Contraversial idea for a better se5

[dogscoff]

OK, I know this isn't likely yo happen, but I thought it's worth suggesting.

The only game other than se4 that I take any kind of community interest in is nethack. For those that don't know it, nethack is a freeware, open source game that has been around for some 20 years.

Now, it doesn't have an awful lot in common with SE, but it does have at least one thing: The nethack newsGroups are brimming with Posts where people suggest ideas to make the game better: New weapons, new artifacts, new monsters, classes, player/item/monster behaviours and so on.

Likewise, the SE Boards are always full of neat ideas about things that could be added to the game or things that could be done differently.

Occasionally Nethack's Dev team will look kindly upon one of the ideas from the community and implement it into nethack.

Occasionally Malfador will look kindly upon an idea one of the ideas from the community and implement it into SE.

If a nethack player's idea isn't implemented by the devteam, he's free to open up the source and implement it himself. If the patch is successful, it might get incorporated into the game. After all a suggestion with the code written and the gameplay proven carries a lot more note than a simple "wouldn't it be cool if..?"

If an SE player's idea isn't implemented by Malfador, he's free to mod the files and try to implement it himself. If the mod is successful, it might get incorporated into the game.

However, there is a big difference between tinkering with a game's source code and modding se4. Most of the cool ideas we come up with for SE can't be implemented by modders- the hardcode just won't allow them. What we need is to be able to play with the source directly, to patch SE and then submit those patches for malfador's approval. LWe have enough programmers hanging around here and, like I said, a suggestion with the code written and the gameplay proven carries a lot more note than a simple "wouldn't it be cool if..?"

Of course, I dont' ever expect Malfador to open up the code to se5, or even se4. It just wouldn't be good business.

However, I think SEIII is sufficiently far-removed from the newer games to be opened up safely, but close enough in gameplay for players to produce patches that would show how their changes might affect newer Versions. Once a patch's gameplay and balance have been played, tweaked, refined and approved by the community, it could be submitted to Malfador for inclusion in se5- Sure, code from SEIII couldn't be ported straight into se5, but it would be a good framework for Aaron to work with, and most inportantly, we'd have a good idea of whether or not the idea is worth implementing in the first place.

Just a thought...