MArcomage

I do need a good confirm on this.
Is MArcomage opensource ?

My friend passed me a rev 56* folder and it seems nice.
Would try to give it a complete overhaul and a new theme, new cards etc.
My question is, where does the limitation stops, and am i even allowed to own a copy of the source code ?

Best regards ( + tips are welcome haha )
Robin

The source can be found here.

Mojko and Umage would be the ones who could give you the definitive answers on your other questions. As far as I know though, the source is considered free to use or modify for non-commercial purposes.

I have to say, overhauling Marcomage would be a huge endeavour. Actually, if I wanted to do something so ambitious that it would distinguish itself significantly from the original Marcomage, I would just start from scratch using a nice web framework like pylons or something, rather than trying to work within Marcomage's original source.

If you have improvements in mind, I'd encourage you to suggest them to the developers. They're extremely accommodating in letting people suggest improvements (from new cards in the "Concepts" section, posts on the "Suggestions" board, finding new artwork or tweaking old artwork like X-factor did, or even writing new code). Marcomage's community is small enough that there's not much to be gained by fragmenting it.

I'll add a subtle question I don't know very much about:
GNU Licensing?

Dindon is right. I think we can develop a better game together as a community. Fractioning it to separate projects can be contra productive. Here is explanation how our source code can be used:

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute.

You can read about GNU public license here: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

I would say that it's better to work it on your own mostly and just solve some difficulties using the source code found here. That way you will have better comprehension of what you created and you will be able to further alter it, improve it, make it more playable etc more easily.

Otherwise it would just be a game resembling Arcomage with slight differences

Lord wrote:
I would say that it's better to work it on your own mostly and just solve some difficulties using the source code found here. That way you will have better comprehension of what you created and you will be able to further alter it, improve it, make it more playable etc more easily.

Otherwise it would just be a game resembling Arcomage with slight differences

Now that is a response that really helps me.
Also starting from scratch would be a tremandous amount of work, and why when such a great base is already developed.
It's like reinventing the wheel and the reason why many users rather use opensource alternatives like mybb and smf for a forum then create one themselves.

Knowing this i've been little busy with the code.
My first thing is to let newly registered players choose from a very basic balanced number of decks ( 2 atmo, will expand to 4 ) with some cards predetermined and some random, and players would then be able to play games and earn points, which they can spend on new cards.

This will add another level of strategic depth as you cannot have all the cards you want, it also gives it a more TCG feeling, but that's just me.

Since there has been no complaint yet, i'll just keep going.
My thinking is, why publish the SVN if you want nobody to use it ^^, so perhaps it's kind of alright.

Still hope you guys can answer it, but for now.

Best regards, Robin

I'm aware of the option to use tools for making the discussion forums instead of creating our own from scratch, but this also has it's drawbacks. I think the best thing to do right now, is to remake this whole application by using a web framework. I'm currently being introduced to Symphony web framework (open source) http://www.symfony-project.org/ at my new work. By using Symphony and AJAX, we should get a very nice web appliaction. So after I gain some experience, I plan to do this.

Of course, if you want to develop your own version by using our source code, you are free to do it ;-)

Laeresh wrote:
Now that is a response that really helps me.
Also starting from scratch would be a tremandous amount of work, and why when such a great base is already developed.
It's like reinventing the wheel and the reason why many users rather use opensource alternatives like mybb and smf for a forum then create one themselves.

Ha, it's kind of ironic that you would say that. Rebuilding the site using a web framework is just the opposite of rebuilding the wheel. The whole idea behind a web framework, is that it gives you a lot of the commonly needed functionalities already, so you don't need to code them yourself.

If you really wanted to make your own site and have it be a significant improvement over Marcomage, you would be smart to, like Mojko said, make it with newer technologies. Ajax in particular would be awesome. No more having to click the "refresh" button over and over.

Laeresh wrote:

Now that is a response that really helps me.

I know I'm not really helpful, I'm just stating my opinion, that by copying an opensource code, you also copy its problems and flaws, and for most of them you might not find a solution by yourself, as you do not comprehend the programming 100% the way Mojko and ultramage would. Also, dindon is correct regarding template forum sites, and I might add that forum sites are not created to accomplish complicated functions such as playing a card game, but are there for people to just simply communicate with each other, in a bit more advanced way than emails. Your game on the other hand has to accomplish several more commands in the same time, therefore the complexity of its code has to be higher and fitted to the charachter of the game. By copying Arcomage, you just change the cards used, but the rules underlying the game are still the same. Ofcourse as I understand you have changed most of those "rules" but that might take you even longer, as you must search the whole code text, isolate what you don't want, replace it with your own lines of code and then also add more lines to make functional the replacement lines you inserted before. This will amount to a greater possibility and amount of errors appearing, thus consuming even more time as you fix the code to the standards of your game.

[Progressor: Removed redundant quotation]

I Was not sarcastic with that >.>' !
I'm just going to work and change it to my likings, so eventually perhaps i will use ajax for the game instead of refreshing.
All i want is the four walls that build a home, i'll throw out the interior and redesign it myself.
I'm not good enough to start from scratch, so this is a learning process for me, and if it goes well i might start from scratch on a total new game aftwards.

Best regards, Robin.
( We all have to start somewhere ^^ ).