to (until over a year later when they're bored with it and another source is out), it's just many of us do this banging heads on the desk in despair because:
We (those who've been in and around this community alone for up to around 11 years) have seen the cycles repeat so many times - and there is a common bunch of facts that frustrate us all (and this is no slam or meant as an offence to anyone at-all, we love all of you - in Mir terms of course
), that from all of the community, we could list up to and over 30 people who have done absolutely fantastic work on 1.4/1.X/Ruby/Heroes/Apple/Ace/etc, and it's accepted that initially a 10 or so will work together on a bunch of source, which winds down to eventually 1 or 2, then it's canned, then perhaps each doing their own thing, then a server is hosted and something like Chronicles is born - with limited people doing lots and lots of work.
Heroes source being open is fantastic, and the way it's done looks a great way of doing things imo. If ALL the sources for ALL the versions of Mir were hosted in a similar way, these 30 odd people, half of which don't get along maybe, can work on bits and pieces collectively without too much personal contact (which appears to effect the larger groups who work together behind closed doors). It just appears to many of us that it's such a waste of talent, and we do all, in the end, cling to this community because we love Mir.
Something pops up on the Ruby source that absolutely kills some form of cheating, the source can be ported to the other versions (as a bad example, I know it's not always as easy as that). Something as simple as solving a glitch on one can be reflected on the others - whatever. It's understandable that hosters' versions of live servers they'll want to keep to themselves, but I'm talking about just the engine(s) themselves.
This is getting hard to explain, and I'm waffling here so I apologise, but I think daneo1989 knows where I'm coming from, probably Shank, Far, and so on. We have no interest in who 'owns' a server source, but would like to see as many people as possible working together for a common purpose.
I honestly feel for Sam sometimes (whatever politics aside that many of us don't know about), Chronicles is fantastic, but if there were another 29+ people working on fixes and additions for just the basic engine alone, I'm sure it'd be a massive help. The distinct server attributes we could probably all care less about (or maybe we shouldn't cos it'd be nice if they were common-ish to a certain point).
Gah, we can live in hope.
There's hundreds of people who care more about the attributes of a server; too much MC for this; or too much ME% for that... I think this is missing the point when beta/testing a live server, and wastes alot of time - this is incredibly minor compared to what the engine does. Any hoster can change attributes in a table.