creating MOO2 port

[peterman]

Hi, all

as a lot of others I'm a long-time MOO2 player too.

I've seen several attempts to create MOO2 clone / re-creation but all I have seen are dead projects without any real progress.

I'm sure you have read something like this a few times:

I want to create the MOO2 remake which should be able to run on modern systems like GNU/Linux and Windows

I plan to create 1:1 remake of MOO2 game engine and release it available under some OSS licence.
If this will work I can try to work on extending the original game, but not sooner than port will be comparable to original game.

Proof of concept:

I choose Python language and Pygame libraries, collected available file format descriptions.

Within few nightly hacking sessions I have folowing:

70% of loading and displaying original moo2 graphic (animations not implemented, no transparency implemented, few palette glitches)
- I will not focus on this more until the rest of the game will be in good progress.

80% of loading savegame data:
star systems
planetary objects
colonies
player/races informations
ships
heroes

I have a working code base of UI wireframe - screen switching and displaying of some game help texts

I don't try to lie myself - This is only the beginning and there is still a lot of work to be done, but I believe I have very solid base to start working on Turn counting

What I need is to have few people interested in helping me with testing several game options, collecting the savegame data and validating the counting algorithms
...I want to focus on development and not on playing the game instead.

Is there anybody interested in this project?

[Matthew]

I think it be nice to see something like this get done. What really needs to happen is for the license holder to take their thumps out of their &^&*# and get to work on remaking the game as it should be.

[peterman]

I don't think there can be any real license problem.

I will not redistribute any part of their game
What I only want is to provide port of engine that can be used to play legally owned game natively on GNU/Linux system or Windows Vista without the need of extra emulation like Wine or Dosbox.

I believe there can be found proper OSS license that can be extended to oblige user of this port to buy a legal copy of the original game.

I know about several other projects implementing the same idea e.g. ScummVM or Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe.

[silidan]

this may help you in youre quest: www.blender.org
it has a built in game engine based on logic bricks and python scripting, this way you can create youre 3d models and gamelogic in one app .

if you just want to create a port to linux, well, there is dosbox for linux which runs moo2 just fine

[peterman]

OK, I will explain more closely:

I do not want to create a clone / similar game.
I want to create a native port of MOO2 that will work with original game files.

Why to do it when there are projects like Dosbox and Wine?

1) Because it will be cool to run one of my favorite games natively
2) Because there are people too old or lazy to learn how to run games under Dosbox or Wine (like my father and some of my friends)
3) If the game will work I can extend it with new features like bigger galaxies, more players, more complex diplomacy.

Here is actual status:

I'm able to read about 95% savegame data
I have a working main screen with a star map and a star system dialog
I have colony screen with icons of colonists and production
I have implemented some formulas:
count the maximum colony population
population growth of all aggregated races in a colony
count the colony food, industrial and research points according to racial bonuses

I have performed first turn counting with those formulas.

Right now I'm working on researching and colony buildings.

I plan to put up a simple web page with progress info and source code for testing.

[silidan]

Ok, sounds good, so how can i help ?

[Astax]

Good luck with this. I would help you but I am not familiar with python. All I know is that it is a scripting language?

I too am working on a game similar to moo, but not identical. I am using C# with XNA for direct X stuff. It is pretty straight forward. But I have no high hopes for my project, and I suspect any MP will be hard to code.

[peterman]

Hi,

after the first idea, few hacking sessions and a looong period of laziness...
Between the Christmas and New year, I've returned to the development of this project.

Let's call it OpenMOO2 !

I've prepared a website (please don't be scared I'm not a graphic guy...)

http://openmoo2.org

Actually no download, just a few starting words and some in-game screenshots

I hereby ask if there are people willing to help with the implementation of original rules and formulas

[hlop4ik]

can you upload sources?

ps why python? (just curious)

[peterman]

I plan to upload the sources later.

My goal for the first public release is to allow building inside the colony with possibility to alter occupation of colonists

Why Python (+PyGame):

My first attempt was to make it in C/C++ using an Allegro libraries.
But when I was searching around, I found PyGame, tried it and realized the game development would be much faster with this project

Also Python language is available for many platforms so the game could be available for many platforms (almost?) without an extra work

[Istrebitel]

Ahh to bad i'm 0 in python...

Because i am actually making something similar (moo2 clone) yet i took another approach.

I'm not yet able to read any graphics or saves, i think that reading the graphics not from PNG but from LBX would be later implementable since format is already known.

I see MOO2 as a windows-like window management system (with buttons, captions, screens overlapping each other) and i am programming that so i can create any game screen from a set of controls like windows forms are.

I have made the main menu, the loading, the whole concept of "screens" that switch one to another, overlay eachother (that way if you open a colony list, then a colony screen, then a colony build queue, and right click a button, the game knows you have a list of screens overlaying each other - starmap screen, colony list screen, colony screen, build screen, popup message screen).

I am one-two steps away from programming the game behavior - right now i am still making the controls for the game (like colonist display/ship list/etc). When those are done, the remaining game is like making a lego toy out of available parts, knowing the scheme.

PS: I am doing it in C# with XNA, planning to use LIGREN for networking and FMOD for audio. Sure this is not cross-platform, but well, with amount of virtualisation around i dont think cross platformness would be a problem in a near future, especially for not very hardware bound games like a 2d master of orion.

[Istrebitel]

please check your mailbox, op

[peterman]

damn, there seemed to be some strange problem with a graylisting

hopefully should be fixed now

thank you

[Istrebitel]

you havent got my mail?

[peterman]

sorry there seemed to be a problem with graylisting on the mail server
it caused emails rejecting from several sources

hopefully the problem is gone now