VS Manual: 5. The Lead Developer’s Mission Statement | Table of Contents |
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VEGA STRIKE is an Open Source 3D Space Simulator. Currently in Beta development, the project (at version 1.0) is slated to become a generic space simulator. Current features include split-screen play, trading, exploration and (of course) plenty of shoot’em up action.
Hello folks, this is Daniel Horn, the lead developer of Vega Strike, speaking. You can e-mail me at hellcatv users.sourceforge.net (where the space is really an @). I attempt to answer all e-mails I get; however, occasionally one gets missed. If I don’t answer right away, feel free to mail me again; it is in my interest to answer every soul who mails me. Or, post a message on our forum (http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/), so that your questions can be seen by the world!
Vega Strike is a fully functional, commercial-quality space simulator, licensed under the GPL. I have always felt the importance of working together on large projects. I also feel it is important that developers work together and build on what everyone has accomplished, as opposed to what just one person has accomplished.
Vega Strike is important because there aren’t that many “complete”-feeling games in the Free Software area. Most games have a few levels and limited gameplay that can last just an hour. Yet, Vega Strike has an entire universe of unique star systems, enthralling space phenomena, riveting plot fragments and exciting things to do. If someone were to spend the time discovering the systems (and, the secrets within), they could easily spend weeks flying through star systems. Some users tire of such game play quickly - but, some love the unbridled freedom that Vega Strike offers (as well as, the many interesting things that one can learn to do!).
Being the Lead Developer I am normally modest. However, being a Free Software advocate, I must declare that Vega Strike has a commercial-quality engine and solid gameplay, and is moving toward having commercial-quality art, as well. Many people comment on how art from other games simply looks cleaner and better, when run in Vega Strike (with its unique reflection engine and unheard-of floating-point precision). You do not need a greedy company to make quality software. The main thing Vega Strike lacks, at this point, is an easy way for beginners to catch on and learn how to explore the region of space around them. (To simply fly between locations would take days. The player must use Autopilot and Time Compression to accomplish this.) However, this will be the focus of the next release.
My goal for Vega Strike is to have a centrally modified, developer-tweaked game, with a large developer and artist base on which to draw upon.
Many programmers come to the Vega Strike website and scoff, saying “FreeSpace 2© has prettier art - and is Open Source, as well!” However, FreeSpace2© is NOT Open Source - it is under a restrictive license that could corner someone into the receiving end of a lawsuit, if that person were to look at the code and copy the techniques into Vega Strike. People often demand that I add the “Free Space Nebula effect” to Vega Strike. However, I will only add a DIFFERENT nebula effect (VS has one), if a developer, or myself, comes up with an original effect!
Vega Strike started out on my hard drive as, more or less, a copy of Wing Commander© (with a new engine, of course), complete with Origin’s beautiful art, and wholesale IP-borrowing in the creation of the factions. However, when I decided to publish Vega Strike on the Internet, my soon-to-be friend and helper, Alexander Rawass, reminded me of how important it is, that Open Source software have original artwork and completely-free source-code. This led me to model many of the game’s ships, using only Emacs (a free text-editor) and graph paper. Eventually I had enough (now, 30 flyable ships!) for the actual game.
Slowly, other artists started contributing art to Vega Strike, and I felt assured that there was no trace of IP (Intellectual Property) left in the data-tree of Vega Strike. I continue to ensure this by not viewing the source-code of the Volition-owned FreeSpace2© engine.
For more information about Free Software and the Free Software Foundation, the GNU (and their licenses) or Open Source software in general, you can visit http://www.gnu.org/fsf/.
As you explore the Vega Strike universe, you’ll notice that there are three main races in the game: the Aera, the Rlaan, and the Humans (e.g. The Confederation, or Confeds). For some background information, you can read the Game Fiction, included with the data files (and, recently greatly expanded!), or mosey along over to the Database (http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/phpwiki/index.php/VsManualDatabase). Both the Game Fiction and Database are under heavy development, at the moment, and are not currently incorporated into the website. But, they will become better and more complete with time.
Would you like to contribute to Vega Strike by becoming a developer? Great! Just send us an email describing yourself, with information about your skills (or lack of J) and what you would like to do. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO KNOW CODING! We desperately need people to do many other things besides coding (documentation, artwork, to name a few). If you would like to help, or would like to find out more about the project, then visit our discussion forums (http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/), and ask any questions you might have. You’ll learn what you can do, what needs to be done, ...
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